1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,080 Welcome to the Love and Context podcast, engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts, 2 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,320 Ben and Spencer. 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,420 Whether you're tuning in from your car, your office, your home, or anywhere in between, 4 00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:15,140 we are so happy to have you join us today. 5 00:00:15,140 --> 00:00:21,040 Our mission is simple, to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love. 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:26,200 Together we'll uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,560 God and love the people in our everyday lives. 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:34,840 So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom that 9 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:39,680 is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,920 Without further ado, let's dive right in. 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:45,760 Welcome to the Love and Context podcast. 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:46,760 Podcast. 13 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,280 With Ben, who I am not. 14 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:50,800 And Spencer, who I am not. 15 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,280 That is the intro for today. 16 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:53,560 Yeah, that was good. 17 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:55,000 Welcome, welcome, welcome. 18 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:56,080 Super excited you're here. 19 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,900 So we have started, last week we started talking about the book of numbers. 20 00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:01,880 If you have not read that, go read that. 21 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,120 We're like eight and six, seven, five, three, zero, nine. 22 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:06,120 They were all there. 23 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:14,200 Now I'm not talking about, don't just go find a book that has every number listed numerically. 24 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:15,400 Can such a book exist? 25 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:17,200 Because numbers are technically infinite. 26 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:18,200 I know. 27 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:19,200 I know, right? 28 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,680 I wonder how much money you could make selling a book like that. 29 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:23,680 Not much. 30 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:24,680 I was just curious. 31 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:26,280 You want me to put a number on it? 32 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:29,760 Yeah, you were just making fun of my ADHD and I was like, ah. 33 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:31,240 It's like I'm just going to dive right into it. 34 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:32,240 Just going to dive right in there. 35 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,120 All right, so we're going to be in numbers five through seven today. 36 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,360 If you have not read those chapters, go read those chapters specifically. 37 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:44,760 And just to kind of recap a little bit, just really briefly, numbers has a lot of really 38 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:45,760 tough stories. 39 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:51,640 And so you got to understand that we are going to be talking about some tough things throughout 40 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:53,240 this series. 41 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,720 And if you remember, our main takeaway in the book of numbers is this book is about 42 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:58,120 making sure that people count. 43 00:01:58,120 --> 00:01:59,120 Yes. 44 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:00,120 That they're remembered. 45 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:01,120 Yes. 46 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:02,120 That they're not marginalized. 47 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:05,360 We see that with the daughters at the end of the book of numbers, that they are not forgotten. 48 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:06,760 Their legacy is not misplaced. 49 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,560 There's going to be three major points in today's episode that we want to talk about 50 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:12,040 in five through seven. 51 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,000 There's this conversation about the test for the unfaithful wife. 52 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,680 And I want to include this because I feel like this is one that people wildly misinterpret. 53 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:20,680 Yes. 54 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:21,680 Yeah. 55 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:22,680 Yes. 56 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:24,120 And then the last thing we're going to talk about is a Nazirite vow. 57 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,200 And we're going to talk about some things having to do with later on in the books of 58 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,000 the Bible, in the book of Judges, there's going to be a guy by the name of Samson who 59 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,000 takes a Nazirite vow. 60 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Yeah. 61 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,720 And then the last thing we want to talk about is the Aaronic blessing, because I think that 62 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:37,520 we need to talk about how we need this more in our churches. 63 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:38,520 Yeah. 64 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:42,200 Without further ado, let's talk about unfaithful women. 65 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,880 Who is more qualified to talk about that to guy? 66 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:49,160 I don't think that there is anybody in the world more qualified than you or I to talk 67 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,280 about the plight of unfaithful women. 68 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:52,280 Nope. 69 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:53,280 No. 70 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:54,400 No person more qualified. 71 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:55,520 So let's just take a look. 72 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:57,080 I want to read this really quick here. 73 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,300 It is in Numbers five. 74 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:03,520 So we're going to start this in Numbers five verse 11. 75 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:08,640 And the Lord said to Moses, give the following instructions to the people of Israel. 76 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:14,680 Suppose a man's wife has gone astray and she is unfaithful to her husband and has sex with 77 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:16,080 another man. 78 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:21,540 But neither her or neither her husband nor anyone else knows about it. 79 00:03:21,540 --> 00:03:28,000 She has defiled herself even though there is no witness and she was not caught in the 80 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:29,000 act. 81 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Okay. 82 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Let's pause there real quick. 83 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,920 But you might ask, you're like, okay, what does it matter if it was caught or not? 84 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:36,600 Because there's specific laws if you're actually caught cheating. 85 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,200 We've already talked about those in Leviticus in order to maintain relationship with people 86 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:41,760 inside of the community, right? 87 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,400 In order to like look different than the rest of the world. 88 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,960 So this is specifically if you are sneaking around and nobody knows what happened. 89 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:52,920 You know the whole thing about like everybody's a saint while people are watching. 90 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:53,920 Yeah. 91 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:55,760 What you do behind closed doors matters. 92 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:56,760 Absolutely. 93 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,040 This law is actually stipulating that that what you do behind closed doors, whether or 94 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:02,360 not people see you do it or not matters. 95 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:03,360 Yeah. 96 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:10,240 Picking up in verse 14, if her husband becomes jealous and is suspicious of his wife and 97 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:15,320 needs to know whether or not she has to file herself, the husband must bring his wife to 98 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:16,520 the priest. 99 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:22,700 He must also bring an offering of two quarts of barley flour to be presented on her behalf. 100 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:29,480 Do not mix it with olive oil or fraconsense for it is a jealousy offering, an offering 101 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:32,280 to prove whether or not she is guilty. 102 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:33,280 Okay. 103 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:34,800 Let's pause there again. 104 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:39,200 You hear that and you're like, oh man, this is really, this is really tilted against women. 105 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:40,200 Here's the issue. 106 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,520 Once again, we want to look at context of the cultures. 107 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,400 If a man suspected his wife of infidelity, he could just divorce her or kill her in a 108 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:50,040 lot of cultures because women were not valued for what they're actually worth. 109 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:51,040 Yeah. 110 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,640 We were speaking about a patriarchal society where you're valued for what you can produce, 111 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,320 not because of the nature of whose image you're made in. 112 00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:00,040 But what is happening here is God says you can't do that. 113 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,560 You can't just willy nilly and be the side, I don't want to be married anymore. 114 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:05,880 Or she definitely quote unquote cheated on me. 115 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:06,880 She's no longer my wife. 116 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:11,080 You can't just cut people off and make and take away every protection that they have 117 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,120 in society on your whims. 118 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:20,320 So you have to actually bring it to a priest, which is a significant step. 119 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,360 You have to involve a priest, which is a big deal. 120 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:26,280 It doesn't sound like a big deal because everybody's like, oh, there's pastors and priests all 121 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:27,280 over. 122 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:30,000 In this society, it's a big deal because you're bringing for an offering. 123 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,760 Not only that, you have to actually bring the offering for jealousy to actually bring 124 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:34,760 this accusation. 125 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:35,940 What's that going to do right away? 126 00:05:35,940 --> 00:05:40,080 It's going to cut down on a lot of frivolous accusations. 127 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:45,180 So go back and listen to one of our episodes in Exodus and it talks about the importance 128 00:05:45,180 --> 00:05:46,180 of being a priest. 129 00:05:46,180 --> 00:05:49,620 It was a sought after, it was a royal position. 130 00:05:49,620 --> 00:05:53,740 So to put this in context, it's not like, oh, bring them before your pastor. 131 00:05:53,740 --> 00:06:00,440 It's like, bring them before your local governor and see what he says about this woman who's 132 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,060 may or may not have cheated on you. 133 00:06:03,060 --> 00:06:06,840 That would be kind of local context, but that's what the Lord's commanding here. 134 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:12,920 Waking up in verse 16, the priest will then present her to stand trial before the Lord. 135 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:19,240 He must take some holy water in a clay jar and pour it into the dust he had taken from 136 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:20,940 the tabernacle floor. 137 00:06:20,940 --> 00:06:28,440 When the priest has presented the woman before the Lord, he must unbind her hair and place 138 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:33,120 her hands on the offering of proof. 139 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:38,360 The jealousy offering will determine whether the husband's suspicion is justified. 140 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:44,320 The priest will stand before her holding the jar of bitter water that brings a curse to 141 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,180 those who are guilty. 142 00:06:46,180 --> 00:06:52,620 The priest will then put the women under oath and say to her, if no other man has had sex 143 00:06:52,620 --> 00:06:58,400 with you and you have not gone astray and defiled yourself while you are under your 144 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:04,840 husband's authority, may you be immune to the effects of this bitter water that brings 145 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:05,920 the curse. 146 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:11,760 But if you have gone astray by being unfaithful to your husband and have defiled yourself 147 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:19,000 by having sex with another man, at this point, the priest must put the woman under oath saying, 148 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,880 may the people know that the Lord's curse is upon you when he makes you infertile, causing 149 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:32,120 your womb to shrivel and your abdomen to swell. 150 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:38,520 Now may this water that brings a curse enter your body and cause your abdomen to swell 151 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,700 and your womb to shrivel. 152 00:07:41,700 --> 00:07:44,780 And the woman will be required to say, let it be so. 153 00:07:44,780 --> 00:07:49,680 And the priest will write these curses on a piece of leather and wash them off with 154 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,240 the bitter water. 155 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:56,280 He will make the woman drink the bitter water that brings the curse. 156 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:02,200 And when the water enters the body, it will cause bitter suffering if she is guilty. 157 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:03,600 All right. 158 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:05,040 This is a strange story. 159 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:06,040 Okay. 160 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,240 But I want to try to add some context around this. 161 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:09,240 Okay. 162 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,200 Once again, women are valued for what they can produce in this culture. 163 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:13,200 Yes. 164 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:14,640 Not necessarily whose image they're made in. 165 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:15,640 Yes. 166 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:16,640 Okay. 167 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:21,400 If you are a woman and your sole value is placed on whether or not you can produce children, 168 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:23,680 this is going to be a terrifying curse for you. 169 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:24,680 Yeah. 170 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:29,400 If your husband suspects that you're stepping out, that it's going to actually bring about 171 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:30,400 infertility. 172 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:31,400 Yeah. 173 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:32,400 This is a terrifying thing for you. 174 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,280 Now, on a very real level, can we just talk about water and dirt's not going to do anything 175 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:36,280 to you? 176 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:37,280 No. 177 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:38,280 And we know that. 178 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:39,280 Mm-hmm. 179 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,160 Like we can look at that as something like you can put dirt in water and you drink it, 180 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:43,160 it's not going to do anything. 181 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:46,240 It might make your movements a little dirtier. 182 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:47,240 Mm-hmm. 183 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:48,240 That's about it. 184 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:50,040 But dirt will flush through your system. 185 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:51,040 Yeah. 186 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:55,080 So if you are a woman who knows that you didn't act unfaithfully, you're like, well, take 187 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:56,080 me to the priest. 188 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:57,080 Mm-hmm. 189 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:58,080 I'll drink the water. 190 00:08:58,080 --> 00:08:59,080 Mm-hmm. 191 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:00,280 I didn't do it. 192 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:01,760 So like I'll take this. 193 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:08,320 And now guess what ends up happening is that the man is actually dishonored because he's 194 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,080 brought a baseless accusation. 195 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:11,280 Yeah. 196 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:16,720 And it's written down in the annals of history for the entire nation. 197 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:17,720 Mm-hmm. 198 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,280 Now, you hear that and you're like, okay, Ben, why does that matter? 199 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,640 Because it gives them recourse. 200 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,560 It actually gives them an avenue where they can't just be accused of doing wrong and have 201 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:29,480 no avenue of reproach. 202 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:30,480 Mm-hmm. 203 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:32,200 Because they're not just going to get divorced. 204 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:33,720 They're not just going to get kicked out. 205 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:35,640 They're not just going to be disinherited. 206 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,600 Any of those things that kind of go with it, they're like, hey, I didn't do anything. 207 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:41,000 Let's go to the priest. 208 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,880 And the man can't just divorce her without taking her to the priest. 209 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:47,440 So whether or not he wants to get rid of her or not, it actually has to have happened. 210 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:48,440 Yep. 211 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:49,440 This is a big deal. 212 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:51,840 God is once again protecting his people. 213 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:52,840 Yeah. 214 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,720 And protecting the honor and the integrity of women. 215 00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,760 Because I think that we know very well from the last few decades that people say things 216 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:05,600 about other people and they completely damage their reputation and authority on baseless 217 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:06,600 accusations. 218 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:07,600 100%. 219 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:11,940 And usually, history proves that that's the case. 220 00:10:11,940 --> 00:10:12,940 Is it weird? 221 00:10:12,940 --> 00:10:14,280 Of course it is. 222 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,000 Of course it is because we're reading into a different culture and different understanding. 223 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:21,040 In fact, there is a thing that comes from, I believe, is Hadarami's Code, right? 224 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,920 Where they said that an unfaithful woman, she has to jump into the Tigris and if she 225 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:27,880 drowns then she's guilty, but if she survives it, she's innocent. 226 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:34,520 This is a very similar thing, except that from a very real level, when you look at this, 227 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:36,180 nothing's going to happen. 228 00:10:36,180 --> 00:10:42,320 I also believe that in this situation, if you were unfaithful and you drink this, then 229 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:46,980 God's going to let the curse come upon you because you're willingly accepting this. 230 00:10:46,980 --> 00:10:51,560 Because if you drink the water and you stepped out, you know exactly what's about to happen 231 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:53,600 to you. 232 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:56,240 You should never even let it get to the priest. 233 00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:58,080 So do you understand this law? 234 00:10:58,080 --> 00:10:59,600 It seems super counterintuitive. 235 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:00,600 It seems like anti-women. 236 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:01,600 It's actually pro-women. 237 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:06,880 It's pro-giving them some rights, giving them some recourse, especially if they're innocent. 238 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:11,400 And it is cutting down on these baseless accusations that are bound to happen when you're wandering 239 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:13,680 the desert for 40 years. 240 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:14,680 Yes. 241 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:16,640 Wandering the desert in a relatively small community. 242 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:17,640 Yeah. 243 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:19,560 That was a lot of reading in that one. 244 00:11:19,560 --> 00:11:22,120 It is a lot of reading, but it's also that's the law. 245 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:23,120 Yeah. 246 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:24,680 And it just takes a little bit to get through. 247 00:11:24,680 --> 00:11:25,680 Yeah. 248 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:26,960 There's so much going on in there. 249 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:32,600 So once again, if you have issues with some of these laws and numbers, like we were going 250 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:37,120 to say what we said in Leviticus, what we're talking about today may not satiate you. 251 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:38,200 And that's perfectly fine. 252 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:39,400 Go read the Bible. 253 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:42,040 Go check out some commentary. 254 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:47,680 There is conversation, and I just want to dispel this because I think this is a very 255 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:53,960 perverted use of scripture, that they suggest that this combination of dirt and water is 256 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:55,680 an early form of abortion. 257 00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:56,680 No. 258 00:11:56,680 --> 00:11:57,680 Correct. 259 00:11:57,680 --> 00:11:58,680 It is not. 260 00:11:58,680 --> 00:11:59,680 Yeah. 261 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:01,560 That is not what's going on here. 262 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:05,080 You need to be able to take a step back and look at this and look at it through the eyes 263 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:06,880 of God, through loving God and loving other people. 264 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:08,160 What is the purpose of this? 265 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:12,320 It's to cut down on frivolous accusations, which do happen all the time. 266 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:17,000 So I'm going to let people know a little bit about me that they're like, oh my gosh, Ben. 267 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:23,480 I have a tendency to like to watch daytime judge shows, specifically Judge Judy. 268 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:24,480 I did not know this. 269 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:25,480 Oh yeah. 270 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:26,480 I just found this out right here, folks. 271 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:27,480 Yeah. 272 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:28,480 I literally, I always try to like- 273 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:29,480 Are you 80 years old? 274 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,200 Yeah, I'm like 80 years old. 275 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:34,080 But I always watch these small claim court cases. 276 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,000 And of course it's played up for TV and all these things, but some of the lawsuits that 277 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:41,960 they're bringing in, I'm like, you won your TV back and you're going to court? 278 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:43,200 What's going on here? 279 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:48,200 Or my favorite one was the person suing for the price back of their concert tickets because 280 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:49,440 they didn't like their seat. 281 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:50,840 Oh, that's hilarious. 282 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:51,840 I know. 283 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:52,840 That's hilarious. 284 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:54,080 And so it's hard not to watch. 285 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:55,800 And it's I can see the train wreck coming. 286 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:56,920 I love it. 287 00:12:56,920 --> 00:12:58,160 These are like the small claims things. 288 00:12:58,160 --> 00:12:59,160 I can't help it. 289 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:00,160 I love it. 290 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,320 I was like, so I have a tendency to be like, oh, these kind of frivolous things don't happen. 291 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:06,060 Listen, I've been in church for 36 years. 292 00:13:06,060 --> 00:13:08,120 These kind of frivolous discussions happen. 293 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:09,120 Right? 294 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:10,120 Yeah, they do. 295 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:13,120 And they even happen to be husband's wife. 296 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:17,640 Is somebody out there has a therapist and you work with married couples? 297 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:22,420 Like how often are you dealing with this thing of nothing actually happened between the couple, 298 00:13:22,420 --> 00:13:25,400 but the other person believes the other person is doing something. 299 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:26,400 Yeah. 300 00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:27,400 Right. 301 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:28,400 Because they're not communicating. 302 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,340 They're not actually having conversation and actually dwelling on life together. 303 00:13:31,340 --> 00:13:36,560 Now that's in our modern, egalitarian, like working together society. 304 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:37,640 Right? 305 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:44,360 Now port that back 4,000 years to desert wandering value for what they can produce. 306 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:46,840 Don't have any inherent value according to the surrounding nations. 307 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:51,680 And God's like, no, no, you can't just throw your wives under the bus. 308 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:55,600 This is if you want to bring a frivolous lawsuit, you got to bring it to the priest. 309 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:56,600 Yeah. 310 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:00,640 And to be fair to God's like, and there are going to be consequences if they are guilty. 311 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:01,640 Yeah. 312 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,000 But you can't just throw around accusations. 313 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:05,000 That's not cool. 314 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,000 No, like that is, that is just not cool. 315 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,240 And so I hope, I hope you see that in this law. 316 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,600 It's a very strange one, but it's, it's so good, but it's so good. 317 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:13,600 So good. 318 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:14,600 All right. 319 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,240 So then continue on in chapter six, we're going to read the Nazarite vow here. 320 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:18,240 Okay. 321 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,880 It says speak to the Israelites and say to them, if a man or woman wants to make a special 322 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:26,120 vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazarite, they must abstain from wine and 323 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:30,380 other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drinks. 324 00:14:30,380 --> 00:14:33,200 They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 325 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:35,640 They're very specific about like, yeah. 326 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:39,720 As long as they remain under their Nazarite vow, they must not eat anything that comes 327 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:43,880 from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins during the entire period of the Nazarite 328 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:44,880 vow. 329 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:46,660 No razor may be used on their head. 330 00:14:46,660 --> 00:14:50,720 They must be holy until the period of their dedication to the Lord is over. 331 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,480 They must let their hair grow long throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord. 332 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:56,940 The Nazarite must not go near a dead body. 333 00:14:56,940 --> 00:15:01,080 Even if it's the own father or mother or brother or sister dies, they must not make themselves 334 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,760 ceremony unclean on account of them because the symbol of their dedication to God is on 335 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:06,760 their head. 336 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,920 Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord. 337 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,760 If someone dies suddenly in Nazarite's presence, thus defiling the hair that symbolizes their 338 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,440 dedication, they must shave their head on the seventh day, the day of their cleansing. 339 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:19,160 Then on the eighth day, they must bring two doves, two pigeons. 340 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:21,720 So there's like this law about taking on a vow. 341 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:23,520 So this is talking about a Nazarite vow. 342 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:30,040 If you're like most people in the church, you're like, what is a Nazarite vow? 343 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,840 So a Nazarite vow is a non-permanent vow. 344 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,760 And I'm stressing that because we're going to talk about a story coming up. 345 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:37,760 Yeah. 346 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:42,200 There's a non-permanent vow that you take that is specifically about becoming close 347 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:43,200 to God. 348 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:44,200 Yes. 349 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,840 There are specific instructions that says if you want to separate yourself for a period 350 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:53,000 of special communion with God, these are some things you need to do as part of that vow. 351 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,920 And like visually, it's going to tell a story right away, but it's also going to be things 352 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:04,200 that remind you that you're part of the Nazarite vow, like that you are focusing on communing 353 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:05,200 with God. 354 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:06,200 Yeah. 355 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:10,000 In the Nazarite vow, one of the things it does is it takes trust away from man-made 356 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,720 entities and puts your trust more in God. 357 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:15,600 So let me give you an example of this. 358 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:18,020 So there is verse three. 359 00:16:18,020 --> 00:16:22,040 It says they must give up wine and other alcoholic drinks. 360 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:27,040 Now we look at that originally and we're like, okay, like giving up alcohol, that's a good 361 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:28,880 health choice, right? 362 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:34,960 Drink less, good health choice, except for there was no sterilization, filterization, 363 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:37,040 or anything of what little water they had. 364 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:41,800 And I don't know if you know this, but if you let water sit and it's not actually constantly 365 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,860 moving, it actually will go stagnant and go bad. 366 00:16:44,860 --> 00:16:49,040 So oftentimes what they would do is they would actually make wine because it would preserve 367 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,140 the water longer. 368 00:16:51,140 --> 00:16:56,040 And so it wasn't, now there's arguments on, okay, was it like the good tasty wine we have 369 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,600 now, or was it just slightly fermented, little alcoholicy? 370 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,060 The answer is probably yes. 371 00:17:01,060 --> 00:17:02,060 Probably yes, right? 372 00:17:02,060 --> 00:17:03,060 They had both. 373 00:17:03,060 --> 00:17:04,060 Yeah. 374 00:17:04,060 --> 00:17:05,060 They had both. 375 00:17:05,060 --> 00:17:10,600 But to say I'm not going to drink wine is partially to say I'm not going to drink cleansed 376 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,000 water or clean drinking water. 377 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:14,000 Yeah. 378 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:15,000 Yeah. 379 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,680 I mean, it's an expression of trust. 380 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:22,480 And the modern equivalent of the Nazirite vow in just society would be like, you know 381 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,480 like these monasteries where monks go and they take a vow of silence. 382 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:29,560 They stop speaking so that they can spend more time listening. 383 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:31,000 They reserve themselves from the world. 384 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,920 They're not actually involved in, like they're off in retreats and in their rooms and they're 385 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:35,440 in meditation and thinking. 386 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:39,640 And this is the same type of thing, the Nazirite vow, except you're still part of a desert 387 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:42,840 wandering community, so you got to stay with everybody. 388 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:46,400 And if somebody is desiring to do this, now this is optional. 389 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:47,400 This isn't required. 390 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:48,400 Yeah. 391 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:50,200 And it's not meant to be forever. 392 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:52,740 If you read the law, you can see it indicated in the law. 393 00:17:52,740 --> 00:17:54,740 It's not meant to be forever. 394 00:17:54,740 --> 00:17:58,400 It's meant to be for a period of time for somebody to grow close to God. 395 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:02,600 Now something that is very similar to this that we do as a modern practice as disciples 396 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,200 of Christ is fasting. 397 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:06,240 Yeah. 398 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,920 It's not the same as a Nazirite vow, but it's a similar concept. 399 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:09,920 Yeah. 400 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:14,760 You take something out of your life and you replace it with focus on God in focusing on 401 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:16,100 growing closer to God. 402 00:18:16,100 --> 00:18:19,960 That's the purpose of fasting is not to deprive yourself, but to grow closer to something. 403 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,660 And whether that's fasting an item in your life, like whether it be like fasting from 404 00:18:23,660 --> 00:18:27,500 your phone, fasting from food, fasting from coffee, fasting from whatever it is. 405 00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:28,500 Something that is- 406 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:29,500 You don't fast from coffee. 407 00:18:29,500 --> 00:18:30,500 Yeah. 408 00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:31,500 You don't fast from coffee. 409 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:32,500 I have before. 410 00:18:32,500 --> 00:18:33,760 We are true Northwest boys. 411 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:34,760 We like our coffee. 412 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:38,040 I actually have a funny coffee fasting story. 413 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:39,040 This is a little tangent. 414 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:40,040 Yeah. 415 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:41,040 Let's do it. 416 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:42,040 It's great. 417 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:43,040 Okay. 418 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:45,520 I know a guy who for Lent was like, all right, I'm going to give up coffee. 419 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:49,720 Therefore he took the, I don't have to give it up on Sundays very seriously. 420 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:54,480 So he would go like the whole week, massive headache, rough time. 421 00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:57,840 And then he'd finally like Friday, Saturday, get to a point where headaches go away. 422 00:18:57,840 --> 00:18:58,840 This is great. 423 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:00,960 And then Sunday he'd drink like four cups of coffee. 424 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,120 So he was fasting except on Sunday. 425 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:04,120 Yeah. 426 00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:05,880 Through Lent because like technically Sundays don't count. 427 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:06,880 Oh, I didn't know that. 428 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:07,880 Oh, really? 429 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:08,880 Yeah. 430 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:09,880 Okay. 431 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:11,060 Technically Sundays don't count on the fast through Lent. 432 00:19:11,060 --> 00:19:13,520 And so Sunday would come, he'd have a four cups of coffee. 433 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:14,520 Terrible idea. 434 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:15,520 He'd go right back to where he started. 435 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:16,520 Yeah. 436 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,960 Right as his body started to detox, he gets to right back into it. 437 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:19,960 Uh-huh. 438 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:20,960 That's super funny. 439 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,240 So that's the idea behind this Nazarite vow. 440 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:27,960 So the first thing is talking about how not bringing frivolous lawsuits. 441 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,800 I'm just going to call it that because that's like a good equivalent for us. 442 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:32,800 Baseless accusations. 443 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:33,800 Yeah. 444 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:34,800 It's more serious. 445 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:38,020 If you want to spend time like getting closer to God, here are some things that you're going 446 00:19:38,020 --> 00:19:39,020 to do. 447 00:19:39,020 --> 00:19:40,020 Yeah. 448 00:19:40,020 --> 00:19:42,080 Now it's very like God says, you don't have to do this. 449 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:46,040 This is just something if you want to get close, if you actually enjoy hanging out with 450 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,360 God, here are some things you can do to show me that you're serious. 451 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:50,360 Yeah. 452 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:54,520 So there is one story in the Bible, at least one, of somebody actually taking the Nazarite 453 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:55,520 vow. 454 00:19:55,520 --> 00:20:00,200 And that shows up in the book of Judges by the guy by the name of Samson. 455 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:04,020 Except he's the worst at taking the Nazarite vow in the world. 456 00:20:04,020 --> 00:20:07,760 I'm going to link a book, and I love this book because I think it's really good. 457 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,880 It's called Make Your Mark, Getting Right What Samson Got Wrong. 458 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:14,840 And it's by Brad Gray, and it's an examination of the story of Samson. 459 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:16,040 And I think it's great. 460 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:17,920 I just love that book. 461 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,160 So if you don't know the story of Samson, the story of Samson is- 462 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,280 He has everything you're not supposed to. 463 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,400 Everything you're not supposed to, except cut his hair. 464 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:28,560 You have the story of Samson and his parents. 465 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:32,080 He's raised up as a judge for the nation of Israel, but he's told that he has to take 466 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:37,240 the Nazarite vow as he's serving as judge. 467 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:42,800 And one of the first things he does is he finds this animal carcass with honey inside. 468 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:43,800 Okay? 469 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:46,280 I don't know if you guys caught that. 470 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:51,980 Honey inside of an animal carcass is probably fermenting too, because so is the animal carcass. 471 00:20:51,980 --> 00:20:56,720 So he scoops the honey out of the animal carcass and he eats it. 472 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:00,300 Because of course you do, right? 473 00:21:00,300 --> 00:21:04,280 And so not only is he touching dead bodies, but he's also touching base with fermented 474 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:05,280 drink. 475 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,920 And he's drinking a lot, which you're not supposed to be doing on a Nazarite vow. 476 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,280 And one of the things that comes up very frequently in this conversation with Delilah, she's like, 477 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:13,400 where does your strength come from? 478 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,440 And he tells her a bunch of different things. 479 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:17,080 He believes it comes from his Nazarite vow. 480 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:21,360 And I don't know if in his brain he's thinking, if I don't shave my hair, at least I'm keeping 481 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:22,840 part of the vow. 482 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:24,360 And so God keeps giving me strength. 483 00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:25,360 I don't know. 484 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:28,840 I do think that one of the things we see in the story of Samson is God working in spite 485 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,000 of us, not because of us. 486 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,880 Samson is a good story to take a look at of how God can use you even when you seem to 487 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:38,800 want to do everything wrong. 488 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:43,400 Yeah I think there's one part that the biblical authors left out in that story, is the amount 489 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:45,600 of times God put his head in his hands. 490 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:46,600 The face palm. 491 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:49,920 Just shook his head at Samson. 492 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,880 Yeah and it's very clear throughout the story of Samson, the Nazarite vow is supposed to 493 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:55,880 do what? 494 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:56,880 Draw you to God. 495 00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,520 Show devotion to God. 496 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:04,160 He doesn't even talk to God until the very end of the story. 497 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:05,160 It's crazy. 498 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:09,560 I, incidentally, we're going to link one more episode because Baymaw talks about the Samson 499 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:10,560 story. 500 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:15,920 And I think that Marty Solomon has a great teaching on not escalating retaliation between 501 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:20,160 society, about learning how to put down the jawbone. 502 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:21,560 And it references the Samson story. 503 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:23,600 Because we're talking about it, I'm going to link it in the show notes. 504 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:30,200 Yeah, the thing about the Samson story that just cracks me up is it's a popular children's 505 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,640 church story. 506 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:36,840 That's what cracks me up because it's like, here's how you do everything wrong in your 507 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,120 life. 508 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:40,680 Here's how you mess it up regularly. 509 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,920 Oh, but by the way, come to God at the end, you're good. 510 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,320 Now I think it's interesting because I've heard people teach on the book of Judges and 511 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:50,800 they're talking about Samson and they don't realize there's actually a section that talks 512 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:52,280 about the Nazarite vow. 513 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:56,360 And sometimes people say some things and I was like, you should probably actually go 514 00:22:56,360 --> 00:22:58,920 back and read that. 515 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,320 It's kind of like in Deuteronomy where it talks about if you have a king eventually, 516 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:03,760 these are the things that they should do. 517 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,760 And they list all these different things, like not import horses from Egypt. 518 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,320 And then you read in Chronicles, I think it's Chronicles, it might be Kings. 519 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:15,640 But when Solomon takes over, he does this list of things. 520 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:19,680 And they're exactly what you're not supposed to do in Deuteronomy. 521 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,080 Now if you're familiar with the text, you understand exactly what the author just did. 522 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:24,080 Yeah. 523 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:29,120 And to be fair, me as a kid, when my parents were like, hey, don't do that, I was like, 524 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:30,720 I must do that. 525 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:32,480 I must figure out how to do that. 526 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,840 What do you mean about when you were a kid? 527 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:35,840 That's still today. 528 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,720 I bet you, I bet you, your dad is coming down to visit. 529 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,400 I bet you, in fact, his dad's going to be on an episode very soon. 530 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:47,760 I bet you if he told you, he's like, Spencer, you can't do this, you'd be like, watch me. 531 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,120 Yeah, you're not wrong. 532 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:53,440 I just, when I was a kid, I was more subtle about it. 533 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:55,760 And as an adult now, I'm like, yeah, I'm just going to do it, dad. 534 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,520 In this area of numbers, once again, these are things that are specifically designed 535 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,800 for community, about making sure that people count. 536 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,680 So you dealt with frivolous accusations. 537 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,800 And now, hey, I want to actually spend more time with God. 538 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,560 I want to be devoted to God and the things that are going on here. 539 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:14,120 And there's this Nazarite vow to focus on our relationship with God. 540 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:21,120 Now on the tail end of that, it says, God says to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this 541 00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:23,040 is how you are to bless the Israelites. 542 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:24,040 Okay. 543 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,280 I want to pause there before we even get into blessing. 544 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:32,160 The implication of that sentence is that you should bless the Israelites. 545 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:33,760 Yes. 546 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:35,280 Okay. 547 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:40,720 The implication is that you should bless the Israelites. 548 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:46,440 Priests, you are to bless your nations. 549 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:47,440 Yes. 550 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,840 You are to bless your churches. 551 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:50,840 Yes. 552 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,320 You are to bless your people. 553 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:54,480 Yes. 554 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:59,160 And this idea, in fact, I think Brad actually talks about it in the Make Your Mark book. 555 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,040 He talks about blessing is like bending the knee. 556 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:08,720 If you're taller than somebody, you actually bend the knee to see them eye to eye. 557 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,880 In other words, to put them on even playing field with you. 558 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,960 Blessing is to enrich or lift up those around you. 559 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:21,640 And the whole idea of blessing is that the person around you is supposed to be fulfilled 560 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,160 or prosperous. 561 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,080 Their life is supposed to grow in what God has them to be. 562 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,360 And I think it's really important that we as pastors, we as teachers, we as Christians 563 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:37,640 understand that our role as priests, the chosen priesthood is to bless. 564 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:38,640 Bless. 565 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:44,840 And it says that you say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. 566 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,880 The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. 567 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:54,240 The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. 568 00:25:54,240 --> 00:26:00,100 So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them. 569 00:26:00,100 --> 00:26:01,100 So good. 570 00:26:01,100 --> 00:26:02,100 Can you read that in your translation? 571 00:26:02,100 --> 00:26:03,100 Yeah. 572 00:26:03,100 --> 00:26:06,560 It says, may the Lord bless you and protect you. 573 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:10,240 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 574 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,200 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. 575 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:24,960 I read one more translation just here. 576 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:26,380 One other translation here. 577 00:26:26,380 --> 00:26:29,560 God spoke to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the people of 578 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:30,560 Israel. 579 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:32,760 Say to them, God bless you and keep you. 580 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,020 God smile on you and gift you. 581 00:26:35,020 --> 00:26:38,080 God look you full in the face and make you prosper. 582 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,080 In doing so, they will place my name on the people of Israel. 583 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:45,040 I will confirm it by blessing them. 584 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:46,040 This is huge. 585 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,040 Okay. 586 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:53,820 I, in my blog, I spent a day talking about this because I think it's a really big deal. 587 00:26:53,820 --> 00:27:00,680 One of the things that we struggle with as a church is speaking life into each other. 588 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:05,360 I think it's much easier for us to speak condemnation or degradation. 589 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:10,640 I actually, so I think speaking life into people is really easy. 590 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,920 I don't think we, I don't, culturally, I don't think we as a church are used to doing it. 591 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:15,920 Right. 592 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:16,920 And that's my implication. 593 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:17,920 That's what I mean. 594 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:22,980 I think, I think the tendency, the, the more like the offhand responses to speak destructive 595 00:27:22,980 --> 00:27:25,040 things into people rather than constructive. 596 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:26,040 Yeah. 597 00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:30,880 So it's from a mentality of if I don't have it, then you, if you have some, then I don't 598 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:31,880 have any. 599 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:32,880 Yeah, absolutely. 600 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:39,240 And it's, it's so tough because it's, when you're talking about speaking life into people, 601 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,880 sometimes what it means is you might see someone and you might see all the flaws and you're 602 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:45,800 like, no, I need to find the one thing that's going on in their lives. 603 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:46,800 That's good. 604 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,040 And speak into that. 605 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,320 And it's, but it's easy to look at it and be like, oh, you're screwed up. 606 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:52,320 You've messed up. 607 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:53,320 You've sinned this way. 608 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:54,320 You've fallen short this way. 609 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:55,700 You don't, your life doesn't look like this. 610 00:27:55,700 --> 00:27:57,560 Which I think it should look like this blah, blah, blah. 611 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:00,200 And then condemn them for all that stuff. 612 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,840 When reality is they might have all those things going on, but Hey, it's their fourth 613 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:08,640 week in a row at church. 614 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,800 I think a lot of times we have a tendency to not look for Jesus and bring that to the 615 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:12,800 forefront. 616 00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:13,800 Yeah. 617 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:14,880 Or what we think Jesus should be. 618 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:16,360 Or what we think Jesus should be. 619 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:17,360 Yeah. 620 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:20,680 And I, and I mean that for both believers and non-believers, like when we encounter 621 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,440 people on the street, like there's already a work of the divine in them. 622 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,360 Please understand that we have a responsibility to share the gospel and to love people and 623 00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:30,200 bring them into the kingdom. 624 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,400 But we are by far not the first ones out there. 625 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:37,440 God has been greasing the wheels for decades. 626 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:38,700 Yeah. 627 00:28:38,700 --> 00:28:40,520 And he has been, he's been moving in people's hearts. 628 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,640 And it's interesting, like very frequently when I've had these conversations with people 629 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,800 when they're really, really discovering God for the first time, I started talking to them 630 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:50,080 about things in their life and they're like, yeah, when I was 10, like this happened and 631 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:51,080 blah, blah, blah. 632 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,400 Like something that dramatically shifted as like something that's like seared in their 633 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:57,760 brain and they're like, you know, when I was 17, like this happened and, and made me like 634 00:28:57,760 --> 00:28:58,760 start to think like this. 635 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:03,560 And I was like, you start seeing like, where has God been imprinting himself on their life 636 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,520 to get to this point? 637 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,800 And, and I could focus on all the things that are wrong with the person. 638 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,880 But what I'm actually doing is I want to go and find Jesus and pull that to the forefront. 639 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:14,880 Yes. 640 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:15,880 Amen. 641 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,720 Because he is the one that actually transforms people. 642 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,400 And with each other, I've had this, I had this word spoken over me. 643 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:24,840 And if you're not in Pentecostal, please just bear with us. 644 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,640 I had a word spoken over me many years ago. 645 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:32,440 And he said that that your role, my, one of my roles in life is to be a Holy Spirit excavator 646 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,080 that I find the golden people and I bring it out. 647 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:36,080 Yeah. 648 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,720 And, and one of the reasons that was so poignant to me is I've always cared deeply about people. 649 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,940 But one of the, one of the things that gets told to me had been told to me frequently 650 00:29:43,940 --> 00:29:50,880 serving in the church is that I was a bulldozer that my, my personality was destructive. 651 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,680 Now my wife hates it when people talk about me like that. 652 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,120 She's you like bend over backwards to work with people. 653 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:01,000 And she's you were like the farthest from a bulldozer that you, she's you're just not 654 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,200 movable and they can't push you around and they don't like that. 655 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:08,480 And, and it took me a long time to receive that from her. 656 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,560 And so then this guy spoke this word of something that God's been telling me all along. 657 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:12,920 He's you are not destructive. 658 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:13,920 You're, you're creative. 659 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:18,200 You're actually pulling the good out of people. 660 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:23,280 And I believe as Christians and as believers in Christ and as conduits of the mercy and 661 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,080 grace of God into this world, we should be pouring that into each other. 662 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,800 In fact, Jesus says in the, in the New Testament, when he sends his disciples out to go and 663 00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:30,800 preach. 664 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:31,800 Yeah. 665 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:33,240 You're going to encounter bad stuff. 666 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:34,240 It's going to happen. 667 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:35,240 That's what he tells them. 668 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:36,240 Get ready. 669 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,680 But when you go to a house, speak a blessing over it. 670 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:45,400 If they receive you and the blessing lands, then it's on them and you'll be received. 671 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,880 But if they don't take it, it's going to come right back and hit you. 672 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:50,160 Now that sounds like a pretty good deal. 673 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:51,160 Yeah. 674 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,360 Either I bless people or I get the blessing and I'm going to say some good blessings for 675 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:54,360 those houses. 676 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,360 You know what I mean? 677 00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:58,360 Yeah. 678 00:30:58,360 --> 00:30:59,360 Yeah. 679 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:05,480 And, and what Ben's referring to is a Matthew 10 where Jesus is like, bless the house. 680 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,320 And if they receive you, stay with them, bless the house. 681 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,320 If they don't, it's going to bounce right back at you and then just shake the dust off 682 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:12,320 your feet. 683 00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:13,320 Yeah. 684 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:14,320 Just shake it off. 685 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:15,320 You'll be good. 686 00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:20,240 And then he gets to this point in Matthew 10, verse 10 28, where he's, hey, don't fear 687 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,160 the one who can just kill you. 688 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,920 Instead, fear the one who can condemn both body and soul. 689 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:31,240 He's, he's, in other words, he's saying, Hey, when you're doing this, the worst thing that's 690 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,240 going to happen to you is you're going to die. 691 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,240 Yeah. 692 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,600 At which point you get to spend time with God. 693 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:37,600 Yeah. 694 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:38,840 Take that Nazareth vow full time. 695 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,000 He's at which point you get to spend time with God. 696 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,560 Instead of, instead of fearing that maybe we should have some more awe, reverence and 697 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:49,640 fear of the one who's gonna, who, who has the right to, or has the ability to condemn 698 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:50,640 us. 699 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,240 Yeah. 700 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:56,800 I think that it is, it is a profound responsibility to speak blessing into each other's life, 701 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:02,080 to, to, to step in as a conduit of God's mercy into each other's lives. 702 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:03,080 Yeah. 703 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:07,360 Now, however you equate this and whatever background you come from, like God is always 704 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:12,600 speaking through us into other believers and he is building them up so that they're equipped 705 00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,760 to do what God has them to do. 706 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:15,960 Right. 707 00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:19,880 And so I think it's interesting when people are like, Oh, I just felt from God that you 708 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:21,760 need to stop being a worthless sinner. 709 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,480 I was like, I feel like God's not going to have a problem communicating that to me. 710 00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:26,160 I was like, you know what? 711 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,320 I have a hard, harder time receiving from God. 712 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:33,600 I want to bless you and I want to work through you. 713 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,960 And I see this piece in your life that I want to grow. 714 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:36,960 Yeah. 715 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:39,440 Cause I tend to look at myself a lot more negatively than God does. 716 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:40,440 Yeah. 717 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,160 God sees my potential and I see my brokenness. 718 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:44,400 Yeah. 719 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:50,440 And I think, I think that if we start engaging each other in potential rather than brokenness, 720 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:55,160 we might just see the whole attitude of a church change. 721 00:32:55,160 --> 00:33:01,440 So pastors, teachers, Sunday school teachers, parents, like how many of you are blessing 722 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,120 your children? 723 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:11,200 And whatever you do, do not say bless your heart because we all know what that means. 724 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:12,200 Yeah. 725 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:13,200 Yeah. 726 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,560 And I'm not even saying that you need to say bless you. 727 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,240 I was like, because I think there's other ways you can talk about, Hey God, or you can 728 00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:24,600 just invite the Holy spirit to move in your, in your family and, and in their circumstances. 729 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:28,240 I love this song that we do on a regular basis at our church. 730 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:29,880 It's got a possible. 731 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:31,160 Yeah. 732 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,600 And the whole chorus of it, and we actually prayed over each other and very frequently 733 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,120 say, I pray for your healing. 734 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:37,320 The circumstances would change. 735 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:41,160 I pray that the fear inside would flee in Jesus name. 736 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:45,320 And those are the kinds of things that we actually speak into each other's life. 737 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,320 It makes a difference. 738 00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:51,240 And I was like, and also going back to our Leviticus episode and when chaos is there 739 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,800 and the fear is there, we're also going to walk it with you. 740 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:55,800 Yeah. 741 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:56,800 Yeah. 742 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:57,800 Let's be people blessing. 743 00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:58,800 Yeah. 744 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:00,600 Bless the people around you. 745 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:03,000 Be blessed and be a blessing. 746 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,320 Yeah. 747 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:10,480 This is this and the numbers 11 are, are two of my favorite pieces that come out of numbers. 748 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,520 The Aaronic blessing is such a big deal because the, the person who's in charge of teaching 749 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:20,040 all the priest, how to be priest, that's going to teach the nation how to be priests. 750 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,040 You are supposed to bless. 751 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:27,440 You are supposed to bless and it is by this, they're going to know my name and I'm going 752 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:28,720 to bless them. 753 00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:29,720 Yeah. 754 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:34,000 So if your church doesn't look to God as a person who's going to actually enact change 755 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:37,480 in their life, it may be because you've never actually taught them that God is actually 756 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:38,720 meant to bring blessing. 757 00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:39,720 Yeah. 758 00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:44,440 Now I think that we've talked about this plenty though, cause let's give the other end blessing 759 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,520 isn't for you. 760 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,720 It's through you to the world around you. 761 00:34:49,720 --> 00:34:50,880 Yes. 762 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,200 We are not blessed to live in the land of the blessed ones. 763 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:56,800 We are blessed so that all nations would be blessed so that all God's kids could come 764 00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:57,800 home. 765 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:04,120 So if you are living for God, you are in relationship with him, you are blessed and now you are 766 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,160 called to be a blessing. 767 00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:07,160 Yeah. 768 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:08,160 Right. 769 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,420 And when you actually step into his life of being a blessing, you are going to take some 770 00:35:11,420 --> 00:35:12,840 people off. 771 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:13,840 That's true. 772 00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,280 There's going to be some people who will be like, there's no way that you can be that 773 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:17,280 happy. 774 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:22,640 There's no way that you can be in a spot where you are just giving beyond your means in one 775 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,040 sense, right? 776 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,800 There is no way that you can do that. 777 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:28,680 That's who we're called to be. 778 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,960 We are called to be a blessing. 779 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:35,560 And when we are truly living a life where we are blessing those around us, it is going 780 00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:40,040 to not just transform you, it's going to transform the community around you. 781 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:41,760 Yeah. 782 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,480 So we're going to wrap it up here. 783 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,120 So this, this episode is a little strange because we wanted to deal with these three 784 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,840 specific topics because I think they're weird or not. 785 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,720 Like the first two are weird and we want to make sure like this is going to come up throughout 786 00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:52,720 the Bible. 787 00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:53,720 Yeah. 788 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:55,880 But we really wanted to land on this piece of blessing. 789 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,560 And so if you take one thing away from this episode, it's that God actually cares about 790 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:01,520 what happens with you on a daily basis. 791 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,680 He cares about the people who are placed on the margins. 792 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,640 He makes sure that they're valued. 793 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:10,720 And beyond that, he wants not only that for you, but he also wants you to be able to speak 794 00:36:10,720 --> 00:36:12,920 that into other nations. 795 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:14,200 Amen. 796 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:20,120 If you have social media, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook and Tik Tok. 797 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:22,760 You can also email us at loveandcontext.gmail.com. 798 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:28,280 We just did a Q and a episode a couple of episodes ago, but we always need more questions. 799 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:29,840 Just keep softballing them in there for us. 800 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,040 Cause those were simple ones to answer. 801 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:35,080 Spencer, then that last one you got stuck on. 802 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,080 Oh, I did. 803 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:38,440 And we'll see what happens next time. 804 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,680 We might have other food that we're eating while we're talking again. 805 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:41,680 You never know. 806 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,480 We'll have other food that we're eating, whether we tell you about it, whether we tell you 807 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:45,480 about it or not. 808 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:46,480 All right. 809 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:47,480 Thanks for being with us. 810 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:52,120 Stay guys. 811 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:54,220 That's a wrap for today's episode. 812 00:36:54,220 --> 00:36:59,360 We want to extend a heartfelt thank you for tuning in and spending your valuable time 813 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:00,360 with us. 814 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:06,060 We hope that you found today's conversation insightful and that you take something meaningful 815 00:37:06,060 --> 00:37:07,060 from it. 816 00:37:07,060 --> 00:37:10,840 If you have questions or comments, we would love to hear from you. 817 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:16,920 Reach out to us at loveandcontext.gmail.com and we will be sure to get back to you. 818 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:22,360 Remember, you can always engage with our content on all your favorite listening platforms, 819 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,120 including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and one. 820 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:31,640 Don't forget to follow us on social media at love and context on Instagram and Facebook 821 00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:33,260 for updates. 822 00:37:33,260 --> 00:37:39,520 Go back and listen to one of our episodes and I thought Sneeze was coming on. 823 00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:46,280 I don't remember that episode. 824 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:51,120 If somebody's a psychiatrist, no, what's the word I'm looking for? 825 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:52,120 Therapist. 826 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:53,960 And then also if you want to... 827 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:58,840 Do you think it's weird that in subtle we don't pronounce the B? 828 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,080 I think so, yeah. 829 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:02,400 You get your ADD moments, so do I. 830 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:03,400 Yeah. 831 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:17,160 ...do you get those emotions going? 832 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:21,960 Hmm.