Hey everybody. Welcome back to yet another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. That's it, you guys. I've got two other people in the room and neither of them are gonna say anything. This is just it. This is happen. That's what happens when you have Christians or gentlemen, and we're just waiting for the other to go waiting. Yes, and then we just waiting. Definitely it's gonna happen. Have lots to say. So now it's my turn. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Well, hey, we answered the question a couple days ago about magical fruit, right? They're magically delicious, lucky charms or whatever, but instead we said it's probably not magical. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, probably not magical. It was more they broke God's law and that's what led to their guilt and condemnation. Well, we got a follow up question on that. I said, Hey, thanks for answering my question. You're welcome. But a follow up. Said, don't need to address it on the pot, but we're gonna do it anyways because that's what we're here to do. He says, this was the tree of life. Magical or supernatural. It seems like God acted as though the latter tree has supernatural powers. Is the plan that neither tree is magical or is it that the Tree of Life grants immortality? That one's magical. But the tree of knowledge that grants knowledge of good and evil is a regular old tree, and they're just not directly parallel to each other. So there's the question. Yeah. I like the CS Lewis version of Magical, and that's how I'm understanding the question. 'cause magic typically connotes a different way of Right. Religion, witchcraft, sorcery, we, that's not the kind of magic we're talking about. Right. Deep magic, the true stuff is the kind that CS Lewis talks about. So, pastor Mark, I know you have strong opinions about this. The Tree of Life, magical or non? No. Okay. That, that's, that's an answer. I, yeah. I don't, I just don't, I don't see how the tree itself. Provides any of those things we don't see anywhere else in the Bible where a tree itself or an animal itself directly provides anything. They're often used as metaphors or as illustrations, but I'm not seeing that. I think ultimately God is the one who provides life and I don't think he's doing it through a tree. Can I substantiate that? I'm not sure I can. Yeah, I think about the, I think about Revelation. You got the tree of life again. Yeah. And you have the river of life. So you have all sorts of things that God uses to actually sustain life. I wonder if there is something about them, and I wouldn't call it magical, we're, clearly that's not what we intend, but that there is something spiritually significant about the tree and about the water that sustains man's body for all time and eternity. I'm okay with the idea and I was also, you might remember in the last podcast when we answered the question about the. The tree of knowledge. I'm okay with if, if that's something too. I don't have a strong, definitely, no, I'm more open to it. 'cause I don't think the text tells me precisely it's this and not that I'm okay with either one. Yeah. You mentioned revelation. Revelation two seven says this, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise. Paradise of God. Oh. So. That would support what you're saying there, right? That in eternity. In later on, in Revelation 22, 2 through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding fruit in each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Okay. Yeah, 2214. Blessed for those who wash the ropes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and they may enter. So it seems there's something there now. The Tree of Life was not verboten in the garden. It was only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And yet that's the one that they went for. So they could have eaten from the Tree of life. We have no reason to believe that they did because God then removes the tree to prevent them from having access to the Tree of Life later on. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I'm with you. I think the Tree of Life could have an impact for us in eternity. Is it? Yeah. I think it's helpful for you to clarify what we mean by magical here, and that in, in mass defense, he says, magical slash supernatural. Was there something from God about this tree that would've sustained and granted life forever. Now, this is a almost a non-sequitur because in the garden there was no death, so there was no need to eat from the tree of life at that point because they didn't know anything but life. Yeah, and I don't have necessarily an issue with saying that there's a supernatural element to it in some sense, specifically in the sense that God is gonna have to sustain us for all of eternity in heaven. We're not gonna suddenly stop being finite creatures. We're not gonna have a sanity in heaven, and so God is gonna have to continue to provide for us eternally. You said as Sadie, why don't you define that one for other people, not for me or anything like that, but for other people as Sadie is the characteristic of God that helps us understand that he is in need of nothing else that he is creating himself. That's not even the right way to put self put. Self-sufficient. Yeah, self-sufficient. Self sustain, creating himself. That is not the right way to put it. Self-sustaining. He's not in need of anything else. We are very much in need. Of outside sources of food, of water spiritual needs as well. That that's right. And we will continue to have that in a different way, but we will continue to have that into eternity. Yeah. Which is interesting 'cause we don't often think about that, but that's true, right? Because that's one of the ways that we will glorify God in eternity is continuing to depend upon him as the source of life. Yes. He's the source of our present life. He's the source of eternal life as well. And even the healing, right? Is there gonna be healing necessary in the sense of like, oh, somebody got a cut and they're crying? No, because we know that there's not gonna be pain like that. There's not gonna be tears like that, but there is gonna be a need for our bodies to continually be renewed and. A different sense than we would understand it here in this life, but we're gonna need to be sustained in that way. Our bodies themselves are gonna have to be supported and carried by God and his power. Alright. They're still physical bodies. Yes. And so there's still gonna be continuity in the way that they require resources, right? Nutrients, water. Which is why we still have those physical elements. In the new Jerusalem. That's right. And even Jesus. Even Jesus, after the resurrection. That's right. He ate, eats and fish tacos, fish, which is amazing. Yeah. Dude, it's crazy to even think about that. It's a taco. It's fish. Taco, PPJ. Does this change your answer at all in terms of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Are you willing to say, okay, if this tree has some supernatural powers, maybe the Tree of knowledge had supernatural powers as well? No, I, I, I'm still in the same position of saying, Hey, I think this was more about here's God's command. God's command said this tree is off limits. And that's what led to the guilt and condemnation that came from, that not anything in the fruit itself. Yeah. Will I go to the wall on that? No, but that's my take. Alright, let's jump into our DBR for today. We are in numbers, chapters 21, 22, and 20 to 23. Yep. That's right. That's what comes after 22. Thanks, man. I was just making sure because I was not sure for a second. Numbers 21 through 23 and then mark chapter seven through eight 10. So a little bit of a weird breakdown here because we're not usually going across chapters in this reading plan. Numbers Chapter 21. We have an interesting scene here, and it's one that if you have been around the church you've been familiar with, felt board, so forth and so on. The people, again, are going to be grumbling and the people are not going to listen to the Lord. The Lord heated the voice of Israel gave over the Canaanites. They devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the police was called Hor Ma. But then right after that, from Mount Hore, they set out by the way of Edem, and they start to speak against God, verse five and against Moses, and here comes Egypt again. We wish we could go back to Egypt. Well, God's wrath is going to come. Sometimes God is patient with his people and he tells Moses, Hey Moses, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pour out my wrath. And Moses intercedes. And he says, okay, nevermind this time. His wrath is pretty swift. The Lord it says, sends fiery serpents. By that we should understand venomous serpents among the people, and they bite the people so that they begin to, to perish and die. Then Moses intercedes. When the people repent, they come and they say, we have sinned. Like Pharaoh, we have sin for, we have spoken against the Lord. This is a repentance, although we'll see that this is not a repentance that's not gonna bear fruit for long. But God is going to still provide some relief and that is through this serpent that this is gonna be a bronze serpent that Moses is gonna put on a pole. And the Lord says, anyone who looks at this serpent will be. Delivered. So this is an interesting scene here. Pastor Mark, I know you were saying recently that your one of your sons has been going out in your backyard and finding snake skins in the backyard. So make sure they're not fiery serpents that he's playing with back there. Yeah, hopefully not. No. I told him you need to not just find a snake skin. You need to find the real thing. That's what I told him. So you can be headed. No, just so you can take care of it and feed it something and then let it go. Okay? Agree to disagree. Man. This is such a cool passage though. Not cool because people are dying, but what it represents and what we get to see later in the New Testament in John chapter three and the correlation to Jesus. But man, this is a test for them. And if you think about it, the snakes are on the ground and coming up at them, and it takes a, it takes, I'm gonna argue a form of true repentance and a form of faith in this as the solution to be willing to look up, right? If you're, if there's snakes coming at you maybe they've just bit your sister or your mom, you're not gonna be inclined to look up. That's the last thing that you're probably gonna be inclined to do, yet, that's exactly how you're saved. That's right. It's the act of looking, looking and trusting. Placing your hope and trust in this is why this is picked up by Jesus. In John chapter three. He says to Nicodemus, you have to do this with me. Mm-hmm. You can't. You can't just come to me and talk to me at night. You have to look to the son who's going to be lifted up. And so this is an interesting thing. I would never have picked this if I'm looking for gospel. Analogies in the Old Testament, I wouldn't have picked this one. And yet Jesus tells us, this is pointing to me. I am the one that you have to look up at. And it was quite a dangerous analogy to make. Like you can call yourself a serpent Jesus. And yet that's what Jesus uses. It is beautiful, it's picturesque and I think it's a really helpful place for us to look. I do think the, the serpent represents sin. And Jesus has lifted up Great point. With our sin. So Jesus is not a serpent. That's right. But yes. But he's, he has lifted up with our sin. That's right. Yeah. In chapter 21, from here we get Israel finding more wells and in God providing water, and they're gonna respond in worship. They're gonna write songs about this spring up a well sing to it. Let there be that, that the well, that the prince has made, that the nobles of the people dug with their scepter and with their staff. So God is providing first people along the way here. And then he's going to lead them into battle this time against King Sahan. So this is gonna be trans Jordanian territory, meaning this is not promised land area. But this is gonna be part of the area of the promised land that the trans Jordanian tribes, which we're gonna get to, are going to inhabit. And so God is clearing them out, but he's also preparing Israel here through these battles that they're going to fight in order to get them ready for what awaits them across the Jordan. He needs this generation to be tough. They can't be soft when they're going to fight these wars that they're gonna have to fight against. The inhabitants of Canaan. So he's preparing them by giving them these conflicts with these trans Jordanian peoples here, including the King of Sahan here. But this is where God begins to repeat the refrain I have given this, these people into your hand. We see that there with with regards to King P Sahan. I've given the people into your hand, and that's gonna be something that God's going to remind his people about all throughout the conquest of the Promised Land. It's not their efforts that are sustaining this, but it's the Lord's. Chapter 22. Then we have Baik who is a little bit concerned about what he's finding with Israel. And so Baik, who is this king here, is going to reach out to a prophet. Now, this is not a prophet the way that we think about prophets. This is not an Israelite prophet. This is a foreigner, and yet this prophet has. God has his ear. This prophet has access to the Lord, and we're gonna find that out. But initially, Baik calls for balam to come and prophesy against Israel. And Baalam says, I'm not gonna do this because I can't curse the people that God has blessed. I can't, I can't do this. In fact, God even intervenes and says in verse 12, you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people for they are blessed. And so this. Foreign prophet is gonna say no, and he's gonna say no multiple times until finally he's gonna say yes. And as he goes to leave to, to go with the people, back to B him, it says, God's anger. Verse 22 was kindled against him because he went well, God had told him to go and now all of a sudden God's going to be angry and moved to try to kill him. And the angel of the Lord shows up. And this is where Balaam's donkey starts talking to him. And my best guess, and I think we've talked about this before in the past, but my best guess is Ba Baalam was going with the wrong motive in his heart. At this point, which is why God moved to stop him and to remind him, Hey, be careful because you don't know who you're messing with here. And so that, that's my take on this. That's the only thing that to me, makes a whole lot of sense because God says, go with them. And then God tries to stop him when he does go with them. Any thoughts on why it does in God's instructions? He does say if the men have come to call you, rise and go with them. Perhaps, perhaps it doesn't say that they didn't, but perhaps they. Didn't, and he goes anyways. So more of like, okay, well I'm gonna go without them even asking me to go. Yeah. Because God says, you need to do exactly what I tell you to do. And he's very clear that it says if the men have come to call you, then you can go and then, and in fact, right. Later on after they encounter with the donkey, he says, go with them anyways. Pretty much. Right. So I don't think that God is opposed to him going with them. It's the way in which he's obedient in that. Right, right. Yeah. He says here in verse 32 and verse 35 something about his way being perverse before him and speaking only the word that I tell you. So I think, I think what's happening is that you're right, the motivation behind his going is evil in God's sight, and I think Chapter 22 tells us, and Peter will say later on, that he loved gain from wrongdoing, which I think contributes to the fact that that was what was perverse before God. It wasn't that he went per se, it was that he went with the wrong motive, and that's what was so offensive to God. In chapter 23 we find this again, it's such a unique situation. God is using this man who ultimately is gonna be a thorn in Israel side in the future, but God is using the sinful man in baam to prophesy blessings over the people in the presence of baic, this king that wants to destroy his people. So what makes sense? 'cause you're dealing with bad guy and bad guy. Lesser two evils. Okay. Blum fine. Blum can be this voice here. This is not a man that we often think of when we think about the prophets of God. When we think about God delivering his message through human mouthpieces we think of people like Jeremiah and Isaiah, and we think of these people like Daniel, these great prophets, that we think these are Godly men. And yet this is a, not only a Gentile and a Pagan, but I think a Godless, Gentile and Pagan, who right now fears the Lord. But not out of faith. More out of, okay, I'm afraid that this guy's gonna kill me if I don't do what he says here. So it's fascinating that God uses baam to speak prophecies of blessings over Israel in the presence of a pagan king. There's no one that's really a God fear anywhere in the scene in chapter 23. I don't understand why God does it this way, but this continues to show me that God operates in ways that are surprising to me, and I should be unsurprised by the fact that he surprises me. Speaking of surprises we talked over it, but I just wanna point out we do believe that God spoke through the donkey. Yes, we do. That's incredible. Yes. And it's the only time in the Bible in any narrative that an animal speaks in apocalyptic literature. There are occasions where serpent in the garden. Well, yeah, but Right since the fall, well, since the fall, the serpent who spoke to Eve. Yeah. And, and arguably the serpent isn't a donkey. Right? Well, isn't it Isn't an animal like the donkey. I agree. The serpent's not a donkey, we're on the same page. Right. But the donkey is just a regular donkey. The serpent is not a regular serpent. Yes, true. And so this is just a regular donkey. Yeah. Fair. And this is the only time in any narrative. That I'm aware of that God uses an animal to speak. I akin to Chronicles and Nia and it's odd. What do you do with that? Because the donkey's like, haven't I treated you rightly my whole life? Donkey's got like a backstory. She's been doing her thing and God's like, all right, I'm gonna loosen your tongue so you can talk. So what do we do with that? 'cause this is one of those things that people, when people make fun of the Bible, yeah. You guys got talking serpents and donkeys and flying horses. People are gonna use it to mock us. Pastor PJ assuage us here, help us to feel confidence in what we see. I mean, we see the angel of the Lord visibly show up right after this too. So I think we can say we're dealing with supernatural things. We're dealing with things that we don't see every day anyways. Even the parting of the Red Sea, like we've seen plenty of miraculous things in the Bible up to this point that would cause somebody to say really. I've never seen that happen before. And so I would put this in that category of this is a God thing. One where God is using the mouth of this animal as the Lord of creation, as the God over all creative beings to say I'm gonna deliver my message to you one way or the other. If you're not gonna listen to me, then you'll listen to this donkey. It. It may have even been a way to humble Baal him in that point too, to say, okay, God spoke to you. You ignored God. I'm gonna get your attention through a donkey. Through something that you would never look at and look for wisdom or look for concern or intelligence from. I'm gonna, I'm gonna speak to you through this beast of burden here instead of a way that you might expect to be addressed. That's a great point. Humbling him by speaking through a lowly animal like the donkey. Do all dogs or donkeys go to heaven? Does this show consciousness? Do they have thoughts? No. No. You would say this is purely miraculous GT one. Yes. What about a cat? You know, I don't know. They have nine lives. That's what I've heard, been told. Oh. I'm not, I'm not touching this with a 10 foot pole. I get in trouble with this every time I bring it up. Alright. Alright. We'll talk about it when we get to Revelation. The lion of Judah Lion is a cat. That's true. That is touche. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, mark chapter seven, new Testament reading. Let's start in verse 14. We're gonna go all the way again through chapter eight, verse 10. And as Pastor Mark alluded to yesterday and almost jumped the gun on Jesus really does get to the heart of what the problem is here with the Pharisees. And it's not just the problem of the external, the problem of the hand washing. It's the problem of the internal. And that's what Jesus talks about here in the first, I don't know. Eight, nine verses here in chapter seven, starting verse 14. And that is that the issue of mankind is a heart issue. The issue of sin is a heart issue. It's not an external issue. You can't wash your hands enough to be cleansed of sin and to be cleansed of the defilement of sin. That doesn't work. It doesn't happen that way. And so instead what we have to understand is we need the internal cleansed. And that's what Jesus is gonna go after. Mark 20 or Matthew 23, we read that. Last time as we were in the gospels of, of Matthew previously in the podcast, just all the wo statements, including you are like whitewashed tombs outside you look great, but inside you're full of dead man's bones. So they needed something internal to cleanse them, not just the external things that they were so concerned with. I think it's interesting too, the parallel between what we've been reading various places in the last couple days, last several weeks, about the clean and unclean status of the people of Israel. Those were. Actually external things. So I'm not gonna forgive the pharisees and the scribes for misunderstanding this because they were supposed to see what was the intent of that. Yeah. But you can see how they would get this confused if they had a misunderstanding of some of these things. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah. You would understand where it comes from. But not excuse it. Right? It makes perfect sense, and I think that's what is so frustrating to Jesus is that he continues to point out to them, this is, you're getting it wrong. You're sacrificing the big picture for the little one. And instead you ought to see that these little pictures are meant to point to the larger one about the heart, and that really is the heart of the issue. What about from here? He. Shifts in, in the rest of chapter seven into gentile territory here, and he's going to interact with the s Venetian woman in the region of Tyra inside in here. And she's gonna come and she's gonna beg for him to heal her child. And he's gonna say, well, I'm here for Israel, basically. And she says, yeah but can't I even get a scrap from the table? And don't even dogs get the crumbs from the table? And he turns and says to her for this statement, you may go away your face. The demon has left your daughter Matthew commends her faith in this moment. And then from here he goes on to again, this gentile region and a deaf man comes and he heals this deaf man of his ailment as well, and again, gentile territory. So I wonder if Jesus wasn't doing something here by interacting with the scribes and the Pharisees and dealing with the fact that the problem isn't ceremonial, cleanliness, the problem is a heart issue, and then immediately going into the gentile territory where he. Shows mercy to Gentiles and even commends the faith of the Gentiles, which is really what's necessary for the internal cleansing that's needed. May I suggest there's a chiasm here, oh. Oh, because what are we gonna see in chapter eight is Jesus feeds the 4,000 we saw in chapter six the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and then you see him in Israelite territory. And then the interaction with the Pharisees and the scribes where he. Says, you've got this all wrong and you don't understand what I'm calling you to do. And then he turns to the Gentile, the Gentiles and that's what we see here at the end of chapter seven, right before we get into chapter eight with the feeding of the 4,000, which is also Gentile territory, which is also Gentile territory. Right. So I think there's a pivoting here, and I think you can see that in the way that Mark has structured this section, not just this chapter, but this section of the book. Yeah. I'm also always struck by the fact that I think Jesus is doing so much with his disciples in this. We read this and he's interacting with all these other people, and yet at the same time in the background, his disciples are watching. They're listening, they're paying attention. And again, the feeding of the 4,000 he tests their faith again. He says, Hey, you give them something to eat and they've. Short-term memory problem here they're forgetting the 5,000. They're going, where are we gonna get enough food for all this? And so everything Jesus is doing has two audiences here. It's got the external audience and it's also got the audience of the disciples. And this is gonna inform so much of their understanding of Christ, of his power after his resurrection. This is gonna motivate so much of their desire to go and let other people know about Jesus and faith in Christ. And so there's so much going on behind the scenes that we don't get to, to be privy to, to how they're watching and hearing and listening to their rabbi do all of these things. Yeah. I just wanna make a quick point in chapter eight, one through 10 here we said it, we suggested it. But let me just point out to you guys why we think this is Gentile territory. 'cause there's nothing in this little procope that tells us this. These are gentiles. We assume this based on the fact that in the last verses that we just read, he was in the district of the de Capitalis, the region of the 10 cities. It's a confederation of gentile cities. And so we don't see a break in this. It says in those days at chapter eight, verse one which we think refers to the time when he was in gentile territory. And so after this, in chapter eight, chapter eight, verse 10, he goes into the district of Dalman, which we think is, this is meant to show he's moving through, but he's still in gentile territory. Yeah. Would you add anything to that? No, I think that's great. Just don't miss the Mark's emphasis on the disciples. Just to build on what you said, pastor pj, it's fascinating how Mark specifically. It shows the disciples and how they respond to some of these things. I know I'm going a little bit back, but Right when Jesus walks on water, they were utterly astounded. Right. And we're gonna see this sort of again and again. This is a theme in Mark. Yeah. Yeah. How about the healing of the deaf man is there. This is just unique. He takes him away privately, he sigh. He puts his fingers in his ears and he then says, this air make word EFA or ffa which means be opened here. It's just an interesting, okay, why? Why? Why this way? Why didn't he just do this publicly? Why the sigh? Why the fingers in the ears? It's kinda like we're gonna see in a little bit. I think that the two stage healing of the blind man where he rubs mud on his eyes and then he's like, well, I see people, but like trees and then he does something else and then he's able to see clearly. Just an interesting interaction here. I don't know that we have a firm answer as to why he does this, but if you guys have any thoughts on that? That's a great point. I wanted to point out that the fact that he uses Aramaic suggests that this isn't actually Jewish person. Even if it's in gentile territory, which I'm not sure explains why he takes him around privately, but the fact that he's using Aramaic suggests that he's not a Gentile. I think we just need to see some of these things and recognize Jesus is operating in a way that is not like us. There is so many inclinations in my heart to try to fit God, to fit Jesus into the way I do my daily commute and my lunch break, and all the things that I do on a daily basis, right? Jesus is fully human. I'm not denying that, but Jesus is not exactly like me. I, that's a great point. I think we talked about this recently, but that's such a good reminder. We, Jesus prioritizes people. He's interrupted all the time. I would be so put off by that. Like, guys, I have my hours between eight and five, please. Who's making appointments? Here's my Calendly link. Can you just come at the right time? Here's my soccer mom. Hour time. You can come during those hours. And yet Jesus is, this is what he's here for. And it's such a good point because we often just get so busy with the things that are good and important, but not ultimate. Jesus gives us a great reality check. People are. The ministry one. One thing that's probably worth noting here, he spits and touches the man's tongue. You might think, why does he do that? His ears are the problem. Well, think about somebody who's deaf also, probably is somebody who's mute. They don't have the ability to form words and speak. And so somebody thought that this is commented and said, this is potentially speaking to the fact that this man's gonna regain his speech as well. He's gonna gain his speech perhaps. And then the same commentary said it's possible that the word. FHA was easily read by somebody who was blind lips. Lips could be read there. And so it's possible that he was doing that for the benefit of this blind person or this deaf person, rather, to cause him to be able to know what he was saying and participate in the act of the miracle. So, interest, insight, good? Yeah. Yeah. All right, well let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we thank you so much for the healing we have received through faith. Even as we get that indication here through the SFO nation women, that the issue which we talked about too, the heart issue is only gonna be cleansed through faith and faith in Christ and his sacrifice force, his penal substitutionary of toning death on our behalf, on the cross, and we are so grateful for. Thankful for that, and we always will be both now and all the way into eternity. So we thank you for this time. We pray that we would continue to give ourselves over to studying your Word and applying it to our lives. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, hey guys, keep reading those bibles and tuning in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you then. Bye bye.

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