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Foreign.
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The frigid Missouri Ozarks Greetings and welcome to the Gilbert House fellowship for Sunday, January 18, 2026. I'm Derek Gilbert.
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I am Sharon Gilbert. Welcome to our living room where we we live and make room for ourselves. We are delighted to have you here actually. And if you have just joined us for the first time, found us and you don't know how. Welcome to the Gilbert House Fellowship.
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Absolutely.
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We're glad you're here.
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Thank you very much. You can subscribe to the podcast any number of places, wherever fine podcasts are sold, as we like to say. Although this is absolutely free if you're on YouTube. Thank you. Thank you. Subscribe Share Click the bell for notifications. Please leave your comments below and then download our free mobile app@gilberthouse.org app the reason being, yeah, we will never get canceled from our own app. It's available for iOS, Android, Amazon, Kindle, Fire devices. We got big screen versions. If you want to put us on your smart TV or set top box like Roku or Amazon Fire tv, Apple TV as well, you can do that. But the mobile device has a lot of interesting and additional features including a Bible, multiple translations, audio Bible and the community section which is called Groups I think. But just look for little talk bubbles in the top right hand corner of the app and then you can join the communities there and asking questions, sharing thoughts and ideas on these programs and studies and asking for prayer.
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That is the important sharing your praise reports and your prayer needs to the group and making new friends.
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Yeah, and this is why we started this back in 2014. We'd been approached by people at conferences saying, do you know where I can find a good church that teaches verse by verse exegesis from the Bible? Because I can't find one near me. So we decided to do it virtually and so we've become sort of a virtual congregation. And again, we really appreciate you joining us.
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A
You know, that's tragic that most churches that call themselves evangelical or you know, doctrinally sound, whatever they the terms they want to use, that many of them just fail to teach the Bible.
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Yeah, yeah. Some pastors out there, I won't say many, but there are some and some who do.
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Mike Spalding is one.
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Well, yes, Mike is a really good verse by verse exegesis teacher Doug Van Dorn, also a friend of ours who's got Hamp. Doug Hamp. Yep. Mondo Gonzalez was a pastor of a church for a long time now hosting prophecy watchers, but taking the same approach. You basically don't cherry Pick a few verses to come up with a theme for your sermon this week. You dive into the text and say, okay, this week we're going to go into. In this case, we start with Isaiah 6. I know the calendar says Isaiah 5 today. We did that last week. I forgot to update the calendar. Yeah, but that's how you dig into the scriptures you did learn, because you got to learn them in context.
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Michael K. Lake, Paul Begley. There are so many others. I know that we're leaving some out. So if we've left you out, please forgive us. But there are so many great teachers out there.
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Yes. And Gary Stearman, who's been doing it for many, many years.
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My goodness. Yes. Yes.
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Pastor the church until well into his 80s.
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Yep. The late Tom Horn.
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Yeah. Who was a pastor for 25 years.
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Long time.
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So that's how you really dig into Scripture and learn the Bible again. I grew up in churches where the pastor would pick one or two verses and then build a sermon around it.
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Most of them do.
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Yeah. And often that is a way to get away from what the Bible is trying to teach you. And again, it's context, context, context. Just like with real estate, it's location, location, location.
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Yeah.
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Because taken out of context, some verses can really lead you down some weird paths if you're not fitting it into the whole of Scripture, the whole of the Bible.
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That's very, very true. I was blessed to grow up in an independent Baptist church that was at one time affiliated with Southern, but went independent when I was very young. And on Wednesday nights, you got verse by verse, exegesis, books like Daniel. Oh, and Revelation and Ezekiel and Isaiah and, you know, 9, 10 years old, I was getting fed.
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Yeah, we didn't. The churches I grew up in were more very liturgical denominations. High church, you know, everything is organ music. You sit on your hands because applauding is irreverent. You know, even for special music. Person would sing this wonderful solo, and then afterwards, just dead silence. So no amens or hallelujahs or preach it. None of that. So I missed out a lot growing up.
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But, hey, you're catching up. And shall we open with a word of prayer?
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Let us. Father, we thank you for bringing us together over your word this morning. And as we get into the text today, which is a window into the spirit realm, the supernatural realm, we pray, Father, that you'll help us understand the text to the best of our ability. You've told us only what we need to know, and there are so many fascinating questions that we want answers to. But help us to stay within what we can know from your word. So help us, Lord, as we study and as we speak, to add nothing to your word and take nothing away from your word. We ask for wisdom and discernment in this and in all things. In Jesus name, Amen.
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Amen. Carl Gallups.
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Oh, gosh. How could we forget Zev Porat.
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Yeah. Well, yes.
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So wonderful, wonderful teachers.
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Wonderful people.
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Definitely not the itching ears kind of teachers that.
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No. Are often they're serving up steak.
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Yes. And very much appreciated for what they do.
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I thought of Carl while you were praying because I was thinking over this chapter that we're reading today and it just reminded me of his book, Glimpses of Glory.
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Oh, yes.
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This is what this chapter is about. We're getting a glimpse into what we cannot see now.
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Yes. And so we're. Yeah, we've got a very ambitious plan of trying to get through Isaiah 8 this morning. Don't know if that's going to happen, but we'll find out in the year that King Uzziah died. And that would be around 735 BC, I think that's correct.
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It's wonderful that we get. This is how the time stamping is done in the Bible and in a lot of ancient texts in the year that so and so conquered so and so or came to the throne or whatever. Because if they had used their way of counting the date back then, it wouldn't mean anything to us.
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About 740 BC is believed when it is believed to be the year that Uzziah died.
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Got it.
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And again, he was, as we talked last week, the King of Judah, when they had that massive earthquake that was centered in central Israel along the Jordan river, because the Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, those are all along a rift, a fault line called the Dead Sea Transform, which has had some massive earthquakes throughout history.
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Oh, huge.
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And I hate to say this because I don't want to get people, you know, freaked out and thinking, you know, every little quake is going to be the next big one. But Israel, that area is long overdue for another major quake. It's been about 900 years since the last one.
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There are a lot of areas that are way overdue for a major quake.
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Yeah.
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And could be that the earth's going to start shaking soon.
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Yeah. I had a friend in college who studied geology and when he learned about the. The New Madrid fault in the Missouri boot heel.
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Yeah.
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That was all he could talk about for weeks. Do you know if it goes all the Gas lines that cross the Mississippi river will rock.
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I know. And it's overdue.
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Yeah, it is. So, yeah, there are places where we probably as humans should not have built. Well, it hasn't quite yet. That doesn't mean it never will. Anyway. In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord and here it's Adonai when it's all caps. Lord. In the Old Testament, that is a substitute for Yahweh and we will use Yahweh when we encounter those. Just because that is his name. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple.
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Now, in the Septuagint, which again, if you are new to this, one of us will read aloud and then the other one will sort of follow along. In the Septuagint, Derek's reading from the English Standard Version. But you know, that's not the only one we consult. We consult a lot of translations. But the Septuagint is wonderful because it gives you a window into 2nd century B.C. sort of era when the 70 Jewish translators were using a manuscript we don't have now, a text we don't have now. I don't know where it is. It would be wonderful if we had it in intact. But it was translated into Greek and we can see how they chose to translate things. And there are just a few things that were tweaked right later on, about a thousand years later. And our wonderful friend Doug Woodward has a two volume set called Rebooting the Bible where he explains in detail. But I have just said in one sentence, just giving you a taste of if you think Septuagint is not important, I challenge you to read those books. If you want to know more about the Septuagint, you will love those books.
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Indeed. In fact, tonight's episode of Iron and Myth with Doug Van dorn, Brian Godawa, Dr. Jud Burton. Doug's got a forthcoming book called the Battle for the Bible's Truth which deals with this subject in a very scholarly way. He focuses specifically on where and what and why Rabbis in the second century A.D. began tweaking the Old Testament to de supernaturalize it. What they did is limited and I think it's because as you said in our discussion yesterday, the Holy Spirit probably held them back from making really massive significant changes because of a reverence for the text. I think to their credit, even though they were trying to remove evidence that might convince Jews of the truth claims of Christianity, for example, the existence of a second power in heaven, the angel of the Lord. Well, no, no, that was just, you know, that was not Jesus of Nazareth. There were a number of changes and Doug goes into that in the book.
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I look forward to reading that.
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Yeah.
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By the way, Doug Woodward just lost his wife, Donna.
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Yes.
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So if you would remember him in your prayers, I know that he would appreciate that.
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Yeah. He was a recent guest on A View from the Bunker for his new
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book in the Septuagint. It says in verse one, and it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, that I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne and the house was full of his glory.
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Interesting that the Masoretic text then adds the text and the train of his robe or the hem of his robe filled the temple.
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Yeah, it almost. Okay, you don't want to fill the temple. Okay. Maybe this is in the temple in another dimension, but that's not exactly clear. In the Septuagint just says, and the house was full of his glory, verse 2.
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This is where we're going to spend some time. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Now, feet is a euphemism for genitalia. So this was a modesty sort of thing. Yeah, they weren't covering their feet. What were the seraphim we look at? Also the New English translation or the Net Bible. And then I'm also going to switch over to the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, which is a reference book that if you can find a hard copy, will probably cost you about 90 or 95 bucks. It's available much, much cheaper if you've got Logos Bible software. Anyway, the. The reason we look at the Net Bible, it's a good translation, but it's mainly for their translators notes where they explain why they chose to translate certain things the way they did. And they really dig into the etymology of words and things, alternate meanings and stuff like that. And you can access all of that online for free@netbible.org we've got a number of links. If you go to our website, Gilberthouse.org, left hand column toward the bottom, links to sources that we resources that we like, like Blue Letter Bible, Bible Hub and so forth. Seraph is the singular form of seraphim. And in Hebrew it derives from a word that means to burn. So the seraphim literally would mean burning ones, suggesting that these creatures had a fiery or radiant appearance. In fact, there are some translations, like the contemporary English version. The CEV renders it flaming creatures. The NCV translation renders it heavenly creatures of fire. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, though, the word seraph refers to serpentine entities like Numbers 21, verse 6. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. Seraph, Nakash. And the nakash is the word translated serpent. Back in Genesis chapter three, the serpent in the garden. So it is likely that we are dealing with something of serpentine appearance. Now, the translators of the Net Bible say perhaps they were called burning ones because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites. Okay, maybe. And this is where scholars looking for a naturalistic explanation say, okay, they were probably referring to the saw toothed viper, which is native to the Negev and the Sinai. And when it would bite you, you would get a, you know, a fever resulting from the venom. Yeah. Except six wings. Snakes don't got wings.
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Yes, Mrs. G. In Egyptian mythology, there is a deity called Serapis.
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Yeah. That was a blending of, I think, Bacchus and Osiris, if I'm not mistaken.
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Blending aspects of Osiris, APIs, the APIs bull.
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Right, okay.
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Zeus and Hades. Because this is a psychop. And also a healing deity. So it gets into the Rephaim aspect and the netherworld. Yeah.
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Interesting.
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Yeah.
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Also, I had not connected Serapis and the seraphim.
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Ah, you hadn't. Well, now you have to. It'll never get out of your head now. Also, in the verse in the Septuagint, it says, and seraphs stood round about him. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. With two they flew. But in verse three, we're about to get into it is a wonderful section of Elijah, the oratorio by Mendelssohn.
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Yeah.
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There's a section where the seraphim are singing and one cryeth to another, holy, holy, holy is Sabaoth. It is wonderful because the dynamics in it will just send chills down your spine.
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Mendelssohn was a wonderful composer.
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Oh, my goodness. Because you get a. Almost like you've got a group around the throne. Very close. Maybe a quartet.
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Yeah.
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Which is repeated by this massive choir sound as if all of heaven is singing and repeating it. I think music in heaven is going to be. Well, we can't even imagine.
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Yeah. If it's not barbershop quartet, it'll be something even better.
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It will be Mendelssohn.
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It'll be barbershop quartet singing Mendelssohn we did the Hallelujah chorus when I sang with the Ambassadors of Harmony.
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That's ambitious. Yeah, yeah, I've sung that too. And many of you listening, I bet you have too, because you can go to a performance and it's a sing along performance. Have you ever been to those?
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Oh yeah, I've taken part.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, it was. That was one take your music with you. I love that. Yeah, that, that. By the way, the holy. Holy. Holy is called the trisagion Tryon.
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Try saying that 10 times.
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I, I will not. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible wanted to go through this just a little bit because there is a very long entry for. Well, the decent entry for it.
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And while you. Before you actually read the entry, I just want to do a shout out to Kenny C. Because I remember giving a presentation in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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Yeah.
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And Kenny was in the audience. And I can't remember if he shouted out because I mentioned the DDD and if you shouted out, I've got a copy. Or if he told us he was going to get a copy. But he sometimes posts about, you've got to get the DDD because it's. It will help. It will help you to know so much about what's in the Bible.
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Right.
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Because the Bible is very supernatural.
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It is. And that's not always how it's taught in our churches. It certainly wasn't in the churches that I grew up in. But it's a very scholarly reference work that we look at.
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It is a lot.
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At least once a week, if not more often. Especially when writing.
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I've been guilty of sitting down. If I don't have a book with me, I will put on a plane or something because I've got a digital copy of the DDD and I will go through it and just sometimes pick an, Pick a letter.
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Yeah.
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Say I'll pick E and I'll read all of the entries under E. Yeah.
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I used to do that with encyclopedias, but.
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Yeah, me too.
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Some really fascinating things in here.
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Sometimes copy them out. Really? Yeah. That's pretty strange.
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The seraphim according to the DDD and again, this is very scholarly work. This is basically peer reviewed academic level research. I mean you can get through it and understand. You don't need to have a PhD to read it and understand it. The seraphim now conce as winged serpents with human attributes. The word seraph comes from the verb seraph to burn, incinerate or destroy. Which is interesting when you think about Psalm 78, when God sent A company of destroying angels to destroy the crops and the cattle of the Egyptians. Since the verb is transitive, seraph probably denotes an entity that annihilates by burning.
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Yes.
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Flying serpent that destroys things by burning. What would you call that exactly?
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Because a transitive verb takes an object. You're doing something to something.
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Yes. And flying fiery serpent that burns things up. That. That would be a dragon, would it not?
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Scary.
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Yeah. While the etymological sense is thus the one who burns enemies, etc. The term probably refers several. The term refers several times to some serpentine being. Interestingly, though, some scholars hold that the connection to the Hebrew verb seraph is only a secondary association. The original edemon being the original source word is the Egyptian homonym, a word that sounds exactly like another word, seraph, which means griffin.
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A
That's interesting. So getting back to the deity Serapis, is it called a griffin in the idea that a griffin is a compilation of other things?
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Yeah, I, I sort of like, I don't know much about serapis and let me look in the DDD here and see if there's a. Oh. Because there probably is an entry for it. But griffin, in case you're not familiar with the term, is a creature legendary with the body, tail and hind legs of a lion. The head, wings and front talons of an eagle. In other words, representing one that is the king of beasts and the king of birds.
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Oh, oh, the prophecy of the lion that had eagle's wings.
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Yes, yes. In Daniel.
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Yes. Now isn't that interesting? Yeah. Don't know why it never occurred to me that that's also a griffin.
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King of the beasts, king of the sky. Seen as divine beings in Persian cultures, but obviously the Egyptians knew what they were as well and famously guarded gold mines in India and treasures for gods like Apollo.
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You know, Interesting too. And it could be that some of you listening out there have also thought of this, the never ending story. The alleged luck dragon was a dog with wings.
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Yeah. Now this makes sense.
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I'm saying that's a lion, but it had a dog kind of look. Not that lion is like. It's actually a cat, but interesting.
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And the luck dragon was, in a way, it was a kind of falkor. Yeah. It was similar to the Mesopotamian conception of an entity called the Bashmu, which was a. A lion dragon.
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That's right.
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Yeah. Or a lion's serpent, you know.
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Yeah. I'll admit, I. I love that movie. The never ending story.
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There is now an emerging consensus that the Egyptian Uraeus serpent was the original source of the seraphim motif, it is the snake that's always on the headdress of the Egyptian pharaohs.
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Yeah.
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The coloring of the hood almost made it look like it had six wings. And again, that's sort of a naturalistic explanation for the seraphim.
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It is a supernatural entity that genuinely exists.
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Yeah.
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And Isaiah had to have been, well, frankly, terrified.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. What's interesting here, too, is that in. In Isaiah 6, and really, this is the only place in the Bible where you see the seraphim specifically, but the flying fiery serpents of numbers, chapter 21, the ones that were biting the Egyptians in the. In the desert, they created the bronze serpent on the pole, Nehushtan, that later became an object of veneration. So it was destroyed by Hezekiah.
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Yeah, There's a giant one of those on top of Mount Nebo, and it's really creepy. Yeah, yeah.
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Those were probably seraphim as well. But again, the consensus of scholars is that the seraphim were radiant or fiery in appearance, that they were serpentine, they were winged. And because the word is used interchangeably in Isaiah 14, Isaiah 31, Numbers 21, Again, the idea that you got a flying fiery serpent probably also references to seraphim. But then that begs the question, are the nakash also seraphim?
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A
Good question.
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B
Yeah. Was the nakash in the garden in Genesis 3 a seraph? I think that's entirely possible. But here they're guarding the throne of God, like the cherubim. So apparently they had a similar function.
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A
Now, interesting in. I think it's. Is it Isaiah 14 where you get the description of, you know, you were covered in all precious stones and numbers 28, and you were either one of the Caravim or with the caravan.
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B
Yeah. And the Septuagint. And again, that's one of the areas where we notice a change in our Bibles. It says you were the guardian, and that's how the Hebrews. That's how Israelis pronounce it, Jews. In Hebrew, it's Cherub, not Cherub. The cherub that covers. And that had always puzzled me because we know from Ezekiel 1 and 10 what the caravim looked like. Four faces, human, lion, eagle, ox, nothing snake. Like at all about the Caravim. So it suggests that the. The entity then in Ezekiel 28 was not the entity in the garden, but in the Septuagint, the entity thrown out of Eden was ejected by the guardian cherub. Yeah, he wasn't the guardian cherub. He was thrown out.
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Right.
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And that was a change by the rabbis because they were trying to de. Supernaturalize, you know. Okay, no, no, no. These other sons of God that you mentioned in Genesis 6, and according to Doug, that was really the trigger for all of this. These sons of God are not supernatural beings. They're just faithful humans.
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Yes, very true. My point being, and this is why I brought it up, these are with the Caravim.
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B
Yes, yes. Because the Caravim would presumably be there as well.
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A
And if the Nakash or whatever it was that was described had been with the Caravim, according to the Septuagint, and then kicked out. Dragon.
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Yeah, dragons. And that's why we named our book Giants, Gods and Dragons. We believe the seraphim, when you piece it all together again, they incinerate the enemies with fire. Leviathan is described as, you know, breathing, sneezing out coals of fire and dragons.
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It's why I have characters that are supernatural in the Red Wing saga that refer to themselves as dragons.
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B
Yeah. Now think about that. We're not stretching the Bible beyond the evidence here and looking at what scholars have found in the cultures around ancient Israel, because as Mike Heiser used to say, guess what? The prophets and apostles read books. They knew what their neighbors believed. And that is often reflected in Scripture and often as polemic against what their neighbors believed. But, so you want to read verse
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two again and then go to three.
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Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And I would say if the seraphim is plural, it would have to be.
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It says they in the Septuagint, they
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would make more sense. And one called to another and said, holy. Holy. Holy is Yahweh of armies. The whole earth is full of his glory.
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Now, this is very interesting. This is a prophetic vision.
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Oh.
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Because right now the whole earth is not full of his glory.
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True.
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Is it then, that what Isaiah is seeing is after the Lord arrives in heaven and after he returns to earth and is sitting on the throne in Jerusalem and the whole earth is filled with his glory.
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B
Yes, True. And in fact, that verse in Hebrew can also be translated, may his glory fill the whole earth.
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A
Ah, well, in the Septuagint it does say, the whole earth is full of his glory.
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Right. But yeah, the. It either is looking forward to. It is a prophetic statement.
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But verse four, if you read it, and we'll see.
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B
And by the way, just another comment here from the Faith Life Study Bible. The Fact that the Seraphim have six wings and the Caravim have four may suggest that the seraphim had a higher rank.
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A
Oh, that's interesting.
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Yeah. Yeah. Verse 4. And the foundations of the thresholds. Oh. The thresholds shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke.
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A
Okay, don't go. Don't go on. Because. And then we get Isaiah's reaction to all this. But if this is prophetic, the whole earth is full of his glory, the foundations shaking at his voice and smoke filling the whole house. This is scary stuff. And I would say this is a prophetic vision of Christ reigning from Jerusalem, and at the very least, when he arrives, the entire earth is going to shake and Mount of Olives is going to split into two.
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B
Right. The reason I stopped when I said thresholds is because of the idea of the threshold Covenant.
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A
Exactly.
- [32:58]
B
The liminal boundary of a doorway.
- [33:00]
A
Yes.
- [33:02]
B
It was shaking the portals between heaven.
- [33:05]
A
Yes. In fact. That's a wonderful book. That is a wonderful book. The Threshold Covenant.
- [33:11]
B
Yeah.
- [33:13]
A
The Blood Covenant is another good one. The Salt Covenant is a good. I cannot remember the author's name. You can get them free PDFs, downloads of those three books. I found out them originally because Donna Howell.
- [33:29]
B
Yeah.
- [33:30]
A
Had read the Threshold Covenant, I think. But they're. They're really amazing. But in the Septuagint, it doesn't say foundations, it says. And the lintel.
- [33:43]
B
Yeah.
- [33:44]
A
Shook. And that implies a threshold.
- [33:47]
B
Right. Henry Clay Trumbull.
- [33:52]
A
That's right, yeah.
- [33:53]
B
And. And as Sharon says, you can find that because it's in the public domain. You can find that for free.
- [33:58]
A
Yeah. Threshold and threshing floor, very similar liminal boundaries. The temple itself was built on the threshing floor of Arana.
- [34:09]
B
Yes. A portal. Yeah. So, again, the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. The portals between heaven and earth shook. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean. It just means, you know, I am undone. I'm destroyed.
- [34:30]
A
It says, I am pricked to the heart. He suddenly feels really guilty.
- [34:34]
B
Yeah. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts. Yahweh of armies.
- [34:46]
A
The king.
- [34:46]
B
The king.
- [34:47]
A
The king sitting on his throne.
- [34:50]
B
Yes. And this is really Isaiah being called as a prophet here.
- [34:59]
A
It is, I was just going to say. And admitting that he is a sinner.
- [35:07]
B
Yeah. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
- [35:26]
A
Wow. You know, there's a whole lot of stuff in this. The first of all is we get a throne and the beings around the throne. But now we have the altar. In the Book of Revelation, you get the souls underneath the altar that are asking, how long? Of course, there's no mention of that in here, but the idea of purification through burning.
- [36:03]
B
Yeah. And this was necessary so that Isaiah could remain in the present. This is why Isaiah was saying, I'm lost. I've done for, because my eyes have perceiving God in his glory. And we know from elsewhere in scripture that you're not supposed to be able to see God and live. Okay. Now you've been cleansed. Your sin is atoned for. You are now consecrated so that you can remain in the presence without being destroyed.
- [36:35]
A
But that's pretty amazing, too. I mean, he is from a culture that requires that you bring a sacrifice.
- [36:44]
B
Yeah.
- [36:45]
A
The idea of having your iniquities burned away is radically different.
- [36:53]
B
Yeah. Instead of a blood sacrifice. Yeah.
- [36:56]
A
And also that he sees the king. Maybe that is how he managed to live. Because he didn't see as Elijah when he's told. Yeah, exactly. He's just hiding because the Lord is passing by.
- [37:15]
B
Right. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
- [37:22]
A
I love this.
- [37:23]
B
Then I said, here I am. Send me. What was that term in Hebrew again? Here I am. Send me. This struck me when I was writing a chapter for my forthcoming book, War of the Watchers, and I was writing about Theodore Herzl, who is the founder of the modern Zionist movement. He was a secular Jew. He admits that when it came to him that he needed to do something for the Jewish people because he was seeing the rising tide of anti Semitism, anti Jewish hatred in Europe. He went to synagogue for the first time in many, many years, and he was moved by the beauty of the experience. He did not become an observant Jew. He continued to pursue his goal, as much a political end as anything else. But even though I don't think he knew it, but he was in effect saying, here I am. Send me. And it wasn't any one thing. I mean, there's a story that he was moved by the. The framing by the French army of a Jewish army captain. Who was accused of spying for the Germans and sentenced to life on Devil's island at hard labor that was eventually overturned when it came out that they had lied about it. That was actually another guy who had gambling debts, who was selling secrets.
- [39:12]
A
If you're interested, it's the Dreyfus Affair. D R E Y F U S. Or is it two S's?
- [39:19]
B
One. Yeah. Dreyfus. Which, interestingly, there was a movie made about it and Richard Dreyfus.
- [39:26]
A
Yeah, different pronunciation.
- [39:28]
B
Different pronunciation. And he didn't play Alfred Dreyfus, but Herzl began his transformation before it came out that Dreyfus had been framed. So I think it's really interesting. It just struck me while I was writing and made me cry thinking about this.
- [39:51]
A
I always cry when we go to Israel and we go to the Friends of Zion Museum and you hear the stories of all the individuals who have said, hineni, I will go and I will help. And helped to establish Israel in the land and help them to fight for their right to have an independent country and to be called Israel again. All of those things. And again, at the end, they ask how many of you will say, hey, ninny.
- [40:21]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [40:22]
A
And it always makes me cry.
- [40:24]
B
Yeah. It's because it's not always a call to go and, you know, fight for Israel, but a call to do whatever the Lord has designed us to do.
- [40:37]
A
It may be go to your neighbor and share the Gospel or go to your neighbor and just take soup.
- [40:43]
B
It may be the guy who shows up early on Sunday morning at church so he can make coffee for everyone.
- [40:50]
A
Yes.
- [40:50]
B
And has a kind word and words of encouragement for everyone that he meets.
- [40:54]
A
I'll tell you another. There's. I won't give you her name, but there's a wonderful woman who sends us encouraging cards.
- [41:03]
B
Oh, my goodness.
- [41:03]
A
In the mail.
- [41:04]
B
Yeah.
- [41:04]
A
And we get about one a week. And I put many of them on our fridge, kept many of them next to my desk. And reading those, I'll just say Libby.
- [41:20]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [41:21]
A
I won't say much more about her name, but you have no idea how that touches us. And I suspect that she does that for others, too.
- [41:30]
B
I. I would think so.
- [41:31]
A
That is a ministry and prayer.
- [41:35]
B
Those of you who lift up others in prayer, that is, you know, your way of saying hanani.
- [41:42]
A
Yeah.
- [41:42]
B
Here I am. Lord, Not all of us are called to be prophets.
- [41:55]
A
No.
- [41:55]
B
When you see the way the prophets lives unfolded, it's not in the Bible, but the story is that Isaiah was martyred, that he was sawn in Half. Jeremiah clearly had some really dumped into a well by the king. Ezekiel had to run for his life. Or at least he thought he did.
- [42:16]
A
Yeah, the deaths of some of the prophets and apostles were horrific.
- [42:22]
B
Horrific. Not all of us are called to that ministry, but whatever we are called for, our calling is tailor made for the gifts the Lord blessed you with. And sometimes it takes a while to figure out what those are. I am thankful that the Lord found a way to use the strange wiring between my ears and led our lives to come together.
- [42:57]
A
Me too.
- [42:57]
B
So that we can do this and even if it just blesses one person. I got an email yesterday from. And I know we're rapid trailing from Isaiah here, but I just think this is important. A woman sent me a note through Facebook Messenger. Actually had gone into the new age and gotten deep into the new age movement. And then she said about a week ago she stumbled across an interview that I don't know if it was I had done with Gary Wayne or the two of us, because I've done a couple of programs with Gary Wayne on other podcasts and discussing the kind of thing that we're discussing here. Hey, the seraphim were real. They essentially are what we would call dragons today. But the gods of the pagans were fallen angels. They're real. And suddenly she said, can you recommend a version of the Bible that you would recommend that you like, that you think is accurate? Because she was concerned, as skeptics will try to convince people that the Bible's been changed again and again and again and again. So how do you know which one to trust? So anyway, if just one person stumbles across something that we do and says, wow, this now makes sense, then everything that we've done for the last 20 years is worth it.
- [44:25]
A
Amen.
- [44:26]
B
And whatever challenges we've encountered, physical, financial, whatever, all worth it.
- [44:34]
A
Amen.
- [44:35]
B
And I didn't realize when we started this back in 2005 that we were. That I was at least saying a ninny.
- [44:47]
A
That's so true. We've been at this a long time, but it's because the Lord continues to call us. Every day is a calling and every day is an answer.
- [44:58]
B
Yeah. So like my dad, the older I get, the more emotional I get.
- [45:04]
A
Nothing wrong with that, honey.
- [45:07]
B
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am. Send me. And he said, go and say this to the people. And no, go and say to this people.
- [45:28]
A
Right.
- [45:30]
B
Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on Seeing but do not perceive.
- [45:37]
A
Well, you know that that's a hard thing to say to a man who's representing his people to the king and Creator and being told, tell them you're going to hear, but you won't understand it. And you're going to see, but you won't get what you're seeing.
- [45:56]
B
Yeah. The. The Hebrew there is even a little more poetic and powerful. Hear indeed, but do not understand.
- [46:06]
A
That's what it says.
- [46:07]
B
See indeed, but do not perceive.
- [46:09]
A
That's within Septuagint.
- [46:11]
B
Yeah. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.
- [46:25]
A
In the Septuagint, it says, for the heart of this people has become gross
- [46:31]
B
fat, is what the Hebrew literally says.
- [46:33]
A
And their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed. It doesn't say their eyes are unable to see. Says they closed them. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them. Now you have to ask. This is a troubling verse.
- [46:57]
B
It is.
- [46:58]
A
Why do this?
- [47:00]
B
Yeah. The Lord, you're calling me, and now you're telling me that you're going to basically send me out and preach and these people aren't going to listen.
- [47:08]
A
Yeah.
- [47:10]
B
And that's reflected in the next verse. Then I said, how long, O Lord?
- [47:16]
A
Interesting.
- [47:17]
B
Like the souls in the dwarf, right? How long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste. And Yahweh removes people far away. And the foresight forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
- [47:38]
A
In the Septuagint, it says. And I. And I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate.
- [47:59]
B
Yeah.
- [48:00]
A
Now you can ask. Okay, so no inhabitants, no men. Does this mean literally that all the humans are gone? Don't know.
- [48:17]
B
I think it's prophetic.
- [48:18]
A
Oh, absolutely.
- [48:19]
B
It's got multiple fulfillments.
- [48:21]
A
I agree with that.
- [48:22]
B
Because at this time, again, in the year King Uzziah died, this was about 740 BC less than 20 years later. 722 is when the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel, the. I know they say the 10 northern tribes, but I was like, Simeon was further south of Judah, so that didn't make any Sense, but still the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed and overthrown by the Assyrians and carried off into captivity. Then you've got two waves of attacks by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, the Neo Babylonian Empire that ultimately resulted in 586 BC with the destruction of the temple, the sack of Jerusalem and more, the kingdom of Judah being carried off into Babylon, into exile. They're restored 536 BC with Cyrus 444 BC, Artaxerxes tells Nehemiah, go back, rebuild the wall, rebuild the temple. But then you've got another fulfillment in 70 A.D. with the great Jewish revolt. And then in 135 A.D. with the end of the Bar Kokva rebellion where Emperor Hadrian says, that's it, we've had enough of these Jews rebelling. Because it would have been their third rebellion in less than 76, 60 years. And all of Judea was depopulated, basically. And here's what I think is the fulfillment of that verse 13. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again. By the time Hadrian and the Romans got done in 135-131-36 A.D. only about 10% of the Jews still remained in the land. The rest have been sent off into slavery or just dispersed into the diaspora. From Britain to Persia, you had Jews scattered across Europe and the Mediterranean.
- [50:15]
A
You mentioned at the top of the study, time stamping, you talked about the great earthquake.
- [50:22]
B
Yeah.
- [50:24]
A
Was that prior to this vision?
- [50:27]
B
Yeah, because that's when Uzziah died. And let me do a quick search for when scholars think the quake of Uzziah was. It's later mentioned by Zechariah, which was like 250 years after the earthquake.
- [50:40]
A
It was a very memorable earthquake.
- [50:42]
B
Yeah. Earthquake of Uzziah. It's the first suggestion by Google Tap. Tap.
- [50:53]
A
Tapa, Tappa. Tappa.
- [50:56]
B
All right, let's see. Geologists believe they found the evidence of the earthquake throughout Israel and Jordan. It was believed to be when Zechariah mentioned it again. Yeah. 250 years later. Thereabouts.
- [51:19]
A
Well, well, let me tell you why I asked. Because in verse four, the foundations or the lintel shook at the voice.
- [51:29]
B
760 B.C. so about 20 years before Isaiah wrote this.
- [51:34]
A
It's just this idea of what could be describing an earthquake.
- [51:38]
B
Yeah.
- [51:38]
A
In verse four. And if Isaiah had just gone through one, it would be interesting that he sees it in a vision. But yes, it in the Septuagint verse, starting with verse 12. And after this, God shall remove the men far off, and they that are left upon the land shall be multiplied, and yet there shall be a tenth upon it. And again it shall be for a spoil as a turpentine tree and as an acorn when it falls out of its husk. This idea that there would still be a remnant. He is not going to totally destroy his people.
- [52:28]
B
Right.
- [52:29]
A
He's not going to totally move everybody away forever.
- [52:33]
B
Right. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth instead of turpentine tree, a terabyte or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump, or the holy offspring is its stump.
- [52:51]
A
How are we doing time wise?
- [52:53]
B
Well, we're at about 53 minutes.
- [52:55]
A
Oh, well, I guess we did just the. The one chapter then.
- [53:00]
B
Yeah. And by the way, the holy seed is its stump. That is again a theme that Isaiah returns to with a shoot from the stump of Jesse. The branch which we've seen referred to in Isaiah 4. We'll see it again in Isaiah 11. Yeah. This is a foreshadowing of the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 11.
- [53:23]
A
There is a place that we visited a number of times when we've gone to Israel, Gushatzion. It's an area and it has a story that goes to the establishment of the nation of Israel and the. Well, frankly, individuals who said haine and gave their lives in that cause. And there is a tree there that was there. That tree was there at the time all of these things happened. And it was very, very important to the descendants of those individuals to find the tree and. And set up this community around it. And so every time we go there, we're all gathered around the tree. Well, the last time I was there, we were there. I found an acorn from that oak tree, that live oak.
- [54:25]
B
Yeah.
- [54:26]
A
And I still have it. And I'm thinking I might see if I can get that to grow.
- [54:33]
B
That would be fantastic.
- [54:34]
A
We have great ground here for oaks. So I will see if I can get that to grow. And if not, next time we go there, I'll have to get another one.
- [54:42]
B
Yeah. The. The site of Gosh Etzion, which is a collection of communities. Now it is in Judea, which the world calls the west bank. Back in 1948, the Kibbutz Kfar Etzion was overrun by Arab militias and the Arab Legion, which is the army of Jordan. And the survivors who'd basically run out of ammunition at that point, were then massacred. It is the closest comparison we can make it was like Israel's Alamo.
- [55:23]
A
Yes.
- [55:23]
B
Where the defenders held out as long as they could and then they were overrun and they were killed. But as you say, 20 years later, when Israel captured that area from Jordan, children who had been evacuated from the kibbutz before that final battle, and the reason they were holding out was because it controlled the very key road leading to Jerusalem. They knew that that road would be a line of attack when Israel declared independence, which it did May 14, 1948. And that's when they were overrun. They. They couldn't. They were trying to send supplies south from Jerusalem and they couldn't get through. They were being ambushed on the road. So it's a. It's a very moving story when you go there.
- [56:16]
A
It really is.
- [56:17]
B
And when we went there in the spring of 24, so almost two years ago now.
- [56:24]
A
Yeah, that's when I got it.
- [56:25]
B
Yeah, we went to Gush Etion and we had a very small group, just nine, and there were some Israelis there and they were, you know, observant Jews. They could clearly tell by our dress and the fact that we were wearing little name tags on our lanyards that we were not Israelis. And they asked where we were from and why we were there. And the lady that was with that group began to cry when we told her that we were just there to show that we love Israel, we love the, the people of Israel. And though we differ in how we identify Yahweh, because we see Jesus as part of the triune Godhead, and obviously Jews do not, we know that God is not done with the Jewish people.
- [57:19]
A
Right.
- [57:20]
B
And so if we can build bridges by showing them love, perhaps those seeds, like that acorn will produce growth, will produce fruit. So, yeah, I think a lot of Israelis for the last two and a half years now are shocked at the way the world's responded, as though they're the bad guys in all this anyway.
- [57:49]
A
So, yes, that I'll see. But if, if it doesn't, then I will get another one next time we're there. And you can go with us, by the way. We are going back in October and yes, Derek has physical limitations, but we are going to. We managed last time. We're going to do our best to get, get through it this time, too.
- [58:10]
B
And it's possible that the treatment for the. What I've been diagnosed with, and we'll get into the old people's report here in a little bit, but it's possible that the treatment that the neurologist has recommended, assuming we can anyway, we'll get to that later. May result in some improvement and make it a little easier for me to get around.
- [58:33]
A
The Lord will do what the Lord wants to do in this. And that's right. That's what we pray for. I pray that he will be totally healed. But the Lord has a plan.
- [58:44]
B
Yeah.
- [58:45]
A
And I will never want to say to the Lord. Yes, but have you thought about, have you considered doing it this way?
- [58:53]
B
Yeah. Yeah. We always have our own agenda and think that. Lord. I know, I know you're saying you've got your hands on the wheel, but here, let me just steer for a little. And that's usually when we veer off into trouble.
- [59:06]
A
Well, didn't we have a question or two?
- [59:09]
B
We do have a couple of questions.
- [59:11]
A
And you can ask these questions on the app, by the way.
- [59:13]
B
Yes. And, oh, by the way, we also would like to encourage you to, in the section of the app, in the groups there, go into the Bible's greatest mysteries section because we will be bringing that back again this year. In fact, we've already got a couple of programs that we just need to finish up interviews with Carl Gallups and Zev Porat. But what questions would you like us to address on the Bible's greatest mysteries? What do you consider one of the Bible's greatest mysteries? Go into the section there on the app. Leave your suggestions for us because we will be doing the program again and bringing that back in 2026.
- [59:54]
A
Yeah.
- [59:55]
B
Question from Leon, who has asked him questions before. And we thank you for your continued interaction there on the app. Leon.
- [60:03]
A
Hi, Leon.
- [60:06]
B
I was watching a Ken Johnson Bible study. This was just after Christmas. He made a comment that bothered me. He said, he said, paraphrasing that Jack Van Impe was off base for thinking that the Bible banned alcohol. Jack had said numerous times that Jesus basically turned water into grape juice or a very weak form of wine.
- [60:31]
A
Oh, I know that.
- [60:33]
B
Ken said that Jesus made wine, thus proving it's okay to get tipsy at a wedding, not drunk, but just to consume it. Ken's contention is that Jews used and continue to use wine at meals and social events and that alcohol is a perfectly fine beverage to consume. My question where did Christians in the 19th century get the idea that alcohol needed to be banned, leading to prohibition in 1921? I think it was, you know, it
- [60:59]
A
may have been a cultural thing as much as anything else. There, there was a lot of alcoholism. And I say it that way because you'll have individuals that spend their day drinking.
- [61:11]
B
Yeah.
- [61:12]
A
Because they were so miserable and it is.
- [61:19]
B
There was also an economic motivation there, as farmers in the 18th and 19th centuries found that because corn was being taxed that it was more profitable to convert the corn into bourbon or whiskey or something.
- [61:38]
A
Right. I think I would. I wouldn't say that Jack Van Impe was mistaken. I grew up loving the Van Impe's.
- [61:51]
B
Yes. Oh, yeah.
- [61:52]
A
They were very early on in teaching prophecy and looking at the headlines and trying to. Okay, what does this tell us? And how does this correlate to this Bible prophecy? That taught me a lot growing up. And I grew up in a Baptist church. We weren't allowed to drink.
- [62:11]
B
Yeah.
- [62:11]
A
In fact, there are some Baptist churches I belong to. In order to be accepted as a member of the congregation, you had to sign a thing saying you wouldn't drink.
- [62:21]
B
Right.
- [62:22]
A
But do I think drinking is wrong? No, no. I mean, Paul himself told Timothy, take
- [62:27]
B
some wine for your stomach.
- [62:28]
A
Yeah, exactly. There were a lot of good things about wine.
- [62:31]
B
There's nothing to suggest that Jesus converted the wine into wine or grape juice.
- [62:41]
A
Teaching that I had when I was growing up in Baptist.
- [62:43]
B
Right. To try to explain away, you know, okay, you can't drink. Well, what about the water and wine? Well, it wasn't really wine.
- [62:49]
A
And you don't get a whole lot of information in the Old Testament about liquor. You know, alcohol, that. Grain alcohol, that is not from grapes, it is from cereal. You know, like wheat or rye or corn or whiskey or something that I. I can't even address to that. But I will tell you, our daughter represents a whiskey company. So, you know, she. She does very well with it. And I think, you know, once in a while, a little taste of whiskey or a taste of some. You know, Alex, just don't. You know, moderation, for goodness sake.
- [63:27]
B
Right. The Bible does condemn drunkenness.
- [63:30]
A
Exactly.
- [63:31]
B
And in that regard. Yeah. I think the. The warnings against that.
- [63:39]
A
Yeah.
- [63:39]
B
Are definitely scriptural.
- [63:40]
A
Yeah.
- [63:41]
B
But a strict ban on all alcohol consumption is taking the Bible farther than what the Bible says.
- [63:47]
A
It also condemns gluttony.
- [63:50]
B
Yeah.
- [63:51]
A
So are we gonna ban food?
- [63:55]
B
Well, clearly not. So.
- [63:58]
A
Yeah, I love Ken Johnson, but I'm not sure I agree with him on that just personally.
- [64:02]
B
Well, no, Ken was the one who said that it was. It was okay to.
- [64:05]
A
Oh, oh, sorry, I misunderstood the question.
- [64:07]
B
It was Jack Van Impe who said.
- [64:08]
A
Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
- [64:10]
B
So anyway, yeah, we. We would. We would side with Ken on this one.
- [64:13]
A
In fact, whenever you and I do communion here in the house, will sometimes use wine.
- [64:19]
B
Yeah.
- [64:20]
A
So that's about the only wine I. I'm not much of a drinker.
- [64:24]
B
Yeah, I. I used to enjoy a stout beer, a really, really dark stout. But since the neurological issues came on. Not a religious thing. It's just. No looking at my health. Am I going to complicate things, especially with some of the medications I'm taking.
- [64:42]
A
Yeah.
- [64:42]
B
By adding alcohol to the mix. No, I will not. I. I have sworn off alcohol, except for the little bit at communion for.
- [64:51]
A
That's kind of it.
- [64:52]
B
A year and a half now. And a question from Donna for you.
- [64:56]
A
Oh.
- [64:57]
B
I would like to purchase your Red Wing Saga, but can't find it. Please help.
- [65:01]
A
Oh, my goodness. You can get it from the Skywatch TV store. You can get it from Amazon. Amazon has all of them. And by the way, if you use Kindle, Amazon has the Kindle Unlimited series. You can read all of the books for free.
- [65:18]
B
Yep. So if you subscribe, if you are a reader and subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, that is a good way of doing it.
- [65:25]
A
And you and I, when we do open up our store again, it'll probably be sometime in February. You can get the books from there and I'll sign them.
- [65:34]
B
Yeah. If you. If you buy our books or my books, I will scrawl in them.
- [65:41]
A
Yeah. Well, both of us, I think, as we get older.
- [65:45]
B
Your handwriting is fine.
- [65:46]
A
Well, you've got issues.
- [65:47]
B
Really spidery right now.
- [65:49]
A
Yeah. You're dealing. And this is where we get into the old person report.
- [65:52]
B
Yes. This past week had a doctor's appointment with the pulmonologist's office because of the shortness of breath that I've been dealing with since last summer. Last summer. Did a chest X ray, found that the diaphragm on the left side of my body is elevated, meaning it is stuck in the up position. So when I inhale, I feel like I'm not getting a full tank of air.
- [66:18]
A
Yeah.
- [66:18]
B
Now, when I did the pulmonologist or the pulmonary function test, they said in terms of volume in my lungs, I've got normal volume. That may be because I did, you know, sang with the, you know, barbershop harmony society for years. So it was. Maybe I've got more lung volume on the one side than most guys do, I don't know. But they did find that there is a reduction in the gas transfer rate or something.
- [66:45]
A
And that's what really matters.
- [66:47]
B
Yeah. Converting oxygen into carbon dioxide and, you know, swapping one for the other, it's not happening as efficiently as it should. And that's what we're trying to get to the heart of anyway, the bottom line is they she diagnosed or prescribed rather a longer lasting bronchodilator. So we'll get, we'll get that in a couple of weeks once the insurance kicks in. Because without the insurance it's crazy expensive. But that. And once the insurance kicks in, then we'll check on the neurologist's recommendation there and see how to proceed. Because that process without insurance is like, oh, it's bankruptcy inducing.
- [67:28]
A
Yeah. It's nearly half a million a year.
- [67:30]
B
Yeah.
- [67:31]
A
So we don't have that. No, we don't have anywhere close to that.
- [67:35]
B
We do not.
- [67:37]
A
We're not even in the same city as that.
- [67:39]
B
No. Same area code.
- [67:41]
A
No.
- [67:42]
B
So but the fact is that insurance is on the way. So this will be the first time I've had health insurance since 2015.
- [67:50]
A
Yeah.
- [67:51]
B
So anyway, that will help us a lot.
- [67:54]
A
So that, that's soon you'll be on Medicare another year.
- [67:57]
B
Yep. Less a year now.
- [67:58]
A
11.
- [67:59]
B
11 and a half months.
- [68:00]
A
Not that I'm counting, but yeah, things are going. I. We just trust in the Lord every day for whatever's going on in your body. He's got it. Yeah, he's got it.
- [68:08]
B
You know, and that's the thing that, that has required some prayer on my part because as you know, there are days when I let it get to me a little bit more and I sadly take it out on you because you're the closest person.
- [68:25]
A
Aw. I don't ever feel that way about it.
- [68:27]
B
Well, I'm thankful for that because there are days I know that I'm not as a husband should be, you know, to love my wife as Christ loved the church.
- [68:39]
A
You're my hero.
- [68:40]
B
Well, I'm short fall short of that,
- [68:42]
A
you know, you are my hero every day. I think the way you're dealing with all of this, I find that you are a wonderful example. But here's the other thing, and I've said this on our podcasts before, that if nothing else, the fact that the Lord has spared your mind, your brain, which mystifies all of your doctors, that every possible diagnosis for this, it's finally, they're calling it cidp, but there's pd, no demyelinating polyneuropathy.
- [69:20]
B
Cidp.
- [69:21]
A
Yep. Cidp. Yeah. That your mind is spared. And in that case, okay, the Lord may be saying to you, derek, I want you to write and read and, and report. Tell, tell, do your podcasts. You can still do all those things from that, that recliner where you're sitting right now.
- [69:46]
B
Yeah. So that's, that's my gift is sitting in the recliner.
- [69:49]
A
And he even gave us that recliner. Practically nothing.
- [69:52]
B
That's true. That we've had some wonderful resale shops in Little Crane, Missouri.
- [69:58]
A
We do. It's wonderful out here. So. Yeah. Thank you for your prayers for Derek. We, we really, really appreciate them because every day we feel you guys undergirding us with your prayer.
- [70:10]
B
That is true. And that may well be why, unlike many who deal with this sort of neurological issue, I have not suffered the brain fog. Yeah. My, my doctor was amazed that I was able to. Back last February, I went and spoke to Carl Teichrib's group up there at a men's retreat and did eight presentations in the span of two and a half days. And doctor's like, how did you manage that? I don't know.
- [70:43]
A
Your doctors are also amazed at the way you're handling things because many people in your situation do not handle it well and understandably so. But it gives you an opportunity to share the gospel.
- [70:55]
B
Yeah. Yeah. And if this is the direction that he is leading and this is part of that, then then it's on me to accept it and just apply myself in those areas where I am not limited.
- [71:16]
A
Yeah. Just say hi ninny.
- [71:18]
B
As my fingers get a little more, you know, random in what they. How they translate nerve impulses. Meaning, in other words, my typing is getting really. There's speech to text can do that. So all the cool kids are doing that anyway for all their text.
- [71:35]
A
Well, I know it and aren't you one of the cool kids? We do want to remind you if you are thinking, sitting there thinking, well, that is real thing sounds really good. Go to gilbert house.org gilbert house.org travel and all of the information is right there regardless of when we go. And we pray that we can continue to go every year so long as the Lord allows.
- [72:02]
B
Yep. We will go to
- [72:07]
A
all the cool places.
- [72:08]
B
Grotto of Pan. We'll go to Gilgal Refaim and we will visit the next next time. And I'll send a note to the Lipkins here in the next couple of days. But I definitely want to go to Mount Herzl. Yeah, Mount Herzl is essentially Israel with a big group.
- [72:25]
A
We went there with a small group in 24. But it is a powerful place to go. And you know, getting back to Gush Etzion and Kafar Etzion the Oak while we were there after I had put an acorn in my pocket I got a couple of really small, sort of teeny, teeny edges of a branch, maybe 3, 4 inches long. And I was just going to press them into a book or something, so I had them in my pocket. And when we went to Mount Herzl, there was a grave there for someone that I think it was Yeshai, who knew him. Family.
- [73:06]
B
Yes.
- [73:07]
A
And so I. I just said, okay, this is more important. I don't need these things at home. So I asked if he thought it would be appropriate to leave that. And he got a little cup of water because they were still, you know, green. And we put those in that and left it.
- [73:24]
B
Yeah, yeah. Mount Herzl is essentially Israel's version of Arlington National Cemetery. But Theodore Herzl is buried there. And I would like to go there and do a little teaching on Theodore Herzl. It is remarkable man. Sadly, like many of the prophets, did not have a happy life. His devotion to the cause, trying to find and create a nation for Jews, cost him his family, basically. Yeah. Anyway, he was an amazing man. He was an amazing man. Here I am. Send me.
- [74:03]
A
Here I am.
- [74:04]
B
We've got a couple of conferences coming up. The two that we've agreed to this year, the Remnant Rising conference. Remnant rising 2.0 coming to our backyard here in the ozarks, Springfield, Missouri, August 7th through 9th of 2026. It's at the Oasis Hotel and Convention Center. A wonderful facility.
- [74:23]
A
It really is. And a great place to eat if you want to just, you know, eat there on the site. But if you want to drive a little bit, if you got a car, then you can go to one of the many, many restaurants there in Springfield.
- [74:36]
B
Wonderful, good restaurants there in. In Springfield, Missouri.
- [74:40]
A
And also places to take your kids. And Branson's just an hour away.
- [74:45]
B
Yeah, if that. So plenty to see down there. The Sight and Sound Theater always has a good program. I think they're doing. Last time I checked, they were doing David. We took my mother there when my sister came to visit a few years ago, and we went and saw Samson and that was really, really well done. A couple of weeks before the go there for conference, rather, I'm saying before Remnant Rising is the go there for conference in suburban Dayton. That's Brookville, Ohio. That's July 24th and 25th. Dr. Mike Spalding, his wife, Kathy Spaulding, they are the hosts. Well, they're putting it on, actually. Pastor Neil Peterson hosts it at his church there, the Harvest Feast.
- [75:27]
A
He's a lot of fun.
- [75:28]
B
Yeah, Wonderful, wonderful facility there as well. And Always a wonderful lineup of speakers. So we look forward to that. We got information on that. A lot of details still to be announced on those two conferences, but we've agreed to those.
- [75:44]
A
Probably that's the only two conferences we will do this year and then go to Israel. We simply. It's more difficult for us to travel these days.
- [75:55]
B
Yeah.
- [75:55]
A
But if the Lord calls us to go someplace, you know, here we are. Yeah, send us.
- [76:00]
B
We'll close with a word of prayer. Father, thank youk for. Thank youk for this glimpse of into the commissioning of a prophet and another look in Scripture at your throne room and the beings that are there. Lord, the unseen realm is far richer and more densely populated than most of us have been taught. And again, we ask as we study here, not to read more into your word than is there, but not to exclude anything in your word that is there. So, Father, we see that the beings around you are wonderful and beyond our imagination. The seraphim, the cheraphim, the Ophanim, the wheels within wheels that have the spirit of the living creatures in them that Ezekiel saw. And of course the. The Malachim, the messenger angels who look just like us humans, the watchers. Lord, we just look forward to that day when we can see these wonderful entities that you have created. And until then, knowing that they are looking down and watching us and learning from us and marveling that we humans, with our frail and failing mortal frames, still persevere until that day when we are seen worthy to be resurrected into glorified bodies. As Paul writes in First Corinthians 15, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And then, as Job, Job said, we know that our Redeemer lives and that we will see him with our own eyes. So, Lord, until that day, regardless of our limitations, we pray for the strength to continue running this race and to share the hope that we have in you with our families and our friends, our colleagues and our co workers that we may be all together in your kingdom. Thank you for your love and blessings, for your sacrifice to redeem us from the fallen realm. May we reflect your love to those around us in all things face to face online, especially through social media. Lord, help us, as Peter said, to share the hope that we have with gentleness and respect until until that day. Father, we pray for your spirit to guide us, granting us wisdom and discernment and a spirit of thankfulness for your love and mercy. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
- [79:29]
A
Amen.
- [79:30]
B
Until next time. I'm Derek Gilbert.
- [79:32]
A
I'm Sharon Gilbert, we love you so very much. Bye bye everybody.
- [79:37]
B
Thank you for joining us. We post a new Bible study each Sunday morning, subscribe to the podcast and explore the archives online@gilberthouse.org.