To another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast and Happy Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It's a great day. It sure, yeah. He's a interesting figure. I'm gonna just leave it at that. I'm not gonna touch that with a 10 foot pole anymore than that, but I just, he's a guy that I think history has not been as kind to you as we found out more and more about his life, his personal life, his morality, his marriage, even recently, even just within the last 12 months. Yeah. Yeah, so there have been some things that have been exposed about his character. Now, it doesn't change that, what he fought for and what he stood for, and the things that he, that his eye have a dream speech, honorable, commendable in a lot of ways, but it's just a reminder as Pastor Ooff and says, the best of men are men at best. And so yeah, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Your kids are probably outta school if they're like mine, but interesting figure for sure. You gonna have a Martin Luther King Jr. Cake? We don't actually have one of those. No. Oh yeah, yeah. But balloons? No, not balloons either. Oh, we saw this giant statue in Washington, DC that's like carved outta this enormous block of, I guess, gran. And that was right around the time that a lot of that most recent stuff was coming out. I'm like, Hmm, I'm wondering if that's gonna stand the test of time either. But it's interesting how God uses people not, and not just him, but how God uses people. And I can even think just personally not big figures necessarily, although I think that's also the true how God uses people who are not saved. To work things in people's lives. We've got a great friend who lives in Nepal now actually, who Julia was friends with, and there was three of them. And this third friend, not the one in Nepal at the time seemed to be a believer and encouraged this friend who's in Nepal to go to church. This friend who's Nepalese becomes a Christian, and then this third friend, not Julia, to be clear. Ends up rejecting God and throwing away everything that she claimed to believe, but God used her Lord willing shall be saved in the future. But at the very least, God used her to save this friend in Nepal. Yeah. It's amazing how God sometimes, how some God, how he does that sometimes. Even if you look at Pharaoh, right? Yeah. Somebody who's not saved that God uses for the salvation of his people. Yep. Yeah. Hey, we've got another question today. This one is not as confusing as yesterday's question was. I haven't, I haven't heard it yet, so maybe it is. Maybe it's okay. So this question, it comes from the idea of language and speaking and it, what prompted the question was the Tower Babel incident, which I know is a little bit in our rear view mirror, but still it comes outta that. And so the person wrote in and said, look I saw an a clickbait article or a video or something like that, that was titled, Hey, stop praying out loud so Satan can't hear your prayers. And she said, I didn't click or dig into it at all, but what are your thoughts on that? Can you speak to what Satan is able to hear? No. See versus God's omniscience, omnipotence in omnipresence. So there it is. I think that's a really important initial clarification that Satan and the demons are not God. They are not all knowing. They're not all hearing, they're not all seeing, they are, they're not God. And I think sometimes we can just assume that they somehow are because they're in the spirit realm and we don't fully understand that we can just be like, oh, of course, they know these things well. They don't, they're not God. And those characteristics and attributes of God belong to God alone. True. Yeah, agree. And so can sit and hear your prayers man, if he's there, if he's in the room with you. Sure. That's what I would say yes. Yeah. Yeah. But. Here's the thing. Satan and his demons can't. Man, I said this was not a confusing question and here I am and here we are again. I guess the short answer to the question is you shouldn't stop praying out loud. Yes. You should keep praying. That's right. The Bible does make it clear that our prayers can be hindered by our sin. It doesn't say that our prayers can be hindered by Satan. Now, the reason I paused is Daniel is told by an angel that, Hey, the reason I was delayed in, in coming to your aid and coming to help you is because I was being opposed by the prince of Persia. I was being opposed by this demonic force. That's why I paused there, but you praying to God and even you praying out loud to God. It's not as though Satan and his demons are waiting there with nets and they can capture words and make sure that they don't ever get to God. Yes. Satan does. I believe his and his demons do. I believe they study us. And I believe when we pray, if they are hearing our prayers then I think they're, that's part of what they're studying to know, what we're anxious about, what we're burdened by. But I wouldn't let that keep you from praying because your God is bigger than. Than they are take heart for he has overcome the world, right? He who lives in us is greater than he who is in the world. So the God who you pray to is I'd much rather pray to him and know that the impact of him hearing my prayer is gonna be far greater than the impact potentially of a demon hearing my prayer if there happened to be a demon nearby. So I don't know if that helps with the answer to that question, but that's my 2 cents on it. Yeah. Satan and his forces are well practiced and I think sometimes we can misinterpret his extensive knowledge of humans and human inclinations. And he's well practiced. We can mistake that for him having really intimate knowledge of us that really only God alone has. Right. 'cause he's not omni mission. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So good question. If that just created more questions, awesome. Write those in podcast at compass ntx org. But let's get into our Old Testament reading. We're in Genesis chapter 44 through 45, Genesis chapter 44. The testing is going to continue and so Joseph is not done even though he sees Benjamin, even though they brought Benjamin back and they're all together and they're enjoying this meal. Things are not. Yet done. And so Joseph's gonna again, have them load their sacks, he's gonna put their money back in their sacks, and then he's gonna put his cup in the sack of Benjamin. And here he's really setting the stage to find out are they going to sacrifice Benjamin for their own good, just like they did me. And that's what he wants to find out. And so he lays the trap, he casts the lure, if you will, and it's found then in Benjamin Sack. And the brothers say. Take us, or Judah says, take me. And he says, no, only the one in, whose possession the cup was. And then Judah really is the one that passes the test. Judah goes forward and again, takes the lead and says, you can't do this. You don't understand. My father's a man of old age, and if we go back without him, then my father's going to die and take me instead, let my life be forfeit for his life. And that's really. Where Joseph sees, man, this is genuine repentance from these guys. They've, at least Judah has, they've been transformed. He's not the same guy that he was, they're not the same people that, that they once were. And so this is the moment where Joseph is going to ultimately break down and in chapter 45, reveal himself. Say, I am Joseph, and we've said this before, but. When we're reading the Old Testament, and in particular Genesis and Exodus and some of the more narrative based passages, we need to look for what the characters say and what happens to them as an interpretation of what is good and what is bad. Right? We used the example a number of days ago that, we shouldn't look to the Old Testaments to say, you should have multiple wives because. And there, then there's more places we can go to prove that. But at the very least in Genesis, it never goes well when you have multiple wives. Nope. But here you should be seeing the story Arc of Judah. His introduction and some of the things that he does are disgusting, are vile. Yeah. But. What do you see here? You see heart transformation to your point. Right. You see him not just willing to sacrifice others, right? But now you see him actually willing to sacrifice himself for others and that's a transformation, right? That's a transformation of his heart. And he's now concerned about Benjamin, he's concerned about his father in a way that he wasn't concerned about Joseph and he wasn't concerned about their father before. Right? Right. For sure. And so in 45, he reveals himself. He says, I am Joseph. And notice it says that they are. Heat at his presence. Well, understandably so, they're thinking, wait a minute, this guy, who's the most powerful man, say Pharaoh in Egypt. This is the guy. And what did we do to him? And yet there's just a phenomenal understanding of God's sovereignty from Joseph displayed here in chapter 45 when he responds to his brothers and says, do not be afraid. And he says, over and over again, God is the one behind this. God sent me before you to preserve life. Look at verse nine. God has made me, Lord of all Egypt. And so he is there just saying over and over again, look, this is God's doing. It's not mine. And he is excited to reveal himself to his brothers. But even more than that, he's excited to get his father there. And so he sends them back and says, bring my father here. And that's what. The rest of the chapter sets up there is the reuniting of Joseph and Jacob that's gonna take place here, which will be, again, super sweet as you might imagine it would be. But Joseph's understanding of God's sovereignty was notable to me in Chapter 45. Absolutely. I definitely think that is, is the biggest takeaway, one of the most significant things that. Should be read and understand from this passage. I think there's a lot here though. I think one of the other things that's really interesting is that we see that Israel is going to plunder that word's not used, but plunder Egypt. It's not the first time, not the last time. Rather that this is gonna be a theme and. It's an interesting thing that kind of appears here. Granted, they go back, but there's very much a hint here at what's gonna come. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, for sure. There is. Yeah. Yeah, I think that kind of wraps up 44 and 45. Can I just point out one more thing that I find. Absolutely. Really kind of funny that just seems jammed in here a little bit, which is verse 24. He says it says, then he sent his brothers away and they departed and he said to them, do not quarrel on the way. I just, yeah. Hey, don't fight with each other. I, come on dad. I find that so funny. And I do think perhaps there's a little bit of skepticism that they're not quite come to terms with everything. Maybe they aren't all saved like Judah, right. Judah is the one that we see with true tr transformation. Maybe not. I just find that so funny. It just seems jammed in there, but I find it very interesting. Yeah. He's like, Hey don't worry about this. Don't fight about these things. Just get home. Yeah. Get my dad and get back. Yeah. Alright, let's jump over to our New Testament reading, which is gonna be in Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14 verses one through 21 here. Matthew 14, one through 21. It opens with unfortunately, the account of the death of John the Baptist and this is just a tragic scene. But I think what's commendable here, and Pastor Rod preached on this with the men recently, is just the boldness of John. Mm-hmm. John knew what was right and what was wrong, and he wasn't going to allow his circumstances being in jail and having his life on the line. He wasn't gonna let that sway him away from calling out sin as sin. And so that's what he does here. And it says that in verse, verse four there, it says, because John had been saying to him, it's not lawful for you to have her he's saying, this is wrong what you're doing. And so you need to stop even somebody who's not a follower of God at this point, John is saying his convictions are so deep in what is universally true, not just true for Christians, but saying this is morally apprehensible no matter who you are. And so this is wrong and you should not have her. And so that makes this woman less than thrilled with John. And so she sets up to have her daughter persuade. Herod to get John's head removed from his body, so to speak, and John is dispatched with at that point. But this is a tragic scene here in Matthew's gospel for sure. I hold a minority position, and maybe it's not worth defending here on the podcast, but you've been holding a lot of minority positions recently. But I'm gonna contend that John the Baptist is actually the first martyr. So if you want to come and ask me about that, I'd be happy to have a conversation about that. Maybe you're not interested in that at all then I guess. Don't worry about it. So you don't like Christoph? He's and John's the first martyr. Okay. Okay. Alright. Well you guys go ask Pastor Mark about that. Yeah, interesting. I don't know that I could get there, but Fair enough. It's a minority position. I admit. Yeah. I admit, I think there's fair reason why most people wouldn't make that same contention. I think he's the connection between the Old Testament prophets and effectively the New Testament apostles. He's the continuation of that. And I think you see here that he is. Is killed because of his faith. Yes, it is in a political setting, but I do think that to your observation of what exactly causes him to be killed, I think is very much connected to faith. And also notice in verse two, right, they, they're wondering exactly who John the Baptist is, right? They say, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. I think there's maybe hints there that they are wondering whether he's Elijah or perhaps somebody else I can get with you that he is representative or of similar ilk to the Old Testament prophets. I think where I draw the line though on the martyrdom is I think that the martyrs are those that are dying for their faith in their belief in the resurrected Christ. And at this point, John still doesn't know about the cross, nor does he know about the resurrection. So I don't think John's dying for his faith in Jesus as. As the savior at this point. I think he's dying for his conviction of what is morally true and what God honors, what God loves. And I think we see that with the Old Testament prophets. So I would be more tempted to lump John as the last prophet, if we wanna say that there's a category of Old Testament prophets who were martyred. I think there were, and then I think there were New Testament martyrs. I would still say, I think Stephen is the first martyr that we know of, at least in the New Testament, who's dying for his faith in the resurrected Christ. Yep. Again, this is a long discussion, so I don't wanna just burn our whole podcast with it. Fair enough. But, look at the baptism and what John specifically does in the baptism. I'm gonna contend that maybe, maybe, and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe there's an understanding there that John the Baptist understands what is the resurrection, even though he hasn't seen it yet. So anyways, but I'm gonna, I'll counter that with him sitting in prison writing or sending his disciples to Jesus, saying, Hey dude, I'm in jail. You need to start getting after being this whole Messiah thing. So anyways, we can talk more about that another time, but hey, the people like it when we disagree. They like it when Pastor Ron and I disagree. They like it when there's like, oh, you guys can disagree and still like each other. Yes. So that's, that's okay. After this we see the feeding of the 5,000 which is just an amazing, amazing miracle that just shows up time and time again. And it's one of those that we see so much, we become so familiar of it. But this is an amazing just act of power from Jesus demonstrating his power here to provide for the people that are gathered there. The test that he gives the disciples when he says you, they don't need to go away. You just give 'em something to eat. And they're looking around at 5,000 men, probably close to 15, maybe 20,000 people total. And they're going I'm sorry, what? And then he feeds them. And we know from John's gospel that this is not so much about. The bread that he's going to give them, the physical bread that he's gonna give them. But this is about him saying that he is the bread of life. And there's so much behind this as well of the Old Testament that John really brings more into bearing, ironically than Matthew does. 'cause John is not writing to a Jewish audience primarily as Matthew is here. But this is this is an amazing account that's recorded in, I think all of the gospels record the feeding of the 5,000 and don't miss this. Amazing, amazing sentence in here, right? When Jesus came ashore and saw the crowd, it says he had compassion on them. He had compassion on them, right? We've read this, he's gentle and lowly. His burden is light and he's a god. He is a, this. Who has compassion on the lost. What? What an amazing thing. It is an amazing thing, indeed. Well, that brings us to another end of a, this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. And so let's go ahead and pray and then we will be done. God, we thank you for your word. And in the sovereignty that Joseph saw in you ordaining all the things to get him to the place that he was, he could have been vindictive against his brothers and he could have lashed out. He could have punished them, he could have judged them, he could have probably had them even executed. And yet. He knew that it wasn't his place to do so, because even their sinful actions against him were part of your perfect plan to get him where he needed to be, to preserve life, and ultimately to preserve the life of his family and the life of the nation of Israel in so many ways. And so we're grateful for the testimony of Joseph's faith that he had in you. We pray that we would be likewise, men and women of faith that trust you with a robust confidence that you are in control of all things. So we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Keep reading those Bibles y'all, and tune in again tomorrow as we continue with the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye y'all. Bye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. We’re grateful you chose to spend time with us today. This podcast is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in North Texas. You can learn more about our church at compassntx.org. If this podcast has been helpful, we’d appreciate it if you’d consider leaving a review, rating the show, or sharing it with someone else. We hope you’ll join us again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.