Dumb Christian

We're about to see a repeat of something we've already read and yet despite the fact that it might be a nuisance to a modern reader, it meant something very specific to the original ancient reader. We're about to see some unique features of the ancient Israel culture and what they mean when they talk about God visiting the sins of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th generation.

In this episode we are interrupted from a conversation between Moses and God due to the people of Israel coming up with their own system of worship that actually flies directly in the face of what YHWH has clearly expressed he wants from his people. God gets mad, Moses gets mad, there's some shouting and some crying and God ultimately threatens to abandon Israel. Is God playing reverse psychology or did he really mean it?

God is creating a whole method for dwelling with his people among His creation. In constructing a tabernacle his is also setting the stage for how it can be possible for him to reside among people who continually sin, rebel against him, and reject his laws. Although this place of worship resembles some other pagan worship sites again God's purpose is taking things they are familiar with and reorienting the way they interact with, and understand what it means to enter Holy places.

We're taking a break from Exodus this week to wrap up some final details on the gospel project we've been working on called "The Long Table". Here's a sneak peek into what's coming. We will drop a proper trailer later this week. This would be a great time to catch up on any of the Exodus episodes you've missed and get ready for the next few chapters because even though they seem boring there's actually a lot going on beneath the surface.

What did the Ark of the covenant, the table of bread, and the candlestick in the sanctuary of YHWH mean to those who were originally using them? We might discover that although they share some physical similarities with Egyptians religious artifacts their use and purpose were wholly other. God is using something familiar to create something brand new.

There's a weird interruption when we come to Exodus chapters 21-23 which is a series of case laws dealing with specific incidents in light of the 10 words (10 commandments) right before God has Moses and Aaron perform the blood elements of the New Covenant He is going to inaugurate with Israel as a declaration of His faithfulness to them and their fidelity to worship only YHWH and follow Him alone.

Wrapping up our conversation on the upcoming Easter holiday and the events following Jesus' death and burial. What does it mean that Jesus rose from the dead and gave new instructions on how people were to interact with God?

As Easter approaches we want to take some special time to focus on the most meaningful aspect of Easter and the celebration of a resurrected Christ. Stephanie and Jonathan talk through the events leading up to Jesus' death and share their thoughts. This conversation is broken up into two parts.

The 10 commandments are understood to be a set of rules and a moral guideline for people to follow, but to the original Israelite they were a seal that identified who this people group belonged to. They followed a God wholly unique from all other gods and this was how they demonstrated their allegiance to the one who had already shown His love and favor to them.

Chapter 18 gives us some insight into what the ancient society of Israel thought of their leadership structure leaving Egypt but chapter 19 sets the stage for them to understand what it means that God is establishing a whole new way mode of leadership as He prepares them to be a Kingdom of Priests, a beacon of light to the rest of the world who is following after spiritual being in rebellion against YHWH.

Israel is walking in brand new freedom but for some reason can't stop bitching and moaning about every little inconvenience despite YHWH's constant protection and provision. Chapters 16-17 are no different, but we are going to encounter some new details that might make the attentive reader ask "who actually wrote the book of Exodus"? And chapter 17 will offer a sneak peak into why God is going to command that the Israelites wipe out the nations in the land of Canaan?

You can find Joshua Zatkoff on Instagram @joshua_kingdompriest TikTok @joshua_kingdompriest YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@UCdlpZd-lCB5qmMRRjpRobeA The original Podcast I heard Josh's testimony - Heaven and Healing Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQqDgjMXMLM&ab_channel=Heaven%26HealingPodcast The gospel of Jesus is more than a free pass to heaven, and it's NOT inviting him to be a part of our lives. It's also not access to a magical incantation that immediately changes us. There is a cost to Jesus and his gospel. A cost to surrendering ourselves at the feet of the one who grants us access to the Father by his blood.

Sitting down with Jason Choate we're talking about how can we know the difference between what is actually real and what is created with AI and technology? This also puts us in a situation where we might fairly ask if the Bible is also true and reliable.

As God leads Israel into liberty and freedom they encounter some unexpected obstacles, one God deliberately leads them into, as well as some minor inconveniences and it begins to set a precedent for their relationship with YHWH God. We will also take a look at how some scholars try to discredit the Bible by using the first half of chapter 13 as a way to paint the text as pagan and horrific in nature.

The final plague that results in the complete and immediate liberation of Israel from Egypt is the death of the firstborn across the entire land. God says this is ultimately judgment on the gods of Egypt which in turn is poured out on those who have followed those gods in open rebellion against YHWH. But something interesting happens when the nation of Israel is released and many Egyptians change allegiance. This happens in large part due to a complete deconstruction of their own culture and theology in light of the true God.

The plagues that YHWH brings upon Egypt are a direct assault on the tradition of Egypt and its religious system. Each time God causes something traumatic to occur it is in direct opposition to one of the gods. This is to demonstrate that YHWH is the one true God to both the people of Egypt and also the spiritual being who has been in rebellion against God for centuries at this point, thinking they've been holding the upper hand. What God is doing here is going to echo across the ages and the world will know that there is one true God above them all.

If you've read the accounts of the plagues in Egypt before they take on a whole new meaning when we discover that YHWH isn't just causing supernatural events to occur but He's actually directing opposing and undermining the spiritual beings in rebellion against Him, worshipped as the gods of Egypt, and declaring open war against all those who oppose Him. In this episode, we take some time to look at Egyptian culture and religion to understand what's going on underneath the surface.

When it comes to faith there are a lot of elements that can be difficult for us to wrap out heads around and sometimes it comes down to whether or not we can see Jesus is actually good. Even if we can't comprehend some high-level theological concepts at least we can see that Jesus behaves in a good way and demonstrates good things to those he cares about.

Moses continues to drag his feet and doesn't want to participate in what God is asking him to do and God seeks to put him to death. It's only when Moses' wife Tziporah steps in and acts as the family patriarch and priest by circumcising their son Gershon, does God allow Moses to continue. Despite this provision, God ends up splitting up the duties of Leader and Priest between Moses and Aaron as a concession to Moses' continued resistance to his new position.

When Moses has his first encounter with the God of his fathers it's on a mountain called "waste" where he discovers a thorny bush on fire but not burning. There are SO MANY elements of this encounter that are foreshadowing what God is going to Moses to accomplish, how it will work out, and that God wants to redeem the creation affected by the curse instead of destroying it.

Just a couple of Dumb Christian Guys talking about the Spiritual Order of Operations and that God seems to operate in seemingly diametrically opposed ways but somehow it works. Similarly, when comparing Newtonian and Quantum physics, the rules don't match but work together, so too in the Spiritual and Physical realms things seem mismatched but work in tandem.

In chapter 2 we meet who will become the great hero of the Israelite nation but first, we must discover the original heroes made up of an eclectic group of diverse women, without whom there would be no nation to liberate. Here we meet Moses and from the beginning, he has a unique connection with the chaotic nature of water and its correlation with the Israelite people.

Exodus is a wild ride following the enslavement, liberation, and development of a nation God promised to his friend, Abraham, as they learn what it means that YHWH is a God unlike those served by Egypt and the nations that would surround them in Canaan. In the first couple of chapters, we discover that women play an integral role in preserving God's intention and design for the family, and a Holy Nation.

In this follow-up episode, Bill joins Dumb Christian to talk about some of the difficult and controversial ideas presented in the book of Romans. Over lunch, we will have a candid, if uneducated, conversation about predestination, election, and free will. One of the things I became very aware of in this conversation was how fragile my own understanding of the Bible can be and how important it is to surround myself with people who can contribute to my understanding of this ancient text.

Freedom in Christ is a topic that is rarely talked about because there is a fear that people will not handle that responsibility responsibly. But Paul is actively encouraging these new believers that they are about to embark on an incredible journey that requires each person to press into their relationship with God and allow Holy Spirit to lead them into brand new things and he sanctifies each person in unique ways.

Paul is actively trying to get these new believers in Rome to understand the importance of pressing into what it looks like to follow Christ's example. Although salvation is not dependent on one's behavior there is a real risk of moving away from God the more one rejects His mission and purpose. The danger of becoming arrogant about faith is actually a catalyst that leads to rejecting God's purpose and mission, despite His open invitation for all to join His family.

Chapters 9 and 10 include some of the most simple and easy-to-digest content as well as the most divisive and confusing parts of the Bible. Paul bounces between laying some groundwork for the idea of what it means that God is sovereign over the function and flow of history, even using people to accomplish specific purposes in the world, to the simplicity of how someone, ANYONE, can come to Christ by believing in the saving work of Jesus, enough to share.

Dumb Christian Podcast season 2, episode 6. In Romans chapter 8 Paul introduces this idea of 'predestination' (he gets more into it later in the epistle). This is an incredibly divisive concept when it comes to what it means for a person's belief system. Churches split over this word but what did it mean to the original Roman readers who came from a wide variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds? Paul encourages his readers that God is working to restore all things and that the way through which he will redeem people AND the rest of creation was determined before it all began. Through faith in Jesus Christ.

Dumb Christian Podcast season 2, episode 7. After Paul spends a good chunk of time unpacking what it means to be saved by ones belief in Jesus, he then proceeds to dive into the purpose of baptism. Is it just an outward expression of an inward decision or is there something significant that only takes place at baptism? It is the invitation for God's Holy Spirit to take up permanent residence inside the new believer who then undergoes a transformation that can only be managed by the Divine.

Paul is doing everything he can to unpack for his readers, brand new Christians in the depraved culture of Rome, how important it is to believe in Jesus as the source for their right relationship with the God of gods. But in addition to that he presses into the worldview of those who aren't convinced that they need to be concerned with their sin and eternal standing with the Divine by creating a scenario where he builds the case for the necessity for believing in Jesus even if sin wasn't a real issue. To be clear this episode should be understood in the context of the entire book of Romans and is not meant to be presented as a stand-alone presentation of the gospel or the reason Paul is asserting for putting one's faith in Jesus Christ.

Early on in this letter to the young church in Rome Paul is wading into some really confusing stuff. He starts off by saying everyone has sinned and needs Jesus, and the salvation Jesus offers is NOT based on our behavior. If that's true, do we need to be even concerned with our behavior? This new worldview is proving to be much more confusing, especially in a culture that glorifies and encourages hedonistic attitudes. When Paul warns that being too concerned with one's behavior can actually be problematic this is where most of us would just throw our hands in the air and yet Paul continues to unpack something hidden and incredibly good when it comes to considering our behavior in light of what Jesus offers for all people.

As Paul unpacks how this new bourgeoning church should approach their view of life and Roman culture he asserts that everyone has always had some sort of innate awareness that a divine being must exist and there must also be a moral standard this divinity must desire and steps into addressing the underlying cause of why this knowledge seems to have all but disappeared from the modern world (2,000 years ago) and it just might have connections to our modern world in 2023. We talk about Romans chapter 1 and the start of chapter 2 through a Dumb Christian approach just looking at what Paul meant and what the original readers would have understood him to mean.

Instead of approaching Romans like a sermon, we're going to just take a cultural look at what society was like in the place where this young Roman church of believers lived. We can easily misunderstand what Paul meant as he wrote this book when we try to look at it through any other lens than that of its original audience.

Season Two is coming January 16th and we're starting with the highly divisive book of Romans.

To wrap up 2022 I'm sitting down with my mom to talk about what it might have been like to be Jesus' mother and a mother to a whole slew of siblings to Jesus who would have been nothing like him.

Israel (Jacob) finds it hard to believe that his son, Joseph, is still alive and finally makes his way to Egypt when he learns his son is now second in command over all of Egypt. As the family of Israel settles into the land of Goshen, an Egpytian suburb, tensions grow between this growing tribe and the nation of Egypt.

When Joseph's brothers find themselves in Egypt during the global famine they come face to face with the one they sold into slavery and he now has unlimited power at his disposal. This is how Joseph responds to being reunited with his brothers. He can play rough too.

Joseph goes on this wild rollercoaster of a ride as he's sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, imprisoned with the worst offenders in Egypt then somehow becomes... well basically Pharoh.

When we first meet Joseph he is a real piece of work and his brothers can't stand him. They hate him so much that they end up selling him to a random caravan passing by. Then the author interrupts the Joseph story to tell us about twins that have nothing to do with any of his other stories... why?

Moses is tying up some loose ends before diving head first into the story of Joseph, Jacob's favorite son. We also get a glimpse into some family trees that don't seem to have any immediate impact of the story but the author is setting the stage for how Jacob's extended family is going to play a role in the story later on.

Dinah is praised in Jewish tradition as the first female archetype in the Bible and sets a precedent for how God's people, the nation of Israel, are going to affect the surrounding communities and God wants plans on responding when his people are abused.

The mission of Jesus is completed but there is still this looming cloud of how to handle the ramifications of sin this side of eternity. Jesus resolved the divine issue of sin, but people still have to walk through the effects of sin and Jesus has a little heart-to-heart with Peter in this encounter.

Jacob has finally had enough of Laban's harsh treatment and his manipulative habits as boss, on top of that God tells him it's time to return to his father's house and he isn't sure how to escape the grasp of his sheisty father-in-law, his pissy brothers-in-law, his twin that wants to kill him, and the growing tension among his wives and concubines. This is a wrestling match for the ages.

It's been a rough couple of days and Mary is devastated by the death of Jesus and has not yet been able to properly mourn the death of her Lord. Low on sleep, she makes her way to the tomb only to come upon an incredibly bizarre scene. Who is she anyway?

Sometimes chapters cover a short period of time but these three chapters cover 20 years of Jacob's life as he learns what it means to serve the Lord is all that he does and how to manage a house of 4 ladies he's making babies with and a Father in law who's a real piece of work.

The effort to silence Jesus permanently had to be done quickly and in a way that makes it impossible for people to even try and intervene in the execution of Jesus. The Holiday Sabbath made the perfect opportunity to brutalize this carpenter called 'Christ'.

When we read about Esau selling Jacob his birthright it always seemed like there must have been a lot more going on in the backstory and we're going to use Midrash to help fill in some of the gaps. Who was Esau and what does it mean that he despised his birthright, and is Jacob really as bad as he seems in this story?

Hours after Judas leaves the Passover meal he leads a full-blown battalion to Jesus' hideout to arrest him and take him an illegal trial where they try to come up with the reason for his arrest. Jesus finally stands before the Roman governor who has the final say over his execution or release and things just get more heated.

Taking a little break from Genesis we're looking at a high-level view of the book of Jonah. Instead of getting caught up in whether or not this Israelite prophet was literally swallowed by a giant fish, we're considering why Jesus would use this story to help his followers understand his mission.

Jesus and the disciples engage in a cram session as Judas is about to betray the Messiah, He only has a few hours to get in some last-minute lessons. And what better way to do this than to teach them while washing their feet.

This is one of my all-time favorite stories because it's about one of my all-time favorite characters in the whole Bible. We also are gonna have to deal with a couple of modern-day taboo issues and why they seem to have been ok back then.