BibleProject - Day Of The Lord Part Two: Pharaoh vs. The Warrior God

Episode Date: April 14, 2017

In this episode, Tim and Jon continue their conversation on The Day Of The Lord. The guys will build on their discussion on Babylon from part one as they try to get at what the biblical authors think about technological advances. Why did God seem to disapprove of man's invention of the brick in the story of the Tower? The guys will also spend some time talking about the exodus of the Hebrew people from ancient Egypt. It's one of the key events in Scripture, and it’s where the term Day of the Lord comes from. Thinking about God as a Warrior God is a little hard for us to swallow in our modern context, but it’s undeniably a part of his attributes, and he shows up in Scripture, time and time again, to fight for the oppressed. In the first part of the episode (01:46-13:37), the guys talk about technology in the Bible. Are technological advances bad? Does technology really detract from God’s glory? Tim brings this back around to the idea of subduing creation in Genesis 1. Technology can bend towards evil or exalting humans, but it can also be used to carry out the task that God gave in the garden. If humans realize that they live under God’s authority and reign, they can use whatever their realm of influence and opportunity is and bend towards the common good and in the name of Jesus. In the next part of the episode (13:56-42:27), the guys continue the story of the Old Testament and pick up in Egypt, where God’s people are being enslaved by Pharaoh. In the Bible we see that the enemy of God’s people is the ruler or nation who doesn’t acknowledge God as authority and who redefines good and evil based on their terms. Pharoah is doing this, but we’ll see it throughout the rest of Scripture as well. In this story, God defeats and Moses tells the people to remember the day. That same day is celebrated in the feast of Passover. The celebration and remembrance of Passover as a day, a moment in time, is where the term, Day of the Lord, comes from. This biblical theme is all about a moment of time where God confronts human evil on a large scale and brings down the oppressor. Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video called, “Day of the Lord.” You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEBc2gSSW04 References: What is the Hope for Humanity? A discussion of technology, politics, and theology with N.T. Wright and Peter Thiel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Mlu7sHEHE Show Music: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music Ready to Make Way by Greyflood

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

This is John from the Bible Project, and today on the podcast, we continue our conversation on the biblical theme of the Day of the Lord. If you haven't listened to the first part of our conversation on this theme, I'd recommend you go and do that. We introduce the theme and we talk about the Tower of Babel, or the Tower of Babylon, as it really is, and how Babylon is a central and essential concept to understand the day of the Lord. In this episode, we're going to talk about how Egypt is compared to Babylon, about how God rescued his people and oppressed immigrant population in Egypt, and how he's described as a warrior.

Especially in Western Christian culture, we really struggle with warrior imagery, but here the biblical authors want us to see that that's a part of God's character. God is for the oppressed. But before we get into that, I first wanted to have a conversation with him about technology. You see, the city of Babylon had a new technology, the brick, which they used to build an impressive tower that reached up into the skies and made them feel like they were themselves God. And God doesn't like this, he scatters everyone. And so I wanted to know, what does this mean for how we should view technology? Is technology inherently bad?

Will we always use it to build Babylon? That's where we begin today. Here we go. about technology. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. It's not going to make it into the same video. So I think about a lot about technology and the future of technology. And in the Tower of Babel, they're using a technology. The highlighted is part of the story. The highlighted is part of the story. They've developed technology.

To become people that can depend on themselves rather than God. They've become like God. Yeah, to exalt themselves to what they think is the status of the gods. Yeah. And now it's still fringe, but it's not so fringe for certain people to talk about how technology is going to do this something very much like make us like God, radical life extension,

being one thing that might happen because of advancements in medicine and nanotechnology and human genome being able to be edited now and stuff like that. CRISPR, as that one, you know CRISPR? No. It's just like a gene editing technology. Just go in and snip out the DNA you don't want. Put in new DNA. Wow.

Like, they're fighting cancer this way now. Doing that to T cells and stuff. So, radical life extension being one. Having powers that are very divine, like being able to create things, create organisms. Create organisms, create organs. Do these things that I mean, if you were to show up 200 years ago and do it, you would

be a God, right? And in a way, it could make us, will make us feel very sufficient. I mean, who knows what will happen. It could, nothing could work. It could become us, will make us feel very sufficient. I mean, who knows what'll happen. It could, nothing could work. It could become a nightmare scenario. But what if it did? Yeah. Let's just go with the thought of,

now all of a sudden we're living these radically longer lives as healthy people. We can do all these really amazing things with technology. And now we feel very sufficient and feel God-like. Does Genesis 11 warning us against that? I don't think, I think here you have to do a whole biblical theology of good and evil and of human progress. I don't think Genesis 11 is a case against technology. But is it a case against technology making us prideful and making us try

to do technology? Technology is technology, whether it's a hammer or gene editing software. Yeah, it's a tool. It's a tool. So the fundamental question is, who defines what is good and what is not good to be done as humans rule the world under God's authority. And so human beings have to progress and develop even if the fall hadn't happened, right? Because they are ruling, upset doing, and taking creation into new places. So that's in new directions. So you're saying that... I'm saying that there's a moral, it's a moral question of the knowledge of good and evil How how human beings develop and use tools

ultimately needs to be brought under Then ethical and moral examination, but you just said we have to progress Well, I just by nature. You think there's a biblical mandate to progress in technology I Think there's a there's a biblical mandate to progress in technology? I think there's the mandate, which is not a mandate, it's a blessing, a divine blessing. Rule the earth and subdue it, be fruitful and multiply. And in the context of the story is gardening. So yeah, I think the point is, is the idea of subdue, the word subdue, take what is latent and potential and bring that out and harness it

and take it in a direction it wouldn't otherwise go. So if you put technology there in the blessing, then just like in Cain City, You put technology there in the blessing. Yeah. Then, just like in Cain City, where you have music and new sorts of metal technology, but that in the case of Lehmack, it becomes bent towards evil and murder. And then in Babylon, it becomes bent towards self-exaltation. But this is why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this is why in the wisdom literature, the only place where the tree of life

and that phrases knowledge of good and evil appear again in the Old Testament is in Genesis 2 and 3 and the wisdom literature. And the wisdom literature is about, if the fear of the Lord, recognizing that you live as one of God's creatures, under God's guidance, and under his authority, and that God's definitions of good and evil form the boundary lines, if I start there, then I will have wisdom in whatever scenario I encounter to make the wise decision. Whether that be radical life extension technologies, art, personal intelligence.

In other words, what I'm saying is the part of the Bible that I think is the resource to drop on for those kinds of questions is the wisdom literature specifically. So Genesis 11 isn't this, let's be careful not to create technologies that make us not depend on God? Yeah, more it would be, let's be careful that our technologies don't do best into thinking that we are God, or that we can simply reinvent moral categories of right and wrong in the value of life. And I mean, I understand these are very complex questions. I mean, I'm not expert in them. But I think that's where the biblical tradition would offer wisdom to kind of guide.

It's just the question of just because it's possible, it doesn't mean it's the wise thing to do. And so that's the question. I'd have to think about it more. They're smarter people thinking about this. About technology. Do you remember there's that interview that we both listened to with, right?

Yeah, and Peter Teal. And they came to this point in conversation about technology, development, and a biblical world view. Yeah, Peter Teal, the venture capitalist. Yeah, yeah. But anyhow, yeah, he's trying to integrate a biblical worldview with a view of what kind of future should be funded for the human race.

Anyhow. Yeah. So yeah, bring all the way back. I think technology is an interesting and important theme, the developing portrait of the human condition in the Bible. But it's not inherently evil. It just happens that it's... It's highlighted in the story. It's highlighted as being the occasion for evil, and it will be again in the story.

And you know, I mean, think about it. The forefront of technological advancement for much of human history has been for the purposes of killing people. Either killing people or protecting yourself or protecting yourself or consolidating power once you have killed people and protect yourself. So it's not, I don't know, is it too far to say that technological advancement for most of human history has been for the purposes of selfish purposes of killing, watching it.

Anyway, I don't know. I'm getting out above my pay rate on that one. Okay, but that was awful for me because part of me when I read the story of Babel, Babylon, Tower of Babylon is, I think, oh man, is this an indictment against technology? Yeah, as such. And yeah, because man, technology, it's double-exord, but it seems like it's a net positive. I think so too. Yeah. And I think, again, I think it's inherent in the divine commission and blessing on page one, which is to rule the world

and subdue its resources and take the creation into new horizons. That's what, so the thing that NT Wright was saying in that lecture or that conversation we're referring to so the thing that NT Wright was saying in that lecture or that that conversation we're referring to with Peter Teal is he was saying look technology can be used to advance the kingdom of God and it can be used to advance Babylon. Babylon. Yeah. And um, and so how do you parse that out? Yeah, how do you know which kingdom you're building? Yeah. And so how do you parse that out? And yeah, how do you know which kingdom you're building? Yeah. Same tool.

Yeah. And so like medicine is a great example of, part of the kingdom of God is people being taken care of and the poor. And so if there's a medical technology advancement that helps to that end, that seems like something that as Christians we should celebrate and we should see as an advancing of the kingdom of God. But I feel like from the tradition I grew up in, kind of an end of the world scenario, end times, is, things are just going to get worse and worse.

Ah, I see. Yeah. So instead of finding technological advances that advance Kingdom of Heaven now, we got a wait for God to come. Sure. And he'll fix everything. He'll fix things. And so I think that's kind of what they're wrestling with is.

Yeah, at what point do you say, no, we just have to wait for God to come and fix this. Yeah, so here, actually here, we're in the theme video of Promised Land and Exile. Oh, really? Yeah, totally. Yeah, because the Israelites find themselves exiled in Babylon.

And what Jeremiah tells them to do is they sell down like, build homes, plant gardens, pray for the Shalom of Babylon, because of when it prosperes, you prosper, and you bear witness to my name there. And then you get all these stories of Daniels and esters and the important story of Joseph in Egypt and later stories in Jewish tradition like Judith or Tobit. So these stories of Israelites in prospering airs up. In foreign empires but serving the common good there. I think that's the part of the Bible that addresses the stories

because followers of Jesus are called exiles in the New Testament. So the fact that we're exiles doesn't mean you sit around and wait for... Yeah, God to come and fix it. God to come and fix it, you... But you have the same time, you can't think that you're going to rescue the world. You just build a home, plant a garden, pray for the Shalom of Babylon, and do the best to contribute to it. With the resources. In the Plants of Garden, the analog to that would be start a technology company.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Or whatever. Whatever your realm of influence and opportunity is to bend it towards the common good in the name of Jesus. Okay, so here's where the story goes. From Babylon, the confusion of languages and scattering, and you wonder what on earth is God going to do with this mess of humanity. So here's where the story goes. God takes one family line out of the scattering of Babylon, it gets traced through the line of Abram, and then God makes this promise to Abram that he's going to restore his divine blessing to all of the nations through Abram and his family. So the question is how? And that becomes the main storyline of

the Old Testament. We've made many videos about that theme. So Abraham's family grows and he does become a blessing to his immediate neighbors around him. There's a famine in the land of Canaan, and so they all go down to Egypt. The story of Joseph and his brothers, just condensing a lot. But the main thing to focus on for Day of the Lord is the family ends up staying down in Egypt after Joseph passes away. So they're not in Egypt. The families are down in Egypt.

Now they've become a big, great nation. Yep. Not a great nation, but a large people group. Yeah, they're growing family. The Hebrews. Yep. And then Exodus 1 begins with this big time jump to, this is Exodus chapter 1 verse 8.

Now a new king arose over Egypt who didn't know Joseph. Because Joseph was awesome. And the first son's friend of the king, so time has passed. And Ferra said to his people, behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and mightier than us. Oh wow, so there's a lot of them. So a lot.

So think a huge immigrant population that's exploding. More numerous and mighty. Yes, now we don't know how much of this is pumped up on rhetoric. Sure. But he's trying to paint this immigrant is pumped up on rhetoric. Sure. But he's trying to paint this immigrant group as an imminent threat. Yeah.

To national security. Right. Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they're going to multiply even more, and then in the event of a war, they're going to join with our enemies and fight against us and leave the land. Yeah. So here are the key words. They appointed task masters, the first story of slavery, wide-scale slavery in the Bible. They appointed taskmaskers over them, task masters over them to afflict them with hard labor, and they

built for Pharaoh, stored cities. Pitthome and Ramzays. The more they, here's the paradox, the more they afflicted Israel, the more they multiplied and spread. So it's not working. Slavery's not working. So that they were in dread of the sun. Because they wanted, not only did they want them

to get some stuff done for them, they thought it would curb their influence. Yeah, they thought, yeah, let's demote them, and slave them, and let's get some building projects done. It's a double win. They're not going to become a really important people group here if they're enslaved. Correct. But instead they, they, they keep growing in it. They keep multiplying. Multiplying. Yeah. And then the last line of this story, this is Exodus 1, verse 13. So the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and brick.

At all kinds of labor in the field, all their labor is which they rigorously imposed on them. And mortar and brick is the same stuff. So yeah, there's the hand, this whole description is packed with phrases from the story of Babylon in Genesis 11. So mortar and brick, there are only two places in the Old Testament where there are stories about cities being built with mortar and brick. Babylon, Genesis 11, Egypt in this story right here. And this is a really common narrative technique of the biblical authors when they want to make,

they want you to see a connection between two stories or two events, they'll use unique groups of words and connect and repeat them at distances from each other in different stories. So these collection of words, building cities, mortar and brick only appear in relation to Babylon and Egypt. And it's the narrative's way of winking at you and saying, do you see what's happening here? Right. Egypt's building itself to be Babylon. Egypt, yeah, Egypt is the new Babylon. Mm.

And so, but think back to Genesis 3 to 11, we had a lot of violence building up to Babylon. And Babylon wasn't violent. It was just prideful and self-exaltation. But here, now that self-exaltation does lead to violent and oppression. Babylon is an oppressor here in the form of Egypt. So this is how these figures or archetypes work is that Egypt becomes the newest version of Babylon. And later, just a few chapters later, when God appoints Moses to go confront Pharaoh

on the first interaction between Moses and Pharaoh. And Moses says the famous line from the movie. Let my people go. And Pharaoh's first response is an Exodus chapter five. He says, but Pharaoh said, who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice and let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh. I will not let Israel go.

So the portrait of Babylon slash Egypt is really built up in the story. It's given more detail than Genesis 11. It's about not acknowledging Yahweh as my authority. It's about redefining good and evil in our collective interests so that now in Slaving and as the story goes, like planning a genocide of a whole people group becomes good. That is good.

It becomes the right thing to do. It becomes the right thing to do. Yeah. Why? Because we've exalted our national identity to the status of the gods. And so it needs to be protected, national security, economy will build stories cities,

wipe these people out, will be victorious over enemies, who's Yahweh? I don't have, I mean, it's what Pharaoh is saying. I don't have a God over me. The genocide actually happens before this, right? Yep, the genocide happens right after the slave labor. Yep. Yep, yeah, exactly.

And so the whole story of the rise of Moses becomes this lead-up because Pharaoh says all the boys get thrown in the river, starts killing them off. And then a boy getting thrown in the river becomes the seed of Pharaoh's downfall. So the very thing he did to destroy Israel becomes the source of his own destruction. It's a very, it's an amazing story. Yeah. But the point here is that Egypt has become Babylon, but now the portrait of Babylon is fuller because it's about this idolatry of national identity that leads to a redefinition of good

and evil so that murder becomes the good thing to do. Now, is this the time of Egypt where they're building their big temple pyramid things or do we know exactly? Oh, you mean the ones that exist today? Yeah. Outside of Cairo. There are, well, there's quite a bit of debate about this.

Some of them are certainly older, just like they're older than Abraham, even Abraham's period of time. But some of them date to the late, I think it's called the second kingdom period. So there would have been some around. Yes. Yeah, there would have been some around? Yes. Yes.

Yeah, there would have been. Yep. And... Isn't it a Poresso city? Oh yeah. Pitham and Vramsa's were known store cities. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, this period of Egyptian history is the same dynasties as the great pyramids.

Yeah. And this finks. And, yeah, it's one of the great ancient nations not an empire They try to be an empire didn't work out But Egypt is the first biblical portrayal of a huge nation state with national interests That begins to absorb and destroy other people groups in the name of its divine. Some protection. Yeah, all that.

So then the conflict is set up then. We have the God who wants to bless all the nations through the family of Abraham. But the family of Abraham is enslaved to the new Babylon, the king of Egypt, what's God gonna do? Yeah. He's gonna open up a can. Well, actually, no Egypt, what's God gonna do? Yeah. He's gonna open up a can. Well actually, no first, he's gonna invite Pharaoh to...

Yeah. To humble himself, let my people go. Yeah. 10 times actually. Yeah. I mean, I know modern readers, we read the Exodus plagues as like, whoa. Yeah, chill out, God. Chill out, God.

Ancient readers would read it and go, oh my gosh, he gave 10 chances. So he gave Pharaoh 10 chances. Yeah. And each time Pharaoh resists, and the story is building up this tension between the kingdom of Babylon, Egypt, and the kingdom of God.

Yeah. And so it all leads up to the last act. It's interesting to think about like if you think about God as the true world empire or the true world like Emperor or something. Yeah, the King of the Nations, the true power. There's some dictator who's oppressing a people group and creating genocide and the world-powered Combs and says hey, would you please stop? Then gives them a warning. Yes, and then comes back the second time would you please stop?

Yeah, and this time you place a really harsh sanction. Yeah, and you do that and then finally you're like all right Now we're gonna come and invade and take over and it's gonna be gnarly. Yeah, that'd be pretty diplomatic. Yeah, you would expect them to come and just be like, be done. You're killing people. You're oppressive like this. You should not be in charge. Yeah, there's many modern equivalents. Equivalents or potential equivalents. Right. Right. Yeah, that's right. We would see 10 acts of diplomacy in the midst of a genocide as extremely generous. So I think we at least ought to be open-minded to read the story more from that perspective, I think, as modern readers. But nonetheless, Pharaoh resists, and so it all leads to this last conflict of Passover and then the defeat of Pharaoh and his armies in the Red Sea.

So Passover memorializes the last plague, the death of the firstborn. And that's the plague that got Pharaoh to repent. That's the one that got Pharaoh to repent, at least long enough for the Israelites to all escape. But what's interesting is Passover is memorialize the story to stops, comes with screeching halt. And this is where the word day, in that phrase day of the Lord, begins life.

Because Passover is a day. It was a day when some mysterious form of plague or something went through Egypt in the course of 24 hours. And the Israelites, or anybody, was invited to enter a house covered with the blood of the Passover lamb on the door. And you'd detect it. And then that meal was ritually re-enacted every year

now for thousands of years. And so in XIXth- 13, this is all in act. It says, most of the said to the people, remember this day that you went up out of Egypt from the house of slavery for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of this place, so do the meal. So Passover is to remember the day of the Lord. Remember the day of the Lord on Egypt. Yeah. And I won't give a long list, but as you read through in the rest of the Old Testament,

the day of Egypt or the this day of what God did to Egypt is referred to in these phrases as the day or the days that you came up out of Egypt. This moment in time when God confronted is... Is it ever referred to as the day of the Lord or just the day? No, just the day. The day. Yeah. But it's the first place that this concept of a day when God confronted human evil on a huge level and brought down the oppressor. So when Jesus celebrates Passover and says, this is about me and my death, then is he

saying his death in some way is a day of the Lord? Yeah, yes, absolutely. Yeah, it's a part of the Matrix of ideas connected to the day of the Lord. It's God's judgment coming on a day. Yep, but it's God toppling the evil empires to rescue the innocent and to bring his kingdom. Yeah, Passover is about it's a liberation festival about the kingdom of God. Yeah, but coming to the feet evil. But in the case of Jesus, it didn't take down an oppressive empire. It took down, it took down Jesus.

Yes, but Jesus believed he was taking down something even more mysterious that is underneath all the evil empires. Yes. All of sin and death, which is the Cain Revolution, Genesis 4. Sin is crouching at humanity's store, wanting to devour it, and you must overcome it. And of course, he manages never does. And so, but we'll get there. But you're right, Jesus chooses Passover

for a very important symbolic set of reasons to unpack what he was about to do. So Passover is the day, but also in the narrative that follows about the armies of Pharaoh getting destroyed by the waters is also called the day. So in the story itself, after it happens, the narrator pipes up in Exodus 14, verse 30, and says, Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. In Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore, Israel saw the great power that the Lord used

against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, they believed in the Lord and in a servant Moses. So these are two separate days, actually. So Passover was a couple days ago. Then they split from their cities and now they're out at the shores of the Reed Sea. So technically it's two different. The Red Sea. What did you just say? Oh, I said the Reed Sea. Where's that? What's that mean? Well, this gets into big debate about where exactly that Israelites, what body of water they

cross, so on. But the actual Hebrew name to talk about the body of water is not the red sea. The red sea. Just threw that in there. The red sea. Yamsuath is the Hebrew phrase. The sea of the reads. So the Passover is the day of the 10th plague. So that's referred to as the day.

Yeah. So already in this story of the Exodus story, there's two days that just are called the day. And so it's kind of conflated later as just the day. Correct. But originally there was the Passover day, there was the day they went through the Red Sea, the Reed Sea. That's right.

And the passage through the sea where evil armies were defeated. So that's an example of you're looking at the mountain range. You don't really distinguish the two valley. The two separate foothills. Foothills. But both are the day. On the pathway leading up to the great day. And so this is the first time where God acting in history is described as the day.

And so this is the, if you think of a flower pot, if the fruit and flower is the full day of the Lord in the book of Revelation or something, this is the seed in the flower pot that you plant of this day becomes the archetypal defeat of evil among the Babylon's of this world. Yeah. Which is why. They're called to repeat and reenact the story every single year to keep it alive in their memory. That's why Moses says it wasn't just your ancestors that were delivered out of Egypt, it was you. Every generation. It's part of your story. Yeah. Yeah. So then what's significant is the people famously sing a song of praise, the first worship song, the Israel sings to God. It's called the song of the Sea in Exodus chapter 15, and at the beginning, the opening of the

poem and the closing of the poem is significant for the day of the Lord theme. So it opens up. The poem said, the Moses and the sons of Israel sang the song to the Lord. I will sing to the Lord. He's highly exalted. The horse and and rider he's hurled into the sea, the Lord's my strength, my song, he has become my salvation. This is my God. I'll praise him. My father's God, I'll extol him. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name. Modern readers, we kind of freak out about this, but this is a really common Old Testament image of God as a warrior. But a warrior for what purpose? And this story defines what it means for God to be a warrior. It's God rescuing the innocent from the evil empire, essentially.

God's identity for Israel is the God who brought us up out of Egypt. He's the God who looked at the oppressed slaves and rescued them from the evil powers. And the poem concludes then with you will bring the people that you've purchased. You'll plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place you've made for your dwelling, the sanctuary that your hands have established, and the last line to the poem is, the Lord reigns as king forever and ever. So this whole exodus story is about the kingdom of God.

It's about God confronting and defeating evil in its tracks, rescuing the oppressed and bringing his kingdom over the nations. And that's what this is about. The Day of the Lord. When you were talking about warrior, who's making me think of, I was gonna look it up, cause I can't think of the name right now, but there's that, there's this book, there's a series of books about this guy

who's just kinda like this rogue, ex-military dude, who just comes and like, fixes problems and brings justice. But he's like kind of above the law, apart from a lot, Tom Cruise plays him, and brings justice. But he's like kind of above the law, apart from a Tom Cruise plasm, and the movie. Sounds like my favorite comic book character growing out. Oh, who's that?

The Punisher. The Punisher totally. Punisher's kind of dark. Yeah, oh, that's why I think that's why I like that. But this character is total like hero. Full on hero. He's not an anti hero. He's not an anti hero.

Got it. But he's like, I always thought of him as like the writer on the white horse kind of like hero. Like I'm gonna come and I'm gonna just dispense justice finally, it's just gonna happen. Yeah. And he's a warrior, but like you're stoked that he is because he comes in and he, it's a positive image.

He, yeah, when he goes to war Like he's taking care of what needs to be taken care of and you're rooting for him. Yeah Which you know, we still so we still have that that that parent we do yeah, there are some but there's such a reaction against it Warrior imagery There are some, but there's such a reaction against it, warrior imagery, especially in Western Christian culture that's comfortably middle class or upper class. Yeah, we really struggle. Yeah, we don't wanna see war.

The divine warrior image. Oh, right. Well, I think that that's a warrior. That's more about though when God tells Israel to like go and take over certain people, they're just so. Correct, yeah. So that's right.

We heard it out by that. Totally. And that's tough stuff, but. But the idea of someone coming to rescue the innocent, the oppressed, we love that. That's also like every male Gibson movie, right? Yeah. You know, like, Mill Gibson movie, right? Yeah. You know, like, it's just kind of like,

I'm gonna come, he just did a new one, some are something of father, something of father. It's actually pretty good. And he's just rescuing his daughter the whole time. I guess like, just people like these drug wards. And he just take care of business. And it's just like the quintessential Mill Gibson warrior movie. Yep. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it's like the plot Jack Reacher That's it. That's the name of that. Wow

Yeah, but it's worth yeah, it's worth making the point that they're the the the warrior story who rescues the innocent is a really important motif in the human experience. And the Israel story of the Exodus, again, the prophets, the biblical authors, want us to see that that's a part of God's character. God is for the oppressed. If the Exo story means anything, it's that God notices the cry of the innocent. We can get behind that sentiment. And he's that work in history to bring down...

When you think of a warrior who that's there and goal, you can root for that warrior. And that's the kind of warrior that Jack Reacher is, that Tom Cruise plays, and that typically, the Millgip's and movies called Bloodfather. That's kind of what these that kind of warrior. But it does raise the question about the use of violence for that purpose. And this is where the story of,

I'm so personally grateful for the story of Jesus. Because Jesus, because he's that kind of warrior. He is that kind of warrior, but he specifically and explicitly rejects violence as it means to overcome evil. And many people see that at odds with the Old Testament. God is a warrior and evil.

But as we're going to see, even in Israel's story, Israel was called to a same kind of rejection of the military option in many, in most cases, and that Jesus was amplifying that, just turning up the volume on that theme. Yeah, that's interesting, because Jesus is that warrior, but the way he wars against...

The way that he wages war. Wages war is, yeah. Is sacrificial. Just to let himself be conquered by the evil empire He's confronting yeah, that's not what Jack Richard does Jack Richard The Punisher or the funnister or any any hero any warrior This one makes the Jesus story so amazing. We have we have those characters They're not warriors. No they're not noble death.

But their death is seen as their of a noble defeat, whereas the New Testament is trying to say, Jesus's death and resurrection is his victory. His yielding to the violence of Rome and his Jewish contemporaries is his victory. And that's a novelty in the Jesus story that I am really proud to associate myself with because it's upside down and inspiring. But again, the seeds of it are so in right here where God is for the oppressed.

So next is 15. This is a song they sing having been rescued. Yeah. And in the song, they say the Lord is a warrior. Yeah. He went to battle for us. Yep. Yeah.

And he reigns as king forever and ever. And that battle is the day. That battle is remembered and described and memorialized in the Passover as the day. The day. So it's not? The day, God the warrior took care of business and settled score and rescued us from oppression. So that we could live in freedom under his rule, that's the day of the Lord. This is the basic outline of that concept of the day of the Lord in the story right here. And the bad guy is Egypt, aka Babylon.

Babylon, yeah. So the whole biblical storyline right there, it'll go through some more cycles of who becomes the newest Babylon. There's many iterations of Babylon. And the way that God's a warrior and defeat Seval, that'll develop. Because there's what? There's a Syria. There's... Babylon. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of kinds of bad guys. Yeah.

In the Old Testament. And Israel themselves become God's enemy and the bad guy. They become a type of Babylon. Yep, yeah. Thanks for listening to the Bible Project podcast. Next week, day of the Lord, part three will continue this conversation. There's new videos going up on our YouTube channel.

You can go and check that out at youtube.com slash the Bible project. And you can say hi to us on Twitter at join Bible Proj and on Facebook, Facebook.com slash join the Bible project. Thanks for being a part of this with us. 1 ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ � you