Day 252: Isaiah 20–23; 2 Corinthians 11:1–15; Proverbs 22:7–16

0:00Alright, welcome to day 252 of Journey Through Scripture. Today we'll be looking at Isaiah 20 through 23, Proverbs 22, 17 through 16, and 2 Corinthians 11, verses 12. Okay, let's begin with Isaiah 20. Here we begin with one of these prophetic sign enactments. So this takes place. We learn in the year that the commander of chief, the commander in chief sent by Sargon, the king of Assyria, came to Ashtode and fought against it and captured it. Now a couple of things here. So the commander in chief of the Assyrian army would have been known as the Tartan or the Turtanu in the Akkadian language. And he sent by a king named Sargon. So this would be Sargon the second who takes his name after a very ancient Akkadian king.

1:17The name is Shahrukhain, which means the king is legitimate, which is the kind of name that you give yourself. If as was the case with this Assyrian king, you come to the throne through a military coup because there is every reason to doubt that you are a legitimate king. Interestingly also, for a long time, critical biblical scholarship saw this as a falsehood. Because Sargon, of course, there's a Sargon, the great, the king of Akkad, who lived many, many centuries before this. And so, yeah, Isaiah just doesn't have the name right. He's using the name of some ancient king or something. Until in the 20th century, the Sargon's capital, Duru Shahrukhain, was excavated at Korsabad in Iraq, primarily by University of Chicago, etc. And of course, since then, many more things have been excavated to testify to Sargon the second's reign.

2:25Now, this would have been the king who was the father of Sennacherib. This is the guy who dies in the field in battle. And there's a lot of questions over the legitimacy of Sennacherib's succession. And also note where he is the Assyrian king who gets to take credit for the downfall of Samaria. Tiglath, the third, as we've seen, is the first king to move against Samaria, the northern kingdom, succeeded by Shulmanu Assharade, as we know him, Shalmanesir. But this one is the fifth from 726 to 722. And then Sargon comes to the throne in a military coup. And now I mentioned that we have a lot of other stuff attesting to his reign. One thing which is interesting is Sargon's account of what's going on here. So notice that this is an attack on the city of Asshadode. And indeed, Sargon writes about this himself or has it ran about in a very interesting inscription. It's spelled T-A-N-G-I-New word, V-A-R. So Tang-E-Var inscription, which is found in the Tang-E-Var pass in Iran. And you should Google that one because it's really interesting. It's like up on this huge ledge where like nobody can reasonably be expected to read it.

3:51But it's very interesting. And the translation of it, this is the translation of actually my teacher, K-Los in younger junior, translates this section of the whole thing. But in this section, I plundered the city of Asshadode. Yamanie, it's king feared my weapons. He fled to the region of the land of Maluchah and lived like a thief there. Shapataku, king of the land of Maluchah, heard about the might of Asher, Nabu and Marduk, which I had demonstrated over all the lands. And he put Yamanie in menacles and handcuffs and had him brought before my presence like a captive. So interestingly, this is a nice parallel to what we see going on here. So he fights against Asshadode, captures it. And Yamanie comes to Isaiah and tells him, and he loses the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet. And it says he did this walking naked in barefoot. And that's like the sign.

4:56And the way in which the way in which this sign is to be interpreted is as my servant Isaiah has walked naked in barefoot three years. So he does this for three years, probably not constantly not doing anything but walking around naked. But he's been doing this for three years as a sign and a portant against Egypt and Kush. So just like this happened to Asshadode, so will it happen to you? So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Kushite exiles, both young and old naked in barefoot with buttocks uncovered the nakedness of Egypt. And they will be ashamed and dismayed because of Kush, their hope and Egypt, their boasts. Who will be ashamed? Probably Judah, right? Because it was tempting when Assyria was a big threat to say, hey, you know, we could turn to the Lord, but that would be a little bit difficult. So why don't we just form an alliance with one of these stronger kingdoms, both Egypt and Kush are very powerful. And you will be ashamed of this because this will ultimately be the end of these people.

6:07And so, yeah, so that's the that's chapter 20, which is a very short chapter. All right, then in chapter 21, we have another oracle this this time called wilderness of the sea. And so we first see these world winds in the negative, which is this southern, you know, Judean area coming from the wilderness from a terrible land. Okay, so the wind starts to blow a stern vision is told to me the trader betrays the destroyer destroys go up. Oh, alarm lay siege, oh, made media. Now what are these? Alam is at the heart of the Persian Empire and the meat and media refers to the needs and who is the kingdom that this that these two are the principal players in tearing down while Babylon. And so my loins are filled with anguish, anguish, pangs have seized me like a woman in labor. I'm bowed down and I can't hear I'm dismayed. I can't see my heart staggers.

7:13The twilight I long for has been turned into trembling. So I can't I can't wait for the for the day to break forth at the night is that the night would be gone. But now it's there there is no relief. They prepare the table. They spread the rugs. They eat they drink. Oh, so like they're they're getting ready for a feast of some sort. But no, arise you princes oil your shields. Right. That's how you care for leather shields and get them ready for battle or leather covered shields. And so like you know you're not going to have any twilight you're not going to have any time for feasting. It's time to go to battle Babylon. So set a watchman and let him tell you what he sees. He sees riders horsemen pairs riders on donkeys on camels listen listen very diligently. And then he who saw that is the watchman cried out I'm standing on upon a watch tower. I stand oh lord, which is not notice that's not Yahve that's my lord or adon adonai.

8:25So you could be talking to anyone here continually by day I'm at my post station. I'm here. I've been here entire nights and now I see riders coming horsemen in pairs and fallen fallen is Babylon. And the carved images of her gods are shattered on the ground. And now this word is to Israel or to Judah actually because Judah's the one who is is brutalized by Babylon in the future. Right. This is again another one of these oracles that is far in the future beyond Isaiah's lifetime. Oh my threshed and winnowed one. Okay, so that's the process of separating the wheat from the chaff and remember this theme in Isaiah where he will you know save the small amount of remnant. And so like it'll be like a little bit of fruit on the vine. Various metaphors like that like a stump like a shoot growing out of a stump. Okay, my threshed and would own once all the bad has been taken out of you and it's the few who are righteous who are left.

9:31What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts God of Israel I announce to you that this nation that will one day destroy you will not last forever. In fact, Isaiah here telling exactly the countries who are going the nations who are going to move against them and and destroy them and and cause Babylon to fall. Which of course is one of the reasons why if you're coming at this passage from an unbelieving perspective, you might have a lot of suspicion as to whether or not Isaiah wrote this. He I mean, he gets a lot of media correct. Now, but of course we we would look at this as an example of predictive prophecy that the prophet knows things that he only knows because the Lord has revealed them to him. Okay, and then in verse 11, we get another oracle this one. It's very short. It's concerning Duma, which is a Judean city close to Philistine territory, where we see again another watchman. So we see a bit of a connection between these various brief oracles calling to one is calling to me from seer. Okay, the Edamite territory watchman what time of night watchman what time of night and the watchman says morning.

10:46And also night if you will inquire inquire and come back again notice that you've got another connection between the oracle and the fall of Babylon oracle that we just saw where you have the idea of night turning into day as a metaphor for hope on the horizon and that being frustrated. So morning comes, but also the night. So you know, it's and that that could be a variety there can be a variety of different ways to understand exactly what the imagery is suggesting there. I think the idea is that even if morning is coming night, it's inevitable that night will fall again. And we've seen many times in Isaiah how darkness and darkness of night is this time of future testing this time of future surveil that is going to come. Then we get another oracle one concerning Arabia. So we don't see a lot of stuff directed towards Arabia and the Old Testament, but this of course would be the area far east of the Jordan beyond, you know, Ammon and Moab and all of that Arabian desert and all that.

11:55So it speaks to the caravans of the dead and nights to the thirsty bring water right that something you would say in the middle of the desert. Meet the fugitive with bread, oh, inhabitants of the land of Taimah. So these are, you know, you know, take care of people. You're going to bring people peace bring people refreshment in the wilderness for they have fled from the swords and from the drawn sword from the bent bow and from the press of battle. So it's going to reach even then even them for the Lord said to me within a year according to the years of a hired worker all the glory of Kedar will come to an end and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few for Yave the God of hosts have spoken. And then we turn in chapter 22 to Jerusalem and this is something called the Valley of vision, which of course is the name of a classic collection of devotional texts.

12:59But here Valley of vision does not appear to be a good thing because so think about Jerusalem sitting on a hill right and it's got valleys around it particularly the kid drone valley. And so if you want to see what's going on around notice the the remember the theme of seeing it in today's readings like watchman and stuff and he even hear this called Valley of vision right the valley is not the place where you're going to see what's going on around you it's where you're going to be ignorant blinded to it until until the enemy is is upon you and so Valley of vision is sounds somewhat sarcastic. But here in particular why are you in the Valley why are we in the Valley why are we not in Jerusalem and so we're about to find out what do you mean that you have gone up all of you to the house tops you who were who are full of shouting said to mulch or was city and exalted town so here this bustling metropolis right why are you up on your house tops right now.

14:04And then and then you get the vision of what is actually going on there you there's people dead but not by the sword right or they're not dead in battle so they haven't fought okay but they're dead all of your leaders have fled together okay I'm getting the picture here remember what happens when Jerusalem eventually falls right the king leaves the city and is captured on the outskirts of the city. So you have the leaders fleeing having fled the city you have people lying around dead but not from war perhaps denoting death and the time of the siege or death simply not putting up a fight but being hunted down in the field by the Babylonian army all you who were found were captured though they had fled far away. Therefore I said look away from me let me weep bitter tears do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people and obviously the prime like the big example of this that we're given in the Bible is the way that the king kings at a kaya flees and is captured and his sons are slaughtered before him and then he's blinded so once again we see Isaiah looking into the future and seeing the way in which Jerusalem will fall right with people being so.

15:25And then I say I said in that day you looked to the weapons of the house of the forest now he's going to start describing things that they did in preparation for the coming invasion and it's unclear exactly where to set this historically now obviously one of these could be a synacarib invasion in fact if we if we connect with the connect versus 15 and following to this this oracle that we're about to look at then it really does seem to be synacarib invasion because of because of we characters are named here particularly these high officials Shabna and then Eliakim and we know that these were the officials during the reign of his a kaya and if that's the case number one we might be we might be justified in seeing the whole valley of vision.

16:25Oracle as belonging to that rather than the final destruction of Jerusalem although you know it's hard to decide between that because we also do have Babylon in this in this context. But it on the other hand it kind of does look like the invasion that happened at the time of synacarib because at the time of chesa kaya because he does all of all of this preparation that was made what is is noted here so you saw that the breaches in the city of David for where many so your vulnerable your vulnerabilities and so what did you do you collected the waters from the lower pool. You counted the houses in Jerusalem and started breaking them down and using them to fortify the walls you made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. All these things that really sound like the preparations that has a kaya made although again the counter to that might be well any any time jude would have had knowledge of an incoming army this would have been these would have been appropriate measures to take so it's a you know it's difficult is it is it has a kaya's reign or is that the final fall of Jerusalem or perhaps one of the other times

17:40that the army's mentioned marched against Jerusalem it's hard to know for sure but interestingly and this is the thing that makes it difficult to see it as has a kaya is it says but you did not look to him who did it in other words you did all of these things to protect yourselves but the whole reason this is happening to to you that the Lord is bringing this about the Lord is bringing this upon you. You did that's the one thing you did not do was look to him the one who planned it long ago and this is this is a little difficult to get to to see how this would fit in with the description of chesachio's reign in second kings and second chronicles because that is a time of great religious reform and it's difficult to see the prophet or the Lord as dissatisfied with what chesachio did with respect to that. However note that the invasion of synachryb takes place significantly into the reign of chesachio and it might be that the religious reforms were instituted and then when sargon dies and synachryb takes the throne and chesachio decides to rebel against him chesachio starts really taking matters into his own hands and may perhaps abandon the Lord somewhat.

18:59And then perhaps the kingdom slid back into wickedness or idolatry ultimately it's very difficult to to to discern so but if we if we do take this as referring to the final destruction of Jerusalem then there's a significant break between verses 14 and 15 when he starts talking about the prophet starts talking about these officials that we know were during chesachio's time so yeah. Now I think it's also noteworthy if you look in verse 13 that what's going on here is God is calling for this time of repentance right the weeping morning baldness wearing of sack cloth but instead what you're doing is your feasting you should have been while you should have been repenting you were feasting joy and gladness killing oxen slaughtering sheep eating flesh drinking wine and saying let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die which of course.

19:59Is quoted by Paul in first Corinthians 15 as to what our attitude might as well be if there is no resurrection from the dead but here the idea is that you know there's going to be this this this terrible invasion and and rather than turning to the Lord let's fortify our city. But realize that that's probably not going to do anything either so we might as well have a good time before we're all dead and of course this is this is the attitude of somebody who doesn't have the future hope in the resurrection of the dead of the dead as well right we know the judge we know we're done for and so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we last because you don't have this future hope of glory you don't have this future hope of resurrection with Christ. But but God sees this as a very evil attitude to take and he says surely this iniquity will not be atoned for until you die which is an interesting use of the term atonement.

21:01Okay then in chapter 22 at the end like the second half of this chapter we have the instruction coming to Isaiah to go to the steward of the of the royal steward to Shabna. Who has this title who is over the household and I've noted this one we've seen this in the past several individuals have this title it may be something like prime minister it's a it's an important official we don't know a lot more about it the official Hebrew term is asher all have buy it. We know of of a man named Arza who held this post in the northern kingdom under the reign of King Basha in first Kings 69 we know of obadiah who also held this in the northern kingdom under King a had from first Kings 18 three we have another one who is unnamed also at around the time of a have although

22:02during the days of his successor in second Kings 10 five this is the one who sends the 70 sons of a have their heads in baskets to Jahu and then finally we have this guy whom we made here who is Shabna to be succeeded by a laiachine. So so he is he is at this very high position but and you know he's and he's really made a name for himself in fact he's he's ready to memorialize his legacy carving out a nice tomb for himself to be remembered for all these ages to come what is this what have what have you to do here doing all this because the Lord rejects you you've given poor counsel you are not a good asher all have buy it. And so Yavye will hurl you away violently you strong man he will seize firm hold on you and and whirl you around like like like wind you up and throw you out like a ball into the wide land and there you shall die there shall be your all your glorious chariots you shame of your master's house and it's hard to know exactly what this guy did but Isaiah knows.

23:17Shabna knows and it appears that the very least he's in support of the strategy that Judah has adopted which has evolved everything except for turning to the Lord and so God says I'm going to instead call my servant a laiachine son of hill kaya these are all characters by the way whom we meet in second Kings 18 and 19 as well but I'm going to take your position. And I'm going to give it to him I'm going to close him with your robe put your sash on him and commit your authority to his hand so I'm going to give him this office and indeed when we meet these guys in second Kings it is a laiachine who is the asher all have buy it the oak who was over the household and it is Shabna who is the secretary at that time and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David he shall open and none shall shut he shall shut and none shall open.

24:17So he's going to be the boss of the you know the the the tip of the spear for the Davidic monarchy and I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place and he will and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house so the one who will actually have a legacy here will be this a laiachim but even this guy even this a laiachim is not his faithfulness will not last forever. Okay and it says in that day declares Yahweh of host the peg that was fastened in a secure place which is that's a laiachim from verse 23 will give way and it will be cut down and fall and the load that was on it will be cut off for Yahweh has spoken here very much in line with this thing that we've seen running here that you know even if the morning breaks right night will come again so even this guy who's going to you know honor me and do a good job says the Lord he even he will not last forever and will eventually fail.

25:26Finally in Isaiah we see this oracle concerning the Phoenician city of tire and the big the big thing about them is they are see fairing these merchants these these great middlemen going all throughout the land enriching themselves they were all of this trade and so you've got the ships of Tarshish now Tarshish of course where Jonah wanted to go probably it's probably in Spain so these really long range impressive ships well all you ships of Tarshish for tire is laid waste without house or harbor so he's taking away exactly there means of wealth from the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them so all these these areas sound these far off places you need boats to get to are lamenting and are seeing the down going to see the downfall of tire be still inhabitants of the coast and merchants of sidon another important Phoenician city who crossed the sea have filled you

26:30and so yeah this this this merchant of the nations is now Pete the nations will be ashamed and will have to cover their eyes because of the destruction so in verse five the report reaches Egypt what happened to them and there will be an anguish over them as will all of the inhabitants of the coast is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old whose feet carried her to settle far away and and their downfall their down down fall it must be made known is that it is of Yavé of hosts who has purposed it to defile the pompous pride of all glory to dishonor all the honored of the earth cross over your land like the Nile as the Nile snakes through Egypt right go through your land a daughter of Tarshish there is no restraint anymore Yavé has stretched out his hand over the sea shaken the kingdom Yavé has given his command concerning canin to destroy its strongholds Phoenician Phoenician is often associated very strongly with canin in fact like a lot of the religion and language from there in the studies of the ancient world are essentially you know what they do there is considered to be the primary evidence for what caninites did and how they wrote in the language that they spoke and the religion that they had

27:55so we see the close association here and and he said the Lord said you will no more exult or oppressed virgin daughter of side and arise crossover to Cyprus even there you will have no rest because the land of the Caldeans is coming against you again this is Babylon of people that was not a Syria had destined it for wild beasts right so and it springs up and takes the place of a Syria we saw this happens in 605 BC erecting siege towers stripping her palaces bear making a Syria of ruin and so and this is going to be disastrous for tire and these other nations that depend on their wealth and just like as we've seen the judgment on Judah is said will is said to happen for 70 years so here at the end of the year 70 years Yavé will visit tire and she shall return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth so this judgment will last 70 years and then it will be back up to its old things right to to making wealth all around the world and I think it's not worthy that this is how Babylon the great in the book of revelations is kind of portrayed there's a lot of similarity here and there's a lot of

29:21similarity here that she has a prostitute on many waters and when she falls all the kings of the earth whale because this is the one whose trade they all benefited from not because they care about her but because she brought them so much wealth so much prosperity okay let's go now to Proverbs 22 verses 7 through 16 so the rich rules over the poor the borrower is the slave of the lender so these are important things to know about the way God's world works and of course that you know so a lot of wisdom here particularly in how much debt I think we we accrue right the borrower is the slave of the lender keep that in mind it's not necessarily saying you can never borrow anything but if you do this is the situation you can get yourself into whoever so's injustice will reap calamity sowing and reaping right and the rod of his fury will fail so if you are injust and think about the prophets and Isaiah and all they've been saying about this right people who are unjust calamity from the Lord will come and then verse 9 whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed the Lord will be blessed

30:39the the Hebrew is literally tov iron it's literally whoever has a good eye and it's hard to know exactly what that means whoever has a good eye will be blessed but we do see the opposite of this the raw iron the bad eye in 23 6 and 28 22 which there appears to mean something like stingy so the opposite of that would be generous whoever is generous will be blessed for he shares his bread with the poor okay and so notice how nicely that fits with the the second the second line so the bountiful eye here probably means generous drive out a scoffer and strife will go out so the one who's spreading rumors and and saying bad things about people get rid of them and guess what strife will no longer be there quarreling and abuse will cease he who loves purity of the world is purity of heart right he doesn't just he doesn't just do it because he has to but he loves what it means to be pure of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king as his friend so that can take you places the eyes of yavi keep watch over knowledge but he over throws the words of the trader

31:57the treacherous the unfaithful in their obligations this is off sometimes used in the Old Testament of people who are unfaithful in their marriage then I then I like verse 13 right the sluggard says there is a lion outside I shall be killed in the streets now what is this I think it's basically he saying to the sluggard you know get out of your house go do something it's it's you know why are you so afraid to go and and and and live a prosperous life and live a productive life right are you are you afraid that there's that you're going to be killed by a lion in the streets get out go do something make something of yourself the mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit he whom yavi is angry with will fall into it folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline drives it far from him so here we have the benefit of discipline again because children are born and they can easily be given to foolishness and so how do you drive foolishness out but but but through discipline and rod here I will again emphasize does not mean corporal punishment okay think of how much how many rods we've been seeing in the Old Testament

33:23representing rule right representing things that are used for correction things that are used for chastisement so it's a big toolbox the sheveth moussar the rod of instruction the rod of discipline it is simply a metaphor for for discipline and finally whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth or gives to the rich will only come to poverty okay finally let's look at second Corinthians 11 1 through 15 so Paul here gives us in these verses that we're looking at today I think flushes out kind of a lot more of the substance of the opposition to him at the people who have caused trouble and so you have several parties whom I think it's important to distinguish you've got the individuals who are in the church of Corinth who had been swayed against Paul and who had made things very difficult for him and right those are people that are called to repentance here today I think we see outside people who have come into them and really fed that

34:39fire okay and these are individuals whom he is here going to be referring to as the quote unquote super apostles these are people with letters of recommendation who comment bad mouth Paul and feed this already negative sentiment that there was towards him in the Corinthian church so here's how he tackles as he says I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness so notice what what he's just said from yesterday and of what we read yesterday okay that he's not commending himself to them he's not comparing himself with himself with others like that's not his way of doing things rather it's the one who whom the Lord commands who is approved okay but now he's going to be comparing himself and now he's going to be recommending himself so even though those principles he shared yesterday are true it's kind of necessary for him to do this a little bit to get them to see

35:40you know who he really is to get him to them to understand his apostolic ministry so bear with me in a little bit of foolish talk here and and the reason why I feel it's important for me to talk this way to you is because I feel a divine jealousy for you right the kind of zeal for for his for for God's people that God has I feel the same kind for you and it's justified right because I write I'm right to feel about this way just like God is right to feel this way about his people when they turn around turn away from him in the places where God is described as jealous or perhaps we might say zealous okay Paul himself feels this way since I betrothed you to one husband so notice I'll to hear the the fittingness of putting jealousy language along with implications of don't be adulterous right a husband is right to feel quote unquote jealous for a wife who is turning his back her back on him and here I betrothed you to a

36:48husband to Christ right as a pure virgin to Christ and I'm afraid that you're being deceived just like Eve was deceived right the first wife was deceived by the serpent's covenant I'm afraid that you are being led away from a sincere a devote and pure devotion to Christ right you want to know why I've made the big deal about this these things that you've needed to correct in my letters and in my visits to you it's because I I'm the matchmaker here you with Christ and I want you to be a pure virgin for Christ I don't want you to be deceived and so I feel this jealousy and so I will boast a little bit so bear with me in my foolish boasting if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus then the one we proclaimed and we don't know exactly what Paul has in mind here does he have in mind like a works based gospel or something or is it even a gospel that is void of a good theology of suffering of of kind of maybe what we might identify as like a health

37:55and wealth kind of thing right so look at Paul he's a loser he's he's not wealthy he's not well spoken he's not impressive he doesn't have a lot of worldly wisdom we do though and that's why you should listen to us we you know that that is in conflict with the gospel message right like that that's not a one way to think of it is like if you love the things if if you are a Christian and you love the things that you would be in love with even if you didn't know Christ something is wrong right like I want to love becoming a Christian becoming a follower of Jesus causes me to have delight in and causes me to love that which is of God right but if as a Christian I'm just I love getting new stuff I love having nice stuff I love being thought well love in the world I like people looking up to me you'd want those things even if you weren't a Christian that there's nothing distinctive about the kingdom of God in that and so that might be part of the different

39:01Jesus the the Jesus of the Jesus of popularity the Jesus of wealth a different Jesus um uh so if if someone comes and proclaims that kind of Jesus to you or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received and this is one of those places where we wish that Greek letters were Greek used capitalization the same way that that English did because it's like is that the holy spirit or is this like spirit as in like an attitude that you have and I don't think there's a there's a definite way to tell here but um or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted right all these things major problems in your faith you put up with it readily enough um you know you're not guarded enough about this stuff and that's why I was so concerned about you indeed I consider that I'm not at in the least bit inferior to these quote-unquote super apostles okay these guys who have come in remember I said we distinguish between the various parties

40:05at Corinth these are people have come in from the outside and have influenced the Corinthian church and you know what they like to talk about how they like to to put me down and to and to try to get you to to buy into their worldly way of thinking um by how impressive they are um guess what I'm not in the least bit inferior to them and I'm and here is that point of comparison right where he's like like he has to engage in a little bit of foolish boasting quote-unquote in order to make that comparison even if I'm unskilled in speaking right his letters are wavy and impressive but when he's here he's his presence is of no account right even if I'm unskilled in speaking I'm not so in knowledge indeed in every way we have made this plain to you in all things or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge okay Paul talks about how he does this uh first Corinthians nine he he talks about this a lot

41:08right um and we've seen this right Paul comes he works among them and here we learned that he also received support from other churches as well particularly Macedonia which is interesting right because Macedonia are poor churches whereas Corinth as far as we can tell had some pretty wealthy individuals in it and yet he would not take money from them not because they couldn't afford it they couldn't afford to pay him for his ministry the Corinthians right but because of what that would have said that that it would have been open to the charge that Paul is doing this for money and that he uh polises trade his gospel preaching according uh to the flesh as a court as opposed to according to the spirit so it's for very theological reasons that Paul supported himself and received support from already established and thriving churches rather than in the areas in which he planted and indeed in Acts 18 when he goes to Corinth we see him doing it this way right we see

42:10he takes up residence with persila and aquila who are both tent makers as well there and and refuses to do this but now these super apostles they've turned it against him because I don't know if you remember but I pointed out a few uh several days ago that there is kind of this idea and I think we see this today as well that if something's free it must be cheap okay so uh oh yeah Paul won't even take money from you because he can't even he can't charge you for the kind of um a poor rhetoric that he delivers right his ministry is so unimpressive he has to give it away for free get easily see this being one of their criticisms to him and um and so yeah so he talks about how these these other churches are supporting him how he's supporting himself and even uses this hyperbolic language I robbed other churches to give it to you obviously people Paul's not saying I stole from them right it's this hyperbolic language here that he's using um as so I refrained I guess what

43:13when I come back to you it's going to be the same thing I will continue to refrain from burning thing you in any way because I know how much of a stumbling block this is to you as the truth of Christ is in me my boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of vicae remember in v. Corinthians 9 15 he said that he would rather die than have someone um deprive him of his ground for boasting and there he's talking about his ability to present the gospel free of charge and he does this because he said because I do not love you know but because I do god knows I love you and I'm going to continue to do things this way so that the in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim in their boasted mission that they work on the same terms as we do that they were sent by Jesus no I'm undermining that I want you to see that they are not such men are false apostles deceitful workmen disguising themselves as a possible of of apostles of Christ and

44:14this should be no surprise to you because even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness on their end will correspond to their deeds all right everybody that's it for today as always I thank you for being with me and I look forward to being with you again tomorrow and until then keep reading scripture take care and bye bye you