Tuesday, April 18th. | Blood Cleansing

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Tuesday, April the 18th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You can help us keep this conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you might get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link at the description so you can do just that. But before we do, I want to hit the verse of the day. I would love to read the verse of the day for you. The verse of the day today comes from Matthew chapter 20, verse 28. It says, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

Yeah. And I think that's something that the early Jewish audience that he preached to missed because they were looking for that king, that conqueror that was going to overthrow the Romans. They were looking for that messianic figure of glory. And so they see this guy riding in on a donkey from, you know, they like, we know who your mother is. We know where you come from.

You don't come from, you know, very much. You're it. He's like, I'm it. And then, you know, that imagery of him healing the sick and like hanging out with, you know, tax collectors and prostitutes and washing his own disciples feet. And this is like, this is not what we wanted.

This is not what we were thinking you were going to be. And that's the whole point is that the gospel turns our expectations on its head. Right. Because Christ came to serve and to set that model of servant leadership for us. There's a power. There's a beauty in serving others that when you do that, when you engage in that service, you connect with Christ and his nature and how he came to serve us. It's a beautiful reality that God gives us the privilege to serve. That's why, you know, a lot of times we'll talk here on the show about different ways that Clearview is serving, whether it's in our church or in our community, because that's what God has called us to do. That's what it means to be like Christ is to serve others.

That's right. And I think that's kind of the thing is that people are like, oh, wait, so you're not a king? He's like, no, I am. I'm a king. But this is what leaders do.

A servant king. Yep. I love that. I don't know how to really break this to you. Oh, this sounds serious. Well, yeah, this thing's happened that shouldn't have happened. I was scolded in a Texas road house. That's a sentence that should never be true. I was scolded in a Texas road house.

And I want to see if you feel like it was justified. David was there. So if you feel like, David, if you feel at any point. My mic is on. I'm ready to jump in.

David's ready to go. So I was scolded in a Texas road house. Again, I got to say that because I need people to understand how wrong this is. I took Ellie on a date. I took her dancing.

I took her getting dancing lessons. So already that's a point in my favor. Great.

That's several points in your favor. Yeah. Yeah. And so then I'm like, hey, let's go to Texas road house. She's like, oh, wow. Dancing and dinner.

I love this. And then David was already in wait for us. I said, hey, are you cool if David comes? She's like, yeah, no problem. So we all three were out to dinner.

Okay. So I order coffee. I'm like, hey, I want a burger and fries and I would love a cup of coffee. She's like, okay, cool. So she brings out the bread. She's like, cool. Is there anything else I can get for you guys? I'm like, yeah, could I get a cup of coffee?

That's twice. Okay. Okay. So she's like, oh yes, yes, I can. Disappears. Don't see her again for another like 10 minutes. She comes back, refills the water. She's like, hey, your food is going to be out in a minute.

Is there anything I can get you guys? I'm like, uh, I would love a cup of coffee. She's like, oh, that's three times. I was like, I would love a cup of coffee. She's like, yes, yes, that's right.

That's right. And she's flustered. So I'm like, okay, I'm not going, I'm not going. Sure. She's she's she's like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. She leaves. So then finally she brings out the food and I'm like, oh, and the, is there a cup of coffee? She was like, yes, yes, I have the coffee.

We just made it. She runs off, comes back, brings me the coffee. It is, I would, I would say it's freezing cold. It is not freshly made. It is not hot. It is old and cold.

It is old and cold. So I take a sip of it and I'm like, oh man. I was like, I don't, this is not good. Like, and then Ellie looks at me and goes, will you stop complaining? Why do you feel the need to complain about it? And I was like, okay, given the circumstances, I feel like I should be able to complain. Okay. I would hope not. Can I, can I add some context?

If you want. It wasn't the fact that you were like, okay, now I'm upset or now I'm this or that. What made us kind of think, okay, you need to maybe not be so rude. I wasn't rude. Was you like, she left and you kind of like did a smile or whatever.

And then when she was going far enough out of earshot, you turned to Ellie and you were like, I'm not leaving her tip. I was joking. Okay. Now that's a bit much. We still got a tip. I get a joke. I feel like if she disappeared four times, didn't bring it, then finally did bring it. And then it was cold.

I feel like I get a joke. We left the tip. Of course we left the tip. But I said, I said, I'm not leaving a tip. Now here, like this would not be unreasonable for you to like, Hey, you know, I waited a while for this cup of coffee. I asked you several times. I understand that you're busy, but by the time the coffee got to me, it was, it was cold. And nobody wants to drink a cold cup of coffee. So would you mind?

And you said you were making it fresh. Would you mind just taking this off the bill? Like that's not unreasonable to me.

In my opinion, that would not be an unreasonable thing. It would have been one thing if I had been like, I would have deserved a scolding if I was like, Hey, listen, I did, I asked for this coffee and I never got it until like 40 minutes later. See that corner right there?

Go stick your nose in that corner and I'll come get you when it's time to go. Then I deserve to be scolded. But to be like, Oh man, this coffee, this is, this is not good.

Ellie's like, can you stop complaining? I can, I can tell you most likely one of two things happened. Number one, either your waitress just continued to forget and was just like not good at what she was doing or your waitress went back and asked her manager or the head of the kitchen during that night. And they said, absolutely not. We're not making a new pot of coffee for somebody.

Just serve them this coffee. So one of those two things happened. I need to, I don't know, maybe I need to think on this. What, what, I want to know what the, what the audience thinks.

What do you guys think? Should I have been scolded for my snide comments? Should I, or should I have just drank the coffee and swallowed what they gave me? Just been quiet.

Swallowed the coffee along with your pride. Yeah, exactly. I don't know.

Let me know. So we're going to continue our discussion through Malachi today. This has been such an exciting book to walk through with you guys. And we've heard from so many of you how you're enjoying the series. We're going to, excuse me, I got tripped over my words because I was so excited about Malachi.

Maybe you drank some cold coffee off balance. We're going to get Dr. Sean in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, 1 John 5, 15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clear View Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clear View and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at clearviewbc.org or you can download the Clear View app on iTunes or Google Play.

You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and if you're joining us for the very first time today, you've never listened to the show before, we want to let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can follow all of his work at his website, that's AbbadanShah.com. That's right, and we are excited to continue the discussion with you guys today. If you missed yesterday's episode and you're listening on the radio, I don't know how to help you. You're probably just going to be going ahead and cutting the radio off now. Well, no, no, because you'll benefit from today's episode, too.

But if you have access to the podcast or the bank of episodes, we really encourage you to go back and listen to yesterday's episode, because today is going to build on what we talked about yesterday, which is the rotten blessings in the book of Malachi. We shared that illustration about the peaches, how we got these wonderful, beautiful, sweet peaches from Georgia and brought them home, put them in this basket in our kitchen, and then somehow we put this bag of oranges, that net-looking bag, right on top of that. You're not supposed to do that with peaches anyway. That's not good. I'm going to blame maybe Nicholas for that.

I'm sure he did it. He's like, oh, oh, oh, oranges. And a few days later, we had the smell, the stench in this room, in this kitchen, and we're like, where is it coming from?

What's wrong? Well, the peaches had rotten. And we didn't know. And so when we picked up that bag of oranges there, they were all mushy and pulpy and just all over and flies. You just hate to see it.

You hate to smell it. And even began to corrupt the oranges. Yeah, that's true.

Because those microorganisms were working in the peels of the oranges. So also in our lives, God gives blessings. But when we take God out of the blessings, then the same blessings now become a curse.

And you were saying yesterday that God is holding. He's talking specifically in chapter two to the priests and to the religious leaders, because we all have to give an account to Christ at the seat of judgment. But at the same time, leaders and people in leadership are held to a higher standard.

And I thought that was kind of not convicting, but it's something to think about. It gives a little weight to what we do. There's more responsibility on our shoulders.

There's more weight that we have to give an account for. And I love that picture of how the peaches started to rot and it sort of bled into the oranges. Those blessings in our lives, not only are those blessings corrupted, but then they start to corrupt everything around them. It's like everything that we touch is just starting to decay because of that curse. Those rotten blessings as a result of our disobedience, our sin.

That's right. And it says right here in Malachi chapter two, it's that God says, Behold, I will rebuke your descendants. And then he says, and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feast, and one will take you away with it.

Now, what in the world is Malachi talking about? You know, that's the big question people ask me is like, what is the refuse of the feast? So to understand what God is saying there through Malachi, you have to understand how sacrifices were done by the priests in the temple. You have to go to the Book of Leviticus where everything is laid out.

So how did it work? When people sinned, when a person sinned, they would bring a lamb to be sacrificed. The priest would first examine the lamb to make sure that it didn't have any blemish. Now, keep in mind, this is all pointing to Christ. You know, right from the Old Testament, all these feasts were done, these sacrifices, these offerings were done to kind of foreshadow the coming of the Lamb of God, the offering of God. So often people think, you know, that those people in the Old Testament had no clue. That's why I don't go along with that dispensational type view where it's like they had no clue that was salvation for them.

I don't think so. Maybe some people didn't have a clue. I would venture to say a lot of people didn't have a clue because they were focused on their own rituals and hypocrisy and instead of really understand the meaning of what they were doing. But I would venture to say a lot of people didn't know what they were doing. Well, I mean, even by that logic, there's tons of people today who don't really have a clue what they actually believe. I mean, you go on Facebook and you watch people like argue and debate theology the way they lay it out. They really don't have a clue what they believe.

Some of the things that people say with such confidence, I'm like, where did you get that from? So, you know, even in those days in time of Moses and Joshua, you know, since the commandments were given and the sacrificial system was instituted, yeah, there were people who did things and had no clue what they were doing. But I believe many people knew.

The priests were supposed to know that all these sacrifices and offerings resembled or foreshadowed the coming of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. You know, 1 Peter, chapter 118 says, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now, who wrote those words? Peter. Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What background did Peter have? I mean, what is his religious background? He's a Jewish man.

He's a Jewish man, living in Galilee, in Palestine, in the first century, going to the temple, going to the synagogues. So he understood this. This was not a radical new knowledge that he had to sort of get accustomed to. This is what they knew. Christ simply fulfilled what they were waiting for.

Right, right. It wasn't this big, like, revelation that people had to wrap their minds around. Okay, so it's not about that lamb, right? It's about the lamb. Oh, man. I thought it was really the lamb.

I thought it was the actual animal. No, they knew. They were just waiting for the right one to come. So Simeon and Anna in the temple said, you know, hey, I've been waiting for the, what's the word?

Consolation of Israel. It means I'm waiting for all this to be fulfilled. And then Simeon says, pretty much, take me out now. I'm ready to go. I'm good. I'm done. I'm done. We've run the race. I just thought about, like, somebody coming up, like, after Jesus has died on the cross, and someone coming to the temple with lambs like, so what do I do with this? It's done. Do I still use this?

Are you serious? You're going to break that lamb right now? I could have ate this.

Slap him across the back of the head. Why do you think we have that picture of people in the Bible that were just, they were completely clueless? I think it's because after the coming of Christ, when the Jewish people who saw the Messiah, or they heard about the Messiah, and they placed their faith in him and began to follow the Messiah, it was really the fulfillment of the promise of the ages. The ones who didn't, the ones who rejected, the ones who had, you know, all of a sudden now had a veil before their face or their eyes, they did everything possible to distinguish themselves or to distance themselves from these people who accepted Jesus the Messiah, this Nazarene, this Galilean.

They were like, we have nothing to do with these people. We are strict monotheists. There's no, we never believed in more inside the Godhead. We never were waiting for a man to come. Yeah, Messiah, but he will be in the end of times and everything will be new.

And is it not, it's not happening. This is what the rhetoric began to be by those who rejected the Messiah. See what I'm saying?

So there was a definitely a parting of the ways. And the group that didn't receive became very adamant that what the group received was not the original. So we have to go back and read some of these passages and go, wait, Peter is not that confused.

He knew what this was supposed to be. So the person bringing the lamb would then place their hands on the head of the lamb. It symbolized what we call imputation, which is a transfer of the sins of the individual to the animal. Again, keep in mind, it was a picture of Christ, the lamb of God taking our sins upon himself.

An animal who actually makes a bleating sound cannot do that. Then the priest would take the lamb by the wall and lift it up on the altar like this and lay there. And the altar was sort of sitting north to south with the northern end towards the Holy of Holies.

If you look at the geography, the cross was located on the north side of Jerusalem. OK, if you ever see that. I think I said that when we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. That's where they talked about that.

Exactly. And then with one stroke of the knife, the priest would cut the jugular vein of the lamb and the blood was scored out. Kind of a very graphic picture of somebody being put to death. And the blood being scored out was caught in a bowl, which was then placed on the north side of the altar towards the Holy of Holies. Towards where God's presence was supposed to be. Right, so the atonement could be made. The blood became the propitiation for our sins. Very important word, propitiation.

What does that symbolize? It means Jesus' blood was poured out for the propitiation for our sins. It's to respond to the wrath of God upon us.

There are Christians out there, there are theologians, seminaries, denominations that don't emphasize this. The penal substitutionary atonement. They say, oh, give Satan the ransom or some, you know, kind of appeasement to God. But it didn't have to be the wrath. No, this was to appease the wrath of God.

What is the point of that? What is the gain in downplaying God's wrath in that way? Because they want to make a God of love rather than this brutal God who would, you know, punish his own son. I guess they have a problem with John 3.16 God versus I'll spread refuse on your face kind of God. Like, wrath and... Well, even John 3.16, I mean, for God to love the world that he gave.

He gave his only begotten son. Yeah, that's true. It's still there.

It's still there. But they don't emphasize that, obviously. It's more about, you know, the blood has now reconciled us. But reconciled us from what? From the wrath of God?

No, no, no. You're being too graphic and harsh. That's not God. So we want a loving God. It's almost like God who sees this chasm of sin.

He's like, I'm trying to reach for you, but I just can't without the blood. You know, when they do this, they are making a softer, gentler God who is not as concerned about holiness and punishing sin. It's more just about loving and embracing us. And I say, your God is not holy enough.

That's right. Read the Bible. Go to the Old Testament.

It's there. The wrath is hovering over you. You've talked about it on the show before, but God's holiness is aggressive, in a sense, that seeks sin out and destroys it. That's why God had to protect Moses and the rock and pass by him and only allow Moses to glimpse his back.

Because Moses couldn't withstand the full force of God's presence. Well, we call sin a debt. That's why we say Jesus canceled our debt of sin. I mean, God, it has to be paid.

It has to be collected. Well, they disagree with that. Really?

All these things they disagree with. Really? Right, right. Wow. God doesn't have to punish sin according to him.

That's right. Because he loves you. He's loving so he can just... Yeah, you have a whole different brutal, barbaric religion.

Wow. Have these people ever been parents? Because I love my kids, and because I love my kids, they have consequences for when they are disobedient.

If I didn't love them, I'd be like, whatever, do whatever you want. Well, these are the kind of people who call the crucifixion divine child abuse. Oh my gosh. So you didn't know that? What? I've never heard that before. Why he can be a Christian at that point?

Wow. Well, they think, oh, there are different kinds of atonement theories. So penal substitution re-atonement is just your idea, but it's a very brutal, barbaric, primitive idea of divine child abuse. I've heard people try to downplay the wrath of God before, but I have never heard... I've seen memes on Facebook where it's like Jesus knocking at the door and he's like, let me in because I need to save you. And they're like, save you from what?

To what I'm going to do to you if you don't let me in. I've heard people make jokes like that, but I didn't realize there's a whole theology built around it. Oh yeah. Wow. And so you have something to add there, David?

He's shaking his head. But anyway, going back to this, the blood is placed towards the north side, which is the holy side. And the blood was to become propitiation for our sins. So also Jesus poured out his blood as an atonement for our sins. Leviticus 17, 11 says, for it is a blood that makes atonement for the soul. So also Hebrews 9, 22, without shedding of blood, there is no remission.

Remission means cancellation of death. God will punish sin. Either he will punish sin in the individual or he will punish it in the substitute.

Jesus became our substitute. That's beautiful. And it's very simple.

And it doesn't need to be twisted or clarified or justified in any way. It makes perfect sense. That's right. So what the priest would do is he would take the blood from the north side of the altar, sprinkle it seven times before the veil. That's what he would do. It would signify God's acceptance.

Now he would come out and apply the blood to the altars. It was a symbol of the way being opened from God to us. It was beautiful. It's not barbaric.

It's not primitive. It was beautiful. Next, the priest would take the knife and quickly flay the lamb. The wool was used for clothing. This is where Christ, you know, we are clothed in his righteousness. Though the skin was cured and the Bible would be written on it.

They would use the skin to like, that's all. That's right. Christ is the word of God for us. The meat of the lamb was eaten by the priests.

Okay. So we feed upon Christ daily. You see how everything had a purpose? Nothing of the lamb was wasted just as nothing of Christ is ever wasted.

Christ is essential for us. And then something else would happen. And here's where what is being said in Malachi chapter two makes sense. The priest would remove the intestines, right, and he would take the unexpressed dung, the dung that hadn't come out of the animal yet, and put it in a bowl on the south side of the altar.

Later, that bowl along with the ophal, ophal which means the waste parts of the animals, were taken out of the dung gate. That's where we went. That's where we came into Jerusalem.

I think we did both years, didn't we? Right. Now, the gate that is there was not the original gate. It's built on the site of the original gate. Wow.

Okay. So that's why it's called the dung gate. I always found it interesting that when we went in, we always went in through the dung gate.

I didn't know if there was any significance or if it was just like, this is just where we entered the city. And they would take that bowl. The priest would take it.

And keep in mind, so many animals, it would be a bunch of priests with different, probably, I don't know, they had bowls or carts or whatever to take all this out. And they would dump it on the ash heap outside the city walls. And this was the place called Gehenna, the place of burning. And later on, it became the symbol of hell because constantly it was burning. Now, keep in mind, way back, this was also the place where, you know, they were offering their children to Molech. This is where they were, you know, the burning arms of Molech. And they would pull their babies on them and burn them to death. You know, horrible things.

Anyways, this was Gehenna. Now here's what it means when it says, and spread refuse on your faces the refuse of your solemn feast and one will take you away with it. So here's what's going to happen. If you reject the blood of the lamb on the north side of the altar, God is saying, I will smear your face with the dung of the lamb on the south side of the altar and you will be sent to hell. If someone didn't like God before, they certainly are not going to like that.

If you wanted to change him before, I see that verse really not changing your mind. But wait, it's not just any feast. This is the solemn feast, the dung of the solemn feast, which means the feast of the Passover, the high feast. They're going to take this and smear this... Can I say the word poop?

Poop right on your face. This is the radio, you can say it. And they will take you right out the dung gate and throw you into Gehenna. The people at the Truth Network, they're like, can we air this?

I think it's good. I don't know how much of a clearer picture you can get, people in Malachi, hello. God is really not joking around. You better shape up. You've been given this picture for years. You've seen this and God's saying, hey, this stuff that you've been acting, this pantomime of a spiritual reality, this is going to happen to you. I think when you try to look at it with human logic, it's easy to distance yourself. But at the same time, take your parents as a kid. Remember when you were a kid how extreme your parents could seem?

I remember my parents, they'd be like, oh, doting on me, we love you, you're the best, you're so good. But then they get angry and they start to take things seriously and they seem like two different people. They're not two different people. They're one person and they have a vast complex range of emotions and none of them are bad emotions.

It's not because you used to be nice and now you're being serious that I have to reconcile these two. They're one complete person. Exactly. Same with God. So refuse Jesus as your savior or you will have him as your judge. If you don't want the north side, you get the south side.

If you don't want the holy of holies, you get the dungate. I can't wait to go further with Malachi. If you guys are enjoying this, if you want to learn more about Malachi or you're excited for upcoming episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

You can partner with us financially on that same website. Pray about how God would have you give. Stand shoulder to shoulder with us as we seek to reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus. Speaking of choosing Jesus' blessings each day, that actually leads into our quote that we're going to end the episode on. It's, God has designed us to live in today. Dwelling on yesterday will only bring regrets and worrying about tomorrow will only bring anxieties. Thank God for yesterday. Trust him with tomorrow, but live for him and through him today.

Remember, sufficient for the day is its own trouble and Jesus is sufficient for today. That comes to us from Dr. Abaddon Shaw. Amen. I was going to say, that sounds familiar. I was like, oh, I know what that sounds familiar. Excellent. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.