1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,760 Good morning, everyone. 2 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:04,040 It's good to see you. 3 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:08,800 Please don't be afraid that I have two screens in front of me. 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:13,000 I we're starting a new series called Topographical. 5 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,100 I'm excited about it because it's about places 6 00:00:17,100 --> 00:00:21,600 and what happens there and their value and their importance 7 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:24,600 in scripture. 8 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,920 And so yeah, I'm excited about getting into this. 9 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:32,280 So I just got back from spending a week and a half in New York, 10 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:34,040 Western New York, which is where I spent 11 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:35,880 the first 20 years of my life. 12 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:37,840 I grew up in the same house in the same city. 13 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,200 I went to college about an hour and a half away 14 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:41,760 for my freshman and sophomore years 15 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,240 and then transferred to a college in the Midwest, 16 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:45,480 Indiana Westland. 17 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:47,440 I was going to say, is there a shout out there? 18 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:48,960 Yeah, OK. 19 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:54,200 When I was nearly 25, I moved to the Midwest permanently 20 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,120 by moving here and have been here for the last 22 years. 21 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,160 I also said I would just be here two years. 22 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:01,440 No. 23 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:08,000 And it's only been two years, multiple times over. 24 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,720 I live in the Midwest, guys. 25 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,880 I say, oh, when I bump into someone, 26 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:17,440 I have absolutely seen my way through the Midwest goodbye. 27 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:22,640 We're like, well, guess I'll be going five topics later. 28 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:25,680 I have definitely stood outside to watch the sky 29 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,520 while the tornado sirens are going off. 30 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,480 But I am a New Yorker, and I have great pride 31 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:34,680 for my home state and town. 32 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:36,600 Through and through, I say I live in the Midwest, 33 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,960 but I am a New Yorker. 34 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:44,160 Because places influence and build us much more than we 35 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:46,320 often can even identify. 36 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:48,600 If you grew up here, you might overlook the fact 37 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:50,160 that the Mississippi River is probably 38 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:52,200 one of the most defining things about life here. 39 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,040 It dictates a shocking amount of the way we live our lives, 40 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:57,720 the way it floods, the bend in the river, 41 00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,480 the way that influences weather patterns, 42 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,480 and even defines which state people are willing to travel 43 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:05,040 to go to Target. 44 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:07,680 All of the history here and how we live now 45 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,240 is informed by this, and not just a little bit, 46 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,480 but in every way, every day. 47 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:15,840 So when I say I'm from New York, what I often hear 48 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,440 is, you don't sound like you're a New Yorker. 49 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,080 You're right, because I grew up six hours away from New York 50 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:23,440 City. 51 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:26,280 When I tell people that I live here in the Midwest, 52 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,480 they think about corn fields and farms. 53 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:31,840 When we're not from somewhere, it's 54 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,480 easy to reduce that area down to a stereotype or a singular idea. 55 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,080 We don't think of and consider the dimensions 56 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:40,120 and the nuances. 57 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:43,560 We don't consider history or distances. 58 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,400 When people hear that I say I grew up 59 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:47,120 six hours away from New York, they 60 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,560 don't realize that there was more to New York than the city. 61 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,400 New York City did not affect my life, but Canada did. 62 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,600 And if you know about where I grew up, that would make sense. 63 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:59,920 But if you don't know New York, if you can't picture it 64 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:04,720 on a map, that would not connect. 65 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,080 Trying to explain to you also how 66 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,760 I know I am home when I go to New York 67 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,200 without seeing the Welcome to New York State sign 68 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:15,960 also might not make sense. 69 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:17,440 But because I've taken that journey, 70 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:21,440 I don't know how many times, I can tell you 71 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,240 that after driving almost eight hours to Cleveland, 72 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:28,240 sidling along Lake Erie, when I began shifting my direction 73 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:30,280 northeast, I feel it. 74 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:32,360 I know that it's happening. 75 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,480 And when I start seeing grapevine fields 76 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,200 and even sometimes smell the scent of Niagara grapes 77 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:40,880 in the air, I know that I am in the very western corner 78 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:41,960 of New York. 79 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,620 And I know that when I reach the Seneca Nation land, 80 00:03:44,620 --> 00:03:48,400 I've got about an hour and a half left of my trip. 81 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:50,400 The land we live on is significant, 82 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,520 and it's a significant informant in our lives. 83 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:55,180 The distances we travel, the journeys 84 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:58,360 we take to grandma's house or a commute to a job, 85 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,120 the people and the events that took place there beforehand, 86 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,600 all of it, places are important. 87 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:08,560 And so we're going to be spending a few weeks visiting 88 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,720 places in the Bible because it matters. 89 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,000 How does the natural landscape inform the story? 90 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,720 How do wars, conquest, events, and even migrations 91 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:18,680 inform and build an area? 92 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:22,800 How did the land affect Abraham and Sarah or Jesus or Paul? 93 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,360 What distances were traveled and how far are some 94 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,160 of the cities from each other? 95 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,080 What is the history of the land and why 96 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:34,600 was that place important for the story of God's people? 97 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,160 Let's pray. 98 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:39,160 God, I am excited for this. 99 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:41,600 I'll call it a tour that you're about to take us on 100 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:42,740 over the next few weeks. 101 00:04:42,740 --> 00:04:46,760 There's so much to gain from digging 102 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:51,760 into the place of the people, wherever that is, 103 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,240 and understanding more about the dimensionality 104 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,920 and the nuances there. 105 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:02,080 And so I pray that you would give us excitement in that, 106 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:07,960 that when scripture talks about a place, 107 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:11,120 that it would make us curious to find out more 108 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,920 and to go deep with not just the words about you, 109 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:16,920 but then the places that it took place, 110 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:18,320 for those things took place on. 111 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,720 So ignite a new curiosity in us, God, 112 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:26,200 about the where of the Bible as we move forward. 113 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,040 We pray that you add your blessing to your word 114 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:32,760 and to our time together today and over the next few weeks. 115 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:33,840 Pray this in your name. 116 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:35,720 Amen. 117 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:37,240 Because I am introducing a series, 118 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:42,480 I want to give an overview of some events in scripture 119 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:44,400 and walk us through a progression 120 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,600 and give geographical context in the hope that it will, 121 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,320 like I said, get us curious enough to stay tuned 122 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,320 and even give you some encouragement yourself 123 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:54,720 to dig more into understanding location 124 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,320 when you're doing your own Bible study and engagement. 125 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:04,680 Guys, I love maps so much. 126 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:06,160 I really like Lord of the Rings. 127 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:10,680 And there is, thank you, thank you fellow nerds, 128 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,280 there is a book of maps of Middle Earth and beyond 129 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:15,480 that you can get. 130 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,840 And I definitely own it. 131 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:20,320 And I've looked all over it, like, oh, 132 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:22,320 this is where Frodo left from here. 133 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:23,520 Sorry, I did. 134 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,960 So I remember things better, though, 135 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,600 when I see it laid out that way. 136 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,040 To know the path and the location where the mountains are 137 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,000 and the rivers divide helps me out so much. 138 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,320 So today is a tour of the maps is what it is. 139 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,120 But hopefully for some of you whose brain works 140 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:48,600 a similar way, that will help us make connections. 141 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:50,720 I think what often happens when we read scripture, 142 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:54,360 we will read about the places, Corinth, Jerusalem, Cyrene, 143 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:56,120 Babylon, Egypt. 144 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,680 And we give them no more than a passing thought. 145 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,480 We don't really know really where they are 146 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,240 or how much territory they covered, 147 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:09,520 at what time and place, and what impact that made. 148 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,640 We don't consider the scope of the ancient world, 149 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,000 how far or even close the distances 150 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,960 might be between places. 151 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,720 But when the Bible mentions a place, it matters. 152 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,920 It is a key detail of a story. 153 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,080 And scripture regularly mentions key features of a landscape 154 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,640 or where someone is going or where God is bringing them out 155 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,880 from, a road that was taken. 156 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:34,960 These things are mentioned because the reader should 157 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:36,280 know and understand. 158 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:40,480 And so if we don't, we need to. 159 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:42,600 We also tend to view the biblical world 160 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:44,480 through the lens of a modern map, 161 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,480 regardless of the fact that, again, borders have changed, 162 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,080 territories have changed, people groups have moved 163 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,560 from different areas, cities have both risen and fallen, 164 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,760 and even ideas of regions are different. 165 00:07:57,760 --> 00:07:59,560 When I say to you the Middle East, 166 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:03,000 you've got an idea in your head already. 167 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,960 But it's different than the world of the Bible. 168 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,160 So viewing the biblical world through the lens 169 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:11,840 through which it was written is important. 170 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:15,680 Knowing the map then, where people groups lived then, 171 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:17,560 is incredibly vital. 172 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:19,440 So before we begin, one major shift 173 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:22,400 I want to start us off with is that there's, 174 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,320 of the biblical world, the concepts of Europe, 175 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,360 Middle East, and Africa do not exist. 176 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,920 That is a current world view. 177 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:34,680 There was a Mediterranean region. 178 00:08:34,680 --> 00:08:37,960 So map one, Brennan. 179 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:42,360 This is an overlay of, Brennan, on the snap, go. 180 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,120 This is an overlay of the Mediterranean basin over the US 181 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,240 so you can get a size of scale, how big it is. 182 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:54,920 Did anybody know? 183 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:56,760 Right, it's this big. 184 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,000 So you can see Italy coming down. 185 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,520 The Far East is where you would, like Virginia, 186 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,560 North Carolina is where Israel is. 187 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:06,960 Florida is Egypt. 188 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:08,480 I'm not making connections. 189 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:12,920 California is like the end of Spain. 190 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:15,800 And so that gives you sort of a concept 191 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,240 of where we're talking about and size. 192 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,240 And so again, there was the Mediterranean region. 193 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:26,080 There was not Europe, Middle East, and Africa. 194 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:29,520 The cities that bordered the Mediterranean Sea 195 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:32,880 were one very interconnected region, 196 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:37,600 unified by trade and by commerce 197 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:42,240 and leadership sort of negotiations. 198 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:46,120 And so by the time we meet some key figures in scripture, 199 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,800 like Abraham, this is an incredibly well-defined 200 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:53,680 and interconnected, developed area, 201 00:09:53,680 --> 00:09:57,000 which is different from how we in 21st America, 202 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,000 21st century America might look at it. 203 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,480 So map two, Brennan. 204 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,560 Today we're gonna start with Abraham, 205 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:07,520 Abram and Sarai at the beginning of the Israelite nation. 206 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,280 They would have lived far over on the right. 207 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:13,120 So Brennan, next map. 208 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,280 I'm totally being like a professor right now. 209 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,920 All I need is like a laser pointer. 210 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:20,680 We're starting like in that circle, 211 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:25,240 but even a little bit on the farthest eastern region of it. 212 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:26,280 Does everybody feel comfortable 213 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:27,280 with their cardinal directions? 214 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,400 Do we need a review of course? 215 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:32,080 Anyway, I'm the person that gives directions 216 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:36,920 and like go north and then Bradley's like, no, thank you. 217 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:38,240 Turn at the red house. 218 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,120 So Abram and Sarai at the beginning, 219 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,000 they are the start of the Israelite nation. 220 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,440 This is who God makes his promise with, his covenant with. 221 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:51,800 We don't begin in Israel because it didn't exist. 222 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:53,000 Where we tend to think much 223 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:54,880 of the Bible narrative takes place. 224 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,800 They began far east in what is known as the Fertile Crescent. 225 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,520 Anybody remember studying Mesopotamia? 226 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:07,120 Yes, I had to make a salt relief map of it once. 227 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:09,920 The map was awesome, but I left it to the night before. 228 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:11,960 That did not go well with my mom. 229 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,600 So I wish I still had it. 230 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:16,060 It was kind of glorious. 231 00:11:16,060 --> 00:11:20,420 But Mesopotamia is the land between two rivers. 232 00:11:21,540 --> 00:11:23,540 This is the region we're in. 233 00:11:23,540 --> 00:11:26,740 And so there was actually a lot happening there. 234 00:11:26,740 --> 00:11:30,460 Abram had a whole like community unto himself 235 00:11:30,460 --> 00:11:33,260 of like people and people and people and people and servants 236 00:11:33,260 --> 00:11:36,100 and family and animals and farm, like all of this stuff. 237 00:11:36,100 --> 00:11:38,780 And so it was a very well populated area 238 00:11:38,780 --> 00:11:43,780 and is a seed to what is gonna be highly significant 239 00:11:43,780 --> 00:11:48,780 later on, even though the Bible shifts locational attention, 240 00:11:49,420 --> 00:11:51,660 we need to keep our attention on this area. 241 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,960 We might think that that area is a desert, 242 00:11:56,900 --> 00:11:59,460 but there was a lot happening. 243 00:11:59,460 --> 00:12:03,900 And so we're gonna meet Abram and Sarai in Genesis 11. 244 00:12:03,900 --> 00:12:06,100 And so this is the account of Terah's family line. 245 00:12:06,100 --> 00:12:09,700 Terah became the father of Abram, Naur and Haran. 246 00:12:09,700 --> 00:12:14,580 And Haran became the father of Lot and so on and so forth. 247 00:12:14,580 --> 00:12:17,980 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot of Haran 248 00:12:17,980 --> 00:12:20,660 and his daughter in-law Sarai, and they all went together. 249 00:12:20,660 --> 00:12:24,060 They set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. 250 00:12:24,060 --> 00:12:26,580 So they set out from that far east. 251 00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:27,740 Now let me give you a perspective. 252 00:12:27,740 --> 00:12:31,700 That far corner to the ocean there is 700 miles. 253 00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:34,160 So it's not like it's like a little hike. 254 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:37,180 Like they were, you're packing up and going forever. 255 00:12:37,180 --> 00:12:42,180 So while in Haran, so Brandon go to the next map. 256 00:12:42,420 --> 00:12:46,140 So while in Haran at the top, they travel up there. 257 00:12:46,140 --> 00:12:48,060 God speaks to Abram and says, 258 00:12:49,900 --> 00:12:51,900 he says, I will make you into a great nation 259 00:12:51,900 --> 00:12:56,600 and I will bless you, go out from this land 260 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:57,980 and go down to Canaan. 261 00:12:57,980 --> 00:13:00,980 So they go forth to the spot that God says go 262 00:13:00,980 --> 00:13:03,780 and then he goes, and now we're gonna go to another spot. 263 00:13:03,780 --> 00:13:07,380 Now there was already people there. 264 00:13:07,380 --> 00:13:08,660 There was a lot of people there. 265 00:13:08,660 --> 00:13:10,340 The Canaanites, you've heard of them 266 00:13:10,340 --> 00:13:12,100 because the Bible talks about them a lot. 267 00:13:12,100 --> 00:13:13,660 Have you spent time getting to know them? 268 00:13:13,660 --> 00:13:15,360 They inhabited this land. 269 00:13:16,460 --> 00:13:17,380 People already lived there 270 00:13:17,380 --> 00:13:20,020 and God was like, go live with them. 271 00:13:20,020 --> 00:13:24,860 There was a famine, Abram and Sarai have to go down to Egypt. 272 00:13:24,860 --> 00:13:27,940 This begins the biblical understanding 273 00:13:27,940 --> 00:13:32,060 of how often the people in this region 274 00:13:32,060 --> 00:13:33,300 cooperate with each other. 275 00:13:33,300 --> 00:13:35,180 So often there are famines. 276 00:13:35,180 --> 00:13:37,180 Joseph, there was a famine with Jacob's family. 277 00:13:37,180 --> 00:13:38,340 They had to go to Egypt. 278 00:13:38,340 --> 00:13:40,620 Something goes wrong, they go to Egypt. 279 00:13:40,620 --> 00:13:43,760 Joseph and Mary wanna flee their local government, 280 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:44,980 they go to Egypt. 281 00:13:44,980 --> 00:13:47,060 Egypt is the place you go. 282 00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:49,220 It was rich, it was resourced, 283 00:13:49,220 --> 00:13:51,620 it had leadership that had already been there 284 00:13:51,620 --> 00:13:54,580 for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. 285 00:13:54,580 --> 00:13:57,540 Egypt, let's move on to that. 286 00:13:57,540 --> 00:13:59,060 When we talk about Egypt, go ahead, yep. 287 00:13:59,060 --> 00:14:00,820 Great, Brennan, nice. 288 00:14:00,820 --> 00:14:04,300 It's probably a bigger idea than you even thought it was. 289 00:14:04,300 --> 00:14:06,500 Egypt, we think of it as sort of like 290 00:14:06,500 --> 00:14:08,520 contained to this little area. 291 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:09,940 It is actually pretty broad. 292 00:14:09,940 --> 00:14:13,560 So you didn't have to go far to get to Egypt. 293 00:14:14,860 --> 00:14:16,860 And when we think about Egypt, what do we do? 294 00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:18,240 We reduce it, don't we? 295 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,320 We reduce it down to an idea of Cairo and the pyramids. 296 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,020 But there's so much more to it. 297 00:14:25,020 --> 00:14:27,320 So when we hear Egypt and we're reading scripture, 298 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:31,220 we're like, oh, they went to where the pyramids are. 299 00:14:31,220 --> 00:14:32,060 No. 300 00:14:32,060 --> 00:14:36,420 The Nile River Valley was replete with kingdoms 301 00:14:36,420 --> 00:14:38,620 and the history of the kings there 302 00:14:38,620 --> 00:14:40,620 and the dynasties that existed. 303 00:14:40,620 --> 00:14:45,580 There were 30 dynasties of the Egyptian lineage. 304 00:14:45,580 --> 00:14:50,260 And we're in the 12th one by the time Abraham shows up here. 305 00:14:50,260 --> 00:14:52,840 So this is a large, large area. 306 00:14:54,580 --> 00:14:56,140 I just skipped a lot in my message 307 00:14:56,140 --> 00:14:59,260 because I'm just sort of like, guys, I told you maps. 308 00:14:59,260 --> 00:15:01,820 I get real excited about them. 309 00:15:01,820 --> 00:15:04,320 So we see a lot happening in Egypt. 310 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:06,420 Now over time, we also, as I said, 311 00:15:06,420 --> 00:15:10,740 we meet Joseph who gets captured, taken to Egypt. 312 00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:12,600 He lives there after Jacob comes there 313 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:14,440 because there's a famine, you go to Egypt. 314 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:16,060 That's the safe place to go. 315 00:15:16,060 --> 00:15:18,360 That's the resource place to go. 316 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,620 400 years later, we find that the community 317 00:15:21,620 --> 00:15:24,060 that was started by Abraham, covenant with God, 318 00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,540 the Israelites, they're now enslaved there. 319 00:15:26,540 --> 00:15:29,220 They've become the inferior community 320 00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:30,820 and they are now the slaves. 321 00:15:30,820 --> 00:15:32,620 They are the lowest rung. 322 00:15:32,620 --> 00:15:36,080 And so this is when Moses is like, look, we gotta get out. 323 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:37,700 God promised us a land. 324 00:15:37,700 --> 00:15:38,700 I don't even know it. 325 00:15:38,700 --> 00:15:42,620 I'm Egyptian really by culture and by life. 326 00:15:42,620 --> 00:15:43,980 But God promised us a land. 327 00:15:43,980 --> 00:15:45,020 We need to go north. 328 00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:46,740 We need to go far to the north. 329 00:15:46,740 --> 00:15:48,500 It's like if we were to go to Canada, 330 00:15:48,500 --> 00:15:50,500 which is home for you guys. 331 00:15:50,500 --> 00:15:51,360 We're the south. 332 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:53,020 We don't think of ourselves that way. 333 00:15:53,020 --> 00:15:54,660 To the Canadians. 334 00:15:54,660 --> 00:15:56,540 So they needed to go north. 335 00:15:56,540 --> 00:16:01,540 And keeping this in mind, when we think about 336 00:16:02,580 --> 00:16:06,340 the Israelites leaving Pharaoh's land 337 00:16:06,340 --> 00:16:08,360 and Moses is leading the charge, 338 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,100 the story of the Red Sea is usually where we think, 339 00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:12,580 oh, they've gotten through the Red Sea. 340 00:16:12,580 --> 00:16:13,840 They've left Egypt. 341 00:16:15,020 --> 00:16:18,020 But they've basically only gone halfway through Egypt. 342 00:16:18,020 --> 00:16:20,220 They still have so much more of Egypt. 343 00:16:20,220 --> 00:16:23,260 They get north of that and they're still in Egypt. 344 00:16:23,260 --> 00:16:28,260 And so that matters because Pharaoh did not pursue 345 00:16:28,700 --> 00:16:31,820 the Israelites even through his own territory 346 00:16:31,820 --> 00:16:34,780 because he understood that God was on their side 347 00:16:34,780 --> 00:16:39,300 and he could not win. 348 00:16:39,300 --> 00:16:43,980 And so that, again, is a significant detail and it matters. 349 00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:48,360 So the Israelites have made it up to their promised land. 350 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:50,200 They're like, we're here now. 351 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:51,300 We've landed. 352 00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:52,680 Good job, guys. 353 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:53,920 We're home free. 354 00:16:55,340 --> 00:16:59,260 However, the Israelites feeling like we wanna be 355 00:16:59,260 --> 00:17:00,220 the big guys too. 356 00:17:00,220 --> 00:17:04,060 We've been sort of put under the foot and the thumb 357 00:17:04,060 --> 00:17:05,940 of all the bigger powers. 358 00:17:05,940 --> 00:17:07,460 We're tired of this. 359 00:17:07,460 --> 00:17:09,160 We wanna play like the Egyptians. 360 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:11,060 We wanna be like the Amorites, the Hittites, 361 00:17:11,060 --> 00:17:12,940 the Canaanites, the Philistines. 362 00:17:12,940 --> 00:17:14,220 They wanted to be cool. 363 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:17,140 So they were like, we need a king. 364 00:17:17,140 --> 00:17:19,820 That's what makes these other nations amazing. 365 00:17:19,820 --> 00:17:23,100 That's probably why we've been oppressed for so long. 366 00:17:23,100 --> 00:17:24,380 We don't have a king. 367 00:17:24,380 --> 00:17:25,320 We need a king. 368 00:17:26,420 --> 00:17:30,300 So in 1 Samuel 10, this is how it goes down. 369 00:17:30,300 --> 00:17:33,780 Them asking for a king was not a good idea. 370 00:17:33,780 --> 00:17:36,480 So Samuel the prophet summoned the people of Israel 371 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:38,740 to the Lord at Mizpah and he said to them, 372 00:17:38,740 --> 00:17:41,260 this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. 373 00:17:41,260 --> 00:17:44,020 I brought Israel up out of Egypt and I delivered you 374 00:17:44,020 --> 00:17:45,820 from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms 375 00:17:45,820 --> 00:17:47,200 that oppressed you. 376 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,220 But you've now rejected your God who saves you 377 00:17:51,220 --> 00:17:53,580 out of all the disasters and calamities. 378 00:17:53,580 --> 00:17:56,920 And you have said, no, appoint a king over us. 379 00:17:57,940 --> 00:18:00,500 So now present yourself before the Lord 380 00:18:00,500 --> 00:18:02,520 by your tribes and your clans. 381 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,700 Chapter 12, 13 says, now here is the king you have chosen. 382 00:18:06,700 --> 00:18:08,060 It's gonna be Saul. 383 00:18:08,060 --> 00:18:10,180 The one you've asked for, see the Lord has set a king 384 00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:11,020 over you. 385 00:18:11,020 --> 00:18:12,720 If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him 386 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:14,340 and do not rebel against his commands, 387 00:18:14,340 --> 00:18:18,340 and if both you and the king who reigns over you 388 00:18:18,340 --> 00:18:22,420 follow the Lord your God, good, great. 389 00:18:22,420 --> 00:18:26,260 The Lord knew that that probably was not gonna be the case, 390 00:18:26,260 --> 00:18:30,120 but he's like, this is the direction you should go. 391 00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:32,400 I advise you stay the course. 392 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,060 But if you do not obey the Lord and if you rebel 393 00:18:35,060 --> 00:18:38,100 against his commands, his hand will be against you 394 00:18:38,100 --> 00:18:39,840 as it was against your ancestors. 395 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,560 The Israelites do realize that they have made an error. 396 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,640 What they've done, they start to regret their choices 397 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:49,800 and they wanna backtrack a little bit, kind of, 398 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:50,640 but they don't. 399 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:53,040 And so what they do as an alternative, 400 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,480 still give us a king, but Samuel, will you pray for us? 401 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,480 Will you pray that we don't fall into dereliction? 402 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:03,120 Will you pray that we follow the commands of God? 403 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:05,240 Samuel does say, look, don't be afraid. 404 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,000 You have done all this evil. 405 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:10,320 God told you not to, you persisted, and he said, 406 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:14,360 okay, you can have what you want. 407 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:16,080 Do not turn away from the Lord, 408 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:17,920 but serve the Lord with all your heart. 409 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:20,760 Do not turn away after useless idols. 410 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:22,240 For the sake of his great name, 411 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:23,960 the Lord will not reject his people 412 00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:26,520 because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. 413 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:28,960 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the 414 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,120 Lord by failing to pray for you. 415 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:31,800 Of course I'm gonna pray for you. 416 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,200 But be sure, he can't say it enough, 417 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,400 be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully 418 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,480 with your whole heart. 419 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:40,760 Consider what great things he has done for you. 420 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:42,600 Yet if you persist in doing evil, 421 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,960 both you and your king will perish. 422 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:49,880 So Saul, then David, and then Solomon, 423 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,440 each ruled for 40 years each. 424 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,840 The Israelites are like, we're doing great, 425 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:56,000 we're doing great. 426 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:02,520 But in 120 years with Solomon's son, the kingdom was split. 427 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:04,000 So Brennan, next map. 428 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,440 This is what the kingdom of Israel looked like 429 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:10,320 as one kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon. 430 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,600 But then going to the next slide, 431 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,440 you'll see what it looks like split. 432 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:22,120 And then from here, their destruction becomes clear. 433 00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:26,640 It splits into the north and the south. 434 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:31,080 So in the north is Israel and in the south is Judah. 435 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,280 This was massively significant. 436 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:38,280 But no nation when split ever is stronger 437 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:39,760 than when it's united. 438 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:42,920 In America, we can equate it to the divisions 439 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,400 that separated the north and the south. 440 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:47,520 The nation of Israel never saw itself 441 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,280 as one true nation after that. 442 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,640 But as factions of a nation that all assumed 443 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:56,120 that they were the right and the true 444 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:58,280 called children of God. 445 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,360 It only divided them. 446 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:01,680 It was never reunited as one. 447 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:04,160 And because of its split, it became weaker 448 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,560 and it was subject to larger entities. 449 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,480 So what follows is the invasion of these kingdoms. 450 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,920 When you read about the invasions of the Assyrians 451 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,720 and the Babylonians and the captivity in the exile, 452 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,400 which is when most of the prophet books take place, 453 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,240 you should know what this looks like. 454 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,360 We think of the Assyrians and the Babylonians as like, 455 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:28,440 there are people from somewhere. 456 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,600 East, I guess. 457 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:33,960 But we've already been to where these Assyrians 458 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:35,520 and Babylonians are. 459 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,560 We have spent time with them when we were in Abram's 460 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,120 home country, homeland. 461 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,840 So like I said, pay attention to what is off screen. 462 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:48,920 Pay attention to what's happening in the background. 463 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,840 Because even though we've moved on to the land 464 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:54,880 that was the kingdom of the Israelites, 465 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:59,880 the things over in Ur of the Chaldeans have not stopped. 466 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,560 And what you have are these growing powers 467 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,880 of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. 468 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,560 And so the Assyrians come, they take the land of the north. 469 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,800 Few hundred years later, the Babylonians come, 470 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:15,560 they take the land of the south. 471 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,400 They take them away in full captivity. 472 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,360 They burn the temple down. 473 00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:25,520 They take all the artifacts that were sacred to the Jews. 474 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:27,200 They take them all with them. 475 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:31,120 And now again, the Israelites are finding themselves 476 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:33,760 under the foot of oppressive leaders, 477 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:35,560 of powers bigger than themselves. 478 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,800 They thought having a king and a kingdom was gonna save them, 479 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:41,520 and it did not. 480 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,120 God is still challenging them. 481 00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:46,920 Be my nation without the borders. 482 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:48,400 Be my community without the borders. 483 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:49,840 I have placed you in a land. 484 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,600 That is important, but it's not the land that makes you, 485 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:54,560 it's not your boundaries that makes you. 486 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,680 I've placed you here as a gift, 487 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,600 as a place to be that's safe and you're provided for. 488 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:05,600 The land does matter, but you are my nation regardless. 489 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,160 Your commands to me matter regardless. 490 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,200 So in 1 Chronicles 5, 491 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,960 this is the taking of the first kingdom. 492 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,280 The people of the half tribe of Manasseh were numerous. 493 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,440 They settled in the land of Bashan to Senir. 494 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,840 These were the heads of their family, 495 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:28,760 but they were unfaithful to the god of their ancestors. 496 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,000 They were unfaithful to the god of their ancestors. 497 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,040 So the god of Israel stirred up the spirit 498 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:35,840 of the king of Assyria, 499 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:38,560 who took the Rubenites, the Gadites, 500 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,280 and the half tribe of Manasseh to exile. 501 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,880 He took them to where they are to this day. 502 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,560 So that's the first exile and the captivity. 503 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,080 Some 200 years later, the same happens to the kingdom of Judah 504 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:51,800 in 2 Kings 24. 505 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,040 During Jehoiakim's reign, Nebuchadnezzar, 506 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:56,600 I think that's a name that probably, 507 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:58,040 it shows up a lot in Sunday school, 508 00:23:58,040 --> 00:23:59,680 so we're a little bit more familiar 509 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:01,480 with the Babylonian exile, 510 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,440 but it is partnered with the Assyrian exile, 511 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:06,120 and that's important. 512 00:24:06,120 --> 00:24:07,760 The king of Babylon invaded the land 513 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,280 and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, 514 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,040 but then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. 515 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:15,640 The lord sent Babylonian Aramaean, Moabite, 516 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,680 and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah. 517 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,200 So people were taken, but not everybody was taken, 518 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,440 but once this guy rebelled, 519 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,080 Nebuchadnezzar was like, all right, you're all going down, 520 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:29,920 and took whatever was remaining. 521 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:33,280 Surely these things happened to Judah 522 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:34,360 according to the lord's command 523 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:36,000 in order to remove them from his presence 524 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,800 because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done. 525 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,040 The king of Egypt, so kind of jumping back 526 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:44,120 to the king of Egypt, 527 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:46,360 did not march out from his own country again 528 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,960 because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory 529 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:50,960 from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River. 530 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,720 So Egypt, big Egypt, is now becoming smaller. 531 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,560 This bigger power is getting bigger and bigger and bigger 532 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,240 and starting to take another power 533 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,800 that felt like they were king of the world. 534 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:05,840 The way I said to Greg earlier, I was like, 535 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,000 it's like the next fish just eats the littler fish. 536 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,960 The next empire just eats the next one. 537 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,320 So please note at this time the Egyptian kingdom 538 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,280 reached as far east as Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 539 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,360 It gives us a sense of how big they got 540 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:23,560 and then how much bigger another group had to be 541 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:24,400 to take them. 542 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,520 So Second Chronicles 36, 543 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,960 Nebuchadnezzar carried to Babylon all the articles 544 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,720 from the temple of God, both large and small, 545 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,040 and the treasures of the lord's temple 546 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,360 and the treasures of the king's and his officials. 547 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:37,000 They set fire to God's temple 548 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,720 and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. 549 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,560 They burned down the wall of Jerusalem. 550 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:41,880 They burned all the palaces 551 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,360 and destroyed everything of value there. 552 00:25:45,360 --> 00:25:47,960 We are leaving nothing for you. 553 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,840 You don't even have a place to come back to. 554 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,560 The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were in captivity 555 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:54,920 for some time. 556 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:59,320 All the while, this eastern power is evolving. 557 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:05,200 So out of Babylon, emerging sort of adjacent to it 558 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,680 is this guy named Cyrus the Great. 559 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:13,680 He's the first guy to gain the title The Great to his name, 560 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,600 which feels silly now to be like Cyrus the Great. 561 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:21,840 But it was a big deal. 562 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,360 He was the first. 563 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:27,440 And he becomes ruler of what is known as, 564 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:28,280 you don't have to remember this, 565 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,280 but it's significant, the Achaemenid Empire. 566 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:32,400 That's the next map. 567 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,200 The Achaemenid Empire, oh, that's the captivity. 568 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,200 I should have gone to that one a while ago. 569 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:39,440 Next one, there we go. 570 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,360 The Achaemenid Empire, to this point, 571 00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:45,520 is the biggest empire that's ever existed. 572 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,560 Remember how I said, keep your eye on the east. 573 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,400 There is something brewing there. 574 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,000 Don't be distracted, pay attention. 575 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,640 This is the largest empire the world had ever seen. 576 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,920 But Cyrus the Great was a bit magnanimous. 577 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,640 He, to the Israelites, seemed like a good guy. 578 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,120 He wasn't, but he was better than the previous guy. 579 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,920 So it says, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, 580 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,120 this is 2 Chronicles 36, 581 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:15,960 in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, 582 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:19,960 the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, 583 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,280 to make a proclamation throughout his realm 584 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,560 and also to put into writing. 585 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,520 This is what Cyrus, the king of Persia, says. 586 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:29,280 The Lord God of heaven has given me 587 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:30,480 all the kingdoms of the earth, 588 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:31,920 and he has appointed me to build a temple 589 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,080 for him at Jerusalem and Judah. 590 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,280 You should know, Judah makes a difference, right? 591 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:38,280 Because now you know that the kingdoms are split. 592 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:41,640 Judah does not mean Israel, it means the southern kingdom. 593 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,120 Any of his people among you may go up, 594 00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:46,880 and may the Lord their God be with them. 595 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:48,160 He's letting them go. 596 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,360 He knows there's nothing to go back to, 597 00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:52,760 but this is a bit token. 598 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:55,000 He sends them back with their artifacts. 599 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,160 He even sends them back with money. 600 00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,560 But they're not going back to the kingdom of Judah. 601 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:00,960 What are they going back to? 602 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:02,840 They're just going further east in the Persian, 603 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:04,920 or further west in the Persian kingdom. 604 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,160 Cyrus owns all of it. 605 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,240 It's his. 606 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,880 They're not going back to a homeland. 607 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,920 They're just going further west in an existing empire. 608 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,440 They're not out from underneath him. 609 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:20,880 But he's been good to them. 610 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,000 And the thing is, Cyrus knows his empire's so big, 611 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:26,000 he doesn't care. 612 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,920 He actually appreciates all these little regional signs 613 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,200 of religiosity, and he's like, oh, that's cute. 614 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:33,840 You should do your thing again. 615 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:34,920 That's pretty cute. 616 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:37,040 So I'll set you up. 617 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,160 It's like cute little local folklore. 618 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,080 So yeah, sure, go ahead. 619 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,960 And so he sends them back with that. 620 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,560 And they're like, wow, that feels good. 621 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:51,920 That's the best we've had in a long time. 622 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,320 So over the next few hundred years, 623 00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,800 Nehemiah asks if he can rebuild the temple. 624 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:01,520 The prophets are speaking to Israel. 625 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,720 They're trying so desperately to get them to come back 626 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:08,720 to God and to remember the God of their ancestors. 627 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,920 This is about where we end the written Old Testament. 628 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,280 What happens in between in, and I'm not gonna do a ton 629 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:20,960 in the New Testament if you're like, oh my gosh, 630 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,080 are we just getting to the end of that? 631 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,520 And we have another testament to go. 632 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:26,920 I'm not gonna do what I just did 633 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:28,880 to set up the New Testament. 634 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,200 But the Old Testament writing ends, 635 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,440 but there's something called the intertestamental period. 636 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,160 And what happens in there is important. 637 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,000 The Persians continue to pick battles 638 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,280 with these other regional entities, 639 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,840 most notably this little Western Greek community 640 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:44,480 called the Spartans. 641 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,320 If you're familiar with the story of the 300, 642 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,320 the Spartans took on Xerxes. 643 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,360 This is the Persian kingdom that they took on. 644 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,760 But the Persians are threatened by no one 645 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,160 until a power comes out of all places, 646 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,640 Macedonia, north of Greece. 647 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:05,640 And while the scriptures keep our eyes focused on one place, 648 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:08,720 there is always something happening somewhere else 649 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:10,280 that we should keep our eyes on, right? 650 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,920 Nothing ever just pops up out of nowhere. 651 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,160 Something is always brewing. 652 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,600 And so while the Persians are sometimes taking on 653 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,200 these little regional tussles with the Spartans 654 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,160 and the Athenians and the Corinthians, 655 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:27,680 the north, as Daniel puts it, comes sweeping down. 656 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,320 The Book of Daniel does talk about Alexander the Great. 657 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,800 And Alexander the Great is noted as sweeping down 658 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:35,640 from the north. 659 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,960 So next map is Alexander the Great's empire. 660 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:41,880 Huge compared to the Persians. 661 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:43,520 He ate them up. 662 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:46,380 He's entirely swallowed them. 663 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,600 And what he did was really, really important. 664 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:54,320 He unified the known world under one common language 665 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,680 of Greek while maintaining regional languages. 666 00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:59,920 He created a Greek world, 667 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:02,120 which we know is the Hellenistic time period. 668 00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,200 And this is the world that creates the bedrock 669 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,960 of the New Testament that we walk into. 670 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,000 All the territory you see here 671 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,040 was ruled by Greek Macedonians. 672 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,960 So the name Cleopatra, everybody knows that name. 673 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,700 She ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. 674 00:31:19,700 --> 00:31:21,440 She wasn't Egyptian. 675 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,460 She was Macedonian. 676 00:31:23,460 --> 00:31:26,320 This whole region is run by people 677 00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:27,960 out of Macedonia and Greek. 678 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,040 That makes a difference in how you unify 679 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,440 and construct an area. 680 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:39,360 Alexander set up a full infrastructure, a full, 681 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:41,240 I mean imagine that as the United States. 682 00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:43,200 Like that's the concept here. 683 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,440 Common language, regional differences 684 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,680 that you're allowed to keep, he encouraged that, 685 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,060 but highly interconnected. 686 00:31:50,060 --> 00:31:55,060 Now, one more entity that we haven't paid attention to 687 00:31:56,780 --> 00:32:00,580 coming from the West is a little group 688 00:32:00,580 --> 00:32:02,100 in a town called Rome. 689 00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:07,720 You might have heard of them, the Romans. 690 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,020 We have not been paying attention to them. 691 00:32:10,020 --> 00:32:14,500 In fact, nobody has been, which is problematic 692 00:32:14,500 --> 00:32:18,180 because if you go to the next map, 693 00:32:18,180 --> 00:32:20,940 Rome has all of it. 694 00:32:22,260 --> 00:32:25,460 But the world that Rome took, Rome had been 695 00:32:25,460 --> 00:32:28,540 a small, quiet kingdom that developed into a republic 696 00:32:28,540 --> 00:32:32,380 and stayed that way in their own lane for about 500 years 697 00:32:32,380 --> 00:32:35,420 until the time of Julius Caesar, another name we know. 698 00:32:35,420 --> 00:32:36,740 Do we know where he fits in history? 699 00:32:36,740 --> 00:32:37,560 Here. 700 00:32:38,380 --> 00:32:40,780 At his death, his son took leadership and decided, 701 00:32:40,780 --> 00:32:42,380 you know what, we're no longer a republic. 702 00:32:42,380 --> 00:32:43,540 We're an empire. 703 00:32:43,540 --> 00:32:44,820 That's what we're doing now. 704 00:32:44,820 --> 00:32:47,140 We take all of it, and he did. 705 00:32:47,140 --> 00:32:51,220 Alexander's world was left fragmented after his death. 706 00:32:51,220 --> 00:32:54,140 Remember, a fragmented world is gonna be weaker 707 00:32:54,140 --> 00:32:56,140 than a unified one, right? 708 00:32:56,140 --> 00:32:59,780 All these powers fought for territory after Alexander died. 709 00:32:59,780 --> 00:33:01,280 It worked to Rome's benefit. 710 00:33:02,420 --> 00:33:06,140 So Rome was growing as this unified power into a world 711 00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:09,260 that had existing landmass, but it was an existing 712 00:33:09,260 --> 00:33:12,740 infrastructure and an existing united language. 713 00:33:12,740 --> 00:33:14,500 But it was fragile. 714 00:33:14,500 --> 00:33:16,980 They were easy to overtake. 715 00:33:16,980 --> 00:33:20,580 Had Alexander not established a unified everything, 716 00:33:20,580 --> 00:33:22,020 Rome would have had a harder time, 717 00:33:22,020 --> 00:33:24,580 but the groundwork had been done. 718 00:33:24,580 --> 00:33:28,380 And it wasn't just done by Alexander or the Persians 719 00:33:28,380 --> 00:33:33,060 or Israel or the Egyptians or, or, like it had all built 720 00:33:33,060 --> 00:33:35,260 on top of each other. 721 00:33:35,260 --> 00:33:37,860 So by the time we meet the apostle Paul, 722 00:33:37,860 --> 00:33:42,860 who carries the message of Jesus to the entire known world, 723 00:33:42,860 --> 00:33:47,860 next slide, this is the Roman Empire. 724 00:33:48,780 --> 00:33:51,460 It is ready for the gospel. 725 00:33:51,460 --> 00:33:54,660 It's entirely ready, because everything has been 726 00:33:54,660 --> 00:33:59,420 completely brought under one, one collective, 727 00:33:59,420 --> 00:34:01,860 interconnected community. 728 00:34:01,860 --> 00:34:05,980 And it sets Paul up to be the citizen that he is. 729 00:34:05,980 --> 00:34:08,180 So in Acts 22, I promise I'm almost done, 730 00:34:09,740 --> 00:34:10,980 Paul speaks to the crowd. 731 00:34:10,980 --> 00:34:15,580 He is arrested, but he's got some things up his sleeve 732 00:34:15,580 --> 00:34:18,540 for the centurions and crowds that have developed. 733 00:34:18,540 --> 00:34:23,260 So he says to the centurion, can I address the crowd? 734 00:34:24,780 --> 00:34:26,780 He says this to the commander. 735 00:34:26,780 --> 00:34:29,820 And so the guy goes, do you speak Greek? 736 00:34:31,580 --> 00:34:35,540 I do, because that's the world I live in. 737 00:34:35,540 --> 00:34:37,980 And he goes, aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt 738 00:34:37,980 --> 00:34:40,540 and led 4,000 terrorists out into the wilderness 739 00:34:40,540 --> 00:34:42,380 some time ago? 740 00:34:42,380 --> 00:34:45,580 So Paul decides, he's like, I'm gonna take this up a notch. 741 00:34:45,580 --> 00:34:47,820 I'm gonna flex a little bit. 742 00:34:47,820 --> 00:34:50,860 I'm gonna speak in Aramaic, which is a local 743 00:34:50,860 --> 00:34:54,260 or a regional Syrian, it's a Semitic language 744 00:34:54,260 --> 00:34:56,540 with Syrian dialect, which was used as kind of 745 00:34:56,540 --> 00:35:00,740 a common language in a region that Paul was born into. 746 00:35:00,740 --> 00:35:04,180 So again, the preservation of the regional dialects 747 00:35:04,180 --> 00:35:09,180 with a full common, sort of like a national language, 748 00:35:09,180 --> 00:35:12,540 shows up as really, really valuable here. 749 00:35:13,780 --> 00:35:18,780 So Paul said, I'm a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, 750 00:35:20,340 --> 00:35:23,580 which is southern Turkey, which has been completely 751 00:35:23,580 --> 00:35:27,140 taken in by this empire, the empire's previous, 752 00:35:28,100 --> 00:35:30,340 brought up in this city in Jerusalem. 753 00:35:30,340 --> 00:35:34,140 Do you see how all these things that had happened before 754 00:35:34,140 --> 00:35:37,420 and the way the land had shifted, the people groups, 755 00:35:37,420 --> 00:35:40,940 the conquest had set Paul up in this unique way 756 00:35:40,940 --> 00:35:41,900 in this moment? 757 00:35:43,020 --> 00:35:46,700 I was brought up in this city in Jerusalem. 758 00:35:46,700 --> 00:35:49,140 I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained 759 00:35:49,140 --> 00:35:50,980 in our law of ancestors. 760 00:35:50,980 --> 00:35:54,220 I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 761 00:35:54,220 --> 00:35:56,260 I persecuted the followers of the way to their death, 762 00:35:56,260 --> 00:35:58,820 arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison 763 00:35:58,820 --> 00:36:00,340 as the high priest and all the council 764 00:36:00,340 --> 00:36:03,020 can themselves testify. 765 00:36:03,020 --> 00:36:05,500 I even obtained letters from them to their associates 766 00:36:05,500 --> 00:36:07,660 in Damascus, which is in Syria, 767 00:36:08,580 --> 00:36:11,260 and went there, he's been to Syria, 768 00:36:11,260 --> 00:36:13,420 to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem 769 00:36:13,420 --> 00:36:14,340 to be punished. 770 00:36:16,420 --> 00:36:18,380 And then he testifies about his experience 771 00:36:18,380 --> 00:36:19,500 on the Damascus road. 772 00:36:19,500 --> 00:36:21,540 When God revealed himself to him, 773 00:36:21,540 --> 00:36:23,180 the scales fell from his eyes, 774 00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:26,780 he saw that Jesus is the true way, 775 00:36:26,780 --> 00:36:30,700 and he tells of this whole experience in this moment. 776 00:36:30,700 --> 00:36:33,060 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. 777 00:36:33,060 --> 00:36:34,700 Then they raised their voices and shouted, 778 00:36:34,700 --> 00:36:37,540 rid the earth of him, he's not fit to live. 779 00:36:37,540 --> 00:36:38,700 It's a little dramatic. 780 00:36:39,780 --> 00:36:42,060 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks 781 00:36:42,060 --> 00:36:44,660 and flinging dust into the air, 782 00:36:44,660 --> 00:36:48,580 the commander ordered that Paul be taken to the barracks 783 00:36:48,580 --> 00:36:50,780 and that he be flogged and interrogated 784 00:36:50,780 --> 00:36:52,220 in order to find out why the people 785 00:36:52,220 --> 00:36:54,500 were shouting at him like this. 786 00:36:54,500 --> 00:36:55,860 As they stretched him out to flog him, 787 00:36:55,860 --> 00:36:58,860 Paul said to the centurion standing there, 788 00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:01,820 is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen 789 00:37:01,820 --> 00:37:05,340 who hasn't been found guilty? 790 00:37:05,340 --> 00:37:07,100 Listen to the centurion's response. 791 00:37:08,100 --> 00:37:08,980 He was terrified. 792 00:37:08,980 --> 00:37:10,700 He heard this and he went to the commander 793 00:37:10,700 --> 00:37:11,540 and he reported it. 794 00:37:11,540 --> 00:37:12,380 What are you gonna do? 795 00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:13,780 This man is a Roman citizen. 796 00:37:13,780 --> 00:37:17,180 It was illegal to flog a Roman citizen. 797 00:37:19,220 --> 00:37:21,180 He said, yes, I am a citizen. 798 00:37:22,060 --> 00:37:25,540 The commander said, I had to pay a lot of money 799 00:37:25,540 --> 00:37:27,740 for my citizenship. 800 00:37:27,740 --> 00:37:31,980 And Paul says, I was born a citizen. 801 00:37:31,980 --> 00:37:33,420 I love that. 802 00:37:33,420 --> 00:37:37,380 And he outranks the centurion because of this. 803 00:37:38,260 --> 00:37:41,860 As a natural born Roman citizen who speaks Greek 804 00:37:41,860 --> 00:37:44,260 but also knows the regional language of Aramaic, 805 00:37:44,260 --> 00:37:45,580 happened to live in Jerusalem 806 00:37:45,580 --> 00:37:47,860 because all these areas are interconnected 807 00:37:47,860 --> 00:37:50,260 and by the way also had connections to Damascus. 808 00:37:52,580 --> 00:37:54,020 Those who were about to interrogate him 809 00:37:54,020 --> 00:37:54,900 withdrew immediately. 810 00:37:54,900 --> 00:37:56,700 The commander himself was alarmed 811 00:37:56,700 --> 00:37:58,460 when he realized that he had put Paul, 812 00:37:58,460 --> 00:38:00,260 a Roman citizen in chains. 813 00:38:00,260 --> 00:38:02,020 He could have gotten in big trouble. 814 00:38:04,700 --> 00:38:06,740 The world that Paul was born into 815 00:38:06,740 --> 00:38:09,940 was ripe for the spread of the gospel 816 00:38:09,940 --> 00:38:12,420 and it was ripe for Paul to do it 817 00:38:12,420 --> 00:38:14,580 because of all these things. 818 00:38:15,420 --> 00:38:19,180 It wasn't just on the day Paul decided to listen to God 819 00:38:19,180 --> 00:38:20,740 and say, yes, I'll go forth. 820 00:38:20,740 --> 00:38:21,620 Well, you're equipped. 821 00:38:21,620 --> 00:38:22,700 Right, fine. 822 00:38:22,700 --> 00:38:24,420 It wasn't just what happened that day. 823 00:38:24,420 --> 00:38:27,780 It is what had been happening in the land 824 00:38:27,780 --> 00:38:31,500 for thousands of years before that. 825 00:38:31,500 --> 00:38:36,500 And knowing that makes what he is saying so much more rich 826 00:38:36,900 --> 00:38:39,660 and gives it the depth and understanding 827 00:38:39,660 --> 00:38:43,380 of how perfect the timing was that God chose then. 828 00:38:45,780 --> 00:38:49,100 I am entirely aware that this was a very academic overview 829 00:38:49,100 --> 00:38:49,940 of the world. 830 00:38:49,940 --> 00:38:52,340 Let's give Brendan a hand too for running with the mats 831 00:38:52,340 --> 00:38:57,340 by the way. 832 00:38:57,460 --> 00:38:59,060 It largely got us to the New Testament, 833 00:38:59,060 --> 00:39:01,300 but where progressions, the migrations, 834 00:39:01,300 --> 00:39:02,660 the movement over the map, 835 00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:07,180 where these things happened and how is significant. 836 00:39:07,180 --> 00:39:08,820 And it's seen as a progression. 837 00:39:08,820 --> 00:39:10,820 It provides insight into what we read 838 00:39:10,820 --> 00:39:12,660 and how we learn scripture. 839 00:39:12,660 --> 00:39:16,300 These stories, they are not isolated 840 00:39:16,300 --> 00:39:17,820 and they are not single shot events. 841 00:39:17,820 --> 00:39:20,820 They are results from the things that came before. 842 00:39:20,820 --> 00:39:24,460 And every time the Bible mentions a place, it matters. 843 00:39:24,460 --> 00:39:26,420 It matters. 844 00:39:26,420 --> 00:39:29,020 And so I encourage you, when you read of a place, 845 00:39:29,020 --> 00:39:32,820 if there's a detail, get a map out, be the nerd, 846 00:39:32,820 --> 00:39:35,540 get a map out, Google Earth it. 847 00:39:35,540 --> 00:39:36,740 That's super fun. 848 00:39:36,740 --> 00:39:37,980 I love Google Earth. 849 00:39:39,260 --> 00:39:41,180 You can even like walk ancient ruins. 850 00:39:41,180 --> 00:39:43,060 Like you can go to Corinth, you can go to Damascus, 851 00:39:43,060 --> 00:39:44,020 you can go to Persepolis, 852 00:39:44,020 --> 00:39:46,180 you can go to these places on Google Earth. 853 00:39:48,340 --> 00:39:50,220 And so all these internal references, 854 00:39:50,220 --> 00:39:53,460 be curious, guys, be curious about scripture. 855 00:39:53,460 --> 00:39:54,460 When things show up and you're like, 856 00:39:54,460 --> 00:39:56,060 oh, I wonder where that is. 857 00:39:56,060 --> 00:39:58,140 Stop and look it up. 858 00:39:59,020 --> 00:40:01,420 I took, quickly, I took a friend back to New York 859 00:40:01,420 --> 00:40:03,300 with me a number of years ago and when we got back, 860 00:40:03,300 --> 00:40:06,300 she said, I feel like I understand you better. 861 00:40:06,300 --> 00:40:09,500 Having seen the land that I grew up in, 862 00:40:09,500 --> 00:40:12,260 the place, the town, the community, 863 00:40:12,260 --> 00:40:16,580 experiencing the place informs the story. 864 00:40:16,580 --> 00:40:17,940 So as you engage with scripture, 865 00:40:17,940 --> 00:40:21,020 please let curiosity guide you. 866 00:40:21,020 --> 00:40:25,020 Be open to where you are. 867 00:40:26,060 --> 00:40:27,500 Even like do some side like, 868 00:40:27,500 --> 00:40:28,980 okay, what year did this happen? 869 00:40:28,980 --> 00:40:30,100 What's happening somewhere else? 870 00:40:30,100 --> 00:40:32,340 Because remember, things are always brewing somewhere else. 871 00:40:32,340 --> 00:40:35,820 This little Roman Empire decides to take over everything 872 00:40:35,820 --> 00:40:37,540 because nobody was paying attention to them. 873 00:40:37,540 --> 00:40:38,380 Things like that. 874 00:40:38,380 --> 00:40:40,540 So anyway, be curious as you read scripture. 875 00:40:40,540 --> 00:40:42,020 It is full of so many fun things 876 00:40:42,020 --> 00:40:43,580 and over the next few weeks, 877 00:40:43,580 --> 00:40:45,940 we are gonna be going to some of these places 878 00:40:45,940 --> 00:40:49,020 and hearing stories about how important the where is. 879 00:40:49,020 --> 00:40:49,860 Let's pray. 880 00:40:50,700 --> 00:40:52,500 God, I just pray that you keep us curious, 881 00:40:52,500 --> 00:40:54,020 that you keep us interested in that 882 00:40:54,020 --> 00:40:57,260 as we're reading scripture, things would jump out to us 883 00:40:57,260 --> 00:40:58,980 and we would be, we would think, 884 00:40:58,980 --> 00:41:01,900 oh, I should go look up where that is. 885 00:41:01,900 --> 00:41:03,300 I should follow that bunny trail. 886 00:41:03,300 --> 00:41:05,500 I should see who else was here. 887 00:41:05,500 --> 00:41:07,020 I should check that out. 888 00:41:07,020 --> 00:41:10,580 And so, yeah, give us that curiosity and that energy 889 00:41:10,580 --> 00:41:14,060 to go seeking, to seek more out of your word 890 00:41:14,060 --> 00:41:16,580 because it's there, it is absolutely there 891 00:41:16,580 --> 00:41:17,780 and ripe for the picking. 892 00:41:18,660 --> 00:41:19,500 But we need your help. 893 00:41:19,500 --> 00:41:21,580 We need your help with that kind of curious energy. 894 00:41:21,580 --> 00:41:26,580 We don't chase our curiosity, especially the way kids do. 895 00:41:26,860 --> 00:41:30,300 And so there's a lot to be learned from their example. 896 00:41:31,180 --> 00:41:33,100 But God bless us as we read your word 897 00:41:33,100 --> 00:41:35,220 and make it alive to us in new ways 898 00:41:35,220 --> 00:41:37,220 as we continue to follow you. 899 00:41:37,220 --> 00:41:44,220 We pray this in your name, amen.