hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello. Hello. Hello, hello. Happy Men's Bible Study Saturday. Wow. It's a holiday. Pastor Rod, why don't you give us just a brief snapshot of what you're talking about with our men today. Here's why you should be there. We're gonna look at Elijah, who's one of the coolest prophets of the Old Testament. Elijah and Moses are kind of the two peaks of the Old Testament. I don't know the Old Testament mountain range, and they're some of the coolest figures for so many reasons. But we're gonna look at Elijah at one of the lowest points of his life. And interestingly enough, it's as he's preparing to finish his ministry, he's ready to throw in the towel. And so this morning we're gonna look at how to endure through difficult times in our faith. We should all expect that they're gonna happen. It's just a matter of how we deal with them and honestly. Though I want Elijah to be a largely positive example in your mind. We're gonna look at a part where he didn't do so well. And I think there's a lot to be gleaned from that example. And I think you'll find that what we talk about is gonna be supremely helpful for you as you prepare for these inevitable inevitable. Inevitable. Finally, got it. Dark times, difficult times. They're coming. Are you ready for them? And if our men are showing up and they're like, man, I love being here. I love being around my brothers in Christ. I love hearing Pastor Rob preach to me. Oh, well thank you. Is there yes. Another opportunity where my, maybe they would spend more than just 24 hours with each other. Oh man. And they would maybe if only we had something. Have I got something for you? Okay, good. And you? Good. And you who are listening now, men's Retreat is coming in April. And this is gonna be such a good and valuable time. Now here's my pitch. I know that we've talked about it several times. It's maybe barely over 24 hours. Yeah. This is 20. It's 26 hours, I think, and we want you there. In fact, we want you there from the very beginning to the very end. It starts at three o'clock, which I know means that some of you're gonna have to leave work early, and then there's that Dallas traffic. You're gonna have to work the, we get that. But this is worth it. We're not doing two nights. We can't afford to do that right now because we are all needed at church for setup and tear down and preaching and things like that. But for the 26 hours that we're together, we want you there for the whole time. We'd love for you to plan on being there at three o'clock and staying with us until after dinner, when we clean up and then depart. But we trust that this will be well worth your time. You're gonna build relationships with men who want to run hard after the Lord. This is a great self-selection bias. You wanna be around people that love the Lord. This is it. Show up to this thing because these are the people that come. They're the people that want to build relationships and want to be encouraged and want to encourage others. These are the quality men that you wanna be around. So don't delay. Sign up, let us know that you're coming. We have to send the camp a number and help them to plan for us, and so you can help us. And helping them by signing up early letting us know that you want to come. We want you there. We'd be thrilled to have you, and we promise we're gonna go out of our way to make it a valuable 26 hours for you. Yeah. And listen, I know that you're probably sitting there. You've got your reasons, you've got this schedule, you've got the baseball game. That's this weekend. You've got a late night with work. You've got, listen, the enemy is gonna give you reasons why maybe you shouldn't go, but we want you to know. Overcome those. Fight through those, get back to Okay. Does God want me there? And I, we can tell you 100%, we as your pastor, we want you there and it's gonna be a great time. We've gone, we've, this is our third time back at this retreat center. Yeah. And every single one of the previous two have been awesome. In fact, I find myself as we leave going, I wish it was longer. Yeah. Because it was, and I think that's the general tenor of all the men that are there. So this is gonna be well worth your time. This is worth it to get out of your comfort zone maybe. And to spend time with other guys and just to come and. Get away from everything else. It really does feel like a retreat. It's only an hour away. That's the other thing too. That's great. Yeah. It's not, you're not driving six hours to get to any place. You're, it's an hour and yet it feels like, man, I'm getting away. I'm able to focus on Christ. I'm able to focus on my walk with him. I'm able to build these other relationships. It's so good. We want you there. You will not regret it, I promise you. In fact, if you show up. And you regret it. And you regret it and you don't have a great time and you walk away going I wish I hadn't shown up. Come talk to me and I will gladly see that we refund your money for the retreat. I'm happy to do that. I'll take a step further. We'll give you Pastor PJ's car. I was just gonna say Okay. And wrap it. Wrap it with the church name. That's the stipulation. It's gotta be wrapped before we give it to you, but we will get pink. Slip it all. On that note, I saw. There's this big church out in Grapevine Fellowship Church. It's yeah, and you know about it because they have a car. They have a car that's wrapped, that's wrapped, so here's what they're doing. And you're now ready to wrap your own car. Oh, they are. The Lord is moving. They're this Halleh weekend for all of their attendees. They're. Stenciling Easter invites on the back windshield of all the cars that are showing up. That's cool. Easter. And then it's got their website address on it and stuff like that. Do the people have a choice or are they just doing it? I don't, it's just during service. During service. They're like, guess what, everybody when you go out. Yeah. That's cool. I would not commend anything else from them though. They're not doing good things. They're health, wealth, and prosperity. But I did see that pop up on a reel and I was like, oh, that, that's interesting. That's creative. Yeah. I'll give them points for what's that innovation? Yes. Yes. Well, hey, let's get into our vibrating today, Joshua four through six. So in chapter four, we have this weird scene where they cross over and God tells them, Hey, grab some stones and set up these stones. And he does so. In order to prompt questions in the future, specifically from the future generations that are gonna see these stones. So Pastor Mark, do you wanna talk about the importance since you being our kids men pastor this is a big thing that you do with your team and with the volunteers and then you, yourself, as you teach our kids too, how this set Israel up to make sure that they were going to be teaching the younger generations and the ones to come about the significance of what God has already done in the life of Israel. Well, I think one thing that's really helpful to begin with is that the geographic. Location is not that far away. I think we could easily think of this as something that's, like in New York City or in Anchorage, Alaska. This is actually something they're gonna come across. Sure. This is not something that is so far removed from them that they're just will never come across it and it's there physically there to say, what is this? I guarantee you there's stuff in your house that. Your kids pull out, or maybe it's on the shelf and they're like, mom, dad, what? What is this weird thing? Right? And then it's probably there because it has some sort of significance to you. It has some sort of importance to you going back in your family's history. In our house there's a pencil sharpener in right by the front door. It's this old one and it comes from the LA County school districts back in like long ago. And it comes from my grandfather. The my kids' great-grandfather when he taught there, and they have an opportunity to say like, why is that there? Right? Mm-hmm. And I get to tell them, and I get to tell them about him. And that's a privilege. That's a good thing. And that's what God's doing here is saying, here is a physical thing that's gonna prompt your kids to go. Like why exactly Are there 12 stones set up? That's kind of weird. And why is that there? But we do, we should do things like that in our lives. We try to do that in our own family. Shirley is named after. My mom's mom, and she is in many ways that she's not the only kind of person who brought faith down from generation through generation. That's cool. But for me specifically, she really was the one who has that continuity of faith going back multiple generations. And so obviously I love my grandmother but, and so it's good to name Shirley. Shirley for that reason, just kind of by itself. But we wanted to do that partly because she represents. That continuity of that faith, and I'm hoping to be able to teach her someday about her. Right. And say, this is something that was done for you, right? You heard about the gospel because of people who came even before mom and dad. Anyways, that's my kind of. 2026 example of how this might be done. But I think this is a valuable thing that is being done by God for the people of Israel. Amen, bro. Yeah. Memorializing what God has done in your family's life and even in our church's life, is a good thing. We want people to ask. We want to invite that kind of conversation. Having pictures in your home or. Art that showcases the things that you trust and love. Those are small things, but they're so meaningful. And as a guy, that's not my mo, I'm not a big fan of decoration. I'm not, I don't care about putting pictures up, but the older I get, I hope, hopefully the wiser I get, the more I value things like this. Mm-hmm. Because it shows God's faithfulness over the years and the centuries names and photos. And just events in our lives where we can look back and say, God was good and faithful there. So find a way to do that. I think whatever it is that you do, just do something. Yeah. Nothing is not an option. I think you have to do something and even if it's fellows, if your wife is good at this, let her go at it. Just give her the checking account. Say, Hey, spend only $10,000 please, but make sure that her home testifies to the faithfulness of the Lord. You can do it for less than $10,000. Really, I'm sure. I didn't know I was just throwing out a number. Yeah. My dad, a while back gave me a frame photo of one of the first generation of burners that came over from Germany. Wow. And it was a picture of the patriarch and there was a quote on the back of it that talked about how the neighbors remember seeing him sitting around with his. His kids and reading from the family Bible every single day. That's awesome. That's great. So it's things like that you look back on and you go, man, that, that's really cool to have those moments. Alright, I have a question about this chapter here. The stones aren't still there, if that's your question. Okay. Well see That's then They didn't do a good job then. No, I It is about the stones though. It is About the stones. I had to write this down because I didn't wanna forget it. Okay. Verse nine. Says that Joshua set up the 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan. Okay. That's the first location that we get for the 12 stones, but yet in verse 20 it says, and those 12 stones, which they took outta the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. So are they in the Jordan or are they at Gilgal? Where are they? Why are they, when are they, what dimension are they? I've wondered the same thing. This is an unprepared thought, but my best explanation is reverse change over time. The precise location of them changes. Oh, and even the bins and the interesting and everything right. Fluctuate as the soil has moved. That's my best guess. That's a good guess at answering the question. I like that one. That's a good guess. PPJ, do you wanna chime in on this or do you want me just to talk before you throw in yours? No, I. Maybe there, there were two, two piles that he set up. Maybe there was one there in the middle or there was one there in the middle. Even as they're passing over. 'cause I wonder how long it took them to pass over. There's quite a lot of people to pass over. So if the 12 one went first, they're setting up the 12 there stones in the process of. Everybody crossing over the Jordan and perhaps kind of the last ones out, Hey, everybody, last 12, grab a stone on your way out. Or there were two piles. I, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's strange. I would side with that one. I think that one in my mind says they set it up during the crossing perhaps, and maybe they left it there for a season and then they went back later and said, we're gonna take these stones. Actually, we want these and we're gonna put them over here in Gilgal. So, I don't know, but I just thought that was interesting enough to bring it to your attention. Yeah. How about when it says in verse 14, on that day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the set of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life. This is something that is not condemned, but it isn't right for us in any ways to be in awe of a human leader in any way. Are you asking us to be in awe of you? Nope. That's not my, that's not my intention, but I'm just curious because it's interesting because we shy away. This kind of builds on the whole, I'm proud of you conversation that we had a while back. Okay. This is a human being that the Israelites are in awe of just as they were in awe of Moses. And it's held up at least in, in a positive light here. I have nothing against that. I think it's perfectly natural to have certain people who just capture your imagination and your wonder and your awe because they, they possess the gifts, the calling of God in ways that you think are clearly exceptional. Now, we just mentioned John MacArthur not too long ago. I think he's someone that, even though he was such a humble, normal guy, I still had a sense of awe being around him. Yeah. This guy's just phenomenal. He's just opening a Bible and teaching, and yet. I'm strangely captivated. How is he doing this? What is he doing that is so, and people have studied things like that. Like how is he doing what he's doing? It doesn't make sense from an earthly perspective, right? And so you have to say, this is God's hand upon this person, and I wanna honor that. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would say Paul even encourages us to do that. He wants us to follow him as he follows Christ. Mm-hmm. He wants us to view him as an example. He encourages that. He says, look to your leaders. They're the ones who has, who set up an example for you to follow. Hebrews chapter 13. They, that they model or they highlight the leadership of the people and say it's right that you look toward them. So I think it's a good thing. Now granted, I think here. Joshua is being compared to Moses because of what he just does. Right. It's clearly meant to harken back to Moses, and so that makes sense to me from an earthly perspective, but I do think this kind of mentality can and perhaps should carry on even today. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Chapter five we get a situation where the sign of the covenant circumcision has to be applied here to a new group, a new generation. And so that's what's happening here when it says that they were circumcised a second time. It doesn't mean the same group were circumcised for a second time, but there's a new generation. We find that out. Later on when it says that this was the offspring, it says in verse five. Though all the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt, had not yet been circumcised. So this is the sign of the Covenant, and God is having Joshua carry this out with the people there before they're going to continue in progression into the Promised Land. Pastor Mark, your favorite subject. We have a Christoph here, I believe, unless you're gonna argue that it's not a Christoph, but I have, I'm going to fight you on that if you are. So, the commander of the Lord's Army, end of chapter five. Christoph, yay or Na. So my bigger concern is with Christoph's functionally, period. But what in the Old Testament. But what about here? Well, if you tell me why you think it's a Christoph, here's why I think it's a Christoph, because of what? What happens here? He says, I'm the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua. Take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did. So. I don't think this can be anything other than God, because we never see another angelic interaction where the angel says you need to take off your sandals. Number one, for the ground in which we were standing is holy. That would've been a callback to the burning bush incident with Moses. And then number two, he receives worship from Joshua. He doesn't. Stop Joshua from worshiping him. So an angelic being. Again, we think of revelation, we think of other situations. The angelic beings, their response is do not fear. Or even in the Book of Revelation, when John falls before an angel to worship him, the angel says, stop that. Don't do that. Get up. You don't worship me. I'm not to be worshiped here. Whereas I think this being does receive the worship and the comment about the holy ground. So I think the commander of the Lord's army here is a pre-incarnate Christ showing up. To encourage Joshua before the conquest begins, I think it goes to a bigger conversation of what exactly a pre-incarnate Christ would be. Right. That's where I struggle with this across all of the Old Testament, is what does it actually mean to be pre-incarnate? Right? What would that even technically mean? And so I think we have plenty of evidence of angelic beings having physical. Manifestations or true manifestations of a physical nature. I think that's something that we can see consistently. But for Jesus to be somehow physically manifested, pre incarnation, I have a hard time and there's more thoughts to it than that, but I have a hard time having that hold water. Now, your argument about the worship, I think is the most compelling argument for Christoph. He, because Jesus is worthy of worship and. Humans are not worthy of worship. However, my contention against that or my response to that would be that this is clearly, if it is not a Christoph, he is clearly a direct representative of God. And there are times when it's appropriate to say, I'm worshiping not the person standing in front of me, but the representation of God. I'm worshiping God Yes, by. Worshiping the representation of God's immediate messenger. Does that make sense? I think so. Can you clarify though why go Christophe as opposed to Theophany? I understand Pastor Mark's point here, he is saying that ha having a pre-incarnate Christ. Why him? Why can't you just make it a, a theophany? And by the way, just in case you're listening and wondering, Christoph Jesus showing up in physical form before he's physical is what Pastor Mark's pushback is. Theophany is the same idea. It's a. Messenger, an angel, an angelic messenger that we believe is some form of God and represented himself. Mm-hmm. Representing himself in a physical form. Mm-hmm. Why not a, the often why that? Mostly because of our understanding of the Trinity. The second member of the Trinity is the only one that ever does take on any sort of physical form for us. We know John four got his spirit. And so with Christ being sent in some form of physical form, I think it makes sense to look at the second member of the Trinity acting in concert with what he does in the New Testament when he does take on flesh which is why I would convey that this is. The second member rather than the first member being the father. I'm okay with this not being a human body. I'm okay with it being an angelic appearance, but I can't get to the place that this is anything but God. And so if we wanna argue theophany, that's okay. Christophe is where I land, but I again, the worship anytime a human being tries to worship an angel elsewhere in scripture. They're confronted and they're corrected. Can I ask a question then? Yeah. 'cause that is the thrust of your point. My Bible has a little four next to the word worship. Mm-hmm. And it says here, or, and paid homage so it could be understood as the word worship and the word in the Hebrew does. It is used that way. Right, right. But it also is used to say, bowed himself, bowed prostrated, or paid homage, which are all acts of worship, which is why it's not always used that way though, summarized that way. It isn't. Yes, that's true. Yeah. It is also an act of worship, but it is not only an act of worship's also used as an act of respect. That's where the statement about holy ground after that, I don't think an angel's making that statement. Again, I'm gonna point to the absence of, it's an argument from absence of evidence, which is still not the strongest, but there's no other indication where we have in scripture and Angel says, take off your sandals because the place where you're standing because I'm here is holy ground. I think there's everything here to say this is an the presence of God coming to Joshua to encourage Joshua before he goes into the conquest of the promised Land. And so for the listener who's saying, why does this even matter? I'm sure there's people who are like, well, I don't I, okay. Who cares? Like what is it, how, what does this other do with the price of tea in Texas? What would you say? I think it's important that we ponder who God is. I like that. And we need to do it with theological acuteness and accuracy and per precision. We're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna get things wrong, but we need to be in pursuit of the truth and it's, it is an act of worship. I think to consider these things to love the Lord with their mind. Yeah, and even if we don't have an immediate application of some of these things to our day-to-day life, I think often those applications are found later on. And I also think that even if the only application is our worship of God and are awe of who he is, that would be grounds enough to consider these things. I like that last point you just told us to be the theologically cute. I said acute. I heard theologically. Cute. Fine. Cute. Be cute. Awesome. Be cute. Okay. You heard it here first folks. Men's Bible study Saturday. Be theologically cute. Cuties. Alright, chapter six is a familiar chapter for us. This is the Fall of Jericho. Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho. The instructions are given such that I think what God is doing here is making sure, again, coming off of. Th this interaction with the commander of the Lord's army for at minimum, we can all agree on that. Is goddess saying, I'm the one doing the fighting here? 'cause it's not gonna be a traditional battle that takes place. Joshua's not going over there and launching seed ramps and conquering the city the way that human armies had conquered city in his day. Instead, this is gonna be God clearly reminding Joshua and the people. I'm doing this. When I tell you I'm giving them over into your hand. I am giving them over into your hand. And so this is a unique way that Jericho is sacked and Rahab has spared because of the promise given to her. And God does take care of Rahab here through this process, but familiar story. And yet it's a good for us to be reminded that God is the one doing the fighting here because they're gonna march around. If you march around, whatever your enemy's house, Kroger. Seven times and then h gb, you start yelling at it. It's not gonna fall down. I promise you it's not gonna fall down. It might go outta business then maybe, or call the cops and have you arrested, but it's not gonna fall down. It wouldn't have back here either. This is a sign that God is doing the one that's fighting. Alright, Luke chapter two verses one through 24. Luke, chapter two, one through 24. John the Baptist's cousin, is gonna be born in this one. I mean, big deal. 'cause John's cousin shows up now. If it's his cousin, all we know is it's a relative. I think Pastor Rod, you mentioned cousin. I think that's probably right. I think Mary and Elizabeth were most likely sisters, but this time it's Mary's turn to give birth and Luke. Known for his detail. And this is the most detailed account that we have as far as the timeframe he's listing. Who is the acting Caesar, who's the governor in the region of Syria here and what's happening as far as why they end up in Bethlehem? Because a census had been given and Joseph is from the lineage of David significant, their massive significance to the lineage of David because Jesus had to be of the line of David to be qualified to be the Messiah. So he ends up in Bethlehem. And this is where he's gonna be born. In the meantime, there's a group of angels that show up to shepherds in a field and they announce to these shepherds the birth of Jesus. And these shepherds really become the first evangelists for Jesus. 'cause when they see it, they make known the saying that had been told to them concerning the child. And so they're telling everyone they can what they have heard, and they're gonna go and they're going to, greet Mary, and they're going to tell her as well, and she's gonna treasure these things up in her heart as she does with all of these events surrounding her son. But this is a, the Christmas story as we're reading it here in Luke chapter two, amazing. That part of this is a declaration of peace among those with whom he is pleased. It's amazing that God would be pleased with anybody and it's doubly amazing that God would declare peace with them. Don't miss that right. Maybe something that you're familiar with from Christmas and may just skip by, but be astounded. God would reconcile with us in such a manner to bring peace to us. That's such a great point. And in fact, one of my questions comes from this very text because in the common vernacular it did not say what it currently says in our ESV. So I would love for you to quickly just touch on why we see it differently here. It used to say in the King James version, glory to God, in the highest and on Earth, peace, goodwill toward man. Or men. Here it says something different. It's slightly different, but it's different enough to change the meaning. It says, glory to God in the highest verse 14, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. That's a different thing. So why is it different and what should we do with this passage because of that difference? Part of it's manuscript evidence. The manuscripts that have what you just said there the piece in goodwill among men, and there's other manuscripts that have what we read here. And so in part it's an editorial decision by the editors of the ESV on which manuscripts they're gonna prefer on this, as well as the other translations that have a similar one. It's also a hermeneutical decision. It's an interpretive decision. What does it mean? Peace among those on earth, in goodwill, towards, is that all mankind? And we would have to say at the end of the day, no. In one sense, yes, in that the gospel is for all mankind. Anyone can hear it. It's to be, the general call of salvation is to be issued to all mankind. And yet he's not pleased with all mankind because he's not pleased with those that are in rebellion against him. And so it's only gonna be those that. Jesus ends up being the source of peace, which is through the gospel that God is ultimately gonna be pleased with. And so I think that's why the Hermeneutical decision, the interpretive decision, was made here by the ESV to translate it this way rather than the other way. I agree. Right on. Me too. I think one of the really cool things here is Jesus had to perfectly obey the law to be qualified. And at Patrick Mark What I'm, go ahead. I'm curious if we're on the same wavelength. I think we're on the same WaveG. Okay. We, you were gonna talk about verse 21, right? Well, 22. Yeah. I was gonna talk about 22. Well, I get Yeah. 20. Yeah. 21. No, I was gonna talk about 21. Well, hey, we're verse 21 and 22. Yeah. So it says here that on the eighth day he was circumcised, and so that was part of keeping the law. Right. Now, in an a day old, whether it's the son of God or not, can't take care of that by themselves. Right. Do we know that for a fact? Well, I'm just saying, I think the kenosis. Of Philippians chapter two would tell us that in his humanity, Jesus wasn't gonna be able to, that's a low view of God, bro. Get himself to be the temple. And so it's really cool that God uses his parents to, yeah, keep the law on his behalf so that he would be the qualified, perfect substitute for us on the cross. Yeah, I think that's awesome. Yeah. And also you see, we in just our reading now, right? That the people of Israel failed to do that and they had to have that done as they entered the promised land. But Jesus perfectly fulfills the law. And what's so fascinating, a among the other things that we're talking about here is that Jesus was not born to a rich family. We see that in verse 24. They're to offer a sacrifice according to what the law of the Lord said. And in this case, there's a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now this is a concession. This is not the originally prescribed. Sacrifice because the other ones were an expensive one. And so his mom and dad were clearly not a people of means. And this shows us, again, Jesus is humble. He's willing to pour himself out, not only to say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna become a man, but I'm gonna be the most powerful man. I'm gonna go to the family with the mansion and all the horses and the donkeys and whatnot. He goes to a lowly family, albeit a very, a holy one, A family that has their wits about them. They're consecrated, but they're a. They're not a well to do family, and I think that's so special. That's so insightful because it shows us the depths to which the Lord, the Son of God went to save us. He wasn't content just to be a man. He went to be a lowly man. I love that. Well, let's pray and they'll be done with this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. God, you are so good to condescend in the incarnation. So good to send Christ the son of God for us so that we might have peace with you. That he became the prince of peace for us that have come to know you through faith and repentance. And so God, we are grateful as we read this, even to see his qualification that you preserved as Mary Joseph took this baby, their newborn their firstborn sons of the temple to have him circumcised, to have him dedicated before you to offer the things that needed to be offered in accordance with the law. We see that you're even at work towards our salvation, our redemption through these early days in the life of Jesus. And so we're so grateful for that and humbled by that and pray that we would live faithfully in response to the good news of the gospel, that we have peace with you because of Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll keep your new Bibles and tune in again tomorrow, which is Sunday for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you. Bye bye.

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