April 23, 2025 • 28 mins
Have you ever noticed how certain symbols and patterns appear repeatedly throughout the Bible? From fish representing God's miracles to water symbolizing both life and destruction, these consistent motifs reveal profound truths about God's unchanging character.
When my daughter pointed out how often fish are mentioned in scripture, it sparked a fascinating conversation about divine consistency. Unlike humans who constantly shift and change, God remains steadfastly consistent in His nature, His promises, and His love. This unwavering reliability forms the foundation of our ability to trust Him—we know what to expect from a God who never contradicts Himself or His word.
The Bible's narrative consistency extends far beyond simple repetition. Seemingly unrelated stories written centuries apart contain striking parallels: Moses parts the Red Sea, then Joshua crosses the Jordan. Jonah spends three days in a great fish; Jesus spends three days in the tomb. Adam fails in the garden; Christ (the "second Adam") succeeds where the first failed. These connections aren't coincidental—they reveal divine authorship working through human hands across millennia.
Perhaps most comforting is how God's consistency contrasts with our own inconsistency. While we consistently fail and fall short, He consistently pursues us with grace. Even when we're at our lowest, something within us remembers His reliability. As one host confessed, "Even when I was an atheist, if something really bad happened, I still trusted God so deeply that I would pray." That's the power of divine consistency—it writes itself into our very souls.
God's consistency throughout the Bible reveals profound truths about His nature and our relationship with Him, from recurring symbols like fish, water, and light to parallel stories that span thousands of years.
• God's consistency is vital for building trust and understanding His character
• Consistent biblical symbols (fish, water, light, rocks) reveal deeper spiritual meanings
• Numerical patterns like seven (perfection) and forty (testing) appear throughout scripture
• Stories connect across millennia—Jonah's three days prefiguring Jesus' resurrection
• Jesus succeeds in places where humans consistently fail (wilderness, temptation)
• Biblical consistency contrasts sharply with humanity's consistent pattern of failure
• God's unchanging nature provides comfort and security in an unpredictable world
• Consistency in our relationship with God requires discipline and self-sacrifice
• Hebrews 13:8 reminds us "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever"
• Even when we fail consistently, God consistently pursues and welcomes us back
How might recognizing God's consistency transform your understanding of scripture and your relationship with Him? Join us as we explore the beautiful patterns woven throughout the Bible and discover the peace that comes from trusting a God who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
David (00:02):
Welcome to the Boundless Bible.
My name is David Shapiro, hey,I'm Javi Marquez and I'm Jason
Holloway.
Hello everybody, hey, hi.
So today's episode actuallycomes from my daughter's
question.
The other day her and I weredoing some Bible study.
We were reading the Bibletogether and she just mentioned
(00:25):
to me that this had to do with afish.
She's like, hey, they keepmentioning fish in the bible.
I said, man, you know, therereally is a lot of consistency
with what god uses in the bible.
Yeah, uh, things like rocks orstones, water, fish, uh, wisdom,
judgment, love, exile.
Yeah, um, just repeated thingsand jason, you've said it as
well, you know, it just seemslike, especially in the old
(00:47):
testament, it is.
You know, hey, we're, we'redoing good, we have our land
back and, oops, we messed up,we're exiled yeah and again and
again and again.
I love oops, we're exiled.
That's it.
Um, there is some definiteconsistency in the bible.
Yeah, I just want to open upthe conversation and you know,
first start off with.
You know why is consistencyimportant.
Why do we think that god isbeing consistent throughout the
bible?
I just want to open up theconversation and you know, first
start off with.
You know why is consistencyimportant.
Why do we think that God isbeing consistent throughout the
(01:07):
Bible?
Javi (01:09):
Ooh, that's good.
I think that's his nature.
I think he has no other way butto be consistent, and when I
think about consistency, or Ithink about a God and it being
inconsistent, I think itdevalues the word God or it
devalues him.
So I think him being consistentis something that we could lean
on, we could always trust, wecould always put our foot
(01:33):
forward in, and I love the factthat we're talking about this,
because a God that'sinconsistent, it would be scary.
It's an oxymoron, right?
I mean, yeah, right, consistentit's.
David (01:44):
It would be scary it's an oxymoron right I mean so I?
Jason (01:45):
I mean, yeah, right, so I ?
I think that the reason is Isaid this kind of recently is
that the reason that god isconsistent in the bible anyway
is because that's how we canread into the nature of god,
right, that at no point does thebible say here, I'm going to
tell you here, so come, sit down, I'm going to tell you about
god and all the stories of god.
Right, it's not's not how itworks, it's the.
(02:05):
The Bible, especially the oldTestament, is teaching us about
the nature of God, the nature ofhumans and the nature of the
relationships of God with humans.
And you know, you can do thatthrough consistency.
So every time a human does thisX, consequence comes.
Every time a human does this y,consequence comes.
So the consistency is a way forus to learn, by virtue of the
(02:28):
same ways that we learn if youtouch fire, you get burnt.
If you, you know, walk withoutpaying attention where you're
going, you're going to fall down.
You know things like that.
So I think that's, I thinkthat's the the first point of
consistency there, the the otherthing I would say is that you
mentioned Javi, that the idea ofa God being inconsistent is a
really uncomfortable one, and Ithink a lot, like you know, we
(02:49):
talk about God, our father,right, and a father or mother or
parental figure who isinconsistent is one you can't
trust.
Javi (02:56):
And that's what I'm comparing it to, almost like us,
being so human, you know, manytimes we're inconsistent and
that could be frustratingsometimes, you know, especially
when you're waiting for someoneor or expecting something, right
.
David (03:10):
Yeah, I think that you know, when you look at
consistency, I mean there's acouple of things it does right
off the bat.
One is it's vital for trust,which both of you just said it's
absolutely vital for trust.
You can't trust somebody who'sinconsistent.
Another one is it fostersmomentum.
I think that you know, when youhave, uh, the understanding of
how something is going to work,you start to build momentum on
(03:30):
that uh, and one of the things Ilook at is, uh, the you know
the story of the exodus, whereyou know we always look at the
israelites who are grumbling andthey've just seen all these
miracles and they're grumblingone of the things you have to
remember is you know, they werein captivity for 400 years.
Yeah, uh, they don't understandwho this god is, how this god
works, um, so, as he's working,they're new and they're going.
(03:52):
I don't understand how this,how?
Jason (03:53):
is this safe?
David (03:54):
how is this right?
How is this um?
And little by little, he ispushing them a little bit
further to go.
You have to trust me, you haveto trust me right.
And he's doing thingsconsistently by protecting them.
Whether it's parting the RedSea, whether it's making water
from a rock, whether it's manna,he is continuously providing
for them while giving them alittle.
He hasn't given them the fulllaw yet.
Jason (04:14):
It's not, hey, you have to do this, because I built all
this trust.
But there are.
But he is consistent in thepunishment when they, when they,
don't turn towards him.
So again, you know consistencyis.
I mentioned the parent thingbefore, but any parent, or even
a child who had a parent, knowsthat consistency is how you
learn.
If right now it's okay for meto drive my bike off the street,
(04:35):
and tomorrow it's not, andtomorrow it is and tomorrow it's
not, I don't know what I'msupposed to do.
I don't know what's right, Idon't know what's wrong.
So, especially in the beginningof the Bible, when God has
these nascent humans, you knowthese very still young societies
, you know his consistency is ishow they got to learn what was
right and what was wrong, whathas positive consequence, what
(04:56):
has negative consequence, and soI think that's that's just
really fascinating.
David (04:59):
It is.
And also when we think ofhumans.
You know one of the things Ialways think of.
You know, god created us, youknow, in his image, and when we
look at him being consistent, wesay, okay, he's consistent in
all these things.
Humans are also consistent andwe always get the bad rap.
Hey, we're consistent in sinand we're consistent in messing
up.
But consistently also buildsteamwork.
Yeah, the more you haveconsistency from people around
(05:20):
you, the better team you have,for sure, and I think that
that's one thing where you go asa positive way as humans.
The more we're consistent, likeGod is, the more we can start
trusting people, havingfellowship with people.
I think that's really important.
I think that God, you know, putthat in us as well to be
consistent, for each other, towork better together, for us to
have teamwork and camaraderie.
Jason (05:41):
Yeah, I mean, trust is so key in the and it's probably
the key word of all of this Likeif I had to even boil it down
even at this very moment, tolike what is this all about?
It's about trust.
You know, we can trust in Godbecause we know that if we act
in a certain way, we're going tohave a certain response.
If we act in another way, we'regoing to have a certain
response.
And so it gives us a clarity ofwhen we're making decisions
good ones or bad ones.
(06:01):
We know where we're standing,we know where we're coming at,
we know what angle we'reapproaching it from, and we know
that we can trust that therewill be good or there will be
wrath.
That comes from that, andthat's how else would we live
our lives if we didn't have that.
Javi (06:16):
That's a good statement yeah, it's a good example, right
?
Jesus Christ is another example, like the way he lived his life
, the way he acted upon with his, the apostles, and just kind of
how he he loved many and how hestopped to do his mission, to
to to love others and give back.
(06:36):
We could learn from that as agood example for us, and he was
consistent in that in many ways.
Jason (06:41):
And we should be more consistent too.
You know, again, we're made inGod's image, right, and we are.
We are consistently faulty, butwe should be working towards
being more consistently godlyright and we need to be
consistent with we need to beconsistent with our actions.
We need to be consistent withour words.
We need to be consistent withour, with our, treatment of
(07:02):
others.
Granted, we're not going to be,we are sinners, we know that,
but we should try, and God's thefirst great example of that.
Javi (07:09):
I'm glad you said that, because what I was thinking
about when I think aboutconsistency and you're saying
that we need to be that way.
God calls us to be like him inhis image, calls us to be
righteous, be good, to be loving, to be holy, just like he is,
and I think we were able to dothat here on earth with our
(07:30):
bodies, to be that way.
And I think when we do that, wefind joy, in that we find peace
.
But a lot of times we'reinconsistent with that, and when
we're inconsistent and I'mtrying to flesh this out when I
was thinking about this, it wasGod is, is consistent.
He wants us to be that way, butwe would never reach that.
(07:50):
We're, we're, we're, we'reflawed, we're, we're, we're
finite, and he shows us that andwe can never reach that and I
think that's why we need him.
You get what I'm trying to getat.
We need him.
Jason (08:00):
He needs to be the goalpost, so that we have
something to aim for.
Not that we'll get there.
But I mean, I think I said thison a previous episode you know
the thing about being we'vealways heard that we're sinners
and so we fall short of theglory of God.
But like that's kind ofChristianese for you know what I
mean it's like, and after yearsof hearing it, you stop
realizing what it means.
And what it means is like weare human, which means we are
(08:23):
perfect, pulled by the flesh todo certain fleshly things, and
our spirit knows the good, ourspirit knows the kindness and
the joy of helping, and ourspirits are good and clean, but
our bodies pull us in theopposite direction.
And so God is our constantreminder, our consistent
(08:44):
reminder of what we should be.
David (08:46):
But if we don't have him, we don't have anything to shoot
for of what we should be, butif we don't have him, we don't
have anything to shoot for.
I'll tell you about consistency.
One thing I see with people iswe are very easy to be
consistent on those things thatare core characteristics of who
we are.
Yeah, so when you have, youknow, a husband and a wife and
they are, you know, arguing,it's usually because one is
consistent with something andthen the you know consistent
(09:08):
with something, and then the youknow the other person says, hey
, I want you to be consistentabout this, and they go, okay,
but they never get there.
Why?
Because that's not part oftheir core characteristic.
I think when you look at theBible, you have God, who is
showing consistencies, but inhis core characteristic and I'm
just going to bring up a coupleof them and listen he is
consistent about a lot of things, uh, so don't rip me apart if I
missed something.
Yeah, sure, uh, but some of hiscore characteristics are, you
(09:29):
know, god's influence andmiracles that we know he does.
That is the meaning of fish.
Javi (09:34):
A fish symbolizes miracles and god's influence which is
again something that he'sconsistent in his characteristic
I just thought it means likeinfinity or something like that.
David (09:43):
Well, that's the symbol that we use again God's
influence.
Uh, water represents God'spower, symbolizes life renewal,
um, so that's uh again, the, thewater.
Um, you have wisdom, which isthe uh illuminated path in life
to you know again, we've talkedabout wisdom and knowledge and
what the difference are, uh,rock and stone, which is God's
(10:05):
unchanging ways, which is youknow exactly what consistency is
.
So, and then you have judgment,love.
Jason (10:12):
We have light.
Light is always purity.
There we go.
Light is always purity andperfection.
David (10:16):
Yep, these are literally his characteristics.
So when he's consistent, thecomfort we get is he's
consistent in who he is, in hiscore and characteristic.
We know who he is and that'spart of being faithful to God,
is not just knowing there is agod, but knowing god.
Right, um, and I think with usthat's wrong.
You know, having saying, hey,we, we want to be consistent
(10:37):
like him.
You know, we havecharacteristics, core.
Every one of us has somethingcore differently inside of us
that we're consistent with.
Uh, the the trouble goes whenwe try to be consistent with
something that doesn't meananything to our lives and then
how do you do that?
you're just forcing it, it'sgonna.
Javi (10:56):
You're talking about like like bad habits or like yeah,
that's what I'm thinking.
Jason (11:00):
I mean, I'm thinking you know?
Javi (11:02):
look, I think that's the point.
I think about that in theopposite of as as far as
thinking about inconsistencyright or consistent inency in a
negative way.
Yeah, consistency in a negativeway, right.
Jason (11:10):
Like we consistently are faulty.
We are consistently choosingour dopamine rushes for this
moment over long-term realhappiness and real satisfaction.
You know we are constantlychoosing the pizza over the
salad.
You know it's stuff like that.
Like we are consistent in thosethings, leaving you alone, man.
Javi (11:28):
You know it's stuff like that, like we are consistent in
those things, leaving you alone,man.
Jason (11:30):
You know we're constantly doing those things, and I think
that that is going back to whatI said a minute ago about us
being one half spirit, one halfhuman is like we need God in our
lives to be the consistentgoalpost, to be the constant
picture of perfection, notbecause we're ever going to
achieve it, but because weshould be trying to achieve it.
Javi (11:54):
What I wanted to say was, like in the, in the path to
seeking consistency and the pathto taking on God's attributes
of being holy and beingconsistent and being righteous,
and if we were to achieve thatwhich we won't, but if we were
to achieve that, how big wouldour head go, how much of a God
(12:17):
that we would think we are.
Jason (12:19):
I mean, look at Pharaoh, look at.
David (12:21):
Caesar.
Javi (12:23):
I mean, you know, that's kind of what that's all about.
Wait a minute, If we were to bejust consistent as God we were-
.
Jason (12:29):
Well, our consistency would be the wrong kind of
consistency.
In fact look, that's Sodom andGomorrah.
Right At that time, theyweren't looking at God and they
were being consistent, but theywere being consistently fleshly.
They were being consistentlydrawn to what gave them an
instant satisfaction of goodnessin that moment, although that
wasn't, you know, perpetualgoodness that they could reach.
But that's what that was.
(12:49):
I mean we are consistent.
I mean the question is, whatare you going to be consistent
with in your life?
Javi (12:53):
See that consistency.
To me it's, and I'm, you know,I say this is lack of better
word, it's just, it's easy, ohyeah.
David (13:14):
When doing the other thing of what God calls us to be
hard, because that requires todiscipline of ourselves and
discipline and discipline, yeah,uh, you know, sacrificing what
we feel for someone else, oh,that's hard.
Oh, totally, or, or do we useit?
I mean, here's one of thosethings we're talking about
consistency of of who we are ashumans.
Um, and sometimes we haveconsistency.
For bad things, we go, okay,addiction to gambling, addiction
to alcohol or substance abuseand things like that, we go.
You know, okay, that that's nota great thing to be consistent
with.
But if we were able to flipthat and say the core value in
(13:36):
my life is addiction, and I canflip that and go I'm not going
to be addicted to the drugs orthe alcohol or the gambling, but
I'm going to be addicted toGod's word, I'm going to be
addicted.
I mean again, you are nowutilizing that characteristic
the characteristic of beingobsessive or the characteristic
of being devoted or thecharacteristic of you know.
Jason (13:52):
Actually, just today I saw Russell Brand talking about
something and he said you know,and I thought that was
interesting.
I'm like right, what you'resaying now.
It's like if your corecharacteristic is to yearn and
to seek and to try and find.
(14:14):
Just change what it is thatyou're seeking and trying to
find yes, a hundred percent Wow.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Javi (14:20):
I wanted to.
I wanted to mention some versesthat brings me peace when I
think about God's consistency.
And the first one always isHebrews 13, eight.
That says Jesus Christ is thesame yesterday, today and
forever.
And that's truth.
Because I feel like when youlook at Psalms 119.89, it goes
(14:40):
into saying your word, lord, iseternal.
It stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continuesthrough all generations.
You established the earth andit endures.
Your laws endures to this day,for all things serve you.
And that brings me peace toknow that we have a God that's
consistent.
And there's many otherscriptures in the Bible that
talks about God's consistency.
David (15:02):
But that's it.
Instantly.
You get comforted, you go.
I feel comfort from thoseverses To know that God is
consistent, to know that he'sthe same yesterday, today and
tomorrow.
I can hold that in my heart andgo.
I know that God is going to bethis way tomorrow.
I don't have to guess what youwere saying, jason.
God is going to be this waytomorrow.
I don't have to guess what youwere saying, jason.
You know, when you have aparent who is one one one day,
(15:23):
you know one way and then oneway another day.
As a child it's a horrible wayto grow up.
Jason (15:27):
I mean that that is the literally like the textbook
definition of what makes aperson neurotic is is not
knowing what's coming after.
You know what, what the resultis going to be of any given
action, and that makes them very, very neurotic.
I would even go as far as tosay, when it comes to the
consistency thing is like thattrust value is so important and
even in my own life I told thestory a couple of times recently
is like even when I was anatheist, if I really search my
(15:51):
soul and kind of remember allthe details, moving backwards,
even when I was at my most, likedisbelieving, unbelieving,
denying if something really badhappened in my life.
I disbelieving, unbelieving,denying.
If something really badhappened in my life, I still
trusted God so deeply downsomewhere that I would still go,
you know, and put my hands Tobe honest, I'm right there with
you, bro.
David (16:09):
I put my hands together and I would go.
Jason (16:11):
I know I haven't talked to you, I know I don't deserve
this, I know that I know for afact that I shouldn't be coming
to you right now, but I havenowhere else to go and if you're
there I need you.
That's good and, bro, that'sthe way to think about that in
reverse.
To think about that in reverseis so weird.
Javi (16:33):
To think that my body would have acknowledged it so
deeply that I still trusted,even though I was living an
entire life anti, and that's theconsistency that we're talking
about here, right, His love, hiscomfort that he's going to be
here, his peace that he brings,the joy that he brings.
That's the consistency we talkabout when we think about God.
At least for me, it's wow, wegot this God that could really
(16:54):
take away our burdens, our hurt,our discomfort.
He brings this goodness, and toknow that he's consistent in
that man, I could lean on thatall day.
Jason (17:03):
Well, think about the amount of times any anybody
who's old enough to have triedto do something and felt very
strongly that they were capablealone, only to come to the end
of a road and realize that theyweren't enough and that you, you
know that, that that you can'tdo it yourself, that there is a
limit to your capability, youknow what I mean when anybody
(17:25):
who's felt that moment alsorealizes the need for that
consistency of someone else tobe there in those times of need.
And and I think that anybodylistening to this who has had
that moment should stop stop andtake a moment and consider that
moment and go.
When did I realize howconsistent that God was, that,
(17:45):
no matter what, I wasn't enough,but there was something else
out there for me.
And I think anybody listeningto this who's had that moment
and been in that place shouldstop and go.
What exactly is it inside methat knew that?
And how was that just kind ofbuilt in.
David (18:05):
It's just one of the ways that God created us and he just
created with, with, exactlywith the image of who he is.
Um, and you know I like toalways flip it and you know
we're just telling, telling thestory of you know when, when you
were at your most, unbelievinghow you were still feeling that
connection.
Um, I just think about God inthat moment, who is celebrating,
not angry at you, who'scelebrating and saying thank you
for coming back, Thank you forlooking up instead of looking
(18:27):
inward.
Jason (18:27):
I have the same vision of him.
Every time I have this memory.
Javi (18:31):
That's it right there.
Jason (18:33):
He had his arms crossed he had his arms crossed, he was
smirking at me and he was likefor real, really.
Javi (18:38):
Yeah, no, no, no.
Jason (18:41):
But it wasn't a bad smirk , it was like a come on, come on
, do it.
You're here, come on, say it,like I.
But I have this vision of himsmirking at me, being like I
knew you'd come back, but it wasit's.
It's just hysterical every timeI see it.
Let's change topics for aminute, because I think the
other interesting thing aboutconsistency isn't the nature of
god, although that that'sfascinating.
Yeah, it's how the Bible writes, in consistent patterns,
(19:04):
because the patterns are meantto tell you things you mentioned
before.
You know water, yes, and waterhas a few different meanings
actually.
David (19:11):
It does.
Water has the cleansing partand the it does, it has a
destruction part to it it has adestruction part Life and
destruction and God's power, butit also has confusion.
Jason (19:21):
Right, like water is also confusion, but so— Security
it's—.
And if, when you learn likethese, you know two, three, four
motifs, all of a sudden youknow we're talking about the
boundless Bible here.
This is when the Bible goes andit just opens up into like
100,000 more layers.
You know the wilderness.
A hundred thousand more layers.
You know the wilderness.
You know the.
(19:41):
The wilderness, the consistencyof using the wilderness as the
place of being lost, the placeof not knowing where to go, the
place of needing to have somestruggle in your life to figure
out tests.
David (19:51):
It's a testing ground.
Jason (19:52):
You know it's all this stuff when you get into the.
You know the consistency of oflight.
You know, look, the burningbush may be fire, but it's also
light.
It's a light that.
Look a burning bush isn't thatexciting in the daytime, I mean
it is, but it's way moreexciting in the nighttime, right
, because it's drawing you inand that light is that purity
and there's things like that.
Javi (20:07):
Yeah, there's light in the darkness right.
Jason (20:09):
There's so many of these things that are that are so
fascinating to me and and like,let's not even get into know
numerology.
You know the, the use of sevenin the hebrew as being the
perfection, yes, the uh, which,by the way, was super weird.
The other day I realized thatthe five loaves and two what is
it?
Um, five loaves and two fish isseven, yep, and then there's
(20:31):
another story of four loaves andthree fish.
Seven, like seeing what I'mlike noticing these little
details all over.
There's the 40 at.
40 is always, you know, anothernumber that comes up, whether
it's the 40 days in thewilderness, whether it's 40 days
of fasting.
40 happens to happen a lot inthe testing, trial phases, right
?
David (20:47):
yep, there's definitely a lot of consistency in in
numerology and and in the biblein general.
I think when you start to lookthrough it, you'll start to see,
listen, there are people who goas far as um really looking at,
like, every couple of words,pulling the word out and saying,
hey, this is what this says, um, and whether or not those are
meant to be there and hidden, orjust you know happenstance, and
(21:08):
they happen to be there.
Um, there are some brilliantthings that are written down, um
, even the consistency of bookspointing to one another.
Um, when you, when you startlooking at uh and javi you
mentioned this to me the otherday when you start looking at uh
and javi you mentioned this tome the other day yeah, when you
start looking at the bible andyou go, okay, this is written by
so many authors in so manydifferent continents through so
many years, yeah, and we takethat for granted, we go, okay,
(21:30):
so a lot of people wrote a bigdeal.
Yeah, well, uh, when you startto see the tie-ins, um, and
there's really, really greatdiagram that people have put
together that shows you thisrainbow of colors of these
arches, yeah, connecting thedifferent stories together, I've
seen that.
That's, that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean talk aboutconsistency.
Jason (21:47):
I think it's 60 000 like connections or something like
that.
David (21:50):
Yeah, it's unbelievable and and again, javi mentioned
this the other day to me and andit is when you start to look at
that diagram, you go this is aconsistent god who's writing
consistent word and it is justbeautiful.
Yeah, I mean, but even waving,even the story even the stories.
Jason (22:06):
like you know, you have Moses who gets the red sea
crossed in front of him, andthen, right before they go into
the promised land, joshuacrosses over a river.
You know, like there's there'sthere's so many like little
details like that and like Ifind it so fascinating to look
at the consistence even betweenstories like that's one of them,
(22:28):
um, you know, jonah being gonein the whale for three days.
Jesus goes in the tomb for threedays, like there's all these
like motifs that show upthroughout the, throughout the,
the, the story, and again, Idon't, obviously it's not an
accident.
Right, that's not an accident.
No, matter, that's not anaccident, no matter which way
you look at it.
And it, it, it begs thequestion of what are you making
me look at?
You know what are you what?
(22:49):
else are you hiding in plainsight?
What else is being alluded tothat?
I need to draw the correlationbetween it's almost like it's
almost like a chiasm.
You know, I think we've talkedabout chiasm before, but like
there's these different literarytechniques that the writers of
the Bible have employed in orderto physically force your brain
(23:12):
if you're paying enoughattention to look at something
specific, and it's just that'sthe stuff that just blows my
mind and I like to think I it'sjust, that's the stuff that just
blows my mind.
Javi (23:20):
I like to think.
I mean, I want to also bring up, you know, the consistency in
the actual Bible, the writing ofit, right, yeah, oh no, there's
definitely consistency in it.
David (23:35):
You know it's under debate obviously secular.
Javi (23:36):
you know, scholars like to debate the consistency of it,
which is why I bring it up,because I feel like you have
this opposite side that'sfighting against that up,
because I feel like you havethis opposite side that's
fighting against that.
No-transcript.
That is consistent.
David (23:49):
It's very consistent.
And when you look at at historyand archeology uh, listen, you
just mentioned Jonah and thefish Uh, one of the things that
you look at with Jonah and thefish is we're not the first ones
to connect that with Jesus Um,there were bone boxes, ossuaries
, uh, right at the time ofJesus's death, that, when people
already knew his divinity, they, they marked it with the fish,
(24:09):
which, again in the beginning,javi, you're like oh, isn't that
Jesus.
They marked the Oshwares with afish for Jesus, because they
recognize the fact that Jonahwas in the whale for three days.
Jesus was in the tomb for threedays, so you have this
connection 2,000 years ago where, yeah, we're talking about it
today, but this is somethingthat was consistent long ago
(24:30):
from the moment it was happening.
One of the reasons why we knowthese things happened is it was
written about or shown about orthere was something about it
right off the bat.
Um, this wasn't 300 years laterat some, you know, at some
meeting, some council, uh, wherethey gave jesus divinity.
No, no, this was right away.
You see, immediately this, youknow, this bone box with jesus
and asking him to save a lovedone, with the picture of a fish
(24:52):
and um it.
There is a consistency with thebible, um, not only with the
words and and the translations,which you know.
We already have plenty ofrecords with that, with the dead
sea scrolls and other fragments.
We found um to show howconsistent is.
But there's a consistency within the bible, in the text, that
you can go really deep and lookat some things that you know,
(25:14):
like you said, numerology orletters or the meaning of words.
I mean, when you look at Hebrew, every single letter, every
single word has a meaning to it.
When you really start to digdeep, you realize that the
beautiful consistency is justthroughout in a big way.
I mean, man, we can spend, youknow, hours talking about all
(25:35):
the different ways that we can-.
Jason (25:37):
Well, even you know, one of the things I was looking at
the other day was like theconsistency between Adam and
Jesus.
Yes, you know, adam doesn'tcommit the first sin, eve does.
Yeah, and he blames her.
Jesus didn't commit the firstsin, but he doesn't blame us.
(25:57):
I mean, he blames himself.
So he did what Adam should havedone the first time.
Right, had Adam maybe takenresponsibility for his own
action, maybe it would have beensomething, and David said that
before you know, maybe the factthat they got kicked out was
because they didn't repent and.
Adam didn't say sorry, my bad.
He said she made me do it Right.
So it's like even consistencyis as simple as that.
(26:20):
First man, yeah, they callJesus the first Adam.
They call Jesus the first Adam,or the something like that.
Right, the second Adam, thesecond Adam, and you know.
So to look at that, look at theconsistency there.
David (26:32):
You're talking about two different unit, like 2 000 years
apart, and this consistentstory that has a consistent
beginning and a different endingwell, you were mentioning jason
wilderness uh, when you look atwilderness, almost every single
time you look at the bible uh,when you're in the wilderness,
you fail.
Yeah, I mean, we saw theisraelites in the exodus.
They failed in the wilderness,um, but then you look at jesus
who goes into wilderness and didnot fail right um.
(26:53):
So there's consistency eventhere.
Jason (26:56):
Um, it's just well, and there's hundreds of those too.
I mean we could sit here and dothis, for maybe we should, but
I mean this is this is.
This is where it gets so, soincredibly cool, and I I don't
want to return to the beginning,to the beginning again, but I
think we should, and it'sprobably a good place to end,
which is we've seen, we'vetalked about the consistency of
God and we kind of alluded tothe consistency of man, but I
think it's really important thatwe remember that the Bible is
full of one very consistentthing, especially the old
(27:17):
Testament it's the human screwup.
Over and over and over and overand over.
Then Jesus came and revealedthe sin to us and saved us from
that sin.
And we continue to screw up.
I mean, all of Paul's lettersare him telling some church that
they screwed up.
And I think it's important thatwe just remember that we are
those people and this is notstories of people in the past,
(27:41):
this is stories of people rightnow.
We are people, and we arepeople who continue to screw up,
and we are people who need tocontinue to seek that consistent
God.
Keep pursuing that consistentgoodness and righteousness and
love that God has to offer, sothat we can be at least a little
bit more consistent in ourgoodness and our righteousness
(28:02):
and our love.
David (28:03):
Yeah, because he is consistently looking after us
and following for us.
Javi (28:08):
Well, we consistently use the word consistently the whole
time, no doubt about that we did.
So, yeah, that's good and Ilove us talking about the
goodness of God and howconsistent he is, but thank you
for listening.
Please follow us on all thesocials at the Boundless Bible
(28:29):
and please, like, subscribe.
We want to hear from you guysand share this to a friend if
you think this is something thatthey could gleam off of and
maybe learn from.
Until next time, bye, bye Later.
Welcome to the Boundless Bible.
My name is David Shapiro, hey,I'm Javi Marquez and I'm Jason
Holloway.
Hello everybody, hey, hi.
So today's episode actuallycomes from my daughter's
question.
The other day her and I weredoing some Bible study.
We were reading the Bibletogether and she just mentioned
(00:25):
to me that this had to do with afish.
She's like, hey, they keepmentioning fish in the bible.
I said, man, you know, therereally is a lot of consistency
with what god uses in the bible.
Yeah, uh, things like rocks orstones, water, fish, uh, wisdom,
judgment, love, exile.
Yeah, um, just repeated thingsand jason, you've said it as
well, you know, it just seemslike, especially in the old
(00:47):
testament, it is.
You know, hey, we're, we'redoing good, we have our land
back and, oops, we messed up,we're exiled yeah and again and
again and again.
I love oops, we're exiled.
That's it.
Um, there is some definiteconsistency in the bible.
Yeah, I just want to open upthe conversation and you know,
first start off with.
You know why is consistencyimportant.
Why do we think that god isbeing consistent throughout the
bible?
I just want to open up theconversation and you know, first
start off with.
You know why is consistencyimportant.
Why do we think that God isbeing consistent throughout the
(01:07):
Bible?
Javi (01:09):
Ooh, that's good.
I think that's his nature.
I think he has no other way butto be consistent, and when I
think about consistency, or Ithink about a God and it being
inconsistent, I think itdevalues the word God or it
devalues him.
So I think him being consistentis something that we could lean
on, we could always trust, wecould always put our foot
(01:33):
forward in, and I love the factthat we're talking about this,
because a God that'sinconsistent, it would be scary.
It's an oxymoron, right?
I mean, yeah, right, consistentit's.
David (01:44):
It would be scary it's an oxymoron right I mean so I?
Jason (01:45):
I mean, yeah, right, so I ?
I think that the reason is Isaid this kind of recently is
that the reason that god isconsistent in the bible anyway
is because that's how we canread into the nature of god,
right, that at no point does thebible say here, I'm going to
tell you here, so come, sit down, I'm going to tell you about
god and all the stories of god.
Right, it's not's not how itworks, it's the.
(02:05):
The Bible, especially the oldTestament, is teaching us about
the nature of God, the nature ofhumans and the nature of the
relationships of God with humans.
And you know, you can do thatthrough consistency.
So every time a human does thisX, consequence comes.
Every time a human does this y,consequence comes.
So the consistency is a way forus to learn, by virtue of the
(02:28):
same ways that we learn if youtouch fire, you get burnt.
If you, you know, walk withoutpaying attention where you're
going, you're going to fall down.
You know things like that.
So I think that's, I thinkthat's the the first point of
consistency there, the the otherthing I would say is that you
mentioned Javi, that the idea ofa God being inconsistent is a
really uncomfortable one, and Ithink a lot, like you know, we
(02:49):
talk about God, our father,right, and a father or mother or
parental figure who isinconsistent is one you can't
trust.
Javi (02:56):
And that's what I'm comparing it to, almost like us,
being so human, you know, manytimes we're inconsistent and
that could be frustratingsometimes, you know, especially
when you're waiting for someoneor or expecting something, right
.
David (03:10):
Yeah, I think that you know, when you look at
consistency, I mean there's acouple of things it does right
off the bat.
One is it's vital for trust,which both of you just said it's
absolutely vital for trust.
You can't trust somebody who'sinconsistent.
Another one is it fostersmomentum.
I think that you know, when youhave, uh, the understanding of
how something is going to work,you start to build momentum on
(03:30):
that uh, and one of the things Ilook at is, uh, the you know
the story of the exodus, whereyou know we always look at the
israelites who are grumbling andthey've just seen all these
miracles and they're grumblingone of the things you have to
remember is you know, they werein captivity for 400 years.
Yeah, uh, they don't understandwho this god is, how this god
works, um, so, as he's working,they're new and they're going.
(03:52):
I don't understand how this,how?
Jason (03:53):
is this safe?
David (03:54):
how is this right?
How is this um?
And little by little, he ispushing them a little bit
further to go.
You have to trust me, you haveto trust me right.
And he's doing thingsconsistently by protecting them.
Whether it's parting the RedSea, whether it's making water
from a rock, whether it's manna,he is continuously providing
for them while giving them alittle.
He hasn't given them the fulllaw yet.
Jason (04:14):
It's not, hey, you have to do this, because I built all
this trust.
But there are.
But he is consistent in thepunishment when they, when they,
don't turn towards him.
So again, you know consistencyis.
I mentioned the parent thingbefore, but any parent, or even
a child who had a parent, knowsthat consistency is how you
learn.
If right now it's okay for meto drive my bike off the street,
(04:35):
and tomorrow it's not, andtomorrow it is and tomorrow it's
not, I don't know what I'msupposed to do.
I don't know what's right, Idon't know what's wrong.
So, especially in the beginningof the Bible, when God has
these nascent humans, you knowthese very still young societies
, you know his consistency is ishow they got to learn what was
right and what was wrong, whathas positive consequence, what
(04:56):
has negative consequence, and soI think that's that's just
really fascinating.
David (04:59):
It is.
And also when we think ofhumans.
You know one of the things Ialways think of.
You know, god created us, youknow, in his image, and when we
look at him being consistent, wesay, okay, he's consistent in
all these things.
Humans are also consistent andwe always get the bad rap.
Hey, we're consistent in sinand we're consistent in messing
up.
But consistently also buildsteamwork.
Yeah, the more you haveconsistency from people around
(05:20):
you, the better team you have,for sure, and I think that
that's one thing where you go asa positive way as humans.
The more we're consistent, likeGod is, the more we can start
trusting people, havingfellowship with people.
I think that's really important.
I think that God, you know, putthat in us as well to be
consistent, for each other, towork better together, for us to
have teamwork and camaraderie.
Jason (05:41):
Yeah, I mean, trust is so key in the and it's probably
the key word of all of this Likeif I had to even boil it down
even at this very moment, tolike what is this all about?
It's about trust.
You know, we can trust in Godbecause we know that if we act
in a certain way, we're going tohave a certain response.
If we act in another way, we'regoing to have a certain
response.
And so it gives us a clarity ofwhen we're making decisions
good ones or bad ones.
(06:01):
We know where we're standing,we know where we're coming at,
we know what angle we'reapproaching it from, and we know
that we can trust that therewill be good or there will be
wrath.
That comes from that, andthat's how else would we live
our lives if we didn't have that.
Javi (06:16):
That's a good statement yeah, it's a good example, right
?
Jesus Christ is another example, like the way he lived his life
, the way he acted upon with his, the apostles, and just kind of
how he he loved many and how hestopped to do his mission, to
to to love others and give back.
(06:36):
We could learn from that as agood example for us, and he was
consistent in that in many ways.
Jason (06:41):
And we should be more consistent too.
You know, again, we're made inGod's image, right, and we are.
We are consistently faulty, butwe should be working towards
being more consistently godlyright and we need to be
consistent with we need to beconsistent with our actions.
We need to be consistent withour words.
We need to be consistent withour, with our, treatment of
(07:02):
others.
Granted, we're not going to be,we are sinners, we know that,
but we should try, and God's thefirst great example of that.
Javi (07:09):
I'm glad you said that, because what I was thinking
about when I think aboutconsistency and you're saying
that we need to be that way.
God calls us to be like him inhis image, calls us to be
righteous, be good, to be loving, to be holy, just like he is,
and I think we were able to dothat here on earth with our
(07:30):
bodies, to be that way.
And I think when we do that, wefind joy, in that we find peace
.
But a lot of times we'reinconsistent with that, and when
we're inconsistent and I'mtrying to flesh this out when I
was thinking about this, it wasGod is, is consistent.
He wants us to be that way, butwe would never reach that.
(07:50):
We're, we're, we're, we'reflawed, we're, we're, we're
finite, and he shows us that andwe can never reach that and I
think that's why we need him.
You get what I'm trying to getat.
We need him.
Jason (08:00):
He needs to be the goalpost, so that we have
something to aim for.
Not that we'll get there.
But I mean, I think I said thison a previous episode you know
the thing about being we'vealways heard that we're sinners
and so we fall short of theglory of God.
But like that's kind ofChristianese for you know what I
mean it's like, and after yearsof hearing it, you stop
realizing what it means.
And what it means is like weare human, which means we are
(08:23):
perfect, pulled by the flesh todo certain fleshly things, and
our spirit knows the good, ourspirit knows the kindness and
the joy of helping, and ourspirits are good and clean, but
our bodies pull us in theopposite direction.
And so God is our constantreminder, our consistent
(08:44):
reminder of what we should be.
David (08:46):
But if we don't have him, we don't have anything to shoot
for of what we should be, butif we don't have him, we don't
have anything to shoot for.
I'll tell you about consistency.
One thing I see with people iswe are very easy to be
consistent on those things thatare core characteristics of who
we are.
Yeah, so when you have, youknow, a husband and a wife and
they are, you know, arguing,it's usually because one is
consistent with something andthen the you know consistent
(09:08):
with something, and then the youknow the other person says, hey
, I want you to be consistentabout this, and they go, okay,
but they never get there.
Why?
Because that's not part oftheir core characteristic.
I think when you look at theBible, you have God, who is
showing consistencies, but inhis core characteristic and I'm
just going to bring up a coupleof them and listen he is
consistent about a lot of things, uh, so don't rip me apart if I
missed something.
Yeah, sure, uh, but some of hiscore characteristics are, you
(09:29):
know, god's influence andmiracles that we know he does.
That is the meaning of fish.
Javi (09:34):
A fish symbolizes miracles and god's influence which is
again something that he'sconsistent in his characteristic
I just thought it means likeinfinity or something like that.
David (09:43):
Well, that's the symbol that we use again God's
influence.
Uh, water represents God'spower, symbolizes life renewal,
um, so that's uh again, the, thewater.
Um, you have wisdom, which isthe uh illuminated path in life
to you know again, we've talkedabout wisdom and knowledge and
what the difference are, uh,rock and stone, which is God's
(10:05):
unchanging ways, which is youknow exactly what consistency is
.
So, and then you have judgment,love.
Jason (10:12):
We have light.
Light is always purity.
There we go.
Light is always purity andperfection.
David (10:16):
Yep, these are literally his characteristics.
So when he's consistent, thecomfort we get is he's
consistent in who he is, in hiscore and characteristic.
We know who he is and that'spart of being faithful to God,
is not just knowing there is agod, but knowing god.
Right, um, and I think with usthat's wrong.
You know, having saying, hey,we, we want to be consistent
(10:37):
like him.
You know, we havecharacteristics, core.
Every one of us has somethingcore differently inside of us
that we're consistent with.
Uh, the the trouble goes whenwe try to be consistent with
something that doesn't meananything to our lives and then
how do you do that?
you're just forcing it, it'sgonna.
Javi (10:56):
You're talking about like like bad habits or like yeah,
that's what I'm thinking.
Jason (11:00):
I mean, I'm thinking you know?
Javi (11:02):
look, I think that's the point.
I think about that in theopposite of as as far as
thinking about inconsistencyright or consistent inency in a
negative way.
Yeah, consistency in a negativeway, right.
Jason (11:10):
Like we consistently are faulty.
We are consistently choosingour dopamine rushes for this
moment over long-term realhappiness and real satisfaction.
You know we are constantlychoosing the pizza over the
salad.
You know it's stuff like that.
Like we are consistent in thosethings, leaving you alone, man.
Javi (11:28):
You know it's stuff like that, like we are consistent in
those things, leaving you alone,man.
Jason (11:30):
You know we're constantly doing those things, and I think
that that is going back to whatI said a minute ago about us
being one half spirit, one halfhuman is like we need God in our
lives to be the consistentgoalpost, to be the constant
picture of perfection, notbecause we're ever going to
achieve it, but because weshould be trying to achieve it.
Javi (11:54):
What I wanted to say was, like in the, in the path to
seeking consistency and the pathto taking on God's attributes
of being holy and beingconsistent and being righteous,
and if we were to achieve thatwhich we won't, but if we were
to achieve that, how big wouldour head go, how much of a God
(12:17):
that we would think we are.
Jason (12:19):
I mean, look at Pharaoh, look at.
David (12:21):
Caesar.
Javi (12:23):
I mean, you know, that's kind of what that's all about.
Wait a minute, If we were to bejust consistent as God we were-
.
Jason (12:29):
Well, our consistency would be the wrong kind of
consistency.
In fact look, that's Sodom andGomorrah.
Right At that time, theyweren't looking at God and they
were being consistent, but theywere being consistently fleshly.
They were being consistentlydrawn to what gave them an
instant satisfaction of goodnessin that moment, although that
wasn't, you know, perpetualgoodness that they could reach.
But that's what that was.
(12:49):
I mean we are consistent.
I mean the question is, whatare you going to be consistent
with in your life?
Javi (12:53):
See that consistency.
To me it's, and I'm, you know,I say this is lack of better
word, it's just, it's easy, ohyeah.
David (13:14):
When doing the other thing of what God calls us to be
hard, because that requires todiscipline of ourselves and
discipline and discipline, yeah,uh, you know, sacrificing what
we feel for someone else, oh,that's hard.
Oh, totally, or, or do we useit?
I mean, here's one of thosethings we're talking about
consistency of of who we are ashumans.
Um, and sometimes we haveconsistency.
For bad things, we go, okay,addiction to gambling, addiction
to alcohol or substance abuseand things like that, we go.
You know, okay, that that's nota great thing to be consistent
with.
But if we were able to flipthat and say the core value in
(13:36):
my life is addiction, and I canflip that and go I'm not going
to be addicted to the drugs orthe alcohol or the gambling, but
I'm going to be addicted toGod's word, I'm going to be
addicted.
I mean again, you are nowutilizing that characteristic
the characteristic of beingobsessive or the characteristic
of being devoted or thecharacteristic of you know.
Jason (13:52):
Actually, just today I saw Russell Brand talking about
something and he said you know,and I thought that was
interesting.
I'm like right, what you'resaying now.
It's like if your corecharacteristic is to yearn and
to seek and to try and find.
(14:14):
Just change what it is thatyou're seeking and trying to
find yes, a hundred percent Wow.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Javi (14:20):
I wanted to.
I wanted to mention some versesthat brings me peace when I
think about God's consistency.
And the first one always isHebrews 13, eight.
That says Jesus Christ is thesame yesterday, today and
forever.
And that's truth.
Because I feel like when youlook at Psalms 119.89, it goes
(14:40):
into saying your word, lord, iseternal.
It stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continuesthrough all generations.
You established the earth andit endures.
Your laws endures to this day,for all things serve you.
And that brings me peace toknow that we have a God that's
consistent.
And there's many otherscriptures in the Bible that
talks about God's consistency.
David (15:02):
But that's it.
Instantly.
You get comforted, you go.
I feel comfort from thoseverses To know that God is
consistent, to know that he'sthe same yesterday, today and
tomorrow.
I can hold that in my heart andgo.
I know that God is going to bethis way tomorrow.
I don't have to guess what youwere saying, jason.
God is going to be this waytomorrow.
I don't have to guess what youwere saying, jason.
You know, when you have aparent who is one one one day,
(15:23):
you know one way and then oneway another day.
As a child it's a horrible wayto grow up.
Jason (15:27):
I mean that that is the literally like the textbook
definition of what makes aperson neurotic is is not
knowing what's coming after.
You know what, what the resultis going to be of any given
action, and that makes them very, very neurotic.
I would even go as far as tosay, when it comes to the
consistency thing is like thattrust value is so important and
even in my own life I told thestory a couple of times recently
is like even when I was anatheist, if I really search my
(15:51):
soul and kind of remember allthe details, moving backwards,
even when I was at my most, likedisbelieving, unbelieving,
denying if something really badhappened in my life.
I disbelieving, unbelieving,denying.
If something really badhappened in my life, I still
trusted God so deeply downsomewhere that I would still go,
you know, and put my hands Tobe honest, I'm right there with
you, bro.
David (16:09):
I put my hands together and I would go.
Jason (16:11):
I know I haven't talked to you, I know I don't deserve
this, I know that I know for afact that I shouldn't be coming
to you right now, but I havenowhere else to go and if you're
there I need you.
That's good and, bro, that'sthe way to think about that in
reverse.
To think about that in reverseis so weird.
Javi (16:33):
To think that my body would have acknowledged it so
deeply that I still trusted,even though I was living an
entire life anti, and that's theconsistency that we're talking
about here, right, His love, hiscomfort that he's going to be
here, his peace that he brings,the joy that he brings.
That's the consistency we talkabout when we think about God.
At least for me, it's wow, wegot this God that could really
(16:54):
take away our burdens, our hurt,our discomfort.
He brings this goodness, and toknow that he's consistent in
that man, I could lean on thatall day.
Jason (17:03):
Well, think about the amount of times any anybody
who's old enough to have triedto do something and felt very
strongly that they were capablealone, only to come to the end
of a road and realize that theyweren't enough and that you, you
know that, that that you can'tdo it yourself, that there is a
limit to your capability, youknow what I mean when anybody
(17:25):
who's felt that moment alsorealizes the need for that
consistency of someone else tobe there in those times of need.
And and I think that anybodylistening to this who has had
that moment should stop stop andtake a moment and consider that
moment and go.
When did I realize howconsistent that God was, that,
(17:45):
no matter what, I wasn't enough,but there was something else
out there for me.
And I think anybody listeningto this who's had that moment
and been in that place shouldstop and go.
What exactly is it inside methat knew that?
And how was that just kind ofbuilt in.
David (18:05):
It's just one of the ways that God created us and he just
created with, with, exactlywith the image of who he is.
Um, and you know I like toalways flip it and you know
we're just telling, telling thestory of you know when, when you
were at your most, unbelievinghow you were still feeling that
connection.
Um, I just think about God inthat moment, who is celebrating,
not angry at you, who'scelebrating and saying thank you
for coming back, Thank you forlooking up instead of looking
(18:27):
inward.
Jason (18:27):
I have the same vision of him.
Every time I have this memory.
Javi (18:31):
That's it right there.
Jason (18:33):
He had his arms crossed he had his arms crossed, he was
smirking at me and he was likefor real, really.
Javi (18:38):
Yeah, no, no, no.
Jason (18:41):
But it wasn't a bad smirk , it was like a come on, come on
, do it.
You're here, come on, say it,like I.
But I have this vision of himsmirking at me, being like I
knew you'd come back, but it wasit's.
It's just hysterical every timeI see it.
Let's change topics for aminute, because I think the
other interesting thing aboutconsistency isn't the nature of
god, although that that'sfascinating.
Yeah, it's how the Bible writes, in consistent patterns,
(19:04):
because the patterns are meantto tell you things you mentioned
before.
You know water, yes, and waterhas a few different meanings
actually.
David (19:11):
It does.
Water has the cleansing partand the it does, it has a
destruction part to it it has adestruction part Life and
destruction and God's power, butit also has confusion.
Jason (19:21):
Right, like water is also confusion, but so— Security
it's—.
And if, when you learn likethese, you know two, three, four
motifs, all of a sudden youknow we're talking about the
boundless Bible here.
This is when the Bible goes andit just opens up into like
100,000 more layers.
You know the wilderness.
A hundred thousand more layers.
You know the wilderness.
You know the.
(19:41):
The wilderness, the consistencyof using the wilderness as the
place of being lost, the placeof not knowing where to go, the
place of needing to have somestruggle in your life to figure
out tests.
David (19:51):
It's a testing ground.
Jason (19:52):
You know it's all this stuff when you get into the.
You know the consistency of oflight.
You know, look, the burningbush may be fire, but it's also
light.
It's a light that.
Look a burning bush isn't thatexciting in the daytime, I mean
it is, but it's way moreexciting in the nighttime, right
, because it's drawing you inand that light is that purity
and there's things like that.
Javi (20:07):
Yeah, there's light in the darkness right.
Jason (20:09):
There's so many of these things that are that are so
fascinating to me and and like,let's not even get into know
numerology.
You know the, the use of sevenin the hebrew as being the
perfection, yes, the uh, which,by the way, was super weird.
The other day I realized thatthe five loaves and two what is
it?
Um, five loaves and two fish isseven, yep, and then there's
(20:31):
another story of four loaves andthree fish.
Seven, like seeing what I'mlike noticing these little
details all over.
There's the 40 at.
40 is always, you know, anothernumber that comes up, whether
it's the 40 days in thewilderness, whether it's 40 days
of fasting.
40 happens to happen a lot inthe testing, trial phases, right
?
David (20:47):
yep, there's definitely a lot of consistency in in
numerology and and in the biblein general.
I think when you start to lookthrough it, you'll start to see,
listen, there are people who goas far as um really looking at,
like, every couple of words,pulling the word out and saying,
hey, this is what this says, um, and whether or not those are
meant to be there and hidden, orjust you know happenstance, and
(21:08):
they happen to be there.
Um, there are some brilliantthings that are written down, um
, even the consistency of bookspointing to one another.
Um, when you, when you startlooking at uh and javi you
mentioned this to me the otherday when you start looking at uh
and javi you mentioned this tome the other day yeah, when you
start looking at the bible andyou go, okay, this is written by
so many authors in so manydifferent continents through so
many years, yeah, and we takethat for granted, we go, okay,
(21:30):
so a lot of people wrote a bigdeal.
Yeah, well, uh, when you startto see the tie-ins, um, and
there's really, really greatdiagram that people have put
together that shows you thisrainbow of colors of these
arches, yeah, connecting thedifferent stories together, I've
seen that.
That's, that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean talk aboutconsistency.
Jason (21:47):
I think it's 60 000 like connections or something like
that.
David (21:50):
Yeah, it's unbelievable and and again, javi mentioned
this the other day to me and andit is when you start to look at
that diagram, you go this is aconsistent god who's writing
consistent word and it is justbeautiful.
Yeah, I mean, but even waving,even the story even the stories.
Jason (22:06):
like you know, you have Moses who gets the red sea
crossed in front of him, andthen, right before they go into
the promised land, joshuacrosses over a river.
You know, like there's there'sthere's so many like little
details like that and like Ifind it so fascinating to look
at the consistence even betweenstories like that's one of them,
(22:28):
um, you know, jonah being gonein the whale for three days.
Jesus goes in the tomb for threedays, like there's all these
like motifs that show upthroughout the, throughout the,
the, the story, and again, Idon't, obviously it's not an
accident.
Right, that's not an accident.
No, matter, that's not anaccident, no matter which way
you look at it.
And it, it, it begs thequestion of what are you making
me look at?
You know what are you what?
(22:49):
else are you hiding in plainsight?
What else is being alluded tothat?
I need to draw the correlationbetween it's almost like it's
almost like a chiasm.
You know, I think we've talkedabout chiasm before, but like
there's these different literarytechniques that the writers of
the Bible have employed in orderto physically force your brain
(23:12):
if you're paying enoughattention to look at something
specific, and it's just that'sthe stuff that just blows my
mind and I like to think I it'sjust, that's the stuff that just
blows my mind.
Javi (23:20):
I like to think.
I mean, I want to also bring up, you know, the consistency in
the actual Bible, the writing ofit, right, yeah, oh no, there's
definitely consistency in it.
David (23:35):
You know it's under debate obviously secular.
Javi (23:36):
you know, scholars like to debate the consistency of it,
which is why I bring it up,because I feel like you have
this opposite side that'sfighting against that up,
because I feel like you havethis opposite side that's
fighting against that.
No-transcript.
That is consistent.
David (23:49):
It's very consistent.
And when you look at at historyand archeology uh, listen, you
just mentioned Jonah and thefish Uh, one of the things that
you look at with Jonah and thefish is we're not the first ones
to connect that with Jesus Um,there were bone boxes, ossuaries
, uh, right at the time ofJesus's death, that, when people
already knew his divinity, they, they marked it with the fish,
(24:09):
which, again in the beginning,javi, you're like oh, isn't that
Jesus.
They marked the Oshwares with afish for Jesus, because they
recognize the fact that Jonahwas in the whale for three days.
Jesus was in the tomb for threedays, so you have this
connection 2,000 years ago where, yeah, we're talking about it
today, but this is somethingthat was consistent long ago
(24:30):
from the moment it was happening.
One of the reasons why we knowthese things happened is it was
written about or shown about orthere was something about it
right off the bat.
Um, this wasn't 300 years laterat some, you know, at some
meeting, some council, uh, wherethey gave jesus divinity.
No, no, this was right away.
You see, immediately this, youknow, this bone box with jesus
and asking him to save a lovedone, with the picture of a fish
(24:52):
and um it.
There is a consistency with thebible, um, not only with the
words and and the translations,which you know.
We already have plenty ofrecords with that, with the dead
sea scrolls and other fragments.
We found um to show howconsistent is.
But there's a consistency within the bible, in the text, that
you can go really deep and lookat some things that you know,
(25:14):
like you said, numerology orletters or the meaning of words.
I mean, when you look at Hebrew, every single letter, every
single word has a meaning to it.
When you really start to digdeep, you realize that the
beautiful consistency is justthroughout in a big way.
I mean, man, we can spend, youknow, hours talking about all
(25:35):
the different ways that we can-.
Jason (25:37):
Well, even you know, one of the things I was looking at
the other day was like theconsistency between Adam and
Jesus.
Yes, you know, adam doesn'tcommit the first sin, eve does.
Yeah, and he blames her.
Jesus didn't commit the firstsin, but he doesn't blame us.
(25:57):
I mean, he blames himself.
So he did what Adam should havedone the first time.
Right, had Adam maybe takenresponsibility for his own
action, maybe it would have beensomething, and David said that
before you know, maybe the factthat they got kicked out was
because they didn't repent and.
Adam didn't say sorry, my bad.
He said she made me do it Right.
So it's like even consistencyis as simple as that.
(26:20):
First man, yeah, they callJesus the first Adam.
They call Jesus the first Adam,or the something like that.
Right, the second Adam, thesecond Adam, and you know.
So to look at that, look at theconsistency there.
David (26:32):
You're talking about two different unit, like 2 000 years
apart, and this consistentstory that has a consistent
beginning and a different endingwell, you were mentioning jason
wilderness uh, when you look atwilderness, almost every single
time you look at the bible uh,when you're in the wilderness,
you fail.
Yeah, I mean, we saw theisraelites in the exodus.
They failed in the wilderness,um, but then you look at jesus
who goes into wilderness and didnot fail right um.
(26:53):
So there's consistency eventhere.
Jason (26:56):
Um, it's just well, and there's hundreds of those too.
I mean we could sit here and dothis, for maybe we should, but
I mean this is this is.
This is where it gets so, soincredibly cool, and I I don't
want to return to the beginning,to the beginning again, but I
think we should, and it'sprobably a good place to end,
which is we've seen, we'vetalked about the consistency of
God and we kind of alluded tothe consistency of man, but I
think it's really important thatwe remember that the Bible is
full of one very consistentthing, especially the old
(27:17):
Testament it's the human screwup.
Over and over and over and overand over.
Then Jesus came and revealedthe sin to us and saved us from
that sin.
And we continue to screw up.
I mean, all of Paul's lettersare him telling some church that
they screwed up.
And I think it's important thatwe just remember that we are
those people and this is notstories of people in the past,
(27:41):
this is stories of people rightnow.
We are people, and we arepeople who continue to screw up,
and we are people who need tocontinue to seek that consistent
God.
Keep pursuing that consistentgoodness and righteousness and
love that God has to offer, sothat we can be at least a little
bit more consistent in ourgoodness and our righteousness
(28:02):
and our love.
David (28:03):
Yeah, because he is consistently looking after us
and following for us.
Javi (28:08):
Well, we consistently use the word consistently the whole
time, no doubt about that we did.
So, yeah, that's good and Ilove us talking about the
goodness of God and howconsistent he is, but thank you
for listening.
Please follow us on all thesocials at the Boundless Bible
(28:29):
and please, like, subscribe.
We want to hear from you guysand share this to a friend if
you think this is something thatthey could gleam off of and
maybe learn from.
Until next time, bye, bye Later.
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