Podcasts about Transjordan

Why was Half-Manasseh invited in by Moses? And given so much land?

In this episode of the Parsha Review Podcast, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe explores the combined Torah portions of Matos and Mas'ei, which conclude the Book of Numbers. He highlights the turbulent history of the Jewish people in Numbers, marked by crises like the spies, Korach's rebellion, and the Baal Peor incident, setting the stage for Deuteronomy's review of the Torah's teachings over Moses' final 36 days. Rabbi Wolbe delves into Matos, which opens with the laws of oaths, emphasizing the sacredness of one's word. He stresses that in God's world, every spoken commitment must be fulfilled, as one's word reflects their relationship with the divine attribute of truth (Emet). He shares stories of sages like Rabbi Siegel, who left a wedding early to honor a promise to a child, and Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who, despite severe Parkinson's, attended a bris to keep his word, illustrating the meticulous care sages took to uphold truth. Rabbi Wolbe recounts an anecdote about Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, who chose an authentic sermon over a polished one during a rabbinic interview to avoid misleading a congregation, underscoring the importance of absolute truth. The episode also covers the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe opting to settle in Transjordan, contingent on aiding the conquest of Israel, highlighting communal responsibility. Rabbi Wolbe defines spirituality as infusing physical actions—like prayer or mitzvot—with divine meaning, contrasting this with mere religion, and urges listeners to live with absolute truth to emulate God. He concludes by encouraging self-evaluation to ensure one's actions align with divine truth, preparing for the ultimate accountability before God._____________This episode (Ep 7.39) of the Parsha Review Podcast by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on Parshas Matos-Masei is dedicated in honor of our Holy Soldiers in the Battlefield and our Torah Scholars in the Study Halls who are fighting for the safety of our nation!Download & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Studios (C) to an online TORCHzoom.com audience on July 21, 2025, in Passaic, New Jersey.Released as Podcast on July 23, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Numbers, #Matos, #Masei, #truthfulness, #integrity, #vows, #promises, #partialtruth, #authenticity, #sincerity ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of the Parsha Review Podcast, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe explores the combined Torah portions of Matos and Mas'ei, which conclude the Book of Numbers. He highlights the turbulent history of the Jewish people in Numbers, marked by crises like the spies, Korach's rebellion, and the Baal Peor incident, setting the stage for Deuteronomy's review of the Torah's teachings over Moses' final 36 days. Rabbi Wolbe delves into Matos, which opens with the laws of oaths, emphasizing the sacredness of one's word. He stresses that in God's world, every spoken commitment must be fulfilled, as one's word reflects their relationship with the divine attribute of truth (Emet). He shares stories of sages like Rabbi Siegel, who left a wedding early to honor a promise to a child, and Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who, despite severe Parkinson's, attended a bris to keep his word, illustrating the meticulous care sages took to uphold truth. Rabbi Wolbe recounts an anecdote about Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, who chose an authentic sermon over a polished one during a rabbinic interview to avoid misleading a congregation, underscoring the importance of absolute truth. The episode also covers the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe opting to settle in Transjordan, contingent on aiding the conquest of Israel, highlighting communal responsibility. Rabbi Wolbe defines spirituality as infusing physical actions—like prayer or mitzvot—with divine meaning, contrasting this with mere religion, and urges listeners to live with absolute truth to emulate God. He concludes by encouraging self-evaluation to ensure one's actions align with divine truth, preparing for the ultimate accountability before God._____________This episode (Ep 7.39) of the Parsha Review Podcast by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on Parshas Matos-Masei is dedicated in honor of our Holy Soldiers in the Battlefield and our Torah Scholars in the Study Halls who are fighting for the safety of our nation!Download & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Studios (C) to an online TORCHzoom.com audience on July 21, 2025, in Passaic, New Jersey.Released as Podcast on July 23, 2025_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Prayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Numbers, #Matos, #Masei, #truthfulness, #integrity, #vows, #promises, #partialtruth, #authenticity, #sincerity ★ Support this podcast ★

When the mandate system was created at the Paris Peace Conference, it became a powerful tool for the British and French to carve up the Middle East and Africa following the defeat and collapse of the German and Ottoman Empires. France took control of Syria and created the state of Lebanon and the British gained Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. This podcast explores the sour relations between the British and French, Britain's desperate need to self governance to emerge in Iraq to limit the costs of their empire and the machinations that led to Prince Feisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca to become King of Iraq.For more history writing check out www.explaininghistory.orgHelp the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teaching Text - Deuteronomy 4Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you. 3 You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor. 4 But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you. 5 Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess. 6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people.” 7 In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today?9 Again, however, pay very careful attention, lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren. 10 You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.” 11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it and yet dark with a thick cloud. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything—only a voice was heard. 13 And he revealed to you the covenant he has commanded you to keep, the Ten Commandments, writing them on two stone tablets. 14 Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land that you are about to enter and possess.15 Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. 16 I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female, 17 any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky, 18 anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters under the earth. 19 When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—the whole heavenly creation—you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for the Lord your God has assigned them to all the people of the world. 20 You, however, the Lord has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today. 21 But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he is about to give you. 22 So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that good land. 23 Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God.25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, 26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated. 27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship gods made by human hands—wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. 30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in future days, if you return to the Lord your God and obey him 31 (for he is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 34 Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God—there is no other besides him. 36 From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. 37 Moreover, because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power 38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. 39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below—there is no other! 40 Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.”41 Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east. 42 Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe. 43 These cities are Bezer, in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.44 This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. 45 These are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites after he had brought them out of Egypt, 46 in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt. 47 They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan—both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east. 48 Their territory extended from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon—that is, Hermon— 49 including all the rift valley of the Transjordan in the east to the sea of the rift valley, beneath the slopes of Pisgah.)

Teaching Text - Deuteronomy 1This is what Moses said to all of Israel in the Transjordanian wilderness, the arid rift valley opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab. 2 Now it is ordinarily an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir. 3 However, it was not until the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year that Moses addressed the Israelites just as the Lord had instructed him to do. 4 This took place after the defeat of King Sihon of the Amorites, whose capital was in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, whose capital was in Ashtaroth, specifically in Edrei. 5 So it was in the Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses began to deliver these words:6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, “You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough. 7 Head out and resume your journey. Enter the Amorite hill country, and all its neighboring areas, including the rift valley, the hill country, the foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain—all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates. 8 Look! I have already given the land to you. Go, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants.” 9 I also said to you at that time, “I am no longer able to sustain you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has increased your population to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky. 11 Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would! 12 But how can I alone bear up under the burden of your hardship and strife? 13 Select wise and practical men, those known among your tribes, whom I may appoint as your leaders.” 14 You replied to me that what I had said to you was good. 15 So I chose as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials. 16 I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens and judge fairly, whether between one person and a native Israelite or a resident foreigner. 17 They must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.18 So I instructed you at that time regarding everything you should do. 19 Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea. 20 Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country, which the Lord our God is about to give us. 21 Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!” 22 So all of you approached me and said, “Let's send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.” 23 I thought this was a good idea, so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. 24 They left and went up to the hill country, coming to the Eshcol Valley, which they scouted out. 25 Then they took some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, “The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.”26 You were not willing to go up, however, but instead rebelled against the Lord your God. 27 You complained among yourselves privately and said, “Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us! 28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there.” 29 So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified of them! 30 The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.” 32 However, through all this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God, 33 who would go before you on the way to find places for you to camp, appearing in a fire at night and in a cloud by day to show you the way you ought to go.34 When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: 35 “Not a single person of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors! 36 The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me.” 37 As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, “You also will not be able to go there. 38 However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land. 39 Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it. 40 But as for you, turn back and head for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”41 Then you responded to me and admitted, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do.” So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country. 42 But the Lord told me: “Tell them this: ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'” 43 I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country. 44 The Amorite inhabitants of that area confronted you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. 45 Then you came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to you whatsoever. 46 Therefore, you remained at Kadesh for a long time—indeed, for the full time.

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In this introduction to the law, Moses indicates both the value God places on life by selecting the Transjordan cities of refuge and the high value He places on the law and covenant.

This text is a description of the victory of Og and the distribution of the Transjordan land to the 2 1/2 tribes. In it, we find God's faithfulness and evidence to abstain from fear in fighting God's battles. And in it, we find that God's people who fear, trust and obey Him will also find that He fights for them!

At the end of the First World War the Ottoman Empire was carved up between the British and the French, with Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq being taken as mandates by Britain and Syria and Lebanon being occupied by France. The British originally secured Syria for France, but the French then overthrew the new king of the country, Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Northwest Bible Church – Dec. 8, 2024 – Joshua – Alan Conner Josh. 13 The Division of the Transjordan Intro A. UNCONQUERED LAND IN CANAAN (Joshua 13:1-7). 1.  SW region: Philistines and Geshurites (Joshua 13:2-4a).     2. N region: Sidonians, Lebanon (4b-6a).    3. God's promise to drive out the Canaanites in the north (Joshua 13:6). 4. Command to apportion the land to the 9 ½ tribes (Joshua 13:7).    B.  THE DIVISION OF THE LAND EAST OF THE JORDAN (Joshua 13:8-33). 1. General description of the entire area (Joshua 13:8-14). a. The kingdoms of Sihon and Og described (Joshua 13:9-12).     b. The Geshurites and Maacathites were undefeated (Joshua 13:13).     c. No land for the tribe of Levi  (Joshua 13:14).    2. The land allotted to the tribe of REUBEN (Joshua 13:15-23). a. Boundaries specified (Joshua 13:16-23). b. Balaam is killed (Joshua 13:22).       3. The land allotted to the tribe of GAD (Joshua 13:24-28). 4. The land allotted to the half tribe of MANASSEH (Joshua 13:29-32). 5.  No land for the tribe of Levi (Joshua 13:33).     a. Grace triumphs over judgment.   b. The best inheritance.        Conclusion Discussion questions:  What can we learn about God from the dividing up of the land?   Why did the Levites not inherit any of the land (besides their cities)?  Was their inheritance better than the other tribes?    What lessons can we apply to the church from this?

Joshua 22 Pastor Doug Link covers Chapter 22 wherein the tribes on the East side of the Jordan complete their responsibilities in a promise made to Moses, but quickly find themselves in the middle of a controversy. The post A Farewell to the Transjordan Tribes appeared first on Grace Church of Tallahassee.

Though he has not been glorified by the Church, Fr Lazarus was a pioneer and exemplar of Orthodoxy in the West.   He was born in England in 1902. In his early manhood he moved to western Canada, where he worked as a farm laborer for several years. While working in Alberta, he sensed a call to become a missionary and went to an English missionary college for five years.   Sad to say, our sources are unclear about how he came to the Orthodox faith from this unlikely beginning. But in 1934 he spent seven weeks on Mt Athos, then lived as a monk in Yugoslavia. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Theophan (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), then sent to Palestine to serve the Russian Mission in Jerusalem.   In 1948, the new State of Israel gave the Mission's property to the Soviet Union and the mission was left dispossessed. Fr Lazarus served as priest to the Russian Convent in Aïn Karim and Transjordan, then was sent to India in 1952, where he helped in Orthodox missionary work for twenty years. Several of his books and translations, such as his biography/study of St Seraphim of Sarov, were written while he lived in India. While there, he met Mother Gavrilia of Greece, whose beautiful biography Ascetic of Love includes good descriptions of him during his life in India. Though very strict in his Orthodoxy, he was flexible in externals: in India he wore a white rather than a black cassock, because black clothing had offensive connotations to the Indian people.   In 1972 Fr Lazarus was called to Greece, then in 1974 to Australia, where he served for nine years. In 1983 he moved to California in answer to call from Fr Peter Gillquist to assist members of the former 'Evangelical Orthodox Church' in their move to Orthodoxy. In 1989 he moved to Alaska, where he continued this work. He reposed in Eagle River, Alaska in 1992. Following is an excerpt from an account of his last days by members of his community in Eagle River:   "Father always signed his name with TWA, "Traveling With Angels". A few days before his death, after battling cancer many years, faithfully using the Jesus Prayer as the medicine for his affliction, the Archangel Michael appeared to help him. His final journey homeward had begun, TWA... 'the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.' (2 Timothy 4: 6-8)."

Welcome to Day 2431 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – When Giants Walked the Earth – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2431 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2431 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Today is the sixteenth lesson in our segment, Theology Thursday. Utilizing excerpts from a book titled: I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible written by Hebrew Bible scholar and professor the late Dr. Michael S Heiser, we will invest a couple of years going through the entire Bible, exploring short Biblical lessons that you may not have received in Bible classes or Church. The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God's redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it's also a book that seems strange to us. While God's Word was written for us, it wasn't written to us. Today, our lesson is, When Giants Walked the Earth. If they haven't read it, most people have at least heard the story of David and Goliath of Gath (“the Gittite”). The names of the hero and villain have iconic status. But how many people know anything about the giant Goliath, other than that he lost his head to a boy named David from Israel? 2 Samuel 21:15-22 and 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 tell us that there were other unusually tall warriors among the Philistines.- The lists are not identical, but putting them together we read that there were four: Saph (also called Sippai), Lahmi, Ishbibenob, and an unnamed warrior. The descriptions are similar to those given by Goliath, noting “great stature” and the dimensions of their weaponry. Unlike Goliath or any other named warriors, the unnamed giant is said to have six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. This malformation, known as polydactylism, is only mentioned in the description of this giant. The Bible does not mention it when it discusses other giant clans. Wait a minute—giant clans? There are several people groups described as giants or among whom giants lived in the Old Testament:- There are the Anakim, who are descendants from the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 (compare Num 13:33), and whom the people of Israel encountered under Moses, and later under Joshua (Num 13:22-33; Tosh 15:13-14). At one time, before the children of Israel traveled through the Transjordan, the land to the east of the Jordan River was heavily populated with tall people known as Emim (Deut 2:10-11) and the Zamzummim, also called the Zuzim (Deut 2:20). The Amorites, another group that stood in the way of Israel claiming the promised land, are described as being exceptionally tall (Amos 2:9- 10). Lastly, there were the Rephaim, which are mentioned nearly 20 times, most often in association with the conquest of the promised land, when Moses encountered King Og of Bashan, whose bed measured to 13 feet in length (Deut 2:11, 20-22: 3:11-13: Tosh 12:4:13:13). Goliath was Rephaim. He and the four giant warriors listed alongside him are descended from Rapha (non) in Gath (2 Sam 21:22: 1 Chr 20:8). If rapha is interpreted as a proper name, Rapha, then the...

In this fourth installment of our True Biblical Baptism series, we explore the next scriptural iteration of water immersion: John the Immerser's (aka John the Baptist's) water immersion. What was the meaning of John's water immersion? How, if at all, did it differ from the Hebrew water immersion of Torah? And how, if at all, does it differ from New Covenant, Messianic/Netsari water immersion that we all have been instructed to engage in as part of our discipleship journey in Yeshua Messiah?

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1217, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Getting Jazzed 1: Introduced in 1948, these items let jazz become more complex by allowing longer performances on a single side. LPs. 2: Look away, look away, look away, it's a revivalist style of New Orleans jazz. Dixieland. 3: Billy Strayhorn composed classics like "Take The 'A' Train" during his collaboration with this bandleader. Duke Ellington. 4: In 1998 Ellis, patriarch of this jazz family, released his own trio album, "Twelve's It". Marsalis. 5: In the '70s Weather Report had "nuclear" results with this style that combined jazz and rock. fusion. Round 2. Category: 1949 1: On August 23 a manslaughter charge was filed against the cabbie who killed this "Gone with the Wind" author. (Margaret) Mitchell. 2: On January 31 the U.S. formally recognized Transjordan and this country. Israel. 3: This camera which produced a print in 60 seconds went on sale May 11. a Polaroid. 4: There were about 40,000 horologists making these in the U.S.. clocks (watches). 5: Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, shah of this country, was wounded when a reporter fired 5 shots at him. Iran. Round 3. Category: Waist Up, Neck Down 1: "Breadbasket" is slang for the midsection or specifically this digestive organ. the stomach. 2: The cecum is part of the large intestine; animals use it to digest this kind of food, so in koalas, it's 3 times body length. plants (vegetation). 3: Filtering the entire contents of your blood as many as 40 times a day is the job of this pair of organs. the kidneys. 4: As part of the body's immune response, the spleen releases these proteins such as IgM that counteract pathogens. antibodies. 5: The formation of solid deposits also called choleliths is a common occurrence in this organ. the gallbladder. Round 4. Category: Show Biz Shelleys 1: 3 "cheers" for this actress who played waitress Diane Chambers. Shelley Long. 2: While playing Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show, she had a #1 hit with "Johnny Angel". Shelley Fabares. 3: The TV boss she worked for and perfume she represented were both named Charlie. Shelley Hack. 4: He said, "I'm not a sick comedian; I'm a healthy actor". Shelley Berman. 5: When Clark Gable came to pick her up, she thinks her mother may have said, "Don't be careful". Shelley Winters. Round 5. Category: America Literature 1: While walking, this Washington Irving character comes upon a party of odd-looking men playing ninepins. Rip Van Winkle. 2: In "Moby Dick" this captain dies when a harpoon line loops around his neck and pulls him overboard. Ahab. 3: In this Steinbeck work, dimwitted Lennie Small has a vision of his Aunt Clara. Of Mice and Men. 4: After Judge Pyncheon's death, this Hawthorne title home is left to Hepzibah and her brother Clifford. the House of Seven Gables. 5: Tom Sawyer is ordered to whitewash a fence because this brother tells Aunt Polly Tom played hooky. Sid. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Oh Holy God, Heavenly Father, we come to you in reverence and trepidation at your greatness, your mightiness. You are a glorious God. And Lord, we thank you so much that you did not leave us in our sin, in our darkness, but you sent your son Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the truth, the way, the life. And Jesus, we thank you for providing a way for our salvation, for our forgiveness of sin, for our transfer from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for proclaiming the truth as boldly as you did, and that boldness took you to a cross.And we thank you for the example of your choice servants who proclaim the truth, no matter the consequences, many of whom were martyred for the faith. And we thank you that their blood was the seed of the church. We thank you for all those that you sent while we were still in darkness to proclaim the gospel to us boldly. And we thank you, Lord, that you give us grace and that you empower us by the power of the Holy Spirit to go and proclaim the gospel to anyone who would hear.And I pray, Lord, that you grow our fearlessness in proclamation of the word of God, the truth, the gospel no matter what the consequences, no matter the opposition. I pray that you make us so people who care more about what you think than even what earthly rulers think about us. And Lord, help us proclaim the truth and love and in kindness, but boldly. Lord, we thank you for the example of your disciples, the apostles, and we thank you for the example of John the Baptist who proclaimed the truth to a king, an earthly, wicked, degenerate king, and he was beheaded for it.And Lord Jesus, as we look at that example, I pray, let us just marvel at the fact that a little embarrassment, a little discomfort when we proclaim the truth, how many of us are thwarted from continuing the mission because of that and how silly all of that is in comparison to those who've gone before us. And Lord, as the world turns even darker in opposition to you, more godless and persecution becomes an ever present reality. I pray that we unflinchingly continue to further your kingdom by proclaiming your truth.Bless our time, the holy scriptures today. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. On this Communion Sunday, the title of the sermon is Proclaim the King's Excellencies as we continue through our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. When the Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner, he doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something. And that for something should preoccupy our hearts and minds and that for something must be the purpose and the direction of our lives.Yes, Lord, you've saved me from hell. You've saved me from eternal punishment, from bondage to sin, from being a pawn of Satan. Now what would you have me do? And the Lord answers and says, "Become fishers of men. Continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ so people are freed from the nets of Satan and sin to the new exodus and following Christ." And how do we do this? We do it by proclaiming the excellencies of the king.In 1 Peter 2:9 it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Did you notice the purpose? He says, this is why God saved us, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Christ. This is the purpose of every elect, blood-bought, redeemed, justified child of God.Our purpose is to be representatives of Christ and to represent Christ is to do the work that Christ did and continues to do, which is to proclaim the truth that Jesus is king and he rules the world with his law, the 10 commandments. To proclaim Christ is to tell people that they have sinned, that they have transgressed commandments. They are under God's wrath. However, whosoever repents of their sin and believes in Christ will be forgiven, will be given mercy, and will be given a mission to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.And for Christ to procure mercy for us, what did that entail? Entailed a gruesome, gory, grim sacrifice. It demanded crucifixion. Jesus Christ was crucified for proclaiming the truth. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised and should actually expect that when we lovingly, faithfully, kindly proclaim Christ, this will come at a cost. For some of us, it may even require death itself just like our Lord and just like John the Baptist and just like most of the apostles. Today, we are in Mark 6:7-29 as we continue our series, Kingdom Come.Would you look at the text with me? And he, Christ, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." But others said, "He is Elijah." And others said, "He is a prophet like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist."And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guess, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, Infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. Proclaim that people should repent, proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. First, proclaim that people should repent. In verse seven, he, Jesus, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Why two by two? This is probably reflecting the Jewish practice of sending official representatives in pairs.And also in the Hebrew scriptures, there is a stipulation that two witnesses are required to establish legal testimony. So he commissions the 12 to extend the work that he was doing. He said, "I have come to teach the word of God and to proclaim the gospel for the kingdom of God is here for people to repent and believe." So here he sends out the 12 two by two. Practically why two by two, well, this provides for encouragement in particular in those moments where there is rejection.When a whole town says, "We want nothing to do with the message of God. Get out," at those moments, we need encouragement, and also accountability to continue proclaiming the truth as it has been given and not trying to make it more palatable for people by softening it. And this here shows us that we need Christian community. We need brothers and sisters in our lives for our own souls, but then also for the effectiveness of the mission that Jesus called us to. We need Christian community.We need the church. Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love in good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So even back then in the early church, they already had the issue where people believed that all I need is Jesus. All I need is scripture. I don't need the church. I don't need spiritual authority or accountability. Even back then, people were neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.So friends, continue to make it a priority to come to church. I'm obviously speaking to people who are at church. Good job, keep doing what you're doing. But for those who are listening online, and I think during COVID when we were streaming our services, people just got into the pattern of like, that's okay. That's not okay. That's why we took our streaming off. And I'm even tempted at the point of take all the sermons offline. Offline is not real. It's not real. That's just enough to get you into church.And not just church, but community. At Mosaic, we are a church that draws thousands over the course of a year. There's thousands that come and there's thousands that go. So how are we to experience community? How do we experience this two by two ministry? We do that through our community groups. So if you are not in a community group, these are small groups of brothers and sisters that meet all across the city, all across the region over the course of the week, we'd love to have you join.Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe him who is alone when he falls and has not another lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." And here in our verse it says that he began to send them out.Not only does this communicate that this is the start of their mission, but also it communicates that the mission continues, that Jesus continues to send us out as he had sent them out. And he says it began to send, this is the verb form of the word apostle, an apostle is someone who has been sent out with the authority of another. And Jesus, while still on earth, physically sends out the disciples to gain experience ministering the word of God.He entrusts them with his authority, gives them an opportunity to use the authority to make the mistakes that they would make in using that authority so that they can come back to Jesus. He would rectify it and clarify and continue to train them up to serve him. This is just an example of the ministry that Jesus had already been doing. And Mark 6:6, that's the verse before our text. He was in Nazareth and Galilee. He marveled because of their unbelief. That's his hometown.And he went out among the villages teaching. Despite rejection that he encountered in his hometown, he doesn't give up on his people. He continues to minister to them by sending the apostles out for another round of redemptive teaching. Now, we are not apostles, but we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and most of us most likely aren't called to being international ministries or cross-cultural ministries, missionaries or full-time pastors and teachers. But we are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ wherever we are.We might not be sent around the world, but we are still sent across the street. Our city is our mission field and, you and I, we're laborers that Christ sends out to gather in the harvest right here on our doorstep. I don't know if you've noticed, but traffic has been getting worse in the area. The congestion's terrible, the double parking. I've never seen so many people double parking. I think it's the Uber Eats and such, but I used to get irritated by traffic and irritated by people double parking.I've chilled out partially because I changed my music. I started listening to monastic chants in my vehicle. It's very soothing. It helps with driving in peace. It's tremendous. And now whenever I'm in traffic, I get behind someone, I'm like, okay, you're double-parked. All right. I just pray for them, like Lord, save this person from their wicked ways of not following the law and such. But as I see people, there's people from all over the world all around us. The Lord is drawing people from all over.They're here. This is why we exist. We are on mission to proclaim the gospel to all who would listen, to all who would hear. And we have the authority of Jesus Christ. Just as he gave to his early disciples, he has given to us as the church. He says, go and make disciples of all nations. And he says, when you do, when you make disciples of all nations, I am with you until the end of the age. We experience the fullness of Christ's presence in particular when on mission proclaiming the truth.And his authority and the authority that he gave to the disciples is his own. He doesn't just pray to the Father. Father, I pray that you empower them. No. He gives them his own authority which reminds us of who Jesus really is. He is the Son of God. He is God. Authority resides in him and he exercises rule over the church as it goes and he does command us to go and proclaim. In Mark 6:8, he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.The staffs were used for walking on rough terrain and for defense against wild animals and criminals, et cetera. And Jesus here says, okay, fine. Take a staff, but no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. And what he's saying is, I'm going to provide. You're on mission doing my work. It's my business that you are going about doing, and I will provide for you in the same way that I provided for the Israelites in the desert. If you remember, the Israelites were sustained by God. They didn't have food, but he sent food from heaven.Rain manna. Their clothing by God's grace was supernaturally preserved from deterioration and Jesus instructs them to take just the basics of staff and sandals, which is an allusion to Exodus 12:11 when he was preparing them during the Passover meal before the Exodus. It says Exodus 12:11, in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So the disciples' missionary journey is similar to the old exodus, but their journey is a new exodus. T.Hey are people who are called by Jesus for freedom from sin and bondage and to go about and travel lightly so that they move quickly to call people out of bondage to sin and Satan. I do want to mention the Bible never sees renunciation of physical goods as a good in itself, but only as a necessity in some circumstances. This particular renunciation was not intended as a universal rule binding all disciples at all times. Though the simple faith that Jesus will provide when we are in the middle of his will doing his work, that is a universal rule.Later in Gethsemane, after the disciples had thoroughly learned this lesson to rely on the Lord for his provision, to depend only on him, after they learned that lesson, Jesus said, now that he is leaving, we are to procure resources in Luke 23:35. And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said "Nothing." And he said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one."First time he sends them out while he was still here. He says, "Don't take any money. Don't take a sword. Don't take food." The second time, he says, "When I leave, I want you prepared. I want you to have resources." After they learn to depend on the Lord, the Lord says, "We are to be prepared with resources if we can have them." Why? Because poverty is never the ideal in the Bible. Although if need be, it must be gladly embraced in God's service for Christ's sake. Verse 10.He said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." And here the mission of the disciples according to Christ must be marked by a humble persistence. They were to be aware that not everyone's going to receive this message. Many will actually be opposed to it and reject it.And whenever the disciples are accepted, they should remain in the place where they are and enjoy the resources that those who accepted the message would provide them with. But we are to be prepared as they were to be prepared that rejection is a reality of being a faithful proclaimer of the gospel. Mark 13:13, and you will, this is a promise, you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.He says, "Shake the dust that is on your feet when you are rejected," is a sign that when you are rejected, you are to reject the place that has rejected the message. And the very difficulty of the act, dust is not so easily removed, especially from sandaled feet that have been walking on unpaved middle Eastern roads. Hence, that the depth of feeling that evokes it. Not even the tiniest reminder of the place should be left upon them. They must assiduously purge themselves of every trace of it.And God himself will see to the latter on the day of judgment when the very dust will cry out as a witness against them. And verse 12. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. They proclaimed that people should repent, not just sharing of the gospel. Sharing assumes that we're offering something that people want, share a recipe or share a meal or share a good laugh.But we aren't called to just share the gospel, we're called to proclaim that people should repent and boldly declare it whether it's welcome or not. I remember when I just moved to the city and I didn't know how to start a church as a church planner... I did street evangelism. I was just walking around the streets and I did spiritual surveys and asked people if they'd have a couple minutes to answer some survey questions I had. After the 1,000th conversation and no one got saved, I'm like, Lord Jesus, does this text apply to me?Can I dust off my boots from the dust of Boston, please? This was a message for them in this particular journey, but there were other examples where they lived in an area for years and they continue to administer. The emphasis here isn't on leaving a place. The emphasis here is on not taking a rejection personally. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord, and that should grieve our hearts, but it can't immobilize us and we shouldn't be surprised by it. You can't take it personally because then that just keeps you from proclaiming the gospel.They reject you, go to the next person and to the next person and to the next person. It's not we that converts people, it's God that does it. We are to sow the seed and to proclaim the truth and testify to it. What is the message? The message is that time is short. We're all mortal, and judgment is coming. Hell is real. And we are to flee the wrath that is to come. We are to hear the alarm sounding and get ourselves to safety. And the only source of safety, the only refuge, the only sanctuary is our savior Jesus Christ.And the message is that everyone is to repent. There are no impendent people in the kingdom of heaven. All who enter the kingdom have mourned over sin, forsaken it and sought pardon for it. In this particular commissioning, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will happen on Pentecost when they will receive a permanent commission to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. And Jesus here is preparing them for after they receive the Holy Spirit to do things greater than even he did, which is a startling statement.But in John 14:12, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." What does it mean that we're going to do greater things than Christ himself did? Well, he's not talking about individually. He's talking about as a church, as the body of Christ.We've been given talents and opportunities, and together, he's saying, we're going to do greater things than Christ did in his incarnate state when he was on earth. The disciples went and proclaimed the gospel, cast out demons, and healed people by anointing them. And James 5:14 says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Point two is proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly.Verse 14, King Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." There's only two passages in the Gospel of Mark not about Jesus Christ, and those two are about John the Baptist in chapter one. And here John was the forerunner of Jesus' ministry and also the forerunner of Jesus' death. And in both cases, both men stood before wicked, cowardly, tyrants fully aware of the innocence of both John and Jesus.And nevertheless, they feared the pressure of the people, and therefore they executed John and James. I do want to point out that it wasn't the disciples' names that were made known. As they did their work, as they proclaimed the gospel, as they healed people, it was the name of Jesus that had become known. The disciples preaching in wonder working are the means for Christ's name to become known. The miracles worked by the 12 disciples were really performed by Christ.It was his authority, his power. They were wielding his power. And the work's done by the disciples didn't cause the people in Galilee or even King Herod to wonder who are these disciples. They're wondering who is this Jesus that they are proclaiming. They weren't confused whose power it was. And that brings us to King Herod. Who is this Herod? This is Herod Antipas. He is the son of King Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus when he was born. King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, ruled in the Transjordan region from 4 BC until his exile in 39 AD.This is the king whom Jesus called that fox in Luke 13, a reference to King Herod's malice, his cunning, his shrewdness and lack of pity and his love of degenerate decadence. In 39 AD, he was recalled to Rome and replaced by his nephew, the infamous Herod Agrippa, who later killed James and imprisoned Peter. In Mark 6:15 it says, but others said he's Elijah and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."Actually the dirty work wasn't done by Herod himself, it was by an executioner as we see later in the text. But here in the Greek, there's an emphatic I myself have beheaded. This is John whom I myself had beheaded, which reveals that King Herod's conscience has been disturbing him. His conscience has been terrifying him. It shows us that although he thought himself a king, he wasn't king over his conscience. The truth was the law of God was. And for Herod, the supernatural miracle, he thought Jesus was John comeback from the dead, and he believed it.That supernatural miracle itself was not enough to bring him to repentance. That's how stubborn he was and hardened in his sin. The assumed divine miracle, John's resurrection, is a cause not for celebration but for terror. And here I also want to point out that John was so Christlike that when Herod hears about Christ, he confuses Christ with John. That's how much John had decreased so that Jesus could increase. He represented Jesus with his whole being. Who was John the Baptist?He was a miracle child born to the aged Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. He was a Nazarite from birth, a result of explicit orders of the angel Gabriel. His hair was never cut. He never touched a dead body or drank fermented drink, according to Numbers 6. And he took up the clothing of the ancient prophets wearing a rough coat of camel's hair and leather belt and subsisting in the wilderness and the diet of locusts and wild honey. He was a man of good conscience and therefore moral courage.When he spoke the word of God, everybody knew that it rang true because of John's integrity. And he would lose his head, but not his witness. John made way for the Lord, preparing the way for Christ by boldly denouncing sin and calling people to radical repentance, as seen in Matthew 3:7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.And do not presume to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire."Jesus is neither John the Baptist, Herod got it wrong, nor Elijah. Jesus was John's contemporary, so he's not him. And with respect to Elijah, Mark already said he linked Elijah with John, not Jesus. And Jesus wasn't just a prophet. He did use that term to characterize himself, but it definitely wasn't sufficient to characterize him. Verse 17. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.For John had been saying to Herod, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And here, what is John appealing to? It's not lawful. What law is he appealing to? Look how simple and plain and straightforward his message was. It's not lawful for you to have another man's wife. You've committed adultery, Herod. You've transgressed the Seventh Commandment. You've taken Herodias from your brother, so she is an adulterous as well, and he's calling them to repentance.He proclaims the plain truth regardless of the consequences. And what he's telling King Herod, consider himself a king, he's saying, there's a king above you. There's a law above you. You are not above the law. It's the law of God, and the law of God is law over everyone. It's enforced over everyone. It doesn't matter if you identify as a Christian, it doesn't matter if you identify as a believer of the scripture, none of that matters. God is God over everyone. His law governs everyone. Some people erroneously think that when you preach the gospel, you never mention the law.When you're sharing "the gospel," the law isn't necessary. The law is only for believers. First trust in Jesus, get grace, and then we can talk about the law, then we can talk about how you are to live. This is false, because you can't call people to repentance if they do not know what they are to repent of. And John as an Elijah like figure is zealous for the Lord and his law, and he's going to proclaim it to both Herod and Herodias no matter how much it antagonizes them, no matter how much they want to kill him.And that brings us to point three, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. John, where did you get the power to be so fearless, so courageous, so bold in proclaiming this truth to a king? He got it from fearing God more than anyone else. He didn't care what King Herod thinks about him. He cared more about what King Jesus thinks about him. In verse 19, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, yet he heard him gladly." John's very existence caused Herodias unease in her conscience, yet she's hardened and seared in her conscience by her wickedness and won't rest until he is dead. And Herod feared John. He wanted to protect the life of John knowing that he's righteous and holy. So he arrests John to protect John from Herodias. This is how conflicted this man was. Herod was convicted by John's words, yet he gladly listened to them.Most likely the prison was in the same place where his palace was and he would just bring John up and say, "John, do your thing." And John with his camel hair and he's got his leather belt and he is like, "You broke commandment number seven. Repent. And Herodias too." And then Herodias gets mad and Herod's like, "Continue," and oh, just continuously gladly welcoming the message, feared the guy, knows it's true, it rings true, definitely resonates, and he's willing to listen. He's willing to observe, heard him gladly.But there was one thing that Herod wasn't willing to do. He wasn't willing to cease from his adultery. He wouldn't give up Herodias, and so he ends up ruining his soul. Verse 21. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading man of Galilee. Those present at this party were the petty lords and the Roman battalion commanders, the tribunes. So these men gather in Herod's fortress palace where John was imprisoned.And the text doesn't explicitly say, but a birthday in such luxurious confines of the royal palace with all the big wigs certainly implied large quantities of alcohol. And from Mark's report, there's possibility that Herod was definitely well-lubricated when Herodias finally traps him in verse 22. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish and I'll give it to you."Josephus, the famed Jewish historian, tells us that this young woman named Salome was in her middle teens at this time, so she dances in a very explicit way. Here we see that King Herod gets excited to the point where his braggadocio is turned on and he vows in verse 23, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom." And this is probably a figure of speech in any case, because the kingdom wasn't his to give. It was Rome's. And so verse 24, she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?"And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in and immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The instantaneous reply of Herodias implies premeditation. So the cunning demonic forces that have been working for John's downfall now at last have sprung their trap. Here Herodias is presented as another Jezebel, manipulating her cowardly and indecisive husband and seeking the death of the Lord's prophet.And one begins to wonder who initiated the adultery. Herodias didn't mention the platter. The platter was... It was a touch of the girl, the daughter's own ghastly touch. And verse 26. The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. The moment of truth has come for Herod. It's a crucial test of his soul. He has to decide between saving face and saving John. He knew who John was. He's a holy and righteous man. He knew that God's hand was upon him, and to go against John is to go against God.And he here now has to decide between the opinions of the noble guests and the truth. He's got to decide between gaining the world and gaining his soul. It says he was exceedingly sorry. He was greatly distressed. The word is only used one other time the New Testament, and that was to describe Jesus' pain in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was greatly distressed when he saw the suffering before him. And here Herod's grief was real, but he had been trapped. And this shows us that grief over sin is not repentance.Being sorry over your sin or sorry over the situation that your sin has got you in, that's not true repentance. True repentance is turning from that sin and turning to a path of righteousness and following Christ. Herod's conscience had been awakened by John and he suppressed the truth because of what he feared others would think. I think there are many today who are in a similar predicament where you know that Christ is king, where you know that the holy scriptures are true.What else is other than scriptures? You know that eternal life is only found in Christ, and you're not public about it or you won't follow Christ in your daily life. And how many people's consciousness have been awakened to eternal truth and they've quenched that because of their fear of, what are my friends going to think? What's my family going to think? And whenever you have conversation like this about the gospel and you get people to the point where you got to make a decision and they're like, okay, what kind of Christian are you?I'm not a big fan of that question. A true one. There's only one type of Christian. You're saved or not. And if you are saved, you have to be public about it. You have to testify to the truth of it, to care more about what God thinks than what people think. Mark 6:27. Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. Besides gratifying a sadistic whim, the production of the head on a platter is proof that John has been killed.And the title king is used over and over in our text in particular here. It's technically inaccurate. He wasn't a king. He was a tetrarch. He was a puppet for Rome. But the title king is repeated ironically because Herod wasn't a king. He was outwitted and manipulated by two women and hamstrung by his own oath and his fear of losing faith before his subjects. The supposed king wasn't king even over himself. He couldn't control himself much less his subjects. He's over mastered by his sin.He's over mastered by his desires. He's over mastered by his emotions, which swing wildly from superstitious dread, he thinks Jesus is John resurrected, to awe and fascination and confusion to arousal that seems to border on insanity and to extreme depression. In this context, his pretensions to royal authority appear almost like a farce. He appears to rule whereas actually his strings are being pulled by others. The tyrant isn't even a true king over himself. He's a slave to his own passions.Herod lets John die, and thus shows himself to be among those in whom despite their attraction to the kingdom of God, despite the fact that the seeds seem like they have been planted in his heart, he's gladly listening to the word, he's gladly listening to the sermons, but the cares and concerns of this age end up choking the word. A lesson for each one of us here is if you fear God more than man, you might lose your head, but not your soul. And if you fear man over God, you might keep your head.You might even become more prosperous and lose your soul in the process. And Jesus said, "What prophet is it to someone gain the whole world and yet lose their soul?" For Herod, saving faith was more important than saving his soul. Verse 29. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. We see finally in these verses how little reward one of God's greatest servants gets in this world. John's life after a life of faithful witness to Christ ends in unjust imprisonment and a violent death.Like Steven, like James and like the other apostles of whom the world was not worthy, he was called to seal his testimony with his blood. Histories like these are meant to remind us that the true Christians' best things are yet to come. His rest, his crown, his wages, his reward are all on the other side of the grave. Here in this world we must walk by faith and not by sight. And if we look for the praise of people, we're not going to get it. And here in this life, we must sow and labor and fight and endure persecution, and we are to know that this life is not all there is.One day retribution will come and heaven will make amends for all. Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." 1 Corinthians 2:6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for his glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this.For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no I has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined which God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We see what King Herod thought of John the Baptist. King Herod's opinion doesn't really matter. John the Baptist cared more not about what King Herod thought of him, but what King Jesus thought about him.And what did King Jesus think of John the Baptist? Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:11, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist. Until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."John the Baptist, according to Christ, was the greatest of all men that was ever born. Why? Because John knew his place, he knew his job, and his job was to proclaim Christ. He knew that he was to decrease so that Christ would increase. In John's cruel death, we're also given a glimpse of Jesus' faith, that Jesus' ministry would eventually take him to Jerusalem where he would be rejected and imprisoned and ultimately mocked, scourged, and crucified. And there are numerous parallels between John and Christ.Each was eagerly heard and become the object of curiosity of a leader. John with Herod, Jesus with Pilate, each false victim to his enemy's murderous intention, is arrested, bound, and ignominiously executed and buried. Thanks be to God, Jesus' head wasn't put on a platter. That Jesus, even though he was crucified, in his crucifixion, in his death, he conquered death and the grave and he rose on the third day. Since he's far greater than even John himself, he overcame death.And in his death, we see the death of death itself. The last recorded mention of Herod, this Herod, presents him as a hardened blasphemer. At the end of Jesus' life, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod and Herod has another opportunity to repent of his sin. In Luke 23:6, when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he heard that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem. At that time.When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desire to see him, because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. And the chief priest and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with the soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other on that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Herod gladly received the servants of John.And here you see the progression into sin, where when Christ is right before, he stands face to face with the Son of God, all he can do is mock. He's absolutely dead inside, jaded. He had passed the point of no return, a point when repentance is no longer given. Friends, you just need to know this is a reality. If you keep prolonging repentance, the day of repentance, the day of turning from sin and turning to Christ, at some point there will be a day of no return, at some point the gift of repentance will not be extended to you, at some point the Holy Spirit will stop wooing.So what do we need to do? If you hear God's voice today in your heart, repent of sin and turn to him. Acts 17. Paul before the men of Athens and the Areopagus, he says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given insurance to all by raising him from the dead." Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined them and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Today, if you hear the voices of God, repent from sin and turn to Christ, recognize that Christ is the only way of salvation. His sacrifice on the cross is the only sacrifice that can atone for our sins and the wrath that they deserve.Today, we are celebrating holy communion in which we remember the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf when he laid down his life for his sheep, for whom is communion. It is for repentant followers of Jesus Christ. If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have not repented of sin, if you have not believed in him, today is your opportunity to do that, repent of sin and turn to him. If you are a self-identified believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that there's unrepented sin in your life, sin that you have not left, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service.So do nothing for you. Instead, take time to meditate on the gospel. If you are a repentant follower of Christ, you'd like to partake of holy communion. And if you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring them to you. And as they do that, I'll read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Would you pray with me over holy communion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your lavish love and sending your Jesus Christ for us. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins while we were yet sinners.You died for us recognizing that this was the only way to save us from our sin and save us from the wrath to come. Lord Jesus, we thank you that even as you hung on that cross, you were busy forgiving people, crying out, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." We recognize from that text even ignorance of our sin is not defense against the wrath of God. So we plead the blood, we ask Jesus forgive us of our sins.We repent of breaking commandments, transgressing commandments, and we pray by the grace of God that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives of righteousness. As we remember your suffering on the cross today, let us be sobered by the fact that that's what it took to save us from our sin. So how can we continue living in sin? Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness and continue to satisfy us with your presence. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you did not stay dead.You rose on the third day, and today you are sitting at the right hand of God ruling and reigning. We pray that you continue to establish your kingdom all around the world and in particular in our region. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. There are two lids. You open the top lid to open the cup and the bottom lid to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread. And after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take eat and do this in remembrance of me."Then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is poured up for the sins of many. Take drink and do this and remembrance of me." Oh Lord, we thank you that you have chosen us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for your own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of our king, a king who calls us out of darkness into your marvelous light. We thank you, Lord, that you offer us your mercy and your grace.We thank you that you offer us your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that you continue to bless this church, continue to draw your elect, and continue to sanctify every single one of us so we grow ever more beautiful in your sight. Make us a people who are more courageous than ever, more bold than ever, proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity that we have. And make us a people, Lord, that revel in the fact that we are yours and you are a great and mighty king, an excellent king. And we love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Oh Holy God, Heavenly Father, we come to you in reverence and trepidation at your greatness, your mightiness. You are a glorious God. And Lord, we thank you so much that you did not leave us in our sin, in our darkness, but you sent your son Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the truth, the way, the life. And Jesus, we thank you for providing a way for our salvation, for our forgiveness of sin, for our transfer from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for proclaiming the truth as boldly as you did, and that boldness took you to a cross.And we thank you for the example of your choice servants who proclaim the truth, no matter the consequences, many of whom were martyred for the faith. And we thank you that their blood was the seed of the church. We thank you for all those that you sent while we were still in darkness to proclaim the gospel to us boldly. And we thank you, Lord, that you give us grace and that you empower us by the power of the Holy Spirit to go and proclaim the gospel to anyone who would hear.And I pray, Lord, that you grow our fearlessness in proclamation of the word of God, the truth, the gospel no matter what the consequences, no matter the opposition. I pray that you make us so people who care more about what you think than even what earthly rulers think about us. And Lord, help us proclaim the truth and love and in kindness, but boldly. Lord, we thank you for the example of your disciples, the apostles, and we thank you for the example of John the Baptist who proclaimed the truth to a king, an earthly, wicked, degenerate king, and he was beheaded for it.And Lord Jesus, as we look at that example, I pray, let us just marvel at the fact that a little embarrassment, a little discomfort when we proclaim the truth, how many of us are thwarted from continuing the mission because of that and how silly all of that is in comparison to those who've gone before us. And Lord, as the world turns even darker in opposition to you, more godless and persecution becomes an ever present reality. I pray that we unflinchingly continue to further your kingdom by proclaiming your truth.Bless our time, the holy scriptures today. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. On this Communion Sunday, the title of the sermon is Proclaim the King's Excellencies as we continue through our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. When the Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner, he doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something. And that for something should preoccupy our hearts and minds and that for something must be the purpose and the direction of our lives.Yes, Lord, you've saved me from hell. You've saved me from eternal punishment, from bondage to sin, from being a pawn of Satan. Now what would you have me do? And the Lord answers and says, "Become fishers of men. Continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ so people are freed from the nets of Satan and sin to the new exodus and following Christ." And how do we do this? We do it by proclaiming the excellencies of the king.In 1 Peter 2:9 it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Did you notice the purpose? He says, this is why God saved us, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Christ. This is the purpose of every elect, blood-bought, redeemed, justified child of God.Our purpose is to be representatives of Christ and to represent Christ is to do the work that Christ did and continues to do, which is to proclaim the truth that Jesus is king and he rules the world with his law, the 10 commandments. To proclaim Christ is to tell people that they have sinned, that they have transgressed commandments. They are under God's wrath. However, whosoever repents of their sin and believes in Christ will be forgiven, will be given mercy, and will be given a mission to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.And for Christ to procure mercy for us, what did that entail? Entailed a gruesome, gory, grim sacrifice. It demanded crucifixion. Jesus Christ was crucified for proclaiming the truth. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised and should actually expect that when we lovingly, faithfully, kindly proclaim Christ, this will come at a cost. For some of us, it may even require death itself just like our Lord and just like John the Baptist and just like most of the apostles. Today, we are in Mark 6:7-29 as we continue our series, Kingdom Come.Would you look at the text with me? And he, Christ, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." But others said, "He is Elijah." And others said, "He is a prophet like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist."And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guess, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, Infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. Proclaim that people should repent, proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. First, proclaim that people should repent. In verse seven, he, Jesus, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Why two by two? This is probably reflecting the Jewish practice of sending official representatives in pairs.And also in the Hebrew scriptures, there is a stipulation that two witnesses are required to establish legal testimony. So he commissions the 12 to extend the work that he was doing. He said, "I have come to teach the word of God and to proclaim the gospel for the kingdom of God is here for people to repent and believe." So here he sends out the 12 two by two. Practically why two by two, well, this provides for encouragement in particular in those moments where there is rejection.When a whole town says, "We want nothing to do with the message of God. Get out," at those moments, we need encouragement, and also accountability to continue proclaiming the truth as it has been given and not trying to make it more palatable for people by softening it. And this here shows us that we need Christian community. We need brothers and sisters in our lives for our own souls, but then also for the effectiveness of the mission that Jesus called us to. We need Christian community.We need the church. Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love in good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So even back then in the early church, they already had the issue where people believed that all I need is Jesus. All I need is scripture. I don't need the church. I don't need spiritual authority or accountability. Even back then, people were neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.So friends, continue to make it a priority to come to church. I'm obviously speaking to people who are at church. Good job, keep doing what you're doing. But for those who are listening online, and I think during COVID when we were streaming our services, people just got into the pattern of like, that's okay. That's not okay. That's why we took our streaming off. And I'm even tempted at the point of take all the sermons offline. Offline is not real. It's not real. That's just enough to get you into church.And not just church, but community. At Mosaic, we are a church that draws thousands over the course of a year. There's thousands that come and there's thousands that go. So how are we to experience community? How do we experience this two by two ministry? We do that through our community groups. So if you are not in a community group, these are small groups of brothers and sisters that meet all across the city, all across the region over the course of the week, we'd love to have you join.Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe him who is alone when he falls and has not another lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." And here in our verse it says that he began to send them out.Not only does this communicate that this is the start of their mission, but also it communicates that the mission continues, that Jesus continues to send us out as he had sent them out. And he says it began to send, this is the verb form of the word apostle, an apostle is someone who has been sent out with the authority of another. And Jesus, while still on earth, physically sends out the disciples to gain experience ministering the word of God.He entrusts them with his authority, gives them an opportunity to use the authority to make the mistakes that they would make in using that authority so that they can come back to Jesus. He would rectify it and clarify and continue to train them up to serve him. This is just an example of the ministry that Jesus had already been doing. And Mark 6:6, that's the verse before our text. He was in Nazareth and Galilee. He marveled because of their unbelief. That's his hometown.And he went out among the villages teaching. Despite rejection that he encountered in his hometown, he doesn't give up on his people. He continues to minister to them by sending the apostles out for another round of redemptive teaching. Now, we are not apostles, but we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and most of us most likely aren't called to being international ministries or cross-cultural ministries, missionaries or full-time pastors and teachers. But we are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ wherever we are.We might not be sent around the world, but we are still sent across the street. Our city is our mission field and, you and I, we're laborers that Christ sends out to gather in the harvest right here on our doorstep. I don't know if you've noticed, but traffic has been getting worse in the area. The congestion's terrible, the double parking. I've never seen so many people double parking. I think it's the Uber Eats and such, but I used to get irritated by traffic and irritated by people double parking.I've chilled out partially because I changed my music. I started listening to monastic chants in my vehicle. It's very soothing. It helps with driving in peace. It's tremendous. And now whenever I'm in traffic, I get behind someone, I'm like, okay, you're double-parked. All right. I just pray for them, like Lord, save this person from their wicked ways of not following the law and such. But as I see people, there's people from all over the world all around us. The Lord is drawing people from all over.They're here. This is why we exist. We are on mission to proclaim the gospel to all who would listen, to all who would hear. And we have the authority of Jesus Christ. Just as he gave to his early disciples, he has given to us as the church. He says, go and make disciples of all nations. And he says, when you do, when you make disciples of all nations, I am with you until the end of the age. We experience the fullness of Christ's presence in particular when on mission proclaiming the truth.And his authority and the authority that he gave to the disciples is his own. He doesn't just pray to the Father. Father, I pray that you empower them. No. He gives them his own authority which reminds us of who Jesus really is. He is the Son of God. He is God. Authority resides in him and he exercises rule over the church as it goes and he does command us to go and proclaim. In Mark 6:8, he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.The staffs were used for walking on rough terrain and for defense against wild animals and criminals, et cetera. And Jesus here says, okay, fine. Take a staff, but no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. And what he's saying is, I'm going to provide. You're on mission doing my work. It's my business that you are going about doing, and I will provide for you in the same way that I provided for the Israelites in the desert. If you remember, the Israelites were sustained by God. They didn't have food, but he sent food from heaven.Rain manna. Their clothing by God's grace was supernaturally preserved from deterioration and Jesus instructs them to take just the basics of staff and sandals, which is an allusion to Exodus 12:11 when he was preparing them during the Passover meal before the Exodus. It says Exodus 12:11, in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So the disciples' missionary journey is similar to the old exodus, but their journey is a new exodus. T.Hey are people who are called by Jesus for freedom from sin and bondage and to go about and travel lightly so that they move quickly to call people out of bondage to sin and Satan. I do want to mention the Bible never sees renunciation of physical goods as a good in itself, but only as a necessity in some circumstances. This particular renunciation was not intended as a universal rule binding all disciples at all times. Though the simple faith that Jesus will provide when we are in the middle of his will doing his work, that is a universal rule.Later in Gethsemane, after the disciples had thoroughly learned this lesson to rely on the Lord for his provision, to depend only on him, after they learned that lesson, Jesus said, now that he is leaving, we are to procure resources in Luke 23:35. And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said "Nothing." And he said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one."First time he sends them out while he was still here. He says, "Don't take any money. Don't take a sword. Don't take food." The second time, he says, "When I leave, I want you prepared. I want you to have resources." After they learn to depend on the Lord, the Lord says, "We are to be prepared with resources if we can have them." Why? Because poverty is never the ideal in the Bible. Although if need be, it must be gladly embraced in God's service for Christ's sake. Verse 10.He said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." And here the mission of the disciples according to Christ must be marked by a humble persistence. They were to be aware that not everyone's going to receive this message. Many will actually be opposed to it and reject it.And whenever the disciples are accepted, they should remain in the place where they are and enjoy the resources that those who accepted the message would provide them with. But we are to be prepared as they were to be prepared that rejection is a reality of being a faithful proclaimer of the gospel. Mark 13:13, and you will, this is a promise, you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.He says, "Shake the dust that is on your feet when you are rejected," is a sign that when you are rejected, you are to reject the place that has rejected the message. And the very difficulty of the act, dust is not so easily removed, especially from sandaled feet that have been walking on unpaved middle Eastern roads. Hence, that the depth of feeling that evokes it. Not even the tiniest reminder of the place should be left upon them. They must assiduously purge themselves of every trace of it.And God himself will see to the latter on the day of judgment when the very dust will cry out as a witness against them. And verse 12. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. They proclaimed that people should repent, not just sharing of the gospel. Sharing assumes that we're offering something that people want, share a recipe or share a meal or share a good laugh.But we aren't called to just share the gospel, we're called to proclaim that people should repent and boldly declare it whether it's welcome or not. I remember when I just moved to the city and I didn't know how to start a church as a church planner... I did street evangelism. I was just walking around the streets and I did spiritual surveys and asked people if they'd have a couple minutes to answer some survey questions I had. After the 1,000th conversation and no one got saved, I'm like, Lord Jesus, does this text apply to me?Can I dust off my boots from the dust of Boston, please? This was a message for them in this particular journey, but there were other examples where they lived in an area for years and they continue to administer. The emphasis here isn't on leaving a place. The emphasis here is on not taking a rejection personally. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord, and that should grieve our hearts, but it can't immobilize us and we shouldn't be surprised by it. You can't take it personally because then that just keeps you from proclaiming the gospel.They reject you, go to the next person and to the next person and to the next person. It's not we that converts people, it's God that does it. We are to sow the seed and to proclaim the truth and testify to it. What is the message? The message is that time is short. We're all mortal, and judgment is coming. Hell is real. And we are to flee the wrath that is to come. We are to hear the alarm sounding and get ourselves to safety. And the only source of safety, the only refuge, the only sanctuary is our savior Jesus Christ.And the message is that everyone is to repent. There are no impendent people in the kingdom of heaven. All who enter the kingdom have mourned over sin, forsaken it and sought pardon for it. In this particular commissioning, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will happen on Pentecost when they will receive a permanent commission to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. And Jesus here is preparing them for after they receive the Holy Spirit to do things greater than even he did, which is a startling statement.But in John 14:12, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." What does it mean that we're going to do greater things than Christ himself did? Well, he's not talking about individually. He's talking about as a church, as the body of Christ.We've been given talents and opportunities, and together, he's saying, we're going to do greater things than Christ did in his incarnate state when he was on earth. The disciples went and proclaimed the gospel, cast out demons, and healed people by anointing them. And James 5:14 says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Point two is proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly.Verse 14, King Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." There's only two passages in the Gospel of Mark not about Jesus Christ, and those two are about John the Baptist in chapter one. And here John was the forerunner of Jesus' ministry and also the forerunner of Jesus' death. And in both cases, both men stood before wicked, cowardly, tyrants fully aware of the innocence of both John and Jesus.And nevertheless, they feared the pressure of the people, and therefore they executed John and James. I do want to point out that it wasn't the disciples' names that were made known. As they did their work, as they proclaimed the gospel, as they healed people, it was the name of Jesus that had become known. The disciples preaching in wonder working are the means for Christ's name to become known. The miracles worked by the 12 disciples were really performed by Christ.It was his authority, his power. They were wielding his power. And the work's done by the disciples didn't cause the people in Galilee or even King Herod to wonder who are these disciples. They're wondering who is this Jesus that they are proclaiming. They weren't confused whose power it was. And that brings us to King Herod. Who is this Herod? This is Herod Antipas. He is the son of King Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus when he was born. King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, ruled in the Transjordan region from 4 BC until his exile in 39 AD.This is the king whom Jesus called that fox in Luke 13, a reference to King Herod's malice, his cunning, his shrewdness and lack of pity and his love of degenerate decadence. In 39 AD, he was recalled to Rome and replaced by his nephew, the infamous Herod Agrippa, who later killed James and imprisoned Peter. In Mark 6:15 it says, but others said he's Elijah and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."Actually the dirty work wasn't done by Herod himself, it was by an executioner as we see later in the text. But here in the Greek, there's an emphatic I myself have beheaded. This is John whom I myself had beheaded, which reveals that King Herod's conscience has been disturbing him. His conscience has been terrifying him. It shows us that although he thought himself a king, he wasn't king over his conscience. The truth was the law of God was. And for Herod, the supernatural miracle, he thought Jesus was John comeback from the dead, and he believed it.That supernatural miracle itself was not enough to bring him to repentance. That's how stubborn he was and hardened in his sin. The assumed divine miracle, John's resurrection, is a cause not for celebration but for terror. And here I also want to point out that John was so Christlike that when Herod hears about Christ, he confuses Christ with John. That's how much John had decreased so that Jesus could increase. He represented Jesus with his whole being. Who was John the Baptist?He was a miracle child born to the aged Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. He was a Nazarite from birth, a result of explicit orders of the angel Gabriel. His hair was never cut. He never touched a dead body or drank fermented drink, according to Numbers 6. And he took up the clothing of the ancient prophets wearing a rough coat of camel's hair and leather belt and subsisting in the wilderness and the diet of locusts and wild honey. He was a man of good conscience and therefore moral courage.When he spoke the word of God, everybody knew that it rang true because of John's integrity. And he would lose his head, but not his witness. John made way for the Lord, preparing the way for Christ by boldly denouncing sin and calling people to radical repentance, as seen in Matthew 3:7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.And do not presume to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire."Jesus is neither John the Baptist, Herod got it wrong, nor Elijah. Jesus was John's contemporary, so he's not him. And with respect to Elijah, Mark already said he linked Elijah with John, not Jesus. And Jesus wasn't just a prophet. He did use that term to characterize himself, but it definitely wasn't sufficient to characterize him. Verse 17. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.For John had been saying to Herod, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And here, what is John appealing to? It's not lawful. What law is he appealing to? Look how simple and plain and straightforward his message was. It's not lawful for you to have another man's wife. You've committed adultery, Herod. You've transgressed the Seventh Commandment. You've taken Herodias from your brother, so she is an adulterous as well, and he's calling them to repentance.He proclaims the plain truth regardless of the consequences. And what he's telling King Herod, consider himself a king, he's saying, there's a king above you. There's a law above you. You are not above the law. It's the law of God, and the law of God is law over everyone. It's enforced over everyone. It doesn't matter if you identify as a Christian, it doesn't matter if you identify as a believer of the scripture, none of that matters. God is God over everyone. His law governs everyone. Some people erroneously think that when you preach the gospel, you never mention the law.When you're sharing "the gospel," the law isn't necessary. The law is only for believers. First trust in Jesus, get grace, and then we can talk about the law, then we can talk about how you are to live. This is false, because you can't call people to repentance if they do not know what they are to repent of. And John as an Elijah like figure is zealous for the Lord and his law, and he's going to proclaim it to both Herod and Herodias no matter how much it antagonizes them, no matter how much they want to kill him.And that brings us to point three, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. John, where did you get the power to be so fearless, so courageous, so bold in proclaiming this truth to a king? He got it from fearing God more than anyone else. He didn't care what King Herod thinks about him. He cared more about what King Jesus thinks about him. In verse 19, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, yet he heard him gladly." John's very existence caused Herodias unease in her conscience, yet she's hardened and seared in her conscience by her wickedness and won't rest until he is dead. And Herod feared John. He wanted to protect the life of John knowing that he's righteous and holy. So he arrests John to protect John from Herodias. This is how conflicted this man was. Herod was convicted by John's words, yet he gladly listened to them.Most likely the prison was in the same place where his palace was and he would just bring John up and say, "John, do your thing." And John with his camel hair and he's got his leather belt and he is like, "You broke commandment number seven. Repent. And Herodias too." And then Herodias gets mad and Herod's like, "Continue," and oh, just continuously gladly welcoming the message, feared the guy, knows it's true, it rings true, definitely resonates, and he's willing to listen. He's willing to observe, heard him gladly.But there was one thing that Herod wasn't willing to do. He wasn't willing to cease from his adultery. He wouldn't give up Herodias, and so he ends up ruining his soul. Verse 21. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading man of Galilee. Those present at this party were the petty lords and the Roman battalion commanders, the tribunes. So these men gather in Herod's fortress palace where John was imprisoned.And the text doesn't explicitly say, but a birthday in such luxurious confines of the royal palace with all the big wigs certainly implied large quantities of alcohol. And from Mark's report, there's possibility that Herod was definitely well-lubricated when Herodias finally traps him in verse 22. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish and I'll give it to you."Josephus, the famed Jewish historian, tells us that this young woman named Salome was in her middle teens at this time, so she dances in a very explicit way. Here we see that King Herod gets excited to the point where his braggadocio is turned on and he vows in verse 23, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom." And this is probably a figure of speech in any case, because the kingdom wasn't his to give. It was Rome's. And so verse 24, she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?"And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in and immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The instantaneous reply of Herodias implies premeditation. So the cunning demonic forces that have been working for John's downfall now at last have sprung their trap. Here Herodias is presented as another Jezebel, manipulating her cowardly and indecisive husband and seeking the death of the Lord's prophet.And one begins to wonder who initiated the adultery. Herodias didn't mention the platter. The platter was... It was a touch of the girl, the daughter's own ghastly touch. And verse 26. The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. The moment of truth has come for Herod. It's a crucial test of his soul. He has to decide between saving face and saving John. He knew who John was. He's a holy and righteous man. He knew that God's hand was upon him, and to go against John is to go against God.And he here now has to decide between the opinions of the noble guests and the truth. He's got to decide between gaining the world and gaining his soul. It says he was exceedingly sorry. He was greatly distressed. The word is only used one other time the New Testament, and that was to describe Jesus' pain in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was greatly distressed when he saw the suffering before him. And here Herod's grief was real, but he had been trapped. And this shows us that grief over sin is not repentance.Being sorry over your sin or sorry over the situation that your sin has got you in, that's not true repentance. True repentance is turning from that sin and turning to a path of righteousness and following Christ. Herod's conscience had been awakened by John and he suppressed the truth because of what he feared others would think. I think there are many today who are in a similar predicament where you know that Christ is king, where you know that the holy scriptures are true.What else is other than scriptures? You know that eternal life is only found in Christ, and you're not public about it or you won't follow Christ in your daily life. And how many people's consciousness have been awakened to eternal truth and they've quenched that because of their fear of, what are my friends going to think? What's my family going to think? And whenever you have conversation like this about the gospel and you get people to the point where you got to make a decision and they're like, okay, what kind of Christian are you?I'm not a big fan of that question. A true one. There's only one type of Christian. You're saved or not. And if you are saved, you have to be public about it. You have to testify to the truth of it, to care more about what God thinks than what people think. Mark 6:27. Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. Besides gratifying a sadistic whim, the production of the head on a platter is proof that John has been killed.And the title king is used over and over in our text in particular here. It's technically inaccurate. He wasn't a king. He was a tetrarch. He was a puppet for Rome. But the title king is repeated ironically because Herod wasn't a king. He was outwitted and manipulated by two women and hamstrung by his own oath and his fear of losing faith before his subjects. The supposed king wasn't king even over himself. He couldn't control himself much less his subjects. He's over mastered by his sin.He's over mastered by his desires. He's over mastered by his emotions, which swing wildly from superstitious dread, he thinks Jesus is John resurrected, to awe and fascination and confusion to arousal that seems to border on insanity and to extreme depression. In this context, his pretensions to royal authority appear almost like a farce. He appears to rule whereas actually his strings are being pulled by others. The tyrant isn't even a true king over himself. He's a slave to his own passions.Herod lets John die, and thus shows himself to be among those in whom despite their attraction to the kingdom of God, despite the fact that the seeds seem like they have been planted in his heart, he's gladly listening to the word, he's gladly listening to the sermons, but the cares and concerns of this age end up choking the word. A lesson for each one of us here is if you fear God more than man, you might lose your head, but not your soul. And if you fear man over God, you might keep your head.You might even become more prosperous and lose your soul in the process. And Jesus said, "What prophet is it to someone gain the whole world and yet lose their soul?" For Herod, saving faith was more important than saving his soul. Verse 29. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. We see finally in these verses how little reward one of God's greatest servants gets in this world. John's life after a life of faithful witness to Christ ends in unjust imprisonment and a violent death.Like Steven, like James and like the other apostles of whom the world was not worthy, he was called to seal his testimony with his blood. Histories like these are meant to remind us that the true Christians' best things are yet to come. His rest, his crown, his wages, his reward are all on the other side of the grave. Here in this world we must walk by faith and not by sight. And if we look for the praise of people, we're not going to get it. And here in this life, we must sow and labor and fight and endure persecution, and we are to know that this life is not all there is.One day retribution will come and heaven will make amends for all. Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." 1 Corinthians 2:6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for his glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this.For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no I has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined which God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We see what King Herod thought of John the Baptist. King Herod's opinion doesn't really matter. John the Baptist cared more not about what King Herod thought of him, but what King Jesus thought about him.And what did King Jesus think of John the Baptist? Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:11, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist. Until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."John the Baptist, according to Christ, was the greatest of all men that was ever born. Why? Because John knew his place, he knew his job, and his job was to proclaim Christ. He knew that he was to decrease so that Christ would increase. In John's cruel death, we're also given a glimpse of Jesus' faith, that Jesus' ministry would eventually take him to Jerusalem where he would be rejected and imprisoned and ultimately mocked, scourged, and crucified. And there are numerous parallels between John and Christ.Each was eagerly heard and become the object of curiosity of a leader. John with Herod, Jesus with Pilate, each false victim to his enemy's murderous intention, is arrested, bound, and ignominiously executed and buried. Thanks be to God, Jesus' head wasn't put on a platter. That Jesus, even though he was crucified, in his crucifixion, in his death, he conquered death and the grave and he rose on the third day. Since he's far greater than even John himself, he overcame death.And in his death, we see the death of death itself. The last recorded mention of Herod, this Herod, presents him as a hardened blasphemer. At the end of Jesus' life, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod and Herod has another opportunity to repent of his sin. In Luke 23:6, when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he heard that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem. At that time.When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desire to see him, because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. And the chief priest and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with the soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other on that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Herod gladly received the servants of John.And here you see the progression into sin, where when Christ is right before, he stands face to face with the Son of God, all he can do is mock. He's absolutely dead inside, jaded. He had passed the point of no return, a point when repentance is no longer given. Friends, you just need to know this is a reality. If you keep prolonging repentance, the day of repentance, the day of turning from sin and turning to Christ, at some point there will be a day of no return, at some point the gift of repentance will not be extended to you, at some point the Holy Spirit will stop wooing.So what do we need to do? If you hear God's voice today in your heart, repent of sin and turn to him. Acts 17. Paul before the men of Athens and the Areopagus, he says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given insurance to all by raising him from the dead." Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined them and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Today, if you hear the voices of God, repent from sin and turn to Christ, recognize that Christ is the only way of salvation. His sacrifice on the cross is the only sacrifice that can atone for our sins and the wrath that they deserve.Today, we are celebrating holy communion in which we remember the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf when he laid down his life for his sheep, for whom is communion. It is for repentant followers of Jesus Christ. If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have not repented of sin, if you have not believed in him, today is your opportunity to do that, repent of sin and turn to him. If you are a self-identified believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that there's unrepented sin in your life, sin that you have not left, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service.So do nothing for you. Instead, take time to meditate on the gospel. If you are a repentant follower of Christ, you'd like to partake of holy communion. And if you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring them to you. And as they do that, I'll read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Would you pray with me over holy communion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your lavish love and sending your Jesus Christ for us. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins while we were yet sinners.You died for us recognizing that this was the only way to save us from our sin and save us from the wrath to come. Lord Jesus, we thank you that even as you hung on that cross, you were busy forgiving people, crying out, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." We recognize from that text even ignorance of our sin is not defense against the wrath of God. So we plead the blood, we ask Jesus forgive us of our sins.We repent of breaking commandments, transgressing commandments, and we pray by the grace of God that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives of righteousness. As we remember your suffering on the cross today, let us be sobered by the fact that that's what it took to save us from our sin. So how can we continue living in sin? Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness and continue to satisfy us with your presence. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you did not stay dead.You rose on the third day, and today you are sitting at the right hand of God ruling and reigning. We pray that you continue to establish your kingdom all around the world and in particular in our region. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. There are two lids. You open the top lid to open the cup and the bottom lid to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread. And after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take eat and do this in remembrance of me."Then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is poured up for the sins of many. Take drink and do this and remembrance of me." Oh Lord, we thank you that you have chosen us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for your own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of our king, a king who calls us out of darkness into your marvelous light. We thank you, Lord, that you offer us your mercy and your grace.We thank you that you offer us your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that you continue to bless this church, continue to draw your elect, and continue to sanctify every single one of us so we grow ever more beautiful in your sight. Make us a people who are more courageous than ever, more bold than ever, proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity that we have. And make us a people, Lord, that revel in the fact that we are yours and you are a great and mighty king, an excellent king. And we love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

Though he has not been glorified by the Church, Fr Lazarus was a pioneer and exemplar of Orthodoxy in the West.   He was born in England in 1902. In his early manhood he moved to western Canada, where he worked as a farm laborer for several years. While working in Alberta, he sensed a call to become a missionary and went to an English missionary college for five years.   Sad to say, our sources are unclear about how he came to the Orthodox faith from this unlikely beginning. But in 1934 he spent seven weeks on Mt Athos, then lived as a monk in Yugoslavia. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Theophan (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), then sent to Palestine to serve the Russian Mission in Jerusalem.   In 1948, the new State of Israel gave the Mission's property to the Soviet Union and the mission was left dispossessed. Fr Lazarus served as priest to the Russian Convent in Aïn Karim and Transjordan, then was sent to India in 1952, where he helped in Orthodox missionary work for twenty years. Several of his books and translations, such as his biography/study of St Seraphim of Sarov, were written while he lived in India. While there, he met Mother Gavrilia of Greece, whose beautiful biography Ascetic of Love includes good descriptions of him during his life in India. Though very strict in his Orthodoxy, he was flexible in externals: in India he wore a white rather than a black cassock, because black clothing had offensive connotations to the Indian people.   In 1972 Fr Lazarus was called to Greece, then in 1974 to Australia, where he served for nine years. In 1983 he moved to California in answer to call from Fr Peter Gillquist to assist members of the former 'Evangelical Orthodox Church' in their move to Orthodoxy. In 1989 he moved to Alaska, where he continued this work. He reposed in Eagle River, Alaska in 1992. Following is an excerpt from an account of his last days by members of his community in Eagle River:   "Father always signed his name with TWA, "Traveling With Angels". A few days before his death, after battling cancer many years, faithfully using the Jesus Prayer as the medicine for his affliction, the Archangel Michael appeared to help him. His final journey homeward had begun, TWA... 'the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.' (2 Timothy 4: 6-8)."

Not A Caveman Fixated on Bugs and Bees After All: John the Baptist's Wilderness Vegetarian Diet - Locust Beans Not Bugs - An Exploration of Early Christian Writings and Scholarly Texts Today on This Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast. Nevermind the old Sunday school notion of John the Baptist being some weird caveman dude dining on bugs! John may have a tarnished caveman reputation of eating locusts and honey out in the wild, but this is really a story about copyists mistranslating a Greek word as "locust" ('a-k-r-i-d-e-s') instead of "carob"       ('e-g-k-r-i-d-e-s'). (Henry Ford: "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." Albert Einstein: "Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.")   Since my original research on this topic, a couple more early Christian apocryphal writings have come to light, have been made available in English. These add to the surprisingly large collection of vegetarian references in early Christian writings regarding the diet of John the Baptist. New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. III, by Tony Burke was published and some John the Baptist books are included. In one of the earlier volumes there was a John the Baptist text made available for the first time in English that has a vegetarian passage regarding John's diet in the wilderness. Included in the third volume are, The Birth of Holy John the Forerunner, and, The Decapitation of John the Forerunner, both containing plant-based passages about John's diet consisting of "locusts from the tree" (in the Middle east called "the Saint John's Tree", and "Carob Tree") and "wild honey", also "an abundance of bread and wild honey dripping from a rock". Clearly there was an understanding in early Christianity that this was referring to locust beans (carob pods), not insects. Carob pods do look a bit like locusts hanging from tree branches, hence the name. Locust beans can be ground up and used to make a kind of Middle eastern carob flour flat bread. There's a "cakes dipped in honey" reference in the Gospel of the Ebionites. The wild "honey" was not from bees but sticky desert fruit of some kind. So, as you'll hear being documented during this pod...cast, there are all these plant-based references to John's diet coming from many different sources, and scholars have noticed and discussed these: "Probably the most interesting of the changes from the familiar New Testament accounts of Jesus comes in the Gospel of the Ebionites description of John the Baptist, who, evidently, like his successor Jesus, maintained a strictly vegetarian cuisine." (Professor Bart Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew) "His [John the Baptist's] food was wild honey that tasted like manna, like a cake cooked in olive oil." (The Other Gospels, Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament, by Bart Ehrman)   John the Baptist was a prophet with large number of followers in Israel and Transjordan regions. After his passing, several of his successors headed what became various rival Nasoraean (Nazorean) sects, one of those being Jesus and the Jesus movement. "Again Jesus said to his disciples: Truly I say to you, among all those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptizer." (Matthew 11:11, George Howard's translation of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, described as "the oldest extant Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew")     May the Blessings Be James Bean Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcasts Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts A Satsang Without Walls https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com    

Dr. Chuck Herring | Ezekiel 37:1-14Interesting things happen in cemeteries.  Tonight, I want us to take a trip with the prophet Ezekiel to a very unusual one to say the least.  Keep in mind that He is writing to God's covenant people who are in exile in Babylon.  They've been there for several years, and they are incredibly discouraged even bordering on sheer hopelessness (37:11).  Is there a future for Israel?  Some say, “No, for all these OT prophecies must be applied spiritually to the church.”  Wait.  These prophecies are too detailed to be “spiritualized” and applied only to the church today.  Jesus taught a future for the Jews (Luke 22:29-30); so did Paul (Rom. 11); and so did John (Rev. 7:4-8, 14:1-5).[1]Ezekiel 37 easily may be divided into two sections by the introductory phrases “the hand of the Lord was upon me” in v. 1 and “the word of the Lord came again to me” in v. 15.  This chapter illustrates Israel's failed past, frustrated present, and future hope.  With that in mind, let's focus on an unusual vision that has often been referred to as…1. The Valley of Dry BonesEzekiel 37:1–3… The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” (1) The hand of the LORD came upon me: Ezekiel's remarkable prophetic experience is not specifically called a vision, but it certainly has all the markings of a vision.  Notice how the Scripture emphasizes that “He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD.”   (1) In the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones: This was truly Death Valley; the floor of the valley was covered with human bones. The people represented by these bones were Jews and they were not only dead; they were also disgraced.  (In the thinking of ancient Israel, an unburied corpse with exposed remains was a shocking disgrace to the dead.)  (2) They were very dry: These dry bones are not only dead; they have been dead for a long time.  When something or someone has been dead for so long, we give up hope that it will ever live again.  It was a picture of utter defeat and desolation.  What a vivid description of the Jewish people! [2](3) Can these bones live?  Here's the crux of the issue.  Can a dead and impotent nation in exile and under the control of a godless nation be resurrected and become a living, thriving kingdom once again?One might hope that a recently dead corpse might somehow be resuscitated.  However, no one hopes that scattered, detached bones might live.  Ezekiel responded to God's question the only way he could, saying “O Lord GOD, You know.”§  Ezekiel had no hope for the bones, but he did have hope in God.§  Ezekiel did not presume to know what God wanted to do with the bones.§  Ezekiel was confident that God did know.2. Speaking Life To Dead Bones.Ezekiel 37:4–6… Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.' 5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.' ” (4) Prophesy to these bones: In the previous verse, Ezekiel deliberately left the matter with God, to His power and wisdom.  In turn, God gave the prophet something to do. God commanded him to speak, to prophesy, to preach to the dry, dead bones.  By all outward observation this was a vain and foolish act. (4) O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD: Ezekiel could only preach this message by faith—faith in God's ability to do the impossible.  knew God's word had supernatural power. (5) Behold I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life: God promised to fill the dry bones with breath—the breath of life.  (6) I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive: God promised to raise the Jewish people to life again.  This was not the creation of life from nothing; it was the restoration of life to something that had been long dead.The word for “breath” means wind or spirit.  Here is a promise that God would one day give the Holy Spirit to His covenant people under the blessings of the New Covenant…Ezekiel 36:24–28… “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Refer to Acts 2:1-4.3. Dead Bones Assemble TogetherEzekiel 37:7–8… So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. (7) So I prophesied as I was commanded: If Ezekiel had any doubts, he put them away and did what God commanded him to do. To human perception this proclamation of the word of God was foolish, yet Ezekiel obeyed. (7) And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone: As Ezekiel prophesied, there was first a noise among the bones, a rattling.  As he continued, the bones began to assemble themselves into skeletons. (8) And I looked, and behold, a rattling; sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them: After the bones were assembled, muscles and tissue came upon the bones. The bones were full of activity, yet still did not yet have the breath of life in them. The reviving of the dry bones clearly happened in stages.§  Stirring of the bones.§  Assembly of the bones.§  Sinews and flesh upon the bones.§  Skin upon the tissues covering the bones.§  Awaiting the breath of God.So here were men in skin, with flesh, sinews, bones; but, they were like Adam before God breathed into him the breath of life.4. The Second Prophecy To The BreathEzekiel 37:9–10… Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ' ” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (9) Prophesy to the breath: The previous verse left the valley full of revived, activated bodies that yet lacked breath.  Now Ezekiel was told to call upon the breath (spirit, wind), praying the breath/spirit would come on these who were in a sense the walking dead, so that they may live. (9) Come from the four winds, O breath: In this vision, Ezekiel had already proclaimed God's word to the dead and dry bones, and had seen a remarkable work done. Yet it was not enough. There also needed to be a work by the Holy Spirit.  Spurgeon commented…First, the prophet prophesies to the bones – here is preaching; and next, he prophesies to the four winds – here is praying. The preaching has its share in the work, but it is the praying which achieves the result, for after he had prophesied to the four winds, and not before, the bones began to live.(10) So I prophesied as He commanded me: Perhaps this was, humanly speaking, an easier message for Ezekiel to preach. He had the encouragement of seeing the beginning of a supernatural work with the activation of the dry bones. Now he prophesied and prayed for the work to be completed. (10) And the breath came into them and they came to life and stood on their feet: After Ezekiel's faithful proclamation of God's message, the work of reviving the dry bones was completed. The breath of God came into the reanimated bodies, and they stood upon their feet. (10) An exceedingly great army: The bones were not revived to become a group of spectators or to live for their own comfort. They became an army, and an exceedingly great one. They lived to act under the orders of the one who gave them life.How do these bones live again?  Derek Thomas said that God uses three means to accomplish His purpose.The preaching of the WordEzekiel is told to ‘prophesy' (37:4; literally: ‘preach God's Word'), and he does as he is told (37:7).The prayer of God's servantGod urges Ezekiel to call upon the ‘breath' to come and breathe into the slain (37:9).The power of the Holy SpiritThese are the ingredients of any great work of God.5. God Explains The VisionEzekiel 37:11… Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.'” Okay, what does all this mean?  As our Lord and God often does, He explains what He means for us to understand about His Word.These bones are the whole house of Israel: We might have supposed that Ezekiel understood that the bones in his vision represented the exiled people from Judah.  It might have surprised him when God revealed they represented the whole house of Israel. The restoration would include those from the northern kingdom of Israel that fell to the Assyrians some 150 years earlier. Our bones are dried up, our hope has perished. We are completely cut off: The house of Israel had reason to say this, both those from the south and the north. Their only hope for life and restoration was God.Ezekiel 37:12… “Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.” Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people: Instead of the bones being exposed, here they are buried in graves. The effect is the same; life is brought to that which was dead.And I will Bring you into the land of Israel: As promised many times in other places (Ezekiel 36:24 and 36:28), this revival of Israel also included their restoration to the land.  This is a political and a spiritual restoration!Ezekiel 37:13… “Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.” Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come out of your graves, My people: God would powerfully reveal Himself to Israel through this great work of revival and restoration to the land.Ezekiel 37:14… “I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.' ” I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land:breath in the revived bones was more than the breath of human life; it was the Spirit of the living God. This is another way of expressing the great promise found in the previous chapter (Ezekiel 36:27).In verses 11 to 14, I want you to see three promises from God…(1) He's will restore them to the land.  (2) He will reverse their spiritual death with resurrection life. (3) He will put the Holy Spirit Himself within them.Undeniably, Ezekiel 37:1-14 is about God's promised restoration of Israel in the last days.  This pictures the future revival of the nation, when the Jews will be brought up out of the “graves” of the Gentile nations where they have been scattered.  Politically, this took place May 14, 1948, when the modern nation of Israel entered the family of nations again. Of course, the nation is dead spiritually; but one day when Christ returns, the nation will be born in a day and be saved.[3]APPENDIX15 Facts About Palestine: 1. Palestine was NOT an Arab nation in 1948 when Israel was created. The Jewish people did not take over someone else's country. 1.      Great Britain, in fact, controlled that region of the Middle East until she grew tired of governing the volatile area and asked the UN to decide what to do with it.2.      Before Great Britain was tasked with administrating the region after WWI, the Turks had controlled it since the early 1500s. Turks are not Arabs.3.      In fact, Palestine has never been the name of any country! 2. Where did the name "Palestine" come from?” 1.      The Romans!2.      In an effort to rid Judea of its Jewishness, the Romans renamed the area Filistia (Palestine) in the mid-130s CE. They were tired of pesky Jewish uprisings (70 CE, 132 CE) and so decided to deport the Jews and change the name. The name came from the ancient Philistines, who have no connection to present-day Arabs. The Philistines were wiped out in 600 BCE by the Babylonians.3.      It was a region and never a nation. There has never been a president of the state of Palestine or a government. It could be compared to New England, which is a region in America and has no government.4.      Furthermore, the region of Palestine never had any connection with an Arab ethnicity.  3. The UN Partition Vote (Nov. 29, 1947) did not merely give Israel authority to create a state, but granted the Arabs living on the West side of the Jordan River also to create an independent Arab country next to Israel. 1.      The Arabs rejected "Partition." They could have had their own nation in 1948, but they said no.2.      The Jews accepted "Partition," and on May 14th, 1948, Israel was re-birthed.3.      The Arabs in the West Bank became part of Jordan, and in Gaza, they became part of Egypt.4.      The Arabs declared war on Israel the day after the UN vote. Five Arab nations, plus the local population, attacked the new Jewish state and lost. 5.      Again, they could have had peace and their own Arab nation but chose war.5.  When the PLO was created, Jordan controlled the West Bank. 1.      The goal of the PLO was to liberate Palestine. However, the West Bank was already in Arab hands. Jordan controlled it. And Egypt controlled Gaza.2.      The "Palestine" they wanted to liberate was Israel proper.3.      In other words, if their goal was to create an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, then they should've been fighting Jordan and Egypt, not Israel!4.      Of course, their goal was Israel's complete demise. Its original charter called for the liberation of all Palestine. Their maps make no mention of Israel.5. Before Israel was re-birthed in 1948, any person who lived in that region was considered Palestinian: Arab or Jew. The Jewish-owned newspaper was called the Palestine Post. QUESTIONS:1.              Why would any Jew name his newspaper after another people group?2.              Why would any Jew name his paper after an Arab country?Of course, he would not. The word "Palestinian" never referred to an Arab ethnic group—remember, it came from the Romans. It was an invented narrative. That is why former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich referred to the Palestinians as an "invented people." (NOTE: That does not mean that they are bad people. Each one of them was made in the image of God. We're not talking here about their value, which is great before God, but history.)6. Jerusalem was the capital of Israel under King David. It has never been the capital of any other country—including Palestine. It has never (until Israel controlled it) been significant to Arabs. 1.      In other words, you will not find these words in the Koran but in the Hebrew Bible: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. (Ps. 137: 5-6)2.      The Ottoman Empire ruled over Jerusalem for 400 years. It meant nothing to them, even though they were Muslims.3.      When Mark Twain visited Palestine under Turkish rule he wrote that it was a "desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds...a silent mournful expanse...We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country." 4.      It only became important to the Arab and Islamic world, after the Jewish people began to return and redeem the land. 5.      It should be noted that the Jews purchased the land and did not steal it. How could they? They were under Turkish rule. They started the Jewish National Fund and lawfully purchased land in Palestine. In 1919, there were approximately 500,000 Arabs in what is now called Israel. That number mushroomed to about 1.3 million by the time Israel declared independence. In other words, over those 30 years (1919-1948) well over half of the Arabs in Palestine were not born in Palestine. They came as immigrants from all over the Middle East because of the economic opportunities that the Jewish pioneers were creating as they were clearing the land and establishing farms. Once again, this proves that there is no long history of Palestinian culture and that they are just after the city. 7. When Israel captured Jerusalem in 1967, it was not from Palestinians but from Jordan. QUESTIONS:1.      Why didn't Palestinians demand Jerusalem when Jordan controlled it (1948-1967)?2.      Why didn't the Jordanians create an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank in 1948? It was certainly within their power. The reason is simple. Jordanians made no distinction between Arabs who lived east of the Jordan and those who lived west of the Jordan.  8. Israel had no plans to attack Jordan during the Six-Day War.  Jordan's King Hussein believed the false reports from Egyptian President Nasser of Egypt that they were winning the war against Israel. King Hussein, in hopes of getting more land, attacked Israel, and his troops were driven back over the Jordan River in a matter of days. That is how Israel ended up with Jerusalem in 1967. Taking Jerusalem was not one of the military objectives of the Six-Day War. It was a gift from Jordan. Israel sent word to the king of Jordan through the United Nations that Israel would not attack their forces if they did not enter the war. Had they heeded that advice, Jerusalem would still be part of Jordan. 9. There is no language known as Palestinian.  Palestinian Arabs speak Arabic like Jordanians, Syrians, and Egyptians.10. There is no rich Palestinian history.  You will not find history books that detail Palestinian culture going back centuries.11. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Iraqis, and others. I want to continue to be clear. There is nothing wrong with being Arab. We are not arguing any type of racial superiority. That is not of God. We love the Arab peoples and want their best. We are simply making the point that there is no Palestinian Arab ethnicity or history.12. Most of the Arab countries in the Middle East are relatively new. 1.      Jordan was created in 1922 by Great Britain. They took 80% of ancient Palestine and created Transjordan. She achieved independence in  1946.2.      The Syrians were under French control until 1946 when they became a nation.3.      Lebanon achieved independence from France in 1943.4.      Iraq became an independent nation in 1958. These were nations created after World War I from within the Turkish Ottoman Empire. None of them existed before the San Remo Conference in 1920. The purpose of this conference was to decide which Allied nations would take responsibility for the different regions of the now-defeated Ottoman Empire. 13. The total land mass of Arab states (and this doesn't even include non-Arab states in the Middle East like Iran and Turkey) is 98.4 compared to Israel's 1.6 percent. 14. When the Jewish people began to return to ‘Palestine' in the late 1800s: 1.      The Turks, not the Arabs, controlled it.2.      Every bit of land was paid for by the returning Jews—nothing was stolen! 3.      Even in 1948, when Israel declared independence, the Arabs were invited to join the new state. Many did, becoming the most liberated Arabs in the Middle East, enjoying freedoms never known in Syria, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia. (I regularly see Arab women taking driving lessons!) Israeli Arabs are the only Middle Eastern Arabs with full civil liberties like freedom of speech and religion. 4.      However, roughly 800,000 Arabs fled Israel, assuming that the five Arab nations would crush the new Jewish state. The gamble didn't pay off, and they became refugees. 5.      The Arab nations did nothing to help integrate the refugees into their society but kept them in refugee camps until today. 15. Israel was a swamp-infested wasteland that no one, including the Arabs, really cared about.  Until the Jews returned, the land suffered neglect. It was only after the Jews came back and made the land prosperous and fruitful again that the Palestinian Arab narrative was invented. The Religious Significance of Jerusalem Jerusalem or Zion appears nearly one thousand times in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, whereas it never appears in the Koran.  Again, this is about history, not about any type of superiority or racism against Arabs. God loves the Arabs and made them to love him. He also loves the Jewish people and will not ignore the covenant he made with Abraham and confirmed with Isaac and Jacob.[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Eze 37.[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Eze 37.[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Eze 37.

Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today's painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. This week, we are going to discuss the events occurring in the Gaza strip, the history of the region, and the evangelical view of the situation. This is being recorded on October 28, 2023 and we are doing our best to give the latest information. Amity: I have tried to keep this as straightforward and clear as possible. I am extremely emotional about this topic and have spent much of the past twenty days watching the news coming directly out of Palestine, sharing Palestinian voices and calling my representatives to demand a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine.  First things first - we have to state unequivocally the following: Zionism is not Judaism, and a person can be anti-Zionist and not anti-semetic, as many, many American jews are. We will come back to this in a few minutes. The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 is abhorrent and terrible and we grieve with the survivors and families of those who were killed. May their memories be a blessing.  Events leading up to October 7 Let's start with some history, which I have put together from several sources. This is a very broad, very simplified overview of the history. In the show notes, we have included an extensive reading list to get a rounder view of the subject.  Israel and Palestine: In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement called for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people to escape persecution in Europe. Immigration and the purchase of land in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, was encouraged. The land known as Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century encompasses a 25,000 square mile piece of land bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the East by what is now Syria and Jordan on the south by Egypt and on the north by Lebanon. After the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain was granted a mandate to govern the region of Palestine and Jewish immigration increased as Nazism took hold in central Europe. This brought tensions in the area with the Arab population, and after the Second World War a new plan was drawn up and agreed by the United Nations to create two separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem remaining international. The Arab state would include Gaza, an area near the border with Egypt, a zone near the border with Lebanon, a central region which includes the West Bank, and a tiny enclave at the city of Jaffa.But this was never implemented after Arab opposition. At midnight on 14/15 May 1948, the Mandate for Palestine expired and the State of Israel came into being. The Palestine Government formally ceased to exist, the status of British forces still in the process of withdrawal from Haifa changed to occupiers of foreign territory, the Palestine Police Force formally stood down and was disbanded, with the remaining personnel evacuated alongside British military forces, the British blockade of Palestine was lifted, and all those who had been Palestinian citizens ceased to be British protected persons, with Mandatory Palestine passports no longer giving British protection. Over the next few days, approximately 700 Lebanese, 1,876 Syrian, 4,000 Iraqi, and 2,800 Egyptian troops crossed over the borders into Palestine, starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The war, which was to last until 1949, would see Israel expand to encompass about 78% of the territory of the former British Mandate, with Transjordan seizing and subsequently annexing the West Bank and the Kingdom of Egypt seizing the Gaza Strip. The 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, known to Palestineans as the Nakba took place both before and after the end of the Mandate. The foundational events of the Nakba took place during and shortly after the 1948 Palestine war, as that 78% of Mandatory Palestine was declared as Israel, leading to the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians, the related depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist militias and later the Israeli army and subsequent geographical erasure, the denial of the Palestinian right of return, the creation of permanent Palestinian refugees, and the "shattering of Palestinian society" Now, back to what I brought up at the opening of this episode, the difference between Zionism and Judaism. Zionism v Judaism: Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Zionism is a nineteenth-century political ideology that emerged in a moment where Jews were defined as irrevocably outside of a Christian Europe. European antisemitism threatened and ended millions of Jewish lives — in pogroms, in exile, and in the Holocaust. Many Jews today are anti-Zionist, believing that Zionism was a false and failed answer to the desperately real question many of their ancestors faced of how to protect Jewish lives from murderous antisemitism in Europe. While it had many strains historically, the Zionism that took hold and stands today is a settler-colonial movement, establishing an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others. Our own history teaches us how dangerous this can be. So what is a settler colony? Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers. Settler colonialism is a form of exogenous domination typically organized or supported by an imperial authority. Settler colonialism contrasts with exploitation colonialism, which entails an economic policy of conquering territory to exploit its population as cheap or free labor and its natural resources as raw material. In this way, settler colonialism lasts indefinitely, except in the rare event of complete evacuation or settler decolonization. Writing in the 1990s, Patrick Wolfe theorized settler colonialism as a structure (rather than an event) premised on the elimination rather than exploitation of the native population, thus distinguishing it from classical colonialism. He also argued that settler colonialism was centered on the control of land and that it continued after the closing of the frontier. His approach was defining for the field, but has been challenged by other scholars on the basis that many situations involve a combination of elimination and exploitation. Settler colonial studies has often focused on former British colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand, which are close to the complete, prototypical form of settler colonialism, but is also applied to many other conflicts throughout the world. Today in Gaza, over 2 million Palestinians live within roughly 140 square miles, it is “one of the world's most densely populated territories,” according to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental organization. Half of Palestinians living in Gaza are under age 19, but they have few to no prospects for socioeconomic growth and limited access to the outside world. Israel has maintained a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007 that has had a devastating effect on Palestinian civilians. Israel has built an apartheid blockade, which gives it control of Gaza's borders and is also enforced by Egypt. The International Committee of the Red Cross considers the blockade illegal and says it violates the Geneva Convention, a charge Israeli officials deny. The U.N., various human rights groups and legal scholars, citing the blockade, consider Gaza to still be under military occupation by Israel. Human Rights Watch likened the conditions in Gaza to “an open air prison,” referring to the restriction of movement Israel enforces on Palestinians there. Israel prohibits Palestinians from entering or leaving the area “except in extremely rare cases, which include urgent, life-threatening medical conditions and a very short list of merchants,” according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.  Israelis, Jewish settlers and foreigners are not subject to those restrictions and are free to travel in and out of Gaza. Over the years, Israel has gradually closed land-border crossings from Gaza into Israel except for one — which is open only to Palestinians with Israeli-approved permits. Egypt sporadically closes its land-border crossing for months on end, which is often the only way people in Gaza can gain access to the rest of the world. Further, the roads within Gaza are segregated and Palestinians and Isralis are issued different colored license plates to allow for easy identification. By limiting imports and nearly all exports, Israel's 16-year blockade has driven Gaza's economy to near-collapse, with unemployment rates above 40%, according to the World Bank. More than 65% of the population live under the poverty line, according to the U.N., with 63% of people in Gaza deemed “food insecure” by the World Food Program. Little psychological support exists for a generation of children who are “living with the long-term psychological effects of constant exposure to violence,” according to a U.N. report, which described an uptick of mental health issues, including depression, among young people living in the Gaza Strip. Israel controls food, water, electricity, internet, medicine and movement of the Palestinian people and have been annexing more and more of Gaza since 1948. Hamas, a Sunni Islamist political and military organization committed to armed resistance against Israel and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel's place has been the de facto governing body in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it ousted the Palestinian Authority from power. Several nations and governing bodies have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization which encompasses between 20,000 and 25,000 members.  Events of October 7  On October 7, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched over 3,500 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel and executed a surprise invasion by land, sea and air, breaking through the Gaza-Israel barrier to attack at least 22 locations in Israel's Southern District. Civilians were targeted in those locations, which included a music festival. Thousands of Israeli citizens were injured and at least 1400 were killed. In addition, over 200 people were taken hostage. Events since October 7  Israel began bombing and airstrikes on Gaza on the 7th of October. These continue through today, October 28th. On October 13th, Israel gave the 1 million residents of northern Gaza an order to evacuate to the south and if they did not, anyone left in the north would be considered a combatant. Israelis allowed one road for the evacuation, but during that time, they bombed the roads, targeting civilians and ambulances. On October 17th, Al-Alhi hospital was bombed, killing over 500 Palestinian refugees. The Israeli defense ministry claimed responsibility for the attack, but shortly after, they rescinded that statement and blamed a misfired Hamas rocket. Israel has ceased all water, food, electricity and medicine from entering Gaza. They have also blocked the only exit available to Gazans at the Egyptian border. Over 1,000,000 Palestinians have lost their homes to bombings. 22 hospitals have been shuttered. Surgeries, including amputations required by injuries from explosions are being performed without anesthesia or fresh water often by the lights of cell phones. As of October 27th, Israel has begun a ground offensive and shutdown the satellite access, silencing any Palestinian journalists and citizens from getting information out of Gaza. They have also warned that they believe Hamas has a stronghold underneath the largest hospital in Gaza, where 15,000 Palestinians are currently seeking refuge. One report states that between October 7 and 26, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children. This figure is likely significantly less than the actual death toll as this is based on bodies recovered. There are hundreds of buildings that have been reduced to rubble and contain the remains of people that haven't yet been found.  I could speak on this for hours, but we are trying to keep it as straightforward as possible, so I want to just end with some clarity on definitions.  Western media is using the phrase “Israel-Hamas War” in most of their coverage.  A war indicates an armed conflict between states or nations. A war requires two armies. Israel has the 10th largest army in the world and is backed by most if not all Western nations. Gaza, or Palestine, is comprised of 2.2 million people, half of which are children. A segment of Hamas is located within Gaza but they are not an army, they use largely improvised weapons as Israel dictates what comes in and out of Gaza. This is not a war. This is not defense. This is a calculated ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Gaza is often described as an open air prison - I used the term earlier - but this is also a euphemism. A prison indicates that the population are criminals, prosecuted and found guilty of a crime. A prison also requires that it's inhabitants are provided adequate food, water, and medical care. None of these requisites are true of Gaza. The population of Gaza have been convicted of no crimes, and the settler colony of Israel has control over it's water, food, electricity, communications, and medicine - that is a textbook definition of a concentration camp. Finally, the word genocide and ethnic cleansing are both being used, and both are accurate but they are not the same thing. Ethnic cleansing comprises the actions that can be used in the goal to remove members of an ethnic or religious group from an area. Genocide is the murder of an entire population. All genocide can be considered ethnic cleansing, but not all ethnic cleansing is genocide.  It is clear that Israel has been guilty of humanitarian atrocities for decades. These have ramped up exponentially in the past month with unyielding aerial attacks, the use of white phosphorus, the targeting of hospitals, schools, and mosques, the silencing of Palestinians communication with the outside world and the denial of basic human needs to the 2.2 million civilians in Gaza, including over 1 million children. It is becoming more clear everyday that Israel seeks to finalize their purging of Palestinians from the land they have colonized by means of genocide. And many Palestinians are making the devastating decision to stay in their homes as long as possible, afraid they will leave and lose what little they have left the way their ancestors did in 1948. They are standing their ground believing that it's better to die in their homes as many of them have nothing left to lose. Evangelical POV: Genesis 12: 7 informs us: And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.  The previous verse tells us this:  And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. This tells us that the promised land was always occupied by other peoples, other groups that had to be driven out so that Abraham and his descendants could settle there.  When the Hebrew people, having escaped famine, settled in the borders outside of Egypt they multiplied and became a threat to the Egyptians who became concerned that in the event of a conflict, or threat to their empire, the Hebrews could be persuaded to side with the invaders attack Egypt. They were taken in to slavery for hundreds of years. Returning, they were told:  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Again, the land was inhabited, and these people were, under the holy wars initiated by Moses' successor, Joshua, these people were driven off, or in some cases, assimilated. Individual people, living among the Hebrews were made welcome, and given rights.  “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  Leviticus 19:34. This story, the struggle of the Hebrew people to overcome obstacles and keep the land of their promise is central to Zionism. Evangelical Protestant Chrisitians, who largely follow a literal interpretation of scripture, have cited this set of scriptures, and endorsed and supported the idea of a Jewish homeland.  The new evangelicalism, endorsed Israel for more sinister reasons. Dispensationalist writer, Hal Lindsey, began an elaborate and exact timeline for the return of Christ that started with Israel becoming a nation.  From there he listed current events that must be fulfilled to anticipate this return, followed by years of tribulation, and a literal battle of Armageddon taking place on a ruin in Northern Israel.  This belief has been endorsed by evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell. It has been made a part of modern Christian mythology with it's inclusion in the popular, “Left Behind,” series of books and films. Follow Amity on TikTok @sassyscribbler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ [withoutworkspod@gmail.com ](mailto:withoutworkspod@gmail.com)Our Internet home: [www.withoutworkspodcast.com ](http://www.withoutworkspodcast.com)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVuHgaTdysY https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsxdg https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/zionism/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settler_colonialism https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gaza-strip-controls-s-know-rcna119405 https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-long-history-israeli-palestinian-conflict/story?id=103875134 https://afsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Palestinian%20Nonviolent%20Resistance%20to%20occupaltion%20since%201967.pdf https://www.usip.org/palestinian-politics-timeline-2006-election https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/hamas_fto.html https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006 https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/middleeast/gaza-death-toll-report-intl/index.html Reading List: My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story by Ramzy Baroud Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh In the Presence of Absence by Richard Widerkehr On Zionist Literature by Ghassan Kanafani Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimir Power Born of Dreams: My Story Is Palestine by Mohammad Sabaaneh Stories Under Occupation: And Other Plays from Palestine by Samer Al-Saber Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank by Kareem Rabie Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd Of Noble Origins: A Palestinian Novel by Sahar Khalifeh My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

The Israelites would ask to cross through the territory of one nation after another on their journey north after rounding the Edomites. All of them would say no, however, two nations would do more than just say no. The battle for the Promised Land would come sooner than expected!    Welcome to the History of the Bible!     To give feedback on The History of the Bible click the link (https://forms.gle/AtzUReJ8gLuFYPaP8). Let us know how this podcast has impacted you or someone you know click the link (https://forms.gle/jr4EdGsqCaFk4qZm8)! If you believe that I have presented incorrect information, please let me know (https://forms.gle/PiMMkPnJFaa4j5p37).  Follow us @NikaoProductions To check out all of our podcasts, just search Nikao Productions wherever you listen to podcasts!  Source  

In this conversation with Channa Lockshin Bob, we explore the parsha's list of wilderness stops and the tense request of some of the tribes to remain in the Transjordan. This marks the closing of our series on Bamidbar titled,Growing Pains: The Journey Towards Responsibility. Each episode explored the manner in which the parsha's events reflected the maturation of the people and Moshe's leadership during the wilderness period.

In this series of sermons on the life and times of Elijah we saw how a man known as Elijah the Tishbite appeared before the King of Israel, Ahab ben Omri, bringing a very simple message. He said, "It ain't gonna rain no more! Not until I say so!" And then the prophet disappeared for the next three and a half years.For that entire period of time, God, himself, protected this man from the wrath of the powers that be. First, God took Elijah to a cave in the region known as Transjordan where God took care of his needs. Then, after a year of hiding, God sent him to live in the house of a widow in the region of Phoenicia.God not only protected Elijah in these out-of-the-way places, he also miraculously fed him. While Elijah was hidden away in that cave in Transjordan, God sent him bread and meat in the beaks of wild ravens. And while he was hiding in Phoenicia, God provided him with cornbread baked from meal that came from a barrel that refused to remain empty, and oil from a cruse that refused to run dry.So, in comparison to everybody else living in the Middle East at that time, Elijah enjoyed a relatively comfortable existence for forty-two long months. Then one day God spoke to Elijah again. He told the prophet to come out of hiding, to leave Phoenicia and to "go show himself” to Ahab.Now, please understand this! Leaving his hiding place was a dangerous thing for Elijah to do and he knew it. But the ever obedient Elijah did as he was told, and what happens from here on in the story is utterly fascinating. Three types of characters emerge from the text for today and all of the people involved had different agendas and opposing goals. This morning, Pastor will introduce us to these people.Support the show

As we continue the Courage and Confrontation series we remember that God had always prepared men to do the work that He calls them to do. In the days of King Ahab of Israel, the situation called for a man like Elijah the Tishbite; an Elijah was ready to do the job; at least in part. The easy part was to march into the throne room of Ahab and to announce to the king, “It ain't gonna rain no more.” And he did just that!From there, the task facing the prophet would become far more arduous. He needed more training, and the Spirit of the Lord knew exactly how to prepare Elijah for what was to come. The situation was this: God was displeased with the idolatrous practices of the children of Israel, so He chose to chastise them by sending a great drought upon the land. Baal, the god to whom they had turned was worshiped as the “god of the storm,” so, in sending this drought, God was saying to Israel, “Let's see if the god of the storm has the power to end a drought that Yahweh had ordained. The dye was about to be cast. As Pastor Harris will share, once the announcement of the impending drought was declared, Elijah was told to go hide himself in a deep wadi or canyon in Transjordan. To prepare His man for the coming war, God had called Elijah to go to a place of solitude and isolation, and it was in the best interest of the prophet to obey his God. There in the wadi, God met the physical needs of the prophet. God provided abundant water from a spring, and He sent ravens to bring Elijah meat to sustain him. In this God was teaching Elijah to live from His divine hand. Of course, the Lord could have sent angels instead of ravens to minister to Elijah, but God demonstrated to His prophet that He can use even the lowest creatures to do His bidding.However, eventually the brook in the wadi ran dry and the ravens ceased to come. The prophet lost his supply just when it appeared that he needed them most. But the prophet would find that there is a river which makes glad the city of God; a river that never runs dry, “a well of water that springs up to eternal life.”Support the show

Pastor Doug Link teaches from Numbers 31 and 32. The post Vengeance on Midian and Transjordan Tribes appeared first on Grace Church of Tallahassee.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 765, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Warthogs 1: A young warthog's canine teeth eventually grow into a pair of these formidable defensive weapons. tusks. 2: Warthogs stick this long, thin, tufted body part straight up in the air when they run. their tails. 3: A warthog's enemies include these 2 predators that begin with the same "L"etter. lions and leopards. 4: In a movie he's the warthog who befriends young Simba. Pumbaa. 5: For warthogs, home is often an adopted den of one of these insectivores AKA an ant bear. an aardvark. Round 2. Category: Oh, Witty Woman 1: 1893-born wit who reportedly said, "The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue". Dorothy Parker. 2: Lucille Ball once quipped, "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about" this. your age. 3: Funny lady Roseanne used to joke that she wouldn't do this chore "'til Sears makes one you can ride on". Vacuum. 4: This country singer said, "I was the first woman to burn my bra--it took the fire department 4 days to put it out". Dolly Parton. 5: Erma Bombeck advised, "Before you try to keep up with" them, "be sure they're not trying to keep up with you". the Joneses. Round 3. Category: Iraq 1: It's the country Iraqi nationalists call Iraq's 19th province. Kuwait. 2: Iraq's old name, Mesopotamia, was derived from its location between these 2 rivers. the Tigris and Euphrates. 3: Roughly 75 percent of Iraq's people are Arabs and 20 percent are of this ethnic group. Kurds. 4: After this country's 1948 independence, the armies of Transjordan and Iraq invaded. Israel. 5: Initially set up as a monarchy, Iraq became this type of political order in 1958 as its ensuing "Guard" could attest. a republic. Round 4. Category: "Lock"S 1: Tetanus. lockjaw. 2: This small ornamental case for a keepsake is often worn as a pendant. a locket. 3: Hairstyle popular among Rastafarians. dreadlocks. 4: This phrase meaning the grave of all who perish at sea dates back about 200 years. Davy Jones's locker. 5: In 1690 this founder of empericism outlined his philosophical doctrine in "An Essay on Human Understanding". John Locke. Round 5. Category: They Named It For Me 1: They named a poll after this man born in Iowa in 1901. George Gallup. 2: They named a knot for this Duke who was briefly king of England. Duke of Windsor. 3: She left her mark on Louis XV and her name on a big hair style. Madame de Pompadour. 4: They named a smear after a Greek-American doctor and shortened the name to this. Pap. 5: A territory in Africa and a scholarship in Oxford have borne this businessman's name. Cecil Rhodes. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

This is part 3 of the Early Church History class. Today we begin to look at the second century. We'll start by considering Jewish Christian movements, including the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. Next we'll shift gears and explore the cultural pressure of asceticism and how it began infiltrating Christianity. We'll briefly survey the influence of Marcion and his followers before sketching out the various christologies of second century. This episode is a hodgepodge of unrelated topics that overlap in the same time period. This will serve as a good introduction before we get into other topics in the second century. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFkeSR6LGg&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=3 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Outline Jewish Christianity Asceticism Marcion Gnostics Christologies in the 2nd c. Jewish Christianity Patricia Crone: “Originally, the bastion of law-observing Christianity was the Jerusalem church, the undisputed center of Christianity until the first Jewish war with Rome (AD 66–70). When this war broke out, the Jerusalem Christians reportedly fled to Pella (Ar. Fiḥl) in the Decapolis in Transjordan, and though some returned to the devastated city in 70, they were expelled again after the suppression of Bar Kokhba's revolt in 135, when Hadrian forbade Jews to reside in Jerusalem. Thereafter, Jewish Christians were concentrated in the Aleppo region in northern Syria, in the Decapolis around Pella…and in the Dead Sea region, as we know from Epiphanius (d. 403) and Jerome (d. 420). They would seem also to have been present in the Golan, where excavators of an abandoned village have found lintels decorated with a combination of crosses, menorahs, and other mixed Jewish and Christian symbols, probably indicating that the building was a Jewish Christian synagogue. After Epiphanius and Jerome, however, we have no certain evidence for the existence of Jewish Christians in Greek, Latin, or Syriac sources written before the rise of Islam.”[1] For Nazarenes see Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.1-6; 29.9.2-4 For Ebionites see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.27.1-6 Asceticism ἄσκησις, askesis = exercise, training asceticism is the rigorous pursuit of discipline in avoiding bodily pleasures Examples Acts of Paul and Thecla Proto-Gospel of James Acts of John Marcion of Sinope Lived from 85 to 164 Founded his own churches God of the OT is not the God of the NT Docetism: Jesus only appeared human Canon: list of books in the Bible Gnostics believed in pre-creation myth they were Platonists who accepted his creation account, called Timaeus Valentinus streamlined Gnostic religion and brought Jesus to a more central role followers attended mainstream churches on Sunday, but then studied “deeper truths” during the week Christology in the 2nd Century Dynamic Monarchians (Ebionites, Nazarenes, Didache, 1 Clement, Hermas, Theodotus of Byzantium) Docetists (Marcion, Gnostics, Valentinus) Logos Subordinationists (Psuedo-Barnabas, 2 Clement, Justin, Irenaeus) Modalistic Monarchians (Praxeas) [1] Patricia Crone, “Jewish Christianity and the Qurʾān (Part One)”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol 74, no 2 (October 2015), 226.

Though he has not been glorified by the Church, Fr Lazarus was a pioneer and exemplar of Orthodoxy in the West.   He was born in England in 1902. In his early manhood he moved to western Canada, where he worked as a farm laborer for several years. While working in Alberta, he sensed a call to become a missionary and went to an English missionary college for five years.   Sad to say, our sources are unclear about how he came to the Orthodox faith from this unlikely beginning. But in 1934 he spent seven weeks on Mt Athos, then lived as a monk in Yugoslavia. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Theophan (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), then sent to Palestine to serve the Russian Mission in Jerusalem.   In 1948, the new State of Israel gave the Mission's property to the Soviet Union and the mission was left dispossessed. Fr Lazarus served as priest to the Russian Convent in Aïn Karim and Transjordan, then was sent to India in 1952, where he helped in Orthodox missionary work for twenty years. Several of his books and translations, such as his biography/study of St Seraphim of Sarov, were written while he lived in India. While there, he met Mother Gavrilia of Greece, whose beautiful biography Ascetic of Love includes good descriptions of him during his life in India. Though very strict in his Orthodoxy, he was flexible in externals: in India he wore a white rather than a black cassock, because black clothing had offensive connotations to the Indian people.   In 1972 Fr Lazarus was called to Greece, then in 1974 to Australia, where he served for nine years. In 1983 he moved to California in answer to call from Fr Peter Gillquist to assist members of the former 'Evangelical Orthodox Church' in their move to Orthodoxy. In 1989 he moved to Alaska, where he continued this work. He reposed in Eagle River, Alaska in 1992. Following is an excerpt from an account of his last days by members of his community in Eagle River:   "Father always signed his name with TWA, "Traveling With Angels". A few days before his death, after battling cancer many years, faithfully using the Jesus Prayer as the medicine for his affliction, the Archangel Michael appeared to help him. His final journey homeward had begun, TWA... 'the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.' (2 Timothy 4: 6-8)."

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.This lesson explores Amos 4:1-13.By this point in the book of Amos all the major themes of the book have been introduced.From here to chapter 7 the material in Amos is more personal: directed against unfaithful Israel in more personal terms, and opening a window into Amos' personal life.The boom will fall (by the 720s, Assyria will have taken northern Israel into exile)! First to be challenged are the aristocratic women of Samaria.The fat cows of Bashan (4:1-3)Bashan was a fertile region of Gilead along the Yarmuk river in Transjordan, and its cows were a special breed.These women will be prodded like the corpulent cattle they are!Amos recognizes the important and responsible place of women in society. (He was thus hardly misogynist or chauvinistic.)“One does not have to dirty one's hands in the actual business of exploitation; someone else can do it, someone else can engage in the dirty work. It is possible to delegate dirty deeds, but it is not possible to avoid their guilt.” “Those whose lives of luxury had been lived at the expense of the poor would be dragged off into judgment.” – Craigie 152…Note the parallels between chapter 4 and chapter 6.The pilgrim festivals at Gilgal and Bethel (4:4-5)Gilgal and Bethel (along with Dan and Samaria) served as religious centers for the corrupt northern kingdom.After a parody of invitation to worship come five oracles of judgment. ("O come, all ye faithless..")Though disciplined, they have not responded (4:6-11)!There's a similarity to the wicked refusing to repent in Revelation, or Pharaoh failing to respond to the evidence and message from Moses.Various disciplines/punishmentscleanness of teeth =  faminelack of rainfall (Jeremiah 5:24)thirstblightagricultural woesplaguewarcity after city overthrown (Samaria not until 732, all Israel not until 722)All these threats were uttered in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28).Prepare to meet your God (4:12-13)!Irony: unlike the shallow and hypocritical preparations the Israelites went through before visiting their idolatrous shrines, Amos is talking about really meeting God (for real).The true meaning of the Day of the Lord will be expounded in the next chapter.Lessons for us:Examine our lifestyle. Are we guilty of conspicuous consumption?Ask whether we're living lives of self-indulgence (1 Timothy 5:6).Discover whether we might be oppressing the poor even indirectly.Listening to repeated warnings, rebukes, input… Are there common themes when I receive input from other disciples? From my spouse? Even from my own conscience?Recognize that the Lord expects a response. Constant hardening will lead us to a very dark and perilous place.We mustn't intellectualize judgment day.Further:Gilgal and Bethel (4:4) were on the prophet Samuel's regular circuit (1 Samuel 7:16).Among the various literary devices used by the prophet, Amos makes effective use of summary quotations:4:1 – callous demands of idle rich women: “Bring us some drinks.”6:13 – people exulting in military prowess: “Have we not by our own strength captured Karnaim for ourselves?”8:5 – greedy merchants: “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?9:10 – complacent populace: “Disaster shall not overtake us.”

The wars are over. The two-and-a-half Tribes return to the Transjordan after their national service, and build a monumental altar on the banks of the Jordan Rover. However, the Israelites Tribes in Canaan assume that these tribes have set up an alternative worship site, and have abandoned God! They set out for war! How will they defuse the situation?

This chapter allots six cities of refuge, 3 in Transjordan and 3 in Eretz Canaan. The cities are designated for "accidental murderers, to gain protection from the "Blood Avenger" and to stand trial in a fair legal hearing. But is the "Blood Avenger" a Jewish idea? Doesn't this vigilante system seem somewhat primitive?

When an earthquake shook Palestine, Transjordan and the south of Lebanon and Syria in 1927, terms such as the Richter scale or plate tectonics which we now use to talk about seismic events were still a thing of the future. In global science, scholars were debating what caused earthquakes and were trying to work out how to measure their power and impacts. This lecture looks at how local scientists, journalists and government officials in the 1920s Levant thought about and reacted to earthquakes and how they fit into the broader cultural and political discourses of the day. About the speaker: Sarah Irving is Lecturer in International History at Staffordshire University in Britain and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow researching the social and cultural history of the 1927 earthquake. Her recent publications include an edited volume, The Social and Cultural History of Palestine: Essays in Honour of Salim Tamari, due in January 2023 from Edinburgh University Press, and ‘The House of the Priest': A Palestinian Life (1885-1954), an edition of the memoirs of the Palestinian Orthodox priest and nationalist Niqula Khoury, edited and introduced with Charbel Nassif and Karène Sanchez Summerer, and available in open access from Brill. She is also editor-in-chief of the CBRL journal Contemporary Levant.

Chapter 13 lists the tribal portions of Reuven, Gad and Menashe on the east bank of the Jordan river. But is this land part of the land of Israel? The text of Sefer Yehoshua is somewhat ambivalent about this region, a negativity with roots in the Torah.

Study Notes Ed Underwood Hebrews Selected Legacies of Faith!  (Hebrews 11:32-40) “The world was not worthy of them” (Hebrews 11:38) The key Greek term hypomone, endurance (10:36; 12:1, 3), which occurs nowhere else in Hebrews, brackets Hebrews 11. The Greek word pistis, faith, occurs 24 times in chapter 11, begins and ends the chapter. The refrain “by faith” emphatically teaches Christians that faith in God is essential if we want to endure in our service to Christ. After celebrating the character of faith in chapter 11, the writer invites the reader to the endurance that secures the reward our redeemed heart desires (12:1-13, see also10:34-39). First Century Jews viewed history as the story of the God of Israel working through the heroes of the Old Testament to move His plan forward. Now the writer tells them why these heroes were great. It wasn't their ancestry or their performance. Behind every act that God commends is a heart of faith. It's a list that would surprise and maybe even embarrass these Jewish Christians. But it's a list of those who lived great lives from God's perspective because they believed what He said, even when they couldn't see it.  The story of God's people in the Scripture is a collection of individual stories of those who walked through life believing God for things great and small. In spite of their pain, in spite of their doubts, in spite of the opposition and persecution, their reality was what God said rather than what people said or life looked like. Hebrews 11:1-12:13 is an invitation to all who read these words to live our own story, and a reminder that the story of God's redeeming work is not complete without new stories of faith. The stories are categorized by epochs of Israel's past. The second period is the patriarchal era. Chapter 11 ends with a seemingly random selection of Hebrew heroes of faith from the rest of Old Testament history. A closer look reveals that what they all had in common was their faith in God in the face of suffering and death. The writer then presents a bullet list of the deeds of these who lived by faith. Finally, there's a reminder of our privileged status as new covenant followers of God. The perfection of faith these Old Testament heroes looked forward to (the coming of Messiah) was actually postponed by God until we could share in the blessings of the promise:  Faith lives for something.  Faith recognizes that it is the future, and not the past, that determines the present.  Enduring faith resolves to live for the world to come, even when this world threatens suffering and martyrdom. I. Faith that endures continues to trust and obey God in spite of suffering that tempts us to turn away from following Christ (Hebrews 11:32-40). A. Three characteristics of faith (1-3) Faith is a way of viewing life. B. The writer illustrates this faith he just described with stories of some heroes of the Old Testament from eras of Israel's history subsequent to the conquest of Jericho.  1. The Heroes ( 32): Using a literary device (And what more shall I say? Time will fail me….) the writer lets the reader know that he could go on and on as he explains Israel's glorious history by the faith of individual Israelites. Then, he catalogs some of those, letting us know that they are merely representative. These individuals were far from perfect, yet God commended them because of their faith. Three sets of men from different eras are presented in teams of two, the more famous coming first: Gideon (300 Israelites defeated 32,000 Midianites, Judges 6) and Barak (Israel's general who defeated a Canaanite army with 900 chariots, Judges 4), Samson (champion who defeated Philistines, Judges 13) and Jephthah (Gileadite who led the Transjordan tribes against the Ammonites, Judges 11), David (strong reliance on God against overwhelming odds through his life), Samuel (last judge and first of the prophetic line (1 Samuel 7). 2. The Deeds (32-38): Now the writer simply starts listing deeds that would be familiar to every Hebrew Christian. Some are related to the individuals in v 32 and others are not. “The digest of deeds of men and women of faith during the biblical and post-biblical periods in vv 33-35 appears to be spontaneous and unstudied.” (Lane, Hebrews 9-13, p. 385) What they have in common is the faith they exhibited in the face of suffering and martyrdom. Some were spared, but others weren't. The outcome of their faith isn't as important as their courageous faith when they didn't know the outcome. They conquered kingdoms (David, Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, Samuel)…administered justice (Samuel, David)…gained what was promised (Gideon, Barak, Samson, David)…shut the mouths of lions (Samson, David, Daniel)…quenched raging fire (Daniel's three friends)…escaped the edge of the sword (David, Elijah, Elisha, Jews in Exile, Esther 3:13)…gained strength in weakness (Samson, Hannah)…became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight (Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, David, Samuel, Maccabeans in the time of Antioches Epihanes)…and women received back their dead raised to life (Elijah raised the widow of Sidon's son, 1 Kings 17), Elisha raised the Shunammite widow's son, 2 Kings 4). But others…were tortured (pictures the torture of the rack during the Maccabean era and during 1st Century under Roman persecution), not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life… And others…experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment (Jeremiah). They were stoned (Zechariah, son of Jehoida, 2 Chronicles 24, Jeremiah, oral tradition)…sawed apart (Isaiah, oral tradition, Romans during the Jewish wars)…murdered with the sword (Uriah, 1 Kings 18); they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated… (many generations of faithful Israelites who fled to the wilderness to escape persecution). Injustice: So-called civilized society was unfit for these sufferers and martyrs of faith. 3. Our Privilege (39-40): They never experienced all that God had promised (Messiah's rescue) because God wanted us to be a part of the New Covenant deliverance. II. If you want your life to count in ways that please God, then you must live by faith. You must draw near to God with enduring faith. A.The Crux: A legacy of faith is built upon thousands of momentary decisions to trust in what God has said to me rather than what I'm feeling, thinking, or fearing in light of what this world is saying to me.  1. Your legacy of faith will begin with a commitment to God to live by faith every day and a plea for the strength to follow up on that commitment. This may involve emotions because it usually is accompanied by repentance—a turning from your own strength to God's strength.  2. However, that big emotional moment will not last. You need to also commit to God's resources that will help you in the determining moments of life—when you are faced with a decision and what God says about that decision does not make sense. You will need: The Word of God, The Spirit of God, and The People of God. 3. What you decide when faced with the trials, confusion, disappointments, hurts, and messiness of life will determine what those you love remember about you. Your decision either wounds them so that they are vulnerable to repeat your legacy of self-care and bitterness or it will equip them to face life with the faith that endures.

A long daf, with some mishnayot, and a few key points from the Gemara. First mishnah: Another Admon statement, regarding people in conflict with promissory notes and bills of sale that seem to contradict. Do the dates of the transactions make the difference? Mishnah 2 (and the last of the Admon statement mishnayot) - the case of 2 people with IOUs for each other. But how can it be that one who is owed money would borrow money from the person who owes him? Mishnah 3: 3 areas of land where people lived in the Land of Israel (Galil, Transjordan, and Judah) - and one spouse cannot force the other to move to a different region. Mishnah 4: A spouse CAN force the family to move to the Land of Israel from the Diaspora. And likewise from Israel to Jerusalem, establishing the "kedushah" element in this decision, as well as the question whether there's an actual mitzvah to live in Israel. Plus other locations with halakhic distinctions - specifically, Cappadocia - specifically, how the currency value may make a difference for marriage and divorces that take place with Israel and [Where's Where: Cappadocia]. Which leads I to the discussion about the ketubah being rabbinic or a Torah obligation, with apparent practical implications for this particular case.

Introduction      This chapter begins a new section in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses' first speech to Israel was a review of God's faithfulness to them since the exodus from Egypt (Deut 1:6—4:43). His second speech was an exposition of God's laws to the newly formed theocracy (Deut 4:44—28:68). And this third address was an appeal to faithfulness and commitment to God, with a promise of blessing if they obeyed and cursing if they did not (Deut 29:1—30:20). Moses' audience was the second generation of Israelites since the exodus from Egypt and, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, would have been under 60 years of age (Num 14:28-33). Moses speaks to them in the present, “today” (Deut 29:4, 10, 12), recalls the Lord's gracious care for them in the past (Deut 29:2-8), and calls for their commitment (Deut 29:9-13), which commitment would positively impact future generations (Deut 29:14-15).      This chapter repeats some of the material previously addressed, and this repetition was intentional on Moses' part. Wiersbe states, “As we read and study Moses' farewell address, we may get weary of these repeated themes, but they are the essence of God's covenant with His people. While the priests and Levites had a copy of the Law of Moses and could refer to it (Deut 17:18; 28:58; 29:20, 27; 31:26), the common people had to depend on their memories, and therefore repetition was important.”[1] Both Paul and Peter used repetition in their writings as a pedagogical tool (Phil 3:1; 2 Pet 1:13; 3:1). An Historical Review (Deut 29:1-8)      In our English Bible, the chapter opens, saying, “These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb” (Deut 29:1). Most conservative scholars believe this verse should be included in the previous chapter. According to Thomas Constable “Chapter 29 verse 1 is the last verse of chapter 28 in the Hebrew Bible. Moses probably intended it to be a summary statement of what precedes, rather than an introduction to what follows. The renewed Mosaic Covenant, to which Moses now called on his hearers to commit themselves, contrasts somewhat with the original Mosaic Covenant to which the Israelites committed themselves at Mt. Sinai.”[2] Eugene Merrill agrees, saying, “It seems quite clear, then, that a major break occurs between 29:1 and 29:2, with the former bringing all the previous material to a close and the latter introducing at least the epilogic historical review.”[3]      What follows in the next two chapters is a renewal of the covenant that God made with the exodus generation. The original Mosaic covenant was ratified at Sinai, and the renewal of the covenant occurred in the land of Moab, where God had already displayed His power by defeating “Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan” (Deut 29:7), and then distributing it to “to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites” (Deut 29:8). Moses was the divinely authorized representative of Yahweh to mediate the covenant between Him and the people of Israel.      The review opens, “And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, ‘You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; 3 the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders” (Deut 29:2-3). Some of Moses' audience would have personal memories of the exodus event; however, those born in the wilderness would not. Yet, Moses calls on everyone to remember and identify with the exodus generation, as that connection will define who they are and serve as the basis for commitment. Some could recall seeing the Lord's work with their own eyes, whereas the others were to see with the eyes of faith as they heard or read about the Lord's deliverance. Moses, being a man of repetition, was doing all he could to firmly establish the Lord's words and works into their minds (cf., Deut 1:30; 4:34; 7:18-19; 8:2-4; 11:2-7).      Moses continued, saying, “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear” (Deut 29:4). This verse is somewhat difficult to understand. The heart (לֵב leb) refers to the mind or inner person.  The eyes and ears represent a person's capacity to receive information, which should lead to understanding. The statement might imply a degree of negative volition, which impairs a person's ability to understand (cf., John 7:17).      Even if this is correct, it did not stop Moses from being faithful to communicate God's Word to others. The Lord Himself said, “I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot” (Deut 29:5). Here was a display of God's logistical grace, in which He provided for His people, even though they had sinned away their inheritance of the land of Canaan (Num 14:26-35). Moses had previously said, “For the LORD your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing”'(Deut 2:7), and, “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years” (Deut 8:4; cf. Neh 9:7-21). God's faithful provision for His people is a major motif throughout Scripture.      The Lord continued, saying, “You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the LORD your God” (Deut 29:6). Bread and wine were the common foods of the day; foods obtained by means of human production. But God's people did not possess what others possessed, partly because they were in the wilderness and there were no natural resources to draw from. However, the Lord cared for them in His own way, by means of manna and water, which He supplied for them supernaturally.      Moses continued, “When you reached this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we defeated them; 8 and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites” (Deut 29:7-8). Originally, when the Israelites approached the land of Canaan, they were met with hostility by Sihon and Og, and God caused His people to defeat their enemies in battle and to take their land (Deut 2:26-3:17). Again, the Lord provided for His people whenever there was a need. Thomas Constable states: "The emphasis in this section is on God's faithfulness in bringing Israel to its present geographical location (cf. Deut 1:6–4:40). To do this, God had provided for the people's needs in the wilderness, and had given them victory over some of their enemies (i.e., Sihon and Og). He had also given them some of the land He had promised them (in Transjordan: for the Reubenites, Gadites, and the eastern half-tribe of the Manassites)."[4] A Call to Commitment (Deut 29:9-15)      As a result of God's goodness and faithfulness, Moses called his people to respond in obedience to the One who so loved and cared for them, saying, “So keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do” (Deut 29:9). God is good, and He always desires the best for His people. God's good laws are never for the harm or deprivation of His people. He desired His people to be blessed, and He'd given them everything they needed to walk in His will (Deut 5:33; 6:3; 7:12-16; 11:26-28; 28:1-14; 30:15-20).      Moses addressed the whole nation and not just a few, saying, “You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water” (Deut 29:10-11). God desired prosperity for the whole nation, and everyone was called upon to walk according to the Lord's directives in order to open the channels of blessing. According to Wiersbe: "The secret of prosperity was the blessing of God, and the secret of receiving that blessing was obedience to God's law. Moses began with the leaders of the nation (v. 10), for if leaders don't set the example as spiritual people, there's not much hope for the followers. However, nobody in the camp was excluded, and this included the women and children, the resident aliens and the lowest servants. God could not truly be God to them if they refused to accept and obey His law."[5] And Eugene Merrill adds: "The assembly gathered here is described with unusual fullness—the leaders, the ordinary citizens, wives and children, and resident aliens. That is, the entire believing community was invited to enter into covenant relationship with the Lord without reference to social, economic, gender, or age differences…The covenant was made with all Israel as a collective, to be sure, but it was also made with each and every member of the body."[6]      The covenant renewal required the people of God to act accordingly, by choosing rightly, “that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today” (Deut 29:12). This was not a new covenant, but a revitalizing of the original covenant given at Mount Sinai. Peter Craigie states, “God, in sovereignty and grace, initiated the relationship and in so doing committed himself in a promise to the chosen people; the people's obligation to commit themselves in the covenant was based not simply on law or demand, but on a response of love, for the purpose of the covenant relationship elicited such a response.”[7]      And the blessing of the Lord was promised to His people, “in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deut 29:13). Here was theological continuity of commitment on God's part. Just as the Lord had promised to bless Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so He promised to bless their ancestors. God has integrity and keeps His Word. Eugene Merrill states, “the present covenant rises out of the ancient promises of the Lord to the patriarchal ancestors of the nation (v. 13b). He who had promised to be the God of the fathers (cf. Gen 17:7; Lev 11:45; 26:12) once more gave opportunity to the descendants to seize upon that great privilege and responsibility of being his people.”[8]Accepting God's offer of covenant renewal, with all the blessings associated with it, meant walking with Him and being a blessing to others.      Moses finished this pericope, saying, “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, 15 but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here today” (Deut 29:14-15). Here was a very sober statement, for the decision of Moses' audience would not only impact them, but also others who were not present, which included future generations. According to Jack Deere, “The scope of the covenant renewal also embraced future generations (those who are not here today, 29:15). Therefore the obedience of that present generation had a great effect on those not yet born.”[9] And Peter Craigie confirms this, saying: "The people on the plains of Moab were indeed renewing their covenant with God, but they were not to forget that they were but one part of a larger community, a community not limited by the passage of time. The one who is not here with us today—the reference is not to those who could not be present for some reason such as ill health. Rather, the words indicate the generations to be born in the future. The reference to future generations impressed even more firmly the responsibility incumbent on those who were present on the plains of Moab, for not only their own future, but also the future of their posterity would be contingent upon their obedience to the law of the covenant."[10]      Individual actions have consequences, both for the present and the future, and for self and others. The choices of one generation would impact the next, for better or worse, creating a pattern of behavior that would lead to blessing or cursing. Of course, the faith of one generation is the faith of one generation, and good choices by parents is no guarantee that subsequent generations will walk in the wisdom of those who came before. Still, each generation must choose to walk with the Lord and abide by His directives, or to turn away into a life of sin. But again, actions have consequences, both for the present and the future, for self and others. Choose wisely. Present Application      In Deuteronomy 29:1-15, Moses revealed God's goodness and faithfulness to His people and called for them to respond in obedience to the One who so loved and cared for them. Likewise, as Christians, God has demonstrated His love for us through the cross of Christ (John 3:16; Rom 5:6-10; Eph 2:1-9), wherein Jesus has born our sin and paid the penalty that rightfully belongs to us (Isa 53:10; Mark 10:45; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 1:18-19; Rev 5:9). In Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ) we have judicial forgiveness of sin (Col 1:13-14; 2:13-14), reconciliation to the Father (Rom 5:11; 2 Cor 5:18), peace with God (Rom 5:1), eternal life (John 10:28), and imputed righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9). As a result, God calls us to commit ourselves to Him and to live as obedient children. The apostle Paul, having written at length about the mercies of God in his letter to the Christians living in Rome, said, “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom 12:1). In this verse, Paul is drawing a logical conclusion to God's great mercy toward us who have trusted Christ as Savior, and calls us to respond with a life of ongoing service. Earl Radmacher states: "Based on God's mercy (Rom 9:11, 15, 16, 18, 23; 11:30–32), Paul entreats believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, meaning they should use their bodies to serve and obey God (Rom 6:13). Such giving of the body to God is more than a contrast with a dead animal sacrifice, it is “newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Holy means set apart for the Lord's use; acceptable means pleasing to Him; and reasonable indicates that such a gift is the only rational reaction to all the good gifts God has showered on us."[11]      But how do we accomplish this task of living holy lives to the Lord? Paul answers it, saying, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). Being conformed to this world means we follow the values of this world, which values are always at odds with God and His Word. Like a stream that flows in one direction, there is a current to this world that pulls at our hearts and minds to carry us along its course. Any dead fish can float downstream, but one must be alive to swim against the current and not simply be pulled along its course. As growing believers we are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we might know God's will and live the acceptable and mature life. The word transformed translates the Greek verb μεταμορφόω metamorphoo, which means “to change inwardly in fundamental character or condition, be changed, be transformed.”[12] This is an internal transformation that occurs gradually, over time, as our minds are renewed by the daily intake and application of God's Word to every aspect of our lives. According to Radmacher: "Instead of being molded by the values of this world, the believer should be transformed, that is, changed by the renewing of the mind. Spiritual transformation starts in the mind and heart. A mind dedicated to the world and its concerns will produce a life tossed back and forth by the currents of culture. But a mind dedicated to God's truth will produce a life that can stand the test of time. We can resist the temptations of our culture by meditating on God's truth and letting the Holy Spirit guide and shape our thoughts and behaviors."[13]      There is intentionality here, as the Christian is called to a life committed to the Lord and His interests and not our own. The fulfillment of this committed life occurs as we study God's Word daily (Josh 1:8; Psa 1:1-3; 19:7; 40:8; 119:1, 9-11, 97; Jer 15:16; 2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18) and then actively apply it to our lives (Matt 7:24; Jam 1:22). In this way, we will advance to spiritual maturity, glorify the Lord, bless others, and live the best life possible.   __________________ [1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1999), 171. [2] Tom Constable, Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Dt 29:1. [3] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 373. [4] Tom Constable, Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible, Dt 29:2. [5] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series, 172–173. [6] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary, 378. [7] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 357. [8] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary, 380. [9] Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 314. [10] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 357–358. [11] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1447. [12] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 639. [13] Earl D. Radmacher, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 1447.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 398, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Iraq 1: It's the country Iraqi nationalists call Iraq's 19th province. Kuwait. 2: Iraq's old name, Mesopotamia, was derived from its location between these 2 rivers. the Tigris and Euphrates. 3: Roughly 75 percent of Iraq's people are Arabs and 20 percent are of this ethnic group. Kurds. 4: After this country's 1948 independence, the armies of Transjordan and Iraq invaded. Israel. 5: It's the only one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World once found in Iraq. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Round 2. Category: The Wit And Wisdom Of Pudd'nhead Wilson 1: "Man is the only animal that" does this, "or needs to". blush. 2: This man "did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden". Adam. 3: "Each person is born to one possession which outvalues all his others--his last" one of these. breath. 4: "Put all your eggs in the one basket and" then do this. watch that basket. 5: "When in doubt", do this. tell the truth. Round 3. Category: Country Music Tourism 1: She opened Dollywood Boulevard, an $8 million addition to her Dollywood theme park in 1996. Dolly Parton. 2: This "Grand Ole" theme park is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1996. Opryland USA. 3: You can tour a simulated coal mine at this coal miner's daughter's home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Loretta Lynn. 4: When visiting Disney World, line dancers head for the Neon Armadillo on this night club "island". Pleasure Island. 5: Alabama and the Gatlin Brothers are among the country stars who have theatres in this S.C. beach city. Myrtle Beach. Round 4. Category: Postal Abbreviation Spelling 1: Colorado,Oklahoma. cook. 2: Virginia,Nebraska. vane. 3: Michigan,Maine. mime. 4: Pennsylvania,Connecticut. pact. 5: California,North Dakota,Oregon. candor. Round 5. Category: Movie Prequels And Sequels 1: Angelina Jolie rocked as this sexy tomb raider in "The Cradle of Life". Lara Croft. 2: This prequel to a Farrelly Brothers movie was subtitled "When Harry Met Lloyd". Dumb and Dumberer. 3: In 2002 Anthony Hopkins starred in this "colorful" prequel to "Silence of the Lambs". Red Dragon. 4: Also known as episodes I and II, 1 of 2 "Star Wars" prequels to be released. The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. 5: In "Rocky II" Rocky becomes the world heavyweight champ after a rematch with this opponent. Apollo Creed. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

The Torah commands in Parashat Mishpatim (Shemot 23:19), “Reshit Bikkureh Admatecha Tabi Bet Hashem Elokecha” – requiring one to bring to the Bet Ha'mikdash his first fruits that ripen, which are called “Bikkurim.” Tradition teaches that this Misva applies only to the “Shibat Ha'minim” – the seven species for which the Land of Israel is praised (in Debarim 8:8). These are wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. The Sefer Ha'hinuch writes that the Sages arrived at this conclusion based on the simple fact that the Torah never makes mention of any other fruits that grow in the Land of Israel. If the Torah here states simply that one must bring the first “fruit of the land” to the Bet Ha'mikdash, it stands to reason that this refers to the fruits mentioned elsewhere, namely, the seven species. The Seforno (Rav Ovadia Seforno, Italy, d. 1550), commenting on this verse, suggests a different explanation. He writes that this verse, at first glance, seems redundant. The words “Bikkureh Admatecha” mean “the first fruits of your land,” such that the word “Reshit” (“first”), seemingly, is superfluous. Necessarily, Seforno writes, the word “Reshit” in this verse means not “first,” but rather “choicest.” The Torah requires bringing to the Bet Ha'mikdash the first of the best species of fruits in Eretz Yisrael – referring to the seven special species. The reason underlying this Misva, the Sefer Ha'hinuch writes, is that it helps remind us that Hashem is the source of all blessings in the world. When a farmer receives his produce, he takes a portion and gives it to G-d, as it were, acknowledging that it is G-d who blessed him with his fruit. This recognition will then help ensure his continued blessing and prosperity. The fruits brought as Bikkurim would be distributed among the Kohanim serving that week in the Bet Ha'mikdash. The fruits needed to be presented in a utensil; one could not simply bring the fruits by themselves. And, the Bikkurim needed to be presented “Derech Noi” – in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The farmer would thus decorate the baskets. The farmers bringing their Bikkurim would march in a procession through the streets of Jerusalem on their way to the Bet Ha'mikdash, and the shopkeepers would leave their stores to greet the farmers and sing for them. The Misva applies only in the times of the Bet Ha'mikdash, and is binding only upon males. The Torah obligation of Bikkurim is limited to the Land of Israel. However, the Sages enacted that Bikkurim must be brought also from the fruits of “Suria” – certain regions in Syria captured by King David – as well as the fruits of Eber Ha'yarden (Transjordan, the region inhabited by the tribes of Reuben and Gad). As mentioned, the Misva of Bikkurim applies to the seven special species, which include wheat and barley. There is a debate among the Aharonim as to whether it applies also to the other three principal grains – rye, oats and spelt. These species are generally grouped together with wheat and barley, such as with regard to the laws of Berachot: products made from any of these grains require “Ha'mosi” and Birkat Ha'mazon. Accordingly, the Maharsha (Rav Shmuel Eidels, 1555-1631), in Masechet Pesahim (36), writes that with regard to Bikkurim, too, these grains are treated like wheat and barley, and are included in the Bikkurim obligation. By contrast, the Minhat Hinuch cites the Peneh Yehoshua (Rav Yaakob Yehoshua Falk, Germany, 1680-1756) as contending that these three grains do not fall under the category of “Reshit” – the choice species of the Land of Israel, and therefore are not included in the Misva of Bikkurim. Nowadays, of course, in the absence of the Bet Ha'mikdash, we cannot fulfill the Misva of Bikkurim. Nevertheless, the idea behind this Misva is no less relevant today, and it is thus appropriate whenever we receive money or assets to allocate a portion to G-d through a donation to charity or for the support of Torah scholars to show that we recognize the source of our blessings.

As the conquest has ended and tribes look to settle into their allotted lands, the Transjordan tribes east of the Jordan River build their own altar out of fear that they would eventually be forgotten and ostracized by the tribes west of the Jordan River. This leads to further misunderstanding and confrontation that must be cleared up. Through this incident, the Israelites reaffirm their loyalty and strengthen their unity by rallying around the worship of Yahweh God. Similarly, our identity in and worship of Christ will sustain a unified body.

As the conquest has ended and tribes look to settle into their allotted lands, the Transjordan tribes east of the Jordan River build their own altar out of fear that they would eventually be forgotten and ostracized by the tribes west of the Jordan River. This leads to further misunderstanding and confrontation that must be cleared up. Through this incident, the Israelites reaffirm their loyalty and strengthen their unity by rallying around the worship of Yahweh God. Similarly, our identity in and worship of Christ will sustain a unified body.

As the conquest has ended and tribes look to settle into their allotted lands, the Transjordan tribes east of the Jordan River build their own altar out of fear that they would eventually be forgotten and ostracized by the tribes west of the Jordan River. This leads to further misunderstanding and confrontation that must be cleared up. Through this incident, the Israelites reaffirm their loyalty and strengthen their unity by rallying around the worship of Yahweh God. Similarly, our identity in and worship of Christ will sustain a unified body.

We are so happy to have you join us online this morning! We pray that the message speaks to you as God is working in your life.

THE REPHAIM were remembered by Israel as giants, or at least as people who venerated the giants of the pre-Flood world. That's why God marked them for destruction before Israel entered the Promised Land. This week, we discuss the history of the Israelites as told by Moses while the people camped in the Arabah, before they began their campaign to take Canaan from the Amorites. Moses reminded the Israelites that their fear of the Anakim had caused them to rebel against God, which led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. We give our reasons for believing that this was in the vicinity of Petra in Jordan. Moses also noted that God used the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites to eliminate the Rephaim, and those allied with them like the Horites (Hurrians) and Amorites, from the Transjordan. Then we discuss Og of Bashan and why the location of his kingdom was considered the literal entrance to the netherworld. We bring in some Jewish traditions about Og, and later texts from Amorite and Phoenician sources that portray Og as a semi-mythical underworld entity connected to the deities Rapiu (“King of Eternity”) and Malik (Molech).

GOD ORDERED the Israelites to take revenge on the people of Midian. This is hard to understand, since Moses was married to a Midianite woman—until you consider the context of the spiritual war being waged around the Israelites. We take a brief look at the Midianites and their identification by scholars with the Shasu, a nomadic people known from Egyptian texts. The Shasu were formerly known, in the time of Abraham, as Shutu, These are the “sons of Sheth” mentioned in the messianic prophecy of Balaam son of Beor (Numbers 24:17), who was one of the victims of Israel's attack on the Midianites. The Shutu were called Suteans in Mesopotamia, but prior to Abraham, they were called the Tidanu—an Amorite tribe that contributed to the downfall of the last Sumerian kingdom and from whom the Greeks took the name of their “old gods,” the Titans. So, there was a lot more going on with the Midianites than competition for land and resources in the Transjordan. This is linked to the heresy of Baal-Peor (see our study on Numbers 24), the god called El by the Canaanites, Dagon by the Amorites and Philistines, and later, Kronos by the Greeks, and Saturn by the Romans. Derek argues in his forthcoming book The Second Coming of Saturn that these names are just alternate identities worn by the chief of the rebellious Watchers, the sons of God from Genesis 6, Shemihazah. We also discuss briefly the significance of an inscription from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (reigned c. 1408–1372 BC) that mentions “Yahweh of the land of the Shasu.” Considering that his grandfather, Amenhotep II (1455–1418 BC) was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, it's logical to find Amenhotep III associating Yahweh with the Shasu (i.e., Midian), the land to which Moses fled. Finally, we talk about the command God gave Moses for the men of Israel regarding vows or oaths sworn to God, and why this is consistent with His design for the family and the role of men as spiritual covering for their wives and daughters.

EQUALITY UNDER HALAKHAH: A MORAL DIALOGUE ACROSS GENERATIONS Every once in a while a verse from Tanakh comes and just smacks you upside the head like a flounder. How could I not have known that? Why did the opposite always seem obvious?    This week I was fishsmacked by Yechezkel 47:21-23: :וְחִלַּקְתֶּ֞ם אֶת־הָאָ֧רֶץ הַזֹּ֛את לָכֶ֖ם לְשִׁבְטֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל וְהָיָ֗ה תַּפִּ֣לוּ אוֹתָהּ֘ בְּנַחֲלָה֒ לָכֶ֗ם וּלְהַגֵּרִים֙ הַגָּרִ֣ים בְּתוֹכְכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־הוֹלִ֥דוּ בָנִ֖ים בְּתֽוֹכְכֶ֑ם וְהָי֣וּ לָכֶ֗ם כְּאֶזְרָח֙ בִּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל :אִתְּכֶם֙ יִפְּל֣וּ בְנַחֲלָ֔ה בְּת֖וֹךְ שִׁבְטֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל וְהָיָ֣ה בַשֵּׁ֔בֶט אֲשֶׁר־גָּ֥ר הַגֵּ֖ר אִתּ֑וֹ שָׁ֚ם תִּתְּנ֣וּ נַחֲלָת֔וֹ נְאֻ֖ם אֲ-דֹנָ֥י יְקֹוִֽק: ס You must divide this land to yourselves, to the tribes of Israel. It will be that you will make it fall-by-lot as a homestead to you, and to the gerim/converts who are gar/dwell among you, who have sired children in your midst. They shall be to you like the ezrach/citizen of the Children of Israel;  with you they will fall-by-lot into homestead,  in the midst of the Tribes of Israel. It will be in the tribe with which the convert dwells – there you will place his homestead.  The word of Hashem Elokim.     I always took for granted that converts did not have hereditary portions in the Land of Israel. How could they, when the Land was fully distributed in the time of Yehoshua?! Also, I knew that according to Mishnah Bikkurim 1:4, converts do not read the Bikkurim declaration “because they cannot say that Hashem promised to our ancestors to give to us”, and that Rabbeinu Tam went so far as to suggest that converts could not be obligated in Grace after Meals because the second blessing expresses gratitude for the Land. True, we rule against Rabbeinu Tam, and many hold against the Mishnah that converts read the Bikkurim declaration, on the ground that the Torah etymologizes Avraham as “av hamon goyim”, “father of (converts from) many nations”. True, the land is overall given to the collective Jewish people, including the converts among us. But converts don't have hereditary homesteads that their children inherit, do they? Perhaps this is one of the contradictions between Yechezkel and Torah that Chananyah ben Chizkiyah stayed up all night resolving in order to keep it off the banned books list (Chagigah 13a).  None of the standard traditional commentaries seem bothered. See for example Metzudat David 47:22: אתכם יפלו = עמכם יירשו בנחלה with you they will fall-by-lot = they will inherit homesteads together with you. As for the land being fully divided amongst the “original” clans - Abravanel spells out the standard resolution: But why was this not also so in Yehoshua's division of the Land? Because the erev rav that ascended with Israel from Mitzrayim did not join them in their exile, and did not suffer their sufferings; rather, when they saw their success and redemption, they mixed into them, as Shemot 12:38 says: Also an erev rav/mixed multitude ascended with them, because they joined them only in their time of ascension, not before then, and also because they became a stumbling rock and tripping block to the Children of Israel in the Golden Calf episode and the other occasions of sin in the wilderness, and therefore it was not fitting for them to merit gaining homesteads with them. But regarding the Future-To-Come, the prophet did not say here that the converts who would join them in the time of Redemption would homestead with the Children of Israel, because the Sages already said (Yebamot 24b) that “we must not accept converts in the Days of the Messiah”; rather he commanded this regarding the converts who dwelled among the Jews in Israel's time of exile and accepted the holy covenant and endured the suffering of exile, because it is fit for them, that just as they became Israel to endure suffering, so too they should be part of the homesteading of the land, and this is what (Yechezkel 47:21-23) means . . . that they will take their share of the good which Hashem will give-as-benefit to Israel = שמהטוב אשר יטיב השם לישראל יקחו חלקם.  On this understanding, contemporary converts and their descendants will have full hereditary shares of the Land when it is reapportioned in Messianic times. I read Abravanel's last line as a deliberate allusion to Bamidbar 10:33, where Mosheh promises his in-laws that if they remain with the Jews,  וְהָיָ֖ה כִּי־תֵלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֑נוּ :וְהָיָ֣ה׀ הַטּ֣וֹב הַה֗וּא אֲשֶׁ֨ר יֵיטִ֧יב יְקֹוָ֛ק עִמָּ֖נוּ וְהֵטַ֥בְנוּ לָֽךְ It will be that if you travel with us, then it will be that the good which Hashem will give-as-benefit to us, we will give as benefit to you. In other words, Mosheh promised them a share in the Land. This reading is borne out by a beraita (Yerushalmi Bikkurim 1:4) which holds that specifically the descendants of Yitro could recite the Bikkurim declaration in full. (This connection is made by Torah Temimah. Note also that Kapot Temarim to Sukkah 34a explains that all converts can recite the declaration because it can be read as referring to the future - “to give to us” – and converts will have Hashem-given land in Messianic times.)  Or HaChayyim takes a slightly more limited approach, suggesting that Mosheh offered a share specifically in the “Lands of Sichon and Og”, i.e. TransJordan, which was not part of the original Divine promise. This approach requires Mosheh to know in advance that Sichon and Og will refuse Israel permission to cross.  Rashi, following Sifri, points to an even more limited approach. Mosheh offered Yitro the usufruct of a vast tract around Yericho, extending to Yerushalayim. According to some tannaim, this tract was left unapportioned so that the Temple could be built on unapportioned land. When the Temple was built, Yitro's descendants were evicted after 440 years of tenancy.    These narrower approaches recognize that Bamidbar 10:32 is Mosheh's second offer. His first offer is in 10:29: :וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֗ה לְ֠חֹבָב בֶּן־רְעוּאֵ֣ל הַמִּדְיָנִי֘ חֹתֵ֣ן מֹשֶׁה֒ נֹסְעִ֣ים׀ אֲנַ֗חְנוּ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֣ר יְקֹוָ֔ק 'אֹת֖וֹ אֶתֵּ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם' לְכָ֤ה אִתָּ֙נוּ֙ וְהֵטַ֣בְנוּ לָ֔ךְ :כִּֽי־יְקֹוָ֥ק דִּבֶּר־ט֖וֹב עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל Mosheh said to Chovev ben Reuel the Midianite, Mosheh's in-law: We are traveling to the place about which Hashem said “I will give it to you”; go with us and we will give good-as-benefit to you for Hashem has spoken of giving good to Israel. This offer is rejected in 10:30: :וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו לֹ֣א אֵלֵ֑ךְ :כִּ֧י אִם־אֶל־אַרְצִ֛י וְאֶל־מוֹלַדְתִּ֖י אֵלֵֽךְ He said to him: I will not go rather I will go to my land and my culture. Sifri records a position in which Mosheh's second offer is also rejected, presumably because it still implies second-class citizenship.       Sifri also records positions that greatly narrow the implications of Yechezkel 47. “If the verses cannot relate to homesteading; then apply them to atonement”, meaning that converts are atoned for by the sacrifices of the tribes they accompany; “If the verses cannot relate to homesteading, then apply them to burial”, meaning that converts have a right to be buried in the Land. These positions begin by reading Mosheh's first offer as specifically excluding any land rights: “the place about which Hashem said “I will give it to you” – and not converts.”  What sort of negotiation is taking place? Many commentaries understand Mosheh as interested in preserving Yitro's status as a powerful symbol of the persuasive truth of Judaism: “If you leave now, everyone will say that your conversion was for gain, and you left when the gain was disappointing.” If that is correct, then perhaps Yitro's reply should be understood as: “If your religion is true, then how can you not give converts' genuinely equal status? Isn't that both unjust and hypocritical, when your own Torah says there must be one law for them, for the convert and the citizen”?  Chizkuni seems to acknowledge the moral force of Yitro's argument, with Mosheh's first response being that his hands are bound by Halakhah. ,והטבנו לך – מן השלל אבל לתת לו חלק בארץ, לא היה הרשות בידם we will give good-as-benefit to you from the spoils we take, but to give him a portion in the land – they did not have the authority. But when Yitro rejects that offer, Mosheh finds a loophole – the verse excluding converts did not apply to lands conquered beyond G-d's original grant. Maybe that was enough to satisfy Yitro – Ramban thinks so - but maybe not.  Keli Yakar adopts a wholly different approach. ואח'כ הבטיחו בטובה רוחנית שיהיה מכלל הסנהדרין שנקראו עיני העדה כמ'ש והיית לנו לעינים After (Yitro rejected the first offer) Mosheh promised him a spiritual good namely that he would be included in the Sanhedrin which are called “the eyes of the congregation” as 10:31 says “and you will be eyes for us” Mosheh's second offer was not land but authority itself – he promised Yitro a seat on the Sanhedrin, a share in making the laws. (We will leave for another time how this promise can be squared with the halakhah excluding converts from positions of serarah.)  If Yitro accepted this version of the second offer, then he probably joined the Sanhedrin with the express ambition of modifying halakhah to give converts fully equal inheritance rights. Perhaps the verses in Yechezkel reflect his success. But then the Mishnah, and Sifri, and Rabbeinu Tam all pushed back against that outcome, and also met with some success. The moral history of halakhic interpretation is not linear.  Yitro accepted all of halakhah as binding even while maintaining his moral critique, and that is a powerful lesson for our generation. But we must also recognize that Yitro accepted only after Mosheh acknowledged that all those subject to halakhah must have seats at the highest tables of halakhic conversation and decisionmaking. Rabbi Aryeh Klapper is Dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership, Rosh Beit Midrash of its Summer Beit Midrash Program and a member of the Boston Beit Din. Rabbi Klapper is a widely published author in prestigious Hebrew and English journals. He is frequently consulted on issues of Jewish law from representatives of all streams of Judaism and responds from an explicit and uncompromised Orthodox stance. The Yeshiva of Newark @IDT is proud to partner with Rabbi Klapper to help spread his scholarly thoughtful ideas and Halachic insight to as wide an audience as possible . Please visit http://www.torahleadership.org/ for many more articles and audio classes from Rav Klapper and to find out about his Summer programs as well as Rabbi Klapper's own podcast site https://anchor.fm/aryeh-klapper. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast is powered by JewishPodcasts.org. Start your own podcast today and share your content with the world. 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JACOB WAS buried at the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. So, why did Joseph and his brothers take his body all the way around the other side of the Dead Sea and mourn for seven days at a threshing floor in the ruined city of Sodom?
 We discuss the “physicians” of Joseph (ropheim in Hebrew) and the Rephaim of the Transjordan, explain why we believe the threshing floor of Atad was at the site of Sodom, and speculate as to why Joseph and the retinue mourned Jacob for seven days “beyond the Jordan.”

In edition to finishing up the Book of Numbers, we start a three part series addressing the brutality of the cleansing and taking of the Promised Land.  It's a tough topic.  Enjoy the show!