Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello. I don't know what we're gonna do for googly today. I have none. I none to speak of. None to report. I don't have much either. But the people demand the googly, do they? A lot of them do. Many do. But there are many voices who have remained silent on it, and I take their silence as. As evidence of their preferences, they're very generously trying not to say anything negative. Okay, so you wanna just get right into it? No, I'm not saying we should do that. Because I still think, that's who we are. This is who we are. If you take out our googly, what else do we have? I don't know exactly. All we've got is our Bible knowledge. We've got nothing. I'm not just a brain on a stick. I've got a personality fair. Yeah, no, actually, somebody in California was talking about they appreciate the banter back and forth and I. Dunno what they said. I think they used the word, the phrase preeminent theologians that they get to eaop on preeminent theologians. Preeminent. Theo, no one's ever called me that before. Yeah, I, I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna put it on my business card. Actually. He was talking about Pastor Mark and me. Oh, okay. That makes more sense. No, I'm just kidding. That makes more sense. I'm still gonna put it on my business card. Can I know who said it so I can have a little hat tip to them? I'll put it on the card too. Yeah, it was actually chat. GPTI asked it for different reviews on us. Fantastic. But positively. Alright, so yeah, I'll do that. No, I can't remember who said it to be honest with you. I was just joking at you. They're probably listening going, it was me. I said it. Alright. But yeah hey maybe we should just get to the Bible then. Okay. I was gonna make a comment about the weather, but nobody cares about the weather. No one does. It's a dumb thing to talk about on a podcast. Yeah. It's not the most, it's not the most. Long lasting conversation we can have. No, it's not because it's like people listen to this a month from now, they're gonna, they don't care. And some people listen from different places than where we are. And they probably don't care either. They probably have nicer weather than we do. Yes. Although, okay, we almost started talking about the weather, so we should not do that. We should not. Yeah. Or quitting. We're gonna stop. Right. Now. Hey, if you've been liking the sound of the podcast for the past couple days though, you should give a shout out and a thank you to the Morgans because they have been taking over our podcast, editing on the script and producing. So thank you guys. Yeah, well done. Yep. Great job. Faithful servants. Yeah. Ezra, 7, 8, 9, 10, Ezra, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ezra's a good name. It's a great game. You don't run into too many Ezras these days. I knew one. Yeah, but that's it. Well, there's the band better than Ezra. That was out in the nineties. I feel like that's a talent on Ezra. Poor guy. I don't know if this was the Ezra that they had in mind, but probably not. Anyways remember Ezra and Nehemiah, they were at 1.1 book and we are reading a part of the story of the resettlement. And a part of the return. And we're gonna read more of that when we get to Nehemiah as well, specifically about the rebuilding of the walls. And that's coming up in a couple days here. But E Ezra is going to pick back up right after what we just finished reading about with Esther because Ezra's gonna pick up in Art Ex Xes and Art Ex Xes is raining Art Xerxes being we think the son of Xerxes or has, who was the king during Esther's time? And so Art Exer Cease is now here. And that's why we took a break in Ezra. We went and read Esther, and now we're back in Ezra chapter seven verses one through five. You get a genealogy here of Ezra who mentioned some pretty significant people. Ezra had a pretty powerful lineage here, including you have Zadak. You have Phineas. Remember Phineas with the spear and the two people that weren't doing good things. You've got Aaron and you've got Levi, ezra was in a pretty powerful line of previous priests that had come before him and leaders that had come before him. He was known as a scribe, which is another way of referring to somebody who is a teacher or a writer at the time. He was educated, well educated, and he was educated specifically in the thing that mattered most, which is the word of God. And that's what he set himself to understand and to study most readily. And we see that in verses nine and 10. It says, for on the first day of the. First month, he began to go up to Babylonia. So it takes him five months notice that to get from Babylon to Jerusalem. When he gets there, it says in verse 10 that the good hand of the Lord was upon him. For verse 10, Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach his statutes in Israel. So I think that's such a good paradigm for us when we come to the word of God. Ezra's focus was, I wanna study, I wanna do and I wanna teach. And when you think about being a fully. Formed follower of Jesus Christ, that's a good indication that you are doing things well. If you are studying God's word, if you are obeying God's word, and then if you're teaching God's word to other people, that's something that's so good. That's a paradigm that's worthy of our emulation. And we see it there from Ezra here in Ezra chapter seven. Yeah, and you don't even need to have a pulpit to do this, you don't need a ministry or a podcast. You can do this anywhere. Your coworkers. Can learn from your study and your doing and your teaching. Yeah. All of this is just the way that God has designed a Christian life. We ingest it in order to express it, and that's what Ezra does. So especially well, he's trained for it. Yes. To be sure. But this is the regular practice of the Christian life. Yeah. We learn so we can teach. And Ezra's gonna come back. It says, the good hand of God's God's good favor. The good hand of God's favor was upon him. Such that in verses 11 through 28, he's gonna be sent back to Jerusalem. Here with the financial blessing and the financial support of our ex Xerxes, as well as a letter authorizing the work to be done that needed to be done there. And so God is showing him favor. Now we're gonna read that phrase, the good hint of God was upon him pr. Any insights for us into thinking about that phrase and is it something that we should. Pursue for us? Is it something that we should individualize? Can we experience the good hand of God on us as individuals? Is it more corporate? Ezra? It was individual, but it was individual for the good of the people of Israel. Is this something tangible or is this just generally speaking about the blessings of God? Yeah, I think this is an interesting phrase. I caught that too. It's hard to miss it. He sprinkles it all over the book. Yeah. Yeah. So I wondered if this was something connected to the covenants, God protecting his people. Promising that he would do good to them. And so this is part of that. The good hand of the Lord is upon him for favor. And I think it's true that it's connected to the covenant. But I would also say that as a Christian, the good hand of God is upon us for favor, but perhaps not in the same way. I would say that the favor that God has promised us is the Romans eight favor. Nothing can stand against us that God is not going to use for his good or his glory in our good. And so consequently. Our protection, our favor our good hand of the Lord upon us is there. And it's better. It's not just for the tangible, Hey, you're gonna get a job promotion, you're gonna get that house you put a bid on. It's gonna be 10,000 under what they're asking. Yeah. God might do that. And very often under the new Covenant, he does do those things. He's very happy to be generous to his kids. And we could say, thank you, Lord, for your favor. That was a good thing, and you should be grateful. That is an expression of his kindness toward us. But. Unlike under the Old Testament, God does not explicitly spell out material blessings in the way that he does for them that is connected to their covenant. It's not for ours. And so under the new Covenant, we have a superior blessing in Christ. We now know that we for sure have God's favor, and number two, the favor that we have is a spiritual favor that guarantees our protection, our perseverance in his glory through our lives. What would you add to that? Yeah, just what we read in chapter eight verse, verse 23. He says, the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him. And then he contrasts that, I guess this is verse 22, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him. Again, I agree with you. I think there's a covenantal component of this that we have to be careful not to extrapolate out and apply to ourselves directly. And yet I think the principle is there. The hand of the Lord is good on all who seek him, and that's where we would come back to the, that all things work together for good, as you were talking about, for those who love God. I think that loving, that seeking, I think there's even parallel components there. It's just that, that God gets to define what's good. Not us. That's right. And that's true for Ezra's Day. That's true for our day as well. So I would agree with your assessment on that. Everything that you just said, you agree with everything I said. Just tell me and concisely with one phrase, I agree with everything that you said. Can you just say that? You just said that. So let's, can we mark that now? We're not gonna mark that. We didn't make that make. But we could and then we, it's not as funny if I agree with you. That's obvious. In fact, that's the whole point, right? I think that's as far from obvious as that we could possibly give. In fact, that was the other feedback I got this week. We love hearing both of you disagree with each other on things. And that's, see I told you, it's productive people like that. Let me come back to you. Lemme clarify. They said it's fun to listen to two preeminent theologians who respect very eminent disagree on something. And I was like as long as at the end of the day you think that I'm right and he's wrong, then we're good to go. They did not confirm that was their stance. No, they confirmed nor deny. It is helpful to adhere to mature. I hope. Christians, I hope I could say that without sounding haughty does disagree about things that are important. Yeah. And it's helpful to see, and I, it'd be great if we had more of that. I think the right idea. This is hat tip to Charlie Kirk learning how to disagree. Agreeably is an important feature of the Christian faith because we know. Scripture tells us that none of us knows everything, so I'm sure I'm wrong about things. I'd like to figure that out before I die. Yeah. A lot of times I find when I get worked up over something, it's because I'm allowing my personal emotions to be offended. When somebody disagrees with me, it's like, I feel offended personally. Yeah. And it's not really an attack on me at all. It's just. That's not how I see it. Yeah. And so there's an opportunity to remove the emotion from the situation, to be able to just say, let's consider this and let's get to the bottom of what is true. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that Pastor Mike told you that man. He called his preeminent theologians too. Huh? He loves hearing. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It is kidding. Anyways I mentioned that one verse from Ezra eight. The rest of Ezra eight is a genealogy. Again, it's a list of names of those who returned with Ezra. He's gonna gather in verses 15 through 23, he's gonna gather the priest. This is a foresight from Ezra to know, okay, we're gonna need priests for the ministry that needs to be done. And so he's making sure that he's got the people in order, that they're there. He, they're gonna pray for protection and also for this journey that they're gonna go on, he's gonna entrust them with the care of the money. And the temple vessels along the way. And so he is delegating here. He's demonstrating leadership on the way back on, on their return from Babylon. Again, a five month journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. He's doing this and leading well and preparing well throughout this entire time. Chapter nine. Then we get into some interesting situations in chapter nine and 10. Ezra learns in chapter nine of intermarriage that has taken place. And so what we mean by intermarriage is that the Israelites had been marrying the foreigners in the land. So this was one of the main issues that led to exile in the first place was God's. Order to marry only those that are God fears was ignored and the people of Israel were marrying foreign women and foreigners and they were going after their gods. And that was the biggest threat, was that they were gonna lead them astray spiritually. And so here Ezra finds out about this, and what's interesting is he clearly. Seeks God on this. He does not make the decision that he's gonna make and counsel and advise the things that he's gonna counsel and advise without going to the Lord. And we read that in verse five. He says, at the evening, sacrifice, I rose from my fasting with my garment and my cloak torn and fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord, my God, saying, and then he's going to seek the Lord. And he says in verse 10, he says, now, oh God, what should we say after this? We have forsaken your commandments. And so he's looking to the Lord to say, what should. We do, and in chapter 10, what we find here, and it's. It's sobering and I think we talked about it last year and I think we'll probably talk about it every time we come to this. I'm sure we did because we covered it last year as well. Yeah. It's this question of God seems to imply, or not only imply, but command that they divorce them, that they dissolve these marriages, and at the end of the day, I can only come to the conclusion that God did not look at these as valid, legitimate marriages under the Old Testament context this is, I think, different. I don't think we can take this and transfer it to the New Testament. In fact, in one Corinthians chapter seven, the apostle Paul says that the believing spouse is supposed to remain with the unbelieving spouse, but it's a different situation there because of. The new covenant and different context that we're dealing with here. This is the covenant people of God and they had disobeyed a covenant command of his. And so the command is break off these marriages, divorce these foreign wives because this was against God's will from the very beginning. And so this is something that God does command. And if you're looking for where we see that, verse 11 now, when now then make concession. Or confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives. So therein, Ezra is saying, this is God's will. You need to divorce these foreign wives from your midst. And again, I think it's because God didn't look at them as valid marriages to begin with as number two because the great threat it was to his people that they would end up drifting into that same apostasy and idolatry that they did under the the pre exile time. Okay. One of the factors in something like this, and I, it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it. It seems cruel and sensitive. It seems like God is doing something that is uncharacteristic to his nature and his person. I think one of the factors, and there's many here to add into your consideration, but one is the fact that the Jewish people needed to be a people that were set apart for God's purposes. They were designed that way, and in fact. Even for the line of the Messiah, there had to be an unbroken lineage of Jewish people. You had to have Jewish moms and dads produce Jewish kids who would be further moms and dads who had produced more Jewish kids because the Messiah depended upon that unbroken line of succession. And so I wonder if part of what's happening here is a purification of God's people to say this is necessary and important for the purposes that I have to bless not just you guys, but the world. The Abrahamic covenant was to. Ultimately bless everybody, not just the Jewish people. And so this is a long-term play by God that had very palpable short-term consequences. And so I think what's happening here is God saying this is necessary for the larger, bigger purposes that I have for you. It can't be that we have a solid line, and I know there's baggage to all this language because it has undertones of racism and there's a whole lot of new meanings injected into that. Not talking about that at all. Talking about how God planned to accomplish his purposes through the Jewish people, and it was important that they be, get this Jewish. Yeah. I get the baggage there. This is not so much about their ethnicity though, and more about their religiosity. This is about. Whether or not they were God fearers more than anything else. That's the purity of the line. There is about people that fear the Lord and people that are gonna be descendants according to, yeah. Part of it is race when it comes to him, but the reason why the others were excluded wasn't, was more because they didn't fear the Lord than anything else. It had, so yeah there's. The physical line, there's the religious line. And for God, all of that mattered. The whole reason they were for forbidden from intermarrying is because they knew that those intermarriages would pollute their religious purity. Yeah. And so all of these things work together. There's a lot to say about that, but Yes. But it's not as though an Israelite could never marry Nonis Israelite. That's true. Because you have That's true. Non Israelites in the line of Christ. You do there were times where those from outside of the community of Israel, and that's something that we have to remember is Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations. They didn't do their job very well, but part of God's plan was for the nations to be grafted into Israel. Now he's realizing that now by sidelining Israel and grafting the church into, to Israel, into, to the nation of Israel. And then he's gonna bring Israel back on the scene later on. But from the time that they were formed, Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations that the nations might know and see the glory of God through the people of Israel. And so there were those that were from outside of Israel that did understand that you've got Rahab, you've got others that, that came and joined themselves to the people of God. And even rah rehab, being in, in the line of Christ, being mentioned in the line of Christ. You've got, situations where you've got outsiders that are still brought into the people, covenant people of God. So that's where I go back to this isn't, you are not an Israelite, so you have something inherently wrong with you. It's, you've rejected the God of Israel and that's the main problem. Amen to that. That's a helpful clarification. Alright, anything else on, on Ezra here? I'm good. Okay. Let's pray and then we'll be done. God give us wisdom to, to know the things that we can know and humility, to know the things that we don't understand and to be able to draw that line and not make bold statements or conclusions on things that we shouldn't. And so, God we thank you that you've given us your word and given us an ability to understand as much as we can and even given us. Other men and women who who understand your word as well, that we can learn from. So help us to do that, Lord with the humility necessary so that we can know more of you ultimately, and that's our desire. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles tuned again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. We'll see you then. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said