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 to The Bible Guys. I’m Chris, this is Jeff, and today we have an exciting episode for you.

Jeff:
Oh, it’s going to be the most exciting episode of the week.

Chris:
We have no idea what we’re talking about, but we both love this segment.

Jeff:
I’m going to guess it’s going to be in Deuteronomy.

Chris:
Yes, we are definitely in Deuteronomy still. But before we get to that, we have a segment by Desiree that we both love called, Would You Rather? Yes, Would You Rather? Did you ever read the book when you were a youth pastor? Did you ever use the book? Would you ever do that with your kids? No. So I have a little book on my shelf, even now, still by Doug Fields, and it’s Would You Rather questions. And there’s like 400 questions. And so what I would do is I would literally just grab the book as an icebreaker, open it up. I should do this now today still. It’d be fun. It’d be, it’d be, it’d be same thing. Like, okay, everybody. And I’d ask some person, I’d say, okay, Billy in the front row, would you rather burn to death or freeze to death? And he’d have to do thumbs up or thumbs down, right? Or he’d have to pick one and the whole crowd would vote with him or against him.

Jeff:
With or against? Okay, well, hey, here’s one. Yep. Would you rather have the ability to talk to animals, but they only complain, or be able to fly, but only a few inches off the ground?

Chris:
There is no question in my mind, which is, because I can’t stand complaining from anything, anybody. So why would you invite a lifetime of complaining from animals?

Jeff:
Your cat just, you know, your cat looks like she’s complaining all the time.

Chris:
Right, right. Hey, and by the way, imagine this, imagine like you’re now all of a sudden aware of all the complaints of animals and you have to fight for them on their behalf because that’s what they’re going to be asking you to do. And then you’re going to have to try to build the case.

Jeff:
Well, I’m a hunter, so I’ve got an answer to this complaining.

Chris:
Kaboom! But all the ants, all the ants are like, listen, could you please, could you please just help us out here? Right. And you’re like, I don’t know where to begin to help you. That would be your life.

Jeff:
I would be like, quit complaining. I’m going to turn you into sausage.

Chris:
To the, to the, not to the ants.

Jeff:
Okay. Yeah, probably not.

Chris:
Yeah. All right. Number two, would you rather have your life narrated by Morgan Freeman or by a cartoon character of your choice?

Jeff:
Oh, Morgan Freeman. Well, for sure.

Chris:
That’s almost like, it’s like, it’s like, let me give you the number one choice or a goofy choice.

Jeff:
Right. Although if you did have a cartoon character narrate your voice, who would it be?

Chris:
Oh, wow. I mean, it would have to be some sort of an epic like 007 type.

Jeff:
I think for you, I can envision Bart Simpson being the one that narrates your entire life.

Chris:
Bart Simpson has an irritating voice.

Jeff:
Yeah, but he’s kind of sassy. Okay.

Chris:
He’s going to make up for your, you’d have to have a cool voice that you want to listen to. Isn’t that the point?

Jeff:
No, I’m choosing quality of the voice choosing for you. So not for me.

Chris:
Okay. Well then I’m going to choose the, uh, who is it? No, no, no. I was going to choose, uh, the, the, the Australian guy, Steve Irwin, Steve Irwin. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff:
Yeah. Is he a cartoon character?

Chris:
Oh, I see. I see. Um, well, okay.

Jeff:
Anyways. Yeah.

Chris:
This is too much time.

Jeff:
Would you rather have a permanently itchy nose or a permanently ticklish foot?

Chris:
I’d have to go with foot, I guess. Cause you can itch it without drawing attention to it, but it sounds like what you’re, cause tickling is kind of the same thing, right?

Jeff:
Cause you’re ticklish foot, itchy nose.

Chris:
Well, ticklish foot, you’d have to sort of like adjust it or move it or rub it.

Jeff:
They both seem miserable to me.

Chris:
Oh, well, yeah. I mean, this is like eternal torture. Yeah.

Jeff:
So which one did you choose?

Chris:
I chose the foot, I guess. Foot? Okay. I think I would choose foot too. Yeah. People are looking at your nose. Number four, would you rather live in a world where you have to dance everywhere you go or sing everything you say?

Jeff:
That is your world. Both of those things. No, it’s not. Yeah. You like to sing and dance. I just don’t. Actually. Like the pirates of Penzance?

Chris:
I actually don’t know how to dance that well, but I wish I did.

Jeff:
I dance worse than you. Do you? I have proven that. But I’ll tell you what. We shot a dance video for Crying Out Loud. That’s true. And pretty much all the videos are me chest high.

Chris:
Yes, yes. But I would definitely say between the two, Oh, my word. Those are both awful. Just awful. Sing everything you say. I’d have to sing, I guess. Good morning. Good morning. Because dancing would be so distracting. Nobody would want to look at you.

Jeff:
Right. But you wouldn’t be able to preach singing.

Chris:
I tell you what, you’d be in better shape if you danced everywhere you went.

Jeff:
You would.

Chris:
Yep. You’d be physically fit. That’s for darn sure. All right. Last one.

Jeff:
Go for it.

Chris:
Okay. Would you rather be a character in your favorite TV show? Ooh, me. Yes, please. Or be able to bring your favorite TV character into real life? Ooh.

Jeff:
Oh, gee whiz. First of all, I’m having a hard time thinking of who my favorite TV character is. Yes. Um, Magnum PI.

Chris:
Magnum PI. That’s funny. You’re going deep on that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I honestly would rather be a character in my favorite TV show. Would you? I would. Yeah. Because the excitement of that thought is better than the excitement of like Magnum P.I.

Jeff:
being real. Who would you be?

Chris:
Oh, I don’t know what character I would be, but which TV show? That’s the more important question.

Jeff:
Yeah. So would you rather be a character in your favorite? So it’s specifically your favorite TV show has to be determined first.

Chris:
Which I think I would pick Big Bang Theory.

Jeff:
Big Bang Theory, and who would you want to be?

Chris:
Well, I’d have to be my own character. I couldn’t replace a character.

Jeff:
No, it’s a character in your TV show. Oh, so you’re reading this like you get to be in your favorite TV show?

Chris:
Yes, like I’m the neighbor across the hall.

Jeff:
I think she’s asking, would you want to be one of the characters in your favorite TV show?

Chris:
Like replace somebody? Well, why would I want to be somebody else other than me? I don’t know. Well, then therefore I’d have to choose the second one because the first one now is a terrible option. Okay.

Jeff:
Okay. I don’t know.

Chris:
Hey, would you rather not be you or live around somebody who’s your favorite? That’s correct. Oh, that’s, that’s not a good question. Okay. I think it’s my thing. I think it’s, would you rather be a, uh, would you rather be you in your favorite TV show?

Jeff:
We, we, uh, we did one similar to this a while back and I think I chose to be Hannibal Lecter. Ooh. No, not Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal from, uh, uh, A-Team.

SPEAKER_00:
Okay, good. I was like, wow. Wrong Hannibal. I’m going to eat your liver with a nice Chianti. I was like, wow, bro, that is a really weird choice. Oops, I said that out loud. Jeez. That is a massive mistake.

Jeff:
Wrong one. No, I meant to say Hannibal from the A-team.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
Yes. Remember, I think I went on the record as saying that.

Chris:
Yeah, I think so. The A-team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I’ll tell you what, we’ve got to get out of that. We’ve got to rescue ourselves from this. Yeah, let’s rescue ourselves. Let’s go into Deuteronomy chapter 21.

Jeff:
So we’ve already talked about as a transition, I don’t even know that there is a good transition.

Chris:
No, there is not. There is not. Because I was like, I didn’t want to react. I was like, I don’t know what you’re saying right now.

Jeff:
Cause that is terrible. I want to be a serial killer. That’s a, that’s terrible. Terrible. Sorry about that. Cannibal serial killer. Freudian slip.

SPEAKER_00:
Gee whiz. Wow.

Jeff:
Okay. So anyways, we have talked about the laws of God. The laws of God. We’ve talked about the Levitical laws. We’ve talked about the fundamental laws about loving God and loving people. But then what we haven’t talked about at all through all these is all the social laws God set up. So Leviticus was primarily, it’s what we call the Levitical law. Those were the laws about the worship of God and about sacrifices and all those things. Then a chunk of Exodus, a chunk of Numbers, and then a good chunk of Deuteronomy is establishing socially how the law was supposed to go. Now that’s different from how your laws for your nation are supposed to go versus the laws of the nation of Israel. There was no king for the laws of the nation of Israel, so God established those laws. Here’s all the consequences, all the rules, all the guidelines. And so I just think it’s interesting to look at how detailed God got with all the different laws. And so we’re going to read Deuteronomy chapter 21. Start off with verse… what is it? 22? Let’s do it. Yeah. He says, if someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day for anyone who was hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the Lord your God has given you as your special possession. If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner. If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. then you must return it. Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility. If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet. A woman must not put on men’s clothing and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the Lord your God. If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting on the nest, do not take the mother with the young. You must take the young but let the mother go so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life. When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof. You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your vineyard. If you do, you’re forbidden to use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop. Must not plow with an ox and a donkey harness together. Must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together. You must put four tassels on the hem of the cloak which you cover yourself on the front back and on the sides.” And he just goes on, man. He talks about marriage. He talks about money. He talks about loaning things. He talks about workers. He talks about servants. He talks about planting. He talks about fields. He talks about water. He talks at one point, about what to do with our waste. It’s one of the funniest verses in the Bible. Just a couple chapters after this, he goes, if you’ve got to do your business, he says, go outside the camp, dig a little hole, do your business, and then cover it over. That’s what he says. And then the very next verse says, because I, the Lord, your God, walk among you in the camp.

SPEAKER_00:
That’s hilarious.

Jeff:
Isn’t that funny? It’s a hysterically funny verse. But God tells the people of Israel what to do about it. Your clothes, what you can and can’t wear, the fabrics, how to treat your neighbor’s animals and lost stuff and build railings around the roof of your house. He covers everything.

Chris:
Yeah, and by the way, I remember one time you even told me this, and I remember hearing your explanation, that particular verse about burying your waste. Back then, they would have never known the medical benefits from that, right? Which goes to show you, like, it’s almost further evidence that the Bible is from God and it’s not from man, right? So, you want to just have a little fun and explain what that means?

Jeff:
Well, it’s consistent with the first verse. So, he said, hey, if somebody has to be executed, bury them today. Right? Same reason, he said, because you don’t want to defile your land. And they would have thought it’s just, it’s defiling because this criminal, but it’s not. It’s rotting bodies are bad for the water. They’re bad for everything. So, in that case of, you know, if we had read the other verses about what to do with regard to your waste, this was written 2,000 years before Jesus. This is 4,000 years old, right? Almost. And they wouldn’t have understood if God had said, hey, listen, there’s bacteria in human waste. It’s going to make you sick. You’re going to get E. coli. You’re going to get whatever. And it makes you sick. It’s going to kill you if you’re not careful. He doesn’t explain the idea of germs. He doesn’t explain the idea of bacteria that they can’t see. He doesn’t explain the fact that there are organisms in the topsoil that neutralizes human waste within about 36 hours and usually in the top eight or nine inches. We didn’t even discover that until the middle of the 20th century. Right? And so what’s happened is around the world where people just went on the ground and didn’t cover, where animals just go on the ground, now E. coli in our ponds and in our rivers and lakes is usually caused by either raccoons or Canadian geese. Right? And we just didn’t know. We didn’t know what it’s caused by. And so what happened is people didn’t obey and water was polluted all around the world. More people die from water than almost any bad water than almost anything else in the world, even today. And so what was happening for the Jewish people, like back during the Middle Ages, it’s one of the reasons why Europe hated the Jews so much, is they seemed to live when others died, whether it was in the plagues or whether it was in other things. But they didn’t, they managed their waste in their parts of the towns and in the villages. I was just in Venice the other day, in the very first ghetto. Do you know where the word ghetto comes from? It comes from… What? The word ghetto was where the Jews were allowed to live inside of Venice, and it was where a copper furnace was. And it means copper furnace. That’s what ghetto means. It’s really interesting. So, but they had very little disease in their area. It was because they managed their waste and they kept vermin out, rats, right? So, it was really surprising even there in Venice. And that’s where that word spread throughout the rest of the world was the word ghetto came from this copper furnace concept is where they lived.

Chris:
Well, I would have guessed the word grotto came from Italy, but you’re saying the word ghetto came from Italy.

Jeff:
Yeah. So it was Venice required that the Jews live there. But it was because the people of Europe believed that maybe they were magic or that they were witches in some way, because they lived. When everybody else was dying from the plague, they didn’t, hardly. Some did, but not many. And it was because they didn’t allow rats. It was because they kept cats. Well, that’s where the cats came from. Right? Right. In Europe, this idea that witches have cats. It was because God says, don’t allow vermin in your homes. God says, keep the waste out of your house, bury it, wash it away, don’t allow it. Everybody else is just pitching out the window. It’s in the streets and they just hope the rain came. Right. Right? But not the Jews. And so what happened was the people did not understand all the rules, why God made the rules. They didn’t understand bacteria, they didn’t understand germs, they didn’t understand any of those things, but God said, if you do these things, you’ll live, and if you don’t do these things, you’ll die. So, the laws of nature—this is a continuation of our conversation from yesterday—the laws of nature are God’s consequences for living the wrong way. Now, on occasion, he intervenes supernaturally. Right? That’s a miracle, is what we call that. All the rest of the time, if you, you know, I came home with a disease a while back, I was overseas, and I wound up eating some contaminated something or other and came home sick from it. That doesn’t have to be necessarily God’s overt supernatural curse on me. Sure. It was that I broke a law of nature, and there’s a consequence to that, right? Well, you didn’t. Somebody did. Yeah, somehow. Yeah, somehow. I consumed something where the law of nature was broken. So, and I’m still sick from it, by the way. You’re not in any danger, but yeah, so these laws that God puts out there, we may not always understand them, right? We might not understand, hey, how come he says, go ahead and take the eggs, don’t take the mom, right? Well, if you take all the moms, there’s not gonna be more eggs. That’s why, right? Why do I have to build a railing? It’s not a God’s business what I put around the roof of my house. And God’s saying, listen, somebody’s going to die. And then when somebody dies, there’s a consequence for your family. So just put a railing around. There’s no problem. He has an answer for every single thing. We don’t always necessarily understand why, but God is right every time.

SPEAKER_00:
Right. Every time he’s right. He’s right.

Jeff:
So even when I can’t wrap my head around the justice of God or the morality of God, my morality and justice is not superior to God’s. So I have to come to this place where I go, okay, he’s right. And if I don’t understand it, it might be because I’m wrong.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, we talked about that last Sunday, in fact. Remember where I talked about childlike faith? And I say, you know, even in terms of our salvation, in our own intellect, we try to reason and understand when God says, if you just trust me and put your faith in me, you don’t have to understand, you have to believe and trust in me, right? And the sacrifice of Christ in that case. Hey, another thing that stands out in this passage that we read is that there’s so many applications to the statement, do unto others what you would have them do for you.

Jeff:
Oh, yeah, especially for people who lose things or whatever.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, there’s, you know, they talk about sheep, they talk about a neighbor’s donkey and ox collapsing for assistance, you know, go back and help them. And so it’s the idea that, you know, Jesus later on just says, you know, treat others the way that you would have them treat you. to love others the way that you love yourself. And I love that idea because, as you said, because there was no governmental laws and God is establishing, you know, and basically explaining to everybody, hey, if this situation arises, here’s how you should act. Here’s how you should respond. And I love that because, you know, again, you and I, We, this is a challenge for us every day because we see somebody who’s, you know, hurting and then, you know, we don’t back up and we don’t go help our neighbors.

Jeff:
Right? God calls it our responsibility.

Chris:
Right. Yeah. Right. He said, he said, assume it’s your responsibility because you’re the one witnessing the sheep going astray.

Jeff:
And he says a couple of times, don’t ignore your responsibility. Right. So he’s driving that idea home. God says something one time, you know, I think he means it. He says it two or three times, you probably go, yeah, I think he really means it.

Chris:
Yeah. It reminds me of that, when I stopped to help that girl who’s stuck in the snow. Yeah. Yeah. I think I told it, but the idea is like, I got out of my car, I was in the snow. I literally, my clothes were soaking wet and I used all my strength, pushed her out of the snow. And instead of even stopping and waving, she just, Pulled away.

Jeff:
She was so relieved. You rescued her.

Chris:
I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Jeff:
This was one of your what made Chris mad this week.

Chris:
Yes. And I was just actually thinking to myself like, okay, this is perhaps the reason why people don’t stop and help people. Right?

Jeff:
So, it’s interesting, he affirms the idea that there are crimes that are worthy of death, and that’s always a surprise to people. So, where you and I are forbidden from executing, this is a government rule, right? And that’s why he says, hey, the government carries a sword. Paul says here, so there are, you know, if you murder then your life’s supposed to be taken, those kinds of things. He goes on, he talks about possession. He talks about, if you go further, he talks about sexual issues in society.

Chris:
Yeah, purity.

Jeff:
Yep. He talks about regulations for worship. He talks about immigration. He talks about harvest. He talks about tithes. He talks about the idea of leaving your fields fallow every seven years, right? Rotate your crops. Rotate your crops. Are you serious? We didn’t even realize we needed the road to hit our crops until a couple hundred years ago. Right. Right. But he’s talking about this 4,000 years ago. Right. And it’s the incredible detail. He doesn’t explain it. He talks about leaving extras in the field for the poor, right? Hey, be a generous society. He’s trying to tell them from the very beginning, listen, you don’t have to go to the very corner when you’re harvesting. You can go ahead and leave a little bit for the other people. If you drop a bunch of grapes, go ahead and leave them. If you forget something on a vine, that’s okay. Let the poor people have them. He’s using this as a God’s given you plenty you can share with the people around you. He goes on and he just unveils so many practical things for society. Now, again, I want to reaffirm, these are not the law for your society. These were the laws that God set in place for their society who had no king. Right? Right. Book of Romans, chapter 14, tells us we’re supposed to obey the laws of our culture. Right. Right.

Chris:
Which sometimes, you know, that is challenging. We have the speed limit says, 25, and it is, in my mind, radically unreasonable for that stretch of road to be 25, right? Or sometimes when I go to Youngstown, Ohio, which is my hometown, everything’s 55. Every freeway is 55. Wow. That’s Ohio. They need to slow down. You know, so like on the road, on the road, that’s right next to us right here. You know, even even ones that aren’t like main freeways are like 70, right? Like, like, like, I’m 59.

Jeff:
And I-69 that goes past my mom and dad, the speed limit is 75 on the freeway. It’s great.

Chris:
Yes. So it’s like, but I go home and it’s like 55. Well, my father visited me and you know, he doesn’t come up to Michigan very often, but I was actually going, I think the speed limit was 70 and I think I was going like 75, right? And again, obey the laws of the land. Do I believe that that was wrong? Yes. Do I fall short and sin all the time? Yeah, I do. But again, I would just justify it in my own little mind by saying, if had I not gone 75, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with people around me, right? So I’m going to be dangerous, but I’m going to say, yeah, I’m going to say, yeah, that’s right.

Jeff:
You have to be willing to pay the price. That’s right. Right. So, so a social thing like this, you’re not going to hell for it. Right. Social thing like this is you better be ready to pay the price.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
And there’s social consequences. He writes those two in here. So if you’re willing to pay the ticket, right.

Chris:
If the police officer pulls me over, it’s my fault. Yep.

Jeff:
That’s right. So I’ve always understood that the reason why they drive 55, two things, one, they drive 55 in Ohio because they’re slower people. The other one is I’ve always been surprised down there near Youngstown, how many of the road signs are written in crayon.

SPEAKER_00:
Those are so good.

Chris:
They’re really good. That’s why you keep on using them over and over. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard you say that the crayon thing is really funny.

Jeff:
We’ll talk slower.

Chris:
So I’ll slow down. Yeah. So anyway, the point is, is that, uh, my father comes up and he sees me driving 75 and he goes berserk. He’s in the back, ah, slow down, slow down, because he spends his whole life probably going like 45 when it’s 55, right? So anyway, but the laws of the land are there and we are commanded to obey the laws of the land. And the only reason, the only way that we are to disobey the laws of the land are if they conflict with the laws of God.

Jeff:
That’s right.

Chris:
Right. If there was a decree that came out that said we were not allowed to publicly worship or, you know, like, like Daniel, right? Daniel, you know, the only thing that you should ever bow down to is the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. And then Daniel’s like, ah, no, that’s not going to happen.

Jeff:
Same thing with the three Hebrew children, right? Yeah. So, for us, what we have to be careful of is a couple things. One, you have a vote. We are unique in human history in this way that we are Caesar, right? And so we have to use our votes well, we have to advocate for our positions, we need to communicate with those that represent us, all those kinds of things I think is important. But at the same time, I cannot mix up the idea that the laws of the land are my morality.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
Our government is not an arbiter of what is moral. Right. Our government has only determined what is legal. And just because it’s legal doesn’t make it moral. That’s right. And if they decide that they’re going to outlaw a thing that God says we should do, again, they cannot make a thing that God has said is moral immoral. Right. Right. And so we have to have a strong voice. We have to speak up. We have to participate in our process. But then we also have to determine the fact that just because a thing is legal doesn’t make it moral. Just because they outlaw a thing doesn’t make it immoral. God is the arbiter of what is moral and immoral.

Chris:
That is a massive distinction that people probably don’t take the time to separate or differentiate, you know, which is awesome. Hey, well, that’s just about our time. So we will see you next time, hopefully on The Bible Guys.