00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:38 Overview of Genesis 31-32

01:03 Jacob's Schemes and God's Faithfulness

01:36 Jacob's Return to His Homeland

04:04 Jacob's Fear and Faith

06:48 Jacob's Prayer and Reflection

09:27 Jacob's Encounter with Esau

13:41 Lessons from Jacob's Journey

15:04 Jacob's Generosity and Humility

15:46 Jacob's Reconciliation with Esau

17:00 Jacob Wrestles with God

19:09 The Significance of Jacob's Wrestling

20:46 Applying Jacob's Story to Our Lives

23:07 Jesus' Teachings on Persecution

25:40 Acknowledging God in Our Lives

27:36 Final Thoughts and Prayer

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

welcome back to another episode

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

2

This is Pastor Mark here, and

I'm joined for one last time

3

with none other than than me.

4

Lewis, a student ministry director

here at Compass Bible Church.

5

It's been a joy to do this with you,

pastor Mark and hopefully we've been

6

a blessing to our church, helped

you understand the Bible more, get

7

some takeaways and just also learn

patterns that you can continue

8

forward in reading your Bible.

9

Yep.

10

And hopefully we gave Pastor PJ and

Pastor Rod a well-deserved break as they

11

were on vacation and getting some rest.

12

So hopefully we're able to

do that for them as well.

13

We are in Genesis chapter 31 and 32,

what's going on in these chapters?

14

Give us a brief reminder of where

we're at and what is happening, Lewis.

15

Yeah, so Genesis 28 to 33 is this Jacob

section and, we proposed that the theme

16

might be Jacob's schemes, but God redeems.

17

Right.

18

I didn't come up with that.

19

That was a professor of mine

who passed that on to me.

20

But the idea here is that Jacob

has been trying all of these things

21

to make the best of his situation.

22

He's looking out for himself.

23

He's really trying to take

matters into his own hands,

24

and we've seen that he's met.

25

His Uncle Laben, who is even

bigger of a schemer than he

26

is and has out schemed him.

27

But God has been faithful to continue

and keep his promises to Jacob, to

28

Isaac, to Abraham, and shown favor to

Jacob in spite of all of his scheming

29

and honestly all of his failed scheming.

30

Like we saw at the end of our last chapter

with the flocks and how to breed them,

31

and now God is going to instruct Jacob

to go back to the land of his fathers.

32

And in 31 verse three, the Lord

said to Jacob, return to the

33

land of your fathers and to your

kindred, and I will be with you.

34

This is a recurring theme that we've

seen already with the patriarchs.

35

Mm-hmm.

36

Abraham was called out of

Babylon to the Promised Land.

37

He was called by God.

38

And in that's in chapter 12.

39

Isaac, in a similar way, is told by God

to settle in the land as the Lord had

40

instructed him in ver in Chapter 26.

41

And now Jacob, likewise, in a similar

way, is told by God to return to the land.

42

I think one of the interesting things

that we see throughout all three of

43

these patriarchs is that they're told

these promises by God and given this

44

instruction to return to the land,

and then they almost immediately.

45

Mess up.

46

Mm-hmm.

47

In just a couple verses, they're

already completely confused.

48

Abraham, for example, is told to

go to the promised Land mm-hmm.

49

And then immediately goes to Egypt.

50

He's like, Hey, oh, this is cool.

51

Oh, nope, I'm outta here.

52

There's a, we're going to Egypt.

53

Yeah.

54

Isaac immediately lies to a bilich,

which we talked about a couple days ago.

55

Mm-hmm.

56

And here I think we're gonna

see a little bit of a mess

57

that is still on Jacob's hands.

58

In this particular passage, Jacob

is fleeing from Laben, and you're

59

gonna see a bunch of different

things that are a product of some of

60

the scheming and the deception and

the plans and intentions of Jacob.

61

Mm-hmm.

62

In the previous passages kind of play out

and even again, you're gonna see problems

63

with Rachel and Leah here in chapter 31.

64

So why is Jacob running away?

65

Why is he running away from his uncle?

66

Well, he's running away because

Laben has been caught effectively.

67

God has enriched Jacob

through his scheming, despite.

68

The messiness and the sin.

69

Mm-hmm.

70

God has enriched Jacob.

71

But he is now pretty much too big.

72

His wealth is too big and he has

to go, but he's also instructed

73

by God to go back to the land.

74

Yeah.

75

So verses one and two right.

76

They say that it looks almost

like Jacob has bankrupted laben.

77

He's stolen all of his stuff, not

necessarily deceitfully all the time.

78

Right.

79

But Labin is starting to resent

Jacob because his nephew who's

80

married his daughters, is now

much wealthier than he is.

81

And so Jacob decides to leave.

82

And this paragraph right here from

verses four to 16 is really interesting

83

because I think we see Jacob start to

turn a corner a little bit and start

84

to, stop relying so much on himself

and he's giving a lot of credit to God.

85

It's really important when you read

paragraphs in the Bible to look at

86

what's repeated, what's emphasized.

87

And here we see Jacob is saying a lot

about God and not much about himself.

88

Verse five, the God of my

father has been with me.

89

Continuing on verse seven, God

did not permit him to harm me.

90

Verse nine, God has

taken away the livestock.

91

11.

92

The angel of God said to me,

and then he says, here I am.

93

And which is throughout the Bible a good

posture for the servants of God to adopt.

94

That's right.

95

And this kind of brings us back to a

little bit of our debate that you may

96

have caught from a couple chapters back

where we were discussing, where does

97

Jacob have the faith of Abraham, right?

98

Mm-hmm.

99

Could say the conversion that's not.

100

Quite a word we would use for the Old

Testament, but where does he pick that up?

101

My contention is that it's messy,

but like his father Abraham, his

102

grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.

103

Mm-hmm.

104

He has that faith although

distorted by sin to some degree.

105

He has that faith of

Abraham in chapter 28.

106

And I'm gonna contend

that we're gonna see.

107

Growth.

108

We're gonna see him growing

in his trust of the Lord.

109

From that point up until, well,

really the end of his life, but

110

certainly through today's reading,

what do you think about that?

111

I'm more inclined to think that the

point where Jacob really finally trusts

112

the Lord is later on in his life,

probably the ending of today's reading

113

around the end of chapter 32, I think

chapter 33, where he wrestles, or

114

chapter 32, where he wrestles in 33.

115

When he finally gets to meet his brother.

116

I think those are the expressions of

faith that I would associate with.

117

Someone who is fully trusting the Lord.

118

I think the evidence that we've

read so far in Genesis points

119

to Jacob trusting himself.

120

And I think these two chapters,

31 and 32, we're gonna see

121

Jacob finally submit to God.

122

He's been wrestling with God

throughout these chapters.

123

And at the very end of chapter 32,

God finally pins him to the mat.

124

Literally.

125

Yeah.

126

And figuratively.

127

And he finally, submits to God

and stops relying on himself.

128

And one of the reasons that I

believe that is chapter 28, when he

129

first met God at Bethel, he gives

a contingent promise to God, right?

130

He says, God, he.

131

If you do these things for me,

then you can be my God, basically.

132

Right?

133

Yeah.

134

Yeah.

135

If God, you're good to me, then I'll

give you the privilege of being my God.

136

So then what do you make of

what's going on in chapter 31?

137

Right?

138

Because there are indications here of

some sort of good things happening.

139

Mm-hmm.

140

What do you make of that and how

can we apply, at least from your

141

interpretation of this passage,

how can we apply that today?

142

Yeah, I think.

143

Both the way Pastor Mark's looking

at these passages and the way that

144

I'm looking at these passages I

think both of them have good evidence

145

from the text and ultimately it's

not really a huge deal when Jacob.

146

The exact moment of his

conversion, so to speak.

147

Right.

148

Ultimately that's not the goal of these

chapters is not for us to diagnose when

149

Jacob finally fully trusts the Lord.

150

Right.

151

I think what we're seeing here is that

God is removing Jacob's trust in himself

152

and getting him to rely on the Lord.

153

That's right.

154

And so, if you were to take my position.

155

You would see something like, okay this

is like when someone wants to become

156

a Christian and they're starting to

read their Bible and they're going to

157

church and they're asking questions.

158

They're really interested.

159

That's what I would say.

160

Chapter 31 is for Jacob.

161

He's starting to realize, you know what?

162

God's actually been doing all this.

163

I tried really hard to make my own way

and to get all this wealth for myself.

164

And really it's been God

providing for me the whole time.

165

And he's finally starting to realize that

in Chapter 31, whereas your position would

166

be applied a little differently, right?

167

That's right.

168

And again, a similar thing.

169

Let me just preface what I'm gonna say by

making sure that you don't hear me saying

170

that a Christian is somebody who has

only partially given them, given themself

171

over to God because it is very clear that

the faith of Abraham is comprehensive.

172

Mm-hmm.

173

It is a comprehensive faith.

174

At the same time, we

can come to faith with.

175

Some lack of clarity and we can

still battle the flesh in our faith.

176

And you even see that with Abraham, right?

177

Yes.

178

There's many instances where he doesn't

trust God, where he is disobedient.

179

And you see him, I'm gonna

contend and we brought this up

180

before, but you see him grow Yeah.

181

In his trust of the Lord

throughout his life.

182

My position of what you see

happening with Jacob is similar.

183

I think you see him.

184

There's lack of clarity.

185

There's sin that is still present.

186

Mm-hmm.

187

And there's consequences from former

sins that is still very much present.

188

But you see him growing in his

belief in God and his trust in God.

189

And you see that start to

take place here in chapter 31.

190

And then I think it comes into

kind of full fruition in chapter

191

32, where you see some really.

192

Clear evidence of his faith and

he doesn't have some of the.

193

Contingent things, right?

194

Yeah.

195

That he mentions in 28 he doesn't have

contingencies to the promises of God.

196

So let's go to chapter 32.

197

Mm-hmm.

198

In chapter 32, we are

seeing the return of Jacob.

199

Back to the land.

200

And that comes with a

particular challenge.

201

That particular challenge

is that Esau is still there.

202

Yes.

203

And the last time that he and

Esau saw each other, it was

204

not a particularly pleasant no.

205

Get together.

206

And so what's the

anticipation in Jacob's mind?

207

It's not gonna be another

pleasant get together.

208

It's gonna be a little bit

of a touch and go situation.

209

What do you see here

in this passage though?

210

Well, I think first of

all, you do see some fear.

211

You do see some fear from Jacob.

212

And that actually, that's in

verses seven and eight, right?

213

Yeah, that's in verses seven and eight.

214

Thank you.

215

Yeah.

216

Yeah.

217

Before we get there, would you mind

if I pointed out something that I

218

found really helpful from Chapter 31?

219

Sure.

220

Alright, so just, sorry, I know

you're doing this, you got my

221

transition, my transition was all done.

222

You're finally, and now you're

just going back to transition

223

game and now I'm ruining it.

224

So something that I noticed in

chapter 31 that I thought was just

225

really, really cool to see is

226

when Jacob runs away from

Laben, Rachel takes Laban's.

227

Household gods.

228

Yeah.

229

Right.

230

And I thought it's just so

ironic that Laben is chasing

231

after them to save his gods.

232

Mm-hmm.

233

Right?

234

Laben is chasing after Jacob because he's

trying to rescue his gods from this guy.

235

Yeah.

236

And I thought that was such

an ironic picture and such a

237

great thing for us to remember.

238

Right?

239

All of the idols that we're tempted

by, they can't do anything, right.

240

We don't worship statues.

241

Hopefully you're not worshiping

statues, you're not tempted to do that.

242

But even if you are right, but also

all the other idols we put right,

243

like our careers or our family or

things that we might be tempted to

244

idolize those things can't save us.

245

Yeah, right.

246

That's right.

247

We actually.

248

Put in the work to make

them what they are.

249

And I think that's a great observation.

250

That's a good observation about the

things that we're tempted to idolize,

251

is ask yourself, is this thing

going to love me and take care of

252

me and protect me the way God can?

253

Yeah.

254

No.

255

Right.

256

So that was just something that

I really loved from chapter

257

31 that I wanted to highlight.

258

It's, but sorry for ruining

your transition lesson.

259

Let's see if I can make

another transition.

260

Okay.

261

Based on what you just said, that is

as smooth and clean as the first one.

262

One of the idols that Jacob

might have is his possessions.

263

And so one of the things we see

that happens sequentially next is

264

he is fearful of his possessions

getting lost and as he reenters the

265

land, the land where Esai is mm-hmm.

266

He makes the decision out of fear to split

up his possessions pretty much saying

267

if esau attacks, half of them at least.

268

I still have the other half if

he gets the other half, although

269

the other half is safe over here.

270

And he responds really in fear there.

271

But then what is the

response that follows that?

272

I think he realizes that that's

not actually going to save him.

273

That idol of his possessions is not.

274

As valuable as his faith to God.

275

And so you do see some things here,

evidence of the faith of Abraham.

276

You see him, I think I

mentioned this right?

277

He calls this God's camp.

278

And then really importantly in verse

10 of chapter 32, you see a prayer.

279

You see a prayer where he

says this, I'm not worthy.

280

Of the least of all the deeds of steadfast

love and all of the faithfulness that

281

you, God have shown to your servant.

282

Four, with only my staff.

283

I crossed this Jordan, and

now I have become two camps.

284

And then listen to this, please

deliver me from the hand of my brother,

285

from the hand of Esau, for I fear

him that he may come and attack me.

286

The mothers with the children,

man, that is a totally, yeah.

287

New thing from Jacob.

288

Mm-hmm.

289

What an amazing prayer.

290

And we should have that

sort of prayer, right?

291

We're not, I hope, fearing our brother

attacking us with an army, but man, we

292

should, when we have fear, we need to turn

to God and say, look, I have nothing of.

293

What I have is anything that I deserve.

294

Yeah.

295

But you are the one who's provided

it for me and I'm turning to you

296

for the protection and for the

care and the provision that I need.

297

'cause there's nowhere else for me to go.

298

What a turn for Jacob.

299

Definitely.

300

And I, what I love so much

about seeing this, I think it.

301

Coming off our great weekend with

the biblical counseling intensive is,

302

it reminds me of something we talked

about this weekend about heart issues.

303

And one of the diagnostic

questions to see, what really

304

has hold of your heart mm-hmm.

305

Is what are you afraid of?

306

Mm-hmm.

307

And what do you go to when you're afraid?

308

Right.

309

Verses seven and eight of chapter

32, Jacob's first response when

310

he's afraid he goes to himself.

311

Mm-hmm.

312

He tries to think of a plan, think

of an idea, think of something to.

313

Help.

314

And then he says, you know what?

315

Oh, actually I should go to the Lord.

316

Right?

317

And I think a great diagnostic

question for yourself to think

318

about is what makes me afraid?

319

Mm-hmm.

320

And where do I go when I'm afraid?

321

That's right.

322

What do I do?

323

What are my first thoughts?

324

What's my initial

reaction when I'm scared?

325

That'll tell you so much about who

you worship, who your refuge is in.

326

Who your rock is what you're afraid of.

327

'cause fear is worship because when

you're afraid of something, you're

328

showing that that thing's powerful.

329

And when you're afraid of something and

you look to something else to rescue

330

you, that's where you, that's another

place that you're worshiping, you're

331

going to, to that place because you

think, man, that is, that's powerful.

332

That's strong.

333

And I think Jacob even mentions that

in verse in chapter 31, verse 42.

334

He calls God the God of

Abraham and the fear.

335

Of Isaac.

336

And yeah, that's a great point.

337

That's a great point.

338

Yeah.

339

And in verse 52 of that same chapter, 31,

by the end of chapter 32, well, I guess

340

I shouldn't say the end, by the middle of

chapter 32, he is no longer fearing the

341

loss of his wealth and his possessions.

342

In fact, he is giving generous

gifts to his brother, Esau.

343

Yeah.

344

You could read this as a bribe.

345

You could say he's just trying to bribe

him, trying to get him on his side.

346

Yeah.

347

I actually think this is a.

348

Act of humility given some of

the clues that we have in this

349

passage about precisely what

he's doing with these gifts.

350

I, I think you do see him definitively

saying at the beginning of chapter

351

32, I'm trying to hold onto my

possessions as best as I can.

352

Yeah.

353

By the end of chapter, sorry,

I say, keep saying the end

354

by the middle of chapter 32.

355

Mm-hmm.

356

You see him?

357

Using his possessions to protect his

family and to, I think, make a genuine

358

attempt at an apology to his brother Issa.

359

Yeah.

360

I think in some ways Jacob is trying

to reconcile with his brother mm-hmm.

361

At great cost to himself.

362

Yeah.

363

He's taking, yeah.

364

This is tens of thousands of dollars.

365

Yes.

366

Maybe a hundred thousand dollars.

367

Yeah.

368

We don't quite know, but we're looking at.

369

Huge, huge gift here.

370

This is no basket of popcorn, right?

371

Not that if you ever gave anyone a

basket of popcorn, that's a bad thing.

372

I love popcorn.

373

But yeah, he's really showing a

sacrificial and humble nature that

374

I don't think was there before.

375

He's.

376

Willing to give away stuff

to mend a relationship.

377

He's willing to take the loss

for the sake of reconciling with

378

his brother, and that's something

that we should wanna do, right?

379

Yep.

380

If you have, a brother or

sister in Christ or a brother or

381

sister or anyone who you have.

382

Past sin against we should be willing

to take the loss in the relationship.

383

Maybe not materially,

but even figuratively.

384

We should not be trying

to defend our reputation.

385

We should be trying to

reconcile with them.

386

You notice does, Jacob doesn't

bring up anything about

387

Esau's mistakes in the past.

388

He's just saying.

389

Hey I want to be reconciled with you.

390

That's right.

391

That's right.

392

Now we get into a super fascinating

passage, perhaps one of the most

393

fascinating passages in Genesis,

maybe even in the whole testament.

394

Mm-hmm.

395

This is a fascinating account of when

Jacob wrestles with a man, as it says.

396

Mm-hmm.

397

Now, there's a number of things that

I think are important just to cover.

398

I do think this is a real physical fight.

399

You could read this and think it's some

sort of metaphor or some sort of analogy.

400

I do think this is a real physical fight

given the way the narrative presents it.

401

I'm going to contend probably

from the minority position, but

402

I think a lot of people are gonna

say, this is a Christophany.

403

This is a pre-incarnate appearance

of the second person of the Trinity.

404

I'm gonna say I don't

think that is the case.

405

Hosea 12 is my, mm-hmm.

406

My biggest point to contend against

this, this is Hosea the prophet

407

interpreting what is happening in Genesis.

408

Mm-hmm.

409

And in Hosea 12 three, it says,

in the womb, he took his brother

410

by the heel, referring to Jacob.

411

And in his manhood, he strove with God.

412

That's gonna sound familiar, right?

413

To what we're reading, Uhhuh

and what you read in chapter 32.

414

But then verse four, in Hosea 12,

it says he strove with the angel.

415

Mm-hmm.

416

And prevailed.

417

He wept and found.

418

His F and sought his favor.

419

He met God at Bethel and

there God spoke with us.

420

Of course, that passage continues on, but

I think that's evidence that this is an

421

angelic figure, not a Christophany here.

422

And then also the just description

of what's going on here, I think

423

corresponds more with an angel than with

a Christoph, with a member of the Trinity,

424

whether it's an angel or a Christoph.

425

Both have to condescend.

426

Mm-hmm.

427

Meaning they both have to step down.

428

This is not really truly a fair

fight, whether it's an angel

429

or it's God, they both do.

430

But I think the description here

makes more sense that it's an angel.

431

And then also just as an

observation when Jacob does

432

declare who he saw, he says Elohim.

433

So he says, yeah, he saw the

face of Elohim, which is not.

434

He does not use the term Yahweh and I'm

not even sure that we necessarily know

435

that Jacob fully understands himself.

436

Mm-hmm.

437

Who he was wrestling with.

438

Okay.

439

Why does this matter?

440

Why does this wrestling match matter?

441

What's exactly going on here?

442

What do you think, Lewis?

443

Well, I think it's the culmination.

444

Of what we've seen from Jacob's life so

far in Genesis, we've seen that Jacob

445

has been trying to do things his way.

446

He's been trying to rely on

himself, his own initiative, his

447

own shrewdness, his own wisdom.

448

And I think what we're seeing is

that his biggest challenge is not.

449

Other people.

450

It's not his own finances,

it's not his own wellbeing.

451

His biggest challenge is are

you going to submit to God?

452

Are you going to be faithful to the Lord?

453

He needs to deal with God first.

454

And.

455

Submit to him rather than trying

to lean on his own understanding.

456

Yeah.

457

One way of putting it might be

that we've seen Jacob wrestle with

458

all these other characters, right?

459

Yeah.

460

We've seen him wrestle with Esau.

461

We've seen him wrestle with his dad.

462

We've seen him wrestle with Laben.

463

We've seen him, in some sense,

wrestle even with his wives, right?

464

Mm-hmm.

465

He's been doing all this

wrestling with a lot of conflict.

466

Yeah.

467

Conflict.

468

There's in some sense

wrestling, although not actual.

469

But then he actually wrestles here

with God recognizing that he does,

470

as to your point, he does need

to deal with God on God's terms.

471

Right.

472

And God wins.

473

Yeah.

474

That's also important.

475

But Jacob also wins, right.

476

In a sense, because he's blessed.

477

Right.

478

And he insists that this man, he wrestles.

479

That he gets the blessing of God

and God does indeed bless him.

480

So in some sense, he wins by losing.

481

Yes.

482

Which perhaps we can make very direct

equivalence to that in our own life.

483

Right?

484

We as Christians, we win.

485

Salvation.

486

We attain salvation by

giving up everything.

487

Amen.

488

By giving up all of our life,

giving up all of our possessions,

489

our family, our jobs, our careers.

490

We win by losing

everything of in the world.

491

And I think that's

true for Jacob as well.

492

He loses to this angel.

493

But ultimately he is blessed by him.

494

Yeah.

495

I think though, here in this passage,

and you tell me what you think.

496

I think we're still seeing Jacob as a

man who takes initiative, who's shrewd.

497

Mm-hmm.

498

Who's clever and he's

been doing that before.

499

What's different about this particular

account as he wrestles with this angel?

500

What do you think?

501

Yeah.

502

Well now I think he's

using that initiative.

503

In submission to God.

504

So there's a lot of times that God gives

us personality traits or skills that we

505

can use idol for ourselves, or that we

can use them for our for his glory, right?

506

Yeah.

507

God may have given you a personality

that is like Jacob, you love to take

508

initiative, you love to find solutions,

you love to, to make things happen.

509

And the temptation with

that is to be like.

510

Jacob earlier in this narrative

where he uses that for himself.

511

But instead now we see that Jacob is

gonna use that personality of his for

512

the glory of God in submission to God.

513

He's not going to take initiative

when he should be trusting the Lord.

514

Yeah, and you could do that

with all sorts of things.

515

Maybe you're a great host, maybe you

love hosting people at your home but

516

you can turn something like that.

517

A skill that you have from the Lord into

something that is idolatrous, right?

518

Mm-hmm.

519

Are you hosting to love people and

care for them and to make them feel

520

comfortable and to enjoy the event

or whatever's going on, or are you

521

trying to demonstrate your proudness

at making cookies or your mm-hmm.

522

Beautiful home or whatever, right?

523

You can use that.

524

Skill for good or for ill, you

can use that gift from God, that

525

character trait that you might

have for his glory or for sin.

526

Yeah.

527

Now, earlier we talked about winning

by losing, and that's something that

528

Jesus is gonna talk about in Matthew 10.

529

So let's head to Matthew

10 and Wow that's good.

530

That's good.

531

That's really good.

532

But yes, let's head to Matthew 10.

533

Let's to Matthew 10 for the

next 40 minutes of our podcast.

534

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

535

Alright.

536

Matthew 10.

537

We're picking up in the middle of

a section of the at least how the

538

ESV breaks these things up and it

is Jesus reminding the disciples

539

that they're gonna be persecuted and

why are they gonna be persecuted.

540

They're gonna be persecuted because Jesus

is persecuted at the very, the la very

541

last sentence of chapter 10, verse 25.

542

It says, if they have called the

master of the House, zebo, wow.

543

That's not what that says, but,

but don't call someone that either.

544

Do you wanna give it another

try or are you just giving up?

545

I, I'm so embarrassed that I, I don't

think I'm gonna give it another try.

546

You're gonna return

your diploma after this.

547

It's hanging on the wall right next to me.

548

I'm gonna bring it down.

549

So if they have called the master

of the house billable, there we go.

550

How much more will they malign

those of his household, right?

551

Yeah.

552

The Pharisees earlier, they

attributed Jesus's works to the

553

devil, and so of course they are

going to dislike and persecute his

554

disciples, and that's why Jesus talks

about who we should be scared of.

555

And we talked about

this in Genesis, right?

556

Who we're scared of shows

who we think is in control.

557

That's right.

558

Right.

559

And Lewis is referencing chapter nine from

a couple days ago, where the Pharisees

560

said specifically about Jesus, that he

casts out demons by the Prince of demons.

561

That's an indictment like none other.

562

Yeah.

563

And Jesus is specifically

referring to that.

564

Remember from yesterday's episode

that we're talking about, this is

565

persecution from the people of Israel.

566

This is persecution directly

from Jesus's own people.

567

Which is stunning.

568

Which is stunning.

569

Yeah.

570

And so that next section then he

says, don't be scared of them.

571

Right.

572

26 to 33.

573

Mm-hmm.

574

He says, don't be scared of them.

575

You should instead be.

576

Worshiping be fearing God.

577

And then he talks about in 34 to

39, 1 of the reasons that people

578

will persecute his disciples.

579

And that reason is because of

some divided loyalty, right?

580

That's right.

581

The people of Israel at this time wanted

a savior, not from their sin, but from.

582

The elector's gone.

583

They wanted salvation from those things.

584

That's not the kind of

king that Jesus came to be.

585

That is not the kind of king, at least

at this point, that Jesus came to be.

586

Definitely the one one

since you went back.

587

On me earlier.

588

I'm gonna go back a little bit on you.

589

Okay.

590

To verse 32 says, so everyone

who acknowledges me before men, I

591

will acknowledge before my father

who is in heaven, but whoever

592

denies me before men, I will also

deny before my father in heaven.

593

I think it's really important that

we read this and we apply this

594

to our own life, and I think this

is a great test of your faith.

595

I think you should.

596

Read this and then think about your life.

597

Do you acknowledge God

before your coworkers?

598

Do you do that on the sidelines

of the soccer team while

599

you watch your kids play?

600

Do you do that online?

601

Do you do that throughout all your life?

602

Yeah.

603

Even I think that's a great test

of if is your faith genuine?

604

Yeah.

605

Even the things you talk about.

606

Right.

607

Do you change the

expressions you might use?

608

Mm-hmm.

609

Do you change the subjects

you might bring up?

610

If someone from church asks you about

your weekend, do you answer that

611

question differently than someone at

work asked you about your weekend.

612

That's right.

613

Now, remember, Peter denies

Jesus and is forgiven.

614

So this is not the ultimate test,

but I think it's a really good test.

615

I think it's a really good test.

616

And the final section is about rewards.

617

God rewards those who are faithful to him,

who are righteous, and just remember that.

618

God sees every millisecond of your life.

619

God sees every little

decision that you make.

620

He sees your heart at every moment,

and because of that, he's going to

621

notice when you give a cup of cold

water to somebody and he's gonna

622

remember that even if you don't, even

if no one else ever does God, who is.

623

All knowing, all powerful and cares

about these things will so go out today.

624

Give somebody a cup of cold water.

625

I'm gonna get you one after the podcast.

626

Well, thank you.

627

It better be cold, not just cool.

628

Otherwise it doesn't count.

629

Well, there's another.

630

Episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

631

Thank you Lewis.

632

Let me pray for us and

we'll wrap it up there.

633

Lord, thank you that you're a

God who is a God of salvation.

634

That you came to save, you

came to save your people.

635

Yes, you came to save the people

of Israel, but you also came to

636

save the Gentiles through the

promise and the blessing of Abraham.

637

All the nations would be blessed.

638

And so we sit here today

in the United States.

639

In Texas or wherever

you're listening from.

640

Blessed because of God, because of

his promises, because of the hope

641

and the salvation that he brings.

642

In Jesus name I pray, amen.

643

Amen.

644

See you.

645

Edward: Thank you for listening to another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

646

We’re grateful you chose to

spend time with us today.

647

This podcast is a ministry of

Compass Bible Church in North Texas.

648

You can learn more about our

church at compassntx.org.

649

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we’d appreciate it if you’d consider

650

leaving a review, rating the show,

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651

We hope you’ll join us again

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652

of the Daily Bible Podcast.