Bible in A Year: Episode 20

Intro • 00:00
Welcome to Read the Bible in a Year with Matt and Hannah, a weekly podcast from Fairfax Bible Church where we explore scripture together, uncovering its themes and design patterns. We’re glad you’re here. Now, here are your hosts, Matt and Hannah.

Matt • 00:15
Okay, here we are. Episode 20. Episode 20, wow. We’ve been doing this a few weeks.

Hannah • 00:22
Yeah, that feels like a a nice uh milestone.

Matt • 00:26
I like, yeah, I like 20 It’s a round number. It’s it goes into a hundred. Twenty times five. I like twenty. Sure. Episode twenty.

Hannah • 00:35
Let’s make it a good one. Okay.

Matt • 00:36
Yeah. Well welcome everybody. It’s Read the Bible with Matt and Hannah. Now I have heard that some people are sort of jumping in midstream with this project. Oh. So I think we have some people that might be first-time listeners. on this podcast. So here’s the basic idea if you’re new with us. We are reading the Bible. We started on January 1st with Genesis 1-1. We’re going all the way to Revelation. Uh we’re going to finish that. We should be done somewhere around Christmas. Uh and so we read the Bible. Uh we use a plan called One Story That Leads to Jesus from our friends at the Bible Project. We do it day by day. We chatted up in the app and uh keep track of each other there. And then once a week, Hanna and I hop on this podcast and talk about fun stuff and themes and nonsense and other stuff. And we love it when you ask questions. And so if you have a question, there’s something you don’t understand or Just like, what’s the deal with so-and-so? Like, pop that in there because that is really fun for us to talk about and dig into. And we always learn something when you guys do that. So so we love that. Uh anything else that people need to know about our podcast, Hannah?

Hannah • 01:41
Uh no. We talk about coffee a lot.

Matt • 01:46
It’s actually a coffee podcast and we just we talk about the Bible too, but uh No. I’m going to Nashville this weekend to see my daughter and for my friend Ellie’s wedding. And yes, I already have some bougie coffee places uh picked out. So I’ll report back next episode. So great Cool. Well before we get into it, there’s there’s one little there’s something different I want to do uh to start off, but before we do that, why don’t you catch us up? Where are we and what’s the story so far?

Hannah • 02:11
Yeah, so we started Ezekiel last week, um, and he is in Babylon, in exile, and he’s called to proclaim the Lord’s judgments against the kingdom of Judah. And he participates in all these weird synacs that we talked about last week.

Matt • 02:30
Very performance art. Very yoko-ono, yes.

Hannah • 02:33
Right. Um so there’s a lot of judgment, a lot of doom and gloom. From last week, but this week we looked at chapters 21 to 43 and we started to see a lot of hope and promise of restoration. Uh so it was uh nice to take that turn. Yeah. And there are a few more allegories or parables describing Israel’s sin uh towards the beginning of our reading this week. And even a really tragic sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, which is that uh Ezekiel’s wife dies as a sign that they they won’t be able to mourn after that destruction. But then we kind of turn a page where we start to see a lot of chapters describing judgment against seven of Israel’s neighboring nations. uh using some really cool poetic language and symbolism that we’re gonna talk about, including the chaos dragon.

Matt • 03:31
So yes.

Hannah • 03:33
I hope you watched the video from Bible Project. Super cool video.

Matt • 03:36
Really love that video. Yeah.

Hannah • 03:38
Yeah. And then there’s a ton of Eden language and even some like anti-Eden language. Um, and then several chapters focus specifically on the hope of Israel’s restoration. And so the Lord promises to give them a new heart and a new spirit. He gives Ezekiel a really powerful vision of the valley of dry bones we’ll talk about um showing how god will bring israel from death to new life and the reading this week wraps up with Four chapters describing Israel’s vision of a new temple and Yahweh’s glory filling the new temple as a sign of hope for God’s presence returning to his people. So after this week, we only have one more day before we wrap up the book of Ezekiel.

Matt • 04:26
Okay.

Hannah • 04:27
Yep. So I’m going to the source end.

Matt • 04:29
And the next book is Hosea.

Hannah • 04:30
Yes.

Matt • 04:31
According to the reading plan that we’re doing. I like Hosea.

Hannah • 04:34
Okay.

Matt • 04:34
I think some other people will well we’ll talk about that next week. But yeah, I I like Hosea. I think Hosea would be like a really good country song, like country music song. Yeah. I’ll explain that next week. Okay. Yeah. Uh so part of the reading plan now we tend to on the podcast stick to sort of the main narrative portion. So we’re doing Ezekiel, we did Isaiah, we did Exodus, but also part of the plan is we usually do a daily reading in the Psalms, usually just one of the Psalms, although some of them have been chopped up a little bit because they’re um uh long. And so I was having a little moment during this week. Uh this weekend I was reading Psalm 145, which I think was our reading either on Saturday or Sunday. I can’t Can’t remember um this week. But I um on the weekends I take a little more time to sort of sit with some of the words and maybe meditate a little bit. And so there’s one I I kind of meditated on for a little bit and I had an interesting thought on it And uh Hannah, you can tell me if you think this is interesting. But uh so Psalm 145, verse 3. Let me read it so the the people know what we’re talking about. So um So Psalm 145 starts, I will extol you, my God and my king, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. So the repeated use of great got me there. Uh and then the unsearchable. Uh we live in a time where you know Google is one of the biggest companies in the world. Uh all of those world’s information is organized and so well, and yet God’s greatness is said to be unsearchable. I think I’ve mentioned on the this podcast before, I worked in the library was when I was in college. And so I was having a moment. I was like, let’s assume that there’s something to be learned about God in every single book. in Bird Library at Syracuse University. Is that a reasonable assumption? Sure. Okay, so reasonable assumption. If I wanted to read every single book In Bird Library at Syracuse University. How long do you think it would take me?

Hannah • 06:40
Well, I’ve never been there. So I don’t know if it’s a big library or not.

Matt • 06:45
Pretty standard college library.

Hannah • 06:47
Any average college library would take you a very long, long time. Like more than a lifetime, right?

Matt • 06:53
Yes.

Hannah • 06:54
Yeah.

Matt • 06:55
So I actually asked Google Google AI.

Hannah • 07:00
Speaking of Google.

Matt • 07:02
Yeah. And so if you were to just treat it like a job. So like nine to five every day, it would take you, let me look at this. I want to make sure I get it right here. Um let’s see here. It would take you like twenty, like thousands of years. Let’s see where what’s the number here? The number, yeah, if you treated it like a job, so like eight-hour day, no days off, it would take you 2740 years. To read all the books. Now, if somehow you could just read 24 hours a day nonstop and get through all of the two million-ish books in Syracuse, it would only take you 913 years. So to me I was like it tells me a little something about the vastness and greatness of God. For us to really understand, like the best we could do, the our best codified knowledge would take many, many generations to digest and read. I was even to think about that. I was sitting there, one of the things that sparked this thought, well, there’s a bird chirping on my deck. And asked my wife about the birds decking chirping on her deck because they drive her crazy and wake her up. And um I was like, what is that bird? And I had to I have an app called Merlin. I don’t know if you if you’re familiar with it, but it will it listens to bird songs and it’ll tell you what bird it is. But it’s like, you know, God doesn’t need an app to know what bird that is. He just knows. He knows what song that bird is singing. The bird is like saying, like, hey, it’s time to wake up or I need some food or something like that. I don’t know what he’s saying, but But the Lord knows what he’s saying. I don’t know, just the vastness of God and all the things that we could know about God and how He how He knows so many things. that it’s just so much more vast than us. I don’t know. It was my meditation moment that morning that the Psalms inspired me for and AI helped me out with a little bit. So 913 years. To read all the books in the library to try and learn about God. So I’m I’m blessed that we don’t have to do that.

Hannah • 08:52
Yeah. That cut this is a little bit different, but that reminds me of the end of the Gospel of John. Where John is like, I could have written a ton more about things that Jesus did, but if they were all written down, the whole world itself couldn’t contain the books that were written. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 09:09
Yeah. So I hope that’s in maybe an invitation for like a big imagination about God. Not to make up things about him, but to like really search like who is he? Like who Who what does he what is he what is he like? What does he want to do? Who is he? It’s there’s a lot out there. So it’s it’s good to know. But so that was my uh moment in the Psalms. But We had a lot of fun in New CQ this week. I know last week we talked about having a little bit of profit fatigue, which is understandable. I was talking to some other people and they were sort of feeling it this this the same. But I do feel like it turned a little bit of a corner this week, and there’s definitely some cool imagery and cool things to talk about. One of them I know you are a big fan of, it picks up starts picking up in chapter 29, the dragon. Yeah, tell us about the dragon.

Hannah • 09:56
Yeah. Well, there’s even a little bit um in a couple earlier chapters, but I want to start in chapter 29. So we’re we’re gonna bounce around a little bit, but I’m kind of following a flow of thought maybe rather than how it’s laid out in in the scriptures. Um I hope everybody watched the video of the dragon. Oh, so cool. Yeah, it’s one of my favorite videos. Yeah. And if if it fascinates you, listen to the podcast series about the Chaos Dragon from Bible Project 2. Cause they go down like every rabbit hole about any time snake or dragon imagery is used. So it’s really cool. I think they spend quite a bit of time in Ezekiel as well. I don’t I haven’t listened in a while. But chapter, so we’re in the chapters here in Ezekiel where The Lord is proclaiming judgment against these seven neighboring nations of Israel. So one of these nations is Egypt. Which we see in chapters 29. Um there’s that there’s quite a few chapters about judgment against Pharaoh.

Intro • 11:02
Right.

Hannah • 11:02
Um so in chapter 29, Uh verses three through five we see some explicit dragon imagery uh ascribed to the Pharaoh of Egypt. So Says, speak and say, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams. Uh and then it describes the Lord like catching the dragon like a like he’s just going fishing or something. You know, I’ll put hooks in your jaws. Um make this the fish of your stream stick to your scales. I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams Um, so yeah, he he’s being described as this scaly dragon in the Nile River, and that the order is just gonna like, you know, put a hook and catch him like a little fish. Um so and then again in chapter thirty-two, verses two through three Um uh the Pharaoh of Egypt is called a dragon of the seas again. Um and this this was fun. You said you really liked This language.

Matt • 12:14
Yeah, I like where it says you consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas. I love that little comparison thing. Made me think of the Sphinx in Egypt, which has the lion’s head, or no Like the human head, but then the lion’s body. So I I don’t know if the Sphinx had been constructed at this point, but it was making me think of like that kind of imagery.

Hannah • 12:35
Yeah. Yeah, I I’m not super familiar with what the lion imagery is here. I know that like the nation of Judah is called a lion, the lion of Judah. Um So, I don’t know, a symbol of power or like the king of the jungle, right? Um, but you’re like a dragon in the seas. Bursting forth in the rivers. And again, the Lord says, I will throw my net over you, and um they’ll haul you up in my dragnet. So This is um the the word for dragon in uh it’s translated a few different ways, but the Hebrew word is tanin.

Matt • 13:19
Tanin.

Hannah • 13:20
Yeah, and I think we might have talked about this a while back when we talked about like the serpent sea monster language before. Okay. But this is the same word used in Genesis 1 When it says that God created the s the sea monsters or the sea creatures.

Matt • 13:37
Oh, okay.

Hannah • 13:38
Yeah, in Genesis 121. So the Tanin. Um and in the ancient Near Eastern imagination there were these big sea creatures and they were understood to be like serpents and or dragons. And they were these big symbols of chaos that went along with the symbol of the chaos waters, because the chaos waters were their home. So uh let’s look at another place where somebody else is compared to a sea monster. We’re gonna look at uh let’s see chapter twenty-eight.

Matt • 14:16
Okay.

Hannah • 14:17
The King of Tyre is um also this judgment is proclaimed against him. This imagery is a lot more subtle, but I I want to make an argument and see if we see these connections here. Okay. So um Verse 2 Um two through nine of chapter 28 is kind of describing how the the king of Tyre or the Prince of Tyre considers himself to be a god. He makes his heart like the heart of a god. Um verse nine, will you still say I am a god in the presence of those who kill you, even though uh you are but a man and no god in the hands of those who slay you. So there’s several several times where he’s Considering himself to be a god, he is full of this pride because of the wealth of his nation. Um and then if we go down a bit to verse 13, it says, you were in Eden, the garden of God. And it starts describing all these precious stones, which uh I don’t know if if this is a Maybe not a super memorable thing, but there are stones described, Genesis 2, 12.

Matt • 15:34
Oh, okay. I think so. Yeah, I definitely these are some of the stones that are mentioned in Revelation. So I was definitely sort of thinking ahead to that one. But yeah, I think you’re right.

Hannah • 15:43
Yeah. Yeah, t uh Genesis two twelve talks about gold. Uh and then there’s like a couple of stones that are named and a and There are the same Hebrew words as two of these stones here in Ezekiel. Yeah. Um okay, so then it says that you were an anointed guardian carib or cherub Okay. I placed you, you were on the holy mountain of God, in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. This is like super weird. Like what are we talking about? Okay.

Matt • 16:16
I do notice you granted us the cherub pronunciation instead of the carob pronunciation. Thank you for slumming it with us non-Hebrew speakers who live in America. Yes.

Hannah • 16:26
Yeah, yeah. Well you know, yeah. The Hebrew the Hebrew has like the guttural cherovim, so I I tend to say carob.

Matt • 16:35
I respect it.

Hannah • 16:36
Yeah. Um okay. Verse sixteen says, In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned, so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God. The mountain of God is equivalent with the Garden of Eden.

Matt • 16:54
Okay.

Hannah • 16:55
Um, and I destroyed you, O guardian Carib, from the midst of the stones of fire. And then verse 17 says, I cast you to the ground. So there’s in this uh section, there’s several hyperlinks, of course, to Genesis 2 and 3. Um now the comparison of the king of Tyre to being like a god is similar to what Adam and Eve were trying to do when the serpent said You won’t die. When you eat of the tree, you’ll become like God. So part of the the sin of taking from the tree of knowing good and bad is that they wanted to define good and evil from them for their themselves and become like God. Right. So there’s a little bit of a connection there with what the king of Tyre is being described. And then um obviously we see like s just straight up Ezekiel says that you were in Eden. You know, the mountain of God.

Matt • 17:54
There’s a clue, yeah.

Hannah • 17:55
A very clear hyperlink. The gemstones are another hyperlink. And then the other thing is um why is the king of Tyre being called a guardian carob? In the Early Jewish interpretive tradition, and I think actually a lot of modern scholars and commentators would still use say this interpretation that the snake in the garden was like a rebellious spiritual being. And so a carib is a type of spiritual being. So I think and this is just one opinion of uh or several, you know, different commentators and scholars have this opinion, that Ezekiel is painting the king of Tyre like Using this snake-like imagery, describing him as just like the serpent in the garden that the Lord uh cast down The snake after he deceives Adam and Eve to the ground, just like verse 17 here says, I cast you to the ground to go, you know, slither around on his belly and eat the dust the rest of of his days. So I think that um This is all connected to the same imagery of these humans who are being influenced by the power of evil are being connected to this imagery of the the snake or the serpent or the dragon that is a symbol of chaos and destruction and decreation and death.

Matt • 19:27
Yeah, you know, I’ve I’ve only heard this passage, specifically chapter twenty-eight. I’ve only heard it taught maybe once or twice. And when I’ve heard it taught, it’s very it’s th it it’s they’re trying to say like it’s it’s not even just the King of Tara, like he’s talking more explicitly about the like the Satan figure himself. And I’ve always wondered like I don’t I mean I get it, but I d I don’t really get it. Like they seem so confident in that opinion, like the people that I’ve heard taught. Like, I definitely think it’s true about a rebellious uh spiritual being in the way that you describe. So I get the hyperlinks, but that that thing where it’s like Okay, it says King of Tyre, but King of Tyre really means Satan here. I’ve never been able to make that connection. So I think you’re helping me understand it a little more, uh like the context more and that’s sort of Like just letting the connections do its work. It doesn’t have to be like so precise in the way that I was trying to understand it before.

Hannah • 20:20
Yeah. Well, and the the Pharaoh of Egypt is explicitly called a dragon, too. So like this concept of comparing humans with snake serpent chaos dragons. uh these chaos creatures is a is a normal thing in the biblical prophetic, you know, poetry. Yeah. So um The other thing that I thought was really interesting is that in a couple chapters earlier in um chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven Ezekiel uses the symbol of chaotic waters to describe how the judgment will be brought against the king of Tyre. So uh chapter 26, verse 19 says Um, when I bring up the deep over you, the deep waters, the great waters will cover you. And then 2734 says Now you are wrecked by the seas in the depths of the waters. Your merchandise and all your crew and your midst have sunk with you. So he’s using this language of chaotic waters, which is actually very similar to the language of the Chaos Dragon. Um typically would you would think that the the sea monster itself would be at home in the chaos waters because that’s where it lives. Yeah. So I think that is uh Ezekiel is doing something that a lot of biblical authors actually do, which is describe how a person’s own chaos and evil and wickedness will bring judgment back upon themselves. Yeah. Uh we actually uh saw this in Romans one in our current sermon series. The Romans one uses this language that God gave them up or handed them over to their own evil or unrighteous ways. So I thought that was a really powerful image of the chaos creature itself will be destroyed by the chaos waters. you know, lives in and is part of that evil.

Matt • 22:25
And it’s you know it’s another reminder that yes, for the for the real um, you know, power that the chaos monster, um, Satan, demons, the spiritual realm. Those these are definitely things to be knowledgeable about and be cognitous of and to be in prayer about. But s boy, I uh sometimes I don’t need a lot of help to sin, right? I’m I’m sort of my own chaos monster in a lot of ways. Um That uh yeah, it’s it’s the chaos monster within me that is really my enemy more than it is uh the the one that might be out there in the waters, even in a metaphorical or poetical sense, you know. Those things are real. I’m not denying the effect of those. I mean they’re taught about in scripture, but um boy, sometimes I don’t really need the help, right? It’s the chaos monster within me that gets me into trouble. It’s not so much the uh the external forces on me.

Hannah • 23:15
So yeah. Yeah, I I thought that the video was really useful in describing how humans can become enticed by what looks like this powerful dragon, um, and they can give in to the influence of the evil and darkness and chaos. And so like participate in or become like a dragon themselves. Yeah. And and the way that Jesus counters the influence of the dragon is actually by like surrendering his life. and finding life on the other side of chaos and death. Yeah. Which is so counterintuitive.

Matt • 23:58
Yeah, and I feel like we’re gonna get a hint of that when we do Jonah, because you know, Jonah goes into sort of the of the sea monster. And you know, so we’ll talk more about that when the time comes. But so like the the idea is you are victorious over it by surrendering to it. Yeah. Really counterintuitive. Um and kind of hard to get your brain around. And of course, in his victory, then he shares that with us. And so it’s you know, it’s we don’t have to be afraid of the chaos chaos monster because Jesus has already defeated him. So Yeah, it’s uh it’s so rich in imagery and it’s one of those things where the more I understand the the metaphor, the example, the poetry of it it then it feels more real to me. I know what I get I get a better picture of what that actually looks like in my own life. So yeah, I love it. Yeah the Chaos Monster. And it’s a cool video.

Hannah • 24:46
Yeah, it is.

Matt • 24:48
Dragons and Chaos Monsters. You know, I grew up going to Busch Gardens down at Williamsburg and the signature roll. Have you been there?

Hannah • 24:55
Uh I think I’ve been there once.

Matt • 24:56
Okay, it’s my fa it’s still my favorite amusement park. And the signature roller coaster there is the Loch Ness Monster.

Hannah • 25:02
Oh.

Matt • 25:03
So it’s yellow and all this, and it’s built on the Lochness Monster myth in Scotland. So supposedly in one of the lakes up there, there’s the sea monster and it causes chaos. And you know, there are people that have gone to try and find it. I I don’t Yep, there’s an image out there somewhere. I don’t think it’s real. But you know, there’s sort of a chaos monster story in almost every maybe not every culture, but lots of cultures. Oh yeah. And so Lochness Monster is one example. I’m sure there are others. Um but yeah when you see it sort of come out and relay in the scriptures and you’d be like, oh, okay, that’s what’s happening here. Yeah, my life does feel like a chaos monster sometimes. I do feel like I keep getting tempted by these things over and over again. I am I do feel like I get swallowed up. I do feel like I get suckered into these things. Yeah it’s it’s a rich, rich, rich image.

Hannah • 25:49
Mm-hmm.

Matt • 25:51
Yeah. Um why don’t we turn the corner a little bit? Uh chapter thirty six Chapter 36. And then I I don’t know about you, but I was reading this. I had a moment because I was like, oh wait a minute, I feel like I just ran into an old friend. that I haven’t seen for a while. I was like, oh yeah, that’s what Thomas. So uh it feels like for me, now somebody could go back and check my math and wrong, but uh chapter thirty-six we start to see the phrase be fruitful and multiply again. It’s our old friend the Eden blessing. I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve seen the Eden Blessing, or at least described this way so explicitly. But yeah, chapter 36, when we’re starting to talk about Um, you know, he’s he’s prophesying about the future hope for the nation of Israel that he’s going to restore them as he’s sort of looking after the exile. But he He says, I’ll pick up in verse 8 of chapter 36, but you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel for they will soon come home. For behold I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply my people on you, or I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it The city shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt, and I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. It’s the Eden Blessing.

Hannah • 27:12
Nice. Yeah.

Matt • 27:13
I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve seen it.

Hannah • 27:16
Yeah. I’ve maybe one of the other Isaiah or Jeremiah must have uh had a fruitful and multiply in there somewhere.

Matt • 27:25
I’m sure they did. But certainly in Ezekiel, it feels like it’s the time first time we’ve seen it like using the actual words like this. Yeah. It’s uh it’s nice to see it again. I’d almost forgotten about it. Yeah. Yeah. So the the picture that he’s painting here is hey, we’re We’re in the exile now, um, and it’s not great. And you know, we’ve we’ve talked a lot about that, and there’s gonna be judgment and uh not just on the people of Israel, but on all the other nations. But this is all going somewhere. This is not gonna be the end of the story We’re still in the pattern where God wants to bless the world through the people of Israel. He still wants them to be fruitful and multiply And that’s sort of a well you had a a thought on this because there’s a even as you get into it a little bit, there’s a little bit more explicit connection to the Garden of Eden Is that right?

Hannah • 28:11
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we’ll work through the chapter a little bit and then it’ll we’ll wrap up because that explicit um um reference is towards the end of the chapter. Okay. But so the the next thing after this fruitful and multiply is there’s this big section about the Lord’s concern for his holy name.

Matt • 28:31
Ah yeah.

Hannah • 28:33
Um and so like let’s read like verses 20 through 21 are are accusing Israel for profaning the name of the Lord. And then twenty two through twenty three Um the Lord says, It’s not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I’m about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you’ve profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God. uh when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. So the reason of Israel’s restoration is has has nothing to do with them earning restoration. Right. It’s not for their sake, but rather God is choosing to restore Israel for the sake of his own name. Uh, which we we talked about the name before is really about his reputation. Yeah. And so to profane the name is to misrepresent his character or his reputation to the nations. So while the Lord certainly cares about his covenant people, they definitely did not deserve the restoration that he’s about to bring.

Matt • 29:52
They’re not good covenant partners.

Hannah • 29:54
Right. Instead, the primary purpose stated here for his plan to restore Israel is for his own name, to restore his holy reputation among the nation so that the n even the nations will know that he is the Lord. Yeah. And so going down in the chapter a little bit, there’s um Some language about purification, uh like verse 25, I’ll sprinkle clean water on you so that he’ll purify. And then verses 26 and 27 are kind of the big Verses, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I’ll put in you. I’ll remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I’ll put my spirit within you. and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So we’ve got a a new heart and a new spirit. We kind of saw that a little bit. Last week in chapter eleven, that same language was like a little preview back in chapter eleven. Um The spirit will talk a lot more in the next chapter 20 uh 37. Um, but this isn’t so the word for spirit Do you know the Hebrew word for spirit?

Matt • 31:08
Oh, okay, hold up. Pop quiz. Uh Ruach.

Hannah • 31:11
Yes. Good.

Matt • 31:12
Did it get it did it get it close? Yeah, ruach.

Hannah • 31:14
Ruach. Yeah, so Ruach can mean spirit, breath, or wind. Um and so um this is not Spirit is not just breath. Like the Lord uh gives life-giving breath. Genesis 2, we see that. Um it’s more than breath though, it’s also the spirit is God’s personal life-giving presence. um his spirit is his personal presence. So it’s a very rich uh um word. Yeah. And I thought that verse 27 was interesting the second half of it about uh When I put my spirit within you, I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So that phrase is still honoring human responsibility of like still you’re obeying the Lord, but the fact that God is giving the new heart and a new spirit, his own spirit recognizes, you know, God’s power as ultimate creator and giver of life. And it’s his spirit that enables his people to be able to listen to him.

Matt • 32:27
I love that. I uh I saw a concert this week. I think I’ve talked to the group before, the Porter’s Gate.

Hannah • 32:32
Okay.

Matt • 32:33
Yeah, they have a new album coming out uh next month and they previewed a couple of songs from it and one of them I don’t happen to remember the title, but the chorus is like um learn to serve not out of fear but out of love. And it’s it’s a beautiful medley melody. So hopefully when it gets published maybe I can talk our worship team into singing it. I fair if I will. But it’s super single, but that abusable phrase phraseology, I want to learn how to serve you not out of fear, but out of love. So I love that to me that’s what’s popping in this verse that you know when when he puts his spirit in us and gives us a new heart, then we serve him because we love him. We don’t serve him because we’re like Trying to color in the lines or follow what’s in the manual or, you know, you know, you you know, out of um uh Mm, you know, r r uh oh be uh like uh being forced to uh to earn some sort of reward, but because there’s a relationship there and we love him. So yeah, I love that.

Hannah • 33:31
Yeah, and then this chapter wraps up, like you were saying, with some more Eden imagery from you know desolation to this restoration. And verse 35 is really interesting because Then it says, even the nations will recognize this, verse 35, and they will say, This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. Yeah. Yeah, so um very explicit Eden connection there, but the fact that the nations even recognize that is seems really significant.

Matt • 34:05
Yeah, kind of reminder uh like God’s plan the whole time has been kind of a couple of different folds to us. One is get us back to Eden, sort of restore us back to uh living in his presence, living in abundance, living in Eden with the Be full, fruitful, multiply. And that it wasn’t just for a s like a you know, relatively select group of people, but it’s for the whole world. Like the the idea is that he’s gonna restore so that everybody can live in his busing, not just uh a chosen group of people. So yeah. Yeah, I dig it. Oh, then that leads us to chapter thirty-seven. I know this is a favorite of yours. There’s a old uh Negro Spiritual uh about Ezekiel and the dry bones. I won’t sing it because I don’t remember the melody well enough. But yeah, famous story. Um and it’s really quite and it fits it’s such a great fit after chapter 36 because it it gives a beautiful like metaphor and picture to what we just read about in chapter 36.

Hannah • 35:04
Yeah, definitely connected to chapter thirty-six. And um, you know, the Bible paints this symbolic connection between exile and death.

Intro • 35:13
Yeah.

Hannah • 35:14
So uh you know Adam and Eve are told that if they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will surely die. But then when they do eat of it in chapter Genesis three, they’re exiled.

Matt • 35:27
Yeah.

Hannah • 35:28
So it’s like uh, you know, some people might say spiritual death or covenantal death uh to be spiritually or covenantally dead. So this valley of dry bones is representative of the state of Israel in exile and the, you know, the way that they’ve died to their covenant with the Lord.

Matt • 35:48
Yeah.

Hannah • 35:50
So um yeah, there’s really interesting vision um the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to these dry bones. He has this vision of these bones. And um he’s the Lord says in verse 5, I will cause breath, ruach, to ent to enter you, and you shall live. Uh and though the amount of times that Ruach is repeated in this chapter is great. I didn’t count. I should have counted. Is it seven? Probably is. Uh I think it might be more than seven actually. But um verse six kind of says the same thing. You know, I’ll I’ll lay sinews, whatever that is, is that joints?

Matt • 36:36
I think that’s like connecting tissue. I think that’s an actual medical term.

Hannah • 36:40
Yeah, it probably is.

Matt • 36:41
Okay.

Hannah • 36:42
Okay. Sinews, am I pronouncing that right?

Matt • 36:45
Uh uh how is your Hebrew better than your English? What is happening here?

Hannah • 36:49
I don’t know. I don’t use that word often. I will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin, and I’ll put breath ruach. In you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. That’s a really common refrain.

Matt • 37:04
Yeah, I feel like Yeah, we didn’t I didn’t draw it out as a separate point, but especially in like the middle chapters, like like 18 through like 35. I mean, I stopped being able to count how many times it says uh then they will know that I am the Lord. Repeated a lot in Ezekiel.

Hannah • 37:21
Yeah, yeah. And then verses seven and eight, Ezekiel starts It’s hearing these bones rattling together and they form sinews and flesh and skin, but then it says, but there’s no ruach in them. So it’s like, well, part of it happened, but the ruach is the important part.

Matt • 37:38
Yeah.

Hannah • 37:38
You know

Matt • 37:39
A little spooky by the way.

Hannah • 37:40
Yeah. Could you imagine seeing this vision?

Matt • 37:45
Little Halloween-ish.

Hannah • 37:46
Yeah, yeah.

Matt • 37:47
Yeah. Yeah, it’s a little spooky.

Hannah • 37:50
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then verse nine, the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the Ruach, which I don’t really know what that means, but Prophesy to the Ruach and say, Come from the four winds. Now the word for wind is also Ruach. Okay. So the plural of Ruach is Ruchot Oh from come from the four ruhot. And then again, oh breath, ruach, breathe. This is actually a different word, the verb, breathe on these slain so that they may live. Um and then verse 10: I prophesied, and the Ruach came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet an exceedingly great army. That’s interesting.

Matt • 38:37
Yeah.

Hannah • 38:40
And then verse 11, Lord explicitly, you know, explains these bones are the whole house of Israel So therefore prophesy and say to them, I will open your graves, I will raise you from your graves, and then down in verse fourteen, I will put my Ruach within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. then you shall know that I am the Lord. So I think this is all connected kind of like Like uh I mentioned before Genesis 2, 7, when the Lord forms the human from the dust, he breathes in his nostrils the ruach of life. So that the human becomes a living creature. But again, it’s not just this breath of life, it’s also God’s personal life-giving presence of his spirit. Um so this is kind of like a vision of uh resurrection.

Matt • 39:37
Oh yeah.

Hannah • 39:38
Yeah.

Matt • 39:39
Yeah, for sure.

Hannah • 39:39
Yeah. So the Israel is in this state of exile or death, covenantal death. And they’re tr resurrected into new creation life. So super interesting. And um actually was thinking about Paul’s use of people who are actually like alive, but he describes them as being dead in Ephesians chapter two.

Matt • 40:04
Okay.

Hannah • 40:05
Uh he says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins which you once walked, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which He loved us, even when we were dead, He made us alive together with Christ. So I was just thinking about uh that imagery of being like spiritually dead And be bring being brought to new life, new covenant life and new creation life.

Matt • 40:29
Yeah, it’s really cool. Oh that’s awesome. Now in the rest of the chapter here, he starts to talk about sort of like bringing them back into the land. So they’re gonna go back, they’re gonna settle, they’re gonna be fruitful, multiply, all these things. And then he says My servant David shall be king over them. So here’s my question. Is that like David David, or is this like a messianic prophecy? And why does he say David if he means Messiah? Like what am I supposed to do with the word David being there?

Hannah • 41:01
Well well David is dead by this point.

Matt • 41:04
Well yeah.

Hannah • 41:05
Yeah.

Matt • 41:05
Yeah, I read I read first and second Kings, so I remember that I remember that part.

Hannah • 41:10
Yeah, so not literally couldn’t it couldn’t literally be David. Right. I mean unless David Well we just read about people coming back from the dead. Yeah, resurrected. Yeah, but um what chapter is I uh if I were to take a guess it might be 2 Samuel 7? The Covenant with David?

Matt • 41:29
I think so.

Hannah • 41:30
That’s my best guess. I don’t know what chapter it is.

Matt • 41:32
Check our work, DJ.

Hannah • 41:34
Yeah, Covenant with David, his offspring is um who is like a messianic figure is promised to be the king who will bring a new covenant who will restore. Yeah, so David’s kind of like a representative figure. So to say my servant David, I think, is referring to the specific messianic king that will come from the line of David.

Matt • 42:00
Okay.

Hannah • 42:01
Yeah.

Matt • 42:01
That makes sense to me. Although I yeah, I’m thinking of people like my poor wife, who’s just very literal. Well, why don’t they just say like one of David’s sons or descendants or something like that?

Hannah • 42:13
Well, this is poetry.

Matt • 42:14
Yeah.

Hannah • 42:15
She doesn’t like prophetic poetry. The tiny bit of narrative sprinkled in there. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 42:24
Christy doesn’t really like poetry.

Hannah • 42:25
So Yeah.

Matt • 42:27
I love poetry. So we have fun fights about that. Yeah. Not fights. Uh discussions. We have fun discussions about that. Yeah, so the the key though is there’s a link to the Messiah on this one. So it’s not just about, oh yeah, you’re gonna go back to the slant and it’s gonna be the way that it was. Like Messiah’s gonna come and new creation and the new kingdom and and so we’re gonna have the messianic figure who’s gonna come and be in charge then.

Hannah • 42:51
I think another reason that Ezekiel might specifically use the name David instead of like David’s offspring or the or the king from David is that verse so 37-24 um describes that person as a shepherd. And then chapter um I think it was 34, talks about shepherds more, and it and it actually says the same thing about my servant David will come be the shepherd of Israel. So I think, you know, David was a very was well known for being a shepherd.

Matt • 43:27
Yes.

Hannah • 43:27
And then Psalm 23, David writes about the Lord as his shepherd. So I think Ezekiel might be pulling from some of those concepts.

Matt • 43:36
Yeah, it seems like it to me. Well then after that we got a couple chapters about these uh things called Gog and Magog. Uh I’m sure you’ve you’ve probably heard those words before for uh we’re not gonna talk about them much on there, but that’s I thought they made a compelling point in the devotional that these are sort of um the terms that they use to be in a Amalgamum, sort of a a wrapping up all together of sort of the great evil figures into sort of one supervillain Yeah. Uh that he calls Gog. I know that there’s if if you’ve read some of the um sort of um apocalyptic literature that is relatively popular. Everybody’s trying to figure out who Gog is. It’s like, you know, is Gog like Soviet Russia or things like that. So but but that’s in this in the text, that’s not they’re not it’s not a predicted thing. It’s not like trying to say, oh Gog is like from the region of Selma. No, it’s No. It’s narrative, it’s poetry, it’s a super villain.

Hannah • 44:28
Like an archetype.

Matt • 44:29
Yeah. And so and so the for our purposes, the thing in that you need to know is that the Lord defeats Gog. He takes care of business there. And that gets us into chapter 40, which do you remember back in like um Uh Exodus and uh numbers when we were reading blueprints for the tabernacle and the temple. We get to do that again.

Hannah • 44:50
Yeah, even though we did it twice of like the same exact blueprints in the Torah.

Matt • 44:55
Yeah. Yeah, did ya do you miss those readings? Did you miss it?

Hannah • 44:59
I s I skimmed. I skimmed the second part.

Matt • 45:04
Alright, so Hannah, I already have read architectural drawings of the temple. Why do I need to read them again? What’s happening? What does Ezekiel want me to see here?

Hannah • 45:13
Hmm, well, I would keep an eye out for any similarities or differences from the first time the temple was described. Well actually we have tabernacle blueprints and temple blueprints previously that we’ve read already. Yep. Um Yeah, and one of the main things that we saw in both those descriptions was all the Eden language, describing how this temple is an Eden space where God dwells amongst his people. Yeah, and the significant uh you know there’s kind of a nice uh climax at the end in chapter 43 because God’s glory, his presence returns or settles in too the temple, which is that forward pointing hope for God’s presence returning to be with his people again, to dwell, dwell with his people.

Matt • 46:13
Yeah. I like it. It’s actually really beautiful. I know it can maybe feel slightly tedious to read, but it’s actually when you kind of get the picture in your head, it’s really beautiful. You know, it’s about God wanting to restore, about uh, you know, be among his people, live with them, have fellowship with them. There’s even something in like chapter 44 about the gate. about uh about waiting for the real king to come and he’s the one who can open the gate. Uh we’re gonna see this referred back to when we uh get to Jesus, some of the patterns that he uses to go in and out of Jerusalem, sort of call back to this language and Revelation when it talks about uh being able to open the gate. There’s some callbacks to this language. So yeah, it can be a little bit like why am I reading about blueprints and architectural drawings? But this in fact these passages show up a lot in the New Testament as uh like really key things that speak to the ministry and the life and work of Jesus.

Hannah • 47:10
Mm-hmm Yeah. And uh kind of towards the end in next week’s um reading, towards the end of the temple description, chapter 47 is really cool because there is more Eden imagery, including the river flowing from the temple. And that’s an image that is also used at the end of Revelation. With the the river flowing out from the city and bringing life to, you know, all of the land. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 47:42
Yeah, I think that’ll be something we want to talk about in a little more detail next episode. So why don’t we go ahead and wrap it up here? Um yeah, so Ezekiel, I’m glad we stuck with it. So for all the fatigue last week. or last episode. Really cool images and patterns and yeah you’re I’m starting to get my appetite wet for yeah I’m ready. I’m ready to get out of exile. I’m ready to live in the new kingdom. I’m ready for the real king to come. I’m ready to live in the Eden Blessing again. I mean, I feel that. I’m sure the uh the Israeli people or the Jewish people in that time were starting to feel that as well. It’s it’s starting to wet my appetite for some of the good stuff that’s to come.

Hannah • 48:17
Mm-hmm.

Matt • 48:20
Well, I know, but still. Still starting to whet our appetite for the servant, for the king, for the for the messianic king. Yeah. Starting to get ready for him. So Yeah, it’s good. Well, uh let me pray us out and then we’ll uh we’ll be done with this episode. Sound good? Yeah. All right. Oh Lord. Uh I yeah, I just want to park on that last point here for a second. All of scripture. It’s really meant to wet our appetite for you. And so Lord, I pray that you do that for the people who are reading this plan with us, for all the people in our church and anyone who happens to be a part of this experience, Lord. When we read the scripture and we see how good you are, how kind you are, how gentle you are, uh, Lord, your justice and your righteousness and how much you hate sin. And how you are going to have victory over sin and that chaos monster will not rule over us anymore. Lord, this wets my appetite. It gets me hyped. It gets me excited to live in the new creation, to live under your rule and reign. uh to to see evil defeated and to live in in a world of peace and justice and righteousness. Lord, uh please come very soon. Lord, please we we want to see you. We want to know you. We want to live under a good ruler. We want to live in the new creation. We want to live in your completed work that you’ve done for us, starting with what you did on the cross, but finished when you come again. And take your rightful place as King of the universe. Lord, you are wetting our appetite for that, Lord. And we want to find our satisfaction in you. So I pray for us as we’re reading these texts and the ones to come, Lord, that we would be Be hungry and thirsty for you and your spirit and to be renewed and made new because of what you’ve done for us. So Lord, hear our prayer. We pray this and we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hannah • 50:02
Amen.

Matt • 50:03
Alright, thanks Hannah.

Hannah • 50:04
Thank you, Matt.