In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, Pastors PJ and Rod reflect on Ash Wednesday and the practice of Lent, discussing its historical roots and significance. They emphasize the importance of physical markers in faith and delve into the symbolism behind these traditions. Additionally, the episode highlights the assistance provided by church members during a recent office move. The hosts then pivot to a detailed discussion of Numbers 26 and 27, exploring the second census and its implications for Israel's military readiness. They also discuss the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua, focusing on the qualities of good leadership and the importance of succession planning.

00:00 Introduction and Announcements

00:38 Understanding Ash Wednesday and Lent

03:53 Shoutouts and Gratitude

05:01 Census and Military Readiness in Numbers 26

07:15 Leadership Transition: Moses to Joshua

11:14 Concluding Prayer and Final Thoughts

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

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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 with another episode here and

a couple things that we wanted to mention

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yesterday that we didn't get around to,

so let us make sure that we hit those.

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Number one.

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We are just so excited to be

in the office, by the way, you,

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hopefully you'll give us some grace.

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We were, yeah, we are still.

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Happy belated birthday to Kelly

Smith, our admin here at the church.

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We love you, Kelly, and we're so

grateful for all that you do for us.

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You work so hard for us and

we're we're thankful for that.

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So happy birthday.

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Hopefully you enjoyed the day yesterday

and you, I think you told me you're

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going out to celebrate on Friday,

so we're still within the window.

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Wouldn't the birthday week?

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I think a month is probably acceptable.

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Okay.

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You can wish someone a happy birthday.

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Okay.

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Alright.

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Fair.

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Yeah.

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So happy birthday.

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Happy birth month, Kelly.

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Yeah, there we go.

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And then the second thing is, y

you may be out there seeing some

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people walk around, they've got

some smudges on their forehead.

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You're like, Hey you got,

can I get that for you?

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You got something right, right there.

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So you lick your thumb and

then wipe it off their head?

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Yeah.

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And then they're like, no.

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Blessing is gone.

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Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and Ash

Wednesday's not something that we.

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Celebrate.

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In our tradition, though, it is

celebrated by some in the evangelical

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churches, you'll see some celebrate.

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It's mostly a Catholic tradition, though.

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The Episcopalian church also

participates, I believe.

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And it's to mark the beginning of

a period called Lent And Lent are

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the 40 day fast period leading up

to the crucifixion and resurrection.

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It's it's meant to anticipate.

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The the coming of Easter.

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And so Lent is a period of time.

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Typically, you'll see

people fast from something.

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They won't fast from all food for 40 days

'cause that's not healthy for anybody.

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But they will fast from technology.

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They'll fast from their

favorite, fast food.

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They'll fast from something

that is a reminder of sacrifice.

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And it was 6 0 1 ad around there that.

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Lent officially came into practice

and Pope Gregory was the one who

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really moved the target on that

and established it and established

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Ash Wednesday at the same time.

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So this traces back to 6 0 180, so

about 1,420 years, give or take that

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we're talking about here, still doing

it and people are still doing it today.

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And so if people doing it, it's

probably a sign, good sign, good

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indication that they go to the local

Catholic church would be my guess.

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And feel free to ask them Hey.

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Tide would.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Talk to me about the mark on your head.

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I know it has to do with Ash Wednesday.

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What's the significance for you?

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It might be, yeah, when you came in, I

asked you and you were like, I don't know.

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Actually was like, I don't know.

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I fell, did it?

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I just fell in the mud.

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I got up and it was there, and I

was like, I'm just gonna leave it.

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But yeah, ask 'em don't

shy away from that.

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And that might create some

really good, interesting

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conversations with your neighbors.

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I agree.

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And this is one of those things

that I, we don't do it to what

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you just said, but I wish we did.

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I like the symbolism.

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I like having physical markers of, and

granted, of course this could become

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something other than what it should

be, and it becomes just a show of

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pietism as opposed to actual pietism.

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Yep.

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But I wish there were

more markers in our faith.

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Not necessarily that I'm looking

for smells and bells, but just

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more things like this that were

communal and public and more obvious.

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I grants, I'm not gonna do it,

I'm not planning on doing it.

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I'm not gonna do it to my kids.

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But I wish there were more

things like this for us.

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So it's, in other words,

it's not necessarily a sin.

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We don't need to confronts people

and be like, you work idol in.

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Yeah.

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You're clearly practicing

workspace righteousness.

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Totally.

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Repent.

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Believe.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'm with you.

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I think that's something that I think

there's even honestly and we don't support

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this movement, but the emergent church.

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Was a lot of people who wanted

that feeling of the ancient brought

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back into modern Christianity.

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They wanted, they were dissatisfied

with the Bible church movement,

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which was a lot of, the same things.

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We have our own liturgy and they

were bored with the liturgy of

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the modern Bible church or the

modern, megachurch Baptist church.

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Yeah.

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And they wanted that.

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Experience with the ancient.

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And so there was a lot of an

appeal towards those things.

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So I get that desire the symbolism there.

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Yeah.

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Even crossing ourselves that, that

you may wonder, that seems like a

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Catholic thing that people do bef

when they get outta the pew and it is.

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But that emerged from the desire to make

sure the cross was always before us.

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That was the idea of the cross being made.

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There was, I want the

cross before me as I go.

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Yeah.

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Which is a good thought in and of itself.

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It's just become a kinda a process

of going through the motions.

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And the same thing was

true with the tassels.

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On the robe.

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We talked about this.

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Jesus himself wore

tassels, but they worked.

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Functionally the way

they were supposed to.

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They drove his heart to prayer, to

recognition of who his father was.

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And the truth is that we just,

man, it's hard to do that for us.

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Yeah.

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It's hard to do that with

the signs and symbols.

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Yep.

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Totally.

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Totally.

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And then the third thing that we missed

yesterday was we wanna give a special

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shout out to some guys that really

helped us a ton in this office move.

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So Steve Yang, Danny Mayer.

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Ramin.

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Ramin was here.

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And then just helping us

with the office itself.

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With internet.

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We had John Kingsolver.

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We had Matt Perales, we had

Rob Kelly Danny and Steve

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were there too for that again.

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Yeah, it was a whole slew of

people that really made this

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move possible and helpful.

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Thanking who blessed our hearts.

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Yeah.

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You guys are awesome.

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In fact, we're using wireless

internet right now that is running.

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As smoothly as possible because

of our guys that did that for us.

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And thank you so much, guys.

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Yeah.

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What a blessing.

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We didn't ask them.

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No they said basically, can

we come and help you guys?

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Yeah.

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And we're like you don't have to.

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There's not a lot of stuff.

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If you really want to, we basically

discouraged them and we're coming.

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We're gonna help you.

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We're gonna bless your socks

off, then we're just gonna leave.

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Which is exactly what they did.

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And they, I You got in

that fight with Danny?

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I did.

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You punched him and he punched back

and then we shook it shook hands like

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brothers, and then kept on moving.

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Yeah.

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It was great.

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Yeah.

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Thank you gentlemen.

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We're just so grateful for you guys.

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You possessed the very attitude that we

would love to replicate among our church.

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Just that add apa any place, any, anytime.

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Wait.

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Lemme do it again.

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Any place anything, any place,

any add apat, the lyric app,

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habitat, app habitat, whatever it

is, that thing you guys possess.

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We're grateful to you guys

and grateful for you guys.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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Hey, let's jump into our text

for the day numbers 26 and 27.

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At 26, we get another census.

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And what's changed is about 40

years, 40 years after the first one

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and the first, this one was also

taken to gauge military readiness.

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Except this time it was gonna

be significant because this

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is that next generation up.

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This is the generation that

didn't die in the wilderness.

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This is the generation that is

gonna take the promised land.

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And so we're counting people again

here and we're counting those of

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20 years and up trying to gauge.

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Okay, who's ready to go to war?

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Who's ready to go to battle?

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And we find in numbers 26 51, there's

our massive number again, the total

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number of military age men, 601,730.

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So what this tells us is there

hasn't been a massive change in the

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population of Israel, which you would

expect if half the population about or

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thereabouts was gonna die off because

of their disobedience to the Lord.

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Yeah.

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What's about that?

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They've been replaced

by the next generation.

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And so you've got, basically the

numbers remaining the same because

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God took out one generation and

replaced them with the next generation.

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And so if this is the 601,000 that

we think it is we're again looking

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at a number close to 2 million.

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But it may be, like we

said, LF could mean clans.

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It, there are, there may be other

explanations, but here it is, 601,730.

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Yeah.

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One thing to note most commentators

will note this for you, but

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you'll note that all the numbers

that we're looking at are round.

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Yep.

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They're round numbers, which gives

us an indication that these are

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probably not meant to be precise

documentations of the numbers of Israel.

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Accurate?

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Yes.

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And we've come across this before,

accuracy, but not precision, at

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least not Western 2025 precision.

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The numbers that they're

reporting are accurate.

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They are probably good approximations

for what they were doing.

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Maybe they were organized by clans and

by tribes by military units perhaps.

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But the numbers, as you'll see

here, these are not inaccuracies.

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I don't care what your

atheist friend tells you.

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These are reliable representations.

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Yeah.

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Of the numbers of people that were there.

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Now we still have to do a little bit of

homework here and say, okay, what numbers.

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What do these represent and

how do we understand them best?

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Yeah, but they're accurate.

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They're reliable.

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That's my point.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Note numbers 26 64 through 65.

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Just a reminder here of the

totality of the punishment here.

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It says in 64, but among these,

there was not one of those listed

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by Moses and Aaron, the priest who

had listed the people of Israel

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and the wilderness of Sinai.

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For the Lord had said of them,

they shall die in the wilderness.

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So the Lord fulfilled his

word, he fulfilled his promise.

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They were all gone, and now they were

set being set up to, to take the promise.

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Un surprised.

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Yep.

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Chapter 27.

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Then we get into initially a

situation with the daughters

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of and this guy's name Zha.

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Zilo Z Zha.

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Yeah.

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That's how the guy said

it on the Bible app.

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There we go.

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Zalo had, I'm gonna go with that.

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Yeah.

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Son of Heifer.

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Anyways Z Lofa had man,

some of these names he.

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Yeah, maybe he's a cow, maybe

distant relative of the cow.

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Maybe the red, not as long

as he is not the red one.

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O Yeah.

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Anyways, these daughters come

forward and they say, Hey

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our dad didn't have any sons.

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He's gone and we don't want his name

to disappear, and we don't think

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it's right for his name to disappear,

just because he didn't have any sons.

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And so the people seek

the counsel of the Lord.

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And it's determined that, yeah,

okay we think we agree with you.

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And so these daughters are granted

their, the portion of the tribe, of

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their, the tribe that they belong

to, that their dad belonged to.

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So it's an interesting situation

here where God provides for these

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young women to make sure that they

would have a stake in the land even

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though they didn't have any brothers

and their father had passed away.

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The rest of this chapter then verses

12 through 23, you get Joshua.

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Joshua is introduced.

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Moses is given an opportunity to see

the promised land from in verse 12.

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And he is allowed there to witness

what the people are gonna go in

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and take the thing that he had been

laboring for his whole life, but.

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Again, because of his unfaithfulness,

he's not gonna enter there, he's

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not gonna take advantage of it.

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He's not gonna be in there.

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In verse 16 through 17, we see

here Moses has a concern for

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the leadership of the people.

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And so asks the Lord that he would

appoint another one after him.

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This is evidence of a good leader.

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He cares about what's coming next.

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He's not just about his own empire and

his own brand, his own kingdom, but he's

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thinking about what's, who's next up.

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And so Moses.

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Seeks the Lord's wi wisdom

and guidance on that.

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Joshua is selected, he's described

as a man in whom is the spirit.

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Now, we talked about that

with yesterday with BAAM here.

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I, I think we still have to

apply the same principles.

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This is not the indwelling of the

spirit in a regenerative sense, but

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this is gonna be more of a significant.

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And longer term indwelling of the

spirit than Balam experienced.

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And so Joshua possesses the spirit for

the task at hand, which is gonna be to

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lead the people into the promised land.

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And his leadership is gonna be

different from that of Moses.

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He's gonna possess some of Moses'

authority, but he would not

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commune with God face to face.

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We read about that in

verses 19 through 21.

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So Moses was gonna stand out as unique.

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Still, and that's why I think the

writer of Hebrews doesn't say,

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Hey, Jesus is better than Joshua.

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Jesus is better than Aer.

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Jesus is better than Aaron.

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I think he, he highlights Moses

'cause Moses was unique in the

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fact that he got to see and

interface with God face to face.

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Not so with Joshua here, but still

Joshua's gonna be a godly leader who

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takes the people into the promised land.

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I really appreciate the fact that Moses

is the one who comes to God about this.

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You highlighted this,

but this is so important.

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Moses.

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God knows.

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God knows.

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God knows that they need leadership.

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So it's not like.

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Moses is reminding God, right?

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God knows.

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And yet he allows Moses to take the

initiative and take the first step

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to say, Lord, they need leadership.

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Who will you put in my place?

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Who will you allow to take the

mantle of leadership going forward?

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And I think that speaks a lot

to the way that leaders today

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should think about their role.

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They think about their succession plan.

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I think there's always a good.

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Impulse to say I'm not the Lord's

final authority over anything.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Therefore, there should always be

a plan of what happens if you die.

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Hope that's not too crass, but we ought

to be thinking about the fact that

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we're not gonna be around for forever.

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It's a wise parent, a wise pastor.

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It's a wise leader who makes

provision for the people that they

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love before they die, and that's

exactly what Moses is doing here.

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I think that would apply to simple

things like, man, if you're overseeing a

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family, it would be a good thing to have

life insurance unless you have a really.

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Large nest egg.

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It'd be good thing to to sock away some

cash for your kids for things like,

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I don't know, burying you perhaps.

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Or maybe you take care of it yourself.

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You buy your own burial plot and

you buy your own casket so that

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they don't have to worry about that.

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As they mourn your loss, you'll have

taken care of some of the small things.

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I think this is the heart of a leader.

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He cares for his people.

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He's caring that they have provision

for the next phase after he leaves.

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That's a good leader.

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That is a good leader.

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Are you trying to suggest something?

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Are you trying to say, I need to, so

when you die, pastor pj, I will name

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the church pastor PJ Bible Church.

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Yeah.

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No, and it's worth us thinking through

that and honestly right now I don't

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think too deeply about that because I

know if I get hit by a bus, we've got

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you completely able to take the reins.

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And what if for both in the car?

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Then we drive together on occasion.

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Then it's Mark, or then it's,

yeah, I guess it's true.

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Then it's one of our wives.

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We're gonna just go egalitarian.

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All right.

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I'm sure that'll go over real well.

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I'm sure.

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Church.

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I'm kidding, Jeff.

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I'm kidding.

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I'm kidding.

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All right.

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Hey, let's let's pray in.

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Is the radio right in the email

before we even publish it?

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Too much googly.

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He senses it right now.

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Senses unorthodox, teaching.

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Let's pray.

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God we pray that you

would keep us faithful.

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We joke about it, but we know that but

for the grace of God, could we drift

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and we wanna be faithful to your word.

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And so help us to do just that.

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We want to be wise and we want to be those

that are preparing the next generation.

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And part of that includes thinking

about the future leadership.

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And so help us to know how to do that as

individuals, as families, and certainly as

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the church goes as well, we want to be a

faithful church for multiple generations.

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If you don't send Christ back first, we

want Compass's Bible Church to be here

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for decades upon decades and we recognize

that's gonna be new leadership eventually,

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and we just pray that it would be a

faithful lampstand for its entire time.

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We pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Hey, keep you in your Bibles.

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Tune it again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Bye y'all.

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Bye.

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Speaker: Hey, thanks for

joining us for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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We hope and pray this has been a blessing

to you and your time in the word.

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If it has, if you would subscribe to this

podcast, leave a like, leave a comment

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and share it with some friends and family.

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That would be awesome.

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If you need more information about

Compass Bible Church here in North

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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.