Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Difficult Bible Passages - Part 2 - FF S2 E12
18 Plays13 days ago
In this episode we continue our discussion about Bible passages that are hard to understand. Scripture like how to punish a woman who goes "below the belt" in defending her husband; how does healing work; Have gifts ceased? Listen in for more!
Email us: Dads@PreacherDad.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:13
Speaker
Well, hello, welcome to Fatherhood Friday brought to you by the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared and I am the Preacher Dad and I'm glad you've made it to join us today. We're going to be discussing difficult Bible passages that sort of make us kind of scratch our head and go, what's going on?
00:00:28
Speaker
Why is that in the Bible? What does this really mean? So I hope that we give you something to think about today and you enjoy this
Sponsorship and Invitation
00:00:36
Speaker
time together. I also want to remind you that this podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship.
00:00:42
Speaker
Cornerstone Fellowship is the small little country church out in the middle of nowhere, but we sure love Jesus and we would love for you to come and love Jesus with us. Let us love on you some and enjoy our fellowship with you.
00:00:55
Speaker
So you can check us out online at cornerstonefellowship.org. dash ga.org. That's cornerstonefellowship dash ga.org.
00:01:06
Speaker
And we would love to see you on our next opportunity to worship. So let's go ahead and start Fatherhood Friday now. We sure appreciate you. Have a great day.
00:01:20
Speaker
All right.
Cultural Implications of Biblical Stories
00:01:25
Speaker
Deuteronomy 25, 11 to 12. It's an interesting one. If two men, a man and his countrymen, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and sees it and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand.
00:01:45
Speaker
You shall show no pity.
00:01:50
Speaker
Seems rough.
00:01:53
Speaker
and she you know Don't fight dirty. Well, that's the my first thought was, was she just helping her husband or is she she are she doing more?
00:02:04
Speaker
what's What's the dynamic here? Again, i' it's been a while since I've read this passage. is it A man and his country man. Okay, so two it's two guys fighting. yeah it Yeah. Two Jews fighting each other.
00:02:16
Speaker
One of them has a wife who decides that she will come rescue her man by taking the other man by his family jewels. And ah i don't I guess just grabbing a hold that doesn't say anything about damaging them or causing harm. That's going to happen for sure. I think no the commentary that I read was was speaking on that, Jared. It said she it was it had to have been more than just fighting dirty.
00:02:44
Speaker
like she was It was a dishonorable like oh assault. And she was trying to permanently damage you know him and his ability to reproduce. And and basically, it could be you know she by doing that, you're stopping his stopping his lineage and his place in Israel. like You're ruining his life if you permanently damage him. But what happens if the dude does that? like Through the the course of the the fight, ah perhaps he's not as talented, so he goes in for the tactical. like What's... what's
00:03:16
Speaker
I guess that's sort of understood. It's like if you've got two guys in a knife fight, it's understood one of them is probably going to lose or they're both going to get cut up a little bit. But if somebody comes up and stabs one guy in the back, well, that's a dishonorable thing to do, and that's that's you know catching them unawares.
00:03:34
Speaker
i The only thing that I can imagine that would be a the relevant factor as to why that passage would be in there is that there's some sort of sacred meaning behind that particular element of the body that even in combat is still meant to be off limits.
00:03:51
Speaker
the the there's And you can fill in the blanks as to why that's sacred, but given the what we know here in the passage, it's a husband and wife, so there is a commitment of some kind, that that somehow that the the engagement in that part in another man is still in some way a violation of that, even if it's meant for good, even if it's meant to protect.
00:04:15
Speaker
But the there's a ah sacredness in that element that still needs to be honored and and preserved. So theoretically, then, if she came along with a frying pan and just clocked him in the head or something, all's fine.
00:04:26
Speaker
All's fine. No problem. You can keep all your fingers. But if she takes him by his most vulnerable position, then she's got to lose a hand. Because it's a violation of the marriage in some way.
00:04:41
Speaker
Now, was should that necessarily be the rule of the land today? i i would not believe so. um i i I would separate myself out from this being you know something that ought to come into Christian Western civilization. but the ah I don't think I'm going to advocate for this at the state legislature. As far as the meaning as to why this would show up for Levitical law for the people of Israel, i I would imagine that there's some sort of sexual sacredness that's meant to be portrayed through this. But i I would have to study that a whole lot further in order to have that as a firm belief. You would but you would have to you would have to say that it would have something to do with sexual yeah sacredness. Because why wouldn't it say just she attacks him? It's specifically talking about that particular part of of his of his being, yeah of his person.
Purpose of Challenging Passages
00:05:31
Speaker
So that that would have to be significant. And it's not even saying that you can't attack there. It's just saying you can't go in and grab a fistful. You've got to get a stick first and then go to town. That's fine.
00:05:43
Speaker
So. feel maybe yeah it Maybe it's assumed too that that all the women had sharp fingernails as well I wonder how common of a thing this was in the region where this has to be part of the... Why do you have to say this? yeah yeah Why do you have to have a label on a toaster that says, do not use this in the bathtub? Why? f Well, because somebody did it one time.
00:06:11
Speaker
This is that warning label in the Bible for sure. so All right. let's Let's go to the next one. um Tony, do you want you me to keep going or you want you want to throw out the other one?
00:06:22
Speaker
You can keep going. okay If we've got time at the end, I'll throw in a
Faith, Prayer, and Healing
00:06:25
Speaker
couple more. So this is when God was seeking to put to put Moses to death. It says in Exodus 4, 24 and 25, Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
00:06:40
Speaker
Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet. And she said, You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me. So I put that one on there just because it was like, it was Moses and God was trying to put him to death.
00:06:57
Speaker
That was tough for me. What'd you think? What does death mean to the Lord?
00:07:04
Speaker
It's perfect communion for those that are his. that's We see death as a complete judgment of a failure. It's not always. Sometimes death is a mercy to to be able to end the race. especially for an old man. Moses didn't even enter his ministry until he was an old man.
00:07:22
Speaker
So I, a obviously in this particular case, God did not go through with it. And that's something that he's done a number of times, even with Abraham. you're portraying death as if it was ah ah a mercy or a blessing that God was trying to bring to Moses.
00:07:37
Speaker
What I'm saying is that there's an, i'm I'm not saying it's not a judgment. What I'm saying is that there's a broader element to it where it's not this final thing for God and Moses. It's God saying your race is finished. It's not God saying you're going to hell now. It's different. um it's I think that same thing exists with Christians today. that there's you know If you're a Christian in rebellion and you constantly violate the law of God and expect that his infinite mercy is just always going to be there to repeatedly show up and you can say your magic prayer and he'll forgive you and wash it all away. If you live in constant rebellion, you're constantly regarding sin in your heart. I don't think there's anything that protects you from God deciding to take you out of the race.
00:08:19
Speaker
And I, it could be a similar scenario here with Moses where the, the thought on the field or the thought that beat is being portrayed is that God is frustrated and tired of Moses' rebellion and ready to take him out of the race.
00:08:33
Speaker
but at God's mercy is also always present. And that was what won the won the narrative in this particular moment. I have a thought on this. you know This was pre-Sinai. This was before the law of Moses, the before the Ten Commandments. There was not that many laws given to the descendants of Abraham at this time. But there was one very important one. There's a couple others, I think, but one was circumcise your sons on the eighth day.
00:09:06
Speaker
Now Moses would have been taught that as a child. At this point, he's 80 years old. And and all you know but he left is he left Egypt when he was 40.
00:09:19
Speaker
So from the time he's born and time he's 40, he would have been taught most likely, he would have been circumcised. He would have been taught about the covenant of circumcision circumcision that God made with Abraham And how important it was for all of his all male descendants to be circumcised. And Moses did not do it to his sons.
00:09:42
Speaker
And that is significant. that that's a a you Like you're saying, Tony, that is a rebellion against his identity as a Hebrew male. And his wanting to cut off that covenant from his his own descendants.
00:09:59
Speaker
stopping it at him and I'm not going to, my boys are not going to become Hebrews because, you know, Hebrews are all slaves and, you know, whatever decision, whatever motivated him to make that decision, he definitely violated one of God's very important sacred commandments to the descendants of Abraham.
00:10:14
Speaker
And so this was not a little thing. And I think it incensed the Lord and he was coming to bring judgment upon Moses and Zipporah somehow knew that this was the issue.
00:10:29
Speaker
um somehow saw the Lord approaching and knew exactly what to do. And she went circumcised her sons. And of course she would have been mad at him because he should have done this when they were eight days old.
00:10:42
Speaker
It wouldn't have been so hard. it they God designed her bodies to not bleed that much on the eighth day. And, ah you know, it would have been a lot easier than the age of his sons at that point.
00:10:54
Speaker
And she had to do it instead of him doing it. You know, it makes complete sense when you read it in that context for me, that God would have been mad at him. God would have thought he deserves, oh, that's it. I thought he could go, but nope, he he wouldn't even circumcise his sons before he headed back to Egypt. I'm going to kill him.
00:11:12
Speaker
um And so then Zipporah had to do it. It's just a picture of passivity in a marriage relationship and the the problems that it causes when a man is passive. And just doesn't fulfill his responsibilities before the Lord. Anyway, those are my thoughts.
00:11:26
Speaker
That's very good. Can we do one more? are we might yeah right Real quick on that last one there. i I don't remember. Moses had two wives, right? Wasn't one one of them from Egypt and one of them Zipporah?
00:11:39
Speaker
No. No? Zipporah was, as my understanding is, Zipporah was his first wife. why i He did have another wife later, i think.
00:11:50
Speaker
I think he had two, but I can't remember the timeline on those and who his kids were with. ah i'm fairly certain there was at least I'm fairly certain there were two. um i think its I think that he had another wife after Zipporah had passed away.
00:12:05
Speaker
that That might be the case. i'm not I'm not certain on that timeline. So it says, interpretations suggest a second wife, an unnamed Kushite Ethiopian woman mentioned in Numbers 12.
00:12:20
Speaker
um, refers to her, as her as beauty. And anyway, maybe so. But it very well could have been in the, in the life cycle there. They didn't overlap. i I just don't know. I don't, I don't remember enough about that, how that works.
00:12:37
Speaker
The Disney movie didn't show me. All right.
00:12:43
Speaker
like you know all right All right. Let's go back. And this might be the last one. I'm not sure, but let's go back to the new Testament. And, um, James 5, a couple of things stand out that it's it's hard for for us that are not extremely charismatic to to get our minds wrapped around. um ah James 5, 13 through 16, I think.
00:13:10
Speaker
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church.
00:13:20
Speaker
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.
00:13:31
Speaker
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. So um first I'll just say like I've seen elders at a church lay in their hands and praying for someone, obviously.
00:13:49
Speaker
that that they would um overcome this battle with whatever disease. um i have not seen them anoint someone with oil. um And then it and it was, that's just one little thing I thought about. And then also it's either the prayer of faith. It doesn't say prayer of faith might save the one who is sick.
00:14:09
Speaker
It says will save. And then is it talking about physically healing the person or is it talking about spiritually? Or is it talking about both?
00:14:22
Speaker
What you got?
00:14:25
Speaker
So when I was growing up, at least a part of my my high school years, my dad was a pastor and he practiced this. With a oil? Yep. he would use He would use olive oil and extra virgin because we were Christians. Right.
00:14:44
Speaker
Hey adventurers, ready to level up your outdoor game? At Goose Feet Gear, they're committed to keeping you crazy warm without weighing you down. I've known the founder and owner Ben Smith for nearly two decades and his commitment to quality is outstanding.
00:15:00
Speaker
Their custom down socks, jackets and pants are made in the USA and packed with premium 850 plus fill power goose down. Perfect for backpacking, camping or hunting.
00:15:14
Speaker
tailored to you with 10% off. If you use the promo code fatherhood, check out goosefeetgear.com and feel the ultralight difference.
00:15:25
Speaker
That's goosefeetgear.com.
00:15:32
Speaker
It wasn't any great big to do or anything. He would just put a big, a little dabble on his fingertip and then just rub it right across the forehead of whoever it was we were praying for.
00:15:43
Speaker
and I don't remember a lot of details about of most of those instances. I do remember there was one lady that we prayed for um who had been told she would never have kids and she ended up getting pregnant. um And that was that was a huge, huge blessing for her, for her family, a huge sign of what they, and I would believe this too, that you God intervened. um the Where this goes astray is I think a lot of times people place their faith in the process instead of in Christ.
00:16:17
Speaker
And the idea is starts to become, if I can you just follow these mechanics the right way, then I can expect literally anything. And the problem with that is not not every sickness is meant to be taken away.
00:16:32
Speaker
um And that's that was a part of the way that my dad would pray, is that we would pray for whatever outcome that we would desire, But he would also pray that whatever outcome was going to happen, that we would know how it fit within the plan of God.
00:16:46
Speaker
There was still a submission in that, that, hey, this is, we know that this is a sickness, but we don't know if this is a sickness that God intends to use to be able to take away from you to draw glory to himself in this moment or to keep you with so that you learn patience and endurance and faithfulness and other things that can only happen through trial.
00:17:07
Speaker
Um, And as we we just don't know where any of those mechanics are. And I don't think that that's a faithless prayer. I think that that is an honest prayer because we don't we don't typically know how God's mind is going to unfold on these things.
00:17:18
Speaker
All we know is that he absolutely can still do these things. He can do these miracles. He can provide. He can overcome what doctors say is impossible. And he does it often. um And so I don't think that the...
00:17:31
Speaker
um passage here is reflecting on the salvation of the individual who's involved. think that it's a reference to God's literal physical healing on ailments, ah that from time to time, the reason that ailment exists is so God can take it away through the prayers of faithful men to be able to glorify his name. And I i think that that still exists. I don't think you have to throw a snake at each other and in order to be able to get, you know God's Holy Spirit riled up enough to intervene. I don't think that you have to do anything crazy or wild, but I do think that trying to present yourself humbly to the Lord and submit to the process of I'm going to the people of the church, the leadership of the church, the elders, to submit myself to them. And confession is absolutely a part of that too, to try to to get my life in right standing with God, to be circumspect about why this is here. If this is something related to bad decisions, to poor lifestyle, to sin, whatever it is, to confess that. and to try to be right before God and to ask for his his forgiveness and mercy to take away this physical ailment.
00:18:35
Speaker
He can take away our sins. He can certainly take away ailments. um that That would be, you know, we we know from the story of the paralytic that that is the lesser of the miracles, to heal a physical body he rather than to heal the soul. And we know God heals the souls. We see that miracle done way more often in churches where people are able to rebuke a former lifestyle and able to be restored. So I'd I think this is still an active thing. I think this is something that churches ought to do.
00:19:04
Speaker
so go ahead. Yeah, real quick. So I completely agree with you. And i think it is we get we get tied up in the in the process. are we you know we Are we confessing the sins at the right time? Are we anointing with the right kind of oil? Are we doing all this just right? Did I use enough? Did I say the right words?
00:19:22
Speaker
did yeah Did I rub the genie's bottle the right way? I think everyone would say, we know someone. who has prayed in faith, knowing that God can heal somebody.
00:19:33
Speaker
Like we know God can, and you're praying in Jesus's name that he will heal that person. Yeah. And he doesn't. Yeah. And, um, I think that could be a stump. That's a stumbling block for some people.
00:19:46
Speaker
but would Okay. So I have a thought about that. You know, my mother passed away a couple of years ago and we prayed earnestly that she'd be healed. And, You know, we we did all the things, and I agree with you, Tony. I believe this is still something the Christians should do, that it still sometimes results in a physical healing.
00:20:04
Speaker
But I do believe that my mother today is more healed than she ever was in her entire life. And so the the Scripture doesn't say when they will be healed or how they will be raised up.
00:20:16
Speaker
We look at that and we think of it in a physical way. And I think that in general, that's what is meant. But ultimately, there could be a dual meaning here. And that is that, you know, that person is going to be healed regardless if they are a believer in Jesus Christ. They're going to be healed. not You know, they may be healed of their physical ailment. But, well, no, they will be healed of their physical ailment eventually.
00:20:43
Speaker
It might happen in this world. It might have to wait till the next world, but it's going to happen. um And I think that, you know, that's the part that I struggle with the most in this passage when it says the prayer of faith will heal them.
00:20:58
Speaker
ah Because that I just wrestle because there are times when the person is not healed in this life. But then I stopped to think, well, but they were healed eventually. I mean, God did eventually get to them.
00:21:10
Speaker
you know not that he's too busy and can't get to them, but just that in his perfect plan and his sovereign sovereignty over the world, he knows exactly when and how people should be healed.
00:21:21
Speaker
and ah And sometimes he he says no. And you know we have to be willing to trust in him in spite of those no's and and just be willing to say, look, I guess I just don't understand completely. i believe God can heal. I believe that he wants to, but If he doesn't, there must be a really good reason. You know, i I really appreciate The Chosen. I know a lot of people, there's some controversy over that show, but um there's a scene in there where Jesus is speaking to one of his disciples who is portrayed as having a ah limp and a physical ailment, that and and Jesus is healing everybody else. And he finally goes to Jesus and says, why aren't you healing me?
00:22:06
Speaker
And, you know, what's the deal? And you know Jesus gives a profound response, which is based upon the scriptures. And essentially, he says, I can't trust everyone with a pain like this, but I can trust you. and I can trust that you are going to bring greater glory to my Father in heaven because of this ailment still being part of your life. This thorn in the flesh. I mean, of anybody who would have the prayer of faith, surely it would be Paul. right And yet Paul prayed the thorn in the flesh to be removed, and it was not.
00:22:37
Speaker
So there has to be a place in our our faith and our understanding for God to say, nope, that's not for you. But it doesn't remove our our responsibility to obey the instructions of James 5.
00:22:51
Speaker
Well, there this is, Votie Bauckham used to have a ah phenomenal saying in response to this kind of stuff. and he he's ah He's a Calvinist. I don't pay attention to him. ah He's probably not a Calvinist now. The...
00:23:06
Speaker
the ah yeah Yeah, you're right. one One of three of our viewers will get that. um So the there's there's ah ah and i'm I'm probably not going to say this correctly ah to 100%, but essentially the meat of what he was saying is that it um it does please the heart of God whenever he heals one of his saints, but often it pleases him more when his saints suffer well.
00:23:36
Speaker
And the the truth The truth of that is hard because we take suffering as though it's something to be avoided and something to be taken away at all costs. In heaven, that's true. That will be the the condition that we're in. but We're not in heaven. We're in earth, in a very broken earth that's still quite a bit infested with the the curse of sin.
00:23:58
Speaker
And one of the best ways that we are able to connect with those that are still under the curse is to suffer as they did. Jesus is the absolute best proof of that. That was his ministry. He didn't spare a single thing from himself in terms of the suffering of humanity. um He came in and experienced all of it so that he could identify with us and so that he could take it away.
00:24:20
Speaker
And that's part of our mechanism in the church in the way that we minister as well, is that we understand in the suffering of the world we're in. And we we don't find ourselves um exempt from that in any particular way. And the example of Paul,
00:24:35
Speaker
ah is certainly a powerful clarity lens on this type of a passage that whenever we're praying for healing and God promises to deliver healing, that healing may not necessarily mean taking away the pain. Healing may mean reforming the way you're thinking about the pain.
00:24:54
Speaker
Healing could just as much mean that your spirit is the thing that's broken, not your body. And your spirit needs to be realigned with the purposes of the Lord. And that's the point of the prayer. is to realign us with what God's mission is for us. And if God's mission so pleases that this thing would be an impossible thing that could happen now to shake the foundation of somebody who's able to observe it, to hopefully hopefully help them be able to find faith in God, then that's going to happen.
00:25:20
Speaker
That might not happen. A lot of times that doesn't happen. What happens instead is the faith of the person enduring changes, the perspective of the person who has to endure changes. Sometimes for the worse, that's true, but a lot of times not.
00:25:34
Speaker
A lot of times there's there's an element to this that clarifies the meaning of the things that you thought were important in your life and and brings you into a better perspective of how you're meant to serve.
00:25:45
Speaker
And there's there is always a point to pain. There's always a point to suffering. There's always a point to all of it. And the ultimate goal of the of the church, the ultimate goal of our us as a body is to find God's meaning for it, to find the mission,
00:26:00
Speaker
and to align with it and to follow along with it as best we possibly can. And in Paul's case, he was at least wise enough to know that God intended for him to have the ailment, the thorn in the flesh. God intended for it to stay.
00:26:12
Speaker
It was never a God can't do this or God doesn't love me because he didn't. It's God designed this. God wants this. And that is the surrender that these prayers are meant to bring you to, is that if God can heal this, he can. And if he doesn't, It's not because he's left you or forgotten you. It's because there's a very specific way this is meant to be a part of your life.
00:26:35
Speaker
Find it.
00:26:39
Speaker
Amen. Amen.
Spiritual Gifts and Belief
00:26:41
Speaker
I was going to say one more, one more thing about this topic and then, and then come over to you, Jared, but, um, we got to be careful as we're, if we, if we think gifts continue today, or if we think yeah ah all the the spiritual gifts have ceased, um,
00:26:58
Speaker
I guess in the past I have fallen into the, into the cease camp, but like way far into the cease camp where like nothing at all can happen. Well, that's wrong. And I also think it's wrong on the other side where you go lay your hands on everybody and you're healing, you know, it's, that's too much on you. And, you know, we don't heal anybody. God does anyway. So I just wanted just to say, we got to be careful that both extremes are bad because we know God can,
00:27:25
Speaker
um You know, he can heal. He can. ah A pastor like Jeff Durbin, he was preaching outside of ah an abortion clinic one time. And a guy who only speaks Spanish heard him and came up and thanked him for his message because him and his wife decided not to abort their their baby. And he's like, well, how in the world did you hear me? How did you understand me? He's like, oh, you were speaking in Spanish.
00:27:54
Speaker
we Obviously, he wasn't speaking in Spanish. Jeff Durbin does not speak Spanish. And so God can still do those things. Yeah. um And I just, yeah, i just want to mention that we just got be careful because both both extremes are, I think, are dangerous.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Amen. Amen. Well, guys, thank you very much. I think that's all the time we have. In fact, that's more than the time we have. We're so glad that that all of you joined us. for this episode tonight and wrestling through some difficult ones. We didn't even get to probably half of our list. There's a whole lot of them out there that are are challenging.
00:28:31
Speaker
And so we hope that you'll send us your favorite ones ah and ones that you have questions about. Maybe we can help you wrestle through the answers. Maybe Tony has obscurely done a Bible study on that difficult passage for you. So please send those to dads at preacherdad.com. You can send your questions or comments to dads, D-A-D-S, at preacherdad.com.
00:28:58
Speaker
Or you can make a comment on this video or on this podcast, wherever you may be listening. And we would sure love to hear from all seven of you. Anytime you find time to write us, we would love it.
00:29:08
Speaker
But we sure are grateful for you those of you that are out there.
Closing and Listener Engagement
00:29:12
Speaker
And we encourage you to keep on looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, and make sure that you trust him even when you don't understand him.
00:29:21
Speaker
Keep on trusting and keep on turning to him. All right. We appreciate you. We love you. and we'll see you next time on Fatherhood Friday. God bless.