Finding Spiritual Sustenance in Jesus: The Bread of Life

Welcome to another episode of The Bible Wait What! Yes, this is the podcast that unravels the mysteries of the Bible's most perplexing, puzzling, and thought-provoking passages. My name is Rowan, and each session I'm joined by a member of our team at C3 Church Camden Picton at the Rule as they quiz me on some of the more complicated, confusing, challenging, and even confronting passages that we read in our weekly Bible reading plan.

We understand that reading the Bible can be a challenging and perplexing experience. Many people just don't know where to start; they get confused, and so they give up. Well, that's why this podcast exists, to equip you with the tools and the knowledge to explore the richness and depth of the Bible for yourself. So grab your Bible, take a deep breath, and join us as we explore this week's passages.

To learn more about us or to get in touch with us at C3 Church Camden Picton at the Rule, visit any of our three locations' websites: that's C3camden.church, C3picton.church, and C3therule.church. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube just by searching for any of our locations' names. So without any further delay, let's dive into today's conversation.

Hello and welcome to The Bible Wait What! Hey everybody, we're back, we're back! My name's Genie, of course, I'm sitting here with the most excellent Pastor Rowan, who has sort of an unending knowledge about the Bible.

Oh no, well, there's an unending amount of things to know. I don't know everything there is to know, and the last time we sat down together, I believe we spoke for a long time.

Yeah, it was. We misbehaved, we misbehaved. We spoke for too long, and so today I'm actually setting a stopwatch.

You've got a stopwatch, okay Genie, so it's going to go mad and mental at me, and we won't play funny sounds too much today either, but that was really, yes.

So today's topic is part of the Father Series, right? And today it's actually glorious.

Yep, the Father is glorious. The Father is glorious, and I must admit I've been struggling with this because I have no idea really what glory is.

Yeah, the idea that God is Glory, glory that we give him glory, that our prayers are glory to him—no, that's probably not the correct way of saying that, the right word for that—but it is a word that's used in lots of different contexts, isn't it?

So it's hundreds of times in the Bible it's mentioned, verse after verse about God's glory. And I was reading all these chapters, and I just thought, I don't actually know, I can't pin it down, what is the glory of God?

Yeah, well, that's probably because it is such a vast concept that gets used all over the place. But my understanding at its basic level, especially in the Hebrew Bible—maybe we can have a look in a moment at what the Greek word is because I can't remember off the top of my head—but in the Hebrew Bible, the word is, well, the English version of the word is k-a-b-o-d, or that would be probably the closest to it.

God's glory is something that can be tangibly experienced and felt. It derives from the word for heaviness or weight, as if something is picked up and it is weighty. This is the basic meaning of the word, and it helps to translate the understanding and implications of it when seen in the text.

It does not necessarily mean that the weightiness is a bad thing, but rather that God is present when his glory manifests. This is similar to when someone walks into a room, and there is a weightiness or heaviness to them; it could be a positive or negative thing. This is the same meaning coming through in the etymology of the word gravity.

We can view God's glory as a tangible presence in the room. His character, Spirit, importance, and significance are all encompassed in this presence. We can think of His beauty, creation, and love for people. Additionally, His Holiness is powerful, good, and dangerous.

To experience the fullness of His glory in a way that is good for us, we must prepare our hearts. A great example of this is a sunrise, where we can recognize the evidence of God's glory in creation. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of His hands. We are meant to see God's glory in everything and all of His creation—His wonder, magnificence, love, and splendor. We are also created in His image.

Glory is displayed through the Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. All Egypt will see his glory and know that he is the Lord.

God is saying something is going to happen in some way to manifest his glory. As we read on in the story, we see what that actually is. It's the whole fire and cloud coming and placing himself between the Israelites and the Egyptians, and then it's the wind blowing back the sea, and it's the walking through the Red Sea.

So the whole Exodus outworking, the whole tangible things that happen that are visible, that they all sense and they all experience and they all see—it's those things that are really at the heart of God manifesting his glory. God has brought them to this place where he is going to display his glory and magnificence.

This is him saving, rescuing, showing his character as rescuer and redeemer. All Egypt will see his glory and know that he is the Lord. That's what I think the glory is; it's that sense of honor and respect that we give to God and that he gives to us and that we should give to each other.

I think there is a sense of gravitas when it comes to God's glory. His might, power, and control over the entire Earth is a notable achievement. This glory should make people want to turn to Him and recognize Him as Lord. However, many times people don't recognize this, and it could be due to a lack of awareness.

In Psalm 24, there is a presumption that we would want to come into God's presence and be encouraged. Hebrews 10 talks about how we can be in the presence of God's glory. Dr. Ken Chan preached a sermon on this passage and compared it to a mouse in the palace of the Queen. The mouse can be running around in the presence of greatness and not even be aware of it.

There is a famous video of a concert pianist playing a beautiful piece of music in the subway in New York. People were walking by and not even noticing the beauty of what was going on. This shows that we can be in the presence of greatness and not be aware of it.

Sitting in this subway for an hour or something, a couple of people walked past and threw a bit of money in. They were in the presence of greatness, but they were unaware of it. I think the invitation for us is to be aware of God's glory, and when we are aware of it and looking for God, He will come and manifest Himself in that way.

Now, I wonder if people listening to that person in the subway said yes, but if they don't, and they had listened and they'd thought about it, they probably would have noticed the glorious talent that was in front of them. But their environment led them to be distracted; it was just an ordinary basket as well.

We can miss the glory of God if we are so distracted with our life and what we have to do that we miss the moment. In Exodus, no one was missing the experience of the glory, but their response was still up to their hearts. God is not manifesting in Exodus experiences all the time; He comes subtly and gently.

He holds out His hand and wants to invite us into His presence. In this moment, God is setting up His character for the entire scriptures. We can see how many attributes of God's character we learn in these first few verses. There are times when God has to move in a big way to get our attention, and other times He is very gentle.

I remember when God showed up in a big way and said, "Well done with your revelation." I didn't write notes on this because we went through it seriously, but I do notice that I tend to go in circles about the glory of God. I learn one part and then I go back and I learn other parts.

I think it's this constant evolving idea of what God's glory is. But I think that's because the more I read, the more I learn about who He is, and I'm able to see that glory in greater ways and to recognize it in small moments. When I look at an ant, that's God's glory.

I love dabbling in watching physics videos and that sort of stuff, and astrophysics and all sorts of stuff, so I see it on the big and the incredibly small, and I'm just blown away by it. We see it in each other too, when people do extraordinary things, when God really moves in their heart.

That should be how we should reflect His glory. We carry the presence of the one who has it, and it should reflect out of us to the world around us. Because we were created for relationship with Him, He imparted His image into us; therefore, one should think He put His glory within us.

But we are now shadows of His glory. We have tarnished it, and we've tarnished His world. The New Testament writers, especially Paul, would want you to see that your sinful nature has tarnished it, but there is actually right now, as a follower of Jesus filled with the Spirit of God, there is a deposit of that glory.

That glory is in you. He says you have this treasure—this is another word for glory—you have this glory within this fragile jar of clay. He's trying to constantly call us to go, "Come on, this is in you." If you're a follower of Christ, He has deposited this into you.

You're able to live out this in a righteous way, which simply means right relationship with God and right relationship with one another. That should be how we should be living out God's glory. As this presence is in us, Jesus being the perfect example, the perfect embodiment of God's glory—He's fully God and fully human—so God and God's image together, but right.

When we become more like Him, His glory is increased within us, and the more we develop along our faith, the more glory we reflect. We become less, and He becomes greater in us. These are huge concepts; these are massive concepts, and these are themes that we are carrying forward.

Psalm 126 is another of these pilgrims ascending. In the Old Testament, the glory of God is often quite corporate and quite large. But in the New Testament, the perspective is that it's manifest in Jesus and then ultimately in his followers and then back out to the world through his people.

So yes, there is a sense in which it is quite—at least at some point—we have to experience that Glory personally within us, and it's love, right? Glorious love. All those remember we said all the attributes of God, I think, are manifest in his glory and different manifestations.

We may experience different aspects of that. I've been in glorious meetings in church services over the years where all you sense is the love of the Father. You know, other times you might have the glorious presence of God, and there might be an aura or a wonder about it, or even I've been in meetings where there's just a sense of deep conviction to repent of sin.

So when he comes, he will manifest, I guess, whatever he wants to do in that moment or what we need of him.

So much to talk about. Psalm 126 is another of these pilgrims ascending. It's, in a sense, written over a long period of time and then they're collated together in the second temple period to tell a story in themselves.

I wanted to actually pick up on that because last time, we did a zoom, and you asked me about how can it be a Psalm of ascent if David's written it. It occurred to me that these Psalms were collated together much later on, and so it was probably a Psalm of David that they brought into form up the Psalms of ascent, which were written some 300 years after David.

So, it doesn't have to be a Psalm of David even though it's some of David; it could still be used in the songs of ascent even though there was no Temple at the time. So, all these Psalms were collated, and there's a story—they're actually the five books are all telling stories.

There's a story within the story of The Book of Psalms, and could it also be when people say a Psalm of David, it might not be a Psalm written by David; it's a Psalm telling about David. It's in the tradition of David, so the kind of style of David or the Proverbs of Solomon might not mean Solomon wrote the ball; it's just in the tradition of Solomon's Proverbs.

The Lord brought back his Exiles to Jerusalem, and it was like a dream. We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. The other nations said, "What amazing things the Lord has done for them!" Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us. What joy! Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert.

Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest. There is no word of glory in this one, but I think the principle is that it was God's glory manifest that has actually taken them out of exile and returned them, and that's why there's such joy and gladness.

When I first read it, I thought, "Oh, are they talking about the Exodus here?" They're talking about the new Exodus, that's correct. Yes, they saw the return from exile as a second Exodus, and it really is if you know the history of it. They were in bondage, they were in slavery, they were in Babylon without hope, and they had to return and be set free by Cyrus.

Cyrus and the Babylonians are often compared in scripture, so this is a new Exodus and a new manifestation of God's glory that's filling them with laughter and joy. The return is mainly Ezra and Nehemiah. It's alluded to at the end of Second Chronicles or Second Kings.

We learn about why they go into exile, and then right at the end of either of those two, there's little snippets of hope for the future as they finish off those books.

The Lord elevated Zedekiah out of prison and gave him a table. This hope of restoration is seen throughout the Bible, especially in Psalm 125. To understand the Bible, it is important to have a basic knowledge of the history and geography of the Israelites. This includes the 12 tribes, the northern and southern Kingdoms, and other events.

To help with this, I created a course called the Two-Hour Tour. It was a narrative pathway that touched the mountaintops of the story. Additionally, it is important to consider Bible translations when reading. I read the New King James Version and found it confusing, but then I picked up the NLT, which was much easier to understand.

In Psalm 126, verse 4, the New Living Translation reads: "Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams renewing the desert." This is a much different interpretation than the King James Version, which reads: "Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south."

The imagery of streams in the desert is used to illustrate the idea of restoring fortunes. This could be referring to the spirit of God flowing down from the mountaintop, or the streams that appear in the desert, such as in the Sinai or Dead Sea area. These streams come out of nowhere and bring life to a dry place. Scholars have interpreted this to mean "renewing the desert," which makes sense in the context of the verse.

Sometimes it probably made perfect sense to them because it was the language at the time. Here's a sentence I wrote about it: "People need the Living Water of Christ to renew and restore us." That's a really good reflection technique.

If we are piecing together all these stories, Jenny's riffing off Jesus saying he's the Water of Life and springs in the desert and all that. That's the picture. What burden if these streams dry up? How relevant is Christ's analogy of Living Water that never runs dry?

These people lived their lives by the Reigns. Is this poem about recognizing how God moves in the stressful testing times and that his glory is still in the testing times?

At this particular time, they are writing at a happy time. This Psalm seems to be indicating a time of rest and restoration. It could be referencing the fact that we've planted in tears over the last 70 years in Exile, and now it's our time of Joy.

They will weep as they go to plant their seed. When they return from Exile, they come back with great joy, but when they get back, there's this perspective that everything's going to be perfect. They may have a sense that God was going to turn up when they got back, and he was going to deliver them and rule over the Nations, but they get back and find it's far from perfect.

If you've got your hopes set for something and you think it's going to happen, but it doesn't, there's a time of renewed let down expectations. This is written to remind them that even though it's not everything it should be, keep going because when the right time is coming, you'll reap.

It's like the ebb and flow of life, with ups and downs, hard times and good times. The word 'weep' in verse six is a good thing and also a sorrow thing; you're weeping because this is a new beginning, but you're weeping for the sad times ahead.

But then they sing as they return with the harvest, so they know that God is moving and that there will be a harvest. In any agricultural society, you can imagine there's parties and dancing. The book of Ruth is all about that, rejoicing around harvest time.

They've come from captivity, and now they're dreaming for the first time since captivity. They're looking forward with a hope, but it's not what it should be yet. Courage is to dream in the moment. Keep sight of the future harvest that's coming.

The glory of God is here and also there, in the weeping and sowing and planting. It's a biblical theme of seed time and harvest, and it will always be there. Cast your seed upon the water, and in due time it will return to you. This is a picture of the future harvest.

Nomadic people would come down later on, and there would already be a harvest, so there's a sense of faith and trust. Keep trusting that everything will work out in the end.

"Don't be afraid to look at me because I am with you, and I will never leave you or forsake you." So God is saying, "Don't be afraid to look at me; I'm here with you."

One day, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, and he led the flock far into the Wilderness and came to Sinai, the Mountain of God. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement; though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up.

Moses said to himself, "Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see it." He went closer, and God said, "Don't come any closer. Take off your sandals, for you are standing on Holy Ground." Then God told Moses who he was: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at him. God said, "Do not be afraid to look at me because I am with you, and I will never leave you or forsake you."

This was a pretty extraordinary moment for Moses. He was a shepherd, and it wasn't the fact that the bush was on fire that was strange to him. In the middle of the desert, these Acacia bushes would be struck by lightning, and bang, they would go up in flame. The strange thing was this one wasn't burning up.

God acted first in this encounter and relationship. He told Moses not to be afraid to look at him because he was with him and would never leave him or forsake him. This was a powerful moment for Moses.

Moses had been in exile for 40 years when he encountered a bush that he thought was a natural phenomenon. However, God appeared and revealed himself to Moses. There was a presence and a gravitas and a weightiness about this moment, and Moses was instructed to take off his shoes.

This was an invitation for Moses to come closer to God, and it showed the difference between the two of them. This is in contrast to the kings of Egypt, who demanded respect and an aura, and you couldn't come into their presence unless you were invited.

However, God's gravitas was only ever for our good as his subjects. It does us good to honor and respect him, and God plucked Moses out of obscurity. We are left to guess what motives and what Moses's heart might have been like prior to this.

Moses told his mother obviously had some sense of faith that the people in Egypt had held on to. They had hoped, but they didn't think they had any real promises of the way forward. At the end of Genesis, Joseph gave a declaration that one day they would get out of this place.

Somehow, there was a sense of who this God was because Moses knew the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When God revealed himself, he attached himself to Yahweh and gave a verse for those who don't think God overhears their tears.

In verse seven, the Lord said he had seen the oppression of his people in Egypt and heard their cries of distress. He had come down to rescue them and lead them out of Egypt into a land that was fertile and spacious.

In verse nine, God said he had seen how harshly the Egyptians had abused them and was sending Moses to Pharaoh to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Moses protested, asking who he was to lead the people, and God answered, saying he would be with him.

This was the sign that he was sent, and when the people were brought out of Egypt, they would worship at the mountain. God appeared to Moses in a much more significant way than a little bush that was burning but not burning up.

In this moment, it was so glorious that God said to take off his shoes as it was holy ground. He was pronouncing a big rescue upon his people, and where Moses had failed before to lead a rescue, God was now going to rescue.

Moses had a heart for his people and wanted to do the right thing, even though he had all the riches of Pharaoh's house at his disposal. God was acknowledging this and was going to use it to rescue the Israelites.

After 40 years of sowing in tears, joy was about to be reaped. God told Moses to go and rescue the Israelites, but Moses was unsure of himself and asked who he was to appear before Pharaoh. God responded by saying, "I am who I am."

This statement is meant to be interpreted as God being whatever is needed when it is needed. He is love, glory, savior, and healer. God was showing Moses that he was enough and that he was the one who was sent.

Moses hears a lowly shepherd, and his human power is gone. The power he had in Egypt, being raised in the Pharaoh's Temple, is gone. This humbling opens the door for God to come into his life with absolute power.

We see this story of change in people throughout the Bible. Here we learn his name is El Shaddai, God Almighty. God calls to Moses from the middle of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" We have heard this same voice before when Jesus calls Martha, "Martha, Martha!"

Jesus uses this same voice to show us that He is the I AM, the reliever, conqueror, and redeemer. He is the God of abundance, the one who provides more than enough.

In 1 Kings 6, we see this same story of God's power and provision. We are reminded that God is the I AM, the one who will provide us with everything we need. He is the one who will be our grace, power, victory, and healing. He is the one who will answer all our problems.

We can trust Him to be everything we need Him to be. We can be the leader we dreamed of being, only through Him. Solomon was given a dream by his father David to build a temple for God. This was around 480 years since Egypt and 440 years since Moses and the Tabernacle.

The temple was built with no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site. This was because it was the beginning of the Iron Age, and it was a sign of respect for the sanctity and holiness of the temple. The stones used in the construction were finished at the quarry.

This was to show that human labor was done outside, and when one came to the temple, it was a sign of respect for God's character. The whole chapter is about the preparation for what God was about to do.

Yes, it's how the building takes place. The type of building, the sign, and what it will look like is very much like the plans for the Tabernacle in Exodus, just on a larger scale. In verse 18, they talk about some of the materials used. Cedar paneling completely covered the stone walls throughout the temple, decorated with carvings of gourds and open flowers.

This is meant to be absolutely beautiful, reminding people of Eden. When people walk in, they are directly confronted with God's creation, which brings them to the memory of the Exodus, God's glory, and God's character.

Verse 19 talks about the inner sanctuary at the far end of the temple, where the Ark of the Lord's Covenant would be placed. It was overlaid with solid gold, and Solomon overlaid the rest of the Temple's interior with solid gold and made gold chains to protect the entrance of the most holy place.

Later on, the Queen of Sheba came and saw all of this. When she walked in, she said she had heard of Solomon's wisdom, significance, and wealth, but when she saw the tangible richness and the glory, she said it was far more than she could have imagined.

There are rumors that she encountered God here, and that something happened between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, but we will park that conversation. Solomon had an encounter with God that was so enrapturing that she sensed the glory of God.

This was hugely different from anything the Egyptians had seen before. Historians tell us that this encounter led to a strong Jewish population in Ethiopia. They track their history back to two significant encounters: this one and then Philip in the book of Acts when he meets the Queen of Candace, the Ethiopian eunuch.

It is believed that Solomon took the Lord and the revelation of Yahweh back with her and started something back there.

We can miss the glory and significance of God's presence. We can become complacent in our church life and fail to see the significance of it. But then an outsider comes in and recognizes God's glory.

It is refreshing to have someone in our world who has just genuinely experienced the change recently and is more excited about it than many of us long-term Christians are because of the complacency that we get. We miss the fact that God is in a different dimension to us.