Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1091 | Jase Accuses Al of Being Bougie with His Raccoons & Exploring the Bible’s R-Rated Book

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Jase takes the guys on a wild but relevant detour from John into one of the Bible’s most graphic, R-rated texts to show how its visions connect to Jesus, the temple, and the presence of God. Al and Lisa’s new cat named Linda accidentally invites a nightly raccoon buffet, forcing them to get creative with a solution.  Zach gets roasted for his “van dad” lifestyle, a growing fleet of used vehicles, and his unmistakable used car salesman energy. In this episode: John 3, verses 3-10; Ezekiel 36-37; Ezekiel 47, verses 1-24; Ephesians 2, verses 21-22; Revelation 2, verses 21-11; Revelation 21, verses 1-2, 22-27 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. I'm still down here in my box, I call it, from the southern layer. Zach's coming to us from North Carolina. Jace is there in the headquarters of Duck Commander. Right there, Chase. With the thumbs up, if you're watching. And the fire in the background. He's got a very nice fire that creates quite the ambiance. A little fire, a little coffee machine.

I told you this before we had the fire. It's 85 outside, 65 in here. Thus, we have the fire. Maybe 55. Well, we're trying to keep the germs down there, Jay. Get the germs down. I've got some great news for you, Al. What's the great news?

Jill and I, we booked our vacation. And by the way, we did use the hayjack.com and got quite. Yeah, you've been talking about that. But I'm coming to your area. where we're coming. We're coming down to see you. We've saved quite a bit of money on that, but we're going to be down there hanging out in your neck of the woods, really soon. Yeah, you're going to be on the other side of the lagoon. So I can go out on my dock and give you smoke signals, Zach, and you can see me across the way. Yeah, you got it ready for me.

Well, look, I've had an interesting thing you're going to have to look out for it. So, Jace, you'll be interested in this as well, especially how we grew up. So we got a cat. I got, I hadn't had a cat and, well, I guess my adult life, but I found a little, do you have mice? Well, there are a few mice. But here's why I really got the cat, because I had, I found a little, as soon as we moved into this place, a little baby copperhead. Oh. That I killed out right by my carport. And so I thought, you know, I need a, I need a snake and mice killer.

And there's nothing better than the one guy created, and that's the cat. And so I had my old house, I had a cat lady that lived across the street. She likes to rescue cats. And then she has them fixed. And then she gives them to people. So we got a couple of them. When I'm ran off because they're a little bit wild. But when I'm stayed, her name is Linda.

And that was the name when I got her. I never had a cat named Linda. It sounds like somebody's ex-wife, but it's just what stuck. You know, so. Yeah. So that's a weird cat name. Well, everybody named Linda at this point is probably offended by the come in. You're either a cat or an ex-wife.

Sorry, Linda's. Sorry all you Linda's out there. I didn't mean to disparage you. But Linda is not a cat name. I mean, that is not. That may be the most human name I've ever heard. I mean, that's a human name. Well, it was so odd that it's stuck that like now she's Linda and she comes to

Linda. She actually understands her. I think our dad would say right now that you pretty well gone yuppified. Oh, no. It's going to get worse. Chase. By the end of this story, you're going to, I will fully agree with that. Let me. I can ask one question that will tell me how bad it's gotten. Is the cat an inside cat or outside cat or a combo? It's not inside because we don't, we don't have animals

inside of the house because they shed too much. I'm allergic. I got issues with that. But, but my house, the way it's framed is I've got a cover over the back end of it, you know. And so it sort of feels like you're inside, even though you're outside. So the cat lives in that area, but it is outside the house. But here's what happened. So they put a little doggy door, which I guess we would call it a cat door, into one of the outside doors because the cat won't go in the litter box in her area. She likes to go outside, which I'm like, okay, and I get it. That's natural. So we put the little door in there. What we didn't think about was I'm at a little bit of an isolated area as much as you can get down near them.

I got a little bit of woods on both sides of my house. And so all of a sudden, we start seeing these dirt tracks all around the cat thing and this out of food. And I was like, well, something's getting in here. Yep. And we figured the doggy door? Through the doggy door. And I said, I don't know what it is.

It's a small animal. Small animal. And so we started looking at the cameras. Well, it was a raccoon, our friend, the raccoon, which, By the way, Zach, I've discovered that a raccoon is just a baby bear. They get into everything. They'll eat anything. They love your trash.

They love cat food, apparently. Yeah. So Lisa, you know, I said, I don't know, you know, this now we got, we got the cat to keep the pest out. Well, now we got raccoons coming to eat the cat food. So we got a dilemma. And so Lisa got a trap. Stone had a trap to catch raccoons. And so she, so she and BKs, BK's down here.

they set out to be the raccoon catchers. And I just kind of stood, but they never asked for my help, so I didn't offer any other than a couple of little tips because, you know, raccoons are pretty smart. So they started going in when they set this trap up where they're reaching through the bars and eating the food. They're not going to get in there at first. You got to make it where the only way in is the is the trap. Yeah. And so we found out. It's like a walk-in trap.

Like a walk-in trap. And so we find out it's not one. coon, it's three coons. And they're coming in every night. Well, so night before last, we caught the first one. And he's been relocated to a preserve, you know, in the area. Boy, this is a really yuppie story. Well, this is why I was telling you.

It's very yuppie. And then the second one we got last night, he's out there right now waiting to be transported by my buddy, Eddie. I feel like, I feel like this is like a version of like someone who was a Christian and left their faith. I mean, you're relocated. Yeah. What would Phil say if he...

I mean, I'm just telling me, this is what's happening. What would your own father say if he knew you were relocated? You know what you should have done is called old Chad, right, because he's a big coon hunter. I know it. And then you can say, I'm letting the coon out now and have him, you know, try to... Well, that's, you know, my buddy, Eddie used to be a coo. He grew up in North Alabama, so he was a coon hunter. He's handling the re-loan hunter.

location process. But I told us today the pest guy was here and we were talking about it because he was like, is that a coon in that trap? And I said, yeah, my wife's catching coons around here. And I said, you know, there was a way we used to handle this back in the day on the river. I said, but I'm civilized now. I'm living here in town. I got neighbors around me and says, we're relocating to a land far, far away. So we're going to see what happens. We're two down, one to go. But I thought you would like the story, Jay's, because it really does show how to domesticated my whole situation. Well, you're actually doing that cat a favor because I actually saw a raccoon and a cat get in a fight.

I was not a part of it in any way. I just saw it happen. And yeah, it didn't last long and the cat lost. Well, you know, raccoons, though, you're here's your, you kind of are eliminating the natural predator to the copperhead. Raccoons will kill snakes. They will or won't? They will. They will.

are snakes. You can't live with a raccoon. I agree with you. You got to get rid of them. I mean, they are. Yeah, because they can't, I mean,

like we can't function together. They're coming in. They're making it huge mess. Like, really, they carry all kinds of diseases. Oh, rabies,

yeah. And you talk about stink. You know, you don't get around a raccoon very often, but I guess bears are the same way. He smells like a trash pile. Like you do it. Well,

you look at what they eat. I look at the, here's the difference, though, for those of you who don't live in bear country, I think everybody probably lives in a raccoon country. But the bear, here's the difference between a bear and

a raccoon. A raccoon will get in your trash. They're going to get in your trash. But they're like, they're very chaotic in the way that they just like, I mean, it's like everywhere. A bear's a little different. He's very surgical. Like he takes his claw

and he comes and he opens it up. He picks around what he wants. Now they'll drag, They'll drag your trash, like, the whole bag, like, through the yard. But they're not like, it's not like a chaotic scene. It's like a very surgical precision. They know what they want. They're going to get it. They don't like it.

They move on. Yeah. But they're scavengers nonetheless. Well, that's what's happening down here in my domesticated world. Well, I'll be down there. I'm going to come down. Jill and I got the whole crew coming. Bring some traps for out.

I'll bring some traps. How can that's fun? We are staying in one of these condos. you know, these beach condos that has the golf cart to come right around a little town with it and all that. So we'll be down there. Are you coming in Jill's

party bus? We're going to bring the party bus. Oh, you should see this thing, Jay's. Uh, Jill is dry. I've seen it. I've seen it. It's a jam. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's like a big, like,

bus and I pulled up at the Willie's event that they were doing with Sadie and Willie's like I got out and he was like I saw when I saw that man come in I thought what idiot is driving that man he said then you got out he said I said that all makes sense it needs to be your retirement package so when the kids grow up and leave and all you can put some disco lights in it and then you can be a chauffeur that's for parties and all They call it the party bus. Back in the day, when we were riding around going to events and vehicles and things like that, remember, there were a couple of those with the neon lights inside.

And, you know, it was quite the ride. The whole family would get in the thing. The minivan blew up. And so then I had to buy a new van. So she wanted the big van that the whole family could ride in. So I bought the big van. And then that was two months ago. And then yesterday, she said, I found a Volvo for,

like $4,000, I want to see if I can get it just to drive around town. So now we got, we're looking at buying a $4,000, $2,016 Volvo. So that's the around town car. And then my truck is in the shop, obviously. Oh, update. Uh-oh. Update. We swerved into an update.

Yeah, Jace, you were right. Of course, you were going to be right either way, but the truck was not totaled. they're going to fix it. So no total. Your initial... What are you talking about? I was right either way. I was right the right way.

I said... Well, what you said... The truck is not total. You said the truck is not totaled, but they'll probably total it. So you were going to be right either way. Just because somebody writes it down, I was just being honest.

The truth was it wasn't total. I didn't say that there couldn't be a lie from some other interest. I was trying to make a spiritual application. The truth is not total. I was expecting something much worse. Yeah, not total. So a good transition here is that, Jace, you said at the beginning of the podcast, I want to hear about it.

You said you did a deep dive into the prophet Ezekiel. I did do a deep dive because we keep going back there. We're in John. We're talking about these living waters flowing out. And there's this flood in Ezekiel that we read. I think we read it, some of it. Yeah, we did. Zach referenced that Ezeko 47, 1 through 12.

Yeah. And there's other times we've referenced because it's talking about this water flowing from the temple. Well, Al will know this. You know, my parents came to the Lord. They started a little church when we were wilderness people, which everything Al said about the Coons is completely embarrassing to help we are. Oh, I'm embarrassed to tell it, Jay. I know why you didn't call me now.

I was never going to call anybody. Yeah. And to finish Zach's story, he, you know, Zach, he's got used car salesman tendencies. So I think maybe this conglomeration of vehicles that you're assembling could be another way for you. It does look like that. Career pathwise, can you see that? You know, energy, I'm telling you now, this thing here will. You may be right.

I do enjoy, like, trading. But I think it's because early in my career, and by early, I mean, like, in my 11-and-12-year-old days, I had a lot of cousins that would take advantage of me when it came to trading baseball cards and things like that. one of my cousins on this y'all side of the family I gave him a Pete Rose and he gave me a mokey Wilson these are these are people who played baseball yeah and every time I traded people may not know I came out on the losing end of it so I figured you know so this for me this is like if I trade uh if I'm in the car

rome mookie if it had been mooky vats it might have been a good trade Well, I have two words, three, if you want to count the contractional aspect of it. You're welcome. Thank you. I appreciate it. But back to Ezekiel, because actually I am excited to hear. Because I love where you, like, you were getting me fired up. We're like, anytime before the podcast starts, if we're getting like too excited.

Yeah, I was excited about it. Say it for the podcast because we want to capture that. Well, I was back to what I was saying. I got sidetracked on the used car salesman bit. Well, and just, by the way, before you leave that totally, the audience knows because when Zach does our ad reads, the deeper in the ad he gets, the faster he goes. If that's not a car salesman, I don't know what is. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think I've given you another voice of truth that

probably you didn't want to hear your first reaction. Wait a minute. I'm not a user. I'm the one trying to talk about the profit of Zecchio. you guys were wanting to take it somewhere else. I mean, let's go. You noticed, though, I thought about it for a second, and he's like, well, I do cut a language.

At first I was offended, then I was like, do you know, Jays, how many houses that Zach and Jill lived in when they lived in Munro and West Monroe, Louisiana? You don't have to convince me that I'm right. He has used car salesmen. He's just in a place of denials. So bad. I want to beg the audience not to live.

listen to this, not to believe it, not to repeat it. It's not true. No, there's truth in there. So when I... I mean, I get tired of going to house. Like, they say, you know, Zach and too have a new home. I was like, yeah, this is the third one this year. I'm not going to anymore. Look at my homes. To be fair, the home we live in now, we've lived in for like, I think seven years, which is the longest we've never lived in a home. So we're, we're making this worse. You're making it worse. It's over. We all know it. It'll just take it about Ezekiel.

I want to talk about the prophet Ezekiel. Well, I was going to say about my grant, this is interesting. I don't think I've ever said this before. But so when my parents, they started this little church out in the woods, well, at some point, which my grandpa, interesting story here, he said very few words out loud. Would you agree with that out? He was a man of few words.

He talked the most to you and I Because we played cards and dominoes with them when we were kids But outside of me and you No, I never I mean I could say that the I could I don't remember A conversation with my own grandfather really Yeah Yeah I don't have a memory of that

I mean Missy said she she never heard him speak So just think about that's quite a statement So anyway we were going there for a few years well, all of a sudden, you can imagine the shock when my grandpa volunteers to preach. And I thought, as he lost his mind? I mean, like, he waited 70 years and he's coming out. What's interesting about it, and, you know, it wasn't the most dynamic speaker in the world. No, it was not.

But what was interesting about his preaching career is he mainly preached out of one book. Yep. Which was a book at that stage of my life I had never read, and it was the book of Ezekiel. Yep. And look, I don't know if then's the last time you read Ezekiel, but it's eye-popping. There's imagery.

There's a lot of symbolic language. Oh, you get to Ezekiel 23. It's, I mean, it's some of those graphic. Chapter 1, he sees this vision, and there's just, you know, throne, and there's four-faced creatures and coming up. But so anyway, there have been a lot of, as we've gone through John, there's been a lot of going to Ezekiel saying, look, this is Jesus fulfilling a lot of these things written to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel. And it just kept coming up. So I was like, well, maybe I should just read this thing and get an overview.

you. And so I got an aide in, I listened to the Bible recap that, remember the famous Who is Mackey? They did. Yeah. One of my favorite cold opens of all time of the Unisjay podcast, when dad was that, who's Mackey? Speaking of Tim Mackey from the Bible Project, if you went there for that episode, Phil was, I mentioned him and feels like, hey, uh-uh. Well, it was in, it was in our internal notes. I said, Jace is going to comment on Mackie's outline. And that was not for the audience.

That was just for you guys. And dad was like, I want to know who's Mackey. He would not get off. He thought we were bringing in another like spurious Bible document. Oh, right. Phil's perspective was don't add anything to or take away anything written in the words of this prophecy. What is that? Revelation, you know, it says.

Or the curses. describe will be added to you or however it's phrasing. I do want to have Mackey at some point on this podcast because I can't wait to tell him that story. He may not come on when I say what I want to say. Well, I thought it was really good. But, and I get it, you know,

he's kind of recap something that a lot of religious people disagree with conclusions of and mostly about the temple. So I wish he would have just said, you know, here's what I think, because I know how he thinks, based on other

messages I've heard. But he kind of, at the end of this synopsis, he kind of gave the different views. Like some people believe in there's a literal temple that's going to be built back. More than so. Yeah, a lot of people. They call the end of the days or whatever. So he gives all the views, but, you know, I'm not going to get into all that. Look, if you disagree with me, disagree with me. But the reason that I'm bringing this up is because, you know, when you go back to John 3 and remember when he was having the conversation with Nicodemus. Yeah.

Who comes up again in chapter 7, where we're at. Yep. But that's where he introduces this thought about being, you know, born of water and the spirit. And it's like no one, this terminology is important because it's like no one can see the kingdom. Yeah. Unless he's born again. Well, they're, from an Israel's perspective, it's like, well, they think there's a coming king called the Messiah. you know, from God, they're, they're waiting for this.

Remember, he then says, you can't enter this kingdom unless you're born a water and the spirit. And then verse 10, you know, chapter 3 is like, you're Israel's teacher. And then you have John the Baptist come on the scene. And he even says in verse, what is that, 34, name of my glasses, says the one, he gives the spirit without limit. You know, this Holy Spirit is coming up. Well, there's a section in Ezekiel 36 and 37 that we referred to about this new spirit coming forth later.

So even in chapter four, remember, it's like you talking about this worshiping on the mountain in Jerusalem. The spirit and truth. Yeah. Yeah, and he gets the spirit and truth. Verse 24. God is Spirit So this thing keeps happening

And I'm just doing this off the top of my head But so you fast forward And get to seven when he says this If anyone's thirsty Let him come to me and drink Whoever believes in me As the scripture has said Streams of Living Water will flow from within him

Well there's just this glaring Passage in Ezekiel That's talking about him seeing this water flowing out So having said all that That's just kind of the connection there. And remember in John 1 when he said, he came to that which his own, yet his own, did not receive him. Well, who's he talking about?

Yeah. Israel. He was talking about Israel. They didn't receive him. And remember when he said, talking about having the right to be born of God, it's like it's not based on a husband's decision or, you know, a geographical location. So it's all over the place.

is what I'm saying. And even, Jay's you brought up Nicodemus, which is interesting because Nicodemus, remember, who is one of Israel's

leaders on the Sanhedron, Pharisee, and he says to these leaders at the end of chapter seven, which is where we're

at, he says, shouldn't we hear the guy out? Like, aren't we supposed to at least listen before we

decide we're just going to kill him and get rid of it? I mean, so that's a good point too, because we hear

the word Pharisee and we automatically associate that with Bruda the vipers and all the imagery that Jesus was painted, but not all of the Pharisees were bad. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodina.

So there were some people, some Pharisees that received Jesus as Lord. That's right. I have to confess, I actually said, because I've, you know, Pharisees,

if you live for Jesus, Pharisees will find you out. I mean, modern day, they're coming. They just can't help themselves. But, and back in my immature days, what I didn't just share Jesus

and just leave it at that. when I felt like I had to add a little comment. I said that before. I'm like, look, if you're going to be a Pharisee, because now I'm subconsciously telling them, pretty doubtful that's going to change. Be a Nicodemus. Of course, they weren't even offended

because they didn't know what I was talking about. Like a back end. That's a good line, though. That's a pretty good line. Some people just have legalistic tendencies. And I'm like, okay, that's okay. Let's just be like, geez, At least be curious.

And then be Nicodemus being like Jesus. Yeah, that's your read up on Nicodemus. Y'all thought it's funny. I've said that before, but I quit using that. So, let me, y'all can help me, because look, I only, I mean, this thing is like, this little Bible recap. And now, I've read the whole book, but, so between me reading, which took 20, 30 minutes, and the little recap, which was like two parts, it was like 12 minutes.

Here's what I jotted down. So Ezekiel, this was written at the time of the Babylonian captivity. They come in there, took over the city of Jerusalem. Now, they didn't destroy the city at this time, when Ezekiel at this point, but they come in there and they take it over, and then they led some of the Israelites into captivity. Now, here's what's interesting. Ezekiel was part of the captivity.

Yep. And he finds himself in exile, sitting on the bank of a stream. Look, you're going to pick up on all this terminology. And, you know, he was depressed, you know why? Because it was his 30-year-old birthday, which I didn't know this until I heard this. By the way, that's your son. Yep. Which in the Israel world was when you qualified to be a priest.

So he's sitting here. But look, when did Jesus start his ministry? 30 years old. Yeah. What did he become for humanity? The Savior of the world. Yeah. And our high priest, you know.

And I think it's interesting because here he's in exile. So God is using him to write this imagery through the Holy Spirit and this story of Israel and the future results of it. on a guy who couldn't become priest because he's in exile in captivity. Yeah. And he's sitting by a stream. So that's how it starts.

Will you see any connections there? I mean, so the first thing he does is he sees this vision of a man on a throne like God riding a throne and had the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. From what y'all read, now look, if you look at all the symbolic, it's a cloud, there's faces, their creatures, but it's a appearance of a man on a throne coming on a cloud. Well, where does your mind go there?

Son of man. Son of man, Daniel 7, the Messiah is coming. So then you break down the chapters. He sees this, because that's going to come up again later in the book. So 1 through 11, you have all these accusations against Israel. They broke the covenant. They rebelled. they had hard hearts

they desecrated the temple because they bowed down to other gods and so God leaves the temple but he doesn't abandon Israel so he has a little message of hope there in chapter 11 that he's going to get to later in the book but what I did find interesting is like in chapter 4 and 5

he gives all these signs kind of like Jesus would be given signs but these are more like skits where he would do one man skits and they're pretty graphic and like I mean like one of them he was laying there like doing this image where like he was roasting a meal but the fire he was using was actually poop and just given a sign that this is how far Israel has fallen you know there there were other signs like they're pretty graphic yeah Ezekiel is a, I would argue, the most graphic book in the Bible. There is some imagery in there that is, I mean, shocking.

Like stuff that like, I've always wanted to preach on Ezekiel 23, but I'm like, man, can you imagine like the language in there is so graphic that it, I mean, it'll shock you if you go read it. Yeah. So one through 11 accusations against Israel, which were all true. They were unfaithful. Yeah. And even though God's presence. like I said, and he was like, I'm going to bring judgment on this activity because of all the accusations I just read all. He didn't leave them in totality. He did plant a seed of hope early on.

So then 12 through 24, the chapters, you have the judgment that's coming on Israel. Even though there he did promise some hope in 11, it's like, here's what's going to happen. And what's, Interesting is Ezekiel, during this pronouncements of all these judgments, acts like a lawyer. Well, who does that remind you of? Jesus. Exactly. So in chapters 14, 18, and 20, which is what led me to go to do the whole review of Ezekiel,

it's so crazy how those three chapters alone addresses Israel's perspective, and this didn't seem fair. They're like, well, why is God? There's a whole section in chapter 18, which is really beautiful about saying that God is not just cursing you because of what your fathers did or their fathers did. You know, he's like, no. And he actually ends that chapter by saying the God and Father, Ezekiel says, God gets no pleasure out of anyone's death. I mean, it's a very profound statement. But anyway, he...

Which reminds you, Jay, so that Second Peter three comment from Peter that he doesn't want anyone to perish. And it also immediately brought up pictures to me of other defense attorneys. You think about Abraham when he was, you know, trying to save Sodom and Omar. You think about Moses, trying to save the people in Israel that were murmuring and complaining. I mean, there's always been these righteous men of God that have tried to stand in the gap for for people and all that's a reflection of the ultimate attorney which is Jesus which I love. Interesting you bring that up because look I did not know this was in Ezekiel and 12 through 24

he in the pronouncing the judgment he actually makes a statement several times he's like even if Noah Daniel and Job were here he would still judge you I mean it's like I didn't know other writers I don't know how I missed that before I don't know if all knew that, but it's pretty interesting. Yeah. He says it about four or five times. He's like, even if Daniel Job and Noah were here, guess what? Judgment's coming.

Because they were bowing down to other aisle. They were doing obscene things, you know, with other humans. So then he gets to 25 through 32, which is judgment on the nations. So there's going to be three judgments. 12 through 24 is the judgment on Israel. 25 through 32 is judgment on the other nations. You're like, what? Yeah, the other nations, Gentiles included, who are bowing down to all these, you know,

gods, whether they're celestial falling gods or made up gods and all this chaos and evil. And so it's interesting because then chapter 33, he pronounces this judgment on Jerusalem itself. Now, part of the 25 through 32, he introduces the powers of darkness, which think about what we harp on the whole time. It's not just Israel's sin. It's not just the other nation's sin, but it's a collusion with idolatry. And then you have these dark powers. In Ezekiel, it calls them gag and my gag.

Magog. Yeah, that's what I mean. I say gag. Gog and Magog. And Magog. Yeah. There's that there's that imagery too of like the adultery of the two sisters. That's in there.

Yep, that's in there. And it's very, and what it does is it actually shows, I think it shows the, how desire can get corrupted by sin. And if you think back to the original creation of man where he says to be fruitful and multiply, have dominions subdue the earth. it's a corruption of sexuality to where you actually see it. He fast-forwards the entire story of the two adulterous sisters and how they lusted after the Assyrian warriors. And it gives graphic detail about that. But then it says you see their end. And the way that Ezekiel paints the picture, it's kind of interesting because he paints it at first with the way he describes these two sisters.

It's like they're attractive. You can kind of like feel the attraction as you're reading the text. and then they just move into their licentiousness. And as it's full grown, they end up being the victims of the very thing that they lusted after. They were brutally murdered in the end. And it's very graphic text. But it's like, this is sin. This is our story.

I was going to get you to define licentious. Licentiousness. But then I thought, probably the only way to define it was. be, define it would be rated R. But, uh, that's how I didn't. But just, it's bad. Take it, take it, take it for months. It's bad things.

What, I, I, I usually go to the Romans one where it says they invent ways of doing evil. Yeah. Yeah. So, are y'all keeping up with where I'm, I'm almost done? Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so then here's the good part. So just to review, if you're just now, you know, if you need a little simpler version.

So you have Ezekiel the property, he's on the bank of the stream, should be a property, but he's in captivity. One through 11 is these are the accusations against Israel. Because they had an arrangement with the Almighty God. They were married to God and they were unfaithful. And so then you have these judgments that are coming on Israel, 12 through 24, on the other nations, 2532, and the dark powers that are associated with fuel and that,

which started, by the way, in Genesis 11 when all the nations were divided and they all went to their own camps. And by the way, Jay, before you leave that, we've been saying all along that God has always viewed not just Israel, but the whole world. He's always been concerned about all of humanity.

Exactly. You're proving it with this point. Exactly. And then 33 Jerusalem itself. Now, here's the good stuff. If it ended there, you'd have a reason to be really sad in your faith or depressed or...

But then 34 through 48, you have, now listen to this, hope for Israel, because they're going to be judged, hope for the nations, they're going to be judged. And you have, even though it's not mentioned the word Jerusalem, you see this picture of a new city, a new Jerusalem, which is mentioned in the New Testament, which goes in. with new creation. So that's the 34 through 48. But if you break down each section, you have the 34 through 37, which is the new Israel. And guess how the new Israel is going to be formed? And when you read that, you'll find another phrase, a new David's coming. Well, who's that? The son of David. Jesus is coming. There you go. 34 through 37. New hearts are coming because of this new Messiah. Transformed people. Remember the verses that you'll get a new heart and new flesh. Well, then you have the valley of the dry bones. That's in there. That's actually talking about the Messiah

redeeming the new Israel and bringing them back to life. I mean, go read it. That's what it's talking about. I'm sure people will disagree. But I'm saying if you take this out of the context of Israel and just start applying it to random things, this is why. you get a lot of ill-advised conceptions of the nature of God. So I'm just, you know, look this up and see if what I'm saying is true. Then you have the Holy Spirit, you know, rattling the bones, new humans, new Israel, new creation, and actually new heaven and earth, a new perspective on humanity. This is all fascinating, good stuff, if it would only come true.

And it did. So then 38 and 39 is the hope for the other nations. So guess what goes on in hand and hand there? Because that was the second judgment. It's the defeat of the dark powers, all the violent earthly kingdoms there, all the vile stuff. That's where the Mog and, I mean, or whatever it is saying. Magog. Yeah, Magog and Gog.

So you get all those stories. That's very graphic there. Let's see. Anybody who was resistant to God's plan. And God defeats them. That's very clear. He defeats them four different ways. They're all graphic.

Which you think it doesn't make sense, but it's just like they keep coming. And guess what? God keeps winning. Think Revelation, because some of the same language is used in Revelation. You're welcome. So then the last section is 40 through 48,

which is hope for all creation. Here's the new city. then you get into the new temple, the new priest, the new altar, the new way to worship, the vision of the glory of God comes back to his throne, which goes back to the chapter one. When he saw the throne come, oh, well, he's here now. Jesus is back, and now you get the floodwaters that pouring into the dead sea. Life is teeming trees are growing up on the bank.

Transformation is happening. Streams of water, floods, living sea. Yeah, trees. And then it goes all the way to the end. Look, it starts giving the dimensions of this great city, kind of like Revelation. Yep. And then you know how all that ends? This new hope that we have for all of humanity.

Do you know what the last phrase in Ezekiel is? The Lord is there. Yeah, I want everybody to turn to their Bibles in Ezekiel. and look at those four words. They're all capitalized in mine. Are they in yours? Yeah. It says,

the Lord is there, which is the theme of the Bible. God wants to dwell with people. When I saw that, the Lord is there, I said, you know what? I mean,

it was about midnight last night. I said, I think we should do this for the podcast. Because, granted, there's a lot of symbols. Granted,

I had to sit down and write all that. down so we could get an overview. But don't miss the point. Yeah, you screwed up Israel. Yeah, there's evil powers and there's nations of all. There's no fear of God before their eyes. But I'm going to make it right.

There's going to be a judgment. And then look, then I'm coming. If you really want to completely change the way that you read the Bible, which I would say if you're not reading it this way, you should, if you read the Bible through that lens as the primary lens through which you interpret the scripture is it's a it's a hermeneutic which hermeneutic is just a word that's used in seminaries to talk about how we interpret the Bible we interpret the Bible through the lens of the presence of God the God is there and and when when you read that you didn't read all of it that that last section of Ezekiel that ends with the comment the Lord is there it's a description of the city and particularly it's a description of these gates that are that serve as the entrance and the exit to the city. And there's 12 gates. And if you read about the 12 gates, it kind of gets some description there, one on the east, one of the west, one on the north, one on the south, or actually three, three on the north, three gates on the north, three gates in the south, three in the east and three in the west, a total of 12, kind of symbolic of the 12.

of the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples, the 12 baskets of bread that were left over after the feeding of the 5,000. So you see that number 12 quite a bit. And then when you get to the end of the Bible in Revelation, you see the exact same picture. You see the gates. There's 12 gates. Three on the north. This is in Revelation 21.

Three on the south. Three on the east. Three on the west. And where this all coincides with the temple is, because everything is about what's the point of the temple. The point of the temple is that's where God's present. is. So God's in the city now. That's filled with that language in Ezekiel.

You can't get away from it. And when you read Deuteronomy, you find the same thing. That's why we went, I guess I should have done that for Deuteronomy. But, I mean, we read a few chapters. Because my whole point is the reason people get off into confusion is when you're not reading this story through the way at which it came, which was through the nation of Israel. and the promises. So people start getting confused when they take it out of context

and start getting into futuristic happenings without looking at what happened here is what I said. You said this earlier. You referenced Genesis 11. It initially came through Adam and Eve, and then Israel became the portion of once nations were created, that's when Israel came on the seam. And Israel's purpose was to make this known,

and be a light to the nations, which you actually see in the book of Revelation chapter 21. Do you see that accomplished when he says in verse 22, I didn't see a temple in the city? And here's the reason why. Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of the Temple, the city doesn't need sun or moon to shine on it. The glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is the lamp. And here's the line. The nations, all the nations that were created in Genesis chapter 11, the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of earth will bring their splendor to it. On no day will its gates,

the 12 gates that were in Ezekiel's vision, will they ever be shut? For there will be no night. The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, all the adulterous stuff, that's all gone. but only those names that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then you turn the very next page into Genesis 22, and then you get into the idea of the stream, you know, the river. There's the river. That's the river.

Right from me, Zecchio. I mean, it's just like it ripped off the pages. It's all right. It is ripped off the pages. I've said to people that I've argued with about the book of Revelation. I mean, number one, they usually say it's plural. You know, they're like, what do you feel about revelations? I was like, well, there's only one, and it was Jesus's. It's revelation.

Go look at it. I've had people literally call me and said, you know, you were right. I went back and look. It's revelation. There's no revelations. There's no book of revelations in the Bible. It's the book of revelation. Yeah, and it says in the first, second, or third verse there, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. Yeah.

Well, you think that's a minor point, but it's actually a major point, because when you When you add the S on there, then you're saying, hey, I've got some new stuff to add to this. But what I was going to say is two-thirds of the book of Revelation you can find in other biblical passages. It's like, it's not like people are shot. Well, a lot of it's Ezekiel and Daniel and these symbolic languages. I just gave you the synopsis of Ezekiel. Well, then if you didn't take that apple.

to the book of Revelation, well, you just lost the context. Why is he quoting Ezekiel's what I'm saying? And the picture, the picture that's helpful for me, because we all know this, if you want, like, if you want to be, if you're in a desert,

like the life's always going to be around the river. So you know, I've got to find the water. Let me find the riverbank. And so the picture is really helpful of this idea of the river, which Ezekiel's vision was it came out of the temple, which it did because it came out of the presence of God. And Eden, it came out of Eden and watered the garden.

Let me read this before you finish your statement. Therefore, what we're saying is we're the temple of the living God now, and I want to read Ephesians too, and then you finish your comment. It says, we've read this many times. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Christ, you too. are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Oh, that's, you know how huge that is too? Because there's something in what you just read that I think is a key under, that we have to get this. If you understand that the temple is, one, that it's built on the cornerstone of Jesus, two, that we are part of the temple. We are

living stones. Three, according to the text you just read, the temple is not a status. container. It is actually a container that is expanding and growing. It says we're growing into a holy temple. And the reason why that matters is if you remember when Jesus addressed the Pharisees about fasting, and they asked him, why don't your disciples fast, the disciples of John fast, the disciples of the Pharisees fast, why don't you, why don't your disciples fast? And Jesus said, you don't fast when the brideg rooms with you. That's a dumbest idea ever. And he says, you can't, pour new wine into old wine skins or they will burst. So if your container to hold the new wine of the kingdom is an old wine skin like that old temple, anything like that, it's not a growing temple.

Then eventually the spring that's in you, the Bible says is welling up to eternal life, woman at the well, John 4, eventually it's going to be a pressure cooker. Your container will not contain a spring that wells up to eternal life. So your temple structure needs to be a temple structure that is growing and expanding as the water continues. So the imagery in Revelation 22 is just that. The angel showed me the river of the water of life. As clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb down the middle of the

great streets of the city, on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And I love this line. And the leaves of the tree are the healing for the nations. What is that? Revelation 22 or 21? Revelation 22, 1 through 2. So it simply means the point is if Ezekiel was saying this was going to happen,

and it did in Christ, and the spirit was poured out, this happened. The nations, when Jesus said, go into all the world, preach the gospel, to all nations, baptizing. All this happened. Do you realize what that means when he said the Lord is there? That means the Lord is here. Yes. Well, and to prove Zach's point, the man who built the original temple, Solomon said when he built it, there's no way it can hold the presence and power of God. First Kings 8. He's dedicating the temple and literally is like, he's looking around what he built. He's like, wait a second. This will work. I mean, come on. Am I really going to house the creator of the cosmos?

Exactly. And that's kind of the rest of the Bible. The answer is like, no, you're not. But you kind of will in the end because you'll live in humans. It has to be expanding. And right before J.S. you read that text in Ephesians 2, he says, it's Jew and Gentile now together as a part of this expansion, which means all humanity.

And it's been under attack for 2,000 years, starting with the Romans. And every group, every despot, every dictator, everyone that's tried to stamp out the kingdom of God has failed because it continues to thrive and to grow and we're out of time amazingly. Well, the reason I wanted to do this and y'all indulge me is because we're going to get to John 8, but it makes more sense what happens in John 8 if you realize how the fellow Jews viewed the law and how this. So it's like you're giving the big picture and then they're just trying to use that as a

trap for Jesus and then he does something. No, I think it was a perfect Holy Spirit-led picture of that in where we are in the study because you're right. Otherwise, John 8 is going to be a harsh thing unless you realize what Jesus bases it in. So we'll hit that next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell

and choose all notifications to watch every episode.