Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen and I am broadcasting from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, right here in the middle of this quarantine. And I think most of us that are listening to this podcast, if you’re at least listening it to the day or two since I recorded it.

We all know that these have been some challenging times to be quarantined, and I want to just kind of challenge us here, just for a few minutes, about a very difficult situation in the life of the nation of Israel. Many of us are familiar a little bit with what we call Hebrew history. If you’re taking college courses in Bible.

But we all know that came a time where the children of Israel, God began to deal with them because of their sin, and the nation of Babylon began to attack them and of course, eventually carried them off captive. But in Isaiah chapter number thirty, God deals with the children of Israel for looking to the wrong reliance to solve their problem. Verse number one of chapter thirty of Isaiah.

And if you have a Bible, you want to pause the podcast and get it. This one might actually might be a help to kind of walk through the passage. But there in verse number one, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me.

That cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt. Your confusion.

The picture is simply this they had a false reliance. They felt like we can go down to Egypt. They’ll protect us from Babylon, and all these bad things are going on.

They didn’t take counsel of the Lord. They didn’t say, God, what is your will? They just went and thought, well, that’s a strong nation.

They can protect us. And the Bible said very clearly, it ended up being their confusion, their shame. The confidence ended up being a faulty confidence in which they obviously at one time were ashamed that they even trusted it.

Now, again, in a time like this, it’s easy to trust science or the doctors or politicians or whoever to solve the problem. Let me encourage you to not do that, but to trust the Lord. Woe to those that go down to Egypt for help.

Chapter thirty one says just a chapter later. Now Egypt is a picture of the world. So let me encourage you this.

The answer is never the world. In fact, it’s interesting to me at a time like this, one of your dangers, because you’re at home a lot and you have your devices, is to get kind of hooked on media, maybe surf on YouTube, or maybe a little more of a looking at movies and, and not being careful in your entertainment choices or TV, whatever.

Now, my point is this, that obviously you can watch things that are not a problem, but you can watch too much of it and you’re not a good steward of your time. Or you can watch things that are compromising your conscience and hurting your walk with God. In either case, let me just say this gang, the world does not have the answer.

They’re not where you should put your confidence because if you put your confidence in the world, the Bible says you’re going to be ashamed. It’s going to be to your own confusion. It’s not going to work.

Verse number seven of thirty one says this, For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning this. Their strength is to sit still.

Now, I don’t know about you. That’s kind of funny, isn’t it? I see a little humor in that.

It’s like the Lord’s being sarcastic. Said Egypt’s got a great strength, and their strength is in the fact that they’re couch potatoes. They’re lazy man.

They know how to sit down in front of a television and watch, you know, watch for hours. Well, obviously, if somebody said that, we know the deep sarcasm that we drooling out of their mouth. He’s simply saying the Egyptians don’t have the answer.

Uh, you’re going the wrong place. They just know how. They know how to be lazy.

They know how to sit around. That’s their strong point. So my point, friend is simply this at this time of, um, uh, lifestyle change, be very careful that you do not allow the world to have undue influence in your life.

Some of you listening right now, God is already probably convicting some of you that you’ve made some choices of things you shouldn’t watch. Now, if you watched them on your parents back, you need to get that right. That’ll be another podcast.

But you do need to get that right and you need to come clean. But the point is you need to be careful. Uh, sometimes, again, you can watch things in of themselves are not wrong.

The point is, you really are not being purposeful with your time. Maturity helps you be purposeful. And all of us have our like mind numbing things that we do.

Some people it might be puzzles, some people it might be scrolling through news feeds, other people it might be scrolling through YouTube videos. Not necessarily wrong ones. Uh, but they, they are not being purposeful.

And in doing that, uh, you can end up coming across offensive material or debilitating material, or you can just end up wasting your time and dulling your walk with God. Remember at this time that really we need to seek the Lord. This is a time, young person.

You need to get ready. God is doing something. And I believe when this thing all lifts, we’ll have a great opportunity.

And I want you to be ready. But if you go down to Egypt for help, if you allow Egypt to influence you, you’re in trouble. I put it this way.

Hollywood does not have the answer for life. The Holy Word does. Don’t find yourself being unduly influenced by media, uh, and being by worldly philosophy.

And sometimes you might watch a Hollywood movie or Netflix or whatever and think, oh, there’s nothing wrong here. But the philosophy is subtle. And sometimes those philosophies, if you don’t actively recognize them, they influence you, they hurt you.

I know this might be funny to some of you, but I remember as a kid sitting down in the den, I think I was an eighth grader, and I watched the first installment of the series of planet and the apes. Now, I’m not talking about the TV program. I’m talking about the movie.

And I realize if you’re a teenager, you have no clue what I’m talking about. But just in case there’s somebody who’s a baby boomer there, they’re going to know exactly what I’m talking about. And I remember as an eighth grade kid saved on my way to heaven, I don’t think I yielded to the call to preach, but in the back of my heart, I knew that’s where I was headed.

I remember that movie? Shook me, shook my faith because I began to think, wow, maybe evolution could be true. Which I’d never even thought before.

Well, it was the philosophy of the movie. It was backwards evolution. But nonetheless, that was the philosophy.

And of course, there were other issues looking back, one of which is Charlton Heston on the beach there, where he sees the Statue of Liberty curses up a blue streak. But, uh, but my point is, it was not helpful. And I remember I lived in the awe of that movie for a couple days.

And that’s another problem with entertainment. If you’re not careful, you live in the aura of that movie, and if it’s not a good aura, then that’s a bad thing. And, uh, my point is you got to be careful in entertainment and careful in media and careful in where you’re going and don’t allow Egypt to influence you.

In other words, don’t go down to Egypt not just for help, but for coping. Uh, because that’s, uh, you’re going to be your shame. It’s going to be your confusion.

And at this time, we need to be looking to the Lord for the answer here to the children of Israel was, hey, listen, I’m the answer. God is saying, don’t go there. I can meet your needs.

I can deliver you. I can give you victory in this tragic situation. So, friend, let me encourage you in this time of quarantine.

Let’s look to the Lord. I know this was largely more on the negative side. And the next podcast, I’m going to deal with the positive side, what we need to do.

But let me encourage you, don’t allow the world to influence you during this time. Be careful. And let’s look to the Holy Spirit so that we are surrender to the will of God and trusting his grace to live it.