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:
Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Bible Guys. We are excited because today’s Friday and everybody loves Fridays. Friday. It’s Friday.

Jeff:
Well, unless somebody’s listening like on Saturday.

Chris:
Oh, well, you know, Tuesday. But don’t most people listen to the podcast in real time?

Jeff:
Uh, there’s a lot of people that are catching up. Are there? They found out that we’ve got like a gajillion episodes. And so they are going back and catching up to listen on other days.

Chris:
Well, if you like ketchup, then there you go.

Jeff:
But I would say the majority of our people are waiting with bated breath for it to be released at six o’clock in the morning.

Chris:
Yes. And by the way, we, we are bated breath. We are not going to do what made Chris mad today. It’s, it’s a, it’s a, we’re taking a break from that. We did it last week.

Jeff:
Which is what makes Jeff mad this week. is that we’re not doing what made Chris mad this week, yeah?

Chris:
Yeah, but instead, why don’t you read the instructions on the second one?

Jeff:
Yeah, so the instructions for this one are, let me pull it up here. This is, how well do you know them? So in today’s passage, we’re talking about the birth of Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael and all these things. And so, I’m going to have to also try to figure out my friendship and relationship with you. Yeah. That’s it. So how much do you know about me? Chris is going to ask me three to five questions about himself, and I’m going to have to see if I can answer any of them. If I really know you.

Chris:
So I, I have put together some softballs here where I think I’m going to start off with an easy one.

Jeff:
Yes. Give me an easy one. How many, how many, how many questions are we going to get? I have five. Okay. Uh, this first one is worth 250,000 points apiece.

Chris:
No, no, no. Actually they’re worth one point apiece.

Jeff:
One point. Okay. Which is even worse. That’s hardcore. I know that’s worse.

Chris:
It’s harder to make up. So, um, this is sort of a two parter. The first one should be easy. What is my favorite dessert? kind of dessert, your favorite, just category of dessert ice cream. Yeah. The ice cream. That’s, that’s not the full question. The full question is, cause I knew you knew that. What is my favorite flavor of ice cream?

Jeff:
Yes. It’s an old man flavor. It’s a, is it maple nut? No, is it? It’s one of those though.

Chris:
You are correct. It’s an old man flavor.

Jeff:
Yes. It’s not butterscotch. You’re close though. What you just said. I know. Butter pecan. Yes. I knew I was getting there. Yes. So I started with the nut. Right. Right. Right. And then got to the butter and then butter pecan. Okay.

Chris:
Here’s another one that you might know. How many hole-in-ones do I have? Two. That’s correct. Yes. I have two little ones. I remember that. Okay. Now here’s a little harder one. Okay. I think I’ve told you the story maybe only once or twice. What city did I get engaged to my wife at? Pittsburgh. Yes!

Jeff:
Yes. Okay, good memory. There you go, I knew that one. I think I’ve only ever heard that story one time. Oh, did you? It just struck me as funny that, I’m going to take my wife to, because I didn’t say, I took my wife to Olive Garden to get engaged, so fanciest place I knew. So for a boy from Youngstown, the fancy place was Pittsburgh. That’s right. Back in the 90s, early 90s. Yes, early 90s. before the city turned around. Correct. It was just like a rusty steel city. Right. That’s exactly right. But did you go to a pretty place, like a pretty park? Yes. Yes. Of course. Where the water meets and all that. Yeah.

Chris:
All that. Yep. Yep. Right off the three rivers, the whole thing. Okay. So, okay. Now this one here is, I’m not sure I’ve ever told you this number, but we’ve heard on the Bible, guys, how many sets of stitches you’ve had in your lifetime? Yes. How many sets of stitches have I had?

Jeff:
Oh, um, boy. None. Two. Two. Okay.

Chris:
One on my chin when I fell off my bike when I was six, and then one also on my chin when a dog bit me and I had to go get some stitches on my face.

Jeff:
Oh, I knew that story. I knew that story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That’s it. Just two. Well, I feel like I failed you, Chris.

Chris:
And how many, how many have you had?

Jeff:
I’ve had stitches 21 times.

Chris:
21 times, right. So big difference between the two.

Jeff:
But I haven’t had any stitches in like 10 years. This was the last one I had.

Chris:
Okay. Um, all right. Now this one’s actually a hard one. So these are getting progressively harder. Right. So, uh, you know, all of the Marvel movies, right. And I’m not, I’m not including, um, I’m not including, uh, after end game. Okay. So, so all the way from Captain America.

Jeff:
So in that, in that stream of stories, which is called phase one. Yes. Phase one.

Chris:
Okay. So, uh, in phase one, from Captain America all the way through Endgame, which is my absolute favorite Marvel movie.

Jeff:
Oh my goodness. This is a tough one.

Chris:
It is a tough one. It wins over all the other Marvel movies.

Jeff:
All the other Marvel movies. I’m going to say, what’s the Scarlett Johansson movie? What is that? Black Widow. Black Widow. That’s what I’m going to say.

Chris:
Not even close. No? Not even close. That’s my wife’s, by the way.

Jeff:
Is that your wife’s favorite? Maybe that’s what you remember. I remember it coming up at dinner one time. I just can’t remember who it was.

Chris:
Yeah, it’s my wife’s. And here’s the reason why. My wife actually appreciates the heroes that don’t actually have the powers.

Jeff:
Right. She’s more impressed. So that’s the conversation I’m remembering is this idea of no powers. But I forgot, because between Batman and Superman, you love Superman because of the superpowers. That’s right. And you don’t like Batman because he’s just a rich guy with gadgets. I should have known that. So can I, can I hit reset on that one?

Chris:
Which by the way, let’s be clear. I don’t mind Batman. It’s just that.

Jeff:
You’re a Batman hater. Stop. You don’t get to go backwards on this one.

Chris:
Yeah. They, uh, they, they make him out to be more than he is capable of doing.

Jeff:
He’s capable of every bit of that. And. No, no, he’s not. Okay. Okay. Uh, no, then I don’t know. I don’t know.

Chris:
Pick the most outlandish over the top movie of all of them. Endgame. Close. Infinity Wars. Infinity Wars? Okay. It is because I think that in our lifetime, and perhaps maybe the lifetime of every listener regardless of how young they are, they will never ever probably see another film company accomplish what Marvel accomplished, which was to do 10 years of incredible movies and then make one movie with all of those stars in one movie. And not only that, but to actually put 10 years of movies and somehow make it one story. They, they, they, they tied it together with infinity stones, right?

Jeff:
Well, the reason why it was so difficult for me is I couldn’t think, I don’t think Zac Efron’s in, is in the Marvel universe, is he? That’s what I was trying to figure out. Sorry about that.

Chris:
But Endgame, or excuse me, Infinity Wars, between the two, Endgame was slightly the better movie. And, and, or excuse me, Infinity Wars was slightly the better movie. And I would just say, I would just say, it was so amazing. I just, I could watch that.

Jeff:
A superhero movie is amazing. More superheroes is more amazing. All the superheroes is most amazing. That’s essentially your… your philosophy on this.

Chris:
That’s a part of it. Yes. But it’s the accomplishment. It is, it is the, it is the wonder of seeing the 30 characters and you, you know, the depth and the awesomeness of every single one. Okay.

Jeff:
Well, I’m sorry. I missed that one. I should have known that one.

Chris:
It’s an epic, epic moment.

Jeff:
Yes. Okay. Are you going to let me redeem myself? Is there another one?

Chris:
No, that’s it. That’s fine. That’s it. Oh, that’s all five. But you’ve got three out of five.

Jeff:
Okay. What was the other one I missed?

Chris:
Um, you missed, uh, how many sets of stitches do I have?

Jeff:
Oh yeah. That’s, I knew about the dog bite. I didn’t know about the bicycle thing. Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. I kind of just know you a little bit. I’ve been vaguely paying attention. Mostly, I’m only listening to figure out when you’re done talking so I can tell you a more amazing story. That’s nothing. Let me tell you about this one.

Chris:
Brian Riggins says, we just wait for the lips to stop moving. You see the difference?

Jeff:
Yeah. So the fact that I got any right, it’s pretty amazing. Oh, that’s really funny. Okay. So yesterday we paused in our system or in our process here of what we were going to cover. We were supposed to talk about this topic yesterday, but instead we went and did the Sodom and Gomorrah thing. And then today we’re coming back and we’re continuing on in Genesis chapter 21. We’re going to talk about the birth of Isaac and how Hagar and Ishmael leave. Yes. Right. So, here’s what it says in verse 1, it says, That’s one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. God keeps his word and does what he promises, right? She became pregnant. And she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. And this happened at just the time God said it would. And Abraham named their son Isaac. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah declared, God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said that Abraham, to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby, yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age. And then in verse eight, it says, when Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. But Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant, Hagar, making fun of her son, Isaac. So she turned to Abraham and demanded, get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance of my son, Isaac. I won’t have it. This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son, but God told Abraham, do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. But I will also make you a nation of descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son too. So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food in the container of water and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders and then he sent her away with their son and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush, and then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “‘I don’t want to watch the boy die,’ she said as she burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. “‘Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.’ Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink, and God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer, and he settled in the wilderness of Paran. His mother arranged for him to marry a woman from the land of Egypt. So man alive, that one sinful time caused so much pain all these years later.

Chris:
And you know, there’s just, there’s so much in there. The idea of, I can’t even imagine, I can’t even fathom it. She’s wandering in the, it says it so plainly.

Jeff:
And you’ve been in the wilderness of Beersheba too. It’s just so brutally difficult.

Chris:
It’s like, it’s like, there’s only like four sentences that summarize this unbelievable thing. And we could just, we can just breeze over it. Yeah. But do you, can you put yourself in a spot where you have to be, you have to be so convinced that you’re going to die? And by the way, if you’re so convinced you’re going to die, how dehydrated are you? If you set the boy down and then walk an entire football field away and say, I just don’t want to see him or hear him. I know he’s going to die. I just can’t bear myself to be there when he does. That means that you are on the brink of death. And so she’s wandering in the wilderness, runs out of water. And then, and I’m telling you, it is just, it’s this thing where my brain, I just got to be very honest and transparent. My brain goes toward, Why God would you allow that to happen when God, you’re the one that said to Abraham, hey, don’t be afraid. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you to do. And so then what they did is they loaded them up with food and water. They sent them off. And so, you know, Hagar is thinking to herself, like, okay, you know, God said this is okay. God also said that I’m going to be, you know, the mother of a great nation and great descendants through my son. And the next thing you know, she’s absolutely convinced that she’s going to die. And I’m thinking to myself, like, why? Why would that even be necessary? Right. And to be honest with you, sometimes it makes me angry. It makes me angry that she has to even go through that. Like, why would that even be necessary, right? And there’s a part of me that thinks that God somehow, you know, He allowed certain things to happen. We know this for a fact. He allows certain things to happen because it’s a foreshadowing of Jesus coming. He allows things to happen, you know, the story of Joseph, the story of Melchizedek, you know, even Job in some ways was to serve as an example for all of us, right? And I think that sometimes the Old Testament stories play out, the story of Jonah and the whale, right? You know, and so Jesus uses it as an example for His purposes of His death, burial, and resurrection. So these stories happen, these hardships happen. But there’s a part of me that thinks, jeez, poor people, you know, they’re going through, you know, all of these different things. And I mean, even the delivering of the Ten Commandments, right? The plagues, the Passover, right? All of it pointing to Jesus. And we understand the significance of it. It’s wonderful. It’s great. But my heart goes, my heart goes out to Hagar and her son, man. It really does.

Jeff:
Yeah. So, one, We live in these modern times in the West, we live with such abundance and comfort that we forget how brutally difficult life has been for the thousands of years humanity’s been, you know, on the earth for one.

Chris:
And currently for some people on the earth.

Jeff:
So this happens to be a story. All of that is, you know, a couple weeks ago we talked about the curse on the planet. Right. It wasn’t supposed to be hard. It was supposed to be enjoyable. Right. Right. And it was hard because life is really, really hard because of sin. Sin caused it. In this situation, she’s banished because of Abraham’s sin with her and the jealousy now that that has created in Abraham’s marriage. And the fact that they were mocking the promised one of God, Isaac, who ultimately represents eventually Jesus, right? That’s who he represents. And so this is, that mocking I think is a bigger deal than the one sentence covers in there. for one. The other part of it is there, you know, I find myself sometimes getting angry at God’s decisions, either now in my everyday life or, you know, for instance, my wife, her best friend several years ago died of cancer. And I remember being so mad because I didn’t know a nicer person than Tracy. Honestly, she would pray for you quickly. I mean, she was just so quick to say, hey, let’s pray about that. She was in the word. She was incredibly generous. She was selfless in serving others. Such a kind person. Never. If you wanted to say something bad about somebody, she would always find a way to make something. I think she would say nice things about the devil. Right. If you want to. Oh, I don’t think he really meant it. Right. She was just that person. And I was when she was dying of cancer, I was so mad at God thinking, You know, Jelan was my executive assistant, and she, Cancer, same person, such a wonderfully good person. I remember thinking, God, I got a whole bunch of people that I could suggest. If you want to take them out, take them out, not her. She’s great, right? And I can remember, it was during that time when Tracy was fighting cancer, I was mad at God. that I literally, you mentioned this the other day, that you kind of had this moment when God said, I’m not done with you. I really had this strong impression that God literally, and this phrase won’t go away from me, is your morality superior to mine? Right? Is my sense of goodness superior? Because that’s what I was questioning. I was questioning, is my morality, my sense of good, superior to God’s sense of good? And he has different plans than we have, and he has different priorities than we have. So the curse is water is hard to find. Life is extraordinarily difficult. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Disease happens. The blessing, the mercy is, here she is. Hagar kind of has a habit of running away from problems. Right? She ran away from Abraham before and God met her and wouldn’t let her do it. Send her back. This time she runs away from her dying son. God meets her there. You know, he keeps meeting her. She’s, she’s causing some of her own troubles, but God keeps meeting her there. So in both of these things, which is more extraordinary? Which, would you want to live your entire life in ease and never have an encounter with God? Or would you want to have two encounters with God? in your lifetime.

Chris:
Yeah, well, the God choice.

Jeff:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s the right Sunday school answer. But I think about that, that Hagar has had two more physical, personal encounters with God than I have.

Chris:
Yeah. Right? Yeah, it’s… It’s such a desperate moment, you know, and then all of a sudden it says God opened her eyes and she saw a well. I also tried to interpret how, what does that mean? Does that mean that she’s perhaps didn’t see a well and it was there the whole time or did God perhaps do the, you know, supernatural realm well, you know?

Jeff:
I think it was supernatural. Beersheba, that region has a lot of wells. That’s probably why Abraham settled there and Isaac stayed there in that area. There’s a lot of wells there, but I don’t think it, it doesn’t say she missed a well. Right. right? It was that God let her suddenly see a well. I think it was a miracle. God met her when she was running from her problems, not able to face the difficulties. God shows up in the middle of that brokenness and says, here, let me take care of you. Not only that, he promises to bless her son. And here the whole world still, you know, the Ishmaelites still have impact on the planet.

Chris:
So we spent all of our time reacting to Hagar and Ishmael, but let’s not overlook the fact that Isaac is finally born.

Jeff:
Well, that’s the whole point of this passage, right? So we’re brokenhearted for Hagar here. But yeah, the whole point of the passage is God followed through on his promises.

Chris:
Yeah, and you said at the beginning, you said one of your favorite phrases of the Bible, the Lord kept his word and did it for Sarah exactly what he had promised. Right. Yeah, it is a great, yeah, it’s a great observation right there. That’s a strong sentence.

Jeff:
And it’s so weird. So Ishmael is 13 years old. This is 13 years after Ishmael was born. And so you have this young teenage boy, and then now you have this brand new baby and Abraham’s 100 years old. Sarah’s 90 years old. And so Sarah just thinks it’s funny. So she laughs in derision. you know, a couple of times when the Bible says, Hey, you know, when the angel said, Hey, you’re going to have a baby. She’s like, And the others say, hey, why is Sarah laughing? Oh, I didn’t laugh. But she was laughing. She thought it was silly. It was an absurdity that was almost incomprehensible. And one year later, now she’s laughing going, I just can’t believe God did this. The joy going from being dismissive and derisive to just pure joy.

Chris:
And not only that, but like any woman who would hear that she had a baby at 90 would laugh. They’d be like, that is crazy, but laugh with a joyful kind of way, right? Like, that’s so sweet. And I can’t believe it, but wow, who would have ever known? You know, and we always think that too, you know, whenever circumstances play out, you know, we can’t see the future, but we get there and we say, who would have ever thought? You know, we have those kind of comments, you know. And you know what? All of life is that way. But the answer to that question is God would have. God would have thought. God would have predicted it because God knows. And so there’s all these moments in our lives where we look back and we see God’s faithfulness, and wouldn’t it be great to just know what God knows? And if you know what God knows, that everything’s going to work out and God’s going to be faithful, you know what that’s really called? Trusting his promises. That’s right. That’s what that is. So if we have the ability to look into the future and know what God knows and everything’s going to work out, it is literally the same as if just assuming that God is going to work it out and that we’re going to trust his promises. That’s really good.

Jeff:
So my mom and my dad had two more sons. So Mark and I are five years apart. And then when I was 19, and again, when I was 20, my two youngest brothers were born. I was in college. Wow. Right. And so at my church, my pastor called my dad, Abraham, all the time. He was like 52 or something when the boys were born. Wow. And he called him Abraham all the time and they tease him, but that’s half of Abraham’s age. Right. It’s so bizarre. And that’s why God waited to that moment is there’s just no human way that this could have been manufactured. Right. It was only God’s way.

Chris:
And by the way, your dad’s age when, when he had those kids is our age now. Yeah. Right. When, by the way, the thought of Liz having a child and myself having a child together makes me want to take a nap right now.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. My, my dad was very, very young and virile when he was, when he was our age. So my mom is substantially younger than my dad. My mom’s like 15 years younger than my dad. So at least it makes sense for her. Right. Right.

Chris:
So, well, Hey, it looks like that is our time.

Jeff:
So, so God keeps his promises. That’s right. And even when you’re trying to run away from your promise or from your problems, God will meet you there.

Chris:
Yes. So we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.