Weird Stuff in the Bible

The devil really really doesn’t want you to listen to today’s episode. Because this is going to blow the door wide open on one of Satan’s schemes that he uses to try and make us ineffective as Christians. But, I’ll also tell you how to overcome it.

Last year, one of my pastor friends who was preaching through the book of Daniel and came across the strange story in chapter 10. And he commented that he didn’t know how he was going to teach it.

And I was like, “what you do mean, how you’re going to teach it? You just teach it. You read what it says and make sure everyone understand it.”

But I understand what he meant. Daniel 10 is weird. It deals with something we don’t hear about a lot in the spiritual realm.

But just because we don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen every day. It’s a weird thing to us, but a totally normal thing in the spirit.

In Daniel 10, it says that demons and fallen angels actually have a way to stop our prayers. That God can even hear our prayers, send an answer, and that Satan can stop it before the answer comes to us. Believe it or not, that’s something that devils can interfere with.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Daniel 10, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Intro

1:30 - Daniel 10, Wrestling with Angels

6:00 - The Prince of Persia

8:25 - Demons Can Disrupt Our Prayers

11:00 - Mailbag

13:25 - Keep Praying and Don’t Give Up

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

Imagine sitting on a hill, wondering about your life, when suddenly the heavens open, and you see creatures so otherworldly they defy description. Four faces on each of their heads, gleaming metal, fire, and a throne surrounded by lightning. That’s where Ezekiel’s story begins—and where we’re headed today.

The prophet Ezekiel sees something that very very few people in the Bible ever saw: a vision of God on His throne. In the very first chapter of the book, God appears before Ezekiel, attended to by these spiritual beings known as the cherubim. There are four of them, and each of the creatures has four faces. It says in

Ezekiel 1:10

As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.

So Ezekiel gets off to a pretty strange start. Like I said, that’s just the first chapter. And right off the bat, Ezekiel sees something that even almost no other prophet gets to see. And not only that, he gets to see it again. Ezekiel has another experience of God and the cherubim in

Ezekiel 10:14

And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was a human face, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

So, there’s a slight difference there between the description of the cherubim in chapter 1 vs the description in chapter 10. In chapter 1, one of the faces was described as an ox. In chapter 10, it was called the face of a cherub.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to know why it changes from one chapter to the next. And along the way of exploring this question, we’ll actually discover the answer to another one: What does Satan look like?

It’s probably not a question you’ve ever dwelt on too long. You probably think I’m pretty weird for even asking it. But this is not a podcast for people who like talking about normal stuff in the Bible. This is a podcast for people who like to learn about weird stuff in the Bible.

So if that’s what you’re here for, turn to Ezekiel 1, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:40 - Ezekiel 1 vs Ezekiel 10

14:00 - The Face of Satan

21:20 - Next Time & Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

The Divine Council: How God Makes Decisions

This is episode 3 of Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we pull back the curtain on God’s decision-making process.

0:00 - Staff Meetings in Heaven

1:45 - Introducing the Divine Council (Psalm 82)

9:45 - I Kings 22, Micaiah’s Vision

18:15 - Mailbag

20:00 - Closing Thoughts (Isaiah 37 and I Samuel 16)

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

I received a thought-provoking message from one of our listeners this week: Alana writes in:

I find it interesting in Acts 14 when the crowd claim that Paul and Barnabas are Zeus and Hermes that Paul and Barnabas do not deny that Zeus and Hermes exist. That Paul and Barnabas simply point out that they are only mortal men.

Now, there’s a couple ways you could read Paul’s deflection in this story, which we’ll study through in a moment. This took place in Lystra, where there was a temple of Zeus worship, and it ends with sacrifices being offered to him.

One way to read Paul’s comment is that he’s just ignoring Zeus as an irrelevant idol. Another way to read it is that Zeus is real. That despite the idols and temple of Zeus being meaningless structures, perhaps there is a spiritual entity behind them.

In fact, I Corinthians 10 even tells us that sacrifices to idols are offered to demons.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Acts 14, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:20 - The Context in Acts 14

8:00 - The Identity of Zeus

18:15 - Next Time and Mailbag

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

Where do demons like to hang out?

You know, other than the DMV, the Grammy Awards, or in that sauce they put in Chipotle wraps.

Where would you go- or perhaps a better way to say it, where should you avoid- if you want to stay away from demons?

Well if you asked the writers of the Bible, they had an idea about where demons liked to congregate. I mean, certainly you can find a demon just about anywhere. But what locations of the earth were considered the domain of demons?

Jesus made a strange (almost off-handed) comment in

Matthew 12:43, where He said:

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.

So what did Jesus mean about demons- AKA unclean spirits- who go through dry, waterless places when they are cast out of a human?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Matthew 12, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:45 - The Context

4:45 - Unholy Ground

10:00 - Kingdom Authority

18:20 - Next Time and Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!