Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. And happy Tuesday to you all. It is Tuesday. Yeah. Yes it is. Yeah. Here's a question that I have for you, and we won't go into detail with this because of the, oh, we're going into detail the of audience. You don't even know what I'm about to say. I'm doing it, whatever it is here. Puberty, that's what I'm gonna say. What does that mean? Liberty? Liberty, puberty. It's a commercial. The the EMU guy. I don't know what you're talking about. Anyways, whatever. This is one, another one of those. Bob, uncle. Liberty. Liberty, car Insurance, I, puberty, whatever. People out there listening know some of, two people know anyways the Epstein files. Ooh. Should we care as Christians that they are unsealed? And is there a yes and a no answer to that or is there a right concern and a wrong concern that we can have as Christians? I will hit the ball that you're teeing up here and I'm gonna say it's both okay. It's a yes and a no and I'll offer my 2 cents and I can't wait to hear your 98. I, I, I've tracked it from a distance and I know that there's concerns about the hoity-toity in our world using their power and their prestige and their resources to do untoward things. I think that's a fair concern. We should care about justice on. Across all levels of society, especially those who are given the stewardship of greater power and greater resources. And so I think there's a right sense of we want justice. If these guys are able to use their power and prestige to hide from man's justice, we should care and we should try to do something about it if possible. On the other hand, if your news stream is constantly stoking the fires of your anger and of your discontentedness, it's very likely that you're being manipulated as opposed to having a biblically informed co care for the cause of justice. And that's probably more likely the case for most of us because all of us have news sources that don't present bare facts. They're presenting an angle and a perspective that's meant to. Create something in you. If their goal is your eyeballs on their website, looking at their ads and enjoying their services, then they're making more money off of you. And so I don't, I'm not suspicious of every single news outlet, but they're there to make money. They're not there to bless me. They're not there to present God's glory. And so I'm always a bit suspicious of those things. And so I would say take everything with a grain of salt. And trust it to the Lord insofar as you have a, an ability to do something about it. And maybe you're in a position that's unique in this particular season of life where you could do something, you could talk to your governing official. Maybe you have a great relationship with P President Trump. Okay maybe you should care more than we do, but for most of us, I would say it's probably not worth your time and attention. And all it's doing is providing salacious details for you to conjure up in your mind. And it really doesn't do. Any good. What would you say? PPJI would agree with those statements that she just made in that moment right there in the last 20 seconds. That's what I'm saying. Record. Oh, we got a record. Record, yeah. Yeah, same. I think it, it beco it can become a form of voyeurism for us when we're wanting the names because we want to, who is it who's on the list? I want to know that. If the, if that's our motivation, then it's a wrong motivation. If our motivation is, what the names need to be unsealed given to the people that can do something about it. And justice needs to be done. Okay, great. But to your point, I think the majority of people out there are like, we just want the, we want the juicy details. We want to know who's on the list. We want to know what that list looks like. Let it I think it just reminds me what we've read in the Old Testament about. Where a trust is, the idea of some trust in chariots, some trust in horses. We're gonna trust in the name of the Lord our God, some trust in princes, to deliver them. There's a lot of speculation out there about why hasn't it been released? And maybe who's on the list and are there. But C word is tossed around all over the place. C word conspiracy. Yeah, totally. And people are saying there's Republicans on the list and there's Democrats on the list. And just let that be a reminder that. Our trust is in God at the end of the day. And it may be that there's both sides of the aisle on this list, it may be that there's significant people from both sides of the aisle on this list and that's not gonna change anything about who God is or what he's doing with us or with the church or what we're supposed to do. Yeah. On this, it just reminds us, made of our trust is in God. Our trust is not in an administration, it's not a human being. Our trust is in God. Yeah. And it really does raise the question what can you do? Realistically, what can you do? You could pray. That's powerful, that's effective. You can pray. Yeah. What may, I don't know what really though, what could you do unless you're like in the f fbi, I, and you can go, that's, go and arrest somebody. You have the authority and the capacity to actually act upon what may be, and I'll use the word may. It's possible that it's a conspiracy, but even in this own book that we're gonna look at today and Isaiah. Don't call conspiracy, all that. This people calls conspiracy, right? Don't fear what they fear. We could be fretful and concerned and ringing our fists and saying, man, this is awful. This is an abdication of justice and on, but really what can you do? What you can do is pray. Yeah. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and that's where we're gonna get our peace from. It's not gonna get, even if they were to make arrests and they arrested every top governing official, every hoity-toity person with a lot of money and a lot of resources, they arrested everybody. You're not gonna have peace, right? You're not gonna feel like, oh, finally the kingdom has arrived. You're just gonna be looking to the next thing, right? That's on the new cycle. For sure. Trust in Jesus. Yep. That's a good word. Let's turn to Isaiah and talk about Isaiah 28 through 30, which is our reading for today. So chapter 28, we are focusing in on the judgment against the Syria. Now, before we hit record, you said, ah the woes the woe chapters. Yeah. I don't. I don't see the word wo in my Bible. Pastor Rob hold on a second there, cowboy. Let me point him out to you, Bucky. Okay. By the way, this week was all cowboy theme. Why didn't you never come, showed up to, to VBS as a cowboy. Why didn't I? Yeah, that's so low hanging fruit. I don't often dress as a cowboy, but this is your area, bro. If there was anyone who's gonna dress up as a cowboy. It was you really? I was. I was disappointed. People were chanting in the crowd, asking people were not chanting, people were chanting, saying PPJ Dan. And they were also noticing that you weren't dressed up as a cowboy, which it just felt like it's not bad, man. I don't know, man. You're from this area. Yes. Have you lived in Dallas for very long? Chapters? Chapter 28 through 33 are the woe chapters. Okay. And the reason why you don't see them there is because it's represented by the word ah, it's ah. In the Hebrew you've heard this word before, although it's often translated. But the word is oi. So you might hear someone say if they're Jewish like me, they might say that on occasion the word oi is ah or wo and depending on the context is really gonna depend on how it's translated. So here it seems like the translators see this less as a de declaration of judgment and more as a warning call wo has a stronger connotation of forthcoming judgment. You are judged for this reason, ah, feels a bit softer. So even though it's the same word, it has a little bit of flexibility, just like all. All of our words do. There's a fluidity to our words. They have parameters. It's not freewheeling, it's not whatever you want it to mean, but that's what. So that's what I meant. So woes are chapters 28 to 33. Gotcha. That's helpful. Ah. The woe in chapter 28 is about the coming judgment, and it's gonna be Assyria. If you look down at verse two, it says, behold the Lord has one who is mighty and strong, like the storm of hail, a destroying tempest. This seems to be the Assyrian army. And now there is a near term in the long term element here that you can draw out pretty much across the board with Isaiah, where it's yes, this can refer to the day of the Lord. It can also refer to the short-term things that are coming. And I think. It's more helpful for us to think about the immediate context 'cause that's what Isaiah's original audience would've gone to and been preparing for. And that is the judgment coming from Assyria. But it's interesting because the judgment coming from Assyria is gonna be terrible for some but beautiful for others. Look at verse five in that day, the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people. So there are gonna be some there, as we've just alluded to in yesterday's episodes. Spoken of before that look at the judging wrath of God as something that's beautiful, even as it's being poured out. And that's only possible if you are part of his faithful remnant. If you're not being judged. If you're not being judged exactly. For the others, it's gonna be awful. It's terrifying. He's talks about the. This interesting interchange here in verse 10, he says, for it is precept upon precept. Line upon line here a little there, a little the Hebrew there is it's conveying baby talk, basically, or the way that you would teach a, an infant to speak. And so what he's indicting them is saying. That's how they're looking at and accusing the prophecies of being just pedantics, just minor stuff that is, is like foolish talk something that you teach a child. And yet verse 13, the word of the Lord is gonna become just that to them, God's judgment of them. Not only with the Assyrians, but also with the way that he's gonna prevent them from understanding things. Think Isaiah chapter six. The, you, I'm sending you to a people and you're gonna say, here, and they're not gonna hear that. You're gonna say, see, and they're not gonna see. And so God's judgment is coming upon them and they're gonna not be able to understand even the things that are being taught to them. It's gonna seem like baby talk to them as it's coming outta the mouth of the prophet. From here he speaks of the covenant that they've made, verse 15, with death that I, it seems to be a reference to Egypt as, as best as we can understand here, because the people sought help from Egypt rather than. Turning to the Lord again, that they're looking for help there. And that was true of both the northern Kingdom and the Southern kingdom. Specifically the Southern Kingdom. Looked to Egypt a lot to try to avoid the problem that was coming, and yet it was going to come anyways. Verse 16, I'm the one who has laid a foundation in Zion at. A stone a tested stone, a precious cornerstone in a sure foundation. This is Jesus, right? And this is applied to Jesus in Matthew 21, in Mark chapter 12 in one, Peter chapter two. And he is going to have a future kingdom that's gonna be marked by justice and righteousness. Verse 17. This is the future millennial kingdom. But in the meantime though, that future kingdom is coming. In the meantime, verse 22, you might be tempted to. To scoff or to mock. He said, don't do that lest your bonds become strong. For I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, the God of host against the whole land. It is coming, in other words. And so he calls them in verse 23 to give ear. Though again, Isaiah six, they're not gonna listen to him. But chapter 28 is about the impending destruction that's coming and it's also anticipating the future righteousness that's ultimately gonna be established from the. Cornerstone from Jesus the Messiah, who's gonna rule a kingdom with justice and righteousness. One of the things I love about his rulership and his reign is the contrast in verses 15 and 16. It says here, that we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter. So God is warning them about the kind of security they're taking. Security. What is that? Is your phone talking to us? Siri? Oh, Siri's eavesdropping on us, bro. Stop. Stop. That is the FBI. They heard us talking about the Epstein files. How did supposed to be my voice? I don't know. Did you hack it? So God's rulership, it's truthful in contrast to making lies, refuge and falsehood taking shelter. In that he says that the reign in the Messiah is the opposite. It is the contrast. It is the light to their darkness. And it says here in verse 17, he'll make justice the line righteousness, the plumb line, hail will sweep away. Here we go again. The refuge of lies. The same verbiage there in verse 15. So I love the way that scripture paints Jesus leadership. It is not falsehood. It is not a shoddy security. It is truth. It is justice, it is righteousness. It is everything that we long for and is found perfectly and most beautifully in Christ. Yeah. Chapter 29 pastor, who is Ariel, because we know her as The Little Mermaid, but, ah, Ariel. Ariel, ah, Ariel. Whoa. Oi. Oy. Ariel. Ariel is likely a nickname for Jerusalem. Yeah. And we know that much. What? What God intends to communicate by the nickname is a little harder to diagnose because a name could mean a hearth. It could mean lion of God. There's a lot of things it could mean. Yeah. But whatever it does mean, it's a point. To Jerusalem. Yeah. Yeah. And so this is the judgment that he's turning against Jerusalem. Now in verse three, I will encamp against you all around. I'll besiege you with towers and I will raise siege works against you. Now, it's important for us to remember, we immediately think Babylon when we think. Judah, when we think Jerusalem, when we think of siege, when we think the downfall of Jerusalem judgment against Jerusalem, our mind goes to Babylon and to Nebuchadnezzar and rightfully so because that's what ultimately does happen. But here, this is still Assyria 7 0 1 BC under Akra, the Ssha and everything else that we're reading about in Second Kings that's gonna come and he's going to be siege the city and it's going to be a, an awful time for the people there. And chapter 29. He's referring to the fact that God is going to bring this judgment by the hand of the Assyrians against the people of Judah, and yet he's not gonna bring them to a full end. Look at verse eight. When a hungry man, dreams and behold, he is eating and awakes with hunger, and his hunger is not satisfied. Earth thirsty man. Dreams and behold, he's drinking wakes faint with his thirst, not quenched. So shall the multitude of the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. In other words, they're not gonna be. Their goal of destroying Jerusalem is not gonna be met. They're not gonna be satisfied because God is going to spare the city. They're gonna come right up to the neck of the people in the Southern Kingdom, and yet God is going to deliver them. At this point in time, are they gonna turn to God? Verse 13, the Lord said, because this people drawn near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, their heart is far from me and their fear of me as a commandment taught by men. Therefore, I will again do wonderful things with these people. Wait. What? What? Wonderful. In a bad way? Yes. Explain because, wonderful. When I read that, the exact opposite, I read that as God's judgment mixed with grace. I'll do wonderful things, wonderful as any positive. I'm gonna, I'm gonna upend what they think and then surprise them with mercy and grace and kindness, which I think fits the fact that they're delivered in 7 0 1. It, it does. Except here, the wonder upon wonder, the wisdom of the wise men shall perish. Their discerning discernment of the discerning men shall be hidden. So I still think there's a judging element there. Yeah. That's a fair point. I guess I, I understood it as God's deliverance. But you're right. That's fair because I think it is the deliverance, but then I think it's also, but they're not going to, this isn't gonna be effective, in other words. And so the wonder being the wonder of. Of terror, of being in of you can think something is wonderful in the sense of, oh, that's so wonderful. That's so great. And also something that's wonderful, as in it inspires wonder and awe and even terror in you as you consider it there. Yeah. Awe would've been a good word. Yeah. Wonderful. Sounds pleasant. Maybe they didn't use awe because you use awe. No, not ah, A WE. A HH. And then he goes on in verse 16 and he indicts them. He says, shall the potter be regarded as the clay, the thing that made save its maker? He did not make me, or the thing form save him who formed it. He has no understanding. So again, I think he's telling the people of Judah you still don't understand here, and yet you're the one trying to instruct me as to what is right and what is good. And this reminds us of Romans nine because that's what happens there in Romans nine. And Paul grabs the same imagery there. And we'll get there and that'll have its own podcast, which is a, a fun day in the future that you get to look forward to. Man. Verse 19 though. Can we just camp on that for just a quick second? Yeah. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord. I want that. Yeah, I want that. And notice here the kind of person that gets that fresh joy. I think about fresh bread. When you smell fresh bread, bacon in the oven, or you walk by one of those restaurants where they're cooking it up in their own ovens, it just WAPs through the air. And it's a smell of joy and happiness. And Christmas, I don't know what else to say. It's Christmas. It's so good. And here it says here, the people that get that fresh bread, that fresh joy in the Lord are those who are meek. It is those who are humble in spirit, those who rely and depend upon him. Those who acknowledge that. He defines them as the poor among mankind, not financially poor necessarily, but those who are spiritually poor. Jesus will say later on in the Sermon on the Mount, the blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God fresh joy in the Lord. And this is the same idea here captured in verse 19. I love that the meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord. If you want fresh joy. Humbly submit yourself to the Lord. Yeah, that's so good in, in fact, beginning in verse 17, really through the end of the chapter here, is in a lot of ways, I think, a depiction of what's happening in the millennial kingdom. These are the future blessings that are gonna be there, and that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book and outta their gloom and darkness. The eyes of the blind shall see. Verse 18. The ruthless shall come to nothing. The scoffers shall cease. Those who watch and do evil shall be cut off. I think this is looking forward to the reign of Christ on earth. The reign of the cornerstone from back in chapter 28 is described here, I think in chapter 29. Chapter 30, then we are ing the stubborn children. Whoa, ah, stubborn children, declares the Lord who carried a plan but not mine. And I think that's the plan of their returning to Egypt. Continuing to seek help there rather than trusting in God who set out there it is. Verse two. You don't have to think it's right there. Who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my direction? So they're trusting Egypt and they're not trusting God. They're turning there instead of turning to him, he says in verse three, therefore shall the protection. A Pharaoh turn to your shame. He then says about their humiliation, verse seven, Egypt's helps is gonna be worthless and empty, and therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still, and so God is gonna judge them. Yeah, again about. They're turning to Egypt rather than turning to him. And the reason being is their stubbornness. Verse nine, they are rebellious people, lying children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, do not see into the prophets. Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us. Smooth things and prophesy illusions. And so again they're putting their fingers in their ears saying la. We don't wanna listen to this. We don't want to hear this. Tell us things we want to hear. Instead the New Testament's gonna talk about, there's gonna come a time when men are gonna want. Preachers and teachers that are gonna itch their ears that are gonna tell them soothing things. And it's similar here with Israel. Like then is gonna be like the future to quote King Solomon. There's nothing new under the sun. People are like that as well. And then he goes on to talk about this breach in the high wall. Again, I think this is Assyria in him prophesying the fact that Assyria is coming against the people here. I was convicted by verse two verse one and two. Not that I'm. I'm setting up my own kingdom or trying to go to Egypt for alliance. That's good. I don't possess those resources, but I just thought, man, there are so many times that I just presume upon the Lord the thing that I think is the right path. And yet he tells us he charges them of going down and doing a certain thing without asking for his direction, without seeking his leadership and his will on the matter. And I thought of James chapter four of saying, not presuming upon the Lord to say I'm gonna do this or that, but really opening up your plans of the Lord and saying, Lord, if you will. We'll do this or that. We'll go to that city, we'll make a, we'll make a profit here and there. We'll establish this ministry program or we'll do this thing. We'll go on this vacation. Nothing wrong with making good plans, right? God's not charging them with being strategic. He's charging them with failing to talk to him first, failing to get his input and to get his direction. They carry out a plan but not his. And I think there's two things that he's talking about there. Number one, obviously his revealed will. He had clearly told them not to go to Egypt. He had given them every indication in his word not to go back to Egypt for their support and their guidance. But number two, there is a there is a subjective sense in which they should just open their plans to the Lord. Say, Lord, what do you wanna do? Yeah, Lord, how do you wanna lead us in this particular situation? So I think that's perfectly viable for you to take home today as you're reading through your Bible to recognize, man I wonder if I'm presuming upon the Lord. Now I remember I had one friend who would. Ask the Lord about what kind of t-shirt he should buy and whether he should wear the blue shoes or the red shoes or whatever else. I think you could take that too far. Yeah, that's my guess. Yeah. But I think the spirit is great honoring the Lord by saying, Lord, I want your input on my life. That's a great posture to have. So even if you do ask the Lord about your shoe color, I, maybe there's better things to pray about, but better that than not. Yeah. I think that's a better posture to have and I think the Lord would be pleased by that. Yeah. The rest of chapter 30 God does say, Hey, I still, I am gonna be gracious to you. And I think this, there's again, the near term, far term here, I think in the short term he's talking about he will deliver them from Assyria. In fact, he says that in verse 31. He says, the Assyrians will be terror stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod. We're going to read in two Kings 19 that the angel of the Lord's gonna come out and destroy 185,000 of the Assyrians. That are encamped against Israel, that are besieging Jerusalem there. And so that's what's here. But I think it's also he's pointing forward to the millennial kingdom that they, again, people are gonna dwell in Zion, they're gonna dwell in Jerusalem there, and this is gonna be a time of great prosperity for God's people. So there's short term with a Syria, but long term also looking forward to the millennial kingdom as well. It's exciting. Let's pray and then we will be done with this this episode. Yet we find it hard sometimes to fully wrap our minds around what was going on then and what goes on now, and yet we're grateful for things and insights like what Pastor Rod was just talking about seeking you and discerning your will. In our lives. And not just presuming upon you, that's part of having a high view of you, which we were talking about earlier as well. And so we want to have that, we want to approach you in that way. We want to trust you and we want to seek you and not presume, not assume what's not ours to to plan. And so help us to be a people that really does take our plan to you and say, if the Lord wills, let us do this. And if the Lord wills God, we wanna be a faithful bride to you until you call us home to be with you. And so we pray that we would be in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep you in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See ya. Bye.

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