Wholly Buyable

The prophet Daniel receives an epic account of the future from a terrifying angel. Detailed predictions spanning centuries of Near Eastern history pour from the angel's mouth, and incredibly, almost every one of these can be mapped against real historical events. If true, these are some of the most incredible prophecies ever recorded. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Aul...

Now an old man, the prophet Daniel is blindsided by a terrifying angelic visitor as he stands by a Persian river. The angel delivers a bewildering message that maps geopolitical developments in the Ancient Near East. If the message was indeed given to Daniel in the sixth century BC, it contains some of the most accurate prophecy ever recorded. Futurology nerds have been trying to figure out the ma...

In one of the most famous stories in the Bible, if not literature, a Jewish exile from Judah who has risen to power in the Babylonian regime is thrown into a pit filled with ravenous lions.  Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins Music Cover art by Lisa Goff E: contact@whollybuyable.com X: Wholly Buyable Podcast

When Babylon's tyrannical king, Nebuchadnezzar erects a giant golden effigy and expects everyone in his kingdom to worship it, there is pushback, especially from Daniel's companions from Judah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo.  Threatened by death in a furnace if they do not bow down to the golden god, the men have a difficult choice to make: compromise their faith, or die horribly. Writt...

The last of the great prophecty books begins. With its pin sharp predictions and epic action sequences, Daniel's book has transcended the Bible. The man thrown to the lions has long been part of popular culture, but there is far more to Daniel's story than his face-off against apex predators. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins Music Cover art by L...

Having spent multiple chapters taking down notes for the design of Jerusalem's new temple, Ezekiel sees a dramatic vision of a great river flowing from beneath the building. A river so fast and wide that after less than a mile, it is impossible to swim across.  The prophet then believes he hears God telling him the tribal boundaries of a new Israel. Unsurprisingly, Ezekiel's book continu...

Bible experts have long been confused as to why the chapters at the end of the Book of Ezekiel go into such granular detail about a building which, over 2500 years later, has yet to be constructed. It's one of the marvels of the Bible, and sits surprisingly comfortably in a book that has a man lie on one side for over a year, who is ordered to cook on a fire made from his own poo, whose wife...

After detailing a formidable future enemy of Israel whose ultimate and catastrophic defeat will demonstrate God's power, Ezekiel's book segues into design specifications for a future Jerusalem temple. If ever a book in the Bible sung to its own tune, it's this one.  Fans of floor plans and structural measurements will have an absolute ball with this episode. Written and produced by...

The toe bone's connected to the foot bone. The foot bone's connected to the heel bone In one of the most famous passages from the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel sees a valley strewn with dry bones.  Bones which, thanks to the Spirit of God, reform to become a living breathing army. The Valley of the Dry Bones is one of the Bible's absolute gems. Written and produced by Chas Bayf...

The day before a messenger arrives in Babylon with news that the mighty city of God, Jerusalem has fallen, Ezekiel tells the exiled Jews that it will fall. As if this weren't amazing enough, he shares the astonishing news that the exiles will eventually be repatriated, and that they will flourish in a rebuilt Israel. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins...

These chapters of Ezekiel are some of the least read - and least quoted - in the Bible. One by one, the prophet takes nations and city states surrounding the kingdom of Judah and describes what calamities will befall them and why. It's hard to make a neat segue to the New Testament from these, but this poses no problem for the Wholly Buyable podcast. Deep theology is not our job; we simply na...

Judah's people me be about to meet with catastrophe, but neighbouring nations will also be on the receiving end of a kicking, they are told. Ammon, Edom and Tyre all receive dire storm warnings from the prophet Ezekiel. Though none of these nations attacked Judah's Jews, their celebration of its defeat by Babylon and their opportunistic ransacking of the stricken nation has not gone down...

This is one of the most remarkable set of chapters in the entire Bible.  And that's a Bible that includes the creation of the earth, a boat filled with animals, a man swallowed by a giant fish and a man who comes back to life after being executed. In one eye-popping passage, the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem are likened to a couple of nymphomaniacs, and in another, Ezekiel's wife is ki...

“A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin!” Ezekiel shouts at Israel's Jews. These, he says, are God's words, not his own, adding: "I will gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you." It's fair to say that God is not especially pleased with the people who are contractually obliged to worship him in exchange for their own eternal wellbeing. Th...

More florid description pours fom the pen of the prophet Ezekiel. Vines, lions and the perfect man all take centre stage in an episode where, through Ezekiel, God hammers home the truth that everyone is responsible for their own spiritual wellbeing, andno one gets a free pass because of who they are or where they were born. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkin...

Surprisingly for an episode entitled 'The Nymphomaniac', this really is about a nymphomaniac. or a metaphorical one at least. God is so angry at his people's rebellion against him that he orders his prophet to explain in colourful language their relationship to him, and how they have behaved. It's lurid to say the least. This episode contains explicit sexual reference, as well...

In a vision that will have shocked those who first heard it, Ezekiel sees God leaving the Holy of Holies. This is the sacred room in the Jerusalem temple which is believed to have been God's earthly HQ since Solomon completed the building 400 years earlier. It is a show of God's utter rejection of his people, and is designed to terrify them back into worshipping him. The trouble is, thos...

If Jerusalem's elders weren't fully aware of what awaits their city, their nation and thei people as a result of turning away from God and worshiping pagan idols, they are now. In a dramatic vision, the prophet Ezekiel is teleported from exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem where he witnesses first hand the city's corruption, and the impending carnage about to land on it. Written and...

Ezekiel's vision at the beginning of his book is so other-worldly that he barely has words to describe it. What follows is a dramatic life change for a man who has already been wrenched from the comfort of priestly life at the Jerusalem temple and into exile in Babylon. Among other things, the prophet is ordered to eat a scroll, lie on one side for over a year, and cook on a fire fuelled by h...

Trigger Warning: Contains reference to infant death The Bible's darkest book just got darker. The fourth chapter of the Book of Lamentations makes for some harrowing reading as the writer is caught up in the wretched, slow death of a city under siege. With the horror of his situation all around him, he composes without doubt the bleakest chapter in the entire Bible.  Written and produced by C...

Trigger warning: This episode includes accounts of infant death  In 597 BC, the city of Babylon was besieged. Eleven years later, Nebuchadnezzar II's army returned and laid siege to it once again. The privations of living through these sieges are hard to imagine, but readers don't need to use their imagination. They have the poet or poets who lived through these terrible years and saw th...

With an ending shrouded in mystery, the finale of Jeremiah's book asks more than it answers. What is certain - at least from the prophet's perspective - is that the Babylonian Empire is going to crash and burn. God may have used Babylon as a useful agent to annihilate Judah, and his people may have needed to learn the heard way that they must not worship other deities, but destroying God...

To his audience, the prophet Jeremiah's words must seem beyond belief. The city of Jerusalem has been battered and besieged, its king has no real authority to rule, and its greatest and best people have been hauled away to exile in Babylon. Yet Jeremiah promises that the mighty, all-conquering Babylonian Empire which dominates the Near East from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean and south to...

After more than forty chapters where it is Judah who is in God's crosshairs, it's refreshing to see that a few other Near Eastern Nations will also be on the receiving end of a kicking. None of these countries exist any more, which is telling, and the language used by the prophet to describe their downfall is dramatic. They won't be crowing at Judah's downfall for long, Jeremia...

After most of Judah's Jews have been exiled to Babylon, the few who remain have rebelled, opting to settle in Egypt rather than follow their compatriots east. According to God, this is a terrible life choice, and he spells out what will happen to these renegades, and why. Surprisingly, it isn't just Judah who receives a kicking from God. He's about to call time on all neighbouring c...