Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to The Bible Guys. I’m Chris and this is Jeff.

Jeff:
Yes. And we are so glad to be here. And we’re very excited as we are kicking off. This is the inaugural week. Oh, nice turn of our Old Testament highlights series. I like it. uh, and we have barely made it out of the first two chapters. Well, we’re still in the second chapter of the book of Genesis. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris:
And that’s, and that’s fine. We’re laying the foundation. We’re not going verse by verse. We’re going by milestones or highlights of the old Testament. That’s right. So we’re going to be talking about, uh, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life and about marriage and all that stuff today.

Jeff:
Right. Yeah. We’re covering some ground today. But first, It’s one of your favorite segments. Yes. And our listeners love this one as well. They play along. So this one is the movie quote race. I don’t know why I’m coughing or clearing my throat so much today. So it’s a movie quote race. Yes. And we’re going to see how fast Chris can guess the movie based on these quotes that I’m going to give you. I always get nervous before these. And there’s bonus points for the listeners who beat Chris. So let me think about this for a minute. A thousand points? No. If you beat Chris, I’m going to give you 10,000 bonus points. 10,000 today.

Chris:
You dismissed 1,000 like that was a terrible idea.

Jeff:
Chris only wants you to have 1,000. No. Chris only wants you to have 1,000. But I’m thinking today is a special day. Silly me. Today only.

Chris:
For only suggesting fantasy worthless points that mean nothing at the increment of 1,000. 1,000.

Jeff:
Right. So, uh, today only we’re going to give you 10,000 points. We’re going to give you 10,000.

Chris:
Why not a million points?

Jeff:
And then we’re going to give Chris a thousand points for each of the correct answers. Okay. Here we go. Here we go.

Chris:
I’m going to suck myself up.

Jeff:
Okay. So I’m going to say the quote and you have to say the name of the movie as quickly as you can. Okay. She doesn’t even go here.

Chris:
She doesn’t even go here. I don’t know. Do we have a movie? Uh, it sounds like somebody three saying something about high school.

Jeff:
I have no idea. Mean girls.

Chris:
Oh, it is a high school thing.

Jeff:
You go. Yep. Yep. She doesn’t even go here. Okay. And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?

Chris:
Oh, yes, I know that. That’s National Lampoon’s vacation.

Jeff:
No, it’s Christmas vacation. Christmas vacation, that’s right. Yes. Okay, wow. So hey, there’s an opportunity right there. We have somebody, one of our listeners already has 20,000 points. You know that, right? Because they already knew the Mean Girls won, and it took you a long time to get to Christmas Vacation. Yes, you’re right. Congratulations to our listener with 20,000 points. If you ain’t first, you’re last. That’s Ricky Bobby, baby. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. Dodgeball, come on. That’s awesome. According to the map, we’ve only gone four inches.

Chris:
Uh, uh, Dumb and Dumber.

Jeff:
Ooh, there’s another opportunity for 10,000.

Chris:
Yes. Hey, uh, that’s so funny. That line. I love Dumb and Dumber. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time.

Jeff:
Well, some people say that’s the tagline to our show.

Chris:
Right, right. There you go.

Jeff:
Yep. Okay. I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.

Chris:
Oh, uh, uh, Anchorman.

Jeff:
Ooh, you left room for 40,000 points there. Yeah, you’re right. Cause you were pretty quick on Talladega Nights and Dodgeball, but the others are, uh,

Chris:
Yeah, well, it takes you a minute to process.

Jeff:
We could have a fan out there with 40,000.

Chris:
Hey, I, I, uh, I only saw Mean Girls twice. I’ve only seen it twice. I’ve never seen Mean Girls once. Oh, it’s classic. It’s super classic. Okay. But, uh, but yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a generation kind of thing. I think that people of the millennial generation would say like that was their anthem movie. Oh, okay. Even, even like men. Wow. I know men who say Mean Girls is incredible.

Jeff:
Mean Girls is your favorite show? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Are they real men though then? That is a question. That is a legitimate question. Please do not write in gents and tell us that Mean Girls is your favorite show.

Chris:
Do not write in. We don’t want them.

Jeff:
We don’t want them. Go find another podcast. That’s so funny. Okay, so I’m going to go back and re-read. If you liked yesterday, you’re going to love today, because I’m going to read about half the verses we read yesterday. Again, I meant to stop at verse 14, and I went on to verse 25.

Chris:
That’s okay, because context is great.

Jeff:
Yeah. So what I wanted to do yesterday was read that God made people and made us a living soul, and then he made the garden. And then today I wanted to pick up that he placed them in the garden and gave them a job to, and he made women. So here you go. Verse 15 of Genesis chapter two, it says, the Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you’re sure to die. Then the Lord God said, it’s not good for the man to be alone. I’ll make a helper who’s just right for him. And so the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals, but still there was no helper just right for him. So Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib and he brought her to the man. At last the man exclaimed, this one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken from man. And this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Okay. So that’s what I meant to read today.

Chris:
So they were both naked and they felt no shame. Uh, you know, that’s the reason why she was called woman. Did you know that? Why is that? Because when God created her and he saw her that way, he said, Whoa, man.

Jeff:
That’s right. I knew that was coming, but I wanted to give it to you. That’s a good one.

Chris:
Good job. Hey, I’ll get another one. You ready? How do we know that Adam wasn’t a Texan and that the garden of Eden wasn’t, uh, uh, actually in Texas? I don’t know. Have you ever seen a Texan give up a rib?

Jeff:
No, to be honest with you. Yeah, right. As a matter of fact, I’ve never given up a rib, so I’m not even Texan.

Chris:
And you used to live in Texas.

Jeff:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris:
So that’s extra funny for you.

Jeff:
That’s very funny. And there’s a lot of truth to it. That’s a part of humor is there’s a little bit of truth to most things that are funny. So here we go. God makes, so this is Genesis 2, expands on what God said in Genesis chapter 1. And so in Genesis 1, you see that God created the animals before he made man. But here he makes man and now he’s making animals out of the ground. The difference was making two llamas is different than populating Peru with llamas.

Chris:
right?

Jeff:
Making two birds is different than filling the whole garden with songbirds, right? So having established that there were going to be animals on the planet in, what was it, days four and five or whatever it was, days five and six, is different than here now he makes man and now he’s making a bunch of animals and bringing them to Adam, this is that ongoing creation component. It’s still on the sixth day though. Right. So Adam is, is naming animals. Oh, that’s going to be a hippopotamus. Oh, that’s a funny name. Right. That’s a fly. I think you made that joke, right?

Chris:
The fly. You know, I, so I have to believe that, you know, did you know that there are over 40,000 different species of beetles?

Jeff:
Isn’t that crazy? Right. Wow.

Chris:
So I have to believe that Adam probably did not name all 40,000 of them. That’s the ricketus amicetus beetle. Right.

Jeff:
Right. Like he didn’t do that.

Chris:
He just said, that’s a beetle. He just said, that’s a beetle. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that as, as time went on, we have given the different species, different names.

Jeff:
Well, so in the first chapter, it says that they were going to reproduce after their own kind. So what God did was, if you remember how the structure of creatures is, kind is above species. So species breaks into all kinds of subspecies, whereas a kind was, that’s a beetle. Now there’s lots of kinds or species of beetles, but there’s one kind. That’s why elephants and lions don’t breed. It’s because they’re not from the same kind, but there are multiple species or types of elephants that they can interbreed and there’s multiple kinds or types, species of tigers, right? It’s the same kind of thing here that they, so God made them in a kind and within those kinds, then there’s all kinds, there’s all types. Messing up that word because I use kind a lot, right? Right. There’s all types of interbreeding that make different species, right, from that. So anyways, it’s kind of neat. Here we go. So the Bible says that God looked at Adam and said, it’s not good for man to be alone. Which I think is really a peek into the heart of God. That the whole story was a relationship story. The whole story is a love story. And so God made humanity for the purpose of relationship. First with him. He wanted us to be able to know him and experience him. God didn’t need anything. The doctrine of the Trinity is that he was completely and totally perfect. in and of himself, complete in and of himself. But he desired us so that we could have a relationship with him. And so he makes us have a relationship. And then in the scope of how he designed creatures, there was a red cardinal and a slightly brown cardinal, the boy cardinal and the girl cardinal. right? There was the male lion with the big, you know, mane, and then there was the female lion who didn’t have the mane. And suddenly Adam’s looking around going, Hey, wait a minute. There seems to be a system here, right? There’s boys and girls, but there’s just me. God says, it’s not good that man should be alone. And so then that’s when he says, okay, I’m going to give him the woman, right? The woman.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. So, So Adam is given this assignment to take care of the garden and then also to name the animals. But then he says, this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she should be called woman. And then it goes on to say, this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one. So now it just sort of announces marriage, doesn’t it? Yeah. So it talks about, you know, just from the very first moment of woman, you know, being a help meat to man is created in the garden, the institution of marriage.

Jeff:
Yeah. So there’s, there’s kind of a flow to creation. Fish and birds are far less sophisticated than the larger mammals, right? Small mammals, big mammals. So he makes fish first and birds, and then he makes the animals on the earth and He mentions the creeping things, and then there’s the cattle, and there’s all these bigger animals that start to come. Then he makes man, and up to that point, man was the crown jewel of creation, but the final act of creation was woman. There it is. Right? He takes woman out of man.

Chris:
Who’s the only species or gender that has the ability to reproduce life?

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, it takes both. It takes two, Chris. I can get some crayons for you if you want. But the only one that, you know, the only one between the two of us who can grow another human.

Chris:
I was trying to say something like that, right? To give birth.

Jeff:
How about that? Okay. Yes. Yeah. And so, you know, this is incredibly important. Some cultures throughout history have minimized women substantially to the point where they’re just property. I was in a country. I shouldn’t laugh, this is terrible.

Chris:
I was going to say, you said that sentence and then you went, haha.

Jeff:
I know this was so weird though. I was in a country not long ago. Yeah. I don’t want to say the country now. Yeah. But I was sitting along a very famous river, and we were drinking tea, and this guy comes up, he’s got a bunch of stuff, he sets it down, and this lady puts it all in the boat. And then they get in the boat, and then they’re standing, there’s a rowboat. and they’re standing there, and then they exchange spots. I’m watching it thinking somebody’s going to fall in the water. When you try to change from front to back spots and pass somebody in a rowboat, that’s what got my attention was that. And so they’re passing each other in the rowboat and I’m like, somebody’s going to fall. They don’t fall. They sit down and then the lady starts rowing them across the river. Right? As opposed to the men. The guys just kicked back, you know, looking around, drinking his, whatever he was drinking, as she rode him across the river. And on one side, it was just, it was a comical thing that was happening there where I thought they were going to fall in the water. That’s why I laughed. But it was such a bizarre thing to me, the idea that in a lot of cultures, women are property. and that women do the work for the men, right? All those kinds of things. But it’s really clear here that God took woman, she’s the crown jewel of creation. And that, you know, just because men are physically stronger typically, a lot of times then have suppressed women. But that’s not how God designed it. And you’ve heard it before. You’ve heard preachers talk about this. I think it’s worth mentioning again. God didn’t take woman off the top of his head. so that she would rule over him. He also didn’t take a woman from the bottom of his foot so that Adam would walk over top of the woman. He took her from underneath his arm so that he would draw her close and they would walk arm in arm.

Chris:
So I sometimes say that at weddings, nor from his hand to be a servant to him, but under his arm for protection and near his heart to be loved.

Jeff:
That’s right. That’s the way I say it. That’s beautiful. And so if you remember, I mentioned this the other day, the law of first mention. The first time God talks about a thing in the Bible is the foundation of what he wants you to know about that idea. Hey everybody, there’s a God, and he made everything. And then, hey everybody, he made you personally. He wanted you, right? And he breathed into you the breath of life and all these things. When it comes to humanity, when it comes to gender, when it comes to male, female, the first time God talks about it, he talks about it in a very beautiful way. She’s the final creation, but she comes from Adam. They’re from each other. Men can’t exist without women. Women can’t exist without men. They came from each other. She came from him, but she came from under his arm, right? Not from his hands or under his feet or whatever. And so it’s this equality in the relationship itself. We have different roles. We have different things. Men can’t have babies, right? Contrary to some professors right now. But medically, it’s not possible, right? And at the same time, men have a physical strength that women don’t have. We both bring great value, but oftentimes we look at what we don’t have and then we get mad at the other instead of learning to complement each other, which is what God wanted. God wanted a great compliment, one to the other, that we would make each other better. Yeah.

Chris:
Right. There was a comedian that was making fun of marriage and hilarious, by the way, hilarious bit, you know, makes me mad a little bit. Right. But, but it was definitely funny. And he said something about, you know, marriage has a 50% failure rate. He’s like, who would ever bet on those odds and he started, you know, using scenarios of how much he would risk and bet on 50% failure. And then he said, uh, he’s like, and he goes, who would sign up for that? He goes, so he goes, I’m going to, he’s like, where’s the line that I need to stand in to lose half my stuff. So anyway, so he’s making fun of this, you know, 50% chance of dying on the way home. I think I’m going to stay here. So anyway, he’s making fun of it. But I think it’s a good reminder that Genesis chapter two, verse 18 reminds us, 18 through 24, that marriage is God’s idea. Right. So there’s a lot of people in this world that would say, well, marriage is an obsolete institution that, you know, why would we even be married anymore? Just like this comedian who says, you know, it’s like, why would I even bother with this idea? Just let’s go ahead and play house together and let’s not get married because it’s an, it’s an obsolete idea. But yet it’s, it reminds us that marriage is God’s idea. There’s a little chart here in the Life Application Study Bible, and it refers to verses that are to come all the way through Hebrews, the New Testament. However, I think that it’s important to sort of remind everybody, since this is where origins or the marriage origin starts. And just like you said, right? First mention. Right. First mention. So Genesis 2 says marriage is God’s idea. Genesis 24 says commitment is essential to successful marriage. Proverbs tells us that marriage holds times of great joy. Song of Solomon says romance is important in marriage. Malachi says marriage creates the best environment for raising children. Matthew tells us that unfaithfulness breaks the bond of trust and the foundation of relationships and marriage. Matthew tells us that marriage is permanent. Romans talks about marriage and says the only death should dissolve marriage. Ephesians mentions that marriage is based on the principle and the practice of love, not on feelings. Ephesians tells us that marriage is the living symbol of Christ in the church that is created as a reflection of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. And then Hebrews talks about how marriage is good and honorable. And so, you know, here it is. God puts it in a motion in the garden, and he does it, by the way, with perfection. So if you wonder why marriage has a 50% failure rate, guess what? It’s because we’re trying to uphold an institution that was given and established with no sin. And so, yes, in the garden, it would have been the best it’s ever been. And it could still be phenomenal, right? You and I have both been married, not to each other, but to our lives for almost the same length of time.

Jeff:
Yeah. 30 years. 32 years. 31 years for me. Okay. 32 for me. And so, right? 32? Yes. 32. And, or will it be 32?

Chris:
It must be going to be 32. It’s going to be 32. You’re right. But the point is that marriage can be hard, it can be difficult, and it is. And it’s complex, and it takes work and commitment and everything else.

Jeff:
Well, it’s hard. It wasn’t supposed to be difficult. Right. But it’s hard because it turns out my wife is married to a sinner.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
Right. And I’m married to a sinner. That’s correct. Right. That’s why it’s hard. Right. And so if we can work past that, we have to work to overcome our failures is why it’s so hard. But yeah, anyways, I interrupted you.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s okay. I just wanted to mention that just to remind everybody, if you’re questioning the institution of marriage, guess what? Marriage was God’s idea.

Jeff:
Yeah, and by the way, I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago now that was talking about how many of the recent generations, the two new generations coming up, Millennial and Gen Z, are discovering that satisfaction in life is much higher for those who choose a monogamous relationship in a married relationship. Isn’t that interesting? They thought they’d be happier running around sleeping with everybody and living with each other, but the research and the secular universities have found research The happiness quotient is way higher, even with all the dangers in marriage, is way higher for those who choose marriage. So I want to just point this out, by the way. Remember how I was saying the law of first mention, everything at the beginning is really important and it establishes everything else God intends. Notice that God’s the one who established marriage. Thus, God has authority over marriage, right? Governments can try to define things if they want to. Governments will, you know, give you or sell you a piece of paper that says, okay, you’re officially married, but that’s mostly about them tracking things, right? Trying to figure out who to tax. That’s what it’s about. But God’s the one who established marriage. Thus God’s plan for marriage between one biological male and one biological female. That’s God’s plan. for marriage. So regardless, the governments don’t determine morality, right? Governments determine taxation and legality, but they don’t determine what is moral and what is good and what is best. God did. So marriage was God’s idea, not a government’s idea. And marriage is God’s gift to humanity. And then it’s amazing within marriage, within the gift of marriage, God gives both the gift of intimacy, the gift of children, Right? These two things. And from the intimacy comes the children. And it’s amazing. If you want to look at the gift of marriage, why we know God’s gift of marriage was perfect was because this gift of intimacy, he gave them a command. I want you to go and make lots of babies. But then he made that process extraordinarily pleasurable. Right? We don’t know that he did that for fruit flies. Right. Right. But he did for humanity. And there’s a bond to that. That’s why the Bible says they become one flesh. Paul later on talks about that. We talked about it several months ago in Paul’s writings about when two people come together, a man and woman come together, they become one. Right. And, you know, don’t break apart what God put together.

Chris:
And there is a oneness to that. Even the physical act of the sexual experience is designed to be a soul to soul

Jeff:
That’s correct. Experience. Right.

Chris:
Which is why you just said it, right? So when, when, when people go running around and they’re playing house and sleeping with each other and everything else, uh, the reason why they’re so miserable and unhappy is because they can’t help it. Uh, part of their soul.

Jeff:
They’re tearing their soul.

Chris:
They’re tearing their soul away from each other. That’s what it is because it’s designed for that. And so, and so there’s a, there’s a, uh, there’s much more of an intimate, uh, deeper connection that happens with the physical act, uh, than they ever intended. Right. right? And so then people try their best to put up guardrails and mechanisms to be cold and try not to let that part of it interfere. And that’s why so many movies today, if you watch them, they’ll say, Oh, I just, I let my guard down. And all of a sudden I got the feels and all these kinds of things. Well, why do you think that it happens that way naturally? Because it’s the way that God designed us. It’s just, it’s just that that’s the way.

Jeff:
So it’s a beautiful gift is what we’re saying here. And God said, Hey, um, I want this for you. And then they, they were, you know, both naked, but they felt no shame. You ever see a little kid come flying through the living room, completely naked in front of company, right? It was no shame at all. Just having a big time, right? All that kind of stuff. It was that just total innocence. And this is the beauty of what God wanted was a total innocence for humanity. I’ve got a job for you. It’s going to be meaningful, fulfilling. You’re going to enjoy it. I’ve got intimacy that will lead to you being able to fulfill my command to fill the earth and multiply. And so God put them in paradise. This was absolute perfection. And it’s what God desires for us even today. And we’re going to talk about where it all went wrong tomorrow, but yeah.

Chris:
That’s right. Well, that looks like our time, and we’ll see you next time on The Bible Guys.