"God Wins at Midnight" by Glenn Martin

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Strength to Strength. It's good to see your faces again this morning, and looking forward to hearing what Brother Glenn has for us, our very own Glenn Martin.

I think we'll get started here with maybe with a prayer. But Glenn, yeah, Glenn Martin is sharing on God Wins at Midnight, and I'm looking forward to this talk. So let's pray. Father, I thank you for this morning. Thank you for a new day, and I thank you for the opportunities that you are going to give us today to serve you and to be your people. I just pray that you would guide us today, and may your will be done, may your kingdom come. Pray for Glenn as he shares, and I pray that you would, yeah, just open our eyes to see what you have for us in this passage. I pray that you would be with us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, well, go ahead, Glenn, and give us what you got.

All right. Good morning, everyone, and welcome here to Strength to Strength. I'm glad to be able to share this morning. So one of my long-time interests in the scripture is the Old Testament, and that's what I'd like to look at here this morning. So I'm going to share my screen. So we're going to take a look at something I'm calling God Wins at Midnight. So Paul wrote to the Romans, and he said that whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So the scriptures that Paul is referring to here is the Old Testament, and in 1 Corinthians 10 is where Paul gives the history of the Israelites as they left Egypt and, of course, wilderness wanderings and all of that.

And Paul tells us that it's for our admonition. It's not just for historic or academic purposes, but rather that we can grow in our obedience to our Lord. So these things happened to them as examples. They were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And that's quite a thought to think about how the things that are written in the Old Testament were written for us. So I'd like to look at the account of the Exodus and the account of Egypt. Egypt is oftentimes referred to as a type of sin, and I think that's very aptly so done. Pharaoh is described as a type of Satan, and the nation that has oppressed the people of God is under the judgment of God.

And looking at the account of the Exodus, you might sense some pity for them. I think we should resist that temptation. It's the place of evil. It's the proud nation that had killed the innocents and enslaved the righteous, and their time and their regime was quickly coming to an end. We have the plagues there by Moses and Aaron, and nine of them had occurred and were coming up on the tenth one. So God had told Moses that after the tenth plague, Pharaoh is going to drive Israel out of the land, and the people of God, under the direction of Moses, they will be liberated, and the new nation is going to be born.

So I'm going to take a look at just a few verses from that account, and we have this reading from Exodus chapter 12. Now it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive women in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the cattle. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in all the land of Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, go and serve the Lord as you said.

Take also your sheep and oxen and go and bless me as well." The Egyptians also urged the people so as to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We be all dead." So it's quite an epic ending to that story. If Egypt wasn't destroyed by the nine plagues before this, it certainly lost its prime power here in the final plague. It says there was not a house where there was not one dead.

But one of the interesting details to me is what time this happened. It didn't happen at midday or mid-afternoon or even at night, but it says very specifically that it happened at midnight. So it happened at midnight when everything was quiet, everything was dark. And you know, sometimes we think about darkness as being a type of wickedness, and that actually has strong biblical precedent. We didn't just make up that idea that light represents something of God and darkness represents something of Satan. We get that from John 3. Jesus said that the condemnation is that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. So this light is good, darkness is bad, is a biblical idea. And Matthew says that Jesus said that the lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? In John 12, a little while longer, the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.

So we also have things that happen at night. We know about the betrayal of Judas. He walked out and it was night. So there would be many such examples, but I only say this to establish the idea that when we say that darkness represents evil, something bad, and light represents something good, that's a biblical concept.

So at the Passover, in this time when Egypt had hardened itself against God, I think it's very appropriate that the death angel should make its appearance at night and even at midnight. And interestingly, that was the timing that God chose. God chose midnight as the time for the destruction of wickedness and the birth of a new nation.

So besides the account that we have in the Exodus, there's another book I'd like to look at, and that is the wisdom of Solomon. So the wisdom of Solomon is one of the intertestamental books, and there's a retelling in this book of the Exodus account. Like in this book, about 25% of the book is talking about the Exodus, and it's very intriguing. It's very detailed, and it goes for about nine or ten chapters where it retells this account. And in the retelling of this account, I'm going to go through this very quickly so we can get to the point, but there's five different parts, and each different part explains about how a specific plague or event was used to both punish the wicked and also reward the righteous simultaneously.

So in chapter 11, it says, "In return for the wrongdoing of their senseless reasoning in which they were led astray, you punished them so they might learn that one is punished by the things by which he sins." And then it gives these examples following that. So the first one is about water, and it says that water is how they sinned because they threw the Hebrew infants into the Nile. And then in exchange for that, God plagued the Egyptians by turning their water into blood. And also God then used water to destroy the Egyptians in the Red Sea. So it goes with that thought. And there's five of these like that. The second one is about animals.

They worshipped beasts. They worshipped vile animals, serpents. And then in exchange for that, God plagued them with frogs and lice and flies and locusts. And then God used animals to bless the people of God. He sent them quail. So we also have something similar with rain. We have something similar with darkness and light. And then finally we come to the last plague about the Passover. And in this section is where I would like to look at. So there's a chapter that's, I'm sorry, there's a verse, a certain section in chapter 18 that I'm going to read here. It's from verses 8 through 16.

And I'm just going to read that passage now. So it says, "For you punished our enemies with the same means by which you called and glorified us. For in secret, the holy children of good people offered sacrifices and in harmony with the divine law made a covenant that the saints would share alike in good things and in dangers, and already they were singing the praises of their fathers.

But the discordant cry of their enemies resounded, and their pitiful outcry and mourning for their children spread abroad. And the servant was punished with the same penalty as the master, and the common man suffered the same thing as the king. They all together by one name of death had innumerable dead persons, for there were not enough living even to bury them because of one critical moment their valued children were destroyed. For they disbelieved everything because of their sorceries, but of the destruction of their firstborn, they acknowledged the people to be God's son."

That note there about they disbelieved everything because of their sorceries. You will recall how Moses and Aaron, they were doing these plagues, and then their magicians were able to do the same thing. And so it's saying that because they were able to replicate these same miracles, then they didn't give credibility to Moses and Aaron until the Passover, until the death of the firstborn.

For while gentle silence embraced everything and night at its own speed was half over, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of a doomed land, a relentless warrior carrying the sharp sword of your irrevocable command. And he stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on earth. So it's on this section here, verses 14 through 16, that I'd like to spend most of the time.

So we're going to look at this section here a little bit more closely. So first of all, in the second line, first line, while gentle silence embraced everything, so we have a quiet night, and night at its own speed was half over. If you read this in the King James or in the Brentons, which is the Septuagint, they have the same wording word for word. It says that night was in the midst of her swift course. And it simply means it was midnight. Okay? So verse, of course, we know it was midnight because Exodus tells us it was midnight as well.

So it says that while gentle silence embraced everything and it was midnight, night was, you know, at its own speed was half over. It means it was midnight. Your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of a doomed land. And then going down to the last line there, it says he stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on earth.

And that's interesting because this idea of touching heaven while standing on earth, we have something similar given in 2 Chronicles, I believe it is, where David had performed the census. And in the punishment there, the angel was standing between heaven and earth. It seems like a posture for judgment. All right, so back to that second line where it says about night at its own speed was half over. If that sounds familiar, if that phrase sounds familiar or that idea, it might be because of a song. So in your songbook, if you have this book, Hymns of the Church, song number 222, I'm going to read the song, and I have it on the screen here as well if you want to follow after there.

This song is called Lo, How a Rose Er Blooming, and I'm going to read it. Lo, how a rose er blooming from tender stem had sprung of Jesse's lineage coming as men of old have sung. It came a flower at bright amid the cold of winter when half spent was the night. So the last line there says, half spent was the night. The next verse, it says, Isaiah was foretold it, the rose I have in mind, with Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind to show God's love of right, she bore to men a savior when half spent was the night. There's that phrase again.

This flower whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere, true man, yet very God from sin and death he saves us, enlightens every load. So when you read the song or sing the song, it's pretty clear that it's not talking about the Exodus, and it's not talking about Egypt, and it's not talking about Pharaoh.

What is it talking about? Well, it's pretty clearly talking about the incarnation, about the time when God became flesh to dwell among us. It's talking about the birth of the Messiah. And it says that happened when half spent was the night. So in plain English, this song is saying that Jesus was born at midnight.

So there's it's not a new idea at all that Jesus was born at night because Luke tells us that there were in the same country shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. And that detail has been picked up by hymn writers. A lot of them talk about this, silent night, holy night, or the common song, O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

In the song, the first Noel, there's a line that says on a cold winter's night that was so deep. And then we have the song Veiled in Darkness, Judah Lay. And in that one, there's a line that says, wow across the shadowy night. So Luke says it, and a lot of songs are saying Jesus was born at night.

But if we take this a little bit farther, we have this song that we just looked at, number 222, says that Jesus was born at midnight. It says when half spent was the night. But there's other ones as well. The same book, the song just before it, it says it came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old.

And in the same book, again, number 208, we have the song Wake Awake for Night is Flying. It says in that song, midnight hears the startling voices. So these songwriters that say it happened at midnight, did they just make this up, or why did they think that Jesus was born at midnight? Like, were they just, is this just a poetic thing, and they just decided to assign a time during the night? So I'd like to reread some of the same verses that we looked at before from the wisdom of Solomon. But this time, instead of thinking about the Exodus, let's read the same words, but let's think about the incarnation of Jesus.

And it says, for while gentle silence embraced everything, okay, it's a quiet night. And night at its own speed was half over. So it's midnight. Your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of a doomed land, a relentless warrior carrying the sharp sword of your irrevocable command. And he stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on earth.

So in the context, it's clearly talking about the Exodus from Egypt. But nonetheless, this messenger from heaven to visit Egypt, I think is also clearly a typological prophecy of Jesus coming to visit humanity. And I think that the writer of the song that spoke about Lo, how a rose er blooming, that says when half spent was the night, I think that the writer of the song was referring to this passage right here.

In fact, this passage, if you look in verse 15, it says your all-powerful word leap from heaven. The word word is the word logos. In Greek, that's the same word that we have in John 1, where it says in the beginning was the logos, in the beginning was the word. And here it says that your all-powerful logos leap from heaven, from the royal throne.

So Jesus, the word, our Passover, came at night to destroy the works of the devil, to defeat death, to destroy earthly nations, to redeem his people, to establish a new nation. And that is Jesus. Jesus is the angel of death to the world system and an angel of life to his own. So it says here as well that the final thing on the screen there, he stood and filled all things with death. And some people may, you know, object to that saying, you know, Jesus came to give life and not death. But, and while that's true, we also know from 2 Timothy that Jesus will be the judge on the last day. And I think that the best way to look at this is the way in which the writer of the wisdom of Solomon explains all of these things.

Each of the examples, he talks about how the Lord punished our enemies by the same means by which you called and glorified us. So he came, and in his coming, it was a blow to the devil at the same time that it was a blessing and salvation to the people of God. So midnight is that time when the worst of the devil was confronted by God, and God wins.

There's a biblical scholar, Rabbinus Marus from the 700s and 800s. He wrote about this passage. He was a German monk and priest and commentator. And in his commentary, he wrote this, speaking of the wisdom of Solomon, chapter 18.

It says that at midnight, Almighty God made his word, the logos, descend from heaven, from the royal throne, like a ruthless champion in the midst of a land of slaughter, to powerfully carry out the judgment of death on the godless. What is the word of the Lord, if not the Son of God, of whom John says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, through whom everything was made?

So the tradition of a midnight mass on Christmas Eve is one that still persists to this day in many of the high churches. So what does all this mean? Like, who cares if Jesus was born at midnight? Well, I do, but maybe just a few things to consider about this. I think it's just amazing how God places these kinds of details in scripture. Like how brilliant it is that God would take the thought and effort to incorporate these ideas into scripture. Like no human could have created this plot in writing. When Moses wrote about the Exodus, he had no reason to make up any details about arriving at midnight. And the same would be true about the writer of the wisdom of Solomon.

So moving on then to the next thing I'd like to look at here. I think that we have a pattern in scripture of how God delivers his people. And when God delivers his people, he comes at midnight. So we already talked about the Exodus at midnight. We talked about Jesus being born at midnight based on that passage. But there's other things that happen at midnight as well.

So you recall the story of Samson. He took those city gates at Gaza. And it's recorded that he did that at midnight. And also in intertestamental literature, you have Judith who acted on her plan to destroy the means to kill Holofernes. And that happened at midnight as well.

And then Paul and Silas, we know what happened there. They were delivered from prison. When did that happen? That happened at midnight. And then in the New Testament, we have the story in Acts about the boy who was sitting in the window when Paul was preaching and he fell asleep, he fell out of the window. And then we have this miracle of resurrection at midnight.

And in 100% of these cases, it's the people of God who are liberated at midnight. Like these are not just random things that happened at midnight, but every time, every one of these things that we have here, Jesus or God wins at that time. And in putting this together, I wasn't selective at all, just to find midnight victories. I referred to every incident, every happening story from the Bible where midnight is mentioned, except one. And we'll get to that in a little bit.

But you notice that each of these things are talking about not just incidentally saying when something happened, but they're talking about something that happened at midnight that was a win for God's side and a defeat of the devil.

So I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest something that we could consider. And that is, is it possible that these midnight victories could be a hint of something eschatological as well? Like, is it possible that Jesus would return at midnight, thinking of like a spiritual midnight of the world? So in thinking about that, I'd like to return to this same passage that we looked at, 14 through 16. And I'd like to read this again and think now about Jesus' return. So first we read it thinking about the Exodus. Secondly, we read it thinking about the coming of Jesus, but now of Jesus' return.

For while gentle silence embraced everything, and you might think about what the scripture says, I think Jeremiah said that people would be saying peace, peace when there is no peace. And night at its own speed was half over at midnight. Your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of a doomed land, a relentless warrior carrying the sharp sword of your irrevocable command, obviously mentioning how the Lord is destroying his enemies. And he stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on the earth.

And on that last phrase, if you'll recall, we talked about how in the census, David was punished for that with an angel that David saw that was standing between heaven and earth. Well, interestingly, we have that same scene almost word for word in Revelation. And it says, "The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever." And here it says that he's touching heaven while standing on earth. And Revelation says he raised up his hand to heaven while he's standing on the land and on the sea.

I think that's fascinating. So if this world devolves into deep wickedness before the Lord returns, like we can be confident that we're not forgotten because we can see that, you know, the Lord is awake at midnight and we don't need to be discouraged by the state of the world.

So maybe the condemnation of the wickedness of the world and also maybe the resurrection of the just will be at midnight. And if you think about the story of Eutychus, where he was presurrected by Paul at midnight, is that possibly a foretelling? Is that possibly a foretelling of the resurrection that's going to happen broadly at midnight? So it could be asked, you know, is all of this just guesswork? Is there any indication that the Lord is going to return at midnight? Well, I think there is. And in fact, I had mentioned earlier, we looked at all the midnight references except one. And so here's the final one. And that is in Matthew 25, Jesus said that at midnight a cry was heard, "Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him."

So at midnight, symbolically, is when God will return to judge the world. And in all the things that we looked at, all those other midnights were past. But in the one here about the bridegroom returning for the prepared virgins at midnight would be one thing that's future. And taking this list together is everything that the scripture has to say about midnight, all the stories, at least, that include any kind of reference of things happening at midnight.

So one more thing that I think is interesting, maybe as an application, is how this can illustrate God's willingness to come into our own personal midnight to bring liberation. So there's many biblical examples where people were liberated when things become desperately dark. So in the case of the Exodus, there was slavery, there was no end in sight. And then, don't you know, the Lord shows up with the prodigal son. He was out there feeding the pigs. There's no way out. And don't you know, that's when he came to himself. And there were possibilities. In the story of Esther, the nation was destined for destruction. And there was, like, suddenly the story changed. But each time the story changes, not when it's, you know, just halfway, you know, mediocre or something, but it changes at midnight.

It changes when things are at the worst. You also have this in the case of Jonah. He was dying, or some people think he already had died and was resurrected. In any case, it was at the worst when he was brought back. And we mentioned the story of Judah. There was no humanly possible way to save Israel. In the New Testament, we have the issue of blood. The woman there for 12 years, she had no help from the doctors. And instead, everything was going worse. And it says that she had spent everything.

So the application would be, you know, what about you and me? So this is, I think, a message of hope for us that if we're in a bad place, that God can meet us there. There's no need to hide. God wants to come into our darkest midnight and set us free. And if that's not our experience, then we can do what David said. David said that he arises at midnight. He says, "At midnight, I arose to give thanks to you because of the judgments of your righteousness."

And that's all I have to share. A little bit shorter here this morning. But yeah, hopefully that can be a blessing.

Hey, okay, very good. Thank you, Glenn. And we'll open this up like normal for a time of maybe question and answer, maybe some discussion. But so I got a question that's maybe somewhat besides the point for Glenn, but why? So for us, why is midnight not in the middle of the night?

Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, so it's not in the middle of the night according to our clocks. You know, I don't know if middle of the night is when midnight had been, you know, previously considered to be midnight or not. I don't know. Good question.

I think so in, I was just talking to someone from a tropical region or places where they're closer to the equator, the daylight hours stay more consistent in summer and winter. Like for us in the northern hemisphere here, we have, as far north as we are in Pennsylvania anyhow, we have much longer days in the summertime and much shorter in the winter. And of course, we have daylight savings time that sets that off right now, changes that by an hour.

But I think in areas that are closer to the equator, it's often dark at six and light again at six. So then midnight is more close to the middle of the night. So you have to. So do any of the rest of you have some questions for Glenn?

Well, I don't know. You go ahead, Dan.

Who says that midnight doesn't happen at the middle of the night? I'm trying to look that up and see what that would be for today.

Oftentimes, I see that when a question is put up, that there is a preconceived notion in it that is not established. So is it the case that, is it always the case that midnight doesn't happen in the middle of the night?

I'm going to look that up and see if I can find that before we close.

Yeah, I just thought that came to me was that I think often it is at the middle of the darkness, but it takes us a while to get to bed, right? It takes us a while to wind down. But yeah, you especially think about it in a country that's closer to the equator. I thought of it when I was down in Central America that there it's dark at six and light at six. And so midnight definitely is the middle of your night.

Yeah, so I have a word. This is Ezra Martin. I was listening in and I enjoyed it.

Midnight, I think God providentially arranged it that these different things took place in the Old Testament during that time. And midnight is certainly what is going to be the time in which our Lord will return again when the angels are going to come in the clouds of glory and take home to himself all those that are ready and prepared to meet him.

So may God help each of us to be ready. God bless Glenn for sharing and God bless each of us as we go our way. Thank you.

Yeah, Glenn, very, very stimulating.

And I have a couple of thoughts here, but maybe I'll put this up front. The idea of midnight, is that like a term that it could be midnight, but it's also, I think, isn't there a term called the midnight of the soul?

That term just came to mind right now. It's just like the darkest, maybe the bleakest time possibly. It's like when everything, like it's, there's not much happening. Humanity is quiet.

And it's like there's nothing going to happen. And that's when God shows up. It's not at nine o'clock when we're all being productive, you know, or three, you know, it's that when no one thinks, he will show up. And so I think there's not only, yeah, so as you drew a storyline here of midnight, and that's a powerful idea when all things look impossible. You know, Paul and Silas were singing.

Amazing. But yeah, I did at first kind of resist the idea of tying the death angel to Jesus, the Logos, the incarnation coming. And I resisted that at first because, you know, think of Luke 2, what did the angel say? "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men." And I think of the death angel, that's the last thing I think of. Like that was an incredible punishment, incredible judgment right there.

But then I thought this, right then I just thought of some verses I read then in 2 Corinthians just the other day.

And this is about God working through his people. And to one, to some people, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And to others, the aroma of life leading to life. And also it talks too about, you know, Jesus being that stumbling block.

And so, and obviously Jesus will be the judge too. And so it's like this idea in Jesus is grace and truth. And so, you know, maybe these two things aren't so far apart. So yeah, thank you for leading us on that journey this morning.

Yes, thank you. And along with that, it's not a new idea of Jesus being a sword. So in a way, it does fit even though you'd think it doesn't. So yeah, thank you, Glenn. That was very interesting. I like your investigative approach to Bible study. That's really helpful. I love it. And I love all the types that are hidden in the Old Testament and even in this intertestamental books. Yeah, that's great. Thank you.

So regarding the business of midnight, my rough figuring is that today the sun rises about 7:12 and sets at 6:43. So that would mean that the night is 11 hours and 31 minutes, half or 30 minutes. Halfway through that would be 5 hours and 45 minutes.

And that would put midnight at 12:57. Now, we are in daylight saving time. So that's if I'm not mistaken, that's really 11:57. So that puts midnight right about halfway between sunrise and sunset.

Well, thanks for checking into that for us, Dan. That's interesting. I hope I got that right if you all want to double-check that. I mean, it's this early in the morning and dealing with the crosstalk dollar sign. I could have an error in there.

I often bungle daylight saving time at each end showing up for Sunday meeting at the wrong time. I think I did that this year, as a matter of fact.

So Brant, to what you had mentioned there about resisting the idea of Jesus being compared to the death angel, like I get that. And I think it's one of these cases where the same event is life to some and death to others. And that's certainly what it was in the case of the Exodus.

And I think that's what we're going to, you know, have in the future when the Lord returns. Revelation 2, somebody just put it in the quote here. It says, "I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the reins of the hearts." That's talking about Jesus being the judge.

So yeah, I think that it's the case where when the Lord destroys the wicked as salvation to the righteous.

And someone also put on the chat here this, some reference to the song, "Guide Me Without Great Jehovah." Death of death and hell's destruction. When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fear subside. Death of death and hell's destruction, land me safe on Canaan's side.

Songs of praise, songs of praise, I will ever give to thee. Now that's interesting because I don't think that's the text of that hymn that I'm familiar with, but maybe it's a different version or different verse. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

There's probably not an answer to this one, Glenn. But I talk to skeptics all the time. And many of their comments are that in their darkest hour, and people who were formerly Christians and lost their faith because in their darkest hour, Jesus didn't show up.

And of course, you have the Negro spiritual that says, "Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel? Then why not every man?" Do you have some comment on that? Like I said, that's an unanswerable question, I'm sure. But that is a complaint of the skeptics that at the time when they needed God the most in their darkest hour, this didn't happen.

Yeah, it's a, you know, it's a difficult question that I think that's incumbent then on the Christians to have an answer for. My personal belief is, despite all the unfairness in the world, that ultimately, if all things considered, that the world is fair, that God is fair.

And but not all that fairness is seen now. So I think that ultimately, God is going to take all things into account when he, you know, makes his final judgment and sets all things right. But yeah, for a time, temporarily, there's a lot of things that are not right in the world. Yeah, I don't know that there's an answer for the skeptic who says, you know, that that's an excuse or something like that.

Go ahead, you were going to say.

Well, actually, it was that dilemma that drove Job to see the resurrection when many people in his time did not see that. He believed God was just. He believed he was going to die before justice was served. And so it was out of that, out of that tremendous suffering and frustration with justice that didn't seem to be happening. That he believed because God is just, then there had to be a life beyond this life when all things would be resolved.

Yeah. Yeah, very interesting.

There's a passage here in Romans 9, I think it is, where Paul's referring to Pharaoh that, you know, God will have mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he'll harden whom he wants to harden. And then there's another place that y'all would maybe know, someone would know where Paul says some things are made for noble purposes and some are made for ignoble.

And this is simply my thought. I'm not saying this is true that God thinks this way, but you know, maybe some of us are made to do bad things. Yeah. And maybe some of us are made by God to do good things. It's a scary, you know, kind of a trembling kind of a thought. But again, you know, why would the clay say to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?" It was another phrase that Paul used. And then he says, "Oh, the depths and the riches of the knowledge of God." You know, so these are wondrous things you're mentioning, Glenn, and wondrous things that many of these hymn writers have tried to articulate over the centuries.

But it does make me think of fear and trembling. So thank you so much, Glenn, for studying these things and, like Justin said, kind of doing the private eye work for us and just helping us appreciate God's immense beauty all the more.

Thank you very much. Yep, you're welcome. Thank you.

I just add a thought to what was just said about God creating some for evil or however that was said. I would caution that we don't want to plant the thought in anybody's mind that I'm just created for evil and there's no hope for me. And, you know, it does say that it's not God's will that any should perish, but that all should be saved if I'm not quite quoting that right. But I just thought I'd put that little caution in.

I fully agree with that too. That's another scripture. Absolutely. That makes us wonder just the depths and the riches of God's wisdom. You know, he's the creator. We are the created. But absolutely. Paul also said that, yeah, he wants all men to be saved. I think that's 1 Timothy 2, maybe.

Beautiful.

Now, Glenn, would you say the Lord returning at midnight, would you say would that be midnight over Jerusalem or midnight over North America or midnight where?

Yeah, thanks for the question. So I think it's a similar question that could be asked about any of these events that happen at midnight. So obviously in the case of the Exodus, it was midnight, I believe, at their local time there. But when we're not talking about the Exodus and instead we're talking about, you know, some future event, I don't know, you know, what that's going to look like, but I would view the midnight in the future as being a spiritual midnight, not necessarily a certain time per time zone for 24 hours. So yeah, I would certainly not be one to make the claim that it's going to be midnight in one specific strategic spot on the earth.

That's not where I was going with that.

I vote for Jerusalem. That's the center of everything in the Bible.

Okay. Well, thank you all for your thoughts. We still have a little bit. It's not quite seven o'clock. So if you have any last thoughts or comments, bring it right now. We'll close up soon if not.

Somebody put a verse on the chat that I thought was worth noting, and it stands out to me in connection to this topic. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Hosea 13:14. That's an interesting connection there to Jesus and the death angel.

And Glenn, could you answer this question for me? This would be maybe 12 hours of a topic. But how did the Old Testament people think of heaven and hell? I've had Jewish friends of mine, you know, in my life say they don't believe in heaven or hell. They really think we just die.

And we, you know, do you have any 30-second answer to that large question? Yeah, it is a large question. And I don't know that I can answer this in 30 seconds, but yeah, it's pretty obvious that the Old Testament perception of the afterlife is quite different than what we, you know, have come to understand today.

If you look at like the book of Ecclesiastes, a lot of people point to the, I'm not sure what the right word is, but kind of the sad outlook on life that the writer of Ecclesiastes had towards death. You know, everything was just vanity and we're all going to just end. And I think it was actually broader than just that writer there. Like it seems to me like they believe that when they die, they go to the grave.

I'm not saying that's the case everywhere. I think that was a far stronger in a far stronger sense that they had at that time. The idea that we die and go to heaven or something like that, I don't see that in the Old Testament.

Thank you. Of course, you have Martha speaking to Jesus, and she refers to the general resurrection. So there was some thought in the Jewish religion that there would be a resurrection. Yeah, so you definitely have that like in the intertestamental literature. If you have the seven brothers who were martyred there in 2 Maccabees 7, there like four of those brothers are talking about the resurrection. They're saying to the king, who was that Antiochus Epiphanes, they're saying like, "You can go kill my body. You can dismember me, but you know what? I'm going to have my body parts reclaimed in the resurrection." So they're talking not only of some spiritual whatever, but a physical restoration of the body.

Yeah, so Martha's comment, that's interesting.

Yeah, fascinating stuff.

I think the Old Testament supports an afterlife. And an example would be Saul seeking an audience with the already deceased Samuel, and Samuel actually shows up. Now, if death is obliteration and oblivion, where did Samuel come from when the witch of Endor conjured him?

Of course, the most telling statement about it is what Jesus said, that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living.

Okay, well, thank you everyone for what you shared. And we even got some extra content here on the end from Glenn. So that was like a, you know, that was a bonus.

We're going to, I think we're going to bring this to a close here. We do have next two weeks from now, we have the top on Strength of Strength. Next two weeks from now, on Saturday, we have the First Great Commission by John. I believe that's a fictional name. So this is, I look forward to hearing that. And also for the women in your life, brothers, intentional, there's an intentional growth through reflecting and prayer journaling by Dorcas.

I don't have the last name there of her, but she's sharing this afternoon. So you can let the ladies in your life know if they're not aware of that. But yeah, thank you, Glenn, for sharing. And thanks for all your comments, everyone. And Glenn, would you lead us in a closing prayer here? Sure. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that you can meet us anytime, any place. We thank you for your word that we can read. And we thank you for the Word who has come to grant us the opportunity for salvation.

Lord, we are grateful for all that you have done for us. We want to praise you and lift your name high. We ask that you would help us to grow in you, help us to learn of you. And we thank you for all that you have done for us. And we pray that you may continue to walk with us through life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. And God bless your day. And we'll see you again here. As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.