40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 25:10-26:16 (Episode 467)

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

God is always promising to lower the prideful and uplift the lowly. God is the builder of anything great and a rock that never changes. And a whispered prayer is still heard. 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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in your show notes to give today. Welcome back to 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 to check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, of course, check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Articles, events, academies, books. Check it all out.

Use as much of it as you would like, and then go over to that donate link and become a contributor if you're not one already. Help us keep doing what we're doing, keeping it all free for you. We very much appreciate those of you who have done that. we are in isaiah chapter 25 uh we got over a whole bunch of uh god swallowing up death forever so we took a positive turn i mean there was a lot of feasting a lot of death being uh not just swallowed i mean swallowed and like absorbed like and uh you know digested i mean death is done right it's been swallowed up uh by god and and you might be thinking well good uh there's a lot of chapters of isaiah left is it all good news from here on out well if you haven't caught on

to isaiah yet he's a pendulum kind of guy and uh nothing is still swinging yeah that's going to swing uh quite a ways in the other direction we're going to go from feasting and rejoicing and god swallowing death to uh a moabite who is attempting to swim in a wet manure pile so how's that for transition i mean it's uh yeah not these two things are not exactly not exactly the same but like you say this is the prophetic way you have salvation and judgment law and gospel destruction and reconstruction i mean this is the way that this is the way that the prophets are constantly working this is the way uh revelation works right i mean you'll go from all this rejoicing and jubilation of the saints to just horrific destruction well john's just

patterning what he writes in Revelation after what the prophets tell us over and over. So we left off at verse 9. We'll be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So that's all good. And then we have one more line that kind of completes this thought, and it's also then a segue into the more negative image that comes. It begins verse 10 by saying, for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain. This mountain being the mountain where all this feasting has been going on. Back in verse six, it says, on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and the best of wines. All

right. So the Lord's hand resting on this mountain is the mountain of feasting and resurrection and and joy. So sometimes the hand of the Lord is smiting people. In this case, it's resting on this mountain. So that's the Lord's hand. Well, where's his foot? That's the next question. Well, his foot is what we're going to read about as the verse continues. So God's hand is on this mountain, and Moab is going to be trampled down in his place. And of course, what do you trample with your foot. So God's hand is on the mountain where his people are feasting, but with his foot he is reaching down and he is trampling down Moab. How would, how's this trampling look? Well, it's like straw trampled down on a dunghill. So for anyone who's spent any time on the farm

or the ranch, you understand the way this works. So I can, my dad and I, we raise horses. We had cattle too but we had we had horses and this is especially appropriate with the horses because we kept them in in pens for the most part and when it would rain of course you know they're doing their business all the time so you get manure all the all over the their pens and then when it would rain it would get extra muddy and a horse of course the horses are going to to move around so you got hay straw that's kind of scattered here and there as well so what you end up with is this pen that is full of rainwater and it's got all these little depressions in it where the hooves of the horses or whatever livestock you have are going to be pressed down

where the where the hoof goes down and presses down the straw and each of these little places you have this mixture of a mud and manure puddle all right so that's the image here god's foot is trampling down this straw in this dunghill. And we're not finished yet because, you know, it gets even worse. Moab has not just become kind of a wet dunghill, but now he's going to attempt to swim in it. That's verse 11. And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it

as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim. So, I mean, this is pretty common in the Bible. You have mixed metaphors. So not only is Moab this dunghill, but you have this stereotypical Moabite who is now attempting to swim in the midst of these little manure, muddy pools in the midst of this dunghill. This is the worst kind of quicksand ever. This is the worst quicksand ever. Yeah, I mean, this is – I don't know how you can get any worse than this. But that's the picture here.

Now, you might be asking yourself, well, why Moab? Well, I think in this case, Moab is just representative of all the, you might say, world power, all the peoples, all the nations, which have not been feasting on the mountain because they were invited to the feast, just like you have in Jesus' parables, right? He sends out the invitations like, nah, I'm too busy. No, I'm not interested. so you have them invited to the feast but they don't want to go and so what happens instead is they don't have a feast they have a a swimming pool that is full of mud and manure and destruction and all of this is taking place as it goes on to say so that or but that the lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands it's just so shocking that that laying low the

pompous pride is the the reason for this yeah first time we've seen that right yeah let me tell you like the like the pride has been extinguished when you're trying to do the breaststroke in the dung and straw pool um whatever pride you had i i feel like is uh that has been dismantled yeah no arrogant swimmers in that in that situation no and then he he just to wrap this up verse 12 he switches images again to this fortified city with these high fortifications of his walls and god says he's going to bring them down lay them low and cast them to the ground and if you haven't got it by now he says at the end even to the dust so this is the picture of Edom. Other places will use Egypt as an archetypal example of pride and pomposity

and arrogance and rejecting the ways of the Lord. Other places will use Babylon or Assyria. In this particular case, Moab is the chosen representative of all those who say no to God's proffered feast. So they're going to be brought down all the way to the dust. In this section, I mean, you have like – this is like just another way of saying something we've heard before, which is as you have like this death being swallowed up and all this feasting, this is the exaltation of the lowly, of those who are being tormented by death, who have nothing. That's what's happening. And then, of course, the trampling of the proud, which is really a consistent theme throughout the Bible. Like what the Messiah will do is like, hey, are you lowly and humble? Well, that is going to be exalted.

Are you pompous and full of pride? Well, that is going to be brought low. And this is the through line is all throughout Scripture is that God means to do this at the end of all things. Yeah, that's what Hannah sings in her song. That's what Mary sings in the Magnificat. That's what you find all over the Psalms. And I'm thinking, too, just how what's described in relationship to Moab is also a fitting description of what Christ does to Satan, who's kind of behind all of this, right? Because what does Christ do to Satan?

Well, just what was prophesied in Genesis 3.15. With his foot, he tramples upon the head of the one who was cursed to do what? To eat the dust of the ground. And that word for dust is the same word with which this chapter ends, where God curses the serpent and says, dust shall be your food. So just like in this case, it's Moab that's trampled down, brought to the dust. Well, the dark spiritual force behind them, Satan himself, he too is going to be trampled down, his head's going to be crushed and brought down to the dust. So you got both these realities going on, both the people as well as the evil forces behind them. All right, that's chapter 25.

Chapter 26, moving on. So keep in mind that we just heard at the end of 25 about the destruction of this pompous, arrogant city brought down to the ground to the dust. Well, now, as you might expect, we're going to hear about another city, except this one's going to be a good, strong city. So chapter 26 begins this way. In that day, this is another one of these phrases that we've seen two of so far in this section of Isaiah, describing the day of the Lord when he's going to make all of this happen. So in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah.

We have a strong city. So here's the city image, right? We heard about Moab City brought down to the ground, but we have a strong city. Well, why is it strong? Well, it's not because the city in and of itself or this inhabitants or its leadership are strong, but it's strong because he, this is God, sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. So it's a beautiful image. Why is your city so strong? Well, look at the walls, look at the bulwarks. Well, what are your walls and bulwarks? What surrounds this city and makes it so strong, the Lord's salvation. That's exactly it. So it's a strong city because it is a saved city. Christ has accomplished the salvation for this city,

and therefore it is surrounded on all sides, protected by, defended by his salvation. And because of that, what can you do? Well, open the gates. That's the way verse two starts. open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. This is like, if you take Romans, which of course is a letter, it's kind of discourse theology, you know, a more theological approach to it, and you turn that into poetry, verses one and two, basically, are a summary of what Romans talks about over and over. This is Paul's theology expressed in poetic terms. What happens? Well, Christ, through his saving work, has built us a city.

Well, how do you get in the city? Well, you go through the gate. Well, what is that gate? Well, it's the gate by which the faithful, or that is those who have faith, enter in. And they're righteous because of this. So it's a beautiful picture of what Paul preaches over and over in his letters. Yeah, I mean, this is the contrast, right?

Because you've had instances where someone will think their city is great because of what they've done. i mean they we've built a great city uh look at look at our walls look at look at look at our chariots look at our stuff i mean this is a great this is a great thing we've done here and god laughs like there's nothing great about that city uh as opposed to uh a different kind of city where he says this city i've built up and i've saved it uh and the the strength of this city is uh is the faith of the people because the faith is placed in the

one who has given them salvation and like this is what would make the city great and this is where you see that contrast of like of faith by necessity requires some degree of humility because

what are you having faith for like for everything faith is dependency on God so So faith is the enemy of pride because you cannot be dependent on God, but also be proud of all the things you've done. These don't work together. And so this is sort of the exaltation of the humble, the exaltation of the dependent. Yeah.

Yeah, faith and humility go hand in glove, just like pride and unbelief go hand in glove because, yeah. Pride and unbelief are basically belief in oneself and trust in one's own works or own whatever, virtue. Yeah, so we got the nation going in. They're righteous. They have faith. And they also have peace, as we hear in verse 3. Because it goes on to say, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. In Hebrew, that is, perfect peace is just a repetition of shalom.

So you keep him in shalom, shalom, whose mind is stayed on you. The Hebrew has a little bit different word order. It starts out with this mind that is stayed on you, a mind that's fixed on God. Well, that one who has that, God keeps him in shalom, shalom, in this perfect peace. Why? Because he trusts in you. Well, here we go, that same idea, different words in Hebrew, but the same idea. So we have people who have faith in verse 2. In verse 3, we have people who trust in Him.

So it's all going back to that same thing. It's whether the Lord is your God or not. In other words, whether you trust in Him, whether you have faith in Him. And you should, as it goes on to say in verse 4, trust in the Lord, not just for a little while or sporadically or when you really need Him, but trust in the Lord forever. because in Hebrew it's, well, the ESV has the Lord God is an everlasting rock, but in Hebrew it is Yah, Yahweh, for Yah, Yahweh is an everlasting rock. Yah, Y-A-H is an abbreviated form of Yahweh.

It's what we have at the end of Hallelu-Yah, right? So Yah, Yahweh, basically the same name, but one is an abbreviated version of that. So for the Lord, the Lord, for Yahweh, is an everlasting rock. Because he's an everlasting rock, he's trustworthy at all times. And so in him, we put our trust. Yeah, I mean, God's doing a lot of the stuff here, right? I mean, so it's God keeping you in perfect peace, right? Because that's what he does when you trust in him.

That's what he gives. so there's there's a there's a lot more uh god action involved in this this whole thing so when you uh when you're dependent on god it turns out that god comes through it's a good place this is the whole thought behind an everlasting rock right like hey this is a good place to be because it doesn't ever change it's it's it's everlasting it's always there it's always the same yeah yeah that's the great thing about rocks right you can count on them they're stable and that's why they don't do a lot of uh changing rocks it's just yeah it's such a such an apt metaphor for for god when i was growing up there was like in the since i've been back there and

this rock is not as big as it was in my mind but uh as a little boy there was like this humongous humongous rock um in our like kind of in the back pasture i would tell you i went back there 25 years later and that rock had not changed a bit it was exactly the same as it ever was and that's what rocks do that's what rocks do

ground gives away, sand blows away have erosion, but rocks are stable the house was gone the house was gone the rock was still there oh yeah, for sure so that's the first

three verses, the first four verses, God building this city with salvation, bringing his people in through the gates. There they have shalom, shalom. God's their rock. But then it goes on in verses five and six to make another contrast. This is going to mirror what we saw at the end of 25. For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, cast it to the dust. And that's basically an echo of what we saw at the very end of 25, where the high fortifications of Moab's walls are brought down, laid low, cast to the ground, to the dust. And we have the foot trampling it, except here it's kind of a, it's a different image. Rather than God's foot trampling it, it says the feet of the poor and the steps of the

needy. So the image here is kind of an in your face kind of deal. So all these poor and needy folks, the ones who are actually trusting in God and are saved by him, they're the ones who are walking all over the remnants of this city that was once so full of pride and arrogance. So it's, I mean, it's kind of the blessed of the meek for they shall inherit the earth, right? Blessed are the blessed of the poor and the needy and the meek and the humble, because guess what's going to be underneath their feet? Well, the remnants of this city that thought it was so powerful and great. And then continuing kind of this image of the feet and walking and things of that nature, we go on to hear about a path and a way in verse 7 and 8. So the path of the righteous is level.

You make level the way of the righteous. There's a lot of different ways that 7 is translated. I think ESV has basically skipped over a word. They thought it was basically unnecessarily repeated or mistakenly repeated in the Hebrew, because several translations like New American Standard, NIV, New Revised Standard Version, KJV, they all translate that second part instead of you make level the way of the righteous one. They have it, O upright one, or O just one, or King James says, thou most upright, you make level the way of the righteous. Either way, the image is still, I mean, the verse is still communicating the same thing, that where the righteous are is a level path well why is it level why is it in other words flat and stable and easy

to maneuver on well because god has leveled it he's leveled the way of the righteous in the path of your judgments oh lord we wait for you your name and your remembrance are the desire of our soul so here we have i mean as as we have all over the prophets i mean they're they're kind of jumping from image to image we went from a feast on a mountain to a city that the faithful are entering through and now we have the righteous on this level path so feasting cities paths this is kind of the jumping around that the prophets often do so the path of the righteous is level because god has leveled it and on that path the righteous are waiting for god waiting for god to do what god does. And the desire of their soul, what they really want more than anything else, is God's

name and his remembrance. And this is just kind of shorthand. God's name is shorthand for everything that God has told us about himself. His name is communicative of his identity, of what he does for his people. Everything is comprised within that. And his remembrance is basically how we preach that, teach that, hold to that. And these things are the desires of our soul. And because of that, verse 9 says, My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. You know, one of the things when you hear this, Can you not hear John the Baptist saying, like, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight, right? And so partially what he's doing here is talking to sort of the religious leaders and stuff, something they failed to do. They've made the pathway to God extremely crooked and difficult, right? All these unnecessary hurdles and stuff. It's not like a straight line thing to God, which just says, this is the path.

The path is God. The path is Christ. But when you hear him say this, when you think about the people of John's day and under Roman oppression and crying out, how long, Lord, and all this kind of stuff, and John is there in the wilderness saying, well, the day of the Lord, it's at hand.

I mean, it is happening now. And what we need to be about right now is making sure that the path to that Savior is straightened up, because it is not straight right now. The path of the righteous is very crooked. John the Baptist is not pulling that from nowhere. I think we're going to see that again in Isaiah 40, if I'm not mistaken. But he's not getting that from—he didn't make that up. Right, yeah. Yeah, he's pulling that straight from Isaiah.

I mean, John the Baptist is the Isaiah preacher, right? but he's the one who's described. Malachi, of course, predicts his coming too, but Isaiah predicts his coming. He's the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. So John the Baptist's entire ministry is wrapped up in what Isaiah says here. And exactly, the goal is never to put, as it were, a mountain or a deep valley between people and Christ. You want to remove every obstacle, right? You want it to be as flat as a Walmart parking lot. So here we are, there's Jesus, there's no obstacle whatsoever. So make the path straight, level it out, bulldoze it, do whatever you got to do in order to make sure that

from where you are to where Christ is, there are no obstacles, obstructions whatsoever. And I was thinking about the end of 9 and the way it transitions into 10 too. It's kind of a Kind of a contrast there. So verse 9 ends this way. When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Okay? So when God's judgments are happening, we learn righteousness. And then he contrasts that. He says in verse 10, if favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness, he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. so i i think what isaiah is getting at here is that you know if uh if things are going great for the wicked i mean if they're prospering and if they're not cognizant of the fact that uh they're going down their own treacherous path that goes to destruction then they're not going to learn righteousness but when god's judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world do

learn righteousness i mean we goodness how many times have we seen this happen in israel's history right this is basically the book of judges over and over and over where the people go astray god enacts some judgments in the earth you know usually in the form of handing them over to whoever their enemies are they cry out to the lord they repent he rescues them this is vicious cycle over and over but i mean it's not just israel i mean the same thing happens over and over in our lives as well i mean i always say the most dangerous time in a christian's life is when everything is going the way we want it to go. That's when we begin to think, oh man, I'm doing such a great job. I've really got my act together. God must be sure,

sure must be proud of me. Look what I've done. It all becomes about me. So it's in the times when we have some judgments in the earth that we begin to learn righteousness, which is one of the fruits of bearing our crosses we're drawn closer and closer to christ and farther and farther away from our own selfishness yeah i think sometimes when when we read you know something like the wicked um we we immediately i don't know you can think of a certain kind of person um so if favor is shown to the wicked uh he does not learn righteousness and you're like okay so like that's like bad people and you're like i mean sure uh but the the wicked to god is just unbelieving people like that this is this is the whole thing uh is that so you can you can look at this and

say if if favor is shown uh to those who live their life in pride and unbelief uh well you don't learn righteousness in that situation uh because righteousness is is uh given via faith right and as we've already established what is the enemy of faith well it's pride it's unbelief uh it's self-sufficiency all of those things and so when you see like wicked certainly like that that can manifest itself in in sort of ways that are very visible uh where you say well this is my life i'm going to live it any way i want and that might result in a certain lifestyle but the but the root of it is not i think we always like look at the fruit of something and say oh that's the thing and you're like but that's not the thing like the thing is the unbelief the thing is the

the pride the thing is the self-sufficiency that that's just the manifestation of it yeah yeah great point it's always on the inside where the greatest enemy to ourself lies because that's, that's where all of the fruit, fruit comes from. So he's going to kind of continue the same idea. I left off with, yeah, the end of verse 10. So picking up with 11, Oh Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. So we had God's hand resting up on the mountain earlier. Now God's hand is lifted up. And it's like it's hanging there waiting to come down, but they don't see it. In fact, we have three of these phrases. He does not learn righteousness. He does not see the

majesty of the Lord. Now he does not see this uplifted hand. And then it says, they're going to see, let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. So open their eyes, or maybe to put it a different way, their eyes will be opened when God acts on behalf of his people. What's he going to do for them? Well, verse 12 tells us, O Lord, you will ordain. That's kind of a fancy word in Hebrew. It's just put or place or give. You will give peace for us. This same shalom we heard about earlier, this perfect peace. Oh, Lord, you're going to give peace for us. So in the midst of all the things going on that he just talked about with judgments in the earth

and God's hand being lifted up and the adversaries around, we're going to have peace. Well, how are we going to have peace? And the end of verse 12 is one of my favorite verses in all of Isaiah. So you will give peace for us. Why? Because you have indeed done for us all our works. Well, there's a mic drop moment if I've ever heard one. You did all the things we've done?

Yeah. That sounds like that's a I have no good apart from you kind of thing, right? So if I've done anything good, that for sure wasn't me. Yep. That was all. That was all God. Yeah, I love this verse. It's like, well, what then do I have to boast of?

Well, that's the whole point. You don't. Yeah, but I've done this. No, no. God indeed has done for us all our works. I mean, it's just kind of like this image of a dad who's behind his young son or daughter. You know, his hands are on their hands, and he's kind of doing this, you know, for them. Are they doing it?

Well, I guess you could say they're doing it, but who's really doing it? Dad is doing it. And it's Galatians 2.20, right? I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So he's the one doing these things for me. And you have indeed done for us all that works. Yeah, I had this happen with my little two-year-old the other day.

We have a basketball court in the backyard. and she like she has since birth been in a lot of she's done a lot of watching her older sister play basketball and so she knows that this ball is supposed to go in that hoop like she she understands this she's seen this a lot and so she has it and she's running around with it and stuff and then she'll run up towards the goal and throw it but she i mean she can only throw it she can't even throw it really up she's just kind of throw it forward so uh she she'll run she'll do it and she'll throw it and then i'll catch it and put it in the basket and then she'll clap that she and like think that she did something amazing amazing and we were and we always you know

we're like good shot yeah good job yeah uh this is how this works yeah you you have done all the work yeah you you have indeed made for us all of our hoops right yes like all the all the all the All the scoring was, yeah, I'm going to give you, yeah, I'm going to say it was, it's going to seem like you shot it, but let's be real. I made that for you. So people will sometimes get this impression, you know, that how people save the Old Testament. Well, it's by the law, right? It's by works. And there's, how are you saving the New Testament?

Well, then it changes. It's by faith. It's by grace. No. It's not like God changes his mind. He's like, you know what, I'm going to do something different now. I'm no longer going to let people be saved by their works. Now I'm going to do it by grace and faith.

It's always been him doing all of the work for us. It's all grace. So that's verse 12. So next time you have your Bible out, if you like to highlight things in your Bible, highlight verse 12 of Isaiah 26. That'd be a good one. That is a good one. All right. So verse 13 going on. O Lord, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us. Probably talking about, you know, Pharaoh or maybe in the time of the judges, all the various kings that were ruling over the Israelites during their times of rebellion.

So other lords have ruled over us, but your name, or I would translate this more literally as only by you do we bring to remembrance your name, something like that. Only by you do we keep your name in remembrance. In other words, yeah, there were a lot of these lords, kings, princes, pharaohs who have ruled over us, and they all had their names. But you know what? As we'll hear in just a second, their names are obliterated and forgotten. It's only your name. And again, your name here is shorthand for everything that God is, everything that God has done for us. That name is the only one that we're going to bring to remembrance.

We're going to sing about and preach about and pray to and trust in. Why? What about these other ones? These other rulers who have ruled over us? It goes on to say, well, they're dead. They're dead. They will not live. their just shadowy things, their shades, and they will not arise. To that end, you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. So your name we're going to remember, but you have wiped out all remembrance of them. And then verse 15 says, you have increased, I love all these yous, you, you, you, you have increased the nation of the Lord. You have increased the nation you are glorified you have enlarged all the borders of the land just kind of

expounding upon this idea of you have done for us all our works yeah i like i like the i like the idea that um it's almost like like yeah we've been oppressed like we've had uh you know quote lords uh over us before uh but uh thing about them is uh they all died and uh if someone was asking like what were their names i'm like i don't remember uh like yeah it happened i don't even remember their name but that lord's name i know that i know that yeah and it is one of the it's i think it's one of the beautiful things about uh about the way this sometimes works, is that God is so glorified, He's so magnified, He's so big, we might say, such a part of teaching, preaching, prayer, all that, that it fills up all the space, you

might say, in our memory, because He's so good to us. And so all these other things are forgotten, not spoken about. Yeah, it's like an eclipse. Like, the glory of God is like this thing that eclipses all other things, and you can no longer see it. Yeah. Yeah, so it's a beautiful thought. I mean, because there's a lot of bad things that we don't want to remember.

And so when the good things of God eclipse all those bad things, that is indeed a gift. It goes on in verse 16 to say, Oh, Lord, in distress, they sought you. Kind of unusual use of the Hebrew verb pakad, which is usually visited. And typically God visits us. But in this case, they're, as it were, paying a visit. They're seeking in their distress God. And they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

You've got to like that. Love that. Love that. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't realize this until this morning. I was looking at Robert Alter's translation. And one of his footnotes, he says that Hebrew for a whispered prayer in later Hebrew became kind of a frequent phrase that was used for in the sense of a heartfelt whispered prayer. But it's so fitting, too, because when you're in distress, I mean, yeah, sometimes you might cry out.

But a lot of times what you do, you just like you're whispering prayers if you're even whispering them. I mean, sometimes it's just in your heart or your mind or however you want to put it, you're crying out inside, but no noise is coming out. Yeah, this is not like the strong, robust prayer. This is like, this is the whimper, which still gets it done, right, which is great. Yeah, it reminds me of when Hannah was praying for her son. You know, she was one of two wives that her husband had, and the other wife was constantly mocking her because she had kids and Hannah didn't. And so at the entrance to the tabernacle, Hannah was praying, but only her lips were moving.

Right? And the priest, Eli, saw her and thought she was drunk. He's like, lay off the bottle, lady. Just talk to yourself. Yeah. So she's like, no, I'm over here pouring out my heart before the Lord. But, yeah, it was inaudible. That was a whispered prayer, which, you know, God heard.

So when you're in distress, you know, when you have this disciplined moment and you're whispering prayers, yeah, God hears those prayers. As Paul says in Romans 8, you know, the Spirit is crying out within us. We don't know how to pray, but the Spirit is crying out within us. And so tears and moans and unspoken prayers, you know, this lifting up of our heart to God and whatever that whatever that looks like, that's a prayer that God understands and and hears. And I think let's stop there. We're we're sneaking up here on our 40 minute mark. So I guess we'll pick up with 17 and finish out the chapter next time. Yeah, we'll find the correlation between what they're going through and a woman giving birth. common theme uh in the bible the bible likes to use the uh the picture of childbirth uh over and

over again so we're going to see what they do with that next time chad i will see you then all right see you then Bye.