Bible Q&A • Episode 53

Hi, everyone, we're back with some more of your Bible questions. You sent them in. We're going to tackle them. I'm Pastor Paul. I'm here with my wife, Sue. And what do we have this week?

Our first one is from a local gal. Oh, okay. Her name is Cindy. She says,

Yeah, Exodus 13 is where that begins. It was all about the Passover, because the very last plague that God sent against the Egyptians was to slay the firstborn son of every home. To the Israelites, God said, if you take the blood of the Passover lamb and apply it to your doorposts, I will pass over those homes. No death will come to those homes. The firstborn sons will be spared. So later on, God said to the Israelites, the firstborn sons are mine. They belong to me. And this is kind of outlined in Exodus 13, verses 11 through 13. And Cindy's question here is about how exactly was that done? How were they redeemed? Well, they were redeemed by offering a sacrifice. And we're actually given a record of that when Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the temple. They went through that process. It's recorded in Luke chapter 2. You can read it for yourself. And it even quotes Exodus in Luke chapter 2. And it says that they offered a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons, which was, frankly, the sacrifice for people who were very poor. There were other sacrifices for people that had more means. But essentially, this was just God's way of saying, because I spared the firstborn sons of Israel, they belong to me, and they have to be redeemed back. Later on, it even involved the Levites. And you can read that later in the book of Exodus and so forth. But it was a process of redemption where, as a memorial to God's saving act for the Israelites during Passover, the firstborn sons belonged to the Lord.

I like your use of that word memorial, because that's really a key there.

It was a memorial, yeah. Sure, yeah.

Alright, our next question comes from Mary. She says,

I don't think you do. That's why we call it quiet time. We all need quiet time. And that means we have to find a place or a time when we are alone and we can get the life to quiet down and the distractions to settle down. And otherwise, you know, I honestly think that without finding a time, you're really not going to be able to spend that quality time with the Lord and in His Word. So you need to pray about it. A lot of people use morning. You know, they'll get up early. Some people will get up way before the sun comes up just so they can spend quiet time with the Lord. Other people have found that during their commute to work, they can spend time in the Word, both going to work and coming home. Some wait until evening after the kids are in bed or whatever the case may be. And when life kind of quiets down before bedtime, and for them, that works, you know, as time to spend with the Lord. You got to just figure it out. You got to be creative and know what works for you.

Yeah. And I think of two things. I remember when our own kids were at Bible college, which is a group living situation when you're in a dormitory. So there's constant distractions. You don't have a room of your own. And you remember they would create these signals. They would tabernacle their bunk, you know, put a blanket over it. And the signal was, please leave me alone during this time. This is my quiet time. And then I think the other thing I think of is, I've always appreciated the story of Susanna Wesley raising all these children. How many kids did she have? I want to say 17, but I don't even know. A lot. She just had a lot of children. And of course, you know, they were always there. And her signal was to take her apron and throw it up over her head. And she had trained the children that this is, mama's praying now. Mama's, you know, communing with the Lord. You got to figure out whatever's going on. Leave her alone. Give me this five minutes. And so the creativity to when there are constant noise and distractions around you. You can train not only yourself by tabernacling somehow, but others around you as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Very good.

Alright. Debbie says,

No. Short answer. It's not. And I don't think it's a correct one. I think when you begin to apply modern day reasoning to a biblical passage and you come to a conclusion based on that, you got to be very careful. You know, so no, I think that's a bad interpretation of the passage. The passage tells us that Ham looked upon his father when he was unclothed. And if it was no big deal to see your father naked, why did the other two sons walk in backwards into the tent and cover him up? Then why? That would have been unnecessary. So the passage tells you that it was an act of disrespect on Ham's part, and that is why he ended up getting that curse, which trickled down to the Canaanites, his descendants. So no, I think that's a bad interpretation.

Alright. Daniel says,

Well, we didn't use oil to bless people because that's not something we were biblically told to do, first of all. Our only usage of oil was to pray for the sick, as we were following the directives in the book of James in the New Testament. The usage of holy oil was part of the Old Testament covenant that God made with Israel. It does not apply to the New Testament church. And so we didn't use oil, we weren't concerned about where the oil came from. The command that God gave to Israel about not reproducing this oil for common purposes was, again, connected to how the Lord was using it under the Old Covenant. And so we don't have those concerns. They don't apply to us because we're not under the Old Covenant. We are under the New Covenant, and oil doesn't really play a part in the New Covenant other than praying for the sick. And that's all we used oil for. We used olive oil, but any oil would do.

Sure. And in case anyone's listening and they purchased these groups of essential oils, you buy a little box and it's 30 essential oils. There's often frankincense and even myrrh in there, so we don't have to worry about using that.

No, you don't have to worry about using those, yeah. That's right.

Okay, Grace said,

Not that we know of. We have no biblical record that the high priest came to faith after the crucifixion of Jesus. Some of the Pharisees did, who were part of the Sanhedrin, but the high priests did not. Remember, there was only supposed to be one high priest, but there were two high priests during the time of Jesus, just because it became the position. became politicized, and Rome got involved with actually choosing the high priest, and it got very diluted and convoluted, and it was very unbiblical. But we don't have any record of either of the high priest coming to Christ. No.

Alright. Todd says,

Because miracles and power don't change hearts. This is something I've said for years. I've even told people, you know, when you're praying for somebody to be saved, don't pray that they'd see a miracle, because that may not make a difference. It could for some people, but we have examples over and over in the Bible where people witnessed miracles and their hearts remained unchanged, and they continued to depart from a devotion to the Lord. Todd brings up the situation with Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. It's a good example, but there are many examples in the Bible, including the Israelites in the wilderness. Every day saw miracles. Every day there was the miracle of manna on the ground. Every day the pillar of cloud guided them. Every evening that pillar turned into a pillar of fire, protecting and illuminating their camp. And yet many times they turned against the Lord, turned against Moses, rebelled.

Kept wanting to go back to Egypt.

Kept wanting to go back to Egypt. Yeah, it was just, you know, and you read those things, and you're like, what in the world? But, you know, hey, the human heart, yeah, is really a piece of work, and miracles just don't solidify a devotional heart to the Lord.

Yeah. Christina says,

Well, you can't, but the Lord can. And so this is a call for prayer. You know, Jesus said, no man can come to me unless the Father draws him. So, you know, God is constantly doing that work of drawing people, but their hearts have to be made ready. And we pray for that. We pray for God to do that work in their hearts, to prepare the soil, to receive from the Word and so forth, to accept the truth. So I would really just encourage Christina, bless your heart. You want your family to be saved. Who doesn't? But you can't convince them to be believers. Only the Lord can do that through His Holy Spirit. So pray for them.

And hopefully that takes a little bit of pressure off of her.

Yeah.

To not feel like this is all up to me. I'm the one believer in their life.

Yes, you are, but it's through prayer.

It's through prayer. And, you know, I want to encourage Christina also by saying, this could be your ministry. This could be your whole ministry for your whole life, just to pray your family members into the kingdom. And if that is the case, so be it. Be faithful to that ministry.

Sure. This question comes from a viewer that says,

Well, yeah, there's really nothing to reconcile because we are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, but the law is still the law. The law is the reflection of God's perfect holiness. And so the law doesn't go away just because we're believers in Jesus. We're not under the law as a means of our righteous standing before God, and the law can't save us, but the law continues to be a reflection of God's righteousness, His holiness. Now you have to understand something about the law. The law is really given or was given to Israel in two basic categories. There was the ceremonial law, which included things like Sabbath-keeping, food laws, and that sort of thing. And then there was the moral law, which was don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't lie, and so forth. So those things, I mean, you know, those are the moral guidelines that the Holy Spirit now communicates in our hearts because we've received the Holy Spirit. So that means the lawgiver is now living within us, and those continue to be very important, very important. They're very important to the heart of God. They should be very important to the heart of believer, but we need to understand them in their proper context. The law can't save me, right? The law is perfect, and the law is good, right? And that's what Jesus is saying here. If somebody teaches, you know, ignores the wisdom of God's law and teaches others to do the same, it's not gonna go well for them, you know? But that doesn't mean that we're saved by keeping the law. So there's no contradiction. There's no need for reconciliation in those statements.

Alright. Well, Courtney is from Ontario, Canada.

Okay.

And she says,

I don't know this for sure, but I'm willing to bet that Jeremiah 29, 11 is probably one of the most popular verses that people like to quote from the Bible, Old or New Testament, because what a wonderful promise it is. And I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and bless you and so on and so forth. There are things we need to keep in mind about that promise. It was given to the nation of Israel as they were coming back to the land, or as God was speaking of them coming back to the land after 70 years of exile in the Persian kingdom. And God wanted them to know that He had not forgotten them, that they still had a place in His heart, and that He had plans. He had good plans for the nation of Israel as a whole. That being said, that's where that promise really needs to rest in our understanding. It was given to Israel. It was not given to New Testament believers. Now we have a similar promise in God's Word. And that similar promise is found in Romans chapter 8, where God says, or excuse me, Paul the Apostle says, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God will work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Once again, we hear a very similar message, that God will work good out of our lives. The bad and the good, God will work for good, right? Here's the problem. Sometimes we define good differently than the Lord does. We come up with our own expectations of what good means. Some people might think that good means abundant or overflowing wealth. Well, He didn't promise that. He said He would bring good, right? It's God's definition of good that we should be searching for. Some people might think good means perfect health without any challenges, right? Well, that's not what God said. He said He would bring good from even our bad health challenges. We've seen that happen in our own lives, where we've gone through some health issues and the Lord has brought good from those circumstances. And that is the promise that New Testament believers really need to hold on to. So regardless of the suffering, and you know, Paul begins in the middle part of Romans chapter 8 by saying, I'm convinced, personally, he says, that the suffering that we endure in this life, the suffering that we go through in this life, is a sign of God's purpose, and it's a sign of God's love for us, and it's a sign of God's love for us, and it's a sign it can't even be compared, you know, to the glory that we will experience one day with the Lord. That's a paraphrase, but it catches the essence of what he said. And so that is how we are to view suffering in this life. That first of all, it doesn't compare with what's coming. And second of all, that God promised that He's going to bring good from all of the situations that we endure in this life.

And I think there's another thing when we see God's promises to His people in the Old Testament, we can look at that and say, but I see the character of God in that. Even though the exact promise maybe doesn't lift off the page and apply to our lives in the exact same way, we see the character of God.

The heart of God.

The heart of God. Yeah. So.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And that is our last question.

Well, thank you so much for sending in your questions that we could take time to go through them today. If you have more questions you'd like to ask, just send them to us by email, frankly, is a very good way to do it. Questions at lifebibleministry.com. We'll get to them just as soon as we can. And until we do gather with you, God bless you. Have a good rest of your day.

Bye-bye.