WWUTT 2360 Q&A House of David, Practicing Lent, Talking About Death

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Coming back to the show House of David, is it blaspheming Christ somehow if we change the story of David?

00:07

It's the Lent season. Should Christians be partaking in Lent? And how do you talk to your kids about death?

00:14

The answer is when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, studying the

00:27

Bible in context, that we may come to a right understanding of the word of God and walk according to his ways.

00:34

Tell all your friends about our ministry at wwutt .com. And once again, it's

00:39

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Jumping into Proverbs 9, wisdom has built her house.

00:46

She has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table.

00:53

She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.

01:01

To him who lacks sense, she says, come and eat of my bread, drink of the wine that I have mixed.

01:06

Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight.

01:13

The wisdom of God invites us to come and feast on the wisdom of God. I love it.

01:20

So we love spending the Friday edition of the broadcast, responding to questions from listeners. And you can send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

01:30

or go to wwutt .com and click on the voicemail tab there on the top of the page.

01:37

I'm working on doing some updates to the website. Oh, yeah? I'm gonna change some things around a little bit just to make it more, even more user -friendly than it already is.

01:46

Yeah. Being able to access our archives, looking for old videos. There's a lot of videos the transcripts have not made it onto the website yet.

01:54

So wanting to get all that done and even a place that you can go and get to our books quickly or something like that.

02:01

Yeah. So look for some changes there, but you can still go there to leave us the voicemail message.

02:06

I know I usually say click on the top right corner of the page. It's really just the top. Just the top.

02:12

It's the menu up there at the top. Click on that where it says voicemail and you can record us a voicemail.

02:19

So I think the last two episodes, maybe? When was the last time you were on with me? Not the last time, but the time before.

02:25

The time before? Mm -hmm, I think so. I know the last episode for sure, I had no voicemails. Yeah. It was an all email episode.

02:32

This is an all voicemail episode. Oh, interesting. So thank you folks for recording us messages and sending them our way.

02:40

Yes, thank you. This first one comes from Chris and he's gonna go back to something I talked about last week but you were not on with me.

02:47

I was not. But you've seen part of it already. Oh, that one. The House of David on Amazon.

02:54

Wonderful. I did a very brief review of it last week. Oh my goodness.

02:59

So this first question has to do with that. Okay. Here we go. Good morning,

03:05

Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky. This is Chris from North Carolina. My wife and I have enjoyed listening to your podcast over the last several years and benefited greatly by it.

03:18

We're definitely keeping your family in our prayers. I know y 'all are going through a lot of challenges with illness and all that.

03:23

So I hope y 'all are doing better. I was listening to the

03:29

Q &A from the weekend of March 1st and 2nd and had a question related, or actually

03:38

I had some thoughts related to your comments about this new show, House of David. And my thoughts were, as you were talking about the creative license they took with the narrative, that as we know,

03:53

David is a type of shadow of Christ. Wouldn't it be a concern that anytime a depiction of an

04:02

Old Testament character that is a type and shadow of Christ is incorrect and they take creative license in such a way that it completely redefines the character, doesn't that disconnect the

04:17

Old Testament narrative from the New Testament fulfillment and thereby both slander the original person and potentially blaspheme

04:27

Christ? Thank you for considering my question. I appreciate you, Chris. Yeah.

04:33

Thank you for asking. My answer to that, I'm not really thought too deeply about this, about like the

04:39

Old Testament figures that have been types and shadows of Christ who is to come. Like you have

04:44

Moses in Deuteronomy 18 saying that there is a prophet who's gonna come after me.

04:49

Listen to him. And he's talking about Christ, although the people may have understood that as, yeah, you're talking about Joshua, right?

04:57

Well, listen to Joshua. Oh, yeah. Though Moses was talking about Jesus. Right. And then the book of Hebrews says that Jesus is the greater

05:04

Moses. So how much creative liberty can we take?

05:09

How much creative license can we have with Moses and change things about Moses to dramatize the story a little bit?

05:18

I don't know. He had a pretty dramatic story. Still had a pretty, yeah, David. I think

05:23

David too, honestly. David just as much. Apparently they found it boring, so. Then we have to change the story around a little bit.

05:30

Yeah, okay. Sorry, go ahead. So Becky has seen the first scene of House of David, the one that I was even ranting about last week.

05:37

Oh. Where David, so you have Macau, Saul's daughter, who's doing the narration at the very beginning.

05:47

And she asks, can a stone change the course of history? When you were watching it, there was another question that she asked in there

05:54

I didn't catch the first time. Okay. Can one act of defiance change the course of history?

05:59

Did you catch that question from her? Yeah, I did. Okay, whose act of defiance is she talking about?

06:05

I have no idea. Because it's - I mean, Saul, maybe? Yeah, I guess it could be.

06:11

Because he had an act of defiance. Right, he defied God. So then that makes David king.

06:17

I didn't think of that. Because - This is my hope. Yeah. And my wishful thinking, of course, you know.

06:25

That they're meaning better than they, yeah. Like I'm hoping they're meaning this. But at the same time, usually that's not how it goes, which is why

06:32

I'm so like appalled and like skin crawling, kind of watching things. Right. Yeah.

06:38

Because the question is coming up as you're watching David walk out on the battlefield to face Goliath.

06:44

So as I'm trying to connect that question with what we're watching. Right. I'm thinking

06:50

David doesn't defy anybody here. Right, which is why I'm thinking that I'm not correct.

06:57

Because they were like asking that question about the stone twice. Yeah. When they show a stone zoomed into it.

07:05

And so then the question about defiance was not picturing

07:10

Saul in the, you know what I mean? Because who's defying, the defiant one there in that scene is

07:17

Goliath. Yeah. He defies the armies of the living God. That's exactly what David says. Who is this uncircumcised

07:23

Philistine? Right. Which of course he doesn't say that in the show. He does not say that. Who is this that defies the armies of the living

07:30

God? So he's the defiant one. I mean, are they trying to make this out as like David defied an order so that he ended up going out there and facing

07:37

Goliath? Well, it made it look like it, the way that he had to like squeeze through everybody.

07:43

Yeah, right. Because he had Saul's permission. Saul gave him his armor, you know, wasn't it?

07:50

Yeah. So we don't see that in the show. No, not in the show, but in the Bible. Right. It says that Saul, you know, was giving him things to help him with this battle.

08:02

He's about to go face a guy who's been fighting and killing people from his youth. And the way that the movie depicted it, or the show,

08:09

I guess, depicted it, was he's like squeezing through all of the army people. Like, here, let me through, let me through kind of thing.

08:17

And I'm like. Yeah, armed Israelites, by the way, who did not have swords and shields when they went up against the

08:24

Philistines. Yeah. They had farm tools. Yeah. The Philistines had apprehended all of their enemy or all of their weapons.

08:31

They showed that in the picture. I saw that they had. Like pitchforks. Yeah, I saw pitchforks and stuff, but they're still more armed.

08:38

Yeah, that's true. That is very true. Then they really were armed. Yeah. Saul and Jonathan had the only sword and shield.

08:45

Yeah. And set of armor. So that was another inaccurate aspect of that.

08:51

Anyway, yeah. So coming back to your question, Chris, again, it's not really something I've thought too deeply about. Yeah.

08:57

How much can you take a creative liberty with someone in the Bible who is pointing toward Christ?

09:03

Like, I think you certainly could change a depiction of David so much that it now becomes something blasphemous.

09:11

Even though you're not directly tying it to Christ or to God, it could still turn out to be something blasphemous.

09:18

Yeah. Because you've changed the biblical narrative so much. Well, I think we've come so far away from the

09:27

Bible in understanding what it's about and who it's written about.

09:33

Like, not just one person, but all of the people that are written in the Bible. Like, we've come so far away from them that we don't understand they were once people, like real people.

09:44

And so - Yeah, I know. It's stories. Yeah, that's right. It's just stories right now. It's like Hebrew mythology.

09:49

Yeah, they're just telling stories at this point. And it's kind of like telephone, you know, where you can change it and you can keep changing it and you can keep changing it.

09:57

And then, you know, all of a sudden it's this whole other story. Doesn't even look like the

10:03

Bible anymore. Right. And, or this person's, you know, this person's life. And if somebody were to do that about us, we would call that slander.

10:14

Yeah, right. Especially if you're gonna attribute something to me that's just wrong.

10:19

Yes. I mean, that goes back to what I said last week about David being terrified to face

10:25

Goliath. He was not scared at all. No. In the biblical narrative - Yeah, he was -

10:30

It was like, who are you? You know? Yeah, right. He tells Saul, just as God gave the lion and the bear into my hand, he's gonna give this uncircumcised

10:38

Philistine into my hand. He had no doubt when he went out there that he was gonna win. Because his confidence was not in himself, his confidence was in God.

10:46

Amen. But that's to say nothing of the kind of skill that David walked out there onto the field with.

10:54

This man, this young man, 16, 17 years old, however old he was, was an expert slingsman.

11:00

Yes. And he comes out there with five stones, but prepared to put Goliath down with one.

11:06

Right. As I kind of joked about last week, he had the four other stones because Goliath had four brothers, according to Chronicles.

11:12

Yes. It's true. So once I put this guy down, I need these other stones and put the other four down. Yeah, just in case.

11:18

Yeah, just in case. And I mean, who knows to say if they were gonna keep their word or not? You know, if you defeat

11:24

Goliath, wasn't it that that's the end of this? Yeah, the Philistine will become your slaves.

11:29

So if he puts down a Goliath and they attack him, he needs to be prepared. He's armed now to fight off the rest of them.

11:38

Yeah, sure. So, but anyway, I call it slander personally. If you're gonna write about a real person, of course, then you should be pretty close to accurate.

11:48

Now, if it's impossible to show that, or it's not in your budget, then okay, fine.

11:54

I can understand you skipping that theatrically, but at the same time, it should be pretty close.

12:00

Still, as far as the narrative goes, the star of the show. Yeah. In 1 Samuel 17 is

12:06

God. Yes, amen. David even giving all the glory and credit to God before he kills

12:13

Goliath. Right. Gives all the glory to God. Exactly. Yeah, no joke. And of course, that's not coming out in the show at all.

12:20

If that tells you a little bit about where I stand on this show. We're not fans.

12:27

But appreciate your input on that, Chris. That's something that I think I'll try to pay a little bit more attention to.

12:32

Because again, I've not really given that much thought. But I think it certainly can be. You can get to a point where you're changing this character so much that now you're affecting the narrative concerning Christ.

12:46

But it's obvious that these show creators are not thinking of that. They're not concerned about that at all.

12:52

This next question comes from Adrian. And it's a good question that has to do with the season we are currently in.

12:59

So here we go. Hey, Pastor Gabe. This is Adrian again. Thank you again for your ministry. Just have a quick question for you.

13:06

What are your thoughts on Lent? I know you've probably hit this before.

13:12

But I'm anxious to hear your thoughts. My pastor is considering going through the

13:18

Lenten season, giving up things and such. So just interested in your thoughts.

13:26

Is this more of a Romans 14 issue? Or is this something we should mark and avoid?

13:32

Thanks, bye. I think as far as Protestants practicing Lent goes, it's a

13:39

Romans 14 issue. So when we say Romans 14, we're talking about Christian liberty. If a person wants to do it, they wanna commit themselves to a 40 -day fast, great.

13:50

That's between you and the Lord. I mean, it's the same thing as a diet, right? Yeah, right. Not really the same thing as a diet, but I mean, you're doing this for holy reasons.

14:00

For the same reason that you would pray, you would be fasting. Because fasting would be coupled with prayer.

14:07

I see. Now, from my Catholic upbringing, we did not approach it that way. Yeah, of course. Okay, yeah, okay,

14:13

I can see it, yeah. So there are some Methodist, Wesleyans, Lutherans that'll practice Lent.

14:19

So what of those brothers or of ours that will practice Lent? On the Protestant side of things.

14:25

Yeah, Christian liberty. I'm not gonna look at somebody practicing Lent and go, well, come on, what are you doing?

14:30

Right. That's Catholic, you shouldn't be doing that. You're sinning by practicing Lent. That's not the way that I approach it.

14:36

There are some Baptists and Presbyterians that practice it. It's just not as common among, more so among Presbyterians than Baptists.

14:45

But the thing that becomes the most problematic, I think, what you have to think about with regards to Lent is the whole display of it on Ash Wednesday.

14:57

Because Lent is happening on a particular period on the calendar, from Ash Wednesday all the way to Easter Sunday.

15:05

And so if you are practicing the fast that's going on in the Lenten season, then people know about it.

15:12

And it begins with the Ashen Cross on your head, which is why Ash Wednesday is called

15:17

Ash Wednesday. So you're wearing on your face that you are entering into this fast and participating in it.

15:26

But what did Jesus say about this? He actually talked specifically about this kind of display, showing your fast to other people.

15:34

In Matthew 6, verse 16, he says, "'When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, "'for they disfigure their faces, "'that their fasting may be seen by others.

15:45

"'Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. "'But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, "'that your fasting may not be seen by others, "'but by your

16:00

Father who is in secret, "'and your Father who is in secret will reward you.'"

16:06

It is a good thing to fast. And that is a, excuse me, that is a spiritual discipline that we really don't practice much anymore.

16:14

Especially, I would say, especially in America. Yeah. Yeah. We like to be fat and happy, I think.

16:21

Well, yeah, yeah, I have to agree. Fasting for 40 days, that's a lot. It is. One of the criticisms that Jesus made of the

16:29

Pharisees was that they were fasting two to three times a week and boasting about it. So you can do a short fast that's a couple of days.

16:36

It doesn't have to be, well, the only fast I know about is Lent, and I don't wanna fast for 40 days.

16:41

I think that would make me pretty weak. So do people actually fast for the whole 40 days? Well, that's the, it depends.

16:50

Growing up, I only fasted on Fridays and that was because I was forced to. So, and then you were supposed to give up something that is supposed to be bad for you, or like an addiction -ish.

17:03

So like soda was often one thing, or candy, or yeah, sugar, if you were being really gumptious.

17:10

And I never gave that one up. I always gave up like, I'm giving up Pepsi.

17:17

Yeah. And that was it. Yeah, right. I'll drink all these others. Still drinking Sprite, I'm just not drinking Pepsi. Right, and so as a kid,

17:24

I thought that was very clever of me, but. So Roman Catholicism right now.

17:30

But it was only on Fridays. Yeah, right. And you couldn't eat meat on Fridays. You could have fish though. And I'm like, how's fish not meat?

17:36

And they're like, oh, well, it's because of, that's what Jesus fed people or something, I don't remember.

17:42

In Canada, beaver is considered an aquatic animal, and so it counts as fish.

17:48

Really? Yeah. Fun. I've already done this as a what video? Well, I'm not surprised. But do they fast?

17:55

Like, I don't know if you answered my question. Well, so what I was gonna say was Roman Catholicism has really kind of gone to, you know, being more culturally friendly.

18:03

So it's kind of like you can fast. You mean lazy? You can fast from whatever you want. You wanna fast from your cell phone.

18:09

Of course, most people now are probably like, no, I don't wanna fast from my cell phone. Okay, you can give up Netflix. You can give up chocolate we mentioned or whatever else.

18:18

So like the fasting is not the kind of fasting that the Bible talks about. When the

18:23

Bible talks about fasting, it's food. Yeah, and it's a lot of food. Like you fast.

18:29

You don't eat. You're probably just drinking water in that period of time. And that's so you will feel hunger pains so that you will have longing.

18:39

But may that longing draw you to Christ. The way that the fasting is done kind of in the

18:46

Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy sphere right now, it's not really attached to a longing.

18:52

It's just, you know, it's a good idea for you to give up something so you don't become attached to it for a while. Or you're doing this for God's sake, showing your devotion to God.

19:00

Yeah, it's more a matter of piety.

19:06

But then we always bragged about it. Yeah, right.

19:12

Well, yeah, that's where I was going with that. I'm fasting with this, you know. I'm fasting this.

19:18

Oh man, you can have that one. Yeah, it really is. Roman Catholicism is not gonna lead you to Christ anyway.

19:26

It's gonna lead you to congratulate yourself for the works that you've done. So that's where you have to be careful with the

19:33

Roman Catholic or the Eastern Orthodoxy applications of Lent. But I think you make a great point in your question,

19:40

Adrian, that it can just be a matter of Christian liberty. Whether somebody wants to do this or not, you kind of treat it somewhat like you would the

19:47

Advent calendar. Yeah, okay, fair enough. I mean, Advent is not something that's in the Bible.

19:52

Christmas is not even in the Bible. Right. Now, of course, Jesus was born. You know, we celebrate the incarnation at Christmas time.

20:00

But that day in particular is being the date of Christ's birth, and then some sort of order to Christians to recognize it or celebrate it.

20:08

There's nothing like that in the Bible. Of course. So just as that's not in Scripture, you could say the same thing about Lent.

20:15

Jesus fasted for 40 days. Maybe you want to, in imitation of Christ, fast for 40 days, and that's between you and the

20:22

Lord. And may it be something between you and God. It's not something that you are broadcasting or proclaiming in front of people in order to receive recognition from them.

20:31

Right. For Jesus said, if that's what you want, you've received your reward. And those are really scary words to think about.

20:37

If all you want is the recognition of people, well, you've got it. Yeah. And you're gonna receive nothing from your

20:43

Father who is in heaven. This next question comes from Zach. Here's our third question here.

20:49

You ready? Sure. Hi, Pastor Gabe and Becky. This is Zach from Surprise, Arizona.

20:55

My question's regarding how we explain death to our children. My five -year -old has been doing that thing where she is trying to piece together the family.

21:06

How is her grandma, my mom, her grandpa, my dad, and so on and so forth. Well, the other day she asked my mom where her dad was and why she had never met him.

21:18

Well, my grandpa passed away when I was six. So she has never obviously met him.

21:26

And so my question is how does that look?

21:33

How should that look? I know we can start with the fall and explain physical death as it was present because of sin, but I'm more talking practically.

21:42

How did that conversation look in your household when your kids were growing up and as you've explained death to them?

21:51

Thank you so much for your time and your ministry, your ministry has been a huge, huge blessing to me and my family and thank you,

21:59

God bless. How have we come about this conversation? Oh my goodness. Okay, so when, you know, like.

22:07

I think it's mostly been as we've had to face death as a family, right? Right, right. But I mean, sometimes they're talking about it and they'll ask like, where is somebody?

22:17

Yeah. And if I know they were saved, I can say they're in heaven. Yes, of course.

22:22

With God right now and we will see them eventually, Lord willing. And then if they weren't in Christ in their lives or if I'm not sure,

22:34

I just say that they're, let me back up a little. With five -year -olds and in that realm, give or take a little, they are very much black and white.

22:45

There is no gray. So what you say. Nuance and nuance, they don't pick up on it. They do not.

22:50

So if you said they fell asleep, they literally think they're sleeping somewhere.

22:57

So we have to explain 1 Thessalonians 4 if we were reading that to our kids.

23:02

Yes, so it is very much, you have to use very careful words. And so they use the term put a dog to sleep.

23:12

You know, it means something totally different than they're gonna put you to sleep and have surgery. You know what

23:18

I mean? But it's the same words. So you have to be careful about what words you use.

23:24

So it is very much a, they died and went to heaven. You know, like as our bodies get older, if it was somebody who, you know, aged, and then you can say, as our bodies get older, they don't work anymore.

23:38

And so the Lord takes us home. And so - To heaven, to be with him. Yes, to be with him. And so we pass away, we die.

23:47

And then we are no longer here. And then it's, I don't, I can't remember.

23:53

Like, usually they ask like 100 questions. It's not just you talking. We're being guided by the questions that they're asking,

24:00

I think more so than anything else. Very much, very much. But it generally takes that steps, those steps rather.

24:07

Sometimes there's a couple extra, but most of the time that satisfies them. And understanding that, you know, their bodies no longer worked.

24:17

And so their soul went up to heaven. I don't know. Can you think of anything extra that I'm missing? Well, you can still use scripture to guide your children in an understanding of this, using even general revelation as the apostle

24:30

Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15. So where you had the Corinthians, you're talking mature adults in this

24:36

Corinthian church. They were even struggling with understanding the concept of the resurrection of the dead.

24:41

Right. But Paul illustrates it to them using general revelation, what they can observe themselves in nature.

24:49

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

24:59

So you're talking about a seed, putting a seed in the ground. But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body.

25:08

What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor.

25:14

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.

25:20

It is raised a spiritual body. So just as you have a seed that goes into the ground and it breaks open and it sprouts up and becomes something else, you could probably use that with a child to say the body goes into the ground, but it becomes something else.

25:35

The spirit goes to be with the Lord as said in the book of Ecclesiastes or you have the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter one saying that it would be better for me to depart and be with Christ, but it's good for me to be with you for your sake.

25:48

Or later in Philippians chapter three, where he says our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the

25:55

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

26:05

Philippians 3, 20 and 21. I would use that one with the five -year -old. Start with that, break it down into words that you would commonly use with her.

26:17

And then just be like, when we're done here on earth, when our work here is done, then we go up to heaven and be with the

26:24

Lord. Just take it one step at a time. And then you can say, if they're saved, then they went to heaven and that sort of thing.

26:32

And so that's how I leave it. Then they start coming up with a question on their own of, well, what if they're not saved?

26:38

And then we have that discussion then. And so that way it's just enough to answer their question, satisfy their curiosity.

26:46

And then you can always leave it open -ended of, if you have more questions, you can come back and ask and I'll be happy to answer them.

26:52

Those types of things. First Thessalonians 4, verse 13 is where it says that we grieve, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope.

27:01

So understanding that we are raised from the dead and we have everlasting life with God forever in glory.

27:08

And even our bodies that go into the ground will eventually be raised one day as well. Those are difficult things even for adults to comprehend, but it's still good truth even to share with a child.

27:19

We grieve the loss of our loved ones, but we still have hope in Christ who rose from the dead, who raises us from the dead and will even raise our bodies from the dead, that our risen bodies will be like his risen body.

27:32

Yeah. You know, now that I'm thinking about it, I think a lot of the questions that they asked were not us that they asked.

27:40

You know, like where is grandma or where is grandpa? Where is your parents to our grandparents?

27:47

Well, my grandparents, but anyway. And so then they were able to answer that question of, well, they're not here anymore.

27:54

They passed away, they died. And so I think that's where a lot of their answers for that first initial curiosity came from.

28:03

Gotcha. So that might be why we're struggling coming up with something because it wasn't by us.

28:09

Yeah, that's right. But those conversations have definitely happened. Oh, yeah. They're pretty organic.

28:14

Yes. But know what the scriptures say. What scriptures have you read that give you hope about your resurrection from the dead?

28:21

Yes. And share that with your children as well. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your question, Zach, and for everybody else that sent a question in today.

28:29

Once again, you can submit a question via email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com or go to www .utt

28:37

.com. Click on that voicemail tab. You can record a voicemail from your phone or from your computer.