There’s a strange contradiction in God’s promises to the Jewish people.

In Genesis 12, God makes a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Israel. In Genesis 17:7, God told Abraham that His covenant with him and his descendants would be an everlasting covenant.

But then in Leviticus 26, God warns that if the Jewish people break His commandments, He will kick them out of their land.

And then we know from our studies in the book of Ezekiel that that’s exactly what happened. In fact, in Ezekiel 16, God even tells us that the covenant was broken.

This was in the 500s BC. But God had said He was making an everlasting covenant around 2000 BC. So since when does “everlasting” have an expiration date after 1500 years? How can God say that a covenant can ever be broken if God had already promised it was everlasting?

And does this mean that the Jewish people actually have no right to the claim of the land of Israel today?

Now, I actually believe there are NO contradictions in God’s Word, and that when we think we’ve found one, we actually just need to rightly divide the Word of Truth to figure out how it all fits together.

And that’s what we’ll do today as we finish up Ezekiel 36 on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

5:30 - v28-30, The Return

10:35 - v31-32 True Repentance

18:00 - v33-38, The Regrowth of Israel

23:25 - Two Covenants (with Craig from Awaiting Christ)

31:50 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to crossreferencespodcast@gmail.com

Trying to figure out the next step in your life's journey? Today, I chat with Chris Pace about his new book Level Up. As I tell the story in this episode, I actually met Chris recently while on vacation, and he gave me a copy of his book. This interview will share several insights with you about discovering God's will. Here is a link where you can find more about Chris' book: https://chrispace.org/

I will also paste my Amazon review below...
I was incredibly blessed to come across this book by Chris Pace! It spoke directly to some issues I have been dealing with in my own life. I really took my time with it because I wanted to soak it all in. Sometimes I didn't even read a full chapter before I put it down because it gave me so much to think about.

I highly encourage this book to people who feel "stuck" at their current place in life and want direction on discovering what God may have next for them. If you want encouragement, are feeling aimless in life, or you need a recalibration of your calling, this book can give you the tools you need to reset yourself.

I also encourage you to finish it, because I found that the book became better and better the deeper I got into it. This surprised me because many books try to put its most important information first and then they kind of drag out the rest to increase the page count. Not this one. Every chapter got more engaging and practical, all the way up to the very end. I couldn't believe some of the insights I was still discovering even in the last 10 pages of the book.

I think anyone who reads this book will find something helpful! Easily 5 stars.

Today, I am sharing an episode from my other podcast, Weird Stuff in the Bible. Each week, I dive into a different weird topic regarding bizarre things in scripture. Hear more by subscribing to this podcast as well! And tune back in on Cross References next week to hear an interview with Chris Pace of Messenger International about his new book, Level Up.

On a recent episode of this podcast, I was discussing a weird story about Moses in Exodus 4, I came across another pretty odd verse that generates some confusion among Christians: Exodus 4:21.

Now, I didn’t want to stop and analyze that verse because it would have taken me on a rabbit trail, and I was already trying to talk about a different weird thing, and I would have had to go down a weird-ception of weird-within-a-weird. So I decided to come back to it this week.

And what does Exodus 4:21 say? Well, it’s as Moses is on his way back to Egypt, and God says

(Exodus 4:21)

“When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

So that’s strange because it raises the question of whether Pharaoh even had a choice about how everything was going to play out. Because if you know the story, Pharaoh doesn’t want to let the people go, and he pays a pretty steep price for it.

And yet Pharaoh never relents. All throughout the story, his heart is harder than your grandma’s fruit cake at Christmas.

But this claim that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart makes it seem like Pharaoh wasn’t even really able to let the people go if he wanted to. So what gives? Did Pharaoh have free will?

And perhaps more importantly to us: do you and I have free will?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Exodus 4, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:40 - What is a Hard Heart?

6:20 - God vs Pharaoh

9:40 - Is Anyone at Fault?

13:40 - Next Time

15:25 - Would God Harden our Hearts?

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor