Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello. Hello. What's up? We're back on Wednesday. So middle of the week, which is always crazy 'cause we record this on Tuesday, which is our really kind of our first full day in the office as a staff. So anytime I say it's Wednesday, it just feels different. It feels like it's Wednesday already, but I guess it is as you're listening to this. It's Wednesday. So happy Wednesday everybody. We're here to be your entertainment. Is that what we're here for? In part, I think a little bit of entertainment. A little bit of entertainment, a lot of bible, a lot of instruction. Yeah. That'd be a good tagline for the podcast now with less googly Diet. DBR. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, we had a question written in that was fun that we thought we would kick around. We were doing a little bit be, but Pastor Rod, do you wanna set it up for us or do you want me to, or. Oh sure. This question has to do with wedding rings. Dun dun. Okay, so this questioner wants to remain anonymous, so we're gonna call this one Pastor Mark. Pastor Mark writes in, I wonder and says, I've noticed couples both believing and unbelieving couples consistently not wear their wedding rings. So this seems to be a pattern. Since God values marriage and the wedding band, which symbolizes marriage, it seems to others, if you're not wearing it, that you're not married. And that's a bad thing if you are married. So, three questions and I'll just throw them at you and we'll try to tackle them as we get them. Here they go. Is it sinful to not wear your a wedding ring or is it dishonoring to the Lord and your spouse when you don. Let's start with that one. I think the first thing that we have to recognize right is the wedding band is cultural. It is something that is a cultural norm here. And when you see a wedding band, you know what it represents. You know what it stands for. You know that it represents somebody who is taken, somebody who's married. And so in that sense, I think it's a wise thing. I think we can all agree on that. It's a wise thing for you to show those that are in the world around you, that you are off the market. That's a good thing for you to do. And so in that sense it's wisdom to wear it. Is it sin to not wear it? Pastor Marks got the answer for us on that one. I don't think that we can make the argument that it is sin to not do the act of wearing a. Wedding band, wedding ring. Unreal says the guy with a wedding ring on right now. Yes, I do think that second question is really helpful though. Is it dishonoring now? I think that gets to the heart. And what is your motivation behind wearing your wedding ring? And if you're not wearing it because you treat marriage flippantly, or even perhaps because you want people to think you're unmarried or for a variety of other reasons. That may be something that you're thinking or feeling in your heart that could be indeed dishonoring. There are exceptions to that though that I think would be totally fair, that are an example of a heart that is not in sin, which perhaps, maybe you're, and I think this is, maybe I'm jumping ahead to one of the other questions, but if you're a mechanic, they can actually be dangerous in certain. Certain work fields to wear a wedding ring, right? But what's the motivation behind why you wear it or not? And when you choose to wear it and when you choose not to wear it. That's, I think, what matters. So since you brought that up, I'll let you answer this one too, pastor pj. But let me just add the second layer since you already alluded to it. The second part of the question is if Christian should, if you would encourage them to do that. If there are occupations or situations like mechanics, electricians and of the sort, those are the, like, should they aim to wear something like a silicone ring to still symbolize their mirror dry? I've even seen some people get tattoos on their fingers 'cause they forget they lose the rings. So tattoos, silicone rings, what say. Yeah, I have no problem with either of those things. I know we've got some guys in law enforcement in our church that wear silicone rings because of the nature of their job and what they're doing on a regular basis, and I don't think there's any problem with that. Again, that's why I started by saying this is a cultural thing. You're not gonna find anywhere in scripture that. The wedding band is commanded the loyalty, the fidelity to the relationship. Yes, a hundred percent. But the wedding band is something that is, I don't know where it came from or where it originated, but it's something that is extra biblical. When we think about what makes a couple married, it isn't the bands on their hands, but we as a culture in society have looked at those and said that's what the agreed upon symbol of somebody being married is. So whether that's silicone or whether that's a tattoo around the finger or whether that's. White gold, yellow gold, whatever it is, platinum. I don't think the material matters as much. And I know some of you probably got married where the pastor was like that this is precious material and your marriage is precious in the eyes of God. And so your wedding band should be precious. Yeah. Okay, fine. But not everybody can for the reasons that we've stated. And so I have no problem with other materials or even a tattoo if that's the route somebody chooses to go. Yeah, and I have no problem with other materials too, though. But get something that's nice. Again, not to contradict what you're saying, but get the nicest thing that makes sense for you. Do you know, don't waste your money on something twine extravagant. Do something that shows that you honor the marriage to the best of your ability in your given circumstance. That's fair. So to those friends then who are believers who don't wear their ring for whatever reason, would you advise anybody to bring this up with them or ask them why they're not wearing their ring? Or would you just chalk this up as this is a matter of conscience and I'm gonna let them do what they're doing before the Lord? Yeah, I, if you've got that relationship with them or you're building that, I think it's a valid question. If I had a friend who I knew was married but wasn't wearing a ring, I would probably say, Hey, I noticed you don't wear a wedding band. But I wouldn't necessarily confront that as like, Hey, you're in sin 'cause you don't have your wedding band on. But maybe more of like a, can you help me understand why? Maybe they're an undercover DEA agent and they have to embed themselves deep within the narcotic gangs and they don't wanna let people know that they're married so they don't wear a ring. Maybe that's why. That could be it. Or maybe they've got another reason why, who knows. But I think there's, it's fair to have the question asked of that person. Yeah, I agree. Alright I'll just add one text here and I'm going to tell you ahead of time, this was a little bit of a stretch, but I work with me here and see if this fits you for size. When Paul, no pun intended. When Paul writes to. In church at Corinth in chapter 11, he says, A man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman should. In verse eight, he says, for man was not made from woman, but woman from man. And neither was man. Created for woman, but woman for man. Okay, so this is all stuff you might already know. The woman is called to wear a head covering and the man isn't called to do that. But notice the. The rationale that Paul offers in verse 10, he says, this is why. That's why a why fought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Now, what he means by the angelic host, watching and observing, I, okay, you can, there's room for debate there about what he exactly means, but I just wanna point out here I. He says it's good for the wife to wear a symbol of authority on her head, symbol of authority and that headscarf that she wore on her head was a way for her to communicate to others, including the angels who are watching the church with interest about her status. And I think that's important enough for me to say our culture doesn't use any headgear to represent our marital status. We use rings and that's what we've chosen to do, and that's fine. There's nothing inherently righteous or unrighteous about it, but that's what we do. And so I would say based on one Corinthians 11 verse 10, I think there's room for us to prescribe adopting the symbols of authority that our culture recognizes as being fit for marriage. And with that said, I think it would be worth talking to your friends and say, Hey tell me about your marriage. How are things going? Why don't you wear a red wing? I would meddle. I know part of my job is to meddle. That's what God has told me to do as a pastor, but as a friend. If I had a friend who came to me and said, Hey, I noticed that you don't wear your red, your wedding, man, this is, say that 10 times fast. If they came to me and said that I probably, for whatever reason, if I wasn't I should address that. It's an important thing. So I think it's important enough. What would you guys say to first Corinthians 11 in my use of that? I know that's kind, again, kind of left field, but I, the connection in my mind makes sense. Would you guys push back on that at all? My only question would be then is the ring. Would you argue for the necessity of the ring for the woman, but not for the man, based on that? No. No. Well, again, because of the cultural expectations, the woman was under obligation to wear it, not him. Right? And Paul says, I support that. The man doesn't do this because of his con connection with God, his role, and the woman does. But in our culture, the authority extends both ways. The authority of, well, the ring the symbolic value of the ring, I should say. Yeah. Not the authority. The symbolic value of the ring works both ways. If it was true that only a woman wore a ring. And to show her connection to marriages. And I would say, okay, yeah. Then that's the case. But in our culture, the male and the female wear the ring such that anyone who sees it on your hand knows this is the status of the person. Well, and even on the authority part, I went to, in, in my mind, at least in one Corinthians seven, when the Apostle Paul talks about the husband's body doesn't belong to himself. Oh, that's a good one in the wife's body doesn't belong to herself. That's, but they belong for the other person. Wedding band is a symbol to society at large. My body even is the property of my wife, of my spouse. Right. And vice versa. So in that sense, it is a symbol of authority, I think both ways. Even for the sexual intimacy of a relationship. That's a good point, good connection. I think we should use non-verbal things to communicate to the people around us, the things we hold dearly and the things we hold important. Yeah. And I think in our moment, that may mean a wedding band and I think. That application of this passage, although I do think it's, you haven't thought about it in that way before. I do think you're onto something there because what Paul is calling them to do is to communicate with nonverbal things about truths that they hold to be very important to them and that reflect biblical truth. And so I do think we should pursue the ways that we can do that. In 2026 in a similar way. Yeah. Good question. Yep. Anonymous person? Yep. Pastor Mark. Pastor Mark. Good question. Did we answer it sufficiently for you? C minus. Okay. C minus. Yikes. That's a hard, it's a hard standard. I also answered it, so I guess I'm including myself. That's true. That's true. Alright, let's jump into our DBR today, Joshua 14 and 15, and Luke chapter 4, 33 through 44. So Joshua 14. In these verses, we begin to get into, here's the allotment of the promised land in 14, one through five, it summarizes how the promised land was to be divided amongst the rest of the nine and a half tribes. Why nine and a half? Because two and a half were in possession of land over on the other side of the Jordan. And so this is the allotment of the remainder of the promised land territory here. Verses six through 15, we get a zoomed in vignette here of Caleb, 'cause Caleb comes forward to ask for the land that he was promised by Moses. Moses told Caleb, you will get your own share because of his faithfulness and because he was not one of the spies that denied God's initial entre to take the promised land. And so Caleb comes to, to claim his inheritance and it says there that he was 80 years old there and it says he was as strong as he was when he went to go spy out the land. So either he was a pretty frail 40-year-old, or he's a pretty robust 80-year-old, which I lean more towards that one for sure. I think one thing we cannot miss here is that very last verse, and in fact the very last sentence of chapter 14, which says, and the land had rest for war. I think what we're seeing here with Caleb and is that he's doing what was supposed to be done. Right. He was obedient to God and he received his inheritance and received peace, right? He received the kind of fullness of what had been promised, and we're not gonna quite see that necessarily play out to be the case with the other land allotments. Yeah. It's really cool that at 85 years old, this man is still vigorously pursuing the Lord's will and the Lord's promises. And again, I'm encouraged by this and I'm not 85 yet. But I, I hope to be at some point older than I am now, and I don't want to slow down. I don't want to grow lazy or complacent. I don't want to grow faithless. I've noticed that for people that get older, sometimes it feels like people check out. Mm-hmm. And I'm afraid of that. Mm-hmm. I'm afraid of checking out and saying, well, I've done my time. I'm going to coast, or I'm gonna cruise because I've put in all that I should put in. I've done my fair share and I think. Caleb gives me a motivation and an example to follow that says, look I want to clock out when the Lord clocks me out, and I don't wanna stop running, even if I'm running slower than I used to, than I was at 40. I wanna make sure that I'm still running when the Lord calls my number, so you can, you're not gonna retire someday. Retirement's off the table for you. Honestly, I've thought about that. I wouldn't want to. I'm doing my dream job. So I guess what would have to happen is the pastors that I'm working with would have to say, Hey, bro, for the good of everybody, please stop. Well, I do think there comes a point when that may be the case. Yes. And I don't think, I think you should be looking for that. And other people, that's bold. You just told. You just answered. That may come. He was just like, the pastor's gonna have to tell me. You need to stop, get everybody else jumps in. Pastor Rod, we have need to tell you that time is coming. It's going to come, it's going. No, no, no. For everybody though, as we get older, there's gonna come a point where you. Aren't as helpful. Right. I remember growing up, my grandmother used to drive us around and help my mom. Yeah. With getting us to this event and that event. Well, she started running into things. Right. And because she couldn't see, she couldn't operate the car as well. And so there came a point when it wasn't helpful anymore just because of her age, just because of her mental acuity. And my parents had to say, okay, we're not gonna, you're not gonna drive the car anymore. Mm-hmm. Right. You're not gonna take the kids around. And I do think that's the case, even despite every. Every wish we may have. Yeah. Our brains are going to stop working as well. Bodies are gonna stop working as well, and there may become a point when I think it's very much the case for many people when we do need to retire in some sense, yes. But I think the American. Idealized retirement where you, go collecting seashells. Yeah, playing shuffleboard. That's, I don't think that's a biblical perspective on what retirement ought to look like. Tesla's gonna gimme a way to get around, even when I'm 85. That's true. If I live that long, the Lord's gonna let me have a Tesla so I can get around to all my obligations without having to run into anything or anyone God willing. One. Chapter 15, we get Judah's inheritance laid out here, and so there's a lot of geographic regions. We recommended a couple of atlases, Bible atlases a couple of weeks ago. You can use those in concert with looking at this inheritance and where the territory and where the tribal lats are and even drawing on there. But you'll notice in the midst of the tribe of Judah in the ju Judean territory here the chapter ends with a reference to the Jebe sites, again, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They're still there. The people did not drive them out. They're gonna be there all the way into the time of King David. So they're still here. This is one of the failures of the. The Israelites as they're coming into the promised land. We're gonna read a lot here. But they didn't drive this group out. They didn't drive this group out. They didn't drive this group out. And the JE sites, which Jerusalem, they're one of them. Yeah. And I think, and I know I just said it, but that's the contrast I think that we're supposed to see when we hear the inheritance that was given to Caleb and it says the land had rest for more. But here right, we see the very specific call out that they did not do as they were supposed to do. They did not. Obey the Lord. They did not drive out the dey. And the hint here is that this is gonna cause trouble. This is one of those things where I find this encouraging. This isn't this, despite the fact that this is a discouraging pattern that we're seeing. It tells me that God makes promises that he wants us to fight to receive. I think that is so cool, and I'm excited because then that tells me a lot of the things that are in the New Testament. The promise is that God gives us for peace. For instance, Philippians four the God of peace will, protect your mind and your heart in Christ Jesus. Those are conditional promises that God wants us to pursue. They come in part by our salvation, but it's almost like salvation gives us access into the mansion, but you still have to walk to the room and open the door and sit on the bed or whatever else. I'm stretching this metaphor in ways that aren't unhelpful, but I think it's important for Christians to see that and join the blessings that God gives us often means we fight for them. Would you guys agree with that? Am I off base here? Okay. That's a long pause. No, we're gonna cut all that out. No, I'm trying to think. I think there's, yes, because there's friction towards those things, right? There's friction even from our flesh in wanting things that aren't part of the blessings that God has for us. And so I think to lay hold of some of the blessings that God has for us involves even a fighting of our sinful nature. Battling of the sinful nature, right? So there's inherently going to be a battle there to. Obtain the blessings that he has for us. That's right. And I don't think that changes under the new covenant. In fact, if anything it broadens and it becomes dipper deeper and richer. Or dipper, if you want to cut the words, then put them together that deep. Yeah. Dipper too. They become dipper and more exciting because the blessings that are promised to us are greater than that of the old covenant. They're getting land, but we've got so much more. We have a promised land and a future land to enjoy with Christ. Yeah. Well, let's jump over to the New Testament and we're gonna be in Luke chapter four, verses 33 through 44. And I mentioned, I think in yesterday's episode we were in Mark chapter one, and a little bit is, but this is really where Mark opens his gospel. So Luke, were four chapters in here because we've got the birth account. But this is what's going on. Jesus is going to initially be in Capernaum here, which again, if you go there today, you've heard me say it before, there's a big sign on the gate at Capernaum, even today. This is Jesus town because this was home base for Jesus during his earthly ministry, and we see that right here. He's gonna launch from here. In fact, he's gonna reference Simon's mother-in-law. He's gonna enter into Simon's mother-in-law. House Simon's mother-in-law, which implies by the way, that Simon Peter, the first Pope, according to the Catholic church, had a wife who was married. And yet apparently the rest of the popes and priests, they don't get to have that privilege, but Peter did. So Jesus is gonna stay there. And a lot of people think this was where Jesus lived during his time in Galilee, in that region, was he stayed in a spare room there. In Simon's house he's gonna do some healing. He's casting out demons. He's causing people to be in awe of him. And I think that's the big takeaway from this section of Luke is Jesus is hitting the ground running and people are immediately just caught up in their their attention by who he is and what he's doing. And not just who he is and what he's doing, but what he's preaching to. He's preaching in a way that they've never heard before. They're amazed, they're astonished, they're odd, and he's got the acts to back it up as well. I have a comment and a question. I'll start with a comment 'cause it would be weird to start with the question. 'cause then I'd be like, hold on guys, I wanna add a comment first. Okay. My first comment is simply that in verse 39, when Peter's mother-in-law is healed, she immediately rose and began to serve them. And I think that's really fun to look at because it tells me that. By and large, the way that God works is that he saves us in order for us to serve him. He does things for us in order for us to use us. Very things that he gives us and service to him and to the people around. And so as soon as she's healed, she gets up and gets to work. And I grant you, there is a different expectation of the women at this point in time. This was completely within the bounds of what was expected. But on the other hand. And Jesus saving her or relieving her from her illness, postures her to say, great, thank you for doing that. Not so I can rest and go lay down in my room and hang out. I'm gonna get to work and use the gifts that God has given to serve others. And I think that's something that we can still learn from and God saves us so that we can serve him. How are you doing that today? Secondly a question. Oh, I thought that was your question. No. Yeah. Guys, you're trying to get rid of me. Pastor Mark. How are you serving him today? No, the question is, why does it seem in the New Testament when you read, there's demons on every page? There's demonic hoards all over the places. Demon demons being sent into pigs and thrown off a cliffs. There's demons here. As Jesus is preaching, they come out of nowhere it seems like. And yet today when you go around to people's houses and you, visit them for pastoral counseling or they come into the office, I don't think that most of them are demon possessed. Could be wrong. Why don't we see as much demon possession and demon interaction today than what we used to see in Jesus Day? I think the enemy has a different tactic for us today. I think that the pride and the arrogance of the post-enlightenment society and culture being driven by intellect and being driven by the left side of our brains more often than anything else, has put us in a position where he's caused us to overcome the concept of faith through our minds and our intellect, and in rational arguments and reasonable arguments as the world would call them, rather than mm-hmm. Opposition through demonic oppression and possession. And I would say there's probably just as much demonic influence in those things as there was back here in this. I think there's demonic influence in atheism and in the false religions of our day. And it may not be the possession of the man being thrown down on the ground and convulsing in front of us, but I think we do encounter demonic presence more often than we realize that we do in our society. I think that's exactly right. The other thing I would add is that Jesus is on the scene though, and this is something new. This is something new for all of humanity, but it's also something new for the demonic forces. Mm-hmm. And for Satan, this is the incarnate Christ who is on the scene literally. And I think that may attribute to some of the reasons why we see some of this stuff going on. Yeah. Even in our passage today, right. The demons also came out. Of many crying, you are the son of God. So they know. It's not that they don't know, it's not that this surprises them necessarily, but there is, I think, heightened. Activity. That's a, that's too simplistic of a word, but heightened activity because of what Jesus means. So the idea of all hell breaking loose when Jesus shows up. Yeah. I wouldn't use that term, but Sure. Why not? Well, I mean it, it's appropriate here. I'm cussing. No, no, no, no. I'm just, I'm saying I wouldn't have thought to use that term. Oh, okay. This isn't gonna go on my review some sense. I think that's true. Yeah. That you're talking about trying to get rid of me during the podcast you were cussing? No. Okay. So that's helpful insight. Pastor Pja, you said you still think it's prevalent in a different form. Yeah. Do you think then that there's any. Role or opportunity for things like deliverance ministries to still exist in some form. In other words, if they are active normally today we don't say I in the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out. Mm-hmm. There are people who do that still. Mm-hmm. And they go to haunted houses or houses where there's some kind of demonic activity and they do stuff like that still. Should we engage in anything like that? Or if there is anything that we're, we think maybe there is someone that is demon possessed or we're concerned that maybe the bump in the night is more than just the creaking of an old house. What do you suggest we do with that? I think prayer is our biggest weapon and whether it's a formalized ministry or not, I think my concern with formalized ministry we begin to look for demons under every rock in every corner. I think when we encounter things that are. Inexplicable are things that we have at least the genuine concern over. I think there's reason to say with James, let 'em call for the elders. Let 'em pray for them. And I think there's room for us to do those things, to pray for those in the church that might either be oppressed if they're a believer. 'cause we don't believe believers are gonna be possessed, but oppressed could be possible. Be it the environment or something else is happening or whatever. I think there's room for that a hundred percent. I think when we do evangelism with somebody who is lost if you're talking and witnessing to a Hindu or to a Muslim, you could argue in some ways that you're talking to somebody who is possessed by the demon of that religion, and so you are doing battle, even demonically there against spiritual forces trying to get them and call them outta that darkness into the light of the gospel. I think one of the challenges we face is that because of the prevalence of very strong narcotics and drugs that are available, I think sometimes it's hard to distinguish between what is the effect of natural substances. And what is demonic? And I'm actually gonna suggest that's probably part of the reason why Satan chooses to not do as much demon possession today because it's already kind of occurring without even his direct intervention. Fascinating. Thank you gentlemen. Those are acceptable answers. Better than a C minus. What would you give us? What would you give us? That was a good B minus. Getting better as the podcast goes on. Alright, well we're gonna wrap up the podcast with prayer and then we will we'll catch you guys again tomorrow. Let's pray. Lord, give us wisdom even as we've been talking through some of these issues in this episode, there's things that we need discernment. We need the ability to know what is biblical and what is a biblical. Implication or something that we should take from the scriptures and apply it in different ways, and so we pray that we would do that. Well, we thank you for your word that guides us towards that end in the spirit that dwells within us to help us as well. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. So long farewell. Bye bye.

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