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1:19
Welcome back to the Forging Table.
1:27
The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
1:30
forges spiritual mental and physical resilience.
1:33
At the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys foraging spiritual resilience
1:36
by digging into God's word and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with
1:40
us.
1:41
That's Matt.
1:42
That's Eric.
1:43
That's Caleb and the Ghost in the Fifth Chair.
1:44
As always, Joe B. Martin.
1:45
So to launch in here, I just want to dig right into the text of Matthew 2.
1:48
Caleb, can you actually read Matthew 2 verses 1 through 6?
1:53
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, Magi
1:58
from the East arrived in Jerusalem saying, "Where is he who has been born King of the
2:03
Jews, where we saw his star in the East and have come to worship him?
2:06
When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
2:10
In gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of
2:14
them where the Messiah was to be born.
2:16
He said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the Prophet."
2:21
6 also.
2:22
Yes, sir.
2:23
"In you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,
2:28
where far or far from you will come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel."
2:35
So a lot of things here at the beginning.
2:36
So in verse 1, they talk about Bethlehem of Judea.
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That's about 6 miles south of Jerusalem just for, you know, eugiography folks out there.
2:46
There's a mention almost immediately of Herod the King.
2:49
So I think enough is known about Herod.
2:51
Well, I don't want to assume enough is known about Herod, but Herod was a rough dude.
2:55
This a guy that was not shy about killing people that he thought was going to cross
2:59
him.
3:00
He killed three of the sons.
3:02
He killed his wife.
3:03
He killed his mother-in-law, and he killed, you know, numbers of other people.
3:06
So he features prominently in Matthew 2 when it talks about how the Magi or the Weizmann
3:13
saw, for we saw his star when it rose, that goes back to numbers 24/17.
3:19
And then at the end there, they're quoting the prophet Micah 5/2, talking about a ruler
3:26
that was going to shepherd the people of Israel.
3:29
So there's a lot to talk about there.
3:30
So you guys hop in wherever you'd like.
3:33
But if I'm going to, you know, camp on Herod for a minute, I think it's the word ruler
3:38
that came from the prophets that is really important here.
3:43
But perhaps the other thing to talk about here is because of nativity scenes, I think
3:49
we get the birth of Jesus story as it pertains to the Weizmann very, very wrong.
3:54
This is all happening up to two years.
3:57
There's up to two years difference between chapter one and chapter two here.
4:02
And the Weizmann, and I think this is important as well, the Weizmann likely traveled with
4:09
a large number of guards and a large number of attendants in some estimate and assume
4:13
that these Weizmann came from Babylon.
4:16
Now Babylon, where they would have been in Babylon is about 800 miles away from Bethlehem.
4:23
And so we're talking, if they go 20 something miles a day, it's going to take up 40 days
4:28
to get from Babylon, but again, the story in all the music is like, oh, it's like the
4:32
Weizmann were hanging out and, you know, the suburb of Bethlehem and just kind of mosey
4:36
their way over there following the star.
4:38
But the reason why verse four is so interesting here, when Herod inquired as to what was going
4:46
on, it showed that Herod and the Magi didn't really know the Old Testament prophecies.
4:51
The Magi were studying the stars and all that and just reacting to it.
4:55
And Herod, you know, being the ruler of these people had no idea what the prophets had said.
4:59
So I've talked for way too long here just at the jump.
5:01
So you guys hop in on anything there in the first six verses of Matthew two.
5:05
Yeah.
5:06
I mean, 800 miles, I mean, they had to been pretty committed, you know, to something they didn't
5:11
fully understand.
5:12
Yeah.
5:13
Well, and it's interesting because I in some of the research I did, I got the impression
5:18
that maybe they did know and that when they were asked, it wasn't like, it's almost like
5:23
they had it memorized.
5:24
I get what you're saying there, but just like, yeah, what was interesting to me, though,
5:28
was if they did come all that way, then why did they go to see Herod in the first place?
5:34
You know, so to your point, maybe that maybe it was kind of an incomplete understanding.
5:38
Because why did they need to stop there?
5:40
But they did, you know.
5:42
So yeah, so some of the research I did, like they did actually know the scriptures maybe
5:47
not fully well because they weren't, you know, they weren't, you know, practicing Jewish people.
5:52
But it's interesting where God has set up his kingdom and where Jerusalem is.
5:59
It's not the best land, not the biggest land doesn't yield the best crops.
6:04
But where is it set of crossroads for a lot of nations and a lot of nations to battle.
6:08
A lot of people have to go through Israel.
6:11
And so God is one that will proclaim his truth to the ends of the earth.
6:16
And so people who came through Jerusalem and Israel, whether they were Syrian or Babylonian
6:22
or Egyptian, they were preached the word of God.
6:25
And so God's words spread out from Israel to other places.
6:32
So the Magi who knew the stars, they knew astrology.
6:36
They also would have known scripture because they were taught scripture through some cultural
6:43
workings that had brought these truths.
6:46
And you know, you take what you like, you put out, you throw out what you don't like.
6:51
But they knew the scripture well enough to know that there was some important historical
6:56
figure that was going to be born here.
6:59
And they knew that prophecy well enough to get at least in the ballpark of where it was
7:05
going to be.
7:06
And again, all of history bends to God's will.
7:10
His truth and word was proclaimed even out from Israel to Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, like
7:17
all of those people knew of God's word because God's people were to be an example to the
7:23
world.
7:24
Yeah, it had been 400 years.
7:25
Yeah.
7:26
That's a long time.
7:27
I'm trying to think like, is there anything I've been waiting to wait on since 1600s and
7:32
done?
7:33
But I know of, I mean, so it'd been 400 years.
7:36
So just the fact that that had been passed on and passed on, even if it was a little
7:39
bit vague or whatever, or kind of rustling, I mean, it's still very impressive.
7:48
And then just the seer fact again that they sat on a voyage and were bound and determined
7:54
to meet the king.
7:55
Back to Herod.
7:56
And this is an interesting thing.
7:57
It's thought that Herod came from the line of Esau, who you remember from scripture is
8:04
in opposition to Jacob, who is Israel.
8:07
I think that's a very peculiar, but very intentional detail again that God puts in there.
8:14
His story is, there's Esau, who is in opposition to Jacob, Jacob takes his blessings and then
8:21
becomes the nation of Israel, but is opposed by his brother Esau.
8:26
And so here is Herod in direct opposition to Israel and Israel's true and rifle king.
8:34
What is wild and cool to think about?
8:37
What do you think like in verse three, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled
8:41
in all Jerusalem with him?
8:43
Well, I think that means yeah, here's what I think.
8:45
I think that our nativity scenes that we have, we only have three wise men on there because
8:51
we just, that's, we don't have a whole lot of room on our, on our tables.
8:54
So they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll just make three of them.
8:57
But what I read was that there may have been hundreds of these wise men that were coming
9:03
through.
9:04
And three wise men walking into town probably don't create much of a stir, but 300 wise
9:10
men walking in, all going to see the king that has been born probably would stir the
9:16
town up, especially since he's called the king of the Jews and a king.
9:20
Well, they were, they were stirring the count up.
9:22
The commentary that I'm reading, it says, when they got into Jerusalem, saying, and the,
9:28
the Hebrew or the, the Greek word that's used there is an active verb, like they were actively
9:35
seeking people out.
9:36
Where is this person?
9:37
Where is, so they were stirring up some commotion in Jerusalem that Herod undoubtedly heard
9:43
about.
9:44
And who's this guy that they're going to worship, not coming to give me reverence or to worship
9:48
me or whatever, whatever I'm wanting as, as the ruler of this, um, nation of Israel.
9:54
Or like, why are they coming to see this guy and not me?
9:57
Right.
9:58
Cause Herod was, he was likely maniacal, sociopathic, but had to have been just self absorbed narcissist
10:06
to where it's like, you can't, almost like art as Xerxes, you just can't fathom that
10:10
anyone would do anything to defy you and to, to be in your presence and not be just full
10:16
of glee.
10:17
Uh, so yeah, there's certainly a lot wrapped up there in those first, when he, the, when
10:21
didn't he also plan on having a whole bunch of leaders killed upon his death?
10:27
Yeah, I, I'm pretty sure that he wanted other people to die along with him.
10:32
And of course they, they didn't do that when he, when they, when he died, they were like,
10:35
yeah, we're probably not going to do that.
10:37
So one of those like, yeah, sure, sure we will.
10:38
Yeah.
10:39
Well, cause you got Herod, he's the reason the temple was rebuilt.
10:42
He's the reason why, or at least the project started while he was still alive.
10:46
But there's so many amazing things, things built during his time period, but it wasn't
10:49
because he was like Nehemiah in that he was a great manager.
10:53
It's that people were working for him under threat of death constantly and deaths a pretty
10:58
awesome motivator to, to get, you know, the foundation poured in the blocks, you know,
11:02
set right.
11:03
Yeah, it's interesting.
11:04
And we're about to find out a little bit of a, you know, link here.
11:06
It's interesting.
11:07
He's not unlike another ruler that, that the Israelites are under in, in that of the
11:12
pharaoh and you're building things for me under threat of death.
11:17
And we're going to get there, but there's some links to, right.
11:20
And the hair and the Herod is a, it's like family.
11:24
It's a family name.
11:25
Right.
11:26
So there, there are multiple of them.
11:27
Is that correct?
11:28
Cause I believe the one that we're talking about dies.
11:32
Pretty quick after Jesus is right, but his, but his son or his, or his, I don't know
11:37
if it's, I think it's a son that said that's in power when Jesus was, was it just in his
11:41
ministry, right?
11:42
Yeah.
11:43
Yeah.
11:44
And he was way worse, way, way rougher if you can imagine.
11:47
Just as self-possessed.
11:48
Yeah.
11:49
Eric, if you could hit seven through 12 Roger, then Herod summoned the wise men secretly
11:56
and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem
12:02
saying, go and search diligent diligently for the child.
12:05
And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
12:11
After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had
12:15
seen when it rose before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
12:22
When they saw the star, they were joys exceedingly with great joy.
12:25
And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and
12:30
worshiped him in opening their treasures.
12:32
They offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
12:38
And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country
12:42
by another way.
12:44
There's another dream there that we see in the first two chapters of Matthew, there's
12:47
a lot of dreams and throughout Matthew two, we're going to see more dreams.
12:51
But verse nine, you know, with the star that's moving, that's a miracle.
12:55
You know, it's some call it maybe it was a supernova.
12:57
Maybe it was this or that, but this is where the time period I think is very important.
13:02
And again, we've been kind of lulled to sleep by the nativity scenes that we have seen in
13:06
our lifetime because the wise men were not at the birth of Jesus.
13:10
Full stop.
13:11
They're in the manger and by the way, a manger wasn't, you know, the bed wasn't made of
13:17
wood and hay.
13:18
Like these mangers back in that day were like concrete and stone and that's where the baby
13:22
would be.
13:23
But that that's just kind of a side deal.
13:24
But you know, the wise men are commonly depicted being there amongst the animals, but they
13:29
arrived like Jesus was upwards of two years old by the time the wise men got there.
13:35
And again, there's so much here and I'll just throw a bunch out there and then y'all can
13:38
talk about whatever, but they were pagans, but then they had enough sense to worship a
13:44
child, a toddler, like even without, I guess, really full understanding of that.
13:50
Um, then again, you have the gold frankincense and Murr and, you know, that fulfills a lot
13:54
of different Old Testament prophecies about, you know, significant, uh, gifts that were
13:59
given, uh, you know, Psalm 72 10 that was significant gifts given by, uh, Gentiles, Isaiah 66.
14:06
There were a bunch of other references as well.
14:09
And then again, verse 12, we have a dream, uh, well, actually I want to save a commentary
14:14
on verse 12.
14:15
So anything on seven through 12 that y'all want to discuss, go ahead and get after it.
14:20
I immediately thought of, cause you're talking about them being pagans.
14:23
They obviously weren't Jewish people, but my mind goes to Romans two, 15, like we all
14:29
have the law of God written on our heart.
14:31
We all know inherently, you know, of some power that is not of us, it's not of this world
14:37
that has created this, this earth, right?
14:40
And so I think, I think you're so, that's, that's kind of where my head went to like,
14:43
okay, like they are, they are image bearers of God, they're people.
14:48
And so I think, yeah, that's where I went to was we all have that.
14:51
I mean, it's just some other searching, another example of the way that God works, right?
14:56
That's amazing.
14:57
I mean, they were basically, and I don't know what they're, they're like, you know, religious
15:02
kind of history was or what they practiced, but they were obviously astrologers, you
15:07
know, or aspiring astrologers, right?
15:08
And that's what was, that's what led them there.
15:11
And then boom, like you said, they just get there and worship this baby.
15:14
And it's like, the world, I mean, what, what possessed them to do that or to know that
15:19
like this is what we're supposed to do when we get there, right?
15:22
I mean, you could almost, it would almost make more sense if they got there and they
15:26
saw a baby and they were really disappointed.
15:28
Yeah, you know, that I would make more support in the world.
15:30
Yeah.
15:31
Yeah.
15:32
So.
15:33
Well, and I, and I read here, you know, when, when Herod was saying to him, say, report
15:36
to me.
15:37
So that I too may come right and worship him.
15:40
You know, I was thinking about a couple of weeks back about just kind of this idea of
15:45
being wooed.
15:46
You know, I'm wondering if the, if Herod brought him in, like, Hey, let's, let's all gather
15:49
around and have some dinner, hang out, you know, let's talk.
15:52
And in, in the process of the, the eating and whatnot and being catered to got to a point
16:01
where Herod's like, you know, trying to, trying to get some information out of them,
16:05
you know, and, and then you see that and I, and I think we're going to get into a minute.
16:09
Just their, their word they wooed is that why there needed to be a dream to tell them
16:14
not to return.
16:15
Yeah.
16:16
It's just a diabolical plot to do that.
16:20
And when we get into verse 12, the thing I want to talk about, cause we, you know, it's,
16:24
it's just a quick thing.
16:25
And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country
16:30
by another way.
16:32
So just one line, but, you know, that was kind of a diabolical scheme and a good way
16:37
for the wise men to avoid Herod, um, dreams guys can just be a really, it can be a really
16:43
strange thing.
16:45
Dreams can be very easily misunderstood here recently. I've been, you know, I'll take
16:50
like some magnesium and some, uh, uh, different, you know, supplements right before bed to
16:55
try to get more sleep, but I'm having these crazy vivid dreams and I'll wake up and I
17:00
don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about my dreams and I'll wake up and be like, why
17:03
who, what, there were a lot of people on that dream that are not connected.
17:08
What is going on?
17:09
And, you know, if you're a fall Carl Jung and do all that kind of stuff, maybe you'll start
17:13
really digging down into dreams and dreamscapes and different things like that, but what it
17:18
made me think about is the undeniable way that the gospel can move by any means necessary.
17:31
And what I mean by that specifically is when you have people in Iraq or Afghanistan, you
17:38
know, these types of countries, specifically Muslim countries, there are tons and tons
17:43
and tons of stories of Jesus visiting Muslims in their dreams and revealing himself to them
17:48
in their dreams. So they're not hearing the gospel from a missionary that's just going
17:53
door to door in, you know, Kandahar, like, you know, trying to, you know, help spread,
17:59
spread the gospel and to make converts. Jesus is coming them to them in their dreams. It
18:03
reminds me of Bill Koreshy and his story, you know, he was in America when, when that
18:07
was going down, but it's like Jesus revealed himself to that man, a lifelong Muslim in his
18:12
dreams. And it's like, I guess I don't really know what my question is, but it's just like,
18:17
do I put not enough emphasis on dreams? Like should I, you know, be going to see somebody
18:21
to see if they can determine what my dreams mean? Do I need to become charismatic? Like,
18:25
you know what I mean? They just, it's a hard deal. God will do what God wants to do. And
18:29
then this is such a cliche, but putting God in a box, like I think we can think and God
18:36
doesn't work that way. Again, God will do whatever he wants to do.
18:40
Yeah, I mean, when I was 10, I was going to youth group and our youth pastor shared the
18:52
gospel after he washed all our feet. And I remember in that moment thinking, this is
18:58
not the God that I thought I knew. This is a God that serves and loves and is sacrificial.
19:06
I thought about God as the lightning bolt, you know, ready to just take me out. And so
19:11
that was a big, huge shift. And so I gave my life to Christ that at that moment. But I
19:16
did not, what I did not fully understand is that that I was saved like forever upon that
19:23
decision. And so I struggled with for what felt like months, it may have not been that
19:28
long, feeling like every single day I needed to ask Jesus back into my heart again, and
19:34
then again, and it just to be careful just to be sure, because I didn't know if I'd done
19:38
something wrong or felt, you know, whatever. And I remember distinctly we were living in
19:43
Kingsville, Texas. And one night I had a dream. And in the dream, it was like the ultimate
19:50
like Jiu Jitsu, you know, match between Jesus and Satan. And I was in the middle of it. And
19:57
at one point, Jesus had this arm. And same time, Satan had this arm. And they were pulling
20:03
and yanking and pulling and yanking and fighting. And then all of a sudden I was third party
20:07
looking, you know, from back here, like I was above my body watching the action and was
20:12
just rooting for Jesus, rooting for Jesus, rooting for Jesus. And I don't remember hearing anything
20:18
audible other than I knew in that moment that what Jesus was communicating is that I have won
20:24
you. And you are mine, and you don't have to continue to do this. And I remember waking
20:30
up in a sweat, and remembering that dream and just how vivid it was and knowing that
20:37
I did not need to ask Jesus in my heart anymore.
20:40
Hmm. You were 10. That was 10. Wow. What a powerful story. Does anybody have one that
20:46
can top that? I mean, my goodness, throw down the gauntlet here. I don't have any cool dream
20:50
stories, except for I forget all of them. I do not to be with my mind as well. Hey, but
20:55
Caleb was got a cult before. So that's really that is a really cool story. I don't know.
21:01
I just I just thought of this as we were reading Matthew to 911 is what comes to mind when I
21:07
was studying Isaiah, I wrote this down as I was studying Isaiah 60. I did not bring that
21:14
in correlation to studying Matthew. But as we're sitting here, I think back to this. I'm
21:19
going to read something in Isaiah 60 and just want you guys to tell me what you think this
21:23
sounds like. And then we can talk about like why why three is the number of the wise men
21:28
that is typically landed on. And I think there's a reason for that. So we're in Isaiah 60 verse
21:33
verse two, verse two, be basically, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will
21:37
be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of
21:43
your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together. They come
21:48
to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughter shall be carried on the hip.
21:53
Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall your heart shall thrill and exalt because
21:59
the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nation shall come to
22:03
you. A multitude of camels shall cover you. The young camels of Midian and if IFA, all
22:10
those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good
22:17
news. The praises of the Lord. What does that sound like? That sounds a lot like the
22:23
major scene, does it not? Yeah. Yeah. But they brought Mer. What's interesting is Mer is
22:29
not reference there, which has to do with death. Right. Yeah. That is very interesting.
22:36
But like even, even in Isaiah 60, we have this scene that sets up a lot like the major scene.
22:43
I think Matthew is very specifically talking. Like that would have probably brought to mind
22:48
Jewish people who are hearing this or reading this, Isaiah 60 and what that means to them.
22:54
And Midian, IFA and Sheba, that is a lot of people think that or some people think that
23:01
the wise men came out of that region. And that's why there's three, because there's three
23:05
lines or three places mentioned there. So that's why that's three would be considered
23:09
the number. Yeah. That's a, I was, I was going to mention one thing about the dreams. I've
23:14
got a buddy who him and his wife and his two daughters have been, three daughters, maybe,
23:19
have been missionaries for Jesus in Beirut for 15 plus years. So you mentioned Kyle just
23:26
that we, you maybe don't put enough weight on your dreams or trying to, you know, whatever
23:31
it is, remember, or whatever, I think a lot of that is because of just kind of our heritage
23:35
too. I mean, like their, their heritage, their religious heritage is that dreams are very
23:40
important. Right. And so they actually, this is one of the ways that they pray for the,
23:45
the people they're ministering too often is just that the Lord would come to them in
23:48
their dreams. And it happens all the time. I mean, like they'll talk about it. Like someone,
23:53
they'll wake up some morning to a knock at their door that someone's like, Hey, I had
23:56
this dream last night, we need to talk about it. I mean, it happens like consistently. So
24:00
I think some of it's just that it doesn't, it's not the primary way that the Lord's maybe
24:05
going to find people in America, you know, but I mean, in, in certain places, he's going
24:10
to find people through different ways. Like there's actually more weight that they put
24:14
on the fact that it was a dream. It wasn't just having a conversation with some crazy
24:18
person on the street from, you know, Oklahoma, we've been going back to a conversation we
24:23
had weeks ago about the distractions we feel. But when I was talking about people don't
24:29
have a, you know, conscious, they have consciousness, but they don't have a like internal dialogue,
24:35
right. And so if from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed, you've got
24:40
either your phone in your hand or your screen in front of you, or you're doing something
24:43
or working on something, maybe Jesus is just, you know, God's trying to get a word in, they
24:48
can't do it while you're awake. And I had somebody last year, like sent me a five minute
24:53
long deal because they had a dream with me in it. And they kind of, you know, gave me
24:57
some details and things like that. And whenever they sent it to me and described it to me,
25:00
I was like, I don't know what any of this means. And they took it to a person a pastor in their
25:06
church who kind of does a lot with dream analysis and try to figure out how does this
25:11
can port with scripture and how does this kind of kind of go. And there's been things
25:17
that have happened even recently. I know I'm kind of being cryptic in the way I'm describing
25:19
it, but there's things that have happened recently where it's like that dream starting
25:22
to make sense. And it's not because I'm manifesting something. It's not because I'm, it's because
25:27
I'm noticing things more. Some of these connections that have just been there for a while. It's
25:31
like that dream is kind of a glue that is connecting these dots a little bit better. So I, you
25:36
know, don't hear something we're not saying, which is like, Hey, you need to just put a
25:39
whole bunch of weight on your dreams, but dreams are not in and of themselves insignificant.
25:45
They can tell us something and teach us something and God can try to get to us through our dreams
25:49
as well.
25:50
I think we can wrap that up with going back to chapter one, where what we know about Joseph
25:56
is he was a devout, righteous Jew who, if he was that was in, in the scriptures, knew
26:03
the scriptures. And so I'm not saying that the Bible says this, but Paul calls us to
26:09
be like the brands and test things against the scripture. I could easily see him knowing
26:13
the scripture, knowing that all these things are prophesied through the, through the books
26:19
of the Old Testament, the books of the prophets, the book, book of the law. And then an angel
26:23
says to him in a dream, this is what's happened. Okay. Yeah. Like our books are the Torah says
26:31
that like, there are things that that speak to that. So I can take this dream and line
26:37
it up against my scriptures that I'm in daily and I know by heart and that I, that I've been
26:42
studying since I was a child, I can line those up against scripture and say, okay, yeah,
26:47
this wasn't God didn't say something that was just out of left field that no one had
26:52
ever heard of before. You could have gone to the scriptures and seen this, this was prophesied
26:58
from the beginning. And so I could very easily see Joseph going, yeah, okay. Yeah, that makes
27:02
sense. This is in the book I read. Right. Well, and you have to remember, like, since the
27:06
very beginning Satan has been on a mission to prevent the end of the world coming to be
27:14
because he knows he's going to lose. He was told that. And so from the very beginning,
27:19
he was like, well, man, maybe I can pit brother against brother and just destroy God's family
27:25
right from the outset. And so you had Cain and Abel, you know, you have the flood when
27:31
you know, I'm sure Satan was like, Oh man, he's getting rid of everybody. This is amazing.
27:35
And and then God, you know, weaves a new thread through that, you know, the whole idea of
27:41
a disqualification through the line of whatever and thinking, okay, I've cut it off, you know,
27:47
and now the Savior can't come this way. But then he finds another way of coming around,
27:51
you know, through Mary. And then finally, you know, the birth, you know, wanting to
27:55
kill the actual savior of the world. So he, I mean, obviously possesses Herod and puts
28:03
it in his mind to kill children in a certain area and we'll get to it. Yeah. You know,
28:09
and with the same intent, like trying to cut off the line, trying to cut with God's plan,
28:13
like 30 D chess. Yeah, checkers. Yeah, when we're getting there, let's go and keep that
28:18
going. Matt, can you read 13 14 and 15? Sure. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel
28:23
of the Lord appeared to Joseph at a dream and said rise, take the child and his mother
28:28
and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for
28:32
the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and
28:36
departed to Egypt and remain there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what
28:41
the Lord had spoken by the prophet by the prophet out of Egypt. I have called my son.
28:47
So that's prophet Hosea. And that's Hosea 11 one. And the Egyptian border was about 90
28:54
miles from Bethlehem. I saw somewhere I can't remember where I read it that they weren't
28:58
there for a long time. It could have just been weeks, like a few weeks that they were there
29:03
because it's reported that Herod died in four BC, which would put Jesus's birth somewhere
29:09
between six BC and four BC. So that's essentially what we're looking at. Let's go ahead and
29:15
go on to 16 through 18 Caleb, if you can get that one.
29:19
Then would hear when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged
29:24
and sent men and killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity who were
29:28
two years old or younger, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi.
29:33
Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah, the prophet was fulfilled. A voice was heard
29:37
in Rama, weeping in great morning, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be
29:42
comforted because they were no more.
29:44
So that's Jeremiah 31 15. So a lot here, obviously just unfathomable brutality and evil here.
29:54
I remember being confused by this scripture like, because again, I got the timeline wrong
29:58
for most of my life, whereas like, Hey, you know, he's looking for a newborn baby. Why
30:03
is he killing two year olds? Like that's just needless. The whole thing is needless bloodshed,
30:08
but it's like extra needless. But no, Jesus was somewhere between, you know, one day and
30:13
two years old. So that's basically why this happened. The estimates are that between 10
30:19
and 30 boys were killed in this community.
30:25
I have another thought. I'll leave it for a second. But just imagine wherever you live
30:31
or they local magistrate to give the death penalty to every child in that age range,
30:38
of which I have one. And just like, I mean, can a community recover from that? Because
30:45
I mean, there are, there are school shootings that will basically turn towns into ghost
30:50
towns. You know, what we saw in Uvaldi like that, that town is suffered immeasurably and
30:56
that's generational pain that I mean, you just can't, to a degree, you can't get over
31:01
what some of these people dealt with considering all the things that went into what happened
31:07
there in that town. But I mean, I just I think about that because again, it's just a few
31:11
lines, but we're talking about people that will now be mourning for the rest of their
31:15
lives in a time period where infant mortality was high. And you know, people lost their
31:20
children, but they lost their children to illness or disease that they couldn't treat
31:24
or something like that, not murder, like by, you know, the goons of a local magistrate.
31:30
I mean, this is a gangland killing that that we're seeing. It's just, I mean, for whatever
31:35
reason, well, it's not for whatever reasons, because I have two young boys now, like I
31:38
was just struck by the brutality of this.
31:40
It is very striking, but it's also the Old Testament speaking to the dresser. It's a dress
31:46
rehearsal for the New Testament. And obviously, this, this is a direct link to Pharaoh killing
31:54
the firstborn of the Israelites and wanting to wipe out a generation of people. And, and
32:02
it's so crazy to think like even even going back to Egypt, and I'd said God plays 30
32:09
deep chest, not checkers, he had literally told his people do not ever go back to Egypt.
32:15
And then they tried to go back and Isaiah, he chastises them. I told you not to go back
32:19
to Egypt. I brought you out. I said, do not go back. And so if, if Satan knows the scriptures,
32:25
he, he undoubtedly knows that. So where would he think not to look? Egypt. God told him not
32:30
to go back. What does God send Christ to Egypt? Like there's this like kind of gamesmanship
32:36
that you can see here, like, man, you, like, you know the scripture, but you don't know
32:39
the plan. And you, you have already lost. And, and there's just so many, there's, it's all
32:47
linked together. And it's such a cool story to see. Obviously on this side, we can see
32:51
it playing out, but man, God is so cool. The way he weaves things to his glory.
32:56
Yeah. And even just, I mean, who would have thought and just, just to fulfill the three
33:01
prophecies of Jesus being from Bethlehem, being born in Bethlehem, also being from Egypt.
33:08
And then it was as we'll see being from Galilee. You know, it's like, wait, what? How, how
33:13
is he all of those things, you know? And yet God, like you said, just kind of plays it
33:17
out.
33:18
Literally replaying kind of the journey of the Israelite people like to Egypt. Now, okay,
33:23
I'm calling you back out and here we go. Let's do it. Well, in the Reformation study Bible
33:27
said that Jesus like Moses was saved as a baby and would go on to rescue God's chosen
33:32
people. And that's, I mean, yeah, the, the corollaries are so, so drastic that that they're
33:39
almost impossible to ignore. Yeah. Now, there's something I want to talk about here, which
33:44
again, we're acknowledging that God could have done it another way or whatever. But
33:49
just think what if Herod had killed Jesus, which I know it even sounds theoretical saying
33:56
it like that, because Jesus was the one foretold. And you know, as we broke down with the genealogy
34:03
from Matthew one, like it was 14 generations plus leading up to this moment. But let's
34:10
just use a parallel universe example that let's say Herod had succeeded in what he wanted
34:16
to do. He literally set out to kill the foretold Messiah. Like, I'm trying to put myself and
34:23
it's kind of easy for me to put myself in different people's shoes, like even people
34:27
that murder people are people that do these crazy heinous things. It's like, I can kind
34:30
of get myself there, but that forgot to be a leader of a certain people group. Obviously,
34:36
he didn't believe it. Like he didn't believe, you know, the prophets, he didn't believe
34:40
any of these writings. But his, his goal was to set out to kill the Messiah. Like what,
34:46
what do you even call that? Like, I just like all the words I can come up with don't even
34:50
like really give it justice. Oh, what? Like, what do you call that decision? Like, it's
34:56
not like it's evil. It's more than evil. It's like it's more than that. Like, I think that's
35:02
say, I think that is Satan at work. I think that is Satan trying to snuff out the savior
35:08
of the world. And I imagine that Herod probably thought he accomplished his goal. He killed
35:13
a bunch of kids and Jesus wasn't there. And to his knowledge, he probably, yep, we did
35:18
it. Okay.
35:19
Well, and we know that from scripture that there are, there are demons that are assigned
35:25
to different areas around the world, you know, so it would make sense that there was a demon
35:34
that was assigned to Herod. And when the time came, that demon basically had a powerful
35:40
influence over the decisions he was making.
35:43
Well, Satan loves the sacrifice of children too. For sure. I mean, just to think about
35:48
modern day with abortion, because what was here seeking to do? Well, if he could, he
35:54
would have loved to have killed Mary while she was still pregnant, right, which would
35:57
have been a double murder, you know, murder and an abortion kind of a thing.
36:00
Isn't that interesting? Like the, the, all these dreams, you know, it just makes me
36:04
wonder, you know, that was the divine intervention in that moment to save Joseph from making a
36:10
bat, ultimately making a bad decision. I know he's a righteous man, but like, you
36:15
know, intervening in these moments to basically be like, listen, don't do this, do this.
36:20
But even like just, just this being God's story playing out and showing God's power,
36:26
it's like Herod's entire life was satanic, right? I mean, that, whatever that demon was
36:31
that had control over that. I mean, that had existed way before Jesus came on the scene,
36:36
you know, but still to put Jesus in Bethlehem right there with Herod in the neighborhood.
36:41
You know, it's like, this is just another way to show God's sovereignty. I mean, in
36:44
my opinion, I mean, it's kind of just another way to show, like, look, like, you know, you're
36:49
not Satan's not in control of this period. Yeah, absolutely. Caleb, go and close Matthew
36:55
to Alice, talk about 19 through 23. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
37:02
in him in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up, take the child and his mother, go
37:08
to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life or dead. So Joseph got up,
37:12
took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that
37:16
arkuleas was raining over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
37:22
Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee and came
37:27
and settled in a city called Nazareth. This happened so that what was spoken through the
37:31
prophets would be fulfilled. He would be called a Nazarene. Two more dreams right in that section.
37:37
What are you laughing for? How did all of history been to God's will? And like, it is
37:42
just so cool to see that play out. Like, I just can't help but chuckle because we serve
37:47
a God that just can do what he wants.
37:50
And again, we're talking about a large chunk of time here, like this was not, you know,
37:55
kind of we can read it in 30 seconds, but it took, you know, months, years, potentially
38:00
for a lot of these things to go down. Two more dreams come through. And then this kind
38:04
of goes back to a discussion that I brought up when we were talking in Matthew one, which
38:11
is there was this north south divide in the kingdom where, you know, Galilee was in the
38:16
north, the people from the south Jerusalem. They did not have high opinions of the northerners.
38:22
Now at the end there, where it's talking about Nazareth and how you would be called the Nazarene,
38:26
there's not a direct Old Testament connection to, and he would be called a Nazarene. But
38:32
it just points to the revelation that Jesus would be despised, which is talked about throughout
38:37
the Old Testament, because people Nazareth was a despised city during that time. And
38:44
so were its inhabitants. Like that's why you see, you know, later on in Jesus life, like,
38:48
you know what, can anything good come from Nazareth? And I tried to think of a modern
38:53
corollary and I couldn't really think of one as like, you know, as Americans, because
38:58
these were all people that were, you know, in Israel, right? But as Americans, there's
39:02
not like a city where the city is despicable and everyone in it is despicable. There may
39:08
be cities we don't like cities where we wouldn't send our kids to public school. But you're
39:12
not going to say like, Oh my gosh, everyone in San Francisco is just despicable. Well,
39:16
well, no, like they're Bible believing Christians that have ministries there that are trying
39:20
to save people from their, you know, sinful choices and into gravity. But it's just again,
39:26
it's very interesting to see that, you know, Jesus didn't come in on his throne already.
39:32
He came and we see from Scripture that he wasn't a especially attractive young man. There's
39:37
nothing attractive about him and he came from probably the worst city for a Messiah to come
39:41
from during this time period. It's just fairly incredible.
39:44
Yeah, he totally flipped the script, right? Because everybody thought, Oh, well, when he
39:49
comes, he's going to come with power and a sword. He's going to overthrow the Romans
39:54
and everything's going to be great. And that's not exactly how that went down. You know,
39:59
so as we'll see later on, it becomes very confusing, I think, to a lot of people.
40:04
Yeah, I think you you think of David and that Jesus comes from the line of David. You think
40:10
of a king who conquers and yeah, I'm ready for this guy to ride in with his army and I'm
40:15
ready to let's yeah, come, come kill the Romans for us. Come, come, come deliver us from this
40:21
oppressive government. And we're ready. Oh, wait, that guy's from Nazareth. That can't
40:28
be the that can't be the son of David. It can't be because it can't be. It does not fit
40:35
our narrative. Yeah, right. And you just have to think again, you have to try to put yourself
40:42
in the shoes of a first century Jew that, you know, they know a little bit about Jesus'
40:47
story now, but then we skip ahead to when Jesus is in his 30s and they know the Old Testament.
40:52
It's written on their heart because they memorized it, right? But then they just they missed it
40:58
somehow. And you know, you talk to modern day Jews about Isaiah 53. And it's like, what
41:04
else would Isaiah 53 need to say for you to believe that Jesus was the one that checked
41:09
all the boxes? And then you learn that in Jewish midrushes and different Jewish schools,
41:15
they don't even teach the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. They don't even teach that. That's the that's
41:20
the Pierce for our transgressions. Is that the by history? Wait, which one is that? Yeah,
41:25
I think I think Browning, are you pulling it up? Nope. I was pulling something else. Oh,
41:29
sorry. Dang it. All right. Let's just go there. Sorry, Joby. If I was mess that up,
41:33
we'll do it live. Sorry, Joby. Like I'm not even close, probably. Yeah, I'm the one that
41:39
brought it up and I didn't even have it up. And I don't have a normal Bible in front of
41:43
me. I just have the one here. But yeah, you got it. I was a 53 now. I didn't. Okay,
41:48
I'm over two on you. I'm going to. All right. Come on. All right. I'm racing.
41:54
Y'all using the air. I'm here. All right. What is it? 53. What? 53. Oh, yeah. Don't
42:00
do that. That was right. Go is 53 five. Yeah. Go ahead. You can read it. Y'all can read one
42:07
word at a time. Just go back and forth if you want to. But he was peers for our transgressions.
42:12
He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace
42:17
and with his wounds, we are healed. Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Yeah.
42:22
But I mean, when you look at that, like, because you would think like, how could they miss
42:26
it? But it's like they're purposefully ignorant now because they don't want their their, you
42:31
know, young Jewish kids to be reading about the 53rd Psalm. And it's like, I don't think
42:35
it's just, you know, an accidental oversight. One might say foolish. Yeah, certainly foolish.
42:40
But I mean, you just read all the way through it. There are other parts of this. Anyway,
42:47
I can't really get into that now. But it's a, it's an interesting thing to kind of think
42:52
about because we get to see the end of the story. And so we think, God, we're so smart.
42:57
Like we would have known that. But I think that brings up a discussion about, well, go
43:00
ahead Browning. Yeah, this will tie. I think it'll tie in. So I've got revelation five,
43:05
you know, and remember, John got caught up and he's seeing all these things. And, you
43:08
know, John was just as excited to see the conquering king in the Messiah and all as everybody
43:14
else. And so when they're looking at someone to open the scroll and, you know, everybody's
43:21
looked around, there's nobody. Then finally, it's like, Oh, no, there is someone that's
43:24
worthy. And it's the lion of the tribe of Judah. And I'm sure that I'm sure John was
43:31
like, whoa, check it out. Check it out. Who is this guy? Where's this guy? And he looks
43:35
around and it says, it says right here says, and between the throne and the four living
43:40
creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. So the
43:45
lion of Judah was the slain lamb. You know, again, he had expected one thing and he got
43:51
something else, but no less powerful.
43:54
No, that that's a very good verse. And it's it is very, it does speak to like what narrative
44:01
do we play out in our head? Because you can read that and go, Oh, sweet. And you're thinking
44:05
lion, because it's very the lion of Judah is worthy to open the scroll. And then I saw
44:09
Oh, I am. Wait, what? Like, yeah, so I can see how a lot of people would miss that because
44:16
you're you're you're ready. You're ready for this guy to come with swords and fire and
44:21
just kill some people because the Romans suck.
44:26
When it's it's you're thinking that's going to happen because that's what you want. Yeah.
44:31
And I think I don't know if I can't remember, Caleb, if you and I've talked about this before,
44:34
but there's a book called Ordinary Men. And this is a book that's been on my book list
44:39
for forever and I haven't gotten to it. But is the Metaxes book? No, seven ordinary men.
44:45
Oh, yeah, so ordinary men is by this is on our I don't know, it's not on our book list.
44:52
But this is here we go. Internet Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final
44:58
solution in Poland by Christopher R Browning. And so basically it this details a police force
45:05
in Poland. So these were polls these weren't Germans. But how they went from being a normal
45:10
police force, you know, battalion battalion 101. And they evolved all the way to being
45:17
part of the Nazi death squads where they were marching women into the woods, stripping them
45:22
naked and shooting them and throwing them into shallow graves. And people in maternity
45:30
will read this book and think to themselves, how could they? They will clutch their pearls
45:35
and they will just pat themselves on their self righteous backs and be like, I would never.
45:41
But Jordan Peterson did this for me. Jordan Peterson has crushed any possibility that if
45:48
I were living in Poland at that time and been part of battalion 101 to think that I would
45:53
have been the one guy saying we shouldn't do this. I am just as capable of that evil
45:59
as those men. And you can go to anytime, like if I were in the ruling party during the Soviet
46:05
era, like what I have marched people to the Gulag during the transatlantic slave trade,
46:11
would I have been one of the people that was, you know, trading in bodies? You know, I come
46:16
from Choctaw Indian roots. Would I have been the Indian, you know, asking for other Indians
46:21
to smoke the peace pipe with them? Or would I've been taking scouts and taking women and
46:26
taking slaves? Like, I'm not so naive to think that I would have been the righteous man during
46:33
that. Now, again, we're not going to go into another discussion about election, but it's
46:36
like, well, no, no, you would have been the same person then and God would have chosen
46:40
you and you would have been set apart and maybe you would have acted in a different way. But
46:42
just generically, I think it's better for us and modernity as Christians to look back
46:48
on these Jewish people almost with pity and be like, what a pity they missed it. But I
46:54
probably would have missed it too, because I wouldn't have wanted it to be true, because
46:58
my formulation for truth didn't have that in it. And so I just wanted to kind of thrust
47:03
that into the discussion that guys, just because you're not currently marching people to their
47:07
deaths during the Nazi regime in the early 20th century doesn't mean that you wouldn't
47:11
have been had you been there during that time.
47:13
Yeah, we have the luxury of looking at history through a modern lens and the morality that
47:18
we know today is not the same. And so yeah, I think that that's a dangerous thing to go
47:25
into and think that, oh, I wouldn't have been like that. I wouldn't have done that or out
47:30
of stood up. And that's really easy to say. But look at how you are. I think I think abortion
47:38
is our as our modern day equivalent of slavery. And I think the history will look back at
47:43
our society with disdain on how we treated abortion. And I think hundreds of years from
47:50
now, people will go, God, those people killed all those kids. Why? Why didn't no one do more?
47:57
Why didn't these people do more? And I think they'll look at pastors like we look at Jonathan
48:01
Edwards who owned slaves and or Thomas Jefferson. Like the guy literally wrote a document that
48:10
would be used to end slavery. But he also owned slaves. And I all I think all of that just
48:20
points back to God will use crooked pencils to to to write his straight lines. And yeah,
48:30
we I don't think I don't think we should fall into that trap of, I mean, if I was back there,
48:34
I'd have done it this way because one, I'll be not the case.
48:36
And I don't want to get off to political here as we as we wrap. But it's not crazy to think
48:42
that within a few generations, we will be gaslit about who was pro the sacrifice of babies via
48:48
abortion. Because, you know, you'll see these man on the street interviews where people talk
48:52
about the KKK. KKK was founded by the Democratic Party. Those were Democrats that were part of
48:57
the KKK. Like they think, Oh, white, southerners had to admit Republicans. It's like, no, no,
49:04
that certainly wasn't the case. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves had to be a Democrat. No,
49:08
he was a Republican now. We can't be so naive to think that the modern Republican party platform
49:13
was the same as it was during Abraham Lincoln's time. But but again, that's one thing that if
49:19
posterity of people are listening to this and posterity, hopefully it's not prophetic, but it
49:23
very likely will be that they will be gaslit into thinking that, Oh, no, no, no, we weren't pro
49:29
abortion, we were pro this or it was actually the other side. Because when you're that far removed
49:33
from the people that are actually living and breathing that philosophy, it's easy to gaslight
49:38
him and say, that's not what we said. Or surely that's not what they meant. And you know, we live in
49:42
this time. You know, I think Caleb, you either brought it up this week or last week, we're kind
49:45
of in this postmodern moment where truth is my truth and truth is relative and all these different
49:50
things. And you know, when when you can assume you can explain what somebody else was thinking
49:57
generations ago, of whom you have no connection, I'm going to default to believing what somebody
50:02
says. So when someone says, no, I don't, I know that this is a living human being inside. I mean,
50:06
I just want to kill it. Take them at their word. Like they're not a poor, you know, poor woman
50:12
that just need to leg up. And this is just something the government can help her with so that she can
50:16
get back on her feet. This is an evil woman that knows what she's doing. Or this is an evil man
50:20
that knows what he's doing as he's driving her there and holding her hand as she's going through
50:24
the process. And so again, didn't want to jump off too much on a tangent there. But I think I
50:28
think we're given a choice because I think not everybody fell into that trap of being being an
50:34
even a Nazi sympathizer. Like we're given a choice would would would we be by be like Bonhoeffer?
50:41
Bonhoeffer was so devoted to the scripture and understanding and knowing what God's truth was,
50:46
he called Hitler for what he was way before anybody else got on board. And if you have not
50:52
read anything about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I that it's one of the he's one of the most incredible men
50:57
of modern history who stood on truth who stood on God's word and said, no, this isn't right.
51:04
He implored other ministers and pastors in Germany to speak out against Hitler and he was chastised.
51:12
He was he lost his ministry. He he was but he he I think he died at 33 as well, which is
51:20
interesting. I'm not don't read too much into that, but he he died very young. But
51:25
he was so committed to the truth that he was involved in a plot to try to kill Hitler.
51:31
And that guy was not he was not a big burly jiu-jitsu gun wielded. No, yeah, dude,
51:40
but he's a thought nonetheless. It's a I mean, it's an arrogance that makes us think that, right?
51:45
That like, oh, if I was in that time, I would do this differently and it would be more more
51:49
holy in line with the Lord's teaching and all those things. But it's also an incorrect view of
51:54
ourselves and of the Lord, right? Is that it's like, no, we know from scripture that anything good
52:01
that comes from us is because of him. And we know that even my best efforts are filthy rags, right?
52:06
So how could we say if we have a right view of the Lord and of ourselves, how could we say back
52:10
then that, well, I would make the right choice? You know, it's it's whatever God would do with us.
52:14
But it's also like, it's also an invitation to take some internal
52:17
inventory. Like, what am I doing? Like, how do I view this?
52:26
Question some things. Like, it's an invitation to speak out against the culture, the culture,
52:32
too, as well. And I think it would do pastor as well to heed that warning of because people,
52:38
especially on the left, they love to throw around the, well, you're just on the wrong side of history.
52:42
So it's good. It's like, am I am I on the wrong side of history? You think what's growing inside
52:48
the belly of a woman is meaningless and worthless. And you can't defend the reason why. And you cloak
52:54
it with all these euphemisms that make you feel good. Right. So but pastors have bought into the
53:00
11th commandment, thou shalt be nice all the time under all circumstances. And they think that that
53:05
leads them to being quiet on issues that no one should be quiet on, because everyone's so scared,
53:11
modern pastors are so scared to be calling, being called a Christian nationalist, or they're trying
53:15
to set up a theocracy or something like that. But as we talked about, we're not going to, you know,
53:19
open this up too far. But a theocracy is a bad thing. A theonomy is a good thing. A theocracy
53:24
is where the state picks a religion and forces it down the throats of the people against their will,
53:29
whereas a theonomy is where the state operates as a republic that allows a ancient, you know,
53:36
religious texts, you know, all out of the Bible to, you know, force them in a moral direction as
53:42
they're making all of their standards and, you know, foundations for the society that they're building.
53:47
And so for these modern pastors to just say, Oh, you know, we're just going to be about the gospel.
53:52
We're not going to get into all these social issues. What you're saying is, I think only
53:55
atheists should be running the government. I think only atheists should be teachers. I think only
54:00
atheists should be working and running companies. So when you say that, be prepared for the consequences
54:05
of a world that is bending the knee to Satan, which is the ultimate expression through atheism.
54:11
Yeah, and every single law that we have, you can't say that any law is not morally based.
54:17
All of them are every single one of them are morally based. So it's just some people's morals are,
54:22
as I forget who said it, it's like having your feet planted firmly in midair. They can't tell you
54:27
why you should believe this. They're just going to tell you that you're going to you're going to
54:31
believe this. Why? Because I said so and I'm elite. I went to Harvard. I went to Brown. I went to Yale.
54:36
It's that type of an attitude. You know who thought he was on the right side of history?
54:40
Caiaphas. Caiaphas thought he was on the right side of history. And he killed Jesus. He killed
54:44
our king of glory. I was looking for, I don't know why I can't find it. I think it's not First
54:48
Corinthians. Is it Colossians? Colossians two 15? What is it? What's if they had, if they had known
54:54
these things, they would not have killed our king of glory. I think it's, I think it's Colossians two
54:59
15. And I'm referencing a book. Eugenia Constantine that I'm reading right now, which is great.
55:10
Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. First Corinthians two eight English
55:15
standard version. None of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had, they would
55:19
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Sorry, Joby. Sorry, Joby. But they didn't want to understand.
55:27
They didn't, they didn't know and they didn't want to know. And to your point earlier, like they
55:30
didn't want to see it. They wanted to see what they wanted to see and had they had they actually
55:34
like seen that they wouldn't have been part of that. And Nicodemus comes to mind. He was part of that
55:40
class. He decided, he decided to seek Jesus out and question him. Jesus said you've got to be born
55:45
again. And, and that was totally contrary to what he should have done culturally in his position.
55:51
And, but yeah, they, they, they were on the wrong side of history. It turns out,
55:56
if you guys haven't read, they were on the wrong side. Yeah, we haven't gotten to the end here,
56:01
but spoiler alert. Like, I think Jesus comes back, which by the way, have you all seen that TikTok
56:07
video of a guy that is in a Bible study? And he's reading, he's reading the gospels as if he's in a
56:14
book club and they haven't gotten to the end yet. And so he's literate. Have y'all not seen this?
56:18
Yeah, dude, I got to find it. But I'm probably going to butcher it. But it's this guy that just
56:22
goes, man, you know, this, these characters, this Jesus, there's, there's something special about
56:27
this guy. I can tell, I can tell they're kind of setting this up. But man, isn't Judas like the
56:31
coolest guy? Like, I feel like Judas is going to be that he's that he's right or die, isn't he?
56:35
And like everyone else in the Bible studies looking, I'm like, wait a minute, have you not
56:40
read the end? And he goes, no, wait a minute. Because then they just say like, you know, Jesus
56:43
dies, right? And he's like, what? What? He dies? No. But then someone else is like, but you know,
56:50
he comes back and he's like, he resurrected? Are you kidding me? And like, but just imagine you're
56:57
like you're ruining. Imagine ruining the ending of Breaking Bad for somebody that's, you know,
57:01
in the middle of season two, or something like that, like 20 years later, I'll have to find that
57:06
for you guys. Anything else on, else on Matthew two before you wrap up, check, check, check.
57:12
All right, guys, we'll have to leave it there. But come back next Sunday where we will dig into
57:15
Matthew three. Make sure you guys read through that. I just got to tell you, I'm so pumped that
57:19
we're in Matthew. There's there's so much good stuff here. It leaves us so much good discussion
57:23
and just being able to, we know the gospel story. We just made a joke about it. But how much have
57:28
we learned just in two hours of going over the first two chapters and we got a lot more to go.
57:33
But guys, before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost add on down to life.
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