18. Bonus #2: Top 10 Topics from Exodus

[00:00:00] Good day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God, Bonus Edition. We have our second bonus edition today as very exciting to invite back Andy Martin. Good day Andy. Hi Dave. How are you doing? It is very exciting to be back.

[00:00:14] Tell us what are you preaching on at the moment in church? We are coming to the end of a series of one-fastalonians which has been really good actually looking at all sorts of things that Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church. Really exciting. Fantastic.

[00:00:30] Well today we've got a special bonus episode. We've just done a long series on Exodus and I thought at the end of that series

[00:00:38] it's worth just reflecting on some of the big topics that have come up. There are a whole lot of wonderful things that it teaches us about God and about ourselves and faith and all those sort of things.

[00:00:50] And so we have today the top 10 topics from the first 15 chapter chapters of Exodus. So we're going to do a bit of back and forth. We've each got five topics and we're going to cover them each in turn

[00:01:04] at the end. We've also got a couple of questions from people who have written in which is really great. But yeah, we're going to do the top 10 topics. I assume Dave you're starting. You've done all the hard work on this so far.

[00:01:16] No, I'm just been listening in and enjoying it very much. But you can go off. Okay. Oh, oh, kick off. With topic number one we'll get right into it. Here is our next episode of

[00:01:28] Stories of a Faithful God. Okay. Our topic number one in Exodus. One of the wonderful things that we see is God's power over nature. I mean it really is quite startling right from when Moses throws a stick down and it turns into a

[00:02:08] snake. But everything from making flies, making nets out of the dust, parting the red sea, all these different things. You have to come away there and say God is not just the creator of the world. He actually holds and

[00:02:23] sustains and looks after every single part of it. And a lot of the time we just see that in its normal everyday sort of thing like the sun rises, the sun sets, the clouds get made beautifully every day by God.

[00:02:40] But in Exodus you see him I guess not over turn but do that in a different way as he turns water into blood. As he does all these wonderful things. Well, again, I guess it's not surprising is it because

[00:02:54] like he said in there, God's the creator. He created it all in the beginning and has total power over it. And that shouldn't really surprise us. No, and one of the great things is we're going to talk about it a little bit later.

[00:03:07] But all of these things point us towards Jesus and when Jesus arrives and he starts doing these things. It forces those people to ask the question, who is this man? Because he looks like a man.

[00:03:24] He talks like a man. He eats, sleeps, all that sort of stuff and yet he has the power that only God has and yeah, it's a great indicator of just who it is we're dealing with there.

[00:03:39] How about topic number two, Andy? Well, I think that follows on really neatly from number one because we've talked about God's power. Well, actually what we see again and again is how God's power works through his word. God speaks and things happen. Which again, that's how he created.

[00:03:58] God spoke the world into being. And we see it here throughout Exodus as well. God says what will happen and it happens just as he says. Now, again, I don't think we should be surprised by that because

[00:04:14] God is a speaking God. He's a powerful God. And so he's also entirely trustworthy and truthful God. When he says something, it will happen. So the, for example, God says they'll be Nats tomorrow

[00:04:28] and tomorrow the Nats arrive. God says the river's going to turn to blood and it turns to blood. God said right in fact at the beginning of the story, didn't hear if the accounts that he would

[00:04:40] end by killing Pharaoh's first born son and at the end of the series of plagues. That's what happens. What God says he will do. So that ties in then with the idea of prophecy and I guess prophecy

[00:04:55] is where God speaks his word through a person, through a mouthpiece. Again, we see that when God speaks through a prophet, things happen. And in fact, that's the mark of a genuine prophet in the

[00:05:06] Old Testament. What they say comes true. Yeah, just as you're speaking, I'm almost jumping ahead here. So I'll just speak very briefly about it, but in terms of believing God of faith in God,

[00:05:20] he's not really interesting that at the beginning. When Moses first turns up and he talks to these lives in Pharaoh, people are very unwilling to believe God. And yet he shows himself to the

[00:05:34] true time and time again, faithful in that. Yeah, which links him to topic number three, which is biblical theology, which is fancy way of saying the story of the whole Bible.

[00:05:48] Which is just struck me again as we were going through Exodus that God is doing a miraculous and wonderful thing there in Egypt three and a half thousand years ago. And yet even as he's doing

[00:06:04] that, he is keeping the whole story of human history in mind and he's shaping things, he's shaping history, he's shaping people, he's shaping events so that he can tell that story.

[00:06:18] And so you see it in all sorts of ways. I mean, the big obvious one is the Passover. The Passover is so it's set up so beautifully to point us to the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus died at Passover.

[00:06:35] At the first Passover, the blood of the Lamb, he shed. Jesus is the Lamb and his blood is shed at the Easter Passover. You see even even in someone like Moses, Moses is, he's a human,

[00:06:52] he tells the story of what it looks like to be someone who follows God imperfectly and so he's like us in that sense. And yet at the same time there are there are times where he's almost

[00:07:05] like God, God even says I'm going to make you like God. And in the way that he speaks in the way that he acts, God actually performs his miracles through Moses. And so Moses becomes this type

[00:07:19] that points us to Jesus. He's not as good as Jesus or as powerful as Jesus or anything like that, but he does start to get us thinking about what it looked like if God was a human. And I love the way God

[00:07:34] does that with history and with the Old Testament so that when we get to the New Testament, we can be really confident in what we're saying because we've already been taught the important things from the Old Testament. And I think that then leads brilliant into topic

[00:07:54] number four, which is knowing God. Again and again through the accounts where it holds at God does this, so that Israel and Egypt will know him. So for example chapter 7 verse 5, the Egyptians will know

[00:08:09] that I am Yahweh, that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the Israelites. Given that theology is, it is knowing God in a way, isn't it? And actually we see that that is

[00:08:24] God's goal through this. That everything he does is to teach his people and Egypt that he is God. Now I guess there are different elements to that aren't there. There is the sheer power and authority

[00:08:38] of God. So in that battle between God and Pharaoh which isn't really a battle is it? But God is showing that he is the ultimate in the universe. He is the king, the sovereign. But also God's goodness

[00:08:52] and how he loves his people and he's come to rescue his people. How he works through a man here. All these things are we're learning more about God, getting to know him better, which is

[00:09:08] a wonderful thing, isn't it? So this isn't just about God acting in a particular way. This is about us knowing God. Yes, sometimes people they almost make a virtue of saying that you can't

[00:09:22] know God. It's so sad. We see it at a very human level when people can't know their parents when they're cut off from them or through whatever reason that yearning. Well we're actually made

[00:09:39] to know our Creator, like a father and God wants to be known by his creation and it's so wonderful that he does reveal himself in this way. He doesn't stay silent. And just picking up that reminds me of

[00:09:54] something Jesus said in John 17. He says this is eternal life that they may know you, you only true God and the one you've sent. So in some ways it that makes you realize doesn't it?

[00:10:07] In that account of Exodus, God is revealing himself ultimately so that people have eternal life. Hmm. And his people yes he's about to save them from Egypt but he has something bigger in mind

[00:10:23] doesn't he not just save my people taking them to Canaan but ultimately that his people will trust him and have eternal life. Yeah and the Egyptians to a certain degree have that opportunity too

[00:10:35] don't they? So God is doing this so that they know him and we think from the account that some of those Egyptians did then leave Egypt with Israel. Yeah it's quite amazing it's even in that

[00:10:48] passage so it all ties together and he's in that passage where it says knowing God and the one he has sent. Yeah knowing Jesus so even as God is revealing himself there coming back to the

[00:11:02] biblical theology part of what he's doing there is pointing getting people ready to know Jesus. Hmm so that when Jesus turns up we can be saved by knowing him. So Exodus is part of that

[00:11:15] gospel story absolutely. Yeah it's almost like there was one author for the whole Bible and I think he's not listening. Yeah okay topic number five racing through them will have a little break

[00:11:29] after topic five but faith and faithlessness I guess if knowing God and God being noble but also faithful in all those in all the stories throughout Exodus the flip side of that is people's

[00:11:45] response to God and you see him in Exodus both sides of that you see faith and you see faithlessness. You first see faith in the beautiful way of the the midwives who stand up to Pharaoh and there

[00:12:01] there's no sense there that they're afraid of Pharaoh they just said no I am on God's side I'm sticking with God what God wants and Pharaoh who are you compared to him and that that comes from

[00:12:14] a rock solid faith. You see the Israelites sometimes they have faith right at the beginning when they first hear that God's come to help them there so excited but that faith just sort of fades away

[00:12:26] very very quickly and part of what God's doing through the Exodus part of the reason I think that he takes so long with all the different plagues and those sort of things is he's actually laying

[00:12:38] down the evidence so he's not just saying hey you should trust me he's saying I know you don't trust me but here all the reasons why you should Pharaoh obviously doesn't trust him one of the wonderful

[00:12:52] stories of faith though in the by in Exodus and probably the the the clearest example of growing faith through the story is the story of Moses but we're actually going to talk about that as topic number

[00:13:05] six right after a little break okay we're back and Andy you've got topic number six for us yes and in fact to be honest Dave you introduced this as we finished the last one God's transforming

[00:13:46] work as seen in Moses so if you remember right back to the very start of the Exodus account Moses grows up and one of the first things that he himself actually does is kill someone

[00:13:57] and then run away so he hears the first actually of a number of God's people who is a murderer and it looks like a bit of a coward too particularly since in the next chapter chapter three

[00:14:12] when Moses meets God at the burning bush and God sends him back to Egypt with a job to do Moses does everything he can to get out of it he really doesn't want to go but you take that

[00:14:26] Moses murder and coward and actually see his story his character grow through the next chapters so that right up towards the end chapter 14 at the red sea Israelites are there trapped between the red sea and pharaoh and Moses Moses response straightaway is to say to them

[00:14:54] don't panic don't be afraid stand firm and see the Lord salvation he'll provide for you today for the Egyptians you see today you will never see again the Lord will fight for you you must be quiet

[00:15:05] it his he's learned hasn't he that he can trust God absolutely and there he is stuck between a rock in a hard place you know an army and a sea and he's not panicking yeah I don't think he knows

[00:15:15] this point what God's planning to do I don't think he's been told when that and as I'm misremembering and yet in fact the next verse the Lord then says lift up your hand staff stretch out your hands

[00:15:27] I'm going to divide the sea yeah it's so different to back at the burning bush's on the don't send me and coming up with all the excuses under the sun it's it's got to give us confidence

[00:15:40] doesn't it yeah because I'm pretty lame lots of the time and wish I was better and yet the Bible does talk about how God and changes his people where works in progress and it's not like he

[00:15:52] God doesn't know about our faults he knows them better than we know ourselves and yet he's willing to transform us and change us and work with us and that's the theme we see throughout

[00:16:07] it's starting with Abraham back in Genesis a man who gives his wife to another man because he's scared his son Isaac I think does the same thing you got Moses then you got David King David the greatest

[00:16:19] king who's an adulterer and a murderer again right down to Paul in the New Testament who if you read his letters you'll see again and again and he says I was the worst of sinners because he as a

[00:16:32] Pharisee tried to wipe out the church yes it's just astonishing that the Bible clearly isn't a book of hairays it's a book of broken people sinful people whom God are astonishing transforming God takes hold of and does wonderful things with them yeah absolutely when I tell

[00:16:50] people about or try and teach people about telling Bible stories I say who's the hero in the story it's always gone God is the hero yeah coming on to topic number seven this one it sits over

[00:17:05] the whole of Exodus and spit of a heart a one to talk about but it's actually a really really good thing and I want to talk about the goodness of judgment obviously in throughout Exodus you see

[00:17:19] some really strong acts of judgment God God doesn't hold back like no that's not true he does hold back lots of times he holds back but even in that holding back we see some pretty big things people

[00:17:32] hurt people die people are covered in sauce at the whole army gets covered by water and a lot of people look at that and they're horrified so I think there was there was yet another movie made about

[00:17:49] this maybe 10 years ago or so and God is pictured as this petulant child of oh they don't like my people well I'm going to use on my power against them in a really nasty sort of way and I think

[00:18:04] that's how people can hear that but I think this is actually a picture of God's judgment that is fair and good in that the whole of that Exodus story those first 15 chapters it sits under

[00:18:21] what happens in the first couple of chapters where the Egyptians in slave gods people they beat them they treat them harshly and when it doesn't seem to work with what they're trying to

[00:18:33] achieve they beat them and treat them even more harshly and then when that's still not working they resort to genocide they throw the baby boys into the river that is a horrible horrible thing

[00:18:49] and God is saying and showing and demonstrating that he is the judge and that judgment is good funnily enough it's a it is a limited judgment God does keep holding back to give the

[00:19:04] Egyptians opportunity to repent but in the end they they feel the weight of that and I think for people who have never been seriously wronged that can be hard to hear but I think people who

[00:19:20] have been wronged and have sought justice and sometimes not God justice the justice that is right and proper they feel the weight of that and say yes something should be done something

[00:19:35] needs to be done and it is a really good thing that God does want to deal with the sin and the evil and the horror of this world not with our grace he wants to save people he really does and he

[00:19:49] sees that most clearly obviously in the cross where Jesus actually comes to take that judgment for people who trust him but if we don't do that if we don't turn back then there is

[00:20:03] ultimately justice no one just gets away with it without coming back to Christ and I think it's really important to come back to that point to the cross isn't it because when we think about justice

[00:20:17] and punishment we can we can get offended and we think we'd somehow more just than God as if that would ever be possible but actually we're talking about it being supreme being of perfect goodness

[00:20:29] perfect justice sees every thought every motive every deed is able to weigh that perfectly and so his justice when we see it in the end you know when we see God's perfect justice we will all

[00:20:42] this what we we won't be able to say that some fair is see that it's perfect and at the same time he's a God who loves us so much he gave Jesus to die for us and I find myself thinking okay there's

[00:20:55] so much I don't understand about justice and punishment but I can see that God has a God who loves me and therefore I'm willing to trust him with with that and know that perfect justice will be done

[00:21:08] yes and sometimes I hear about horrible things that have happened and there's always a context there's always you know people's upbringing the society they live in all those sort of things

[00:21:21] and I sit there and I think I have no idea how to unpick that what are people responsible for what do they what can they say no that part wasn't me what we just just looked like in this situation

[00:21:33] exactly how could anyone ever know yes but I am so thankful and confident in God that he actually does no perfectly yeah so that things will balance out in the end so that leads us on to another tricky

[00:21:50] one and if you've been following Dave's stories of a faithful God you'll know that through the Exodus story quite regularly we read that the Lord Harden's Farrow's heart that is what we can see

[00:22:04] from the account God gives Farrow an instruction through Moses but then the Lord Harden's his heart so that Farrow does not follow it now we put that beside versus where we're told that Farrow Harden's

[00:22:19] his own heart and I guess there's a recognition here that both are true but because we believe in a sovereign all powerful God God's hardening of Farrow's heart must come first mustn't it he is the

[00:22:32] soul friend so what's going on here is it fair it is one of those hard questions isn't it and again perhaps before I try and explain a bit more whenever I've got hard questions like this I come back

[00:22:46] to the cross and think God is so loving he gave Jesus his son and therefore I'm going to trust him even when I don't have all the answers because there are loads of answers I don't have but I trust God

[00:22:57] because of Jesus so what could possibly go be going on well there is an element still again I like with the last question the first few chapters of Exodus show us the Egyptians behaving

[00:23:09] with brutality violence oppression murder and this Farrow is a part of that even though he's a generation down the track the original Farrow from chapters one and two I think has died this is a

[00:23:25] new Farrow possibly having grown up with Moses it's it's possible and yet he's part of this same people who are violently oppressing and misusing the Hebrews and so part of God's judgment

[00:23:41] part of God's judgment on this in is that he hardens Farrow's heart he will not let Farrow get out of this one easily now what do we do with that on one level we have to say God is God and we are not

[00:23:57] here's the Sovereign God made Farrow he made us we are here to do with us he pleases at the same time I remember he's good he's just he is loving and compassionate now within this there is an aspect of that we're told by Paul in Romans chapter nine

[00:24:19] that God does this because he wants to show to his people I think in Exodus and us you centuries later that he is the God who punishes sin and so there are some people and they are

[00:24:35] guilty they're sinners we will are but God hardens their hearts and pulls out his judgment and we see that and we need to learn from it both that sin is horrible and brings God's judgment

[00:24:53] but also then that mercy God's salvation is astounding I don't know David help me out where do you go after that yeah now I think I think that's really helpful I think when I think of

[00:25:07] judgment I think of like the last day you know when Jesus comes again he's going to put a stop to the world and say okay let's let's open up the books and let's work out what's right and wrong

[00:25:17] here but Romans one actually talks about how part of the judgment of our sin happens even in the here and now we're God hands people over to the consequences of their decisions and I think that's

[00:25:33] partly what we're seeing in Farrow that God is not just saying well when you die in way off in the future I'm going to bring judgment on you he's actually saying no your time has come and that's

[00:25:48] gonna happen here in this world and I am going to judge you by hardening your heart and I'm going to use you as a tool to judge the rest of Egypt as well and use you as a tool to teach my people

[00:26:06] the good things that they need to learn and I think it does it sends that warning really strongly that you shouldn't mess around with this God and you shouldn't think I can leave my 80 years

[00:26:21] and then you know just on my death bed I'll turn back to Jesus now we live in the world that is owned by this creator God and we owe him our allegiance and it is dangerous to mess around with

[00:26:38] try to go against him and Farrow is a great example of that although if you are 80 years old and on your death bed it's not too late don't miss out because there is salvation but yes well that's

[00:26:53] the wonderful thing about great season it. I think we're still at Wellington Union today but we number nine yes okay so you mentioned before Andy that the Farrow who we see through most of

[00:27:07] Exodus is not actually the Farrow who commanded the babies to be thrown into the river and that's really interesting there is something going on where the later Egyptians the next generation feel the judgment of God for what went on beforehand you quoted Hebrew you said a Hebrew word

[00:27:31] last time so I can use a big word because I want to show that I can say big words as well into generational culpability they are practiced that one in front of the mirror what is basically saying

[00:27:43] there is something going on where it is fair and right and good that the next generation is facing the punishment for what happened before so what's going on there because that doesn't sound fair

[00:27:57] and even in God's law in the Old Testament which God gives it Mount Sin I just after they have left Egypt God says to the Israelites don't punish the children for the sins of their fathers don't

[00:28:10] punish the fathers for their sins of their children and so that's a good and fair and reasonable thing and that certainly how we practice as well and yet there's something that we see here but

[00:28:24] also plenty of other times in the Bible as well where God works with not just individuals but also communities and communities between their generations and if a previous generation has sinned and the next generation continues in that sin or benefits from that sin or doesn't turn away from

[00:28:52] that sin then it's like they're saying yep we accept that we stand with them rather than with God and so the fact that this generation of Egyptians is still oppressing the Israelites still happy to reap the benefits of everything that their parents have done God is saying you're

[00:29:13] accountable for that and I think a lot of the plagues are really clearly pointing back to that events even the first plague of the Nile river turning to blood it's God and make you think about the

[00:29:25] children being thrown in the river do you have can you help me out on that one? we live in such an individualistic time don't we we all assume that it is just me and God

[00:29:39] but actually throughout the scriptures we see God deal with us in communities in families as sons and daughters and mothers and fathers and we're connected to people we we are connected and our sin has an impact on other people other people sin has an impact on me yes

[00:30:01] yeah and we shouldn't think about that as being locked into something so later on the Israelites they get to the promised land and spies go in to have a look at the land the spies come back

[00:30:15] and say it's a really good land but there are there are 12 spies and 10 of the spies say but it's a great land but there is no way we can go in there and there are two spies who say

[00:30:27] of course we can because God is with us so the ones who say no they're saying no the people are too strong the armies are too big the walls are too powerful we couldn't win and the two say

[00:30:39] of course we can win now the Israelites go with those who say that we can't go in they as a community they head in that direction of rejecting God and saying we can't win they've forgotten all the lessons they've learned in Egypt and for that reason God punishes

[00:30:57] the nations says well your generation isn't going to get to go into the land but the next one will get to go into the land but the people who remain faithful to God the ones who said no no

[00:31:10] we can trust God on this God honored that and he'd let them go and he didn't lump them in with everyone else because God is a God of justice and when these people said I'm sticking with God

[00:31:22] not with that side of sin they were fine they were safe and so we should never think that we're defined by what's happened in our past or without cultural society have done what our

[00:31:35] parents and grandparents or anything like that have done but we do need to say I need to trust and follow God even if my society culture family parents grandparents didn't yeah I thought

[00:31:50] as after that how about you finish off with a really nice one yeah so number 10 the wonder of salvation it's astonishing the whole story of Exodus is an amazing rescue isn't it and God does it with

[00:32:06] wonderful power but ultimately it is a story of rescue God saves his people and takes them out and they have next to nothing to do with it they simply have to follow and trust him and I guess

[00:32:19] it it does bring us again to the cross doesn't it like we've said a few times Jesus Jesus does everything needed for us to be put right with God to take the punishment for us

[00:32:31] to make us part of God's family um his cross kind of like the Passover shows us where sin leads it leads to death but on the cross Jesus takes that so the cross shows us both the sheer horror of

[00:32:47] our sin but also then the magnitude of God's love the wonder of salvation that they we do nothing he does everything and we we reap the benefits yes we enjoy all of God's blessings one for us by Jesus

[00:33:02] yeah one of the things that struck me through the um through the story was the way the Israelites plunder the Egyptians plundering is what victorious armies do but actually these relates a not a victorious army if you just look at them they're actually they're they're an

[00:33:21] enslaved race they haven't done any fighting they haven't risen up and you know throw it off their chains or anything like that God has fought for them he's done that and they reap all the

[00:33:33] benefits which you know as you're saying with Jesus he does all that work he goes through that terrible suffering so that we don't have to and we get to reap the benefits we we get invited into the

[00:33:46] royal family of God we get eternal life we get the Holy Spirit put inside us all these wonderful things not by our own efforts or work but purely by him now well that's our top 10 topics from

[00:34:04] Exodus hope that hope that has been helpful and if it does raise questions feel free to send in more questions and we want to uh we want to talk about them and we'll be right back with two

[00:34:16] questions that people have sent in okay well we have a couple of questions that have been sent in by people who've been listening to the podcast so thank you very much to them Hannah was the first

[00:34:41] one Hannah sent in a question and she's asked can Jews still be saved under the old covenant so when Jesus came he came first to the Jews and then the message spread out from there and we want

[00:34:56] to say really strongly that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament but obviously not all Jews suddenly became Christians they're still Jews today can they still be saved by well it depends

[00:35:10] how you think of the old covenant but that can they be saved by following the Old Testament law by making sacrifices that the law required and doing all those sort of things and I want to argue

[00:35:24] that no in a very short way but I actually want to argue that no one actually has ever been saved by that understanding of the old covenant no one was able to keep the law in such a way that they

[00:35:41] be saved so if you look at the book of Romans the whole one of the whole pictures of Romans is first it says people who don't know anything about God they send all the time and if you were a

[00:35:55] Jew back then you were reading that you'd go yes yes of course that's right but then he goes on to talk about how actually no one even who says they do know God is good enough they they don't stop

[00:36:08] sinning enough of it don't obey the law enough in fact often the Lord just leads to hypocrisy and so no one by being obedient to that law is actually saved by that law in now in Romans chapter 2 I

[00:36:23] think you've got it open there and you'd want to read that for us yes so Romans 3 verse 20 says no one will be justified in God's sight by the works of the law because the knowledge of sin

[00:36:35] comes through the law for the Lord is really helpful there but it's helpful as a teaching aid because you keep not being able to keep it and then going wow my sin is really big I need something

[00:36:47] else which ultimately is Jesus but that's not to say people in the old testament weren't saved there are plenty of people in the old testament who were saved a Hebrews chapter 11 actually

[00:37:00] is really strong on talking about lots of people from the old testament who are followers of God and it says that they are going to a new land to a new creation the same hope that we have

[00:37:16] so what defines them what stands out about them is that their people of faith they're people who trust in God they say I don't know everything about God I'm not always perfectly obedient to God

[00:37:31] but I do trust him and that's what you see in someone like Abraham who he doesn't know everything that God wants him to do is certainly not perfect in obedience and yet he trusts God and

[00:37:45] follows him now could someone today could a Jewish person today trust God in that way and not trust Jesus I think hypothetically if they don't know anything about Jesus then potentially yes but if they hear about Jesus and they reject him then actually they don't

[00:38:09] know God they're not putting their trust in God because they clears the best way that we know God is through Jesus he actually is God in the flesh God the sun so that when we know him we do know

[00:38:24] God do you think that's the first statement I think so I'm sort of pondering that you know could a faithful Jew hypothetically today trust God that way because I think the Bible also teaches us that faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit

[00:38:43] I don't think a Jew could even do that because genuine faith that trust God given by the Holy Spirit would have to find its end in Jesus in other words I think the faithful Jew who trust God would inevitably come to put his faith in

[00:39:01] Jesus as the Messiah so I don't know no that's really helpful because I mean that leads on to the role of the Holy Spirit so you know we've got a good trainitarian discussion

[00:39:14] what does the Holy Spirit come to do? Well he comes to point people to Jesus first and foremost and so if you have the Holy Spirit then of course you're going to be on the look out for Jesus

[00:39:31] and since God has sent the Holy Spirit out into the world that's where he's taken people so yes I suppose we can talk in hypothetical possibilities but in terms of where we are now

[00:39:43] what we should expect is that even someone who trust God but doesn't yet know Jesus the Spirit will be working in them to help them to find Jesus so that they can truly know God as and many Jews have haven't they? Absolutely.

[00:40:02] themselves messianic Jews because they believe the Messiah has come Jesus. Yeah I all all the all the first Christians were Jewish but yeah um absolutely yeah okay you've got another question there for us from baking so Becky's question recently I've

[00:40:19] heard that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew but the New Testament was written in Greek what was the reason behind this? Surely all the disciples were Hebrews in John it's almost

[00:40:29] an insult when the Jews say that Jesus will run away and offer his teachings to the Greeks I'm interested to know why it wasn't in Hebrew. Yes so the Old Testament was written in Hebrew

[00:40:42] with a little bit of Aramaic which is linked but I'm so the book of parts of Daniel and Ezra been written in Aramaic everything else in Hebrew the New Testament was written in Greek

[00:40:53] the reason for that is a few centuries before Jesus came Alexander the Great conquered a whole patch of the world and it became Greek speaking so Greek became a bit like English is today the Lank the Common Language of Alexander's Empire and over the centuries those next three

[00:41:16] centuries or so it remains so Greek was the Common Language and so in Jesus's day in Palestine most of the people would have spoken Aramaic rather than Hebrew it would have been Aramaic

[00:41:31] as I said it's a linked language but Aramaic was what they would have spoken day today and Abba Abba father is an Aramaic word they would also spoken Greek and some of the may have spoken Latin like the Roman soldiers or at least communicating with them

[00:41:50] the New Testament was written to churches or four churches that were not just Jewish but actually Greek so the New Testament was written later I suspect most I suspect most of Jesus's teaching

[00:42:03] was an Aramaic although some people think maybe he taught in Greek too again because it was the common language but the New Testament written after Jesus died and was raised written by Paul and the other

[00:42:14] apostles was written for a church that was a real mix so actually the Common Language for all those first Christians was Greek, Common Greek now sort of known as New Testament Greek it's interesting

[00:42:29] the Roman Empire which benefited from Alexander the Great and his conquest I mean Alexander the Great gee did some horrible horrible things the Roman Empire did some horrible horrible things and yet even the early Christians could look at that even as they were being persecuted by

[00:42:49] the Roman Empire they could say God has done something amazing here in giving us a language that can spread so far and wide so I think I heard once that something like a quarter of the

[00:43:04] world's population at the time lived within the Roman Empire that's Greek and yeah and and spoke Greek as one of their languages so there was a great benefit there and then also the

[00:43:14] security of the Roman Empire that you could travel around all that way so that the word about Jesus could spread so rapidly in a way that Hebrew never was Hebrew was very much

[00:43:28] the language of the Israelites and contained but God said okay it's time for the explosion it's time for that to spread so much I mean we know the benefits of an international language anyway I mean

[00:43:43] I feel like a bit of a fool both in the present day and historically because I only know one language I know English and you know I feel the benefit of being able to speak English

[00:43:55] and there are people who have listened to these podcasts in more than 25 countries now in 25 countries that and many of them are not native English speaking countries and yet English has

[00:44:09] spread so far and wide and so we get to benefit from that in being able to speak across cultures and that's a wonderful thing just being up on one little bit of the question I think Becky

[00:44:20] it's almost an insult when the Jews say Jesus will run away and offer his teachings to the Greeks I can't remember quite where that comes or exactly what's said in that passage in the

[00:44:30] gospels but yes the Jewish people thought they were it and that God loved them and no one else and so it may have been an insult to them to say actually we're going to take this teaching

[00:44:40] and offer it to the Greeks but the wonderful thing is that's exactly what Jesus came to do to save Jew and Greek and the New Testament being written in Greek is a part of that

[00:44:53] that actually here is good news for the world and that was the common language of today and to put in a plug for a previous series that I did on stories of the faithful God of

[00:45:03] Jonah so it's not like this is a new thing in the New Testament in that even in the Old Testament God always the plan was always to go to the world and in the book of Jonah God is explicitly

[00:45:16] rebuking that hardheartedness within Jonah and the Jewish people at the time to think that they were the only ones who deserve God's mercy God was saying you know I love having mercy

[00:45:27] and I want that to go wider and keep spreading but the plan was always to do that most when Jesus came and that's when it just exploded across the world thank you very much for those questions please if anyone else has a question please send them in

[00:45:46] would love to answer them get their minds ticking and help us reflect back on our wonderful God and thank you so much for coming on again a pleasure and look forward to speaking again

[00:45:58] another time thank you I want to thank everyone who's made this show possible with their generous support if you want to keep hearing more of these stories and if you want other people to hear about this great God please consider supporting me financially if you're able

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