God Has a Message for You. (2 Kings 8: 1-15)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes: God Has a Message for You. (2 Kings 8: 1-15)

If you’re a follower of Jesus, here’s something you need to know right at the start of this episode:

 God has a message for you.  Not just one, but many, and He delivers them in all kinds of ways. The primary ways, of course, are through the texts of the bible. God wrote a book, and He filled that book with stories, stories about real people, in real places, facing real situations. And although those stories were written to them, they were written for us.   Paul says exactly that in Romans 15:4: 

 “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning…”

 In other words, when you read the Old Testament, you’re looking at someone else’s story — but it’s meant to slow you down and prompt you to take note. Pay attention to both the narrative and the prophetic and consider how it fits with the world you see around you today. 

And today, in 2 Kings 8, we’re going to look at three short stories, three moments where God had a message for three different people. But I strongly believe that the message He gave them is a message He wants to give you…

 So, let's see what God wants us to take on board today….

Transcript

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Hi friends, welcome to today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. And the project is for you and I together to work through the whole Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And today we're at the point where we've reached Two Kings, and we're beginning with the first half of Two Kings chapter 8, covering the first 15 verses, which I've titled God's Got a Message to You. So thank you for being with me today. Now, before I begin, a very quick notice. You may be aware that in hosting these podcasts, I use a company called Buzz Sprout, and they're the ones who distribute those podcasts to all the main platforms. Now, recently introduced by them is what they call fan mail. Simply what that is, in the episode notes of each episode, there's a little you can click on and you can send me a message or ask me a question. Now there are two ways you can do that. You can send it through a secure messaging system whereby I will receive it and to be able to answer you. That way, it's a private messaging service, so I won't know you unless you choose to identify yourself, and I will can send a quick reply there, very limited in characters, but if it needs a lengthier answer, I'll actually do that through a response at the end of a Buzz Sprout episode. And that's actually what I'm going to do today. So hang on at the end, after the end of the main session, and I'll be answering a question that someone sent me. But there's also now an opportunity there to send me a voice text where if you'd like your question to appear in a future episode, you can record it, click on the button, send it via there, and I'll include that in the BuzzProud episode, and you'll hear my answer to that question over there. So that's a new way you can reach out and connect me. And that send a message link should appear wherever you're getting your podcasts from. So, new facility for us all there. I hope some of you find it interesting and helpful, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say or what you want to ask me. With that said, it's welcome to the show. Okay, 2 Kings chapter 8, verses 1 to 15. That's today. And let me begin by just saying that if you're a follower of Jesus, I think there's something that you and I and everyone needs to know right at the start of this episode today, and that is, I believe God has a message for you, and not just one, but many messages, and those messages can be delivered to you in all kinds of ways. Now, of course, the primary way is through the text of the Bible. God wrote this book, a book filled with stories, stories about real people in real places, facing real life situations, and although these stories, of course, were written to them, they are also written to us. Paul says exactly that in the fifteenth chapter of his letter to Rome, where he said, Whatever things were written before were written for our learning. So, in other words, when you read the Bible, even the Old Testament, you're looking at someone else's story, but you're meant to pay attention to it, and you should be prompted to take note of what it says. Pay attention to both the narrative and the prophetic and consider how it fits with the world that you see around you and that the life that you're living right now. It's a bit like driving down a motorway and seeing a police officer pull over another car for speeding and issuing a ticket. Now you may drive past and look and think, well, that ticket, clearly it's not for you, but the message that that ticket gives is for you, which is perhaps telling you to slow down, pay attention, because it could be you next. And in a way, that's how I would say biblical stories work, on the most straightforward basic level, anyway. And today in 2 Kings chapter 8, we're going to look at three short stories, one after the other, three moments where God has messages for three different people. But I strongly believe that the message he gives them on that day, even though they seem very different and dramatic to the sort of thing that may be going on in your life, there's still a message within them that he wants to give you and I and all of us. So let's do that and see what we can take on board today in today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. And the first message is God's message to a woman of faith. So this chapter 8 opens like this. Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life. Now I'll pause right there. We've met this woman before, haven't we? She's the woman who built a room at the top of her house for Elisha. She's also the woman who longed for a son, and God gave her one. But she is also the woman whose son later died, and then whom God raised through Elisha. She is a woman who has learned through deep, deep personal experience that God can be trusted, and now God has a message for her. And Elisha says to her, Arise and go, you and your household and stay wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore it will be upon the land for seven years. So that's the message. The basic message is trouble is coming, so do what I tell you to do, and on this occasion it's flee, get out of town. Now the famine, and we know this from other passages, was one of God's discipline that he put upon Israel for their idolatry. But notice this God is warning this woman ahead of time, and God is enabling her to protect herself in advance, and God gives her a way through, and a way to do that. So let's see what she does, verse 2. So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God. That's Elisha, by the way, the prophet. And she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years. And it came to pass at the end of the seven years that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, saying, Tell me please all the great things Elisha has done. Now it happened, that's a nice phrase, just now just as it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was that woman whose son had been restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elijah restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she had told him, so the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the fields from her days that she left that land until now. So bottom line is this woman obeys. She trusts in the message God has given her, and she leaves the country and goes and lives among the Philistines for seven years, living outside the zone of the famine effectively. But when she returns, she discovers that her land is gone. Perhaps it's been sold, perhaps it was seized by someone. The text doesn't actually say, but it does tell us that because of that she goes to the king to appeal it. And here's where the story gets, how shall I say, wonderfully coincidental. The king is talking to Gehazi, Elisha's servant, about this very woman, and he says, because he says, Tell me all the things, the great things Elisha has done that you've witnessed. And just as Gehazi is telling the king about this story of the boy Elisha raising from the dead, the woman herself, the mother of this boy, walks in. Perfect timing, providential timing. Wow, Gehazi says, Goodness me, this is the very woman and this is her son. And the king then immediately orders that everything was restored to her, everything that once was hers, all the proceeds of the field from the day she left until now. So she gets back her land, and note she gets back years of income, all those years of income back, seven years. So she's fully restored. That's the point. And what's the message for us? Now remember the story was written about her, the message was given to her, but it is for our benefit also. So what are we how do we benefit? What are what shall we benefit from knowing here? And I think the message is really simple. It's simply saying, trouble is coming. Now of course it may not be famine necessarily for us, but trouble, as Job says, man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards. And if you've lived more than five minutes of this life, I'm sure most of you know that's true. Now I think trouble comes in three main categories through relationships with other people, good relationships where we struggle because of suffering of those we care about or circumstances, and bad relationships going bad. Also, the other category might be money and financial stability, and the third might be our health or the health of our loved ones. I think most of life's problems fall into one of those three categories. Not all, but most. And when trouble comes as it surely will, God has something to say to us here. He had a message for her that day, and it was very simply be aware that trouble is coming, so you'd better do what I tell you to do. And he has that message for you too. Sometimes he warns us, sometimes he guides us, sometimes he'll redirect us, and sometimes he simply says, You're just going to have to ride this out and trust in me. But God always speaks into life situations. The question really is, are we listening? God has a message for you, and he's already written most of that message down. Therefore, whatever you're going through, even if you're going through a tough time, and let's be honest, many of us are at the moment, I know I am. May I make a gentle suggestion. Respond simply by reading and studying your Bible. Years ago I heard someone say, Every human experience you can possibly have, the psalmists had first. And the longer I spend reading the Bible, the more convinced I am that that is true, not just of the Psalms, but of every book of the Bible, because across it we see situations like betrayal, people being slandered, people who are lonely, people who are aware they're guilty of wrongdoing, people who experience joy, gratitude, people who are confused, people who are weary, people who hope, people who have lost hope. It's all there. And the Psalms are particularly useful, I believe, because they're written by people and arise out of real situations. David and the other Psalm writers faced death, had enemies plotting against them, friends turning on them, or they were just had their own heart failing. They lost courage or hope. And the vast majority are written and inspired by those psalm writers' own lived experience. And years ago, I made the decision that when I faced something, and I often did, and I didn't know how to handle it, I remembered that advice, and I would open my Bible and I would usually turn first to the star Psalms, and didn't often have to read for very long until I found something to help me in the text. So listen, friends, God has a message for you, and very often it's waiting for you right here in the Bible, and I would say it's waiting particularly for you in the wisdom literature, those books like the Psalms in the Bible. So that's our first message. Trouble is coming, and it was for this woman, and it is for us too, friends. That's the natural result of living in a fallen world. God has that message for you. Now the second message in the text here cut is just in verses seven to ten, and it's God's message for a king. And it says, Then Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben Hadad, king of Syria, was sick, and it was told him, saying, That man of God has come here. And the king said to Hazel, Take a present in your hand and go to meet the man of God and inquire of the Lord of him, by saying, Sha and say, Shall I cut recover from this disease? So Hazel went to meet him and took a present with him of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel loads, and he came and stood before him and said, Your son Ben Hadib, King of Syria, has sent me to you, saying, Shall I recover from this disease? And Elisha said to him, Go say to him, You shall certainly recover. However, the Lord has shown me that he will really die. So that's a little bit of a twist at the end, isn't it? So the second story in the chapter is shifting from the single woman of faith to someone at the top of the tree, a king in Syria. And it begins by telling us that Elisha went to Damascus and Ben Hadid, that king of Syria, was sick. Now that's unusual that Elisha went there because Damascus is enemy territory after all, and Israel and Syria were often at war. Why Elisha went there we're not told, but he did. Perhaps it was specifically for this preordinate meeting. Anyway, the king is ill, not terminally ill, as we'll see, but ill enough for him to be concerned, and the word reaches him that this prophet, Elisha, this man of God, as he's referred to frequently, has come. Now the question that might pop into your mind was how does the king of Syria even know anything about Elisha? Well, it's pretty easy if you've been with me so far, probably because of Naham. Remember him, the Syrian commander, the guy healed of rheprosy? His story no doubt spread far and wide in the land, so the king knew Elisha had power because of what he'd done. So he sends his servant Hazel with this question, Shall I recover from this disease? Now interestingly he doesn't say, Will you come and heal me? Come over here, just will I recover from this? And Hazel doesn't go empty handed either. We were told he brought every good thing of Damascus with him, forty camel loads, forty camels all loaded, a right royal caravan of gifts. Now in the ancient Near East, this was how you honored a prophet, or even indeed a king, but this is pointing to extravagance. And he goes with these extravagant gifts and he addresses Elisha. Notice he says, Your son. Now, of course the king wasn't a son of Elijah, but it's offering a real sign of submission and respect here. But then comes the message, and Elisha says, Yeah, you will definitely recover. In other words, this illness won't kill you. But then Elisha adds a little caveat at the lane at the end, however, the Lord has shown me that you will still die. Not from the illness, but you will die. And that's the message. On a very straightforward level, it's saying you're gonna die. And of course, that's not just a message for Ben Hadid. At its most basic level, it has to be a message for us who read it. Hebrews 9 27 reminds us it is appointed unto all men once to die, and after that the judgment. Everyone listening to this knows that fact intellectually, but emotionally I think people rather try and avoid that. A man was said to once tell a reporter everybody has to die, but I've always believed an exception would be made in my case. Or as Woody Allen says, I don't mind dying, I just don't want to be there when it happens. Now we might smile when we hear things like that because we recognise that inclination in ourselves. That's the very thing that makes it funny and true. But Scripture is very clear about this. Death is certain, our death is certain, judgment follows that, and that's certain, and Christ is the only answer to that most profound of questions and situations. Hebrews chapter 9 continues and says, So therefore Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. Isaiah in the Old Testament also says, All thy sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So we've all wandered, we've all chosen our own way, and the wages of sin are death, we live finite lives, but Christ has dealt with that issue by taking on the sin, bearing our judgment, and dying our death. So the message is never simply in isolation you're going to die. It is yes, you're going to die, but also Christ died for you, and you can trust in him to take you beyond death into the presence of Father God. Okay, let's gather this up, see where we're at. God has sent a message for women, trouble is coming, the response is to simply trust me, uh trust God and do what I say. And then God had this message for a king that he's going to die, but he'll recover from the illness that he currently has, but he'll still die. That is the message that there is death to come, but there is a cure, not just for the illness, but there is cure for the big thing. And there is hope beyond that big thing. Jesus is the cure, but Jesus is also the inoculation against the ultimate effect of all illness, so Jesus is also our hope. And we need him to navigate all of his life's journey. Okay, third message, and it's God's message to a future king, and it's the last five verses that we're going to look at today, eleven to fifteen. Then he set his countenance in the stare until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept, and Hazel said, Why is my lord weeping? And he answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel, their strongholds you will set in fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and you will dash their children, and rip open their woman with child. So Hazael said, But what is your servant, dog, that he should do this gross thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria. And then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And he answered, He told me you would surely recover. But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face, so that the king died, and Hazel then reigned in his place. Okay, this is the third message in this chapter, and it is obviously the most unsettling. Hazel, this servant of the Syrian king, has come to Elisha with the gifts from the king and the question, and Elisha has answered that question, but then something unexpected happens. Elisha fixes his gaze on him. Hazel started b startled by that, it says, but then Elisha begins to weep, to cry. And Hazel asks, Why are you weeping? And Elisha replies, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel, and he lists that catalogue of evil, burning the strongholds, killing all the young men, dashing the children's heads against a rock, ripping open a pregnant woman. It's horrific, it's graphic, and it's also prophetic of what's to come. And Hazel is shocked and says, What am I, a dog that I should do such things? But Elisha answers, You will do this and you will become king of Syria. And sure enough, the very next day, Hazel does exactly what Elisha prophesied. He suffocates the king with a wet cloth. Now the wording you suggested he is staging this as a sort of natural death. So think less waterboarding and more gradual suffocation and the stealing of a throne. So again, everything Elisha has said comes to pass. But what does that tell us? We've had three messages here to three people, three situations we're meant to get something out of three learning opportunities, so to speak. The first was trouble is coming, that was the message to the woman. The second is you're going to die, we're all going to die, that was the message to the king, and the third, you're going to sin. That was the message to Hazael here. And although the details of it are extraordinary and graphic, in the most very basic, ordinary, human, everyday sense, that of course is God's message to us. Not because God wants us to sin and he didn't want Hazael to do this, but it's a warning that he knows we will. James in his letter tells us we all stumble in many ways. John, in his gospel, says, if we say we have no sin in us, then we're just deceiving ourselves and we're calling God a liar. Even believers sin. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even mature Christians sometimes sin. Even long time Christian believers sin. But what do you do when you do that? Well, thankfully, the Apostle John, James, everybody else, they all tell us if we confess our sins, he is always faithful and just to forgive us. us of those sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now confessing our sin doesn't mean giving excuses, it doesn't mean minimizing, it doesn't mean renaming those sins. The Greek word for the Latin word confession is homologio, and it means simply to say the same thing, to repeat and agree with God. When God says that is a sin, we are meant to say, yes Lord, that was a sin. And it is from that position that forgiveness can flow. And notice how John frames it in his letters and his gospel. He tells us God is light and we should walk in the light because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. The point is the more you walk in the light of God, the more clearly you'll see when you sin. And thereby the more quickly you're able to confess it and the more deeply and all the sooner you can enjoy fellowship with him again. Okay, let's gather up the main threads of this chapter we've read today. God has a message for all of us and one of those messages this final one is painfully honest and it's simply you will sin. But God has another message for us that when you sin there is cleansing, forgiveness, and there is indeed restoration. Confession, friends, isn't about grovelling. It's also not about self-punishment and it isn't in any way trying to negotiate with God. The word simply means to say the same thing that God says about what you're doing and when he calls it a sin to agree with him. In other words to stop renaming sin, to stop excusing sin, to stop minimizing sin. Just confess it, agree with God and bring it out into the light because that is where our proper response can begin. Because God is light and it's out in the light we can then walk in that light. And the more you walk in the light of God the more clearly you see your sin and the more quickly you can then confess it and the more deeply you can enjoy fellowship with Him again. So it's a continuous sort of virtuous circle. But let me go one step further. God has just said yes you will sin but the reality is you don't have to surrender or be overwhelmed by it. Paul actually tells us that no temptation we will face can overtake us except what is common to man and that God is faithful and he will always provide a way of escape. And for sometimes that simple that escape from a situation or from sin is simply one word. We saw it in our first message today. It is to flee, to run, to turn away from it, to walk out the room, to shut the laptop, to end that conversation, to choose the spirit over the flesh. That's the key victory over sin comes through the Word of God and the Spirit of God and if you've trusted Christ then the Word will tell you what to do and the Spirit will give you the power to do it or not to do it. Hebrews 4 encourages us to come boldly to the throne of grace so that we might find mercy and grace and forgiveness to help us in our time of need. So yes indeed God has a message for you today through even this challenging passage and that message is that trouble is coming and he also wants to let us know that our own time on earth is limited, death is certain and that sin is real. But behind all of that there is still that great message of hope because God's word is sufficient, his spirit is powerful, his grace is available to you and his forgiveness for you my friend is complete. And whatever you're facing the answer is in his word. Let me say that again I believe whatever you're facing in life right now the answer can be found in God's word. And if you want to grow and if you want to stand firm and if you want to overcome those situations and if you want to walk wisely then I really encourage you to immerse yourself in scripture. And part of doing that is what we're doing today gathering daily in the Word of God and studying it together. So I'm going to close now but I'm going to close by giving you five places to start five places where we are going to be bumping up against and reading and studying together very soon over the coming year or so. So five situations and five places to go in the Bible. If you're facing trials I recommend you read James if you're struggling in your walk with God then read Ephesians. If you're really trying to understand the depth and the breadth of God's salvation read Galatians if you're having trouble navigating life's emotions then read the Psalms and if you really want to seek wisdom in how to handle every situation in life and seek guidance then read the Proverbs. If you read these five books and live them I would say you're well on your way to spiritual maturity. The Bible is our map it's our compass it's our sword and it is our charter. The Bible for you and me my friend is a mine of wealth a display of God's glory and a river flowing with grace, pleasure and the blessings of God. All available to us but only if we choose to walk in its light. Many years ago a youth club leader I knew in the town I grew up in led his group of young people outside on a dark winter night and he deliberately handed the torch over to one of the young teenagers. It was a rural area and as they walked he deliberately stepped straight off the path into a muddy ditch at the side of the road and they all helped pull him out and he said see that's what I get for not walking where I can see now years later the kids in that youth club still talked about what he did. Some testified I'll never forget the muddy mess he was but I'll also never forget what he told me that night. Friends God truth is a lamp but it's useless unless you use it and you follow the path that it lights for you. As we're told in Psalm 119 verse 105 God's word is meant to be a lamp unto our feet and that's the choice we have before us. You can choose to walk and end up wallowing in the mud or you can walk in the light and stay on that path so thank you for being with me today. I do hope you find that helpful and I do hope you're able to listen to God's message and follow God's advice for you today as I said I've had a message from someone recently now this lady has sent me a text message she's asked not to be named which is absolutely fine I don't generally do that when I receive a text question or message unless the person within that tells me to name them. I'll just read the entire thing to you and then give you my response she says hello I'm listening to your Bible project daily podcast and I've decided I'd like to go through Genesis with you. Now I personally prefer to listen on Spotify and I am aware of the many Genesis podcasts that you have already put and are carried on Spotify. Do you carry all of your Genesis podcasts in one playlist? I prefer Spotify to consolidate all of my listening to one spot but if you have your own playlist elsewhere I will consider it. Is there one Bible commentary that the podcasts are what helping me bring the Bible to life where is the go to Bible dictionary for most people nowadays I've heard of Ungers and Tindales I look forward to your reply. Okay couple of things to unpack there in that question. Thank you for sharing it and I'm so glad you're encouraged listening it. The process of what I do and how it works is I record these podcasts in advance. I try to stay at least one week ahead ideally two and they're recorded and they're uploaded to my podcast provider. All five of my podcasts are managed by an organisation called Buzz Sprout. I highly recommend them not just their values but their processes as well absolutely fit in with my perspective on podcasting. Now they are the ones who then take my podcast host them provide me with a basic little website for them but then they're the ones who distribute them to all the main podcast providers. Now Spotify is one of those who receive it Apple is the main one for half the people who listen to me listen on Apple but I believe now we're getting up to 40 different places these podcasts appear and one of course of those is Spotify I think it's the third or fourth favourite. Now those podcast providers they're the ones who host them and put them on their platform. Interestingly although they populate them with ads you need to know I don't get paid for those ads. That's how they are monetizing you in order to pay and enable you to have that service for free if you want it that way. But there's a bit of confusion there some people think I get paid for ads. I don't so the podcasts are recorded they're uploaded to BuzzSprout the same day they're recorded they're uploaded and put on Patreon and there I'm able to put them into playlist format what Patreon actually call collections and there are about 40 plus of these so-called collections or play lists over there on Patreon. They are then distributed a couple of weeks later across all the podcast provider networks. Now each one of them has their own system and their own process of outways by doing that and there are limitations which we have to accept because they're offering you and me that distribution channel for free but some of them they don't have playlists so if a podcast provider was to allow access to all my podcasts they'd be looking at over 1300 episodes now and most of them will not do that. Some of them will provide you with two years some of them will provide you with 100 some with 200 back catalogue. So of course if you're going all the way back to Genesis you're going to either have to scroll through an immensely long list of episodes to get all the way back to the earlier ones or the easy alternative is you simply go over and access everything I've ever produced over on Patreon. Now the main podcast itself the Bible project daily podcast is always free over there. Free to access you can sign up on the free level and you'll have access to every single episode and I'm in the process and catching up very quickly I expect by the middle of this year to be caught up and have every single back catalogue in there in playlist format. Genesis, Exodus Leviticus numbers as you know I going alternatively through Old and New Testament so we've got 20 seasons on there plus all the episodes of all the other podcasts I do. All of that is available on Patreon and the basic version of those episodes are available free. There is some additional content there for people who have chosen and felt by called by God to support this ministry financially but Patreon is definitely the place to go and be fully aware of everything I'm doing and there's added benefit it'll be always ad-free over there and you'll have access to a community of people who support this ministry and also support one another. There's actually an area where people can ask and put prayer requests in and there are some wonderful people who are really committed to go in and respond and pray diligently for those people. So that's where I recommend you go because these podcast providers that you may be listening to they're great if you just want to keep up to date with what I'm currently producing but if you're interested in the back catalogue it's a little bit hard and there's no one size fits all answer to the question of how to access it over there. In fact some of them if you don't listen or miss a couple of episodes in a row they actually drop you from their notifications even if you've selected me as a favorite you won't be made aware that I'm still producing episodes. They call it engagement if people don't listen to sometimes two, three or four episodes within a given time period then they drop the feed which is fine if you're producing a monthly podcast but when you're producing a weekly one like me it means people can go away on holiday and not notice that they're not getting my podcasts anymore through the podcast provider. So that's something you need to be aware of and manage if you want to keep on top of it. Now in terms of the second part of the question which was about accessing Bible commentaries and dictionaries etc I have to say I now pretty much wholly use Bible gateway to do all of that. There was a time where not only I had many books but I collected old Bible commentaries. I had over a thousand Christian books and Bible commentaries I probably have a few hundred now but I actually donated those and gave them to a I actually put those on the internet for sale and in the end they actually gave them away for a modest donation and they were taken by a Church of England Anglican minister in training to use and to put into the Bible college library where he was studying and I did that well quite a few years ago I know it was before the pandemic so I have to say that I now in all my studies and preparation for the most part use classic Christian commentaries and have the the paid for model where I have access to hundreds and hundreds of Bible commentaries and studies over there. Obviously for more modern books and commentaries I buy them as I go along and I also listen to them on Audible as well. Most of that is available now copyright free on Bible Gateway. There's literally hundreds of commentaries and Bible dictionaries and I compare one to the other. Anyway I hope you find those answers interesting please consider reaching out that way if you have a question or just want to say something and I'd love it if any of you would like to record a voice message and send it to me there and I'll try and include it in the episode. But anyway I think that's enough for today it's been a long one now so I'll say thank you for joining me and I'll see you back here again tomorrow I trust on the Bible project daily podcast. Bye bye for now