40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 51:9-52:2 (Episode 493)

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

God wants His people to wake up because the arm of the Lord is rolling up His sleeves. In faith, there is nothing to fear from man. And living with hope isn't the same as living with a wish. 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: Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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, check out all All the other podcasts are living over there. And while you're over there, check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Articles, events, academies. And, of course, you can donate over at 1517.org and keep it all happening. You know, this podcast is free. All those academies are free.

Every other podcast is free. So you want to keep it that way and keep it going out. You can become a contributor. Just hit that donate link and you can do it that way. And thank you so much to those of you who have already done that. We are in Isaiah chapter 51. God has said that a word is going to go out. You know, this particular word, Chad, as we talked about, might have some flesh attached to it. You know, sometimes God sends a word out in the mouth of a prophet. There isn't a lot of fleshless words.

He's either going to put this word in the mouth of a flesh and blood prophet, or he's going to have this word just take on flesh and do its own talking. And this is the kind of word that he's talking and what he would really like is guess what i know this is shocking to everyone it's the thing he's been after from the beginning uh he could just pay attention to this word like what i would really love is if you would hear this word okay that has been the uh the great struggle is the to get someone to listen i mean i haven't done this maybe you've done this Chad. But I wonder how many times in the Old Testament God says, listen to me or pay attention or hear me or some version of that. I mean, is it the most common phrase in the Old Testament?

It's got to be way up there. It's got to be way up there for sure. I mean, that is the constant echo, right? Listen to me, open your ears, give me your ears, whatever, however it's phrased. And there's different ways that you can say it, but it all basically boils down to one thing. Open your ears and let my word go in and do its work. And as we've discussed many times, even our translation of obey in the Hebrew is just listen to the voice of somebody. Yeah. So when you listen to the voice of God, that means that's translated obey. So yeah, God's always after your ears. That's the entry point to everything else within you. Yeah. And in this particular sense, he's saying, hey, listen, I've got this word. This word is trying to save you so you don't get, you know,

eaten up like a garment by moths. Like, this is what I'm trying to avoid. And so it's not even that this is a bad word to listen to. This is, I got a good word coming, and you still don't seem that you want to hear yeah yeah so uh the the next command is wake up right which we've we've heard before in this this section too maybe the reason you're not hearing is because you're asleep maybe you're at the order wrong they gotta wake you up and then have you listen yeah yeah wake up open your ears and and listen to what i have to say so this is the way this starts out so awake awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. So this actually is calling upon God to do his thing. You know, the arm of the Lord, of course,

is intimately connected with the Exodus deliverance, where the arm of the Lord is made bear the arm of the lord delivers them the arm being this uh it's all over the old testament this symbol of god's strength to deliver his people more this kind of fleshly image of god actually doing what needs to be done to rescue his people so when he says awake as in days of old the generations of of long ago well what's he talking about well he's going to get to that in fact, that's the very next thing that he refers to. And if you guessed the Exodus, you would be right. But before he actually talks about drying up the sea and making a pathway through the waters, he's going to use a little bit different image. So this is halfway through verse nine.

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea the waters of the great deep who made the depths of the sea away for the redeemed to pass over so of course that second part which is verse 10 about drying up the sea the waters of the great deep made a way through the depths of the sea for these redeemed or ransomed ones to pass through well of course all of that's pretty obvious referring back to exodus 14 where you have israel just having left Egypt, the Israelites, the Egyptians pursue them. God brings this wind, drives up that pathway through the sea. All right, that's obvious. But what's this cutting Rahab in pieces and piercing the dragon? We've seen this a couple of other times

in Isaiah and also in Job, where you have reference to Rahab or to a dragon. There's a Just like modern preachers might draw from something from the Lord of the Rings, or maybe they make reference to Santa, or maybe they compare Samson to Hercules, or whatever it might be. Well, preachers are always drawing upon fiction or myth in order to illustrate the biblical text. And it turns out the biblical writers were no different. So a lot of places in the ancient Near East, whether you're talking about the Babylonian text called the Enuma Elish, or whether you're talking about the Babylonian text from the Ugaritic texts that are called the Baal Cycle, it's pretty widespread over the ancient Near Eastern literature, this idea that you have a conquering of some sort of this chaotic monster that is usually associated with the water. So Baal does this in the Baal cycle, and Marduk does this in the Babylonian mythology. Now, there's echoes of this in the scriptures as well, and this doesn't mean that the biblical writers are espousing mythology. It simply means that they're using the common kinds of stories that are circulating in their cultures to talk about what the one true God does.

So Rahab and the dragon, which is one way to translate this. So these are part of this whole constellation of images of those who are slain by God in order to bring forth some order from the chaos. And as you and I have talked about this, Dan, a little confusion here with Rahab, because when we hear Rahab, we think about the prostitute in Jericho. her name would be better spelled r-a-c-h-a-b so it's it's a hard h rahav this is a different spelling in hebrew this particular rahab so sounds the same in our english versions but it's in reference to two different two different things and uh this is also rahab is also used as kind of a uh a nickname for egypt in some some text which of course is especially fitting here

because Egypt, of course, is the one who is cut in pieces by God's almighty sword, destroyed in order to bring his people forth into freedom. It's interesting here that it sort of refers to God's people. And we talked about this, I think, maybe a couple episodes ago about this long arm of the Lord. And here, sort of his people are referenced as his arm, right, like his instrument. And there's this call to maybe like remember – it's almost like if you can't like really remember me because you're so terrible at it, maybe you could remember the things that I had you do, that I did through you, right? So like, Hey, remember when you were my arm back, back before you, you know, your arm fell asleep. Remember when you used to use that thing, uh, did all these things, man, uh, with that, with you guys. And, uh, maybe you can remember that, right? Like remember, remember all these victories, all these battles that you guys won, like, uh, how you think that happened? Like, do you think that was you? Uh, or do you think that was me through you? Right. And, uh, that's, that's an interesting thing. because it's it's not just uh it's saying hey was it not you who did this was it not you who did

that um what he's really trying to get you to say didn't know is was it not me who did that through you yeah yeah just like he tells moses at the red sea you know basically stop talking and sit there and watch as i work salvation for you as i'm about to pierce rahab and the dragon and dry up the seas so that you can you can cross over so uh this is this is one more illustration in this chapter of god hearkening back to the the torah in order to illustrate that as he acted in the past so he's going to act in the future so there's once more going to be this exodus which is to come and he's going to talk a little bit more about that as we as we work our way along he finishes up that particular section with verse 11 by uh saying so god did this arm of the lord did this and then he

says verse 11 the ransomed of the lord shall return and come to zion with singing everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away so if if that part of that verse anyway in fact well the whole verse if that if that sounds vaguely familiar to you, which it did to me, then it's because we've heard it before, actually. If you go all the way back to Isaiah 35, so a few episodes ago, Isaiah 35 10 says, the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with sinking everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. I mean, it's verbatim exactly what we now read in Isaiah 51. Now, if you have a good memory, you will also recall that Isaiah 35 wove together both new creation themes and Exodus

themes. It's mainly new creation. So this Isaiah 35 is a chapter that Jesus refers to in the gospels when the two disciples of John come to him and say, are you the coming of ownership with someone else? And Jesus says, well, go tell John what you see in here, the blind seed, the lame walk, all this kind of stuff. He is referring to Exodus 35, and in so doing, pointing to himself as a source of new creation. Isaiah 35 finishes, though, with this highway of holiness being built that the ransom of the Lord are going to be on as they work their way back to Zion. So that fits with exactly what's happening also in Isaiah 51, where you have a new exodus being accomplished, And now God's people are going to come back home with, it's kind of a strange expression, everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

I actually had never thought about that till this morning. And I thought, what is that exactly talking about? And I think here's what's going on, because I did a little, I did a search of that Hebrew expression, something upon their heads. And what I found was that actually most of the time when this is used, it's in reference to dust being put on someone's head as a sign of grief or repentance or humiliation. And so I thought, oh, this is probably what's going on here is he's using the same kind of image of something being on your head, but he's switching it around. He's not saying, you know, the dust of grief shall be upon your head, but instead it's everlasting joy shall be upon your head. So he switches from an image of mourning to an image of joy. And of course, this joy is connected with the same joy that the Israelites had in Exodus 15,

when they sang the song of the sea after they had been brought safely through the water. So you have deliverance, you have singing, you have redemption, you have praise. One follows the other throughout the biblical narrative. And of course, same thing you have here in Isaiah 2. Yeah, that's right. All right. So verse 12, God is going to continue speaking here. I, I am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass? So, I'm giving you all the comfort here, and there's no reason for you to be afraid of a human being who's mortal and whose days are like grass. One minute he's here, one minute he's gone. So, you are afraid of this particular person, and verse 13 says, And you have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth. and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor when he sets himself to destroy and where is the wrath of the oppressor so he's going to kind of build on this i'll keep reading for another verse or two so where is the wrath of this oppressor he has bowed down he who

is bowed down shall speedily be released he shall not die and go down to the pit neither shall his bread be lacking? So I had to stop there for a second. So this is kind of this move back to the current suffering of God's people. So God is saying, listen, I'm your comforter. I don't know why you're afraid of people because people are just the grass. They're here and then they're actually below the grass. They've passed from this life and they're dead, buried. And so while you're afraid of a people, you've at the same time forgotten the Lord, your God, who has done all of these things. And instead of fearing him, you're fearing the wrath of the oppressor. And that wrath is soon going to disappear because the one who is bowed down is going to be released.

And he's not going to go into the pit, but instead he's going to be rescued by the hand of God. Yeah, there's this thing where you have God is your eternal comforter, and you have it right here, like your creator. And you're spending all your time afraid of creation when you've got the creator on your side. And God says, this doesn't really make sense. So you're fearing creation, which is man. You've got the creator on your side. And this reminds me of when Jesus does this thing where he doesn't tell you that nothing bad is going to happen or anything. It's not like that.

It's just that in the end, it's going to be all right because I'm on your side. So the way that Jesus will put it is like, hey, why are you afraid of man? And you might think like the next thing he's going to say is like, he can't really do anything to you. But what he says is, hey, why are you afraid of man? All he can do is kill you. And the answer to that question is like, yeah, that's exactly the thing I'm afraid of. Yeah, you said it perfectly. That is what I'm fearful of.

Hey, what's the worst that could happen? What, you end up dead? And you're like, yeah, that's the worst that could happen. That's the thing. And then he says, yeah, yeah, don't do that, though, because you can't do anything to the soul. And that's what really matters. You want to fear God, who is in charge of both body and soul. And so the problem that, of course, and I mean, I have this problem and I'm sure you have this problem, Chad.

The problem is, is that this life is the, it seems like it. And if it gets taken away, like you've lost in your mind everything, right? And in God's mind, he's like, you've lost nothing. Yeah, that is precisely it. Well, if you can get it in your head, your heart, your soul, I mean, in the entirety of who you are, that the life that we live here is just a drop in the ocean of the life that awaits us. I mean, it's just like, what does the Bible say? You know, we're like grass, as Isaiah just said, the Psalms say that, or like a passing shadow, or like a mist. I mean, it uses all of these just ephemeral images.

And I'm talking about someone who just lives a few days. There's a lot of people who live 70, 80, 90 years. That's nothing. So we can get it in our heads that, okay, this life is so fast, so ephemeral. And it's the beginning of a life that will never end. Yeah, then like, well, what are you afraid of? You're afraid of someone who's going to end this life? So what?

That's only the beginning. If you've got God, then he's the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but the living. So you live to him. Yeah, and I think, too, Paul seems like maybe the premier guy that really got this. You know, like, you start reading Paul, and he seems like he understood it. And this is why he was, like, unthreatenable. Like, Paul could not be threatened, right?

So they'd be like, hey, you better knock that off or we'll kill you. And he's like, hey, stop threatening me with a good time, man. You know, you tell Paul you're going to chop off his head. He's like, you promise? Yeah. I would rather leave this life. I'm going to stick around only because you guys need me. That's the only reason that I'm here.

Paul even seems to put himself in situations that he could get out of. But he puts himself in these situations because to suffer for Christ, to witness the gospel, whatever it is. I mean, I think about, you know, he's, he and Silas are arrested in Philippi. They're beaten. They're thrown in prison. And all night they're singing hymns while they're in jail. Yeah. Well, he could have stopped all this.

He could have simply said when he was arrested, listen, I'm a Roman citizen. You can't do this. Yeah. Yeah. Which he did on other occasions. but there are times when it's paul paul was just like i don't care it's just like he evidently doesn't care i mean when he talked about all the times that he was beaten with uh 49 lashes in the synagogues he put himself in those situations yeah there's

many times going back they'll like pull him in give him like the big reprimand you know hey we need you to stop preaching in this name okay that's the thing and his response is it's a nice speech here's the thing about that name though why I'm not going to do that

yeah you're right Paul did get it he's like yeah Christ called me he said he would show me how much I would suffer for his name so bring it on yeah you know I've only got so much time left and uh i'm gonna be all i'm all in at this point and he was for sure yeah and this is the thing so when

he's like hey what are you afraid of it's not that like you're it's not that he's got to say nothing bad is going to happen or could happen to you it's not that it's just that you don't have any reason to be afraid of it right so that the promise is not oh the oppressor won't oppress no uh it's that you don't need to be afraid of that there's nothing to fear in it um which, you know, there's some Christian theologies out there that don't really get that as well as they need to, which is like the promise is not that like uncomfortable things are not going to happen to you, but rather that you have someone on your side that makes it to where those aren't really things to fear. Then you can be like Paul, who seems to say with a lot of confidence, like, well, in Christ to die is gain.

So this threat has no teeth. I think back to some of the days of the church, they had to actually try and prevent Christians from basically volunteering for martyrdom, which is like, I'm ready to die for Christ. It's like, listen, don't go and get yourself arrested on purpose just so you can be a martyr. i mean i i applaud your faith and applaud your willingness to die as a martyr but uh you don't go volunteer for that uh but yeah i mean that's that kind of bold confidence in the face of death just kind of laughing in the face of death like yeah so what it's just yeah leaving this life and entering into into life everlasting yeah and part of what god does when he talks about like the oppressor and like what can you really do and and the answer is well i mean quite a lot uh honestly

uh temporarily like it seems like you can do a lot but he's always talking about the end of all these things like in the end this is the fate of the oppressor and it's not good and in the end this is the the fate of the one who trusts in me and it's nothing but good and so yeah this is the contrast yes yeah so those who don't have god have everything to be afraid of literally yeah even if it seems like they're winning yes yeah especially then yeah all right so the the last couple of verses in this section uh god goes on speaking says i am the lord your god who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar the lord of host is his name and i put my words in your mouth and covered you here i think he's talking to the servant who's been kind of in the shadows this

entire time uh i have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand establishing the heavens uh i think a better better translation of that would be even though it seems an odd metaphor for us planting the heavens so establishing or planting the heavens and laying the foundation to the earth and saying to zion you are my people so the yeah my i i have put my words in your mouth seems to be, this is God speaking once more to a servant, which of course, you know, we've seen this multiple times in the servant songs where he's the one who speaks the words of God. He's the one who speaks the Torah of the Lord. So God puts his words in the servant's mouth. He covers him with the shadow of his hand. That is, he protects him. And in doing

that, God through his servant is basically laying the foundations of a new heavens and a new earth. he's planting the heavens laying the foundations of the earth and in so doing saying to his people you're my you're not just a people you are my people i always love these pronouns you know this is when god says you are my people that's god claiming you yeah you're not just you don't just exist you exist as my people and then the word of faith that's kind of the divine love in this pronoun but then our word of faith responds you are our god or you are my god you know yeah you don't just exist as a deity but you're my god that that's that word of faith yeah that's great okay so uh we're gonna have more wake up wake up calls here wake yourself

wake yourself stand up oh jerusalem okay well why would she be asleep why would she need to be standing up because she's been drunk, intoxicated, but not from too much wine or beer or whiskey. This is a different kind of intoxication, not a pleasant kind whatsoever. You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs, the bowl, the cup of staggering. I don't know if we've seen this in Isaiah before, but I know we've seen it elsewhere where this cup in the hand of the Lord is passed either from mouth to mouth or to one particular people or nation, and it's full of all kinds of bad stuff. So even though we have like Psalm 23, you know uh our cup overflows or is that psalm 116 or 118 lift up the cup of salvation i mean

there are some positive images of the cup of the lord in the old testament most of them however are negative and when you drink from the cup of the lord you're drinking uh darkness and gloom and wrath and his his displeasure well this is the big this is the big thing about the uh establishing of the Lord's Supper, right? The contrast is usually if I'm going to give you my cup, that's not a good thing. But what Jesus does is he says, I'm going to take this cup of the Lord. You see this in the Garden of Gethsemane where he says, like, hey,

I'll drink that cup, and because of that, I'll give you this cup, right? So that's the positive cup. the cup you drink from on Sunday that's the good cup and you get to drink of that cup because someone came and drunk down to the dregs the whole thing emptied into Christ

that's how it is so yeah typically if you're talking about especially if you're talking about pre the institution of the Lord's Supper if you're talking about the cup of the Lord this is probably not a good thing

yeah and you know Jesus talks about he uses both image of the cup and baptism in the gospels i have a baptism a little ago i have a you know i have a cup that this is in the context of james and john want to sit at his right and left hand so that cup and baptism of course are his suffering and of course the garden of gethsemane which that you're talking about dan is the yeah if if it's possible take this cup from me because he knows what's in that cup and he knows when you drink it it's uh gonna be full of wrath yeah but he polishes it off every last drop fills it with his blood and says drink of it all of you yeah this is this is for you right yeah so he's turned the cup of wrath into a cup of blessing

but here jerusalem has drunk from this intoxicating cup because of course they have engaged in willful and ongoing centuries-long idolatry so they're staggering around they're on the ground And so God says, wake up, stand up. And then verse 18 says, again, using the image of Lady Jerusalem, there is none to guide her among all the sons she has born. There is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. Why is that? Verse 19 tells us, because these two things have happened to you.

Who will console you? Devastation and destruction. So these are two pairs of things, actually, when it says two things, it's really, there's four in the list, but it's two pairs. So devastation and destruction is one, and then famine and sword. Who will comfort you? And then to wrap up that section, verse 20, your sons, so there's no sons that are going to help her because what's happened to these sons?

Well, your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net. They are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. So just using the image here of Jerusalem as a mother She doesn't have anybody to help her Because her sons have been trapped They've also been impacted by the wrath of God She herself is intoxicated by this

So the whole thing is designed to be this image of a helpless people That can't do anything to rescue themselves Can't do anything to find any consolation Because of what they have suffered because of their sins. Yeah, there's like a real image there of like being caught. Like you took the bait, right? And now you've been snared up in it.

And this is a pretty good image of what you see Israel do over and over again, which is like take the bait of idolatry and then they get all tangled up in it and are now just like completely helpless. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like they walk right into the pit that they've dug. right yeah it's all tangled up in the middle of the street in a net you're just you're just like oh man like there's something kind of like pathetic about it you know where you're like what did you do especially if you're like did you do this again you know the first time i've

seen you all tangled up in the street in a net yeah yeah it's just like this whole this whole section of verses is like you're walking down the street you're like you're seeing this guy he's all wrapped up in a net he can't move somebody else over here is passed out drunk it's like you people there's nothing you can do here right you're helpless and you've put yourself in this situation so uh obviously the one who's going to solve this is going to be god so let's see what else he has to say this first 21 therefore hear this you who are afflicted who are drunk but not with wine so everybody we've just been talking about you afflicted and you you drunk with the wrath here's what god the lord says the lord it's adonai in hebrew thus says adonai yahweh your god

so we have a piling up here of divine references here's what he says who pleads the cause of your people look i have taken from your hand the cup of staggering the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more. So what you were drinking because of your idolatry that's made you in this situation, I'm going to take that away. And verse 23, I will put it in the hand of your tormentors who have said to you, bow down, that we may pass over, that we may make your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over. So there are oppressors who basically just turned them into a doormat said lay down we're going to walk all over you well they are now going to have this cup of the lord placed into their hands and be forced to drink that and jeremiah will uh who's

later than isaiah but jeremiah will pick up the same image because god will command him to take the cup of his wrath and go to babylon and to all these other kingdoms and to make them drink this cup so this is the way the lord works he's given back to the enemies what they gave to his people yeah and yeah and he is of course the one that's gonna have to do this like he's gonna literally have to take it out of your hand and like put it into their hand right like this is you're you're so helpless that uh he's like let me let me take that from you uh because you're all tangled up and drunk and all this and i'm gonna like i'm actually gonna give that over to those who are tormenting you yeah this fits too i mean to to go back to what we were just talking about with

the Gospels, well, certainly Jesus drinks the cup of the Lord's wrath without any doubt. He drains it, right? There is therefore, because of this, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But at the same time, at the death of Jesus, he is putting this cup to the mouth of Satan and death and sin, and he's destroying them. So these who afflicted us and brought us so much pain and and everything else they are also made to drink of this cup of the lord because in drinking that cup christ also destroys our adversaries yeah okay so that's the end of 51. uh 52 more more language about more alarm bells going off here uh waking everybody up so awake awake put on your strength ozion put on your beautiful garments which is which is a

a great transition from what we were just seeing because what what was the last thing we heard about zion well they're just like in the street passed out drunk right so get up and then not just you know kind of clean yourself up but put on the go to your closet get the very best stuff you have your beautiful garments put those on and it continues oh jerusalem the holy city which of course is is a a given holiness because obviously she's not holy and of herself because we had her just described as a, as a, as a drunken woman who's passed out because she's full of the wrath of God, but she's called holy because God gives her his holiness. And then he says this for there shall no more, no longer come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean shake yourself

from the dust and arise, be seated. Oh, Jerusalem loose the bonds from your neck. Oh, captive daughter of zion in other words there's an awesome reversal that's coming uh you're no longer going to be lying in the street as a you know something for your enemies to walk over and you're passed out intoxicated by wrath instead you stand up you clean up you dress up and your city is going to be so secure because of god's doing that none of your adversaries will be able to walk those streets ever again. This is, by the way, the image of there shall no more come into you, the uncircumcised and the unclean. That is what John draws from in Revelation 21, toward verse 26, maybe. He's talking about the new Jerusalem. And he says that nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who

does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. So he's drawing on verses such as this from Isaiah to describe the status of those who walk in the streets of the New Jerusalem as well. Yeah, and some of this is, it hits like you need to have a little bit of a defiant faith. You need to wake up, kind of strengthen yourself up, put on your beautiful garments, do that, and you're doing this, like, out of a faith in God's Word, like a trust in His promises, right? It's not that, like, all these things, like, everything's great and perfect and everything, like, you're doing this sort of in anticipation of what God will do. And there's, like, so there's just this sort of, like, defiant

or dogged faith that says, even in the midst of— because we do this in this life, too, where we're like, hey, there's plenty of reasons, I suppose, if I want to look for them to be doubting or maybe just even— so much of the language describing Israel is like a wallowing. There's even some self-loathing and all that. and the the call is to is to like shake all that stuff off and uh and to believe yeah yeah my wife and i were just having this conversation the other day we were talking about how easy it is

not this easy but like tempting it is to uh to wallow in whatever it might be you know grief or self-pity or whatever it becomes so almost addictive to getting gross and negativity and in opposite of this exactly what you're describing it's this bold defiant faith which says no i believe in the god of the living i believe in the god who gives me hope not just for the future but for the present as well and so so much better to focus upon him and his goodness and the goodness that we now receive and the goodness that we will receive that we that we live in hope for what he is going to accomplish in our lives and to to stare yeah at all the bad stuff and to say nevertheless my god reigns and my god is good and he's going to get me through this

and much better days are coming yeah yeah like that it's um yeah that shake yourself from the dust and arise right like that sort of thing where it's um not be it's sort of a not because everything i've said i will do has been done but in a belief that it will be right like this this is this is what you're doing uh where you're like i'm gonna put like hey i'm gonna get myself together here because i have a promise yeah uh and that promise is as good as it already being done yeah it's such a different it's just such a different way to to live you know it doesn't matter what's going on in our lives it's so easy to get just kind of wrapped up in all the bad stuff yeah i mean very easy whether something has happened to you recently or you just look at

your life and see all the you know the terrible things or that you've experienced for your that are facing you well that's it's it's kind of the easy and the tempting way to focus on that But that's not what the scriptures call us to. It's like to say, no, in the face of whatever suffering I'm going through, in the face of whatever grief I'm facing, I also know that Christ is risen. And because of that, well, I can face whatever's coming my way, and I'm going to be bold and defiant in my faith because I worship a resurrected and a living Savior who's triumphed over all evil and will one day make that abundantly clear to the rest of the world. when he brings a new Jerusalem down from heaven. Yeah, there is a call to, I mean, yeah, take that promise as a certainty, right? The now and the not yet is where the Christian lives, but that not yet is not like a potential thing, right?

It's like you live as though this is an absolute certainty. The sun's going to rise tomorrow and this promise is going to be kept. Like that's those are the things I know. And that's hope. You know, when we misuse the word hope almost all the time when we talk about hope. You know, I hope it's not going to rain tomorrow. I hope my team wins. I hope whatever it might be.

That's a wish. it's not hope because biblical hope is an absolute certainty of what god is going to do in the future based upon the absolute certainty that god has acted faithfully in the past yeah so once you get that yeah then you can i hope for the second coming of christ not because i'm unsure it's going to happen because i know that it will and that it just hasn't happened yet but i know that it will because I live by hope that is an absolute assurance what God has in store for us. Yeah, that's that hope, as they say, that hope that doesn't put to shame. That's what that is.

Yes. Yeah. All right. Well, we are out of time, so we will leave it there. Man, we got good stuff coming up next episode, so you guys will want to make sure to tune in then. We're going to get into some real Christ stuff next episode, so make sure you join us.

Chad, I will see you then. All right. See you then. We'll see you next time.