Tuesday, February 6th | Isaiah in 1st Peter

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Absolutely nothing less than five stars for any reason. You guys already know what I'm going to say. We're going to leave a couple of links in the description so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2. It says, My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation, that's a big theological word, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. 1 John, I fell in love with the book of 1 John when I was in seminary, and in our Greek class, Greek II, I believe it was, over the course of the whole semester we ended up translating the entire book of 1 John.

There's simplistic language, but it's not a simple message. And here John's writing, he says, My little children, that's the kind of language he uses, and he says, I've written these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, because he knows that we're sinful, we're going to mess up, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Christ is our advocate. You know, sometimes we think about when we've messed up, God's mad at us, and he is ashamed of us, and he runs away from us, because we map human emotion onto God. But Jesus Christ himself is the one who is interceding for us constantly.

He's going to the Father on our behalf. That's huge. Well, it's Tuesday. It is. And you know what that means.

I do know what it means. It's time for the gripe vine. Welcome to the gripe vine. The gripe vine, as you know, this is the segment of our show. Every Tuesday we come together and we say, you know, some things have really grinded my gears. And I got to be honest with y'all. You know what I love to do on Tuesday?

What's that? Complain. I'm going to gripe. I'm going to complain. I'm going to fuss just a little bit.

Sure. You know, I'm Greek, and my people, we fuss. Your ancestors are smiling down. Oh, they're smiling down on me.

My dad right now is somewhere, he's really proud. All we do is just fuss all day long. I'm going to fuss again about Lord of the Rings. This is the last time I'm going to bring up Lord of the Rings and fuss on this show.

Okay. I am a fan. I love nerdy stuff.

Love it. Love Star Wars. Love, you know, I love Star Trek. I love all that fantasy stuff. And we love that for you. Love, love, love, love Lord of the Rings.

Love it. So I've been watching the movies, right? Because I have, and I have seen the extended versions.

That's like four hours per movie. Now, extended version, for people who don't know, what else is in the extended version? Just a bunch of world building. Okay.

Stuff that doesn't help. So this is like director commentary? No, no. So the movie came out in theaters, and it was about two and a half to three hours long. Then they said, you know what? All the stuff that we cut out of the movie for time's sake, we're going to re-release it with all that stuff. Oh. So it's literally just a longer movie. So this is your movie? Yes.

Okay, got it. Because the one thing, I don't know why this happened, but the one thing when people walked out to that three hour movie in theaters, it says, that was a great movie, but you know what it needs? More. It needs to be longer.

I wish it was longer. What is the thing in your life that you're sick of, but you love? There are some things in my life that I'm like, man, I'm really tired of this, but gosh, I love it. Or what's one of those things where you have to have the whole package? You know what I mean? You can't just have some of it. Like me, another thing, steak and potatoes, I'm not eating just a steak without a potato. Kind of like that. I don't have steak without a potato.

No, you don't have a potato. Oh, well. But that's the thing. You got to be in it for the long haul.

You got to be in it for the whole thing. Yeah. Write in and let us know what that thing is for you.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't forget, we'll be right back after this. Cool. Hello, Clearview family. I'm Nicole.

And I'm David. And we want to talk to you today about the Clearview app. You know, there are so many churches out there that put their sermons on YouTube and their announcements on Facebook and their prayer lists on Periscope.

I didn't even know Periscope was still functional. Oh, it's not. And that's why nobody can find their church's prayer list and nobody's prayers be getting answered. But here at Clearview, we believe in making our content as accessible as possible. That's right. Clearview produces so much content every single week, including Dr. Shaw's sermons, original music, a full online store, weekly prayer gatherings, and so much more.

Not to mention the number one best-selling Christian talk show of all time. I don't know if that's accurate. Well, maybe not yet, but that's why we want people to download the app. If you're listening from the Triangle area, we encourage you to check out Clearview Church in person. But if not, you can still follow all of our content on the Clearview app.

It's 100% free on the Apple Store and Google Play Store. And best of all, all of our content is right there in one convenient spot. Make sure you download the Clearview app today, and let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, 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 to 252-582-5028.

That's right. And we're coming to you live from Middle Earth, North Carolina today. We are here in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism professor at the University of North Carolina.

He's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shaw. Today, we griped again about the Lord of the Rings. Last one. Okay. Here's my question to you. I know you're a Lord of the Rings fan. I like it. Did you ever watch the extended editions?

No. I can't. So I can't finish Return of the King Extended. I just cannot finish Return of the King Extended. By the time you get to it, it's 12 hours of movie. That's crazy.

I can't do that. It's a little too much. But, you know, there's something comforting about sitting there and watching Lord of the Rings. Isn't it? Yeah. It is. Especially when they're in the Shire.

We were talking about that. The movies, even years later, they hold up. They really do.

They do. I would watch an entire show that's just The Hobbit's getting ready for Bilbo's birthday party. Yeah. When they're in that Shire. Just Hobbit life. Yes. Seriously. And I think that's why you want them to succeed so much, because they're trying to get back home to the Shire.

I don't know. But, yeah, there is something super comforting watching it. Yeah. And just watching them, like, travel across the landscape. It's really cool.

It's like second breakfast and some tea and some, you know. Just Hobbit times. I never would have. I never would have.

And I don't think people would have ever pegged you as a Lord of the Rings fan. Oh, yeah. I watched it before all of y'all did.

That's true. I would say so. Did you watch it in the theater?

No. I didn't either. I watched it in the theater. That's insane.

That's really cool. And I was really a big fan. And the people around me, they were not into it. And I'm like, okay.

But I'm going to watch it because I love it. Yeah, y'all don't know what y'all are missing. And I knew about C.S. Lewis and didn't know about Tolkien. And I learned about Tolkien because at that time, everybody and anybody who had anything to do with Christianity was talking about Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and who influenced who and the Inklings and all that stuff was going on. So I was reading up on it and I was like, oh, I knew C.S.

Lewis, never knew Tolkien. Yeah. And so, yeah.

That's really awesome. And that hobbit, the love that they have for one another in their society is just heartwarming. It makes you feel like, you know, like you're a part of the Shire.

It makes me feel like I've really spent time with someone who fervently loves me. All right. Don't be so heavy handed. You can't be so heavy handed with it. It's an art form.

You got to just kind of ease into it. That's right. You're right. We're continuing our conversation from yesterday talking about what it means to love one another, especially in difficult times, especially when trials come. You know, we talked briefly yesterday about how when trials come that, you know, angst and that fear and that that just that bad behavior can bubble to the surface and the way that we treat one another.

But that's really the time where we need to be loving each other the most. Yeah. We have to be intentional in showing brotherly love.

That's right. And that can also be two words. It doesn't have to be just like between your brothers or between other men in the church family or your family also to our sisters, but we call it brotherly love because it doesn't have anything romantic in it. But it still has a sense of compassion, love, caring, patience, kindness, thoughtfulness. That's a part of brotherly love. Yeah.

It's a platonic love that goes just beyond friendship. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Because typically when I think of platonic love, I think it's just it's just two friends. It's different. Yeah. It's a place where you may not agree with each other on everything, but you still have this bond, this connection that you're willing to fight for them. Right.

And you will be loyal to them. Just like me and my brother, growing up, we had plenty of fights. I was the younger one. He was the older one. I would pick on him.

I would get in his way and we'd fight. But I remember this one time this kid in school was picking on me and Fred, my brother, was I think he had just graduated. So he was not in school with me anymore. And this kid, I think it was second grade or third grade, I can't remember. He decided to tell on me.

No, no. And he saw my brother. So he's like, oh, Mr. Fred, Mr. Fred. And he went to him and he is like, you know, you want to know what Abaddon did in school today? He got in trouble today.

Was that true? True. Yeah, I did get in a little trouble. Okay. And I don't remember what I did to get in trouble, but I was not a troublesome kid.

Right. I was not the type to do that. So I was like, oh, you know, Fred and I fight all the time. He's going to take this and I don't know what he'll do with it. I guess go tell him mom and dad and get me in trouble. He said, oh, yeah, come tell me. And so I was like, okay. And he just walked around the corner of this place. Never a good sign, by the way.

Never a good sign. And the kid was like about to so eagerly share and my brother hauled back and slapped the fire out of him. Bang.

Yes. And I just stood there. I'm stunned.

And the kid is stunned. And then he said, don't you ever tell on my brother again. Get out of here. Right. That's a good brother, man. Good brother.

Yeah. And so I didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. I didn't like went back and said, hey, thank you for standing up for me.

None of that. It was just like. It was just understood. Yeah.

I went back to my class and he left. Wow. But that always made an impression on me because he showed brotherly love. Yeah. But he did it in a way that is not what we would think would be brotherly love. Like I'm just hugging over my brother. Right.

So none of that. Yeah. There's a love that looks different than what we expect. And yet it's still as real and it's visceral.

And it's like you said, it's impactful. We're related. We're related. Yeah. And it doesn't need a reason. That's a good way to put it. It doesn't need a reason.

It doesn't need an occasion. By virtue of our rebirth in the family of God, we are connected. So we should be together. Right.

So if somebody comes and complains about another brother in Christ, you're not like, oh, really? Ooh. Yeah.

Tell me more. Yeah. No, that's my brother.

Yeah, that's my brother. You should be standing up for them. And many times people don't do that. That's a good point. You know, we spent a lot of time in First Peter yesterday talking about this, but then the conversation sort of shifted as his letter shifts going into the book of Isaiah.

That's right. And people are going through trials. The southern kingdom is in exile and they are struggling. And so Peter is using this prophecy from Isaiah given to the southern kingdom to help his readers in the first century who are facing similar problems.

I was actually thinking about this after we cut yesterday. So the timeline to get from here to now is kind of funny if you think about it. Like Isaiah is not living through the exile.

He's before the Babylonian exile. Right. He gave this prophecy to comfort people who hadn't yet been born. Right, right, right.

That's a great way to put it. He's giving a prophecy to comfort people who haven't been born, but they're going to go through the exile, then they go through the exile, and then they go through, they come back. Now Peter is using that to comfort other people who are going through in the present while he wrote it. Right. And for those of you who are wondering, how do we know that? Because he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 40 in the Septuagint, which is probably the language, the Bible that people in Asia Minor were probably reading. Just in case. Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. I don't think they were reading the Hebrew Bible because if they were in Asia Minor, then they were more than likely the dispersed Jewish people and the dispersed Jewish people, whether it was in Egypt or in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey, they were reading the Septuagint. So that's what I was going to say is if someone didn't listen yesterday, why is it significant that he's quoting from the Septuagint? But that would be why.

That's why. And that's how you know the Bible is the word of God. That's how you know the Bible is historically accurate because when you look at these little tiny details, it makes all the sense.

Yeah. Why not the Masoretic Text? Because he was not, for those who don't know, Masoretic Text is the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible. Would you say that's the original, what it was written in? We talked about this one time.

Yeah, I think we did. That's hard to tell. Okay. Masoretic Text is the text that we have after the Jewish people were scattered from the land.

Okay. So Masoretic Text came post-exile. Post... Post... Post, like, Rome? 135, 200 AD.

Oh, so 70 AD, Rome destroys the temple. Masoretic Text comes even after that. Yes. The Masora are the dots and accent marks that were put in the Hebrew text by the scribes because the Jewish people were even forgetting their Hebrew Bible.

Wow. That's how we get the word Masoretic. Masora is all these lines that are... Because it can even pronounce the words. So more than likely not the original language it was written in? We don't know for sure.

Okay. When we talk to textual critics, and I did Hebrew textual criticism for my seminars, the Masoretic Text was the Hebrew text, but now it had been touched up with vowel points and breathing marks so that they can pronounce. And that touch-up happened a couple hundred years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It happened a couple hundred years after the temple being destroyed or the Jewish people evicted out of their land in 135 AD.

And they're scattered. They're no longer in Jerusalem. They're no longer in Palestine.

They're gone. Did they stay in Jerusalem even after the temple was destroyed until 135 AD? Yes. Yes. The temple destroyed is one thing.

Jewish people evicted after the Bar Kokhba revolt is a different thing. Okay, okay. Okay? I see.

So that's that. Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament that was done 200 years prior to the coming of Christ to 200 years after the coming of Christ. It's 400 years some period, and I'm being a little generous there. So even though the Masoretic text is in Hebrew, which is the language the Old Testament was written in, the Septuagint came first. Right. Okay. But then you also have Dead Sea Scrolls that came about 100 years or so prior to the coming of Christ, and that's in Hebrew.

And some of those statements match the Septuagint better. Okay. That's... You know, not always. Right.

Some places. So it's a complicated science. Greek New Testament textual criticism, which is my field, is complicated. Yeah. But Hebrew Old Testament textual criticism is very complicated. Yeah.

And I studied that as well, and it's tough. I mean, this is a little side book. Sure, sure.

We're chasing a rabbit here. Yeah. But don't discard the Hebrew Masoretic text too quickly, because a lot of times it has proven to be very accurate. Sometimes, Septuagint has a way of going off the deep end. Do you feel like that's happening here when Peter is quoting... No. There's no issue here. No issue in Peter's quote of Isaiah. It only helps us to know that he is writing to people in Asia Minor and not people in Jerusalem. Gotcha. So that's the only thing we can benefit from that.

Very cool. But even learning all of this stuff and talking about the Septuagint and the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scrolls, that should further our confidence that what we have is truly the Word of God with many different versions and many different translations, but all of them saying the same message with some divergences, with some variances here and there. But overall, the message of Scripture is intact. That's what we tell people when it comes to New Testament text or the Old Testament text, Hebrew or Greek, doesn't matter. We're really debating about a very small percentage. Right. New Testament, I can go and tell you, maybe six to eight percent, if that.

Is actually affected by the variant readings and stuff like that. Right. Hebrew, maybe a little bit more. There are places where certain texts are no longer extant. We have to do what's known as conjectural emendation, where you have to think what would go here because we don't have the manuscript. Right.

It's lost forever. So it's more than New Testament. But it's not such that we just don't know.

Right. We just don't know what the book of Exodus reads. We just don't know what Proverbs says. We just don't know what the prophecy of Amos or Nehemiah's book is all about. Those people want to make it out like we're clueless.

Like what Bart Ehrman does for New Testament textual criticism, they're trying to say for Old Testament. Yeah. That's not true. Right.

Yeah. So it's a very interesting science. I can just tell you this. After having studied New Testament textual criticism, which is my field, having studied Old Testament, I read Immanuel Tove's book, I have read LSR Brotman's book, I have read many other text critical works of Hebrew Old Testament or Old Testament text. It's complicated, but my faith in the text hasn't weakened.

It actually is stronger. And that should be an encouragement for our listeners because you have bona fide PhDs who are like Dr. Shah and like a lot of the text critics that you converse with and talk to and work with even. They're solid Christians. They're not like Bart Ehrman where they've gotten into this field even though they don't believe in it. You're Christians and pastors and ministers of the gospel.

And so that would be the, if all that were true, that would be the easiest field to be discouraged in, but rather it's just the opposite. It encourages my faith. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That's awesome. But going back to Peter quoting from Isaiah chapter 40 in the Septuagint, he's telling them, comfort, comfort my people. And those words of comfort really meant a lot for the southern kingdom of Judah in Babylon because they needed to hear that God is with you, God hasn't abandoned you.

These things that you're going through, you deserve them. God is purifying you. And also Peter's readers were facing exile and persecution. And so Peter is taking the same message that Isaiah gave to this future southern kingdom people, he's taking that and applying it to the Christian believers. Is this the diaspora? Yes. Okay, okay.

Yes, yes. I don't want to get my timeline mixed up. The diaspora began with Solomon. Diaspora began when Solomon began to put all these outposts, trading posts everywhere.

Down in Ethiopia or up in Greece, which wasn't as Greece at the point at that time, or Arabia or Persia, whatever. That's when diaspora began. Do you, when you look at, because both of the Babylonian exile and then even this diaspora, there's a commonality, there's a theme of exile. Do you feel like we're, in a sense, in exile today?

Yeah, I would. And some people disagree with me, that's fine. I think we are, especially in America, considering the foundation of this nation on Christian values. Again, doesn't mean everybody who got on the boat and got here in the 15th, 16th century was a born again, saved, loved the Lord, humble Christian.

There were some, many rotten people who came, did some rotten things. But overall, they were operating from these Christian values. That's not where we are in America today.

No, definitely not. I would say we are still a Christian nation. We're still sitting on those values. But unfortunately, a lot of people are trying to abandon them or jettison them or whatever. And I think a lot like Peter's people and Isaiah's people, unless we return in repentance, we're not going to get the comfort that they did. And what scares me is that sometimes those exiles have to be hundreds of years or longer.

It is. A couple of generations have to go by before they come back. Just like what Isaiah does over here in chapter 40, verse 3, he says, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a hive before our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low.

The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. I mean, he is giving this prophecy. And guess what? John the Baptist or Baptizer comes and he quotes that.

And what he's saying is, I'm doing it now. But wait a minute. I thought this was done for the southern kingdom who were in exile. That they're going to have all these valleys made smooth so they can come back home. That was the prophecy for them. But it also had a double fulfillment.

Well, that's something we kind of talked about yesterday is this. You see this all the time in the New Testament where it's already been done, and at the same time it's not yet been done. And they feel so contradictory, but that's one of the beautiful things about the Bible is its apparent contradictions actually have some of its deepest and richest theology. And then Peter takes the same thing and he applies it further to the diasporic Christians. And what he is saying is, Jesus has come. He died.

He was buried. He rose again. And then it says in verse 5, this again, I'm talking from Isaiah chapter 40. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The voice said, cry out. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

Sure, the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. So just like Isaiah's readers, Peter's readers are also struggling with the power of those in charge. And what Peter is doing here, he is reminding them of the promises of God.

Don't lose heart. God is faithful. And his word will come true.

Wait on him. We've been doing that a lot, I think, at Clearview over the past three years, I would say, maybe four years at this point, where we've seen people's faith shaken. We've seen them not know where they should fall as far as this power structure between the world and what Jesus is saying for us to do. And that's sort of, I think, the route that you've taken in your preaching and even the conception of this radio show. I mean, in a way, this radio show was sort of born out of a need for people to have that Christian encouragement. And we wanted this, but really this was given to us. That's true. Even the growth that we've seen is growth that has been given to us. It's not something we went out there and said, let's add this, add that. God opened the hearts of some people or a person and they made it happen.

That's right. So we know that God is behind this. Amen. And that gives us encouragement and that gives us boldness to say the things that need to be said and also think the things that we should be thinking. Part of what I love about being on this radio show is not being like a voice of wisdom for everyone, but just to learn. Just to sit here and listen to what you're saying or what God is saying through you. And I feel privileged because I feel like I'm almost in the listener's position. I'm being encouraged and I'm growing in my Christian faith. We get the chance to sit and camp in these truths and then in turn knowing that we have an audience that's benefiting from these as well.

We're blessed to have a platform like that. Absolutely. So wherever you are in our nation, in our families, of course, holiness should be paramount. Get on track with holiness. Get on track with the fear of God. But don't forget to love each other fervently.

That's right. With brotherly love. It doesn't need emotions. It does not need reasons. You love why? Because he is your brother. Right.

She's your sister. You love with that mindset. Because if you are saved, you are in the family of God. Why are we tearing each other apart? That's true. That's true. Especially in light of a world that is coming against each of us. Don't tear each other apart. Love each other. That's right. You may not like each other.

You can still love each other. Yeah. And this is something for us to do in the meantime because we're waiting on God's return. But I don't know. It's just one of those things where I think you said it when I'm not around.

Oh, I remember what you said. You were at the kitchen window and you were watching your kids playing on the playground. They didn't know you were watching. But you could see that your children loved each other. And how it pleases God when he's... I mean, of course we know God is always with us. He's always watching us. At the same time when we're not doing it out of fear of what he might say, but just we genuinely love our brothers and sisters in Christ. How much that pleases him.

What a big difference. That's how it ought to be. If you guys enjoyed today's episode or if it was helpful for you in understanding how you ought to relate to your church family, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. And don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same website.

Scroll all the way to the bottom. Click that donate button and let us know what's coming from our Clear View Today Show family. I also want to encourage you to visit MightyMuscadine.com. Check out their products. There's wonderful products for you and for your wellness. And when you check out, use the promo code TODAY.

That's T-O-D-A-Y. It's going to get you a discount on your purchase and a portion of those proceeds are going to come right back here to the Clear View Today Show. Jon, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Tomorrow we are talking to Representative Sandy Smith. Got a lot of things to talk about, specifically her Christian faith. How Christians can still have a voice in America today. And more importantly, that there's still hope for America today. You know, we tend to paint with very broad brushes of doom and gloom and despair.

But really, God's hand is still on America because we're still founded on those Judeo-Christian principles. So we're going to be talking about that with Sandy Smith tomorrow. So exciting. Make sure you guys are here. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today. Thank you.