Baldhead Bible Podcast

Moses and the people of Israel are back. God had commanded them to wander in the desert for 40 years until the faithless generation died, and now their children were ready to inherit the Promised Land. They were back at the southern border. But you know what else was back? Fear. Complaining. Faithlessness. The people again cried out to Moses about the lack of water to drink. They were complaining...

The Jewish people were at the border of the Promised Land and had to turn around. They saw the grapes that were so big they had to be carried on poles. They also saw giants and became afraid for their very lives. So they ran rather than trusting in Yahweh, and for that, they paid a very heavy price: they were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years until everyone over 20 died. Unhappy with God...

Have you ever sung that Sunday School song about the twelve spies? If you have, you know ten were bad, and two were good. But you don't realize from that song how bad the ten other spies were. They forgot about Yahweh's promises and His miracles and chose instead to focus on the reality around them. And what you also don't realize from that famous Sunday school song is how terrifying a prospect it...

Moses gets attacked by his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron in this week's story. But it's not Moses' fault. The man did nothing wrong, and the Bible even says in Numbers 12 that Moses was the meekest man to ever walk the face of the earth. So you know he didn't pick the fight. So what made Miriam so mad? Why did she try to tear Moses' leadership down and why did Aaron join in? Sadly, it all ca...

Moses and the people of Israel spent roughly a year at Mount Sinai meeting with God and receiving the 10 commandments and directions on how to build the tabernacle. But now they are on the move on their way to the Promised Land with Yahweh and the Ark of the Covenant leading the way. But along the way, there arises a group of people the Bible calls riffraff, a rabble, and they begin to complain ab...

The day has finally arrived. Roughly eight months after arriving at Mount Sinai, the Tabernacle is ready to be built. It took 80 days of listening to specific directions from God on the exact dimensions of each piece of furniture, how each covering was to look, and how all the objects in the courtyard were to look. It was time to put all the various parts together and build the Tabernacle where Ya...

Moses is desperate. Yahweh is so fed up with the people of Israel that He will not allow His presence to be with them anymore. He is afraid they are so stubborn and sinful that His anger will break out and kill them. So Yahweh has decided not to lead the people of Israel into the promised land anymore. The people are devastated when they hear the news: God almighty will no longer be with them. Wha...

Moses had been gone for a very long time. He had been gone for forty days and nights, for over a month, and the people wanted a leader. They wanted a god like the ones they left in Egypt. They were probably starting to doubt the love of Yahweh for them, and maybe some of them tried to take control of the nation, and now that Moses was gone, perhaps some of them saw their chance. So they confronted...

It has been three months since Israel crossed the Red Sea and left Egypt behind. It has been three months following Moses and the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It has been three months of seeing Yahweh work miracle after miracle every day. It has been three months since the gift of manna was provided for them every day so they could eat in the desert. It has been three months of be...

I will admit this next story is not full of battles between Israel and a clan of giants, or there aren't any miraculous moves of God to amaze. Instead, this is a simple story of Moses being stuck with a difficult task to perform and his father-in-law Jethro coming up with a brilliant solution. But this seemingly simple story is also about pride versus a teachable spirit and how willing we are to a...

I am unable to put out a podcast this week on our new series of Israel and their years of wandering in the desert. I am unable to because I am at one last camp for the summer season of 2022. This summer I told the story of Kings Joash and Josiah, and how their lives teach us many things. Some bad from Joash and some really good things from Josiah on how to live a life devoted to the Lord. I took t...

Israel is on the move, all 2 million souls. They are following Moses and Yahweh as they lead them away from Egypt towards the promised land. They move in stages, from one oasis to the next, making their way towards Mount Sinai. It felt like aimless wandering to the average Israelite but not to Yahweh. He had a purpose and a plan for this journey from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai and the giving of th...

This week we are going to start a new series. We are going to tell the story of Israel and its desert wanderings. We are starting today where the desert wanderings began: right after the victorious high of experiencing the miracle of crossing the Red Sea. Moses then leads roughly 2 million people to their first stop or station on the way to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. In today's story, we will...

We come to the end of the story in Nehemiah, but sadly for Nehemiah, the obstacles he faces are not over. He is about to meet one of his most significant obstacles, one of the tallest mountains he has ever had to climb. King Artaxerxes called Nehemiah back to be his cupbearer once again, and for two years, he left to serve the King. But then he returned to Jerusalem, and the thought he was returni...

The walls are built, and the people are moving into Jerusalem to live safely behind the new walls. Things are going exactly to plan. And then Ezra reads the law. He reads the Pentateuch for 6 hours as the people stand and listen. And what happened next will shock you, but it will also remind you of the power of hearing scripture and how simply hearing God's words can change a life and a whole cult...

Nehemiah, and the people of Judah, finally complete the wall. And they meet it in record time. They completed the wall in only 52 weeks. What a fantastic feat, and it shows the brilliance of Nehemiah, but it also indicates that the hand of God was with Nehemiah. One way the hand of God was revealed was through saving the life of Nehemiah again and again. Listen to this week's podcast to hear how G...

Nehemiah is an organizational genius. He not only had to come up with a way to rebuild a wall nearly 2 miles long and 30 - 40 feet high, but he also had to come up with a way to build it under the threat of constant attack. How is he going to do that? How can he organize the people so they can overcome these obstacles and at the same time give glory to God while fighting to defend their homeland?...

Nehemiah wept over the state of the wall in Jerusalem. He was grieved to hear of the city's danger and the failure of the returned exiles to complete the job of establishing Jerusalem once again. Nehemiah felt that he had to do something. He felt God calling him to holy action. And so, his first step was also one of the most dangerous steps: he had to ask the King for help. But King Artaxerxes had...

The book of Ezra introduced us to the exiles' journey back home to the Promised Land after a 70-year absence and all that the exiles went through attempting to rebuild the Temple. Finally, the Temple was built, and Ezra worked hard preaching and teaching the Law to the people. But now we run into a problem: the Temple is rebuilt, but the people are not moving forward. Jerusalem's walls are in ruin...

This week we meet Ezra, the man the book is named after. We also come to the end of the story. Ezra was a man dedicated to three things: studying the Word of God, obeying the word of God, and teaching the word of God. Those three things were the dominant theme of his life and ministry, and they are on full display in this story. Because of those things, in just five months, Ezra causes a nation to...

The people gave up. For over 15 years, the Jewish people quit building the temple. They were threatened by the people of the land, who did not want them to continue the rebuilding. The Babylonian authority told them to stop. Everything was working against them, and in many ways, the Jewish people just gave up. But then God sent two prophets to wake the people up. Who were they, and what happened n...

Zerubbabel is forced to stop building the Second Temple. Jeshua and Zerubbabel had done so well. They had led the people back to the promised land, and they had made a new altar and begun daily sacrifices again to Yahweh. After a silence of 80 years, sacrifices were once again being offered to Yahweh. Progress was being made. But there was an enemy present. One who did not want to see God's people...

This week we start a new series on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Many believe they were originally one book later split into two, and that idea makes sense when you realize their story focuses on the same overall event: the return of the exiles to the promised land. The return of the Jewish people to their homeland occurred in three waves. Today's story focuses on the first wave led by Prince Ze...

We last left Jesus in the garden, praying, begging for this cup of suffering to pass from him. But in the end, Jesus knew it was His cup to bear, His cup to drink, and with His final conversation with His Father, He stood up ready to face the coming onslaught. And there was very little time for Him to reflect on the coming ordeal because right away, what He saw coming towards Him would have terrif...

In this week's snapshot, we see the humanity of Jesus on full display. Remember that Jesus was 100% man and 100% God all simultaneously. And many times, we forget that Jesus was fully man and suffered in very human ways down here on earth. Sadly, in the garden, we see Jesus overwhelmed with the horror of the coming cross. Where others saw a beautiful garden, Jesus saw a beckoning sorrow, and with...