Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition at the Daily Bible Podcast. Hey, pastor Rod, do we still have Bernard? We don't. Bernard's not been on the front end. He's on the back end though, isn't he? I'm still kinda work shopping where I want him and part of it, I like to keep you on your toes. Okay. So don't get too used to anything. Don't get too used to anything. Yeah. Yeah. I'm learning that lesson today in quite a few areas actually. Oh yeah. We'll leave that one. Do you care to share unp? No. It's an unspoken. Unspoken. It's an unspoken, that's totally legitimate. Sometimes you're in your prayer circle and you say that Hey, I have an unspoken guys. I think that's fair. Okay. Alright. To drop that anytime you want. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Hey, it's it's Wednesday as you're listening to this, and if you've got students in student ministry, they're gonna be hearing tonight about the wrath of God in Youth Group, which I don't know how many youth ministries are out there. Student ministries are out there talking about God's wrath, but it is such a good. Good thing for your students to be confronted with. And they're gonna hear that tonight as they gather for youth Tonight. It's six 30 to eight o'clock at our normal meeting location where we have church, that's Founders Classical Academy and Prosper. Six 30 to eight o'clock. We also have adventure clubs, six 30 to eight o'clock for our. Kids, men group that is gonna be age, I think it's four if I'm not mistaken there up through fifth grade. And so if they're in that age range, there's something for them. With Adventure Club, we'd love for you to take part in our midweek offerings. But beyond that, we also are a church that is built around the idea of community groups. And community groups are evergreen. And so if you're out there and you're thinking I'm gonna wait. And jump into community groups when the season starts back up or when it's, the next series starts. We would encourage you, go ahead and get plugged in, get connected now. Don't wait. There's no lull that naturally takes place in, in community groups. It's really a, an evergreen thing that you can get involved in, get connected to. At any point, we don't typically do a booth that we set up at church. I know sometimes you'll go to a church and there's a booth to get connected with groups or take next steps and maybe we'll have something like that in the future. Right now though, you can find out information on our brand new website that has been updated for us. Thanks to Danny Mayer and him working with some other people on that. But Danny's kind of the visionary behind that. But you can find out more information on our community groups at our website, compass ntx.org, and we would love for you to get connected. That's one of the key components of what it looks like to belong to our church. 10, connect and serve. And that connection piece for you, if you're an adult at least, is community groups. So important to get plugged in there. Build relationships with other people. Talk about the weekend sermon, ask your questions, answer questions, pray together, fellowship together. There it's. So good. It's such a vital component to what it looks like to be a part of our church, and we would love for you to sign up for a community group and get plugged in if you haven't done that yet. But yeah, lots of good things going on right now at our church, and we're excited about how God's continuing to grow it. We are in Ezekiel 23 and 24 for our DBR today. So we've got two chapters. By the way, parents 23 is a little bit of a intense chapter, so maybe give it a read before you turn it over to your kiddos. I know some of your kiddos read the through the Old Testament with us, but chapter 23 is one of those to just. Say, okay let mom and dad read this one first and then we'll see about bringing you guys in on this. But there's two sisters that are depicted in chapter 23. You've got Oolah and O Holy Ba, and these two sisters represent Israel with oah and Judah with o Holy Ba. So we're having to remember back to our history with the divided kingdom. You remember after Solomon we had the divided monarchy with rebo in the south and Jira to the north there, the northern kingdom being Israel Rebo and the Southern Kingdom being Judah. And they were divided for a period of time, and Israel was the first of the two kingdoms that was carried into exile. And so first Ezekiel through the Lord is describing the sins of Israel, and here he is describing the situation of their rebellion. And he in a very. Graphic way depicts this as a relationship an unholy relationship that she has with the Assyrians. And he basically says God turns her over to her lovers, the Assyrians in this instance, and the Assyrians are the ones that come in and take her away and take her captive while her sister, oh, holy God, doesn't learn her lesson. But not only flirts with the Assyrians, but also with the Babylonians. And the Babylonians come after. Oh, holy bow. And that is Judah. And so here God is telling the people of Judah what is coming. They already know because this has been a process. Remember Ezekiel's writing these things from exile. So part of this has already taken place, the deportations and everything. And so he is going through and laying out for the people of the Southern kingdom what's coming. And it's gonna be that their. Lover Babylon is gonna turn on them and come against them. And these two sisters in chapter 23 represent the northern kingdom of Southern Kingdom and how they turned away from God and pursue to other lovers and how God has said to them, okay, you can have them, but in having them, this is gonna bring about your own end and your own destruction. As the the chapter 23 continues from here we see things in it not only of the God's pro pronunciation of judgment, but of his indictment against their own responsibility. In this he says in verse 30, you have brought this upon yourself because of the way that you've act. To the way that you've you've behaved against him. But back in verse 22, he said, behold, I will stir up against you lovers from whom you've turned and discussed. So God is saying, I'm doing this, but you've also brought this on yourself. And so this is the dual nature there between Israel's responsibility, Jude's responsibility in God's sovereignty over these actions, in his judgment of them as well. And it the indictment is really laid out. Plainly in verse 35, he says, because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back. That's the problem. Israel had turned away. They'd forgotten the Lord and cast him behind their back, and he was gonna come against them in judgment. When can I use a language that Ezekiel uses? Didn't we talk about this just recently? I feel like it's warranted again given what we just read. I think it's a fair question. Yeah. I don't think my answers changed. I would be very hesitant to u utilize the language that he uses here. Ever at all? Yeah. In any context, yeah. Whatsoever. Yeah. Okay. Unless I'm preaching and I'm, if I'm preaching, you would preach this and the word is there, then I'm gonna say the word because it's in the context. I did that recently. I can't remember exactly which of the minor prophets dealt with the same word, but we had that conversation. And I think I Gomer. Yeah. Gomer. Thank you. Duh. And I think I said the word in that context because it's in the scriptures. And so quoting the scriptures, I think it's appropriate in that instance because you're quoting, this is what God's word says. This is what the Lord has said. But outside of that, I don't think I would feel comfortable applying this language of my own accord. I think there's other ways to go about explaining and describing it. Alright. Yeah. You disagree? No, not necessarily, but potentially. Potentially. I do. And the reason why is because I believe all of God's word is for all of God's people. And granted the way that we apply it, it's skillful and needs qualifications. I just can't say that if God doesn't demonstrate it, then somehow it shouldn't be. In some way applied. In other words, if it's in the Bible, which is our source for life and for godliness, I have to say there's something in this that I need to take away from it. And the application then to me says this has to be put somewhere in the category of if everything that God does is worthy of emulation and praise, this falls into that category. And if that's the case, where do I emulate it and how do I praise it? And I recognize that there's. Godlike qualities or God level qualities that I can never replicate in his totality because God's God, and I'm not, he bears omniscience. I don't, he bears omnipresence, I don't, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But again, if everything about God is good and worthy of praise and emulation to the degree that it's possible for a human to do, then I think that must be something in this that is worthy of my emulation. What and how that's different. Yeah. And I think the sentiment behind it, I think the revulsion behind it, I think the. Treating of the, of sin the way that it's treated and the calling out of it is the part that I would say Okay. That, yeah, that applies to us. We should feel that, that same disgust. That same revulsion. But I think that use of the language here that he uses is his prerogative. It's his indictment. It's his judgment that he's calling out. You would say it's good though, right? What he's saying is good. I would yes. Therefore, by his, for him, but I think there are things that are good for him that are not good for us that we shouldn't emulate. She okay. Yes. There again there's God level things that belong to God, right? Categorically. He alone gets praise, for instance, right? We're not gonna ask for people to praise us in the same way that we praise God, but even then there's a lowercase P for praise that is appropriate. We call that encouragement. I could say, man, pastor P, what a great sermon this last Sunday. It was strong. It was cohesive. I think people responded to it really well. That kind of praise is appropriate because it's at human level, and I would argue that for every God level quality, there is a lowercase kind of quality that humans appropriately endorse. Peter said, I think it's Peter, or correct me if I'm wrong here. We share in the divine nature. Now, we understand that not to mean that we become capital G God, but we become God-like by acting in ways that are consistent with his character. So again I know we're probably not gonna find the answer in between this little conversation. Sure. But I can't help but think, okay, if this is God speaking through the prophet and we have every confidence about that of that much, I do know we share. Concrete conviction's about, it's what the application looks like. And I would say if God is saying this, then it's certainly good for God to say it. And there must be a human level component to this that is appropriate and acceptable. Not that it's everywhere all the time. There must be a time for this to be appropriate. 'cause obviously God uses it. But. I, yeah, and I, and by the way, I'm not giving license. I'm not saying we should start cussing and, we get cut off and now we're really angry. I'm saying that there is a clearly a time and place where something like this is appropriate and good. I don't know when that is entirely, and I don't have the wisdom or the depth of knowledge to know for sure. But I can't shake the fact that I think it's there. Yeah. I wonder though if there's something contextually where it would be more of a distraction. To the message to in today's cultural context than it would be the shock value that's intended. In other words, we've seen the stories about the cussing pastors and we've seen the stories about, that this pastor did this or said this, and there's Instagram reels and there's accounting. It's almost like you would, it would get lost in the sensationalism of it rather than in having the punch and impact that it would have for us to. Make the same point using words that we might otherwise be able to use that wouldn't be so sensational that somebody would hear that word and lose everything else of what we're saying. Yeah, that's a fair point. Because of the culture that we live in, it might come across in the wrong way. In fact, people like yourself and myself would. Probably end up talking about and saying was that an appropriate use? And by and large, the people that we criticize for stuff like this are not people that we would say are in our camp. They're people that would say clearly there's other issues besides this. Yeah. So it makes sense what they're doing. But there are people close to our camp that we would say, is that the best use? Is that the right attempt to using it? And that's where I think there's questions at least. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. Anything else on chapter 23? Sin is bad. It is horrible. God hates it. Yeah. We ought to hate it too. Yeah. We should hate it and more than we do. And we should love his holiness. And we're gonna talk about that this weekend. The positive side of that, that our motivation to be holy is not just that we hate sin, but it's also that we love God and we should want to. Not invoke his jealousy. Verse 25, I will direct my jealousy against you, man. We should want God to direct his love and affection and compassion and grace and mercy towards us. Not his jealousy and wrath and anger and judgment and and indictments against us. So yeah, we should love God and love His holiness. And that means also that, yeah, hate. Yeah. They go together. Yeah, they do. They need both. Yep. Yep. Chapter 24, we get into the siege of Jerusalem in the ninth year, the 10th month. So we're dealing with 5 88 bc. By the way, when we see these time mark markers, they seem to be hearkening back to five. Five 90 sevens, sorry, which is not only Johan's deportation, but when we think also Ezekiel was probably taken captive. And so that's why these time markers are given the way they are. So the ninth year, we're thinking about 5 88 bc. We're counting down from 5 97 bc And so this is the beginning of this 30 month long siege of Jerusalem. This is the beginning of the end. And this is going to be the time that it is. Purged and that's really what chapter 24 is laying out here at the beginning. This pot, you remember back to the cauldron and the meat and everything else. The pot is gonna be emptied and God is going to cleanse the pot. Verse 11, set it upon empty upon the coals that it may become hot and its copper may burn, that its uncles may be melted in it as it's corrosion is consumed. So you think about the cleansing impact that heat can have, and that's the. Picture here that all of the draws, everything is going to be burnt out of this pot. There's not gonna be anything left in it that's unclean because God is going to empty it. And that's what he's doing with this final judgment as Babylon comes against his city, against Jerusalem. And it's finally, he says in verse 14, I'm the Lord. I've spoken. It shall come to pass. I will do it. I will not go back. So there's no there, there's no retraction. There's no repentance here. And God. Is delivering a message that he is gonna make clear in the rest of Chapter 24. People should not be weeping and mourning and grieving over this, and he makes the point in a very painful way. For Ezekiel, and that is by taking Ezekiel's wife. He takes her life. He takes her out and basically says to the prophet, you're not allowed to mourn for her loss. You're not allowed to weep for her. And. This is a difficult one and really the only thing I can come to is that he is using Ezekiel as an object lesson for the people. This is still part of his revealed message to the people of Israel. It's not as though God is telling us if somebody close to us dies, we shouldn't weep or mourn for their loss. But this is the prophet's calling which is unique and he is. In this saying, Ezekiel, this is yet another object lesson, just like laying on your side and baking the bread and everything else that we've talked about. Here's another one. I'm gonna take your wife, and yet you're not gonna be able to mourn. And already we've seen from Jeremiah and Ezekiel previously as God said, when people die during the siege, don't mourn for them. Don't wheat for them. Don't go to the house in mourning because this is God's judgment being poured out. And I think that's another indicator of how evil and wicked sin is and how. We can't trifle with his holiness. This is just what God is doing here and that's what's being communicated in the end of 24 and is a super helpful clarification. It is not God telling us that we should not cry, right? If someone were to die in our family, or someone close to us that we love. This is unique to Ezekiel for two reasons. You mentioned one of them, his calling, God called him for this specific task and therefore we can be assured that God strengthened him for it. I don't know about you. I know we've talked about this last year, perhaps the year before that, of how challenging this would be for anybody. But God enabled him to do this because he had a specific calling for his time and location. So calling is one thing. The context is the other. Ezekiel is. Uniquely in a specific time in Israel's history, he's an exilic prophet. He's speaking to the people of Israel, God's people, and they needed to see this object lesson. God determined and decreed in his wisdom, which is greater than ours, that this is one of the best ways for him to reach them. And so he did it. And that's what ought to give us comfort about this. If God is gonna bring disaster into your life, recognize that God is making the best decision. Possible. It's not that he's making the best decision with what he has available, he's making the best decision possible. And that's true not only for Ezekiel's wife, but also for you and for me. And I think that's probably an application that we can run with that even if God does allow tragedy and disaster into our lives, he's doing what's good for his glory and for our benefit, our growth, and holiness, our love, our ability to serve him with excellence, and we need to trust him. He's a Lord. He's holy. He's making decisions far beyond your pay grade, and that requires us to humbly submit and trust what he's up to. And that's, isn't that where Job got to in the very end when he said, you know what, I'm gonna lay my hand over my mouth. I've spoken once. I won't squeak again. I've already said too much basically is what Job says. And he got the message and you think, again, job was in a similar situation. God took his kids, he took his friends, he took in some ways his wife from him. Not in the same way, but yeah. He probably wished that he took his wife at that point. He may have. He may have. Alright. Let's let's pray in the, we'll wrap this episode. Lord the word has so many difficult things and this is another one. And things that, that we can't fully understand or wrap our minds around things that quite honestly we say I'm glad that's not us, and yet we need to be so confident in who you are, that we would be ready if it was us. And so we, we want to have that kind of faith and we confess that we can grow in that and we can develop more of that. Lord, we also wanna grow and develop more of a love for you and your holiness and a hatred of sin. Even as we talked about in response to chapter 23, we want to have just a passion to be more holy ourselves. Because it's gonna draw us near it to you. And so we thank you for your word and the way your word teaches us and instructs us in these matters. We pray this all in Jesus name, amen. Keep your Bibles tuning again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast Fight. Bye.

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said