In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts discuss their ongoing Bible study series, focusing on Matthew and Numbers. They address listener questions about the concepts of fairness and justice in the Bible, contrasting ancient Israelite understanding with modern perspectives. They also explore why Numbers 7 is so repetitive and the significance of Moses hearing God's voice. Lastly, they touch on the potential protective measures for women accused of adultery in biblical times. The episode aims to deepen understanding and encourage regular engagement with the Bible.

00:00 Welcome and Updates on Bible Study

01:20 Discussion on Equity and Fairness in Biblical Context

05:14 Exploring Numbers Chapter 7

12:02 Listener Comments and Questions

13:27 Closing Remarks and Prayer

14:13 Outro and Podcast Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody, welcome back to another

edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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What's up folks?

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We are back again on a Wednesday,

Wednesday morning if you're listening

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to this in the morning, but Pastor

Rod, you've got youth tonight and

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you guys are still in Matthew.

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Give us an update.

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Let us know where you're at

with the students right now.

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We're going to be in Matthew tonight.

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Thanks man.

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But in, in Matthew, you chapter eight

finished up the sermon on the mountain.

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We just finished chapter seven.

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Okay.

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We're now going to be in chapter eight.

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What comes next?

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And then nine after that.

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In fact, we are going

at an accelerated clip.

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We are now doing one chapter a week

because I've figured out on some really

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complicated math that I won't be able to

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So we have to speed it up a little bit.

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That'd be a long series.

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2029 and Matthew.

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I mean, I mean, it's, it,

it makes, it makes sense.

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It's a good book.

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It's worth, it's worth the pace,

but I don't want to go that long.

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So I'm going to speed it up a

tad bit and hopefully, hopefully

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it'll be good for everybody.

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Some of these students

would be gone by then.

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Yeah.

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I'd like for them to

hear the whole series.

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Yeah, that'd be good.

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And there's other books that

I want to tackle as well.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We're on pace to finish up the

gospel of John by the end of well,

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by the middle of May, basically.

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So we'll be finishing up John and

doing a summer series and then

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jumping into a new book in the fall.

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So it should be should be good for

us, but yeah, it's Wednesday midweek.

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Hopefully your week is going well so

far and you're in the word of God on a

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regular basis in benefiting from that.

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We had a question written in a couple

of notes, but one question that came

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in specifically on numbers five through

six, which we talked about in yesterday's

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episode dealing with the woman who was

Being charged with potential adultery

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in the issue in fairness and the

principles of fairness and rules and

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regulations the the person that wrote

in basically the gist of the question

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if I understand it correctly is Do we

have a greater awareness of the concepts

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of equity and fairness because of the

fullness of revelation that we possess

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as compared to what the Israelites would

have known or thought or had You at

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their time here in the book of numbers.

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And so the question basically appeals

to the idea of our idea of equity

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and fairness and justice are kind of

bedrocks of even American evangelicalism.

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And a lot of that is

rooted in Christianity.

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As its primary source, as opposed to

what the ancient Israelites knew of

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or thought of or conceived of at this

time in history, would they have had

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the same concern and passion for those

principles as we have today informed

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largely today by our Christian roots

and our American ideals of those things?

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It's a perceptive question.

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It's an interesting question.

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Pastor, I've got my own thoughts, but

I'd love to get your thoughts on that.

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Is, is, is that a good enough reason

for us to say that's why things

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seem unfair to us because we're

looking at them through 21st century

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Americanized with the fullness of

direct revelation in our possession

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versus what they had at their time?

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Well, yeah, that, that's what I was

trying to get at, at least in part,

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when I said, we're looking at this

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culture that doesn't have the same

kind of development that we've had.

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I mean, we've.

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Even had 2000 years of church history

where theologians have gone before

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us to study and to consider what

God's word says and how it applies.

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We have just war theory.

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We have ethics that have been

developed over the course of

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thousands of years now where we have

the full Canon at our disposal to

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learn how best to apply God's word.

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So yes, absolutely.

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I would affirm the insightful

observation that he made.

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And I would say he's,

he's absolutely right.

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It's just that on top of saying, okay,

well, God could have said to them.

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For the male and the female do this

in that polygamy, you know, no, no,

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on polygamy from the very start.

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It's only after thousands of years of

study and responses that we can say,

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well, okay, this is what we have in total.

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Why didn't he say it at this time?

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Well, I don't know an answer to that.

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I don't have an answer and

that's part of what I think

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makes us uncomfortable, right?

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Because the danger is I think that

what we have to warn against and and be

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careful of is that we don't fall prey to

the the open theist argument open theism

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is basically an argument that says God

doesn't know what's coming in the future

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Any more than you and I know what's

coming in the future and that's not what

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this person writing in was suggesting

at all They're not an open theist.

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They're not promoting that but To

what you were just saying God could

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have said those things back at this

time It's not as though God's idea of

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justice and equity and fairness have

been informed by American evangelicalism

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and Christianity God is the definition

of that which is fair and equitable

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and just as far as the the the people

Those concepts in their purest form.

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So God is, is not learning along with us.

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God is not progressing.

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He's not developing in his character.

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He is immutable.

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He is the same yesterday,

today, and tomorrow.

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And so there's nothing that is progressing

or changing or improving about God.

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He is perfect and has always been perfect.

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So his, his revelation is progressive.

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And in that sense.

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Yes, we as a society and people could

have progressed in our understandings

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that that is, is a valid point, but

we've got to be careful not to say

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that somehow God has, has improved.

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God has evolved over time and his

idea of what is, is right and fair

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and just has improved as well.

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Now he is immutable.

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He is the same yesterday, today,

and tomorrow, and there is no way in

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which he changes at all along the way.

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Well, let's jump into our text today.

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This may be one of our shorter

episodes here in numbers chapter seven.

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It's not a short chapter.

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It's 89 verses.

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It's a lot of, a lot of ink.

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Yeah.

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That's a lot of repetitive ink.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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A lot of redundant ink.

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In the chapter that the people bring

their offerings and in, in sacrifices

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for the dedication of the tabernacle.

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That's kind of the, the

gist of the chapter.

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That's right.

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Assuming your thoughts though about.

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Why it is so repetitive because he

could have said all the nations all the

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tribes did this And then listed off what

the, the offerings were and moved on.

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And it would have been a much

shorter chapter than it is, but 89

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verses with so much repetition, some

thoughts as to, to maybe why on that.

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Yeah, I guess there's a, there's several

takes on this, but the easiest and most

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obvious one would be that God honors the

individual gifts and God wants to, and to

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think, man, someone had to write this line

after line, repetition after repetition.

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And this was something that God

ordained for them to, to do.

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To capture and to have us read.

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In fact, one of my frustrations

with myself is that I was, I was

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going to say, okay, I get it.

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Let me just, I'll insert the names

and let me just scoot on along.

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But that's not what God

intended for me to do.

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The fact that it's here tells

me God wanted me to repeat it.

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And so I went through the whole process

and I read it and I used an audio Bible

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to help me just pace myself and keep

going so that I didn't lose stamina.

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But I read it and I read the

repetition and I thought, okay, this

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This is supposed to be this way.

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I'm supposed to feel this, but on

top of the fact that God wants us to

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individually note it, the repetition is

necessary for us to feel the weight of it.

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So it's, it's God honoring the gifts

individually, even though he, he respects

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it corporately, he's looking at all

their gifts, but our job is to go through

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the, to go through the mud, as it were

to say, I got to I got to hear this and

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feel this so that I can feel the weight

of what God is trying to communicate to

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me, which is that God really appreciates.

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He honors, if I can put it

this way, he honors gifts.

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He honors giving.

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He likes that his people

give to him generously.

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So I think there's something there

for us to learn in the new Testament.

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That is that God wants

us to be cheerful givers.

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That's something that we read in second

Corinthians chapter eight and nine.

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And there's something about that, that God

still, it warms his heart and probably in

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part because God himself is so generous.

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He loves when his kids

display that same attribute.

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Yeah.

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When you add everything up, you've

got these, you've got 12 silver

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plates, you get 12 silver basins,

you've got 12 golden dishes.

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12 bulls.

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And then we, the numbers go up from here.

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72 rams, 72 male lambs, a year old,

72 male goats, and 24 oxen here.

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And so this is a lot.

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Paul Wenham, who I think

is a, do you mean Gordon?

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Gordon?

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Is that, I said Paul Wenham.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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Yeah.

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Paul Gordon, Paul Gordon.

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I mean, we know him as Gordon,

you know, him personally as

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Paul, he goes by Paul in private.

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We're super close.

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So, you know, yeah.

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Anyways, he addresses here.

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He says, it seems that a theological

purpose underlines the wordiness to

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emphasize as strongly as possible That

every tribe had an equal stake in the

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worship of god And so I think that's

part of it too that that it's just

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saying this is for everybody This is

for all of israel and and when you

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read it Each tribe in the name of

each tribe you're reminded of that.

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I think verse 89 is significant too Moses

goes into the tent of meeting to speak

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with the lord and he hears the voice

speaking to him from above the mercy seat

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This is the this is the end This is what

everything was set up for to happen and

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this is what is happening right here is

moses is going in to do this and Moses

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had a unique role and that's probably

worth noting because we've talked about

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aaron as the high priest only being

Allowed to enter in once a year for

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the, the day of atonement, Moses had a

different relationship with the Lord.

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He had a, a, a greater level of intimacy.

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Remember, as we've already read

before in the Pentateuch that he

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spoke to God as a man would speak

with his friend face to face.

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And so Moses is unique here.

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He's allowed to go in

before the mercy seat here.

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It probably not unless he's

beckoned or summoned by God.

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He can't go in there flippantly, but

he does have a unique relationship

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and unique role there with the Lord.

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Yeah.

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And what I was really cool about

that is the, Moses writes here.

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The, the description is that

he heard the voice speaking to

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him from above the mercy seat.

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So this is above the seat itself.

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This is not in the box.

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This is above the box.

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And he says it's from between the

two cherubim and it spoke to him.

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So he's hearing sound waves

produced between the two cherubim

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above the box from nowhere.

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Yeah, that's crazy.

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That's insane.

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Because in our minds, we only hear sound.

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From physical objects within our

atmosphere, within our, within our

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physical context, which tells me, I think

I think this tells me, I'm not sure if

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it does, I'm just going to say it and

you tell me if you think I'm wrong when

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people hear voices and their spiritual

voices, spiritually originating voices, I

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think that sounds to me like, okay, this

gives me a sense of saying it's possible

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for there to be a non human object

making a sound that my ears can register.

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Cause there's something being produced.

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In the atmosphere that produces sound

waves and it doesn't have human origin I I

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think this gives me precedent to say that

if someone's like, oh my house is haunted

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I heard a voice talking to me Often we're

going to say have you taken your meds yet?

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Right, but I think as a christian I can

say well here we go There's evidence

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at least That a spiritual entity can

produce sound waves in our atmosphere

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that According to Moses came from nowhere.

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I mean, it came from nowhere in the

fact that there was nothing physical

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there, but God was speaking to him from

between the cherubim above the box.

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That's kind of cool.

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Yeah.

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Do you agree with that?

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Is that, is that a fair assessment?

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Yes, I'm not saying that everyone

who says it is, it's always the case

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that they're hearing that for sure,

but it's, it's entirely possible

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within the realm of possibility.

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Yeah, yeah, I can agree

with that entirely possible.

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I'm just saying it's like, oh, it's,

but I can, I can say in some sense, I

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would expect that this is characteristic

of a spiritual entity that's trying to

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manipulate, terrorize, whatever it is.

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If it's a demon, this, this is possible.

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I think my only caveat would be This

is god speaking to him right and I

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don't know that we see an example in

scripture of a spirit being Not visible

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communicating the same way with a with

a person not visible so as in There's

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not a physical manifestation of it.

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You mean right?

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I think anytime we see we have the

angelic beings Communicating or even

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the demons communicating they're in a

physical manifestation of it Either the

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angel is present in a visible form Or

the angel or demon is inhabiting a body

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and communicating So I don't know if

there's a point at which there's a, a,

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an immaterial sense of, of communication

from a spirit being to somebody in

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the, in the Bible that we see outside

of God in an instance like this.

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Yeah, I guess you're right.

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I can't, I'm trying to rack my

brain here to see if there's

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anything that pops up, but there's

a demonic forces that torment Saul.

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I don't know that there was a physical

thing there and I guess I don't

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even know what that tormenting was.

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Maybe they were speaking,

maybe they weren't.

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But yeah, I'll think about that.

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I'll chew on that and see if there's

any other instance in scripture where

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there's a spiritual entity speaking,

producing sound that is not God himself.

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Yeah.

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Well, we had one other comment.

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I don't know if a question is much,

but comment written in about the

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issue of the woman caught in adultery

or the woman charged with adultery.

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This, this touched a note, a nerve,

and we thought it would, it's a, it's

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a controversial subject, but somebody

wrote in and just commented about the

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fact that perhaps this was in place again

with the idea of protecting the woman.

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Because If a woman were to accuse

her husband of infidelity there,

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there wasn't much to be done.

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The husband in this patriarchal

society, not a lot would happen to

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him is basically the gist of it.

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Now, if he was guilty and there was

evidence that he was guilty, according

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to law, he would be killed, but

aside from that, if it was a false

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charge, there wasn't a lot that would

tarnish his reputation moving forward.

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But for the woman, if this was a false

charge brought against the woman, it

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could still tarnish her reputation

in a way that would be immensely

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damaging to her moving forward.

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And so he just wrote in to say again,

this may be a A mercy of God to put

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in place to still protect the woman to

make sure that she would be vindicated

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if this was indeed a false charge.

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So yeah.

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Again, that tracks.

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Yeah.

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I like that.

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I get that.

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I can track with that too.

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Yeah.

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This is a difficult one.

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And obviously as we got a couple of, of

comments written in and by the way, if

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you've got comments, you've got questions,

you've got thoughts, please write them in.

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I had Podcast at compass

Bible or compass ntx.

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org podcast at compass ntx.

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org.

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And we would be happy to answer

or entertain any of your comments

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and thoughts that come in.

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All right, y'all.

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Well, that is that's this episode.

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Let me pray for us.

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And then we'll be done with this as

we move on for the rest of our day.

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God, thanks for your word for the report.

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Repetition here in the reminder that

this is not a fluff, that there's not

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any extraneous material in the Bible, but

this is all part of your revealed word.

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And to help us to treat it that

way, to read it intentionally,

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thoughtfully, to use additional

resources, to help us understand it.

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And God, we are grateful for that.

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We're.

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Just in awe of Moses's relationship

that he had with you, that he could

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speak to you in such an intimate way.

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And yet it reminds me that that day

is coming for us to in eternity when

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we are with you and in your presence.

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And so we long for that day.

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And in the meantime, we

want to be faithful to you.

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So we pray that we would in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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All right, y'all keep her in your Bibles

and tune in again tomorrow for another

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edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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See it.

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Bye.

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Speaker: Hey, thanks for

joining us for another episode

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If you need more information about

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Texas, you can go to compassntx.

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org.

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Again, that's compassntx.

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org.

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And we'll be back with you

tomorrow for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.