40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 22:8-23:9 (Episode 464)

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

The steward must be replaced, and the Key of the House of David given to another. Tyre and Sidon receive bad news from the prophet. But how does Jesus talk about both things? Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Preorder Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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consider joining us. Your gifts help make sure that others hear this same promise. Give today at 1517.org slash donate dash podcasts. Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast and check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. while you're over there. Make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Articles, academies, events, books, all that stuff. Check it all out. And of course, hit that donate link

if you like this podcast or anything else that 1517 is doing. If that's been beneficial to you, the way that we keep it all going, the way it's all free is the generous support of people like you. And if you're one of the people that already support us, thank you very much for doing that. we are in Isaiah chapter 22. We're in the middle of the oracle concerning Jerusalem. We got through the first seven or so verses, and I mean, it wasn't great news, Chad, for Jerusalem. It wasn't the kind of—it wasn't gospel, I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say it was good news. No, it definitely wasn't good news. I mean, everything we got set up here is describing the invasions of the Assyrians and the after effects of that. And it's one of these cases where you

have leaders fleeing, you have all kinds of possible dangers affecting the city. They're gathered here outside Jerusalem. They've filled the valleys with chariots, and they're basically at the gates at this point when we get to 22 verse 8. And that ends, at least the first part of verse 8 begins where they've taken away the covering of Judah. So it's the idea of they're unprotected. So what's going to happen next? That's kind of the lead-in to what we're going to see in these next few verses. And if you look at the second half of verse 8 all the way through verse 11, I really enjoy this part because it's one of these insights into human nature, because what we're going to see is a lot of human preparation, a lot

of work being done, a lot of plans being made, and at the same time, all this is going on, what they're neglecting is trust in the Lord, who's actually going to give them their protection. So a lot of, I mean, a lot of direct application to us today. So let me read the second half of verse 8, then through 11. In that day, you looked to the weapons of the house of the forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. All right, so all that's describing what they did. And then it ends this way. but you did not look to him who did it or see him who planned it long ago so i'll come back to that just a second but there is a nice tie-in because it begins in that day you looked to the weapons and you saw and then it ends by saying you did not look to him who did it or see him who planned it long ago so what all did they do well they they looked to the weapons in the the house of the forest this was built in the time of solomon the house of the forest or sometimes translated

the palace of the forest was a 150 by 75 foot building you got these four rows of cedar it's near the temple uh they basically turned it into an armory you know you had shields you had weapons that were they were in there so they looked to the weapons that were in this armory basically and then they saw that there were all kind of breaches in the city of david so what are you to do with breaches well you have to repair those so one of the things they did is they they took houses and they just disassembled them and they used that material to fortify the wall and then also i mean what's one of the major things that you have to prepare for if you're going to be under siege well you have to have food and you have to have water so the accent

here is on water they collected the waters of the lower pool and they made this reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. So this is a reference to the famous Hezekiah's tunnel, which they dug to basically carry water from the Gihon spring, which was outside the wall initially, and then brought that into the city of David. And of course, if you, any visitor to Jerusalem today, you can walk down in the city of David and you can either walk through or at least see Hezekiah's tunnel. So that was built during this time, which tells us that What Isaiah is talking about is what happened during the Assyrian invasion when they were outside the walls of Jerusalem. And then all this, you know, all the necessary preparations were going on.

I mean, there's nothing wrong getting ready for war. The problem was at the very end where it says, but you did not look to him who did it or see him who planned it long ago. So you have all this preparation going on. At the same time, you have this lack of trust in God who planned this long ago, who selected Jerusalem as the holy city, and who promised to be the defense of the Israelites no matter what enemy faced them. Yeah, God's problem is not that you're making preparations. God's problem is that you're making preparations alone, right? You're doing this all in your own strength. You've not looked to him at all. And so, yeah, prepare away, but

also look to God because... And, you know, in this particular instance, all these preparations are for naught. I mean, you can do all this, but you really need God to intervene. Yeah, because

look at what the Assyrians did all over the place, right? In not not just in Israel, but I mean, they themselves boast when they stand outside the walls of Jerusalem, you know, the gods of this city didn't rescue them. The gods of that city didn't rescue them. We came in and we took control. We slaughtered or enslaved the inhabitants. And do you really think that God is going to protect you? That was the mocking boast of the Assyrians. So yeah, I mean, if God had not intervened, it wouldn't have mattered how much water they had inside jerusalem or how many walls they built or how they prepared the walls they would have

eventually been uh overtaken by the syrians yeah had not god stepped in yeah this is the the the numbers don't work out right like you you need divine intervention here again doesn't mean you couldn't prepare and all that stuff but this preparation does it's uh delaying the inevitable if you do not have God on your side. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, like I said, when I started this, this continues to be the case today. Should you prepare for the future?

Well, yeah. I mean, of course, I think we all do to some extent, right? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with saving for retirement or planning for next week or next year, whatever it is you do to get ready for what's coming. That's fine. It's the way you live responsibly, right? But at the same time, you commit everything to the Lord, and you know that no matter how well you might prepare, ultimately, your future well-being is based upon His providential care of you then as well as now.

So you don't put your trust, in other words, in all the things that you do, instead you put your trust in the God who's with you, no matter how well or ill-prepared you might be. All right, so while they were doing all this, what was going on? What did God want? Verse 12 tells us, in that day, the Lord God of hosts called, so this is what he wanted, actually called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth. So God wanted them basically to lament. He wanted them to cry out to him. He wanted them to mourn.

They wanted them basically to rend their hearts, you know, to come to him. All of this is characteristic of people who are in dire straits, calling upon God to rescue them. That's what he wanted. Instead, we're told in verse 13, And behold, what's going on? Joy and gladness, killing oxen, slaughtering sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine. And they say, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And then we have this terrible statement here at the end in verse 14.

The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears. Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for until you die, says the Lord of hosts. So I'm not going to say this is the gospel of the Lord after that statement. Yeah. So God was calling for them to basically realize, you know, that they needed him. And they do all the Israelite things. they weep, they mourn. I guess they're pulling out their hair because there's baldness. There's wearing of sackcloth, all that. But instead, they're parting it up. I mean, they're having

a big barbecue, right? They're filling their glasses with wine. And I don't know that they said, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. But that certainly was the attitude that they had, right? It's like, well, you know, we did all we could. Now let's just have a party and we'll let the chips fall where they may. And God gives this stern warning at the very end, surely this iniquity will not be atoned for until you die, because, well, this is what the law does. When it sees that you have turned away from him, then it pronounces a severe threat against you. Of course, with the goal being that you actually see the error of your ways and turn to him, and he will be gracious and forgiving so this is a call for repentance yeah it's a it's kind of

weird because the offense here is hopelessness even though that that hopelessness uh manifests in this sort of what looks like a party or a celebration or something um but the the reason behind that is that hey we might as well um because this is tomorrow is uh is a dark day so uh let's have a good night you know the the offense to god here is that with god there's you're never without hope uh and they are acting as if they they have no hope and so he's saying if you ironically the um the weeping and mourning and baldness and wearing a sackcloth would be a more hopeful response than killing the fattened calf. Yeah, yeah.

It's funny what hope looks like sometimes. It doesn't look like all smiles and parties. Often it looks like the wearing of sackcloth and grieving. Yeah. And taken to its extreme, I mean, this is where nihilism takes you, right? Well, let's eat and drink. Tomorrow we die. I mean, that is the definition of a hopeless existence.

Of course, hope is directed toward the future. And if there is no future, there's no afterlife, if there's no God, if there's no hope of heaven or the resurrection, all of that, well, then I suppose that is the only acceptable attitude, right? Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. But even in that, it's such a hollow happiness. What are you really happy about? The fact that this is all you got. So enjoy it, because once you're gone, you cease to exist.

That's it. So, yeah, that's a good insight into kind of the condition of the people. It really is hopelessness. Yeah, and there is reason to eat and drink and that sort of stuff, but in the face of struggle and hardship, even death. But that is not the reason they're doing it. So if the response is eat and drink, we're going to live forever, well, that's different. Yes, yes, yeah.

So the Christian can say, things look dark, but pass your plate over here. We're going to live forever. That's a totally different thing. That is a hopeful celebration. Yeah. I doubt this is why this began, but I have always appreciated the fact that after funerals, there's always kind of a potluck. Yeah. Yeah.

So maybe it's a somber joy, but it's still a joy because we're eating and we're drinking. Not because the Christian that we have just buried is dead and gone and has ceased to exist, but because they're now in the bosom of Christ and await the resurrection. So even our funeral potlucks are a testimony to the hope that we have. Absolutely. All right, so the last section of this chapter of Isaiah 22, it's a bit unexpected, because now we're going to focus upon a couple of guys, a couple of individuals. I think what's going on here is this is kind of a case study, you might say. So we've had this focus upon the nation of Israel, focus upon the city of Jerusalem,

and their preparations for battle, but lack of trust and their hopelessness in the face of the assault from the Assyrians. And of course, a lot of this could be attributed to pride, to a lack of trust, all that kind of stuff. And now we're going to see in the case of two guys, one is named Shevna and one is named Eliakim. And we're going to see in these two situations, these two individuals, the first of them is going to be kind of a personification, if you will, of what's going on in Jerusalem and Israel,

because he's going to be full of pride and self-importance. And what God is going to do is he's going to take away this guy's office authority, all the emblems of that office, and give it to another guy, to Eliakim. Now the real surprise here, and the beautiful surprise actually, is that in the midst of this, we're going to have a reference to the key of the house of David, which is then going to be directly referred to by Jesus himself in Revelation chapter 3. So it's one of many cool connections between Isaiah and the New Testament, except here it's going to go all the way from Isaiah to Revelation.

So I think I'll just read the entire section. It's 10 verses. That way you'll kind of get the flow of it. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Lord God of hosts, come, go to this steward, to Shevena, who is over the household, and say to him, what have you to do here? And whom have you here that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man.

He will have, this image has always gripped me, he's going to seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around and throw you like a ball into a wide land. A track meet image here. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. I will thrust you from your office and you will be pulled down from your station. All right, so pretty clear on what's going to happen to Shevna. Now, here's the switch. In that day, I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him,

and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open. and I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house and they'll hang on him the whole honor of his father's house the offspring and issue every small vessel from the cups to all the flagons

and that day declares the Lord of hosts the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way and it will be cut down and fall and the load that was on it will be cut off for the Lord has spoken so I wish this is one of many situations in the scriptures where I wish we knew a little bit more, a little bit more of the details, but we can, we can certainly piece together what's going on in the case of Shevna. So there's a couple of things that are mentioned here. First of all, he's cut off this tomb for himself on the height carved dwelling

for himself in the rock. It, it seems as if what's going on is Shevna's basically got a very high opinion of himself and he wants to make sure he has his grand and glorious tomb way high up that everybody can see so that even after he's dead and gone, people like, people will point at the tomb and be like, oh man, you know the guy that's buried there? Have you heard about how great he was? And even while he's alive then, he also has his glorious chariots. So I get this idea that this guy is all pomp and circumstance. I mean, he's got an inflated opinion of his own importance. And so even in this life, he's going around in chariots. And even after death, he's got this grand and glorious tomb cut for himself. So he thinks he's it, more or less. And God says,

well you're not i'm gonna i'm gonna ball you up and and hurl you into uh into another land and there you will perish and then he takes basically his office the office that shevin has and all the accoutrements of it i mean everything his sash and uh his authority and his robe and and this whatever the key of the house of david is whether we're talking about i think we're talking about something that is uh symbolic you know maybe some sort of insignia or whatever it is or maybe this is just a metaphor for his authority whatever it is he has the authority the power to open and to shut and he's going to give that he's going to give that which was possessed by shevna now to eliakim and is going to be a switch in an office holder and then we'll

talk about the end in just a minute about this peg giving way. But anyway, that's kind of the situation that's set up. Now, listen to this. This is from Revelation chapter three, verse seven. This is the beginning of what Jesus says is to be written to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. The words of the Holy One, the true one who has the key of David, who opens and no will shut, who shuts and no one opens. So Jesus is taking this image from Isaiah chapter 22 and he's applying it to himself, saying in this surprising sort of way, remember that guy, he was mentioned just in a couple of verses back in Isaiah 22, named Eliakim, who had this key of the house of David, this authority to shut and it stayed shut, to open and it stayed open.

Well, that guy in his office is a foreshadowing or a type of me and my office and the authority that I have. Yeah, whatever it is that these guys are doing, whatever their station is or their responsibilities are, it seems as though the charge here is that you have not stewarded these promises well, right? So this guy has obviously become all about himself and his legacy and all this kind of stuff. And because the key of the house of David seems like a – if you have this, the responsibility that you have is to steward the promise of David. This is what makes sense to me. And this guy is not doing that, and so he's going to give it to somebody else who is going to steward this better. And I'm not exactly sure what the tie-in is, but you hear this, like, shut and not open, open and not shut in reference to a key. And you're like, this kind of language is very similar to the language that Jesus uses when he says that he'll give Peter the keys of the kingdom.

And, you know, like what he opens will not be closed and what he looses will not be fastened, all this kind of stuff. um so there's there's and of course that we would understand as as being the forgiveness of sins and and absolution and uh the the what is this key that the the keys keys are the keys to heaven itself because it's it's forgiveness that opens the gates of heaven wide uh that doesn't change uh that wasn't like a new thing i don't think this has always been the case that like forgive Like, the grace of God and forgiveness of sins and the promise of God is always when what ushered people into heaven. And so whoever this guy is, he's not doing that, right? And so he's got to be given to another.

Yeah, yeah. So in the surprising sort of way, you have Eliakim, who's doing whatever this office requires. But yeah, you're right, it involves stewarding the house of David. And in his stewardship, at least as it begins and as it receives it from another, that is a foreshadowing of what Christ himself is going to do. Which is, you know, when you look at the contrast between him and Shevna is a perfect counterpoint because, you know, here you have the prideful. You have someone who's all about self-importance, someone who is certainly not a servant to the multitudes, Shevna. Well, who is he replaced by? Well, someone who's going to do that job better, right?

that's why god does this and in that way even his uh assumed humility and his service and his fidelity all of those characteristics of eliakim then are a fitting foreshadowing of what christ is is going to be now all of that being said we also have kind of a uh it doesn't end with a super positive note because either this is a prophecy or maybe it is kind of built as a warning, we might say, because God talks about the peg that was fastened in a secure place, giving way, being cut down and falling, and the load that was on it was cut off for the Lord has spoken. So maybe if it's a prophecy, it's a prophecy that Eliakim himself will eventually be that peg that gives way, or maybe

just a warning, don't go in the way of Shevna. Don't be like the one that you replaced. It seems that we don't have to defend Eliakim here, I don't know him. I don't know who that guy is. But it seems that if you fast

forward to the time that Jesus shows up on the scene, that office has completely fallen. Totally fallen, yeah. The great lament of Jesus is that nobody is doing this, right? And so you can look at it as Eliakim, you know, is he that paid?

Well, it talks about him being that, but I think that this office, this sort of, if you're going to say this is like stewarding the promise of the house of David, like the promise that was given to David, that certainly by the time of Jesus has all but gone away entirely. Jesus does this over and over and over again. where indicting the religious leaders, like you're not doing the thing right, right? In fact, some of the things that he'll say about the religious leaders sound similar to the things he just said about Shevna.

Yeah, about Shevna. Like, same complaint, right? Like, oh, you love the robes, you love being seen, you love the pomp and circumstance, But you haven't lifted a finger to deliver forgiveness and the promises of God to anybody. You just stack up heavy burdens, all that kind of stuff. What it seems that Jesus does is reclaims that office for himself and then gives that office to the church in what he does with Peter. Maybe I'm making too much of it, but that's what it seems to me that is happening there. like, you're not stewarding this well, giving it to another, but the day is coming where the whole

thing essentially is going to collapse, and then I myself will reclaim that as my own, and then hand it off to the church. You know, the incident that always sticks in my mind, I know you and I have talked about this years ago, in fact, when Judas comes back after betraying Jesus and says, i've betrayed innocent blood you know and gives the money back to to the priest they say uh what is that to us see to it yourself so like this obvious obvious uh responsibility of pronouncing forgiveness to this this man they did not do i mean they completely abrogated the most important responsibility they had by saying yeah it's not it's not our responsibility what is that to us that's that's your responsibility see to it yourself and well he did he saw to it himself

by going out and taking his own life so that's kind of the nail in the coffin in my opinion with regard to to the temple leadership because that peg might have just straight broke off at that point yeah and everything all everything it was holding up just fell yep every when you when you read that story in the gospels uh listen for a great big snap because that's the peg even way and uh down down it goes okay uh that's chapter 22 moving on to chapter 23 this is actually the uh the the 10th message the 10th oracle from god so we're going to kind of wrap up this section of oracles anyway and it's the oracle concerning tyre or tyre and sidon and uh it's kind of interesting it's interesting oracle uh not so much because of the first part i mean that's

interesting but it's you know it's predicting the downfall of tyre more or less but the end is a uh is a word of hope where tyre of all places is going to be holy to the lord which is crazy to think about, uh, given, given its history. So we'll, uh, get through as much as this as we can. So, uh, a bit of history for Tyre, uh, for those who haven't read about it or heard much about it. I mean, Tyre was, it's right there in the coast. It's a, it's a maritime city, uh, city of the Phoenicians who were famous, the most famous, uh, in the ancient world for ships and for sailing and for trade. So a lot of the language we're going to hear has to do with the people that traded with them and the result of their downfall. Some parallel here with what

God said about Babylon, what God said about Egypt. Now he's going to say it in reference to Tyre. So it starts out here with the oracle concerning Tyre. And the first things out of God's or Isaiah's mouth is, wail, wail those ships of Tarshish, which is going to be repeated down in verse 14. So sort of a beginning and end here, an envelope structure to where you have the ships of Tarshish wailing in verse 14, and you have the ships of Tarshish wailing in this opening of the oracle. So wail those ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste without house or harbor. Ships of Tarshish could be either referenced to a particular kind of ship, which is what a lot of scholars think, or to ships coming from Tarshish, wherever that was. Tarshish is an unknown location.

There's like three or four contenders in the ancient world, but depending on which person you read, which person you ask, they're going to point to a different one. But evidently, a coastal city because they had ships that were built there. These ships were famous in the ancient world for their size and for their seafaring ability. So these ships are whaling. Why are they whaling? Because tires laid waste without house or harbor. That's the place you went. That was the place where you traded.

So they're whaling this destruction. And then we shift to the land of Cyprus, which is like 250, 300 miles off the Mediterranean coast there from Israel. So from the land of Cyprus, it is revealed to them. I think probably this means that you kind of have these ships that are planning to leave Cyprus and sail. This fleet going to sail to Tyre, and they find out what's happened. So don't go there. Be still, O inhabitants of the coast. The merchants of Sidon who crossed the sea have filled you.

On many waters, your revenue was the grain of Shehor. shahur is it's either a river or border region near egypt so just think egypt when you hear shahur or shahur your revenue was the grain of shahur the harvest of the nile of course that's explicit egyptian reference there you were the merchant of the nations so the uh the ships from tyre from sidon they went all over the place they traded with egypt they traded uh all over the all over the Mediterranean. And the revenue was the grain from Egypt. They were the merchant of the nations. They went all over the place, establishing settlements and trading here and there. And now all of that's over. It goes on, verse four, be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,

the stronghold of the sea. So this is the personified sea speaking here. And what does it say? It says, I have neither labored nor given birth. I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women. The sea, personified, is denying any children. And I think probably what is meant here is that the sea no longer has all these people coming from Tyre and Sidon, so it's like I'm childless now. I don't have any more of these sailors who are my children sailing back and forth upon my waters. And then it goes on, verse 5, when the report comes to Egypt, there will be anguish over the report about Tyre. Well, why? Because, well, of course, Egypt relied upon Tyre for a lot of the trading. The grain that comes from Egypt and all the goods that come

into Egypt from other places were brought there by the Tyrrhenian sailors. Cross over to Tarshish, way low inhabitants of the coast. Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? You know, this big city, this ancient city, the one who carried all this stuff, is this the city? Who has purposed this, God says. Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? Who planned this out? And then we get this, verse 9, the Lord of hosts has purposed it to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. There you go. There it is once again.

And why did God want to do this to Tyre? Well, what is the number one reason God does this to all these nations? It all goes back to the same thing, to defile the pompous pride of all of their glory. That's what it boils down to. Is it possible to—I know we had talked about this a little while ago. I saw the C.S. Lewis quote where people were making kind of a big deal out of it, disagreeing with it where where he basically was saying that the the prostitute was closer to heaven than the prideful people found that very offensive but uh lost their minds over that

yeah but um i don't know if it's possible to read the bible carefully and not come away with the the very clear idea that god despises pride oh yeah yeah it's like it's always the reason right it's like it's uh it's idolatry if it's his people which of course pride is always part of that uh and then when it's other nations it's just it's always just the pompous arrogance of them that drive that that gets to him yeah yeah which is uh i mean i don't care where you live if you're an american or if you're if you're listening to this in another country every every time i hear pride connected with a nation. It's like, yeah, you know, the Bible talks a lot about prideful nations. You know, maybe there's a different word we can use, maybe a better way of thinking about

this. A much more thanks be to God kind of adjective that we might draw upon. Pride isn't good. Now, there's nothing wrong with being thankful for what, you know, God has given to you or, you know, what God through you has accomplished, thankful for, you know, how great your children are and the things that they accomplish. But I try and avoid the P word as much as possible because pride is the cardinal sin. I mean, it's the fountainhead of a lot of bad stuff. It is the thing that comes before the fall. It is.

This is explicit. And that's not like just like a throwaway statement in the Bible. Everyone knows pride comes before the fall. So that is the narrative over and over again. It's not just that you have this stated. You then have story after story after story. Like, yeah, no, that is exactly what happens. Yes.

Yeah. And it's not like pride. You know, sometimes it comes before the fall. No, no, like without exception. Without exception, this is what will happen. Yeah. One of the things that's interesting about Tyre and Sidon is how often it comes up. Obviously, it's a very important place, but it doesn't seem like it plays an important role in the narrative of the Bible.

But it comes up a lot, even in the New Testament. Jesus will use these examples with Tyre and Sidon and stuff, like in Matthew 11, I think, where he says, as an indictment, he says, hey, I mean, if the miracles that I did here had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented a long time ago, right? Yes. And that's supposed to intentionally be a slap in the face, right? Yeah.

Even those people over there, and you know that they're, I mean, that's a notoriously secular place. But they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, man, while you guys are over here questioning everything I do. Yeah, I meant to say this before we started on this chapter, but I mean, it's kind of a strange relationship

that Israel has with Tyre. Because, so the king of Tyre had a friendship with David. I mean, there was a close relationship between Tyre and David, as well as Solomon. And because this is Lebanon, this is where you get all the, you know,

our favorite trees, the cedars of Lebanon. So this is where you get all the stuff, all the lumber that they used to build the temple. So you have Tyre working with David and Solomon to get the materials to build the temple, which, you know, most of the way that's described is positive. However, as the history goes on, guess where Jezebel came from? guess where guess where the worship of baal and asherah originated and then worked its way into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom well it all came from the region of tyre and sidon so you kind of have there's positive aspects of israel's relationship with tyre in david

solomon temple but then you also have an abundance of negative examples were Jezebel, that she's a princess of Tyre. And everything that came as a result of her, we might call theological or worship influence upon the Northern Kingdom as well as the Southern Kingdom. So that's kind of the background, too, when you hear about Tyre and Sidon. Oh, yeah, yeah, they helped David and Solomon,

but they were proved extremely unhelpful when it came to a lot of other matters. Well, I mean, this is part of the insult, right, where if Jesus shows up and he's talking to Jerusalem and he says, you know, Jezebel's hometown would have repented for you guys if I was there. That's the insult. Yeah, that might be as great an insult

as making a Samaritan the one who does the work of love and compassion, right? Yeah, yeah. I guess I should have just abandoned you guys, went over to Jezebel's house and preached there. I know they'd repent. Yeah, that's a pretty big insult. Yeah.

You know, Jesus was, of course, excellent at many things, but one thing he was certainly excellent at was choosing the right examples to make sure he really got under the skin of the religious elite. This is exactly right. Well, all right, man. I think we're going to have to end there.

Yeah, we're at our mark. Well, we've got more to say about this, and then moving into the next chapter, it should be real positive. It's just about the judgment of the whole world. So that should be good. Make sure you stay tuned for that. Chad, I'll see you next episode.

All right. See you then.