Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition. And you're hearing there's another voice in the room right now. What's happening, folks? It's Pastor Rod. He's back. Long time no see. Yeah. Or here for most people on this thing. Yeah, I see you in my heart. I don't even know what that means. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast, and yes, pastor Rod is back after. A two week hiatus. Not all of it on vacation, some of it doing some academic pursuits. Oh, it was so much fun too. Yeah. Yeah. So catch us up, man. How's life been in the last two weeks? We had a great time and part of our time off, we were in New Braunfels for, I dunno, four days, five days. And the day that we were departing was the same day that you heard about all the flood. Tragic, terrible. We're grateful to have left without any injury to ourselves, but we are well aware that we're alone in that in many respects. There's lots of people down there that have suffered and continue to suffer, and our hearts and prayers are with them so tragic, terrible. But we did have a good time while we were there. We were staying in well near this town called Green. Yep. It's spelled G-R-U-E-N-E, but pronounced green. We were there. I got to go to San Antonio. We saw the Alamo. Yeah, we did the San Antonio River. The river cruise. We did the walk and then we thought, you know what wanted to a cruise and so we did one of their little boats. We had a great time doing that. We came back last week and I went to school for a week. I was in this seminar class with Dr. Jeremy Pierre at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am actively now pursuing my doctor of ministry and biblical counseling. God willing, that continues for the next three years, and then I'll be done with it. God willing, I say hopefully the end that happens, but now we're back and we're back in the full swing of things. We're now doing our VBS. Yep. So that's taking all of our attention and time and man, we're so stoked to be back into the swing of things and my kids could not be more excited. Especially my girls for VBS. They've loved it. Yeah. And it's been been great so far. Had a great opening night back on Monday night, and we are continuing on, it's now Wednesday as you're listening to this. And so we had night two, I believe last night was water night on Tuesday night. And just it's great. And we were talking about it as a staff on our staff meeting on Tuesday. Just how thankful we are for our church body. You guys are just so great. When we talk about, and you've heard us talk about apa, anything, any place, anytime and you're embodying that this week. As we're walking around the campus down there at, in Frisco, as we're doing this VBS, we're just seeing you guys step up and serve in ways that maybe you didn't never anticipate. Your ser yourself serving and you're just doing whatever needs to be done. And that's such a good thing. And we love that. And we are so blessed by this team overwhelmed by the vision that went into this. We've had so, so many key people that. Took the lead and their teams were a huge part of it, but saw somebody putting tape down on the floor and wanting, make sure that it was exactly parallel because he cared that the kids didn't walk in and be like, oh, this isn't parallel. These lines aren't right. And I'm outta here. Yeah, I'm outta here. I'm gonna be gone. But man, that the itch, the vision of it and then seeing it come together and recognizing 90% of this is on the backs of lay volunteers that have been working so hard to get this stuff done. Has been awesome. Yeah. You ought know if you're part of our church Compass Bible Church in North Texas that the staff talks about you, and it was awesome words. I hope your ears were tingling and tickled, not in a, in negative sense, not second Timothy four. I hope your ears were tickled in the sense that we were talking good things about you. We were just thanking God for your service. Your heart and your continued effort for being a small church as we are, and I think we qualify as a smaller church. We have a mighty service arm in all of you, and we're pr tremendously proud and thankful that we get to serve among you and for you. And we're thrilled that Pastor pj, myself and Pastor Mark have the privilege of leading you What incredible thing that is. Yeah, it is for sure. Yeah. Yeah. We are a smaller church, but we don't wanna stay that way. And I hope. We, you all are out there. Share that, that vision with us. We wanna be growing, we want to be reaching people. And in fact, this past Sunday in your bulletin, you had an invite card and I challenged you to take that and hand it to somebody, give it to somebody, invite 'em to our church. And hopefully you've done that. And again, I told you, you can't do that with one of your family members. That doesn't count. You can't, unless they don't go to our church. But you can't give it to like your spouse and be like, Hey, you wanna come to church with me again next week, like you've done for the last 20 years. Hopefully you're doing that, you're taking that you're you're inviting people because we want to be reaching people. It's part of our mission, reaching teaching and training. And we wanna be on the the prowl on the lookout for that. Pastor Rod, your favorite meal that you had on vacation. He's coughing guys. It's okay. He's back. I think. Favorite meal we had a couple really good meals. I guess the most recent one that we had was yesterday. Okay. And this is unfair. 'cause this is unusual thing. We don't ever do anything like this. But we went to Jen Korean Barbecue. Okay. Or again, I'm not sure if it's again, or Jen. Anyway, we went there. It was a whole ordeal and we were there for lunch, so it was slightly cheaper, but it was great. Had a lot of fun making our own food and doing the Korean barbecue thing. Yeah. We didn't do anything too exciting or outside the realm of what we thought was a good Western palate kind of food. And that was really cool. Oh, we also saw this, the new Superman. Okay. Have you heard or seen that yet? No. Somebody asked me about it at VBS and I have not seen it. A lot of profanity. Okay. There were some scary parts for my girls particularly my oldest girl. But otherwise it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Again the profanity and a little too much kissing from my taste. Honestly, that's the weirdest part about movies. I don't understand. I get it. Oh they're in love. They kiss right. But when it's extended, yeah. I'm like, what am I supposed to be doing right now? Am I supposed to be feeling like, oh, this is a good thing. I, I just don't wanna see that. Yeah. I think it's kinda weird when people are kissing during their weddings and they're, and it's just like they're, Hey, you may kiss the bride. That's great. But if the kiss is long, it starts getting awkward for me really quick. Yeah. When you're up there doing the wedding, you're like, okay, guess that's enough? Yeah. That's turn around. Just I now pronounce you husband and wife. Yeah. It just, anyway, a little too much kissing from my taste and a little too much profanity. More than one is too much for me. But otherwise, it was a great movie. Enjoyed it. The f effects were fun. We watched one of those cool theaters with the big plush seats, that little brick Kline. It was a lot of fun. I heard the new F1 movie is pretty good too. I heard good things, but I've not seen it. Haven't seen, and we don't go to movies. That's what made it so interesting for us. Yeah, we don't either, but, hey, let's let's get to it. Let's get into Isaiah 13. I just told Pastor Rob before we hit record, I'm glad he is back because going through Isaiah even the two of us is a lot. But going through Isaiah solo is just not, it's not it's not fun. I got several emails and text messages from everyone who was saying, look, this is a better podcast. We vote for you to not have to come back to this. I know that's not true. Because those people that listen to us, they told me, Hey we, it's okay when it's just one of you, but we really like it when it's both of you. They said, we know that scripture says two are better than one, but not in this case. We'd like to say the opposite. Okay, then I'm gonna leave and let you take it then. That's not what they told me. That's not what the people told me. Alright, let's get into it. The scene kinda shifts now away from some of the hope of the millennial kingdom, although it's gonna come back to that in chapter 14. But chapter 13 is gonna turn to the impending judgment that's going to come and specifically against Babylon here. And we get some of the similar language that we've seen in some of the other prophets. The minor prophets, if you've been tracking with that series that we've been preaching through of the day of the Lord. Because the judgment Isaiah's interesting because. You have to always ask yourself, which judgment are we talking about right now? Are we talking about the judgment historically or are we talking about judgment that's yet future? Because Isaiah will flash back and forth between them and sometimes he'll use these nations as stand-ins for the nations that are gonna be there in the end when God is judging, before the millennial kingdom is set up. And so here you've got the Prophe prophecy against the Babylon that they're gonna suffer in the. Interim, but then there's also looking forward to the day of the Lord on verse six, whale for the day of the Lord is near again. There's short term fulfillment with Babylon in the immediate future, but then also there's gonna be another day of the Lord, which is the big day of the Lord. And that's coming in the end. And so chapter 13 is going back and forth, bouncing back and forth. These, he's talking about the judgment about Babylon. Yeah, I guess it's important for you to understand as you're reading through this section, if you're gonna really read it for, what it's purposed here for is to understand that section 13 through 23, chapter 2013 through 23 is a whole section about God's judgment on these nations. So it's gonna seem like it's shifting away from Israel. In Toto, but it's not happening. You're seeing God extend the microscope as it were further back so you can get a bigger landscape of his sovereign rulership over these nations. And what you're gonna find out is God is about to declare judgment on a nation that really hasn't done anything to Israel yet. The judgment on Babylon, his consecrated ones in verse three is a big shift. This is gonna be surprising to anyone who's reading this saying, oh, Babylon okay, God's pronouncing judgment before the act. That warrant's judgment has occurred. Isn't that crazy? This is God's sovereignty on display. God knows the end from the beginning and for the Israelite, even though this is terrifying, this is also comforting. God is a just God who will enact his good and sovereign purposes without committing sin, without committing error on his part, but certainly bringing about justice for his glory. Yeah. And even looking verse 17, he talks about the meads here. He's talking about an event at this point that's gonna take place in 5 39 BC when the Meads take Babylon off the scene, the Mead, Meads and Persians together there. And so yeah, this is definitely the foretelling, which is why it causes so many of the the secular skeptics. Yeah. And skeptics to say this couldn't have been written when people say it was written. This couldn't written 700, which is about seven hundreds. Yeah. Because of things like that. But when we're talking about God being involved in the spirit, being the one that's carrying along the writers as the writing these things, it can for sure. Alright, chapter 14, then we get this kind of flashback away from the judgment or flash forward to the millennial kingdom and the restoration of Jacob. And this is, again, indicative of something that Isaiah does. He'll talk a lot about the compassion that God is going to have. And so as he's writing to a group of people or as Isaiah is, who are gonna face the judgment of God, there's also this. Looking forward to where verse three, they're going to end up in four. They're gonna end up taunting the king of Babylon. And this is near term, but also long term. And that's why it's important to have an understanding of the whole scripture. The whole Bible, when you get into the book of Revelation, Babylon shows up again in the Book of Revelation. And I think there's a, an anticipation here that as Isaiah has, that John sees and. Jesus and the angels convey is the future Babylon. And so here's the millennial kingdom. We see this because verse seven, the whole earth is at rest and quiet, and they break forth into singing. You notice there's gonna be things that. Our show up here in chapter 14 that we haven't yet seen. And so that's why we say this has to a appeal to the future. Now, I do think there's still some historical Babylon elements here too. He does talk in verse 12, how you are fallen from a heaven o day star of Don. I think we talked about this last year. My take on this PR is I don't think this is Satan. I, although a lot of people have said this. Seems to be Satan. I think when you look at the context, if anything, it's, maybe it's the king of Babylon representing Satan or indicating the fall of Satan as well. But I do think we're still dealing with the, a human king, a human ruler at this point, who's being described in this fall here in the rest of chapter 14. Yeah, and I guess I would agree with that. Now my hesitation, of course, is that so many people in our historical vein of, in our Christian thinking here, would've read that and said that's clearly Satan. We read today. And we say it doesn't seem like that. It looks like he's talking about the human ruler with exalted language. And that really is the critical key in understanding this. A lot of people that would read this would say, this exalted language does not fit a human ruler. And to that we would say, amen. It's for that very reason that God is saying, I'm going to humble you because of your Yeah. Self exalting nature. You are putting yourself above the stars of God, setting your throne on high, sitting on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north. And so he's calling out this ruler to say, you think that you're so big, but you're too big for your britches. And I'm gonna humble you. It's possible. It's very possible because I don't. We don't want to commit chronological snobbery as CS Lewis warned against and say that everyone before us doesn't know any better. It's possible that this could be a reference to the enemy, to Satan, the Satan, the accuser. But it, to us it seems more like the human rulers in view here. Yeah. And in one commentary that I've found helpful going through this is the one that's written by a guy named Paul House. I believe it's the Mentor Commentary series. And house is one that, that. Takes that. This is more of a human king. And it could be that this is focused on Nebuchadnezzar and anticipating the antichrist. There's possibilities of this being the short term and long term fulfillment that's in view here. But this is, it. It seems the opposition in God's message is, I'm gonna win in the end. That, that this is not gonna be somebody that's gonna stand, be able to stand up against him. Verse 24 the focus shifts to Assyria. Now that makes sense for Isaiah's audience because Assyria was the dominant empire at this time. And so he addresses now that he's gonna break the Assyrians. And so this is the part that they would've been nodding their heads along with going, yes, this is good. This is right because. Don't forget the Assyrians. Were not just a thorn in Israel side, the Northern Kingdom, but also the Southern Kingdom. In fact, they do quite a bit of damage to the Southern Kingdom. That I think, as I've been reading through the chronological plan again, has just been a reminder to me of just how bad the Assyrians were towards God's people. I always associated them with the Northern Kingdom, but you think Northern Kingdom and you're like, yeah, but they deserve it because they're all the evil ones. But they also came against Judah. And basically right up to the neck of the city in late siege, do it in 7 0 1 and God had to send the angel of the Lord out to wipe out 185,000 of them. Otherwise, Judah's gonna fall at that point. Yeah. They were so close. I agree. This year as I've been reading it, I felt some of the same things. I can't believe how close it was for them. Yeah. If it weren't for the fact that Hezekiah to turned to the Lord and we'll get to. To that chapter soon. Yeah. But God used Hezekiah to spare Judah and give them a hundred and some odd more years of peace, relative peace and prosperity, relative prosperity, before they were actually judged. But I agree, man. That was I didn't, in my prayer, Bible reading, I didn't realize just how close it came. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 15, we turn to Moab. The Moabites, remember connected to Israel, we've got David's grandmother. Ruth was a MOIs, and but yet they were not the people of God and they had set themselves against the people of God. And so there's going to be judgment here. It, pR help us frame this. It seems like he's really concerned with the other nations in this whole section that we're reading today. Yeah. Chapters 13 through 17. Yep. It's really not about Israel as much as it is about the enemies of God. And he's talking about Moab, he's talking about Damascus later in chapter 17. He's really saying, God's gonna deal with the nations. He's got a holistic plan for what he's doing right now. Yeah, that's right. And it's important to realize that God is not just the God of Israel and Judah. God is not just the God of Christians God is the God of everybody. And this is what's so important and what's so critical about these chapters here, because to you, you'll read them and I'll read them. This is not me, this is, I don't have any problem with the Philistines or the Moabites, but God is intimately and intricately involved in the governing of every single human nation. There is no nation outside of God's purview. All of them are. They would, they matter today. In fact if God were writing letters today through his prophets, Russia would get a letter, I would imagine. Iraq, Iran. Sure. All those nations in the Middle East that you would expect, but so would America. America be getting letters. Mexico, Canada, we'd all be getting letters. We'd all be getting prophetic utterances because God is not just the God of his people. That's true. And it's doubly true because they're redeemed. But it's also true that God is orchestrating all of human affairs toward his ends and his purposes, which includes the judgment of sin. And when God writes to the Philistines. Who were always a thorn in the side of the Israelites. He's letting them know, look I'm, I see what you're doing. You're not escaping my notice. And the Lord, he says in verse 32 of chapter 14, the Lord has founded Zion and in her, the afflicted of his people find refuge. In other words, you're either on my side or you're my enemy. And God still draws these lines. Today. God is not done drawing lines. He still draws lines. The line is you will bow the need of Christ bended or broken, and that's where we need to see. Hints and glimmers of this in the prophetic Oracles to these surrounding nations, these nations need to know they're on God's timetable. They're doing God's bidding ultimately. And God will judge them unless they bow the need of Christ and repent. And certainly there are Moabites who did bow the knee. That's why you have Ruth. Yeah. And that's why you have this redemption. So these nations play an important role in helping us understand God's purview is not just his people. He's not just the people. He's not just the God of the people of Israel. He's the God of everybody on the world, in the world stage. And he's constantly observing. He's constantly judging and his ultimate judgment will be enacted in the future. Yeah, and it's interesting as he's talking about Moab here in, in verse nine, I think this is Isaiah talking where he says, therefore I weep with the weeping of Jair for the vine of Sigma. I drench you with my tears. Oh, Heshbon. He's weeping for the Moabites and. Stop to think why is he so concerned with the Moabites? And to your point, he's concerned I think because God is concerned. But I think also it just shows that he had a clear picture of what the wrath of God was gonna do. Such that even these people that aren't his people, that aren't the people of Judah, the these other people that even had made life difficult for the people of Judah, when he considers how they're gonna suffer under the wrath of God, it moves the prophet to weep for them. And that's something that, I was just thinking about it this morning, just. Wanting a greater heart for the lost here to say, man do I weep when I consider the future eternity of my neighbors who don't know Christ am I moved to, to reach them with the gospel. I talked about invite cards in your bullet and that's a low hanging fruit. We gotta get down to having conversations with people about, Hey, are you right with God? Are you right with Jesus? Do you know who Jesus is? Because if we don't, I think we're going to look at their eternal fate at someday and weep over the fact that. They're not here. They're not with the Lord. They're not in eternity with them. Man, I'm so glad you brought this up because this is so near and dear to my heart. When I read this I thought the same thing. Who among us has this kind of heart and compassion right before the lost, right? And honestly, we can read this and say, yeah, that's right. I should have this, but man, if we don't, we ought to be praying for this. We ought to beg God for this kind of response because he does say in verse 11, therefore, my inner parts moan like a liar for moap. You're right, it's for Moap. He's concerned My inmost self for cure. Hara, Seth. This is a concern for the people that God is about to judge. And sure, Moabite, the Moabites had a loose connection. Moab and Amon had a connection to the Israelite people. There is a familial line connection there, but regardless, I think it's people. When you see people at the Costco, when you see people at the gas station, you go to the Kroger or wherever else you go shopping, you ought to see people as people that are either on the Lord's side, who will bow the knee, bend it, or broken to Jesus. And we ought to feel that sense of, Lord, do I care enough? And the answer for all of us is obviously, no, we don't. We don't care enough. And if we're honest with ourselves, that ought to bring us to a place of repentance to say, Lord, I want the heart that Isaiah has. And even more precisely, I want the heart of Jesus who when he saw the crowds, he had compassion. And he said, pray for laborers to go out to the harvest. Matthew chapter nine. And that's what we're trying to say right now. The invite cards are just an expression of a desire to say, I care about people, Lord help me to care more. And I wanna start with just handing out an invite card. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 17, he hits the Syrians. That's Damascus. And again it's about the judgment that is coming upon those that are part of the, these other nations here as we've been talking about. Anything specifically in chapter 17 that you wanna highlight? No. Syria is an ongoing threat to the Israelites as well. Syria and Judah, they had, they, you read through it in some of second Kings and Chronicles. Syria was always an issue for them. And so Damascus being the capital of Syria, is gonna receive God's anger. And he says his, again, keep in mind what God is doing here. If you think about what he's doing in your mind as you think about Syria, which is to the north Philistia, which is to, what's that? East, west? East? No, west. West. Never eat soggy waffles. It's to the west. So Syria to the north, Philistia to the west, Moab to the east, Southeast, yep. And then who else did we cover so far? Babylon would be south. I guess it'd be the reaching the Southern kingdom. They're actually north. Yeah, but you get the idea here. God is enc. Yeah, Judah God is creating a bullseye target, if you will, by saying to these other nations, I'm gonna judge you. I'm gonna judge you, I'm gonna judge you. I'm gonna judge you. And by the way, don't forget Judah, I'm coming after you. So all that to say, these nations, which always pose a threat to them, are not just random. They're nations that God cares about. Even though he's gonna judge them, they're nations that God is saying, look, pay attention. Bended or broken, you're gonna bow the knee. So I'll make a decision now. Yeah. And that circle's gonna continue tomorrow as we pick up with Kush and Egypt and Yeah, you're right. Hey, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, as we were just talking about, I pray that you would make us a church that is is soft towards the loss that has a heart to reach them with the gospel that does care about them. I pray that you create a heart in us, like Isaiah, the prophet's heart, that we would not just simply think to ourselves we're okay, so what does it matter about these other people Lord, but that we would stop and. Long for them to be made right with you as well. And not just have the desire, but also be moved to action. To have the conversations, to get to know them, to talk to them to risk rejection, to risk the uncomfortable, awkward silence. But to have the conversation, to get the gospel out there to say, you need to repent and believe in Jesus. And God, we want to be a church. That's fruitful, evangelistically and I, that's been on my heart a lot recently, and I just pray that you would give us people that care about that and that you'd give us the fruit of going out and being faithful to, to proclaim the gospel message. We know you do the heavy lifting of causing people to come to faith. But Lord, we wanna be the mouthpiece that gets the message out there. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Keep bringing Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye bye.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.