Flipped Devotional
review weekly readings from Flipped Devotional the Book with the author and her husband
Flipped Devotional
July 14 - 20
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Here are the scriptures for this week:
July 14 - 2 Kings 2: 23-25
July 15 - Numbers 22: 21-33
July 16 - Acts 20: 7-12
July 17 - 2 Samuel 18: 6-10
July 18 - Genesis 5: 3-11, 32
July 19 - Exodus 7: 8-13
July 20 - Exodus 7: 14-18, 20-21
Welcome to Flip Devotional the Podcast. For each week, Martha Shannon, the author of Flip Devotional the Book, and Steve Shannon, discuss the readings from the week. If you haven't gotten Flip Devotional the Book, it's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also available as an ebook on Barnes and Noble. And the scriptures are available on the podcast site if you don't have the book. You can pull that up, read the scriptures ahead, and then join in on the podcast and hear our lovely discussion. We still don't have any fan mail. And I thought of if people were like, well, I want to send fan mail, but I really don't want to side with Steve or Martha. I just want to say, hey. I mean, you could do that. But also, uh, I've been thinking since we are more than halfway through our podcast year, um, when we get to the end of this calendar year, we will be at the end of this book. I don't know if we're going to do a podcast again or not. And so are there any thoughts out there? It's like, oh, you all should do a podcast about our life.
SPEAKER_01Our life. You could summarize the week, things we did, like Kroger's on Sunday. We could talk about that.
SPEAKER_02And um Gypsy and Holly, our friends that we see at Kroger every week.
SPEAKER_01That would be exciting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Or car repair, because we're really good at that. Um But seriously, if there was We could do audio golf lessons. Something like that. Um that the listeners are, ooh, I wish I had this to listen to each week, or or something. Or I wish there was another book I could read about something. I don't know. I don't know. Just if y'all are having thoughts, um, you can do one of the plagues.
SPEAKER_01We could do the plagues.
SPEAKER_02You could.
SPEAKER_01That'd be interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Downing Wayne know how many books he's read about the plague. Um, so yeah. So anyway, uh love to hear from from people and just if there's anything out there that y'all would like to hear about. So let's jump in. We have July 14th through July 20th.
SPEAKER_01I think it's important to remember July 14th is Bastille Day.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So I encourage you to eat French fries and an honor Marie Antoinette have cake.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Nice. I I like that. Do we have any listener? I don't think we have any listeners from France.
SPEAKER_01They're too busy celebrating Bastille Day on the 14th.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay. That doesn't explain January through June, but okay. Um so July. Our July theme are stories that are in the Bible, and some people would not believe that they are in the Bible, and some people would read them and go, I don't believe that that really happened. I think it's just a made-up story. But you know what? It's in the Bible, and it doesn't say this is a made-up story that we're just putting here for the fun of it to take up space. Nope.
SPEAKER_01So it has value.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01It's God's wholly inspired word, right?
SPEAKER_02And these are stories that um, speaking of inspired, uh actually were inspired by Steve because when he taught fourth and fifth grade Sunday school, he always included most of these stories.
SPEAKER_01We would read them not every year, but every other year. So everyone got to either you read them in fourth grade or fifth grade, all these stories. Because we just think they're great stories. They are kind of fun. Uh as Martha said, they're a little quirky. They're a little quirky.
SPEAKER_02So um so we have a whole month of them.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Which uh when I first started and was like, this is gonna be the theme of July, it's like I sure hope there's that many stories. Three days past September, April, June. Yeah, 31. Sure hope there's 31 quirky quirky stories, and there were. Well, some of them took up two days, so that that was kind of cheated. But anyway. All right, this first one is a great story for children.
SPEAKER_01It's this is one of the great stories, I think, in the Bible. It's so it's so so bizarre.
SPEAKER_02Um never have I ever heard a sermon on this.
SPEAKER_01No, and rarely people I said I would think if you asked people, uh 99% of regular church attend would not know the stories in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. And if you told them it was, they they would say, you're lying.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But this is in 2 Kings chapter 2, uh three verses, 23 through 25.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep. It's just really, you know, essentially what happens, Elisha, right? There's Elijah and Elisha. This is Shah, who came after Elijah. He went up from Bethel. So he was walking someplace along the road.
SPEAKER_02And the prophet.
SPEAKER_01Elisha's a prophet, man of God, right? Yeah. You know, so he's, you know, he's he's a big time guy, right? Some boys came out of the town and jeered at him, made fun of him, laughed at him, right? Called him Baldy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so before this, we didn't even know if he had hair or not.
SPEAKER_01Apparently he's bald. Very bald. He's baldy, right? And they say, get out of here, Baldy, get out of here, Baldy. You know, so they're, I don't know, just yelling at this guy for the reason. He turns around and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. So this is he he called on God and God responded. Yeah. Which is kind of interesting. It's I mean, God must have known the plan. So he calls down a curse, and then what happens?
SPEAKER_02Then two bears come out of the woods and mauled forty two of the boys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now that makes me think there was more than 40 of the boys. Correct, correct. And and then it says, and he went on to Mount Carmel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he ate things to do. You know, and apparently it could have read then two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the slowest boys. And feel free to interpret slowest as you wish. I would use it in terms of running, but yeah. So apparently, I mean, Elijah was unhappy about this situation, and he just had enough of the baldy stuff. Just and again, it's like he knew this is my plan. If a bunch of boys are jeering at me and calling me baldy, I'm calling that a curse, and the curse is gonna be two bears.
SPEAKER_02Well, I kind of feel like he because it says he turned around and looked at them, called down to curse, like, God, you take care of them. And I think he turned and just kept walking. Like me. I don't think he hardly stopped.
SPEAKER_01So God sent the bears.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01I just think it's mold them. So I don't know if the boys died.
SPEAKER_02Um I don't know. What's the definition of mold? Just tear up.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's a place with a bunch of stores.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know that one. I I gotcha.
SPEAKER_01We're all Googling mole.
SPEAKER_02Oh shoot, I misspelled it. I mean, I didn't misspell it. Oh jeez. My my fingers just aren't I need the big keyboard. Okay. I hope you got it.
SPEAKER_01I'm not looking, you are.
SPEAKER_02Oh well, I I don't even know what this is. Darth Maul, some Star Wars character. Because that's more important than the definition. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01Maul is destroyed. Maul can refer to either a physical heavy duty hammer. Right, right, or that's not what function primarily is to play back, a tool, sports rubber.
SPEAKER_02Physically attack or handle something roughly.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02To attack.
SPEAKER_01In a way that tears, bruises, or lacerates the skin. And this references a bear attack.
SPEAKER_02So they maybe didn't die.
SPEAKER_01And here's some examples.
SPEAKER_02No, no.
SPEAKER_01The hiker was severely mauled by a bear.
SPEAKER_02Well, they should have had the 42 boys who made fun of Elisha were mauled by two bears. Two bears. Two bears. Two bears. 42 boys.
SPEAKER_01And why doesn't the International Association of Bears object to always being the standard for mauling?
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01Again, in the Bible, Elisha's a key player. I would say not a Mount Rushmore guy, but a key player.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. Okay. But here he is. He's just had enough and he calls out two bears to maul these boys.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_01Be careful who you call Baldy is the lesson.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I mean, kids, you're calling people names. I'd watch it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'd I'd I just, yeah. That would make me stop right there. I would not call at least not in to their face. All right, let's move on. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01We got a lot out of preversion.
SPEAKER_02July 15th. Quickly. July 15th. All right. This one I think may be fairly well known story. I said fairly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, this is Balaam. It's in Numbers uh chapter 22. Um Balaam, I I looked this up, was a non-Israelite prophet and diviner.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02You already knew that?
SPEAKER_01No, he was prophet.
SPEAKER_02But non-Israelite.
SPEAKER_01Non-Israelite, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So um these Moabite officials came and asked him to come with them, and he was like, No, I'm not going. I'm not going. Um this is the preface before this story. And um and and he talked to God, and God talked to him, and God said, No, don't go. And Balaam was like, I'm not going. But then they kept asking, and then God said, Okay, you know what, just go on and go with them. Which is kind of interesting. But yeah, you know, God changed his mind about that. But um so he saddled his donkey and went with them.
SPEAKER_01Who's the donkey he always rides?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Then it says, but God was very angry when he went.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've always been confused over that piece.
SPEAKER_02But he said go.
SPEAKER_01He said go. Maybe he said go because he kept asking him. I would hate for that to happen, right? But God is very angry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So he's on his donkey riding, and it says the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Balaam doesn't see the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01But who does?
SPEAKER_02The donkey.
SPEAKER_01The donkey sees the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02And he had two servants with him.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. They didn't see it.
SPEAKER_02And it says, when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's gotta be a scary situation.
SPEAKER_02It turned off the road, and then Balaam beat his donkey to get back on the road. And then the angel of the Lord stood, says, in a narrow path. So now it made the path a little bit smaller.
SPEAKER_01They got walls on either side. There's nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And the the donkey saw the angel of the Lord and pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot. Yeah. So he beat the donkey again. He did crush his foot. Yeah. Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn.
SPEAKER_01So the walls weren't particularly narrow, apparently. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Ah, well, yeah, it said narrow, but this must be more narrow. Um and again the donkey saw the angel of the Lord and it lay down. And Balaam was very angry and was beating it. And the Lord. Now this is I think kind of interesting. It says the Lord opened the donkey's mouth.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So the donkey talks. Why didn't the Lord open Balaam's eyes? Well, maybe to see the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe it was because Balaam didn't listen to God the first time.
SPEAKER_02All right. And maybe he just wouldn't even see it or would think it was something else. I don't know. But the donkey says, What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?
SPEAKER_01So the donkey can now talk and count.
SPEAKER_02And Balaam says, instead of Balaam saying, Whoa, talking donkey here, he says, I mean you got two servants.
SPEAKER_01Yo, Bob, Ted.
SPEAKER_02Did you hear that? He says, You've made a fool of me. If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.
SPEAKER_01Again, donkey talks to him, he hears it, understands the donkey, and he argues.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, he he's not thinking, uh this is weird.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like and and then the the donkey's like, am I not your own donkey, which you've always ridden? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you? No.
SPEAKER_01The answer is no.
SPEAKER_02No. Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Then he bowed down face down. Right.
SPEAKER_02And then the angel's like, why did you beat your donkey three times? I've come here to oppose you because of your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away. It's like I would have killed you by now. Everyone's like, Well, I would have killed you if I would have killed you. Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I agree. And again, it's a great story. Balaam, you know, obviously has a relationship with God. God's a little angry that he's gone, even though God did say it was okay, but maybe he was just angry, he kept asking, said, you know, so maybe God lets us do things that he doesn't want us to do, right? But that's who God is. Right. He doesn't force you into action, right? Right. He doesn't force you, that's not who he is. It's, you know. Um, and then he goes on his way. And I would hope when I'm being disobedient, God doesn't send the you know angel of the Lord with a sword. You know, and then the donkey turns around and talks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And and no surprising. Really? That's it just seems so unclean.
SPEAKER_02You made a fool of me. Not why is my donkey talking to me?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And again, did y'all hear that? Or because I'm hearing the donkey talk. It's got great grammar, I might add.
SPEAKER_02And can count, as you pointed out. Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_01So that's that. Great little story. It is a good story.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um, July 16th. This is our New Testament story for maybe the month.
SPEAKER_01Could be. Just getting up there.
SPEAKER_02Um this is in Acts. So and it it's Acts 20, so it's pretty far through. And um Paul has been um talking. Well before that. Paul Converted.
SPEAKER_01Converted, yes, yes, yes, yes. So This is after the road to the Damascus experience.
SPEAKER_02Paul is one of one of them now, and he's preaching all the time, going to the room.
SPEAKER_01Remember, he was going to Damascus to arrest Jews. Right. Rush Christians, as a Jew, arrested Christians, and then he was blinded and could see, and then when he was got his sight back, he became A disciple. A disciple of the Christians. And still a Jew, but now a believer in Jesus as Lord and Savior. So that's a big change.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. Um, so he is preaching, and um it says because he intended to leave the next day, he kept on talking until midnight. So, you know, I I understand that. It's like my my last time with you. We're gonna stay up late, and I'm gonna tell you everything I need to tell you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I get it.
SPEAKER_02That makes perfect sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um it says there were many lamps in the upstairs room where they were meeting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh probably snacks.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh it said they broke bread.
SPEAKER_01Almonds.
SPEAKER_02So seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus.
SPEAKER_01Eutychus.
SPEAKER_02And he was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. And when he was sound asleep.
SPEAKER_01And I think Paul could talk on and on.
SPEAKER_02Oh, he could write on and on. I'm sure he could talk on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So he's dead.
SPEAKER_02And said Paul went down, threw himself on the young man, and put his arms around him and says, Don't be alarmed, he's alive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It says then he went upstairs again, broke bread, and ate. And after talking until daylight, he left. And the people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. He found three stories.
SPEAKER_01Three stories.
SPEAKER_02Dead.
SPEAKER_01Dead. Yeah, and I think people knew who a dead guy was.
SPEAKER_02And Paul comes down, brings him back to life. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He threw himself on the young man, put his arms around him, hugged him.
SPEAKER_02He said, He's alive.
SPEAKER_01Well, at first he said don't be alarmed.
SPEAKER_02Well, don't be alarmed about him being dead. He's not dead, he's alive.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Or don't be alarmed about him being alive, either.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_01I don't know which the alarm. I mean it could be either, right? They're saying he's dead. So yeah, but the boy, eutychus, the young man's okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. And Elijah and Elisha both brought people back to life by laying on top of them.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah. Must be the trick. Satan God.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, besides God's the big piece of the biggest. Yeah, so he was way past midnight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so this happened at midnight. I mean, you know. People took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Of course they were. So yeah, again, Paul brings this guy back from the dead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And again, Paul's just like us. All right? So we can do this. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Don't be alarmed.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_01Do you think he said don't be alarmed?
SPEAKER_02In whatever language? Some some way.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. July 17th. This is, if if I had this to retitle, I would call this Bad Hair Day. Yes! The ultimate. I have written down ultimate bad hair day. This is it. This is it.
SPEAKER_01This is the standard.
SPEAKER_02So ladies particularly, if if you're ever out there and you're like, oh my gosh, my I'm really having a bad hair day. It's not as bad as this.
SPEAKER_01As Absalom, no.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So Absalom, I had to kind of wrap my brain around this to get the um to remember like who he was. So Absalom was David's son.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02And Absalom had Amnon, who was also David's son, killed.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02So Absalom didn't kill him, but Absalon had someone killed Amnon, who was David's son.
SPEAKER_01Because Absalon wanted to be king.
SPEAKER_02Well, because Amnon raped Tamar.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's right, his sister.
SPEAKER_02Who was Absalon's sister?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Like I think if you were to do like I've done a family tree of my family, and it's it's really not very complicated. If you tried to do a family tree of David's David and his wives and concubines and their children, they're just Solomon. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01Solomon? 300 wives? Yeah, yeah. 400 concubines are right.
SPEAKER_02Just difficult. So Absalom is David's son. Okay. But he is against David.
SPEAKER_01Yes, he wants to be king. He wants to be king. Correct.
SPEAKER_02David happens to be king.
SPEAKER_01Correct. So David marched out with the army. Yeah, march out with the army, right? And they're fighting, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Um, so it said the the casualties um on this day were twenty thousand men.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Quite as many as were sent home.
SPEAKER_02Right. I thought of that. Um it said the battle spread over the whole countryside and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so they died in the forest. Tripping, you know, you know, running in trees. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02So Absalon Um was riding his mule.
SPEAKER_01Correct. Into battle.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just don't think of a mule as being a battle. Battle battle.
SPEAKER_01I was once told mules are associated with being stubborn. Supposedly they're very cautious. So they appear to be stubborn, but they want to make sure their footing is good. I don't know if that's where either, but you know. But he's riding his mule, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It says the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, and Absalon's hair got caught in the tree.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02He had big hair, apparently. Big hair. And it said he was left hanging in mid-air while the mule he was riding kept on going. So he's hanging by his hair.
SPEAKER_01Yes, in a tree. That's gotta be unpleasant.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that has got to hurt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then it said when one of the men saw what had happened, he told Joab, I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree. I don't have the rest of the story here, but um I think Absalom gets killed by David's men. By n um, I think it's by Joab. Joab's like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01Why didn't you kill him?
SPEAKER_02Why you and he said, I'm not gonna kill him, it's the king's son.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he's like, uh well, I'm I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so Absalom gets killed.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah. And David's not happy about it. Right. So, but still. Because it's his son. It's his son, yeah. But he's trying to kill him. I mean, let's be honest. I know. But still, so it ends up being, you know, but he's left hanging in midair.
SPEAKER_02Now, you know we have companion verses for this.
SPEAKER_01What's your companion verse?
SPEAKER_02So let me I'll just explain in case people don't know. So if you read the Flip Devotional last year and you want something different, um on Facebook, their Flip Devotional has its own page, and it has a calendar page for the month, and it has a different verse you can read each day if you want something different. Um and I try to connect them somewhat. So guess what who else had kind of a bad hair day?
SPEAKER_01Uh Samson.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. So that's that's the companion verse. Um Judges 16, when Samson gets his hair cut off because that was his He told Golion that was his power.
SPEAKER_01And really it wasn't his power.
SPEAKER_02But it was.
SPEAKER_01Well Well, it it really reads as his power was his faith, and he had lost his faith. So cutting the hair, right? He went back again and again. So that's you know, but it's still, yes, that's how they you know, and ultimately they gouged his eyes out so he couldn't see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then he they paraded him, mocked him, made fun of Samson, and then he tied him up between the pillars that held up, just these big marble pillars that held up the first and second floor of this place they were at.
SPEAKER_02And he suddenly had enough strength.
SPEAKER_01Correct, he was super strong. But this, you know, did he bring back his faith and he knocked the pillars down, killing more Philist and he died. And I think it was even says killed more Philistines in his death than he did in his life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, but it's yeah, poor yeah, Absalom. And David, you know. But Joab, who's an army general, soldier, you know, he was the enemy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I didn't make him the enemy, but he's the enemy. So again, yeah, bad hair day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right, July 18th, Genesis 5, 3 through 11, and verse 32. And um this is what I need to look at sometimes when I'm feeling old.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because comparatively, I am so young.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So, so young. So this is just kind of fun. Um, it's one snippet of how old these people were.
SPEAKER_01Um, Adam lived a total of the this is Genesis 5, 3 through 11, that it jumps to 32. That's to capture Noah, include Noah in this, I would think, right? Yeah. Okay. And there's there's many more people listed in between. Just so people know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Very good. Thank you. Um, so Adam lived 930 years. Uh he had his first son when he was 130.
SPEAKER_01Well, that was Seth. Remember, he had Cain and Abel. Then one of those two killed the other. Then he had Seth again. And one son who died, the other one was sent wandering, left. So Seth then became the direct descendant. Yes. But he had so he had Seth, uh, he lived 800 years. He was 130 years old when Seth was born, he lived 800 years after that. 930 years.
SPEAKER_02930 years total, yeah. Yeah. And then he died.
SPEAKER_01And then he died. But but but just so to put it in perspective, and this is what I do. If you go back 930 years from now, you're in the year 1096. Wow. So if Moses I'm sorry, Adam. Adam. Adam was born in 1096, he would die this year. Wow.
SPEAKER_02So many things changed.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Like we now have zip codes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Then we have Seth, who lived 912 years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, we have Enosh, who lived 905 years, and Noah. It says after Noah was after he was 500 years old, he became the father of. It's like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm happy to have my first grandchild.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, I can give my my grandchild back. I don't have to take care of her all the time, which I'm very grateful of. But but yes, so it that means Noah was over 500 years old before he started building the ark.
SPEAKER_01And Noah was a talented, experienced ark builder.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01No. He had never built an ark.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no, no. No.
SPEAKER_01But 500 years old.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, that's the arc was actually in the crossroad puzzle recently. Um and it said the only uh ship or watercraft to not be built in a shipyard.
SPEAKER_00I guess.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, so one thing I like about this, like especially Noah. We we know Noah and the Ark story, we've talked about it on here, but most everybody knows it. You never think that he was a 500-year-old man when he started building the ark.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You just don't think about that.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01I agree. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's a long time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it was 500 when he became father to Shem, Ham, and Jephet. And then he said he got home and build an ark.
SPEAKER_02Right. Well because um he he had his sons and they had wives when they got on the ark. So yeah, it had to be after that. I think the parentheses was actually my uh insertion, not biblical. Yeah. It's okay, it's my book. I can do that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You're free to parenthesize.
SPEAKER_02All right, July 19th. So Exodus 7. Now this is Moses and Aaron. This is at the beginning of the um Let My People Go. Uh, that's the song I thought. It's like there was some song I had connected that that's it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Pharaoh, pharaoh. Yeah. Oh baby, let my people go. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And why does people have to say uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_02It's I think it's the exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So um And Moses didn't want to do this.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01So God said, Oh, I'll send Aaron with you.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah. So they're they're a team, they're gonna, you know, go do what they can do. And um the God says, when Pharaoh says to you, perform a miracle, say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, routine.
SPEAKER_02So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as God commanded, good for them. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and the officials, and it became a snake. Well, then Pharaoh gets the wise men and sorcerers and magicians and says, You all do it. First of all, how many people is that? Well, we just have this big room of like, I don't know, yeah, 10 to 20 people. Everyone, throw your staff down. Snake, snake, snake, snake, snake. And obviously there's all these snakes on the ground now because Aaron's And nobody has a staff. Right, right. So they're weaponless. Um it says, but stair Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
SPEAKER_01So Aaron's snake is better than their snakes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But Pharaoh's like, yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But again, it's uh one, Moses and Aaron get to go see Pharaoh, which seems remarkably, right? That that gets to happen, and they're ch you know, and then they do this thing. And Pharaoh said, You all do it too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like, so it ain't that great of a thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's no big deal. But one thing I wondered, did between the time of God saying, okay, do this, and them going and doing it, did Aaron practice it in between? Did he like throw his staff down? Oh, there it is, okay. Make sure it was really working?
SPEAKER_01I think God's gonna intervene on my behalf on this staff situation.
SPEAKER_02Um, because it doesn't say he did it. Like when God told him you're gonna do this, it doesn't say that he did it.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And then they go and so I don't know. I I would just kind of be like, okay, throw my staff down, snake. Yeah. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It worked.
SPEAKER_01You would think he has that kind of cool. Like this is a routine activity.
SPEAKER_02Right. But Moses is probably the one going, it worked, it worked. Oh my gosh, check it out.
SPEAKER_01See that, Pharaoh? I can do that too. All right. But then God himself. Yeah, has his so they devour. And you know, what's the res and you know, Pharaoh just hardens heart, right? Didn't listen. But still, I think that's the question you gotta ask.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the last day for this week, but for a f a few days next week-ish, um, we got the plagues.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're we're gonna do the ten deals, right?
SPEAKER_02Because I I don't know if we do all of them, but we we do a lot of them. Um because they're just like weird, interesting stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Now this this first one I would describe it as gross.
SPEAKER_01It it could yeah, I mean that's fair.
SPEAKER_02So July 20th, we are moving into the plagues, and it's Exodus chapter 7, um, 14 through 18 and 20 through 21. I left out one verse. I I don't know why. It must have said something stupid. Must have. I'll I'll figure it out. So, yeah. So anyway, this is the plague of blood.
SPEAKER_01Yes, the plague of blood. The Lord says to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is unyielding. And the other part in this thing is God made Pharaoh's heart unyielding. Says that a little bit, he's unyielding. He refuses to let my people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down the river. So God knew Pharaoh's schedule, and and Moses and Aaron are heading down to meet him, right? And they say, Lord, the God of the Hebrews has sent me to say, Let my people go. So they may worship in the wilderness, right? But until now you have, so he's already said, Let my people go. You have listen to this, and it says, By this you will know that I am the Lord, right? I will strike the Nile, and the water, the Nile will be changed into blood. So the whole Nile River, right? One of the biggest rivers on the planet becomes blood, thereby killing all sorts of stuff in the, obviously, right? So that happens, the fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. So I always read this that all water that people had gathered turned to blood.
SPEAKER_02Well, so verse 19, I looked it up that I left out, and I think I left it out because it's kind of a long verse, and I was trying to keep these passages close to a page long, which if you have the book, obviously even taking that verse out didn't do it. But um this verse says, The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron, take your staff, stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs, and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.
SPEAKER_01So if you had gone to the well in the morning and gotten water, it turned to blood as well. If you're in your bathtub, if you're taking a drink after working the early shift in the fields, had a mouthful of blood.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, incredibly nasty, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right? And like at the end, blood was everywhere in Egypt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And said the river smelled so bad the Egyptians could not drink its water. Smelled so bad you couldn't drink it.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. It's a little confusing because I thought it was blood. But it was so bad, right?
SPEAKER_02But yeah.
SPEAKER_01And there's more coming, right? We'll say there are more of these, not all of them, but we'll get a lot more coming up next week, probably, most of them. But again, and I think part of what's happened this week and these stories is why they're fun and quirky, I think that's a good word, almost bizarre in some ways, they're all rooted in the main character outside of God is their faith. Right? They all did that regardless, right? Balaam listened to his donkey. Right? He was not doing what God wanted to do, but he was still faithful in his action, right? He saw the angel of the Lord, responded, right? Elijah was a man of God, right? Now what it wasn't his faith. You know, David's army, Israel fight, but there were still bad things happen, but they all involve characters of faith, right? Even the counting. Adam, obviously, you know. And Seth is kind of the forgotten son, right? You hear about Cain and Abel, right? So you go from there. And Aaron, these last two, I mean, he dropped his staff, it became a snake.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. And he Or he puts it over the water and it becomes blood.
SPEAKER_01And he did it, because God said it would happen, no doubt. So part of that's the fun things, but the value of these stories as well.
SPEAKER_02So And again, nothing is impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01Right. Right. Yep.
SPEAKER_02I mean if it's God's plan, if God's working with you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean a guy, you didn't fell three stories.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. And all these alright.
SPEAKER_02Don't worry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Don't be alarmed. Somebody said that. Yeah, yeah, don't be alarmed. Don't be alarmed. All right.
SPEAKER_01Good. Valuable and enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Thanks for listening to this week's Flip Devotional, the podcast. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, download, share with your friends, share with your family, read the verses, send us fan mail. Let us know what else you would like to have available to you. And we'll talk with you next week.
