Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. It is a Friday happy Friday, everybody. In fact, it's a specifically happy Friday and your families and it passed her up. Yes. I now have two teenagers in my home. And I feel old. Yeah. Well, you look old too. Thank you. Yeah. And by old, you mean distinguished, mature, elder. Yes. All of those things. Sagacious sagacious is my favorite one. Yes. Yes. All of those things. Yeah. So happy birthday, Adam. Happy birthday, Adam. We're grateful for you son. May you have 13 more years and many more. Yeah. I'm glad you added many more. It's 26. It's still. Yeah, no for sure. Yeah. I know my, my daughter turned 13 back in June. I know you weren't here for that. You were gone on vacation, so yeah. You couldn't shout her out. I know we have teens though. Now. Teens, plural, plural. Yeah. What did you. We're up in the air for she's a jolly. She's not a fellow. Fellow wet. A little while, you know, you would say that you would still say that for she's a jolly good fellow. You would say that for sure. Would. Yes, that seems masculine. Just chime in folks. If you had anyone lift you in the air, singing the song and you're a female, please let us know. Yeah. And, uh, How old are you? If you had somebody. Well, I don't know. I think I might've seen it on, I love Lucy or, you know, I've seen an Andy Griffith. Exactly. And as buddy. Anyways. Yeah. So. Oh, man, what a responsibility is parenting. And, uh, we, we. I just, I'm thankful for our church. I'm thankful that, uh, we were just talking about this a little bit, just that there are. People who love our kids and love if you're a parent out there listening to this, and you're part of our church. There are people in the church that love your kids that are committed to helping you raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. It's a hard time to do that as a Christian parent and do it. Well, and you're not going to do it perfectly. Uh, just know that nobody's going to raise the perfect kid. Um, And yet Mary would say she did though. Okay. Fair. Jesus juke. Literal Jesus juke. Yeah, but, uh, but it's, and that's why it's so good to have a church family, community groups. And we're talking about that this Sunday, we're talking about the importance of being connected to a church. I mean, I know relationships with people, right? And that's one thing about, you know, some people probably think, well, I go to church and I've got my family that goes to church with me, or I got my, you know, my friend that goes to church with me, I'm good. I've got one or two. Now you need relationships that are deeper relationships with people that aren't flesh and blood that you're gonna be able to sit down with and be like, Hey, I need wisdom and guidance and counsel because my son punched somebody in the face at school and came home yesterday. And now I'm trying to figure out what do I do as a, as a parent? How do I walk through all this? You're going to need wisdom from other people that are going to be able to come alongside you and help you. And that's why the church is so good and, and being connected, community groups. Uh, did I mention community groups, community groups are a great place for you to get that level of relationship. In fact, it's the best place in the church to get that level of relationship. One of the values of a group like that. Is that you have a diverse array of experiences? And even diverse takes of understanding of the tech. So the wisdom that you can get in a group like that, Is by its very nature because it's so different and so varied. Is usually really, really helpful. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. It is. And, uh, and, and that's why. It's such an act of God's grace, that he didn't save us to live our lives as, as individual Christians and just fight your way through and good luck getting there. Um, there's such a good benefit to, to have in the body of Christ with you. Well, let's jump into our Bible reading today, which is Genesis 16 and 17 and 18. I don't want to sit and just started talking and that's what happens, I guess. Uh, but 16 through 18. Um, and this is a, this is a, an interesting text. Uh, because here we find, uh, Sariah, who is the eventual mother of, of Isaac. Who's the son of promise. And her slave Hagar and Sarah had no children. She was barren. Uh, and this is a unique situation because God had promised Abraham, Hey, you're going to have an error. You're going to have, in fact, not just one, but you're going to have descendants as numerous as the stars and the heavens. Uh, we just read about that in yesterday's reading. And now he's dealing with a wife who's barren. She has no children. And so she's got this female slave and Hagar, she gives Hagar to, to Abraham. And, and if you're familiar with the story, you know, the rest of it. Um, Hagar and Abraham have a son together in the son's name is Ishmael now. Uh, this is where Christianity and Islam begin to diverge in the biblical account, uh, because the Muslims, and if you talk to a Muslim, they will argue that the son of promise. Uh, the sun offered on Mount Moriah was actually not Isaac, but Ishmael. And we would argue that the biblical biblical account is, uh, is faithful and true. And that the center promise offered on Mount Moriah is actually Isaac and not Ishmael, but Isaac and Ishmael will become the fathers or the figureheads of two nations. And that's, what's so unique to me. Um, Pescara, I'd love to get some of your thoughts on here as God's promise to Hagar that this son of a relationship that that should have never happened. Uh, between Abraham and Hagar, that God promises to make him a great nation. And, and on top of that, this is going to become the nation of Islam, not, not the literal nation of Islam as is the political force, but this is going to become the Muslim nations. This is the descendants of Ishmael are going to do more damage to the church than perhaps any other people group in history. And it's interesting that God promises to make of him. One of the, the, the key thorns in the side of Christianity. Any thoughts on that? Yeah, this goes back to our study of job. We have to remember that even though God ultimately ordains all ends and all means even he is not the primary cause of those things. He is the proximate cause. And. Uh, therefore what we can see in this is that God has plans and purposes that are bigger than our immediate understanding of any given circumstance. Uh, what we're seeing here is a microcosm of how God operates. In the entire universe, this is just one way that he, he furthered his intended ends and other in order to glorify himself and to do ultimate good for Israel. This is part of that. So I know there's so much we could say about that, but what we should at least acknowledge is that God is in control even of the rising of nations that are evil. Uh, nations that will ultimately do harm to those. He loves, but he's got it all under control and he's doing it for his sovereign purposes. Yeah, others have also commented. And I think this is a secondary point. I think. You just said, pastor at his grade. Others have commented just on the fact that after God has promised Abraham such great things and everything else that here we see evidence of God's care and concern for people outside of the covenant that he still is, is concerned for the wellbeing of humanity at large. Um, In an Ishmael in and of himself was not, uh, w w D didn't perpetuate evil by being born. Um, though the, the relationship that he was born from was not a godly or good, or, or. Uh, ordain relationship as far as something that God desired or commanded. Uh, Ishmael in and of himself was, was not, uh, a center for simply being born, uh, as a result of that, that relationship there. Yeah. God shows great tenderness toward Hagar and Ishmael. Yeah. It's an incredible, in fact, Uh, remember Hagar probably came from Egypt when Abraham stopped there and pretended to have Sariah be his sister. And this whole exchange happens between him and Pharaoh. And so these guys are victims and are in a real sense of Abraham's bad decision making. In fact, on top of that, Abraham listened to the voice of Sariah, which is an application of his leadership. This is a very similar language to what you see Adam doing in the garden when he's listening to the voice of Eve, his wife. And so the scripture. Uh, Moses is likely intending versus see the connection here. He's not doing what he should be doing, even though he's the father of faith. This is not a particularly good picture of him leading by faith. Yeah. Yeah. Just a couple of exegetical notes here. Notice in 16 seven, we see the angel of the Lord. I think this is the first time. If I'm not mistaken that the angel of the Lord shows up. Uh, the angel Lord, we believe is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, that this is the son of God. And that's why he speaks in first person. Uh, when he says I will multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered. Verse 10. Uh, the angel is not speaking on behalf of God. The angel is speaking as God, and that is not something that an angel is going to normally do, unless it's the angel of the Lord who is, we believe again, a pre-incarnate appearance of. Uh, Jesus of the second member of the Trinity there. Chapter 17 then. Uh, we get into some of the, the reiteration, the re repetition of the Abrahamic promises to Abraham at covenant. Uh, he reiterated here, the covenant promises to Abraham and changes his name from Abraham to Abraham. So now I can say Abraham and, and not be in error and keep correcting myself, uh, which is. I'm grateful for. Abraham. So now he's Abraham. Why? Because Abraham means father of a multitude. And so that's why his name has changed because that's part of the Abrahamic covenant blessing is that he would have many descendants. So Abraham, their significance there. And then he institutes a circumcision to be the sign of the covenant, by which all the males in the line of promise would be identified. Uh, oh, Let's let's stir up a little bit of controversy here at PR. Um, do you know where I'm going with this? I do not. But a hair right here we go. Okay. So, um, our, uh, reformed brethren. So Presbyterians. Those those in covenant theology. Do you know where I'm going with this now? They would argue for infant baptism or Pado baptism Pado from, uh, where we get, uh, the idea of, of, uh, of children, child baptism, infant baptism. They would argue that that is the new covenant sign. The way that circumcision was the sign of the old covenant, that the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Uh, and they would say, this is the sign of, of belonging to the community. The belonging to the covenant people of God is, is baptism. So as such, that's why they baptize infants the way that they would circumcise a male born eight days. Uh, eight days after they were born, they'd be circumcised. So, uh, in, in, in appealing to this, because you may think, well, is there any biblical basis to this? They would go to Colossians two eight through 15. And Colossians two eight through 15. Um, it talks about being, uh, a verse 11. It begin there. It says in him, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism. In which you were also raised with him through faith, in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And so, and that goes on, you were dead in your trespasses, the uncircumcision of your flesh. They're connecting baptism to circumcision there in Colossians chapter two. And they're saying that's where we get this idea. That baptism is the sign of the new covenant. How would we as dispensational is to, would disagree with that? Conclusion argue. That's a, perhaps a misunderstanding of what's going on. Well, I have a couple of thoughts and I would love to have you contribute to this as well. PBJ. I asked you. Okay, great. Well, I think one of the first things we can identify is that the pattern in the new Testament is not consistent with the pattern of the old, in other words, what we see in the new Testament. Is that the people that are baptized are the ones that are professing faith in Christ and in Christ is a big deal or in the Neale Testament, Jew. And Genesis you have Abraham being given clear and explicit instructions for who is to be circumcised. He talks about those in his own household, whether they're slave or free, whether they're his own children or the children of someone else, if they're part of his household. They're all to be circumcised and therefore. You have a very clear line of demarcation for the old Testament and the new. So there are some similarities, there are some, and that's where we would agree with our friends. Our Presbyterian friends say. Yeah, there's, there's certainly some parallels, but they're not parallel in that they are both equivalent signs of the covenant. At minimum, what you see is that there's clear evidence for old Testament application for all the people in Abraham's family. Versus there's clear evidence in the new Testament for application of baptism, to all those who profess belief in Christ. And there's much more we could say, but that would say that's a really good starting place. What else would you add to that? Yeah, I would go to the covenant idea here that this is a sign of the Abrahamic, covenant, not the mosaic covenant. If this was a sign of the mosaic covenant, then I think their argument might be a little bit stronger because the new covenant has supplanted the mosaic covenant. Um, but the new covenant has not supplanted the Abrahamic covenant in that we believe the Abrahamic covenant runs parallel to the blessings of the new covenant, that there are blessings that are still on yet. Th that have not yet been realized. As far as the Abrahamic covenant, they've not been yet fulfilled. And so to say, well, baptism is now the, the sign is to say, to suggest that that the Abrahamic covenant has been abrogated that has been fulfilled, or it's been set aside in the new covenant is the only Kevin in operation. Now we would say that that's not, that's not a biblical approach to how God is working right now in the present dispensation. So, um, baptism is, is never formally correlated anywhere with circumcision as the sign and the new Kevin at the way that the reformed churches will argue. A lot of their argument outside of Colossians two is going to come from church fathers. And in, in, in their defense, there were. Early church fathers that did right on. Uh, Pedro baptism, baptism of infants, but that is not in and of itself grounds for us to say we should embrace the same. The same practice. Right. And one other element of this too, is that in the new Testament, the times where you do have household baptisms, It is an argument from silence to say that those who were baptized were also infants. Right. And we would take issue with that because we would say that's clearly not the implication here to those who believe that are baptized within the household and not. Every person in the household. the other thing that you have difficulty with is that some point then if we're going to, if we're going to baptize a baby and say that this makes them part of the covenant community of the church, At some point in time, they're going to leave the covenant community of the church then because our Presbyterian brothers are reformed. Brothers would say it's salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. None of them are going to say, at least none of them that are biblical are going to say that salvation saves anyone. So, so baptizing that baby does not save that baby, nor does it guarantee that they're going to be saved. And so they are placed into the covenant community, under their parents, you know, purview or supervision as they are baptized as a baby. But at some point in time, then we have to say that they've left the covenant community and they need to be brought back in through faith in Christ, by grace alone. And so I think there's a difficulty there because it becomes okay. So what. At what point does that child leave the covenant community and need to be brought back in through salvation? And so I, I think we're, we're really on squishy ground there when we're saying that that baptism somehow brings a baby into the covenant community at the church, because. Then at some point they're going to leave and they need to be brought back in through salvation. And, and I think that's, uh, a tricky situation rather than to say, Hey man, Our kids need to be saved from, from the word go, Hey, we need our kids to come into, into the, the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior from the very beginning. Right. And we would also say that the sanctifying effect of having a Christian mom and dad is a really good and powerful thing. Yes. But that it's not equivalent with being part of the community of faith. We talked to our kids about becoming Christians all the time. We don't try to convince them that they are Christians. We say, look, you need to turn from your own sin and trust in Christ for yourself, your mom, and I believe, but we want you to believe too. We want you to put your trust in Jesus. And I think that's a really good impulse. And not to say that they wouldn't say that. But we're starting from a very different perspective of their relationship to the gospel from that age. Uh, from, from the earliest of their ages. Now we don't pretend to know exactly where the slicing and dicing is, where God's going to say, okay. You're perfectly accountable here or there, but we would say the impulse for someone like us who holds our position, credo, Baptists. Is that we're going to appeal to our kids, believe for yourself, trust in Christ and. Be saved. Yep. Yep. Well, the rest of chapter 17 then. Verses 15 through 27, God promises Abraham that he is going to have a son through Sarah. And that son is going to be named Isaac. And so Abraham protests saying, Hey, can it be enough? God, can't just issue my I'll live before you. And that's what he's doing there. You're saying. Once you just let Ishmael be the one. And God says no. And so God makes a clear distinction between Ishmael and the son of promise. Isaac in this again is where Islam and Christianity begin to diverge is, is right here in the, in who is the son of the promise. And the son of the promise biblically, and we need to understand this is Isaac. Isaac is the one that will carry on the Abrahamic line in Abrahamic, covenant. Uh, and the blessings they're in. Chapter 18. Then we get the first, uh, theophany in scripture where these men come to Abraham and God appears to Abraham as a man. And, and, uh, in this first part of chapter 18, first, 20 verses or so confirms the promise that Sarah is going to give birth to Isaac and even gives a time for him. He says, next year, at this time, You're going to have to the son, the son of the promise in air. Sarah laughs. And the angel says, why did she laugh? And she's like, I wasn't laughing. And he's like, yeah, he didn't know you were laughing. Uh, and so Isaac is the son of laughter. And he's going to be born a year later. And then after this, uh, we get some bad news and that is that God tells Abraham that he's going to destroy Sodom and Abraham begins to bargain with God and, and gets God down from. If you can find 50 righteous all the way down to, if you find 10 righteous in Sodom, God, will you. Spare the town and God agrees even to find, if I find 10 I'll spare them. And we'll find out tomorrow if that's going to be wow. Uh, be effective or not. A couple of points. I want to bring up to you as you're reading through. Just keep in mind at the time markers. The beginning of chapter 17, you find out that Abraham is 99 years old. And in the verse, right before that chapter 16, he was 86 year old. Eight years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abraham. So again, one of the tendencies, when we read the text is to put it all in one. Event it all homogenizes into one story and that's the way it's intended to be read. However, I'd want you to feel some of the patients. Uh, some of the patients that Abraham has to display as he waits for God to secure the blessings that he promised him. So notice there's 13 years between chapter 16 and 17. And then I think chapter 18 also probably is about the same timeframe. So this is 13 years in the making here where God is giving Abraham more and further revelation. In fact, chapter 17 is the first time God institutes circumcision. This is 13 years into the promise. 13 years into God's covenant with him saying, look, I'm going to do this for you. Uh, and, and this is the sign of that covenant. So God is not doing everything in one fell swoop. Just keep that in mind, as you read and pace yourself through this. And also notice too, that there's only, there's always such interesting data here that we just kind of read past. But one thing I noticed that was really cool. In addition to the fact that you have an embodied image of God, I would suggest this is Jesus. The pre-incarnate Jesus, even though he's not called the angel of the Lord here, I think this only Jesus I think, is ever manifested in the flesh. I would put Jesus in the, in the, in the fiery pit with, uh, Daniel and his friends. Yeah. So I think this is Jesus, but nevertheless, one thing I did notice here in verse eight is that the angels ate. Yeah, they ate food. Yup. I think that's fascinating because that tells me something about the angelic. Dwelling in a body. They, they, they have human functions or at least they can. I don't know, pretend or emulate human function. I'm not sure, but I found that fascinating. And I think it's a, it's, it's fun to think about which hearkens back to the Nephilim and helps us understand the. Angelic beings co-habiting with women and producing the race of the Nephilim. Yeah, I don't want to get too graphic, but yes, I was thinking about some of those things and I was wondering. At the same time to when Jesus cast out demons. Uh, I think about the account in mark, where he says, he's casting out these demons, like, Hey, send us to the pigs. The pigs. Yeah. There's something about the angelic host, the angelic realm that I think they prefer embodiment. It seems like they'd rather be in something than not right. Which is why when they leave those men and they go into the pigs and they drown them, of course they kill them. So that's not the good thing, but they want to be embodied. And I'm not sure why that is, but it seems like that's generally a good thing in the angelic realm. Yeah. Yeah, well, let's, uh, let's pray. That's man. We covered a lot of ground in this, uh, in this episode, but let's pray and then we'll keep going tomorrow. Got thanks for your word. And we are grateful, even though we disagree with them on the issue of, of baptism. We are grateful for our brothers and sisters that are of the reform church and in covenant theology and, uh, and grateful that. That we are all believing in the same Jesus in the same gospel and working together in that, in that regard. And so we're thankful for that, but we're also thankful for your word and the clarity there. And so we pray that as we read it, we would understand it, that we would be attentive to the details as pastor rod was just talking about and that we would grow every time that we read these stories that we're back in familiar territory. Again, beginning of Genesis, a lot of us start strong here. Got it. I just. That you keep our people faithful. And keep them growing as they spend time in the word that's, that's why we're doing this. We're not doing this just to, to check a box or make ourselves smarter, help us to grow in our understanding and knowledge of who you are and produce a humility within us, a reverence and awe of who you are because of that as well. So we ask this, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Keep her in your Bibles. We all in tuned again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See you. Bye.

Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of the daily Bible podcast. We hope and pray this has been a blessing to you and your time in the word. If it has, if you would subscribe to this podcast, leave a like, leave a comment and share it with some friends and family. That would be awesome. If you need more information about Compass Bible Church here in North Texas, you can go to compassntx. org. Again, that's compassntx. org. And we'll be back with you tomorrow for another episode of the daily Bible podcast.