Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. What's up folks? We are back again on a Wednesday, Wednesday morning if you're listening to this in the morning, but Pastor Rod, you've got youth tonight and you guys are still in Matthew. Give us an update. Let us know where you're at with the students right now. We're going to be in Matthew tonight. Thanks man. But in, in Matthew, you chapter eight finished up the sermon on the mountain. We just finished chapter seven. Okay. We're now going to be in chapter eight. What comes next? And then nine after that. In fact, we are going at an accelerated clip. We are now doing one chapter a week because I've figured out on some really complicated math that I won't be able to finish it until 2029 at my current clip. So we have to speed it up a little bit. That'd be a long series. 2029 and Matthew. I mean, I mean, it's, it, it makes, it makes sense. It's a good book. It's worth, it's worth the pace, but I don't want to go that long. So I'm going to speed it up a tad bit and hopefully, hopefully it'll be good for everybody. Some of these students would be gone by then. Yeah. I'd like for them to hear the whole series. Yeah, that'd be good. And there's other books that I want to tackle as well. Yeah. Yeah. We're on pace to finish up the gospel of John by the end of well, by the middle of May, basically. So we'll be finishing up John and doing a summer series and then jumping into a new book in the fall. So it should be should be good for us, but yeah, it's Wednesday midweek. Hopefully your week is going well so far and you're in the word of God on a regular basis in benefiting from that. We had a question written in a couple of notes, but one question that came in specifically on numbers five through six, which we talked about in yesterday's episode dealing with the woman who was Being charged with potential adultery in the issue in fairness and the principles of fairness and rules and regulations the the person that wrote in basically the gist of the question if I understand it correctly is Do we have a greater awareness of the concepts of equity and fairness because of the fullness of revelation that we possess as compared to what the Israelites would have known or thought or had You at their time here in the book of numbers. And so the question basically appeals to the idea of our idea of equity and fairness and justice are kind of bedrocks of even American evangelicalism. And a lot of that is rooted in Christianity. As its primary source, as opposed to what the ancient Israelites knew of or thought of or conceived of at this time in history, would they have had the same concern and passion for those principles as we have today informed largely today by our Christian roots and our American ideals of those things? It's a perceptive question. It's an interesting question. Pastor, I've got my own thoughts, but I'd love to get your thoughts on that. Is, is, is that a good enough reason for us to say that's why things seem unfair to us because we're looking at them through 21st century Americanized with the fullness of direct revelation in our possession versus what they had at their time? Well, yeah, that, that's what I was trying to get at, at least in part, when I said, we're looking at this in 2025 at an ancient near Eastern culture that doesn't have the same kind of development that we've had. I mean, we've. Even had 2000 years of church history where theologians have gone before us to study and to consider what God's word says and how it applies. We have just war theory. We have ethics that have been developed over the course of thousands of years now where we have the full Canon at our disposal to learn how best to apply God's word. So yes, absolutely. I would affirm the insightful observation that he made. And I would say he's, he's absolutely right. It's just that on top of saying, okay, well, God could have said to them. For the male and the female do this in that polygamy, you know, no, no, on polygamy from the very start. It's only after thousands of years of study and responses that we can say, well, okay, this is what we have in total. Why didn't he say it at this time? Well, I don't know an answer to that. I don't have an answer and that's part of what I think makes us uncomfortable, right? Because the danger is I think that what we have to warn against and and be careful of is that we don't fall prey to the the open theist argument open theism is basically an argument that says God doesn't know what's coming in the future Any more than you and I know what's coming in the future and that's not what this person writing in was suggesting at all They're not an open theist. They're not promoting that but To what you were just saying God could have said those things back at this time It's not as though God's idea of justice and equity and fairness have been informed by American evangelicalism and Christianity God is the definition of that which is fair and equitable and just as far as the the the people Those concepts in their purest form. So God is, is not learning along with us. God is not progressing. He's not developing in his character. He is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And so there's nothing that is progressing or changing or improving about God. He is perfect and has always been perfect. So his, his revelation is progressive. And in that sense. Yes, we as a society and people could have progressed in our understandings that that is, is a valid point, but we've got to be careful not to say that somehow God has, has improved. God has evolved over time and his idea of what is, is right and fair and just has improved as well. Now he is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and there is no way in which he changes at all along the way. Well, let's jump into our text today. This may be one of our shorter episodes here in numbers chapter seven. It's not a short chapter. It's 89 verses. It's a lot of, a lot of ink. Yeah. That's a lot of repetitive ink. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of redundant ink. In the chapter that the people bring their offerings and in, in sacrifices for the dedication of the tabernacle. That's kind of the, the gist of the chapter. That's right. Assuming your thoughts though about. Why it is so repetitive because he could have said all the nations all the tribes did this And then listed off what the, the offerings were and moved on. And it would have been a much shorter chapter than it is, but 89 verses with so much repetition, some thoughts as to, to maybe why on that. Yeah, I guess there's a, there's several takes on this, but the easiest and most obvious one would be that God honors the individual gifts and God wants to, and to think, man, someone had to write this line after line, repetition after repetition. And this was something that God ordained for them to, to do. To capture and to have us read. In fact, one of my frustrations with myself is that I was, I was going to say, okay, I get it. Let me just, I'll insert the names and let me just scoot on along. But that's not what God intended for me to do. The fact that it's here tells me God wanted me to repeat it. And so I went through the whole process and I read it and I used an audio Bible to help me just pace myself and keep going so that I didn't lose stamina. But I read it and I read the repetition and I thought, okay, this This is supposed to be this way. I'm supposed to feel this, but on top of the fact that God wants us to individually note it, the repetition is necessary for us to feel the weight of it. So it's, it's God honoring the gifts individually, even though he, he respects it corporately, he's looking at all their gifts, but our job is to go through the, to go through the mud, as it were to say, I got to I got to hear this and feel this so that I can feel the weight of what God is trying to communicate to me, which is that God really appreciates. He honors, if I can put it this way, he honors gifts. He honors giving. He likes that his people give to him generously. So I think there's something there for us to learn in the new Testament. That is that God wants us to be cheerful givers. That's something that we read in second Corinthians chapter eight and nine. And there's something about that, that God still, it warms his heart and probably in part because God himself is so generous. He loves when his kids display that same attribute. Yeah. When you add everything up, you've got these, you've got 12 silver plates, you get 12 silver basins, you've got 12 golden dishes. 12 bulls. And then we, the numbers go up from here. 72 rams, 72 male lambs, a year old, 72 male goats, and 24 oxen here. And so this is a lot. Paul Wenham, who I think is a, do you mean Gordon? Gordon? Is that, I said Paul Wenham. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Paul Gordon, Paul Gordon. I mean, we know him as Gordon, you know, him personally as Paul, he goes by Paul in private. We're super close. So, you know, yeah. Anyways, he addresses here. He says, it seems that a theological purpose underlines the wordiness to emphasize as strongly as possible That every tribe had an equal stake in the worship of god And so I think that's part of it too that that it's just saying this is for everybody This is for all of israel and and when you read it Each tribe in the name of each tribe you're reminded of that. I think verse 89 is significant too Moses goes into the tent of meeting to speak with the lord and he hears the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat This is the this is the end This is what everything was set up for to happen and this is what is happening right here is moses is going in to do this and Moses had a unique role and that's probably worth noting because we've talked about aaron as the high priest only being Allowed to enter in once a year for the, the day of atonement, Moses had a different relationship with the Lord. He had a, a, a greater level of intimacy. Remember, as we've already read before in the Pentateuch that he spoke to God as a man would speak with his friend face to face. And so Moses is unique here. He's allowed to go in before the mercy seat here. It probably not unless he's beckoned or summoned by God. He can't go in there flippantly, but he does have a unique relationship and unique role there with the Lord. Yeah. And what I was really cool about that is the, Moses writes here. The, the description is that he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat. So this is above the seat itself. This is not in the box. This is above the box. And he says it's from between the two cherubim and it spoke to him. So he's hearing sound waves produced between the two cherubim above the box from nowhere. Yeah, that's crazy. That's insane. Because in our minds, we only hear sound. From physical objects within our atmosphere, within our, within our physical context, which tells me, I think I think this tells me, I'm not sure if it does, I'm just going to say it and you tell me if you think I'm wrong when people hear voices and their spiritual voices, spiritually originating voices, I think that sounds to me like, okay, this gives me a sense of saying it's possible for there to be a non human object making a sound that my ears can register. Cause there's something being produced. In the atmosphere that produces sound waves and it doesn't have human origin I I think this gives me precedent to say that if someone's like, oh my house is haunted I heard a voice talking to me Often we're going to say have you taken your meds yet? Right, but I think as a christian I can say well here we go There's evidence at least That a spiritual entity can produce sound waves in our atmosphere that According to Moses came from nowhere. I mean, it came from nowhere in the fact that there was nothing physical there, but God was speaking to him from between the cherubim above the box. That's kind of cool. Yeah. Do you agree with that? Is that, is that a fair assessment? Yes, I'm not saying that everyone who says it is, it's always the case that they're hearing that for sure, but it's, it's entirely possible within the realm of possibility. Yeah, yeah, I can agree with that entirely possible. I'm just saying it's like, oh, it's, but I can, I can say in some sense, I would expect that this is characteristic of a spiritual entity that's trying to manipulate, terrorize, whatever it is. If it's a demon, this, this is possible. I think my only caveat would be This is god speaking to him right and I don't know that we see an example in scripture of a spirit being Not visible communicating the same way with a with a person not visible so as in There's not a physical manifestation of it. You mean right? I think anytime we see we have the angelic beings Communicating or even the demons communicating they're in a physical manifestation of it Either the angel is present in a visible form Or the angel or demon is inhabiting a body and communicating So I don't know if there's a point at which there's a, a, an immaterial sense of, of communication from a spirit being to somebody in the, in the Bible that we see outside of God in an instance like this. Yeah, I guess you're right. I can't, I'm trying to rack my brain here to see if there's anything that pops up, but there's a demonic forces that torment Saul. I don't know that there was a physical thing there and I guess I don't even know what that tormenting was. Maybe they were speaking, maybe they weren't. But yeah, I'll think about that. I'll chew on that and see if there's any other instance in scripture where there's a spiritual entity speaking, producing sound that is not God himself. Yeah. Well, we had one other comment. I don't know if a question is much, but comment written in about the issue of the woman caught in adultery or the woman charged with adultery. This, this touched a note, a nerve, and we thought it would, it's a, it's a controversial subject, but somebody wrote in and just commented about the fact that perhaps this was in place again with the idea of protecting the woman. Because If a woman were to accuse her husband of infidelity there, there wasn't much to be done. The husband in this patriarchal society, not a lot would happen to him is basically the gist of it. Now, if he was guilty and there was evidence that he was guilty, according to law, he would be killed, but aside from that, if it was a false charge, there wasn't a lot that would tarnish his reputation moving forward. But for the woman, if this was a false charge brought against the woman, it could still tarnish her reputation in a way that would be immensely damaging to her moving forward. And so he just wrote in to say again, this may be a A mercy of God to put in place to still protect the woman to make sure that she would be vindicated if this was indeed a false charge. So yeah. Again, that tracks. Yeah. I like that. I get that. I can track with that too. Yeah. This is a difficult one. And obviously as we got a couple of, of comments written in and by the way, if you've got comments, you've got questions, you've got thoughts, please write them in. I had Podcast at compass Bible or compass ntx. org podcast at compass ntx. org. And we would be happy to answer or entertain any of your comments and thoughts that come in. All right, y'all. Well, that is that's this episode. Let me pray for us. And then we'll be done with this as we move on for the rest of our day. God, thanks for your word for the report. Repetition here in the reminder that this is not a fluff, that there's not any extraneous material in the Bible, but this is all part of your revealed word. And to help us to treat it that way, to read it intentionally, thoughtfully, to use additional resources, to help us understand it. And God, we are grateful for that. We're. Just in awe of Moses's relationship that he had with you, that he could speak to you in such an intimate way. And yet it reminds me that that day is coming for us to in eternity when we are with you and in your presence. And so we long for that day. And in the meantime, we want to be faithful to you. So we pray that we would in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, y'all keep her in your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See it. Bye.

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