40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 8:1-15 (Episode 450)

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

God gives Isaiah words to write on a tablet and then tells him to name his son that. Judgment is coming as unstoppable as natural disasters. And the fear of the Lord is the only place to find sanctuary. 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: Bible in One Year with Chad Bird Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi Junk Drawer Jesus By Matt Popovits More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Join me, Chad Bird, in reading through the Bible in one year in 2025. It doesn't matter if it's your first time or your hundredth time through the Bible, there's always more to learn about our Lord. The reading schedule we will follow is called the Blended Plan. It has daily chapters from the Old Testament and New Testament. And I will post a short video every day that unpacks one of the chapters for that day. So for the reading plan, for a link to daily videos, and for additional resources, go to 1517.org forward slash one year. May the Lord bless your daily study of his word in 2025.

Hi, podcast listeners. This is Amy Montravati, 1517 contributor and author of the new historical fiction, Broken Bonds, a novel of the Reformation. The year is 1524. With the church fracturing and revolution brewing, the lives of Martin Luther, Desiderius Erasmus, and Philip Melanchthon are woven together as events spiral out of their collective control. Erasmus is pressured to take a public stand against Luther. Melanchthon is caught in the middle and forced to choose between the two men he venerates. Journey with them as they discover the things that terrify and the hope that ultimately leads to strength. You can purchase your copy at 1517.org forward slash shop or head to the show notes for more information. Happy reading!

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. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Of course, all the academies, all the events, all the articles, all the other podcasts, check it all out. And while you're over there, go over to that donate link, become a supporter so we can keep doing what we're doing for free. That's what we're trying to do here. I mean, it's not free, but it is free.

You know how this works? Like, I mean, you can consume it for free, but it's not free to create. So, you know, people chip in, make it all possible, and you can be one of those people by going to that donate link. And we appreciate the people that do that very much. Chad, we are in Isaiah chapter 8, and we just got done with this sort of glimmer of hope. We got the sign of Emmanuel. I mean, what could be better than that? You're going to get this promise of a virgin burying a child.

I mean, that sounds like we know what that is. and uh but man it's it's sort of nestled right in there in a bunch of bad news too which is yeah but other countries are going to come and they're going to beat on your head for a while and uh all of this stuff is going to be happening sort of around and and joined to this promise though that a virgin is going to bear a child and that child is going to be god with us yeah and uh chapter eight we're gonna have more of the same we're gonna have a a promise on the one hand and then we're gonna have a threat on the other we're gonna kind of do this law gospel dance back and forth through chapter eight and a little bit into chapter nine as well i think

probably less law more gospel in chapter nine but yeah we're not there yet but chapter eight is uh this this whole section really seven through nine following the call narrative in chapter six of isaiah is a is a unit uh so we're going to hear a lot about uh emmanuel and his kingdom in these in well in chapter eight but especially when we get to chapter nine and we're gonna have some more uh births and some more names and some more threats of assyrian invasions and whatnot in these verses so let me read uh first four verses get us rolling isaiah 8 1 to 4 then the lord said to me Take a large tablet and write on it, in common characters, these words, Belonging to Maher Shalal Hashbaz.

That's four names of one individual. We'll talk about who that is in a minute. And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Yeberikayah, to attest for me. And I went to the... So this is Isaiah speaking after this. So I went to the prophetess and she conceived. and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, call his name Maher Shalal Hashbaz. For before the boy

knows how to cry, my father or my mother, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria. So let's start with that concluding line about the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria and then the king of Assyria. So this is And if you've been listening reliably week by week through these episodes, you realize the historical context here. But if you're just going to jump it in here, the historical context is you've got a couple of countries. You've got the people of Damascus who are sometimes called the Arameans, sometimes called the Syrians. Same place, different name. You got them.

And then you have the people of Samaria. That's going to be the northern kingdom, sometimes just referred to as Israel. So they've teamed up. They're going to be allies against the Assyrian threat that is coming in from the east. And as we heard earlier, they're trying to get the southern kingdom of Judah to join with them, so they have a triple alliance against the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom is saying no to this. So that's what's referred to as the wealth of Damascus, the spoil of Samaria. So that kind of coming destruction is going to happen

when the Assyrians sweep in and do their damage. Now, backing up, the Lord said to me, so this is Isaiah speaking, the Lord said to me, within this kind of historical context, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a large tablet. Now, we're not really sure what this tablet is a fine translation. This is one of those Hebrew words. And there's quite a few of these in the Old Testament

where they only occur once or twice and they're not found anywhere else so we don't really have anything to compare them with in other ancient Hebrew literature or other cognate languages and so we kind of have to guess what the word means. Isaiah uses this word one more time

but there it means like a mirror. Here it's a tablet, maybe just seems kind of smooth surface. One of the resources I checked thought this might be a Hebrew word for what I call the cylinder seals, which is a clay seal shaped like a cylinder that you would make incisions on and write on that,

sometimes worn around the neck. Whatever this is anyway, it's supposed to be a large one of these tablets or cylinders. So Isaiah has to take it and then to write on it, literally with, ESV has in common characters, literally it's with a human stylus. so some sort of writing instrument, maybe to make wedge shapes on the clay, but whatever it is, take a tablet, take this writing device,

and write on it, belonging to Meher Shalal Hashbaz. So, come back to him in just a minute. And then get some witnesses who are going to testify to the veracity of this, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Eberakiah. So, that's kind of where it starts out. We're going to get this tablet, we're going to write this name on there, and then we'll hear how this kind of all pans out in the next few verses. So what does Isaiah do?

Well, Isaiah literally draws near to his wife, who's called a prophetess here. There's a lot of Hebrew words. I mean, I guess English has this. I'm assuming every language has, like, different words for sexual intercourse. You know, some very appropriate for public settings, some not for public settings. And this is a very gentle way of expressing sexual intercourse, so drawing near. So he draws near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. I don't know.

I mean, I kind of go back and forth on this as to why she's called a prophetess. I think you've got two choices. Either she is actually a prophetess, and we do have some of those in the Old Testament. Well, New Testament, too. Or she's just called that because she's like Mrs. Prophet. She's married to Isaiah. It's like the first lady. Yeah, yeah.

Good acknowledgement. No one elected her, but she's in the relationships. You get a title just by virtue of who you're married to. Who you're married to. Yeah, well, there you go. So he goes to his wife, called the prophetess, and she conceives and bears a son. And the Lord says this Here's what I want you to name him

And I feel sorry for the kid But, you know, this is what God says to do Don't call him like, you know, Isaiah the second Or any other common Hebrew name I want you to call him Meher Shalal Hashbaz Which is a name that you could translate several different ways But one translation of it is speed, spoil, haste, booty. Speed, spoil, haste, booty.

Meher Shalal Hashbaz. Now, if you unpack that a little bit, the name itself is a threat, right? It means that very quickly, all around you, you're going to have not only the destruction of war, but you're going to have the spoils, the booty of war that's going to be happening as well. So she conceives, she bears a son. God says, here's what I want you to call him. Why? Because before the boy's very old, before he could say, you know, I guess in English, we would say something like dada and mama, whatever, you know, the baby first says. In Hebrew, it is Avi, that's my father, or Emi, that's my mother. So real simple,

Avi, Emi, my father, my mother. Before he can say that, so before he's very old at all, what's going to happen? Well, the Assyrians are going to come in and they're going to sweep away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil there you go, there's your spoil word in Maharish Shalal Hashbaz's name, the spoil of Samaria. Now this is

this is fascinating on a couple different ways I mean just historically God is using a child given a symbolic name to indicate the political fallout that's going to happen soon. But it's also fascinating because here we have

this child's conception and birth from the wife of Isaiah, who's given a symbolic name that's connected to the political happenings of his day. And this follows immediately after what we read about in Isaiah 7, right?

Where you're going to have a virgin who's going to conceive, she's going to bear a son, and she's going to give him the name Emmanuel. And there's political ramifications surrounding his birth as well. So both of these conceptions, both these births, both these symbolic names kind of go together. You can really think of Maharshala al-Hashbaz's birth as kind of the intermediate birth and symbolism of what is about to happen.

It's kind of leading into the eventual fulfillment in the birth of Emmanuel. well yeah so if you try to put the this name together what a lot of people do is what it means something like the uh the spoil spreads and the the prey hastens right there's something like this yeah uh at the very least you could you could be like well okay so we got like two uh babies here one of them is uh brought about by just regular old way that people enter the world Just so, here we go, another sinner. That's the way that all sinners enter the world. The other one, this one's going to be a little different.

I mean, virgins don't go around burying children, of course. So this one's going to be a little different. And one of them is going to be, I don't know about you, Chad, but the spoil spreads, the pray hastens, or whatever, you want to put that together, sounds a little more law than gospel to me. And, of course, Emmanuel is very much gospel. I mean, this is God coming to be with his people, to dwell among them. And so, yeah, but in both—and it is interesting that you have this sort of name of judgment.

And this is written down, though. So this is what—he says, hey, we're going to—I need you to write this thing down. This reminds me, and it's not connected, but it just tells you that this is not something that is—this is not a one-off with God. It's one of my favorite passages in Habakkuk where Habakkuk is doing a lot of complaining and doesn't understand what's going on. And then when God decides he's going to really fill him in, he does this thing where he says, all right, get tablets, write it down, make it plain. I'm not going to repeat myself here. I'm going to tell you. And this is the same kind of thing where it seems that when God does this move, when God says, all right, it's time to get the tablets out.

This is the same sort of thing when he writes the Ten Commandments into stone or whatever. God is writing words, and the time to convince him otherwise, I think, is officially passed once he tells you to get the tablets out, because now you're writing stuff down. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, this is no longer—he's not in pencil either. No, it's just probably in pencil. Pencil that in. We might change it later.

We might chisel it in stone later on. no this is this is being chiseled into stone or you know wedge into clay or written in ink whatever it is it's permanent it's not it's not going away the debate debate's over right the decision has been made once god tells you to write a town decision is done yeah in fact in a few more verses we'll hear about you know how that's the testimony is to be sealed when something's sealed up well it's you know the envelope is sealed or the parchment's been rolled up and tied and you have a clay seal on it it's done there's no altering it at this point yeah so we got uh it's a great point about one kid being law one kid being grace i mean it really is kind of like

you have say you have two boy i really wouldn't work with two boys but you have one child named judge and one child named grace well that's kind of what you're looking at here either you have god is with you god is with us or you have well there's destruction coming my hair is yeah and also the way this works is that emmanuel is coming but first the law yeah there's like you're gonna have like this is all like i am coming i'm coming i mean like so this is i mean emmanuel is god is i am coming right then um but first destruction like At first, everything's got to be made ready for me, and by made ready, it means it's got to be laid to waste.

Yeah, you've got to have John the Baptist before you get to Jesus. You've got to have crucifixion before you get to resurrection. You've got to have law before you get to gospel. And unfortunately, this is not just kind of nice theoretical theologizing. That's the way it works in our own lives as well. What's God going to do? Well, he's going to tear you down. build you up. He's going to kill you.

He's going to resurrect you. He's going to put a lot of you to death, and then he's going to raise you to newness of life, and he's going to maher shalal hashbaz you, and then he's going to emmanuel you. This is the way it goes. This is the daily life of a

Christian. What is kind of weird just like in the narrative, is if you think about the order of this, that God would tell Isaiah, alright, I want you to write this down and he's like all right i'm ready what is it and then he gives him these four words or whatever he's like okay and he's like yeah yeah all right good that's what i want and then he's like all right i want to go home to the wife then uh and then he goes to the wife and then

and then she conceives and then god's like hey get that thing out you know that's what you call him okay that's now i now i understand that's what that was all about okay i named this child well get out that old uh tablet tablet that you wrote on in common characters well that's his birth certificate just put the date here yeah it is good it's kind of funny the way god works all right so uh that takes us to verse five and we're gonna kind of continue this the same thread about uh assyria so the lord spoke to me again because this people and let me just kind of pause there i I think this people is sometimes used to refer to Judah, the southern kingdom. But I think this is talking about the northern kingdom.

And I'll explain why in just a minute. But because this people, which I'm understanding to be the northern kingdom, because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently and instead rejoice over Rezan and the son of Ramaliah. Therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the river mighty and many the king of assyria and all his glory and it that is this metaphorical river which is the king of assyria and all his glory it will rise over all its channels and go over all the spanks and it will sweep on into judah it will overflow and pass on

reaching even to the neck and its outstretched wings will fill the breadth of your land oh emmanuel so pretty pretty fascinating series of verses here got a lot of water stuff going on here so uh if if i'm correct um and feel free to disagree but if i'm correct that this people that god is referring to is the northern kingdom then what have they done well they have they've refused the waters of shaloha that flowed gently what in the world is that talking about well the The waters of Shiloah are in reference to basically Jerusalem's water supply. So this is before... A lot of people heard about Hezekiah's tunnel.

This was a tunnel dug during the reign of Hezekiah in order to connect the city to the water source so that if it was in siege, then you could go down through this tunnel. You could have a recourse to water during the period of the siege. But at this point, the way that the city got water, So you had the Gihon Spring, which is east of the city of Jerusalem. It's right there in the Kidron Valley. And the water from that would flow south through kind of an aqueduct to a reservoir that was at the southwestern tip of the city of Jerusalem.

So this is referenced to, it's called Shiloah. So when this people has refused the waters of Shiloah, These are gently flowing waters, and this is used symbolically to refer to Jerusalem, and by extension to the Davidic monarchy, and by extension to God's establishment of Jerusalem and that monarchy. So, because they've refused basically the will and the ways of Yahweh, and they've turned against Him to do their own thing, In fact, not just turned away from him, but they've turned to Rezan and the son of Ramaliah. That's the two leaders, one of Aram slash Syria and one of the northern kingdom. So they've turned to these other leaders besides God's appointed leader.

So what's going to happen to them? Well, they've refused these gently flowing waters of Shiloah. That is, they've rejected the waters of Jerusalem, we might say. So what's God going to do? well he's he's going to give them water he's going to give them a whole river he's going to give them the the overflowing river of assyria so assyria is connected with uh the tigris and euphrates especially the euphrates river so this river these waters that are here characterized as or symbolically referring to the assyrians they're going to basically just flood the northern kingdom

flood the arameans and gonna they're gonna flow on all the way to the reach even to the neck of jerusalem that close in fact we know this is going to happen during the reign of hezekiah when the assyrians will invade and they're going to encircle jerusalem so that's what's that's what's going to transpire in the years that are coming up because they refuse these we might say peaceful, God-established waters of Jerusalem, they're going to face instead a flood of judgment that's going to come from the Assyrians. One of the more interesting things, I think, about this verse is that, or this section of verses, is that the O Emmanuel seems to not fit, right?

It seems like a strange way to end, but again, maybe not. So the question to ask is, like, what are you doing there? Yeah, why is it there? It seems like you have this language of judgment, and I'm interested to hear what you think about this, Chad. And you're like, okay, it's going to be bad. God does this a lot where he uses nature symbolism to talk about people and this kind of stuff. And it's just a way of saying you can't control what's about to happen any more than you could control the weather or natural disasters. If the Euphrates rises up and sweeps over everything, what are you going to do about it? This is the same thing. And then you just end with this, like, oh, Emmanuel.

And we talked about what does Emmanuel mean? I mean it's God with us. And you're like, well, that doesn't seem to fit at all. And I think kind of what you have here is like an old school thing and like a sort of future thing, which is – there was a – if you go back into judges, when we were going through judges, you have this common refrain. And what would happen is – and this is one thing that makes Judges a little bit different than what's going on right here, which is the people, of course, idolatrous and disastrous all the time. And then, of course, they would repent, and then they would cry out for God. They would cry out Hosanna. They would cry out for God to save them, and then he would.

And here, you don't have the people doing this, but it's almost as if you have God saying this. uh and god is recognizing in the absence of the of his own people crying out for him he is recognizing their need for them to cry out for him to come be with them to come save them right and that's that's how i read it anyway that uh that he throws this in there like it's it's almost sad uh like that it's gonna uh like god is angry but it also is going to hurt god to do this and uh he is throws this sort of emmanuel thing in there to say that what you're gonna need is this uh but uh before this happens though and like we just talked about like all of this stuff happens first and then emmanuel and you have this spelled out in this text where this all sounds

horrible and then at the end uh who's gonna be watching this who's gonna be uh standing in wait Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I mean, this is unusual, unusual, even in the Hebrew, the way this is described, like your land, which is a, you know, a singular, your land, and then the vocative, O Emmanuel. I think it's only used in reference to, for instance, a king, like your land, O Hezekiah, or your land, O whoever. Now, I think that's helpful, too, because it's an identification of this Emmanuel as an individual, as a king, as someone who is over the land, And then ultimately, as the one who's going to be the only person who can save the people who are threatened in this way. So you've got this destruction that's coming. It's the Assyrians. All right.

Flood of the Assyrians is going to come. They're going to flood the Arameans. They're going to flood the northern kingdom, which we know happened. I mean, we know happened in a destructive and decisive sort of way. The Assyrians came in and they completely destroyed the Arameans Took control of the kingdom They came in and they completely destroyed the northern kingdom Samaria was sacked

And that's when you have, in 722 BC That's when you have finally the destruction of Samaria And then the ten northern tribes are exiled So utter decimation of the northern kingdom And the Arameans and then it keeps on this this assyrian river keeps on flowing down down down into judah and you can kind of picture it's rising it's rising it's rising and now it's up to the very neck of of jerusalem it's it's that close and then to mix metaphors you have this outspread

wings filling the breadth of the land it's kind of like this bird of prey just imagine this kind of ludicrous scenario where someone is standing neck deep in water and there's a buzzard flying overhead that's kind of it's got a picture and then you get to the very end it's like you got one hope uh it's the head sticking out of the water we might say and that's emmanuel he's going to be the one who finally is the only hope he is he is the remnant we might say this the single emmanuel king savior is going to be the remnant that saves the people when it appears as if there is going to be complete, complete destruction. Yeah.

Remember, Paul does this a lot, but this happens in the epistles, but Jesus will echo, well, Paul echoes this kind of language from Jesus, but where there's a lot of talk of an appointed time, right? And so Paul will say, like, at the right time or at the appointed time or the fullness of time

or whatever, however he wants to phrase it. And Jesus makes it very clear that he comes at a very specific time, and that even the cross has to happen at a specific time, and sometimes he says that time is not yet, right? And so I can't do this thing because it's not yet time, but that time is coming. And in texts like this, you kind of see some of that where, you know, I don't know, maybe Jesus is ready to go, and the Father's like, not yet, not yet, not yet. but the time is coming there's things that are going to take place and there is an appointed time there is the right time for God to come

dwell with his people and save them and take on sin and the wrath of God and all of these things but it's interesting when you're reading the Old Testament and the prophets here and you're using the name that Mary is given to talk about this Yeah, so here, we're on the back side of that, but here they're on the front side of that, and it's just like, it's not quite yet.

Yeah, you got to wait. I sometimes put things into perspective, too, by thinking about the parallel time frames, too. So, you know, here we are, sitting here in 2025, and it seems like it's been forever since Emmanuel came, right? It's like, is it ever going to come again? Well, think back before the coming of Christ, about 2,000 years or so. You know when that was? Well, it was the time of Abraham. Yeah.

So, you know, God gives this promise to him in Genesis chapter 12. You know, from you is going to come a seed. It's going to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Well, you would think it's not going to be 2,000 years after that when it finally happens, but it was. well you would think once christ comes oh he's definitely gonna maybe in i don't know 20 years he's gonna return okay well maybe 200 yeah well maybe i don't know 2 000 years he's gonna return but anyway i just it puts it helps me to put things into perspective as far as like waiting you know knowing that the time is not right but the time will come okay so we're gonna

to switch from prose into poetry. Got a couple verses here where God basically addresses all the nations and says do whatever you want strap on your armor

get your sword and shield attack, take counsel, do everything that you think you need to do in order to destroy my people and guess what? It's not going to happen. He says be broken you peoples and be shattered. Give ear, all you far countries. Strap on your armor and be shattered. Strap on

your armor and be shattered. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak a word, but it will not stand. And then we have this concluding phrase, for God is with us. And of course, that is, that's Emmanuel. We might say because Emmanuel is here. So you can have all of these powers arrayed against the people of God you can have them making their plans you can have them weaponizing getting their armor together

calling their councils of war, doing all these things and it's not going to come to anything. It's kind of like this section reminds me of Psalm 2 how the nations rage, the peoples plot in vain

they're going to cast away their cords from us and they're going to break the chains and he who sits in the heavens laughs the lord the lord scoffs at them because he's anointed his son he's placed his king upon zion his holy mountain and so it doesn't matter you know how much saber rattling or how much actual attacking is done in the end all the efforts to destroy the kingdom of god will be in vain because god is with us because of emmanuel All right, shall we move on? Let's do it.

All right, so we got verse 11. For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he will become a sanctuary a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of israel a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of jerusalem

and many shall stumble on it they shall fall and be broken they should be snared and taken it's a pretty strong new testament language yeah that's that's found there you know you You might not like immediately be like, this is about the gospel. If you didn't have somebody in the New Testament telling you that this is explicitly about – you're not going to like this Emmanuel very much when he comes, right? Because this is what this is about, right? is that the Bible is so interesting. I mean, God is just the way he'll take one thing and then you would think the implications of this thing

would be something totally different than what he believes the implications of it are. So he would say, all right, listen, don't be afraid. Don't fear or dread what people fear. Let me be your fear and your dread. And you're like, okay, that sounds unpleasant. He's like, yeah, and when that happens, I'll be a sanctuary for you. And you're like, what?

Okay, so what does the fear of the Lord lead to? It leads to me being your sanctuary because, and we've seen this earlier, if you fear the Lord, you don't need to fear anything else. So the fear of the Lord has then become a sanctuary where you're like, yeah, I fear the Lord, and he's on my side, so I'm not afraid of anything. And the problem, though, is that the ultimate sanctuary, of course, that he's going to be for you is in Emmanuel. This is like the sanctuary of Christ. And you're not going to like that sanctuary.

That sanctuary is going to be a stumbling block. This is something that you're going to trip and be shattered to pieces on it. And this is, I mean, Paul borrows this language immediately. Yeah, it's almost like when you get to, he will become a sanctuary. You're like, that sounds pretty good. Yeah. But then the next words are, and a stone of a fence, and a rock of stumbling. You're like, wait, what?

And a trap, and a snare. It just kind of keeps building up. I think the reason that Paul likes this language, or maybe doesn't like it, but recognizes it as true, is of course, Paul, who we think of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles, and rightfully so. So – but he's also – Paul is also the guy that was – I mean he was a Jew of Jews, right? A Hebrew of Hebrews and is the guy that says, listen, man, I'd do – I'd give my own salvation if my people could just be saved. And once he comes to believe, he sees like how adamantly opposed to this good news his brethren are. And so I'm sure as a guy that says the scriptures, this sort of text is like ringing around in his head.

And he's just like, man, I've got good news for you. And you hear that news and you say, get that out of my face, man. I don't want that. That's offensive to me. Yeah. He's going to, Paul kind of pulls together this text from Isaiah. And then also, we'll hear it again when we get to Isaiah 28, 16, which is about laying his line, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Yeah, he pulls that verse up in Isaiah, excuse me, Romans 9.

What I find interesting is this. So he says, Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, but did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? He says, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written. And then he quotes Isaiah.

Isaiah. Yeah, it all goes back to basically letting the Lord be your fear, right? In other words, that's Old Testament language for faith. Yeah. When the Lord is your fear, that means that you trust in him. You hope in him. You worship him. You have faith in him. But the stumbling block is that people want to establish a righteousness of their own. I mean, it was like that in Paul's day, just as much as it was like that back in Isaiah's day as well. Well, this is the thing It seems crazy But

I'm telling you that nothing's more true And if you Have conversations with people, you'll find out That this is true When they ask you, what does it take? What is God after? What does he want? What do I need to do? And you say, oh, well

Believe Don't give me that What am I supposed to do with that? No, no, no, man I'm like, I reject that completely. Like, I don't believe, I'm not going to, there's obviously more to it than that. And like, I mean, there's other, look, man,

there's lots of things you can do, but I mean, the answer to your question of how is one right with God is just faith. That's it. You want to go do stuff, go right ahead, but that's, and please do. But that's not the answer to the question that you asked. And no one wants that to be the answer.

And they get offended. People get very angry over that. Yeah. Yeah. Because, well, partly because it takes us out of the game. What do you mean I sit on a bench while Jesus does it all? No, give me a list of things to do, you know? It's like the rich young ruler, Jesus.

But I've kept all those commandments. You got any more? This is why. You got some more I can do? People don't like creeds. I mean, this is the whole thing. When they say deeds, not creeds, what is that about? Well, the whole point of that is that you take something like the Apostles' Creed,

and you're like, hey, this is the thing that needs to happen here. You need to confess this. And you're like, well, there's nothing to do in this confession. I mean, this is all just stating things that are. So all there is is things to believe. There's nothing to do. And you're like, yeah, that's the whole point. You're like, well, anybody could do that.

So I don't like that. They gave me something that would set me apart. And I'm like, no, I can't do that. Yeah. Yeah, I've often thought that if God set things up to where he's like, okay, listen, I'm going to do 99% of the saving. All I need you to do is this 1%. Okay? So suppose God set it up that way.

And we did our 1%. We would trust more in our 1% than we ever would in God's 99%, because we always want to trust what we have control over. And God comes along and is like, nope. First of all, you would screw up your 1% if I even asked you to do it. I'm going to do it all for you because you can never do it on your own. And simply trust that I've got this done. It was, you know, if you want a job done right, do it yourself.

So that's what God did. He did it himself. I mean, even something as simple. And you might think, listen, don't stop listening to the podcast when I say this. Just do your investigating, go over to 1517, and you can find out all kinds of resources on what I'm about to say. But even something like this sort of, like a myth of free will when it comes to matters of salvation, even if deciding to believe, just the decision, even if that's the 1%, is that god made the offer and i accepted and that is for what it is for a lot of people for sure

what like of course what are you trusting in you're trusting it like that that you accepted the offer yeah that's what it is i mean like this is the hinge that the door of salvation swings on now is that like do you accept it or not like you know uh behold i'd stand at the door and knock did you open it or didn't you like like i mean isn't because now at that point what is the most important part of this i mean it is you i mean you're the you are the deciding factor i heard a guy once say in a matter of talking about election that uh and this is by the way it's a horrific view uh this is not biblical but he said the way that election works is that god has a vote and he votes to save you the devil has a vote and he votes to condemn you and

you have to break the tie oh it's up to you no that that's terrible you're the most important person in this equation and uh and you can see why that would appeal to people i mean it appeals to to all of us because oh okay i get to do my part that's what it all boils down to that's why the gospel and grace are so offensive you don't get a vote well no because instead instead god Like, hey, trust me and let me be your shelter at the end. And you're like, I'm going to stumble over that. And you do. But that's really all he's asking you to do.

All he's asking you to do is trust him. And that is good news. Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, that trust, that's not yours either. That is something that he gives you. So don't get confused on that either. You don't trust him in and of yourself. You trust him because he has given you the gift of faith to rest in that sanctuary of Christ.

God gives, we receive. That's it. All right. Well, we got to leave it there. We got more to say about this. Well, God's got more to say about this, and we're going to pick that up next episode. Chad, I will see you then. All right.

See you then.