1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,560 Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations 2 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:14,240 with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:19,880 the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,000 fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,360 in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the 6 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:34,480 context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives. 7 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:41,280 All right, everyone. Welcome back. Podcast. Exactly. Podcasting. Yeah. We're going to 8 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,260 if Pastor Nick was here, we would play the game of how many times would he mispronounce 9 00:00:45,260 --> 00:00:49,500 Melchizedek or how many different ways or how many different ways. I have a counter 10 00:00:49,500 --> 00:00:54,360 going on the screen. Yeah. And there'd be and there'd be like he's come up some creative 11 00:00:54,360 --> 00:01:00,200 pronunciations for some names in the Bible. When Pastor Sarah was on with us one time, 12 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:05,760 I think I made a counter of how many times she rolled her eyes at us. Yeah, I stopped 13 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:10,240 at like nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's one time where I think it was you and Pastor Nick 14 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,600 were preaching and then Pastor Nick said something horribly wrong. And you're like, wait, how 15 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,840 do you say that? He was like, no. I was like, can you say that again for me, please? And 16 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:26,120 he's like, no, movie. I don't remember what it was, but he just moved on. One of the one 17 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:29,840 of the things we were preaching one time on acts two. And I was reading the part where 18 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,680 it says, you know, the fire came down and I was resting on the people and they were 19 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,840 they were prophesying and like all those different things. And I got to the part where it says 20 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:39,440 where the nations were that they're all from. I was like, hey, Pastor Nick, can you take 21 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:46,020 over right there? And he's like, yeah, no, no, I'm going to skip over that. So it was 22 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:51,520 it's a it's a game I like to play with him. It's a fun one. OK, so this series, this little 23 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,160 mini series, and this is by the way, this mini series is going to cap off season two 24 00:01:56,160 --> 00:02:01,760 is Kings and Kingdoms. Yes, Kings and Kingdoms. And specifically, we're dealing with the kings 25 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:06,640 that are not Israel's kings. Yes. Right. So the first week we're going to be talking about 26 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,360 this guy by the name of Melchizedek. Right. And we're going to talk about a number of 27 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,640 different kings all the way into into the New Testament, the kings during the time of 28 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:20,720 Jesus. Yeah. Right. But it's really important for us as Christians to see what's going on 29 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:26,960 in history, especially as as the people of God are in places where there are non God 30 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:32,240 influences. And specifically, how do they exist in in this context? You think about 31 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:37,520 people like Daniel existing in a foreign land. Right. And how does he live in the middle 32 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,840 of that? And the people of Israel when they're in Egypt and they have kings around them, 33 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,280 how do they exist in the middle of this? You know, and what are the what are these kings 34 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:49,360 and what is their influence in the middle of all of these different situations? Right. 35 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:54,180 You just rolled your eyes. So your eyes got so big. I'm tired. He got he got scared is 36 00:02:54,180 --> 00:03:01,560 what happened. Tired, man. Yeah. I didn't sleep much. Tired. So the first figure that 37 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:06,000 we talked about that shows up, that is this random king that shows up in the Book of Genesis. 38 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,880 Right. And once again, we want to talk last week at the end of the Covenant series, we 39 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:14,840 talked about these small bands of king like kingdoms, right, three or four hundred people, 40 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,720 maybe a thousand people, two thousand people. Right. Not kingdoms. Twenty million people 41 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,120 like a tribe, more like a tribe. And there's not a lot said about him. No, no, there is 42 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:27,640 not a lot said about this guy. So if you are a Hebrew speaker and I'm saying Melchizedek 43 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:32,920 incorrectly, I apologize. But that's how I'm going to continue to say it. But he's a he's 44 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:36,340 actually a significant figure, though, even though he's barely mentioned, because he's 45 00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:40,280 talked about in the New Testament in the Book of Hebrews. And it's going to be really important. 46 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,600 But first, we're going to talk about him in the Old Testament, where he shows up. So if 47 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:49,920 you look in Genesis, Chapter 14, he shows up in this story where a lot has been captured 48 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:55,000 with a bunch of other people by by a king. And he goes, Abram goes and he rescues him 49 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:00,280 and he brings him back. Right. It says in verse 18, says, Then Melchizedek, king of 50 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:05,880 Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high. And he blessed Abram 51 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:10,440 saying, Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and praise be 52 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:16,160 God most high, who delivered your enemies into their hand. Then Abraham gave him a tenth 53 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:22,840 of everything. Now, why is that story really interesting in a number of different facets? 54 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:25,840 I'm going to tell you one thing that I found that I found incredibly interesting about 55 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:32,980 this. If you just lift verse 18 through 20, and you take it completely out of the Book 56 00:04:32,980 --> 00:04:38,040 of Genesis, you wouldn't even notice that it's missing. Let me let me show you this. 57 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:46,240 So I'm going to go verse 17. After Abram returned from defeating Kendal, Larimer. Yeah. Speaking 58 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,600 of you had nailed it. And the king's allied with in the kings of Sodom came out to meet 59 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:56,240 him in the Valley of Sheva. That is the King's Valley. The king of Sodom said to Abram, give 60 00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:00,640 me the give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of 61 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,800 Sodom with raised hand, I have sworn an oath to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven 62 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:09,680 and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you. Okay. Did you even notice that there 63 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:14,600 was two verses missing? This could be missing and we wouldn't even know about it. So then 64 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,840 you ask, okay, well, why is this verse in here? And I think because God's like, hey, 65 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:23,680 I'm going to put something in here that's really important later. Right. I just found 66 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,000 that really interesting when you're in this is like you could literally cut this out of 67 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:31,160 the text and it wouldn't even seem like it's there. Like it doesn't even narratively quite 68 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:36,480 fit. Yeah. Is this these texts actually seem like an inconvenience to the story. Yeah. 69 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,000 It almost seems like the Bible's going out of its way to insert it, which then should 70 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:45,200 make you as a Hebrew as a Hebrew Bible reader go ding, ding, ding, ding. Something important 71 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:49,720 is happening right here. Right. Because when it seems like it's an accident, it's not. 72 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:54,000 Yeah. So one of the first things that's mentioned is where he's from. Yeah. Because the deck 73 00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:01,600 is from Salem and listeners, can you, do you know what that's also identified as? Question 74 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:09,440 mark. Wait for it. It's often identified as Jerusalem. So you have essentially the king 75 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:16,080 of what was old school Jerusalem back in the day before Israel was there. Okay. And a priest 76 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:22,680 of God's most of God most high. This is really interesting because it's like, okay, how does 77 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:29,760 he know this? How does he know God? Yeah. Okay. So it's soup. Yeah. It's really weird because 78 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:34,120 God hasn't given them his name yet. Yeah. Right. Abram. He's like, I just follow God. 79 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,880 And it's a different word that's being used, but he says God most high. And by the way, 80 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:45,360 this is how they later refer to God in the old Testament. Right. So this guy had some 81 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:52,200 sort of a very least connection to God. Right. Right. And we don't, we don't know what that 82 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:56,400 is. Well, we know he's a high priest. Yeah. Right. We know he's a king and he's a high 83 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:01,800 priest, but he is a high king, priest and a king of God most high. Well, here's, here's 84 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:05,000 the problem. This is, this is one of the issues that I have sometimes with the way that we 85 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:11,560 read the Bible is we get definitive black and white statements and then God loves to 86 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:15,640 open up the box and be like, Hey, how's that working out for you? You know, little Dr. 87 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,440 Phil, how's that working out for you? So like one of the things this does do though is it 88 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:24,560 shows that God was having interactions with people outside of the given text. Right. Right. 89 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,640 Cause a lot of times we read the texts and like, these are the people that God had interactions 90 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:34,080 with up through the time of Jesus. And now it's open to everyone. It's like, well, no, 91 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:40,320 like we have this guy on his deck who has a connection to God through reading the text, 92 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:45,860 you could argue has a relationship with God. Right. But all we know about him is that he's 93 00:07:45,860 --> 00:07:53,480 king of Salem. He's a priest and he blesses Abraham. Yeah. Let me read that blessing again. 94 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:59,240 It says, blessed be Abraham by God most high creator of heaven and earth and praise be 95 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:03,480 to God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abraham gave him a 10th 96 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:08,760 of everything. By the way, a lot of people based their tithing off of this passage. Yep. 97 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:14,720 Just throwing that out there. Right. Yeah. And there's also a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. 98 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:18,360 There's so much going on. Right. Cause they sit down for bread and wine. Yeah. He gives 99 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:25,120 the best bread and wine that he has. He offers that. And so which foreshadows lo and behold, 100 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:30,640 the last supper. Yeah. Which also ties back into jumping ahead a little bit to Hebrews 101 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:36,600 where Jesus is referred as the high priest in the line of milk is deck. Yes. We're going 102 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:40,960 to pause, pause on that only briefly because there's a broader context we want to bring 103 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:45,800 into into that. Um, he has mentioned somewhere else in the Bible. It's actually in some one 104 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:50,200 10 and verse four, but I'm just going to read the whole song cause it's not very long. Uh, 105 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:55,600 it's David by the right way, writing this song. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my 106 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,960 right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty 107 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:04,440 scepter from the Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies. Your troops will be willing 108 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:08,640 on your day of battle, a raid and holy splendor. Your young men will, will come to you like 109 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:12,840 dew from the mother's womb. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest 110 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,840 forever in the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush the Kings 111 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,540 on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing 112 00:09:21,540 --> 00:09:25,560 the rulers of the whole earth. He will drink from a brook along the way and he will lift 113 00:09:25,560 --> 00:09:31,800 his head high. Now, now if you hear the first, first, first of this thing, does it spike 114 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:39,200 any conversation Jesus has had with the Pharisees? The Lord says to my Lord, right? Because the 115 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,420 Pharisees in the, in the new Testament, we're going to be talking about a lot of these stories 116 00:09:42,420 --> 00:09:48,920 next season, right? And we're going to come back to this again. Jesus quotes from a Psalm 117 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:54,340 talking about Melchizedek, who then the writer of Hebrews is later going to say that Jesus 118 00:09:54,340 --> 00:09:58,800 is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek with Jesus quoting from Melchizedek back in 119 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:04,440 Genesis, right? Just loving this. Well, and tied a little bit further, Jesus is in the 120 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:11,400 line. He comes from the line of David, who in the song is a King in the order of Melchizedek. 121 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:17,160 Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of really interesting, basically I got some questions 122 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:21,660 when I get to heaven about who Melchizedek actually is, you know, and it's, it's a really 123 00:10:21,660 --> 00:10:26,820 interesting thing. So then what ends up happening in the, in the new Testament is to Spencer's 124 00:10:26,820 --> 00:10:31,160 point in Hebrews five through seven, they're going to be having this conversation about 125 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:36,240 how Jesus is the high priest in heaven the same way. And that he is the temple in heaven 126 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:40,640 and he has the sacrifice in heaven. Like he's all of these things in heaven, the same way 127 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:44,720 we have these systems on earth, right? That he has now taken this to the throne room of 128 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:49,640 God. And, but then to the Hebrews, because they're going to really struggle with, well, 129 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:53,000 how can you be a high priest if you're not from Aaron's lineage? And they're like, haven't 130 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:58,320 you read Genesis? There was a high priest before that. He's a high priest in the order 131 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:01,760 of Melchizedek. And then they're like, if you don't believe that, let's quote from Psalms 132 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:06,160 and talk about that. Right. And let's talk about how the fact that Jesus is quoting this 133 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:12,160 to them and saying that there is a greater priesthood than the priesthood of Aaron, which 134 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:16,720 by the way, would have been scandalous in his day. Right. Because the priesthood of 135 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:21,160 Aaron is a big deal. We went through Torah priesthood of Aaron is a very big deal, but 136 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:25,840 Jesus is not part of the priesthood of Aaron because the priesthood of Aaron wasn't perfect. 137 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:30,640 It was flawed. And yet there was a priesthood that was never flawed, probably because we 138 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:35,340 don't know enough about it. Right. In the line of Melchizedek and Jesus actually falls 139 00:11:35,340 --> 00:11:41,060 in this line. Yeah. Now, whether or not that's supposed to be literally true, or it's a picture 140 00:11:41,060 --> 00:11:46,160 for you to understand what the writer of Hebrews is trying to help them understand. It doesn't 141 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:51,120 matter. The picture is meant for you to understand a greater truth. Yeah. Sometimes we get stupefied 142 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,000 stuck into, is it literally true? And I was like, sometimes the writers are trying to 143 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:01,080 help us understand something we couldn't possibly comprehend. So it is the picture you're supposed 144 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:07,560 to have when understanding who Jesus is. Yep. Right. Yep. And, and so a lot of times what 145 00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:12,180 you'd actually hear is you'd hear a phrase like in the name of Melchizedek, right? Which 146 00:12:12,180 --> 00:12:18,440 actually translates to in the name of righteousness. Right. Isn't that cool? Yeah. And like, who 147 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:25,760 is the one who came to make us right with God? That would be Jesus. Yes. Very good. 148 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:31,920 Well, and if you think about it is by his, by his sacrifice, his redemptive work, we 149 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:38,160 actually become the Melchizedek of God, the righteousness of God. Right. It's very interesting. 150 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:45,240 Right. Yeah. And so we have this guy who's mentioned for three whopping verses in Genesis, 151 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:50,160 one in Psalm, and then a couple of times in Hebrews. And then you start to put all these 152 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:55,560 pieces together and you're like, who is this guy? Well, and I think, I honestly think that 153 00:12:55,560 --> 00:13:00,920 a lot of, why the, by the way, if you, if you spend a lot of time in the Bible, just 154 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:06,240 reading the text is going to convince you that there's, there's a God because it's so 155 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:12,920 unbelievably layered and, and like feeding into itself and things going on like thousands 156 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:16,520 of years apart, that there's no way that a human hand could have put it together. Our 157 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,480 smartest AIs still can't pick it apart. Yeah. Right. That's by the way, that's two episodes 158 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:27,120 in where I've talked about AI. I know. Right. Going down a rabbit hole. Yeah. But it's interesting. 159 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:32,160 So Hebrews almost highlights Melchizedek and in the way that we understand him, he doesn't 160 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:37,960 have a genealogy, right? Which kind of infers that he doesn't have a beginning or he doesn't 161 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:43,600 have an end. Right. And rather than like somebody else would, it symbolizes kind of like this 162 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:49,560 eternal nature of Christ's priesthood. It's not passing son to son to son to son. Jesus 163 00:13:49,560 --> 00:13:55,760 is going to be priest forever. Right. And it underscores like how Jesus is a priesthood 164 00:13:55,760 --> 00:14:01,200 is just so much different than the Levitical priesthood. Right. I think one of the last 165 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:07,360 key things we've kind of danced around this a little bit is that Melchizedek is a priest 166 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:14,560 but he's also a king. Okay. And I really wanted you to hear that he's priest and king. And 167 00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:20,240 of course that's going to be the perfect typecast of Jesus. Right. Because Jesus is prophet, 168 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:28,000 king, messiah and priest and temple and sacrifice. And you know, like he is more than just one 169 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:36,840 thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we do have some other context for Melchizedek for basically 170 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:41,280 sources outside of scripture. Correct. Okay. And now some of you are going to hear the 171 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,160 keyboards typing and being like, wait, you're going to use sources outside of scripture. 172 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,080 I'm just going to let you know your pastor does that every week. Yeah. Most pastors do. 173 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,520 Yeah. Like there are sources that do compliment scripture. So we're going to go through some 174 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:56,800 of these sources, some of these traditions, just so you can be like, okay, here's, here's 175 00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:01,400 some of the things that people might've heard, might've known about him. So one of the things 176 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,800 that, and this is probably going to be helpful in understanding like what things we use and 177 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:10,840 how we use them is there's authoritative scripture, which is what the church used and has used 178 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:15,480 for thousands of years and has agreed that this is what God is teaching us to do. Right. 179 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,700 The people who were there and the people who wrote it in, in combination with the Holy 180 00:15:19,700 --> 00:15:23,560 Spirit, there are still other things being written in that day. Think back when we did 181 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:29,320 little book, quick message, right? That people were familiar with, but they didn't canonize 182 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:33,400 because it's, it was just writings that occur in the day. It's, for example, if you read 183 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:41,520 a like a Francis Chan book today, nobody's going to say that Francis Chan is his writings 184 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:47,560 are doctrine, but what they will say is that they are commentary on different things going 185 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,860 on in scripture and they can be helpful for understanding the perspective of the American 186 00:15:50,860 --> 00:15:59,400 church when he wrote it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So the first one is in the cum run, cum run, 187 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:04,960 cum run community, uh, who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yeah. Now let's just pause right 188 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,360 there. Some of you are like, okay, well those weren't discovered until what? 1930s or something 189 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:13,860 like that. Yeah. 1930s and 1940s. Yeah. Um, it's like, okay, but they were written way 190 00:16:13,860 --> 00:16:18,200 before that and there were going to be groups of people who were familiar with those writings. 191 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:23,680 Yeah. And, uh, and the cum run scrolls, the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was a lot of older 192 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:27,760 versions of the Bible and by people think that's all there was, but there was a lot 193 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:31,680 of extra biblical literature there too, from all through, through a lot of different generations. 194 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:37,080 Yeah. So, uh, those scrolls in particular, they viewed Melchizedek as a significant figure. 195 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:43,400 Uh, some like interpret him as a messianic figure, linking him to end times and, and, 196 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:47,480 and a priestly order. Well, there is a specific scroll called the Melchizedek scroll. Yeah. 197 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:52,120 Yeah. And that's the one you're referring to. Yeah. Yeah. And so it reflects the community's 198 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:59,160 belief in a dual role of Melchizedek. Like, so that is, that is one, uh, outside source 199 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:06,000 example of this. Uh, a second one is early Christian writings, uh, in the, uh, the epistle 200 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:11,480 of Barabbas. Barnabas. Sorry, Barnabas. Not Barabbas. Barabbas would be a very interesting 201 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:17,840 epistle. I would love to read that one. Uh, in Barnabas. Okay. Uh, mentions Melchizedek 202 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:23,160 in a way that emphasizes priestly hood that foreshadows Jesus, right? Tying it into Hebrews 203 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:29,440 actually. So like this epistle right here could actually be something that Hebrews is 204 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:35,460 trying to indirectly quote from. Correct. Yeah. Well, and, uh, also in like Jewish tradition, 205 00:17:35,460 --> 00:17:38,800 they have, uh, in some of the early texts, like some things you'll find in Talmud or 206 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:44,800 Mishnah or, um, the different writings, Melchizedek is, is associated with figures like Shem, 207 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:50,840 the, the son of Noah and suggesting like this ancient revered like status, right? Um, his 208 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,280 connection is not explicitly stated in the Bible, but it's been explored in a lot of 209 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:59,840 rabbinic literature where they say, well, Melchizedek was really like Shem, right? So 210 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:04,320 it was somebody from the line of Shem who, you know, acted righteously in the, in the 211 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:10,040 case of Noah, right? Yeah. Now, by the way, we're not saying you need to believe that 212 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:15,200 we're saying these are some things that literature has said, right? And so like this type of 213 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,360 stuff, like you can, you can be listening to this. Some of it might be true. Some of 214 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:24,160 it might not. What it is, is this is just giving context of what was known through literature. 215 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,800 Right. There's, there's, he keeps showing up in stuff that, uh, there, it suggests that 216 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,600 Melchizedek is an actual person. It wasn't just something added to the story. In fact, 217 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:37,560 um, he even shows up in Islamic text, which would not be surprising because once again, 218 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:44,160 you have Abram whose son is going to be, um, Ishmael, right? And Ishmael is going to be 219 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:49,620 the founding, uh, founding father kind of, of the Islam religion. Right. So it actually 220 00:18:49,620 --> 00:18:55,480 takes place before the birth of Ishmael, which that would totally make sense then if Abram 221 00:18:55,480 --> 00:19:00,160 is his father and he's raising him, like Ishmael would have been familiar with the story. Right. 222 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:07,480 Yeah. Yeah. It also shows up in Gnostic texts, right? Like, which is very interesting. Like 223 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:13,480 they reference Melchizedek, um, and viewing him as a divine being, like an incarnation 224 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:17,240 of a heavenly figure. Yeah. This is one of those examples where they kind of take his, 225 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:22,940 uh, his dual nature and they try to use it for their own purposes. That isn't actually 226 00:19:22,940 --> 00:19:27,100 talking about, you know, cause a lot of the Gnostic issue is that they're trying to say 227 00:19:27,100 --> 00:19:31,800 that Jesus was not, you know, fully man, fully God kind of like thing. And, uh, you have 228 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,380 this, this whole thing where they're taking Melchizedek and they kind of go just down 229 00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:39,880 a different road with it. Well, for my understanding, they actually do tie it back to, uh, they 230 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:44,840 also tie it back to the Nephilim back in early Genesis, which we're not going to go down 231 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:49,920 on that. We someday we will someday, but not today, not today, but, uh, but you know, essentially 232 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,400 these beans that were larger than life, larger than human, more divine, more spiritually, 233 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:59,720 uh, impactful or quote unquote, so on and so forth. So, uh, so there's, there's mention 234 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:04,480 of Melchizedek in enough places for us to like, for, to where we should pause and be 235 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:09,580 like, huh, who is this guy? Yeah. Right. And you know, and scholars are kind of divided, 236 00:20:09,580 --> 00:20:13,780 but one of the, one of the opinions that they have on him is that he kind of is the typecast 237 00:20:13,780 --> 00:20:18,500 of this, of this priest king, right? In the ancient Near East, his dual title is both 238 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:22,940 king and priest, you know, uh, secular and sacred authority mixed together, reflecting 239 00:20:22,940 --> 00:20:28,300 like this political religious systems of the time. Right. Yeah. Um, some, some people point 240 00:20:28,300 --> 00:20:32,980 out to like Canaanite influence that, uh, he is representing like a local deity or a 241 00:20:32,980 --> 00:20:38,580 priest that, that in, in like Canaanite, um, history, like you see a lot of these, these 242 00:20:38,580 --> 00:20:44,660 types of roles showing up and is he a typecast of this type of role? Right. Um, now of course 243 00:20:44,660 --> 00:20:49,560 you're going to have scholars all over the place, whether or not they are, um, scholars 244 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:53,180 is an interesting thing. You gotta be really careful when you say that they can be people 245 00:20:53,180 --> 00:20:59,860 who are very antagonistic toward the text or very, um, uh, positive towards the text. 246 00:20:59,860 --> 00:21:03,780 And so you always have to take what everybody says with a grain of salt. A lot of times 247 00:21:03,780 --> 00:21:07,300 when you have scholars, they may or may not actually believe anything about the text. 248 00:21:07,300 --> 00:21:10,860 And so they don't believe it to be authoritative. So it's going to have a completely different 249 00:21:10,860 --> 00:21:16,180 perspective for them. Well, I have a guy I like to listen to who he, he is a little bit 250 00:21:16,180 --> 00:21:21,380 more like that where he doesn't follow the text as an authoritative manner. But so some 251 00:21:21,380 --> 00:21:26,980 of his views, but when you listen to him, it's like, Oh man, you know, you're Hebrew. 252 00:21:26,980 --> 00:21:32,380 Yeah. Like, yeah, we, uh, we are very much at the love and context podcast. We are very 253 00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:38,260 much of the opinion that you should, uh, as you mature, learn to be able to, um, chew 254 00:21:38,260 --> 00:21:41,940 the meat and spit out the bones of everything that people have to say. And even people who 255 00:21:41,940 --> 00:21:46,460 are wrong about a lot of things or have the wrong perspective doesn't mean you can still 256 00:21:46,460 --> 00:21:51,300 learn a lot from them. And, uh, but with that being said, you need to be very grounded 257 00:21:51,300 --> 00:21:55,460 in your understanding of scripture before you go and start hearing random thoughts. 258 00:21:55,460 --> 00:22:00,260 Yeah. Um, I listed here in the notes and because there's no way that he and I would have known 259 00:22:00,260 --> 00:22:06,900 these things, right? But some of the, some of the specific texts from, uh, the, the Cumberland 260 00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:12,180 scrolls and so there's one called 11 Q 13, just rolls off the tongue, right? Right. And 261 00:22:12,180 --> 00:22:16,940 so this is how I label everything. Yeah. 11 Q 13. Uh, this is called the milk is a dick 262 00:22:16,940 --> 00:22:19,940 scroll and I'm just gonna read this here real quick. Uh, it's one of the most significant 263 00:22:19,940 --> 00:22:23,740 references to make us like in the Dead Sea scrolls. It presents Melchizedek as a messianic 264 00:22:23,740 --> 00:22:29,380 figure and a priestly leader. The text also associates him with the day of atonement and 265 00:22:29,380 --> 00:22:33,780 suggests that he will play a central role in the eschological judgment, proclaiming 266 00:22:33,780 --> 00:22:38,260 liberation for the righteous. The scroll emphasizes the idea of McKinsey deck as a priest in the 267 00:22:38,260 --> 00:22:42,100 order of McKinsey deck parallel in the biblical portrayal of McKinsey deck in Genesis and 268 00:22:42,100 --> 00:22:46,660 later interpretations in the book of Hebrews. So if this is the conversation about Melchizedek 269 00:22:46,660 --> 00:22:51,060 in the time of the Hebrews, it totally makes sense. The writer of Hebrews is going to say, 270 00:22:51,060 --> 00:22:57,380 Jesus is this messianic figure because remember the Jews are looking for a Messiah and they're 271 00:22:57,380 --> 00:23:01,820 trying to explain to them over and over and over again, Hey, Jesus is the guy you're looking 272 00:23:01,820 --> 00:23:09,720 for, right? About how Jesus is, uh, and how you're supposed to be understanding it. Right. 273 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,580 And that's by the way, that's when you read something like that, you're like, Oh, that's 274 00:23:12,580 --> 00:23:17,220 definitely what they were doing the whole way through. Right. Uh, another one is 11 Q 275 00:23:17,220 --> 00:23:22,580 Melchizedek. This is another designation for the Melchizedek scroll, 11 Q 13, and it contains 276 00:23:22,580 --> 00:23:26,820 similar themes. So it's another scroll, but slightly different focusing on his role in 277 00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:31,780 eschological framework, by the way, eschological is a really difficult word that simply means 278 00:23:31,780 --> 00:23:40,740 end times, right? Um, text elaborates how Melchizedek will act as a mediator for God's 279 00:23:40,740 --> 00:23:45,780 people during the end time. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you, by the way, should see a lot 280 00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:50,660 of parallels with who Jesus actually stepped into this role. Uh, here's one it's by the 281 00:23:50,660 --> 00:23:56,100 way, I'd love this system. I'm going to use it at home for Q 540. It's perfect. The songs 282 00:23:56,100 --> 00:23:59,740 of the Sabbath sacrifice. This one doesn't directly mention Melchizedek, but it does 283 00:23:59,740 --> 00:24:03,700 include hymns and prayers that refer to a priestly figure and themes of righteousness, 284 00:24:03,700 --> 00:24:08,220 which a lot of scholars have interpreted as being connected to the priestly order associated 285 00:24:08,220 --> 00:24:11,900 with Melchizedek. The emphasis on priesthood and worship in this context resonates with 286 00:24:11,900 --> 00:24:15,940 the broader significance of the Mecca because of that girl. Okay. And there's two other 287 00:24:15,940 --> 00:24:20,660 ones. I'm going to just say them here so you can read them. Uh, four Q five 34, which is 288 00:24:20,660 --> 00:24:26,660 called the war scroll and four Q one 74, the treaties on the two spirits. Um, so all of 289 00:24:26,660 --> 00:24:32,680 that being said, right now, kids, the deck is a very interesting figure, right? And I, 290 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,280 you completely understand why the, the writers in the new Testament and specifically the 291 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:43,700 writers of Hebrew uses the story of Melchizedek from the book of Genesis to, uh, build this 292 00:24:43,700 --> 00:24:49,380 understanding of who is Jesus and how does he interact with your life? Yeah. Right. I 293 00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:53,660 don't want to get into like too deep into like, was Melchizedek a real person? I think 294 00:24:53,660 --> 00:24:59,380 that history and him showing up in so many references suggest yes. Yeah, same here. And 295 00:24:59,380 --> 00:25:04,020 there's a lot of things that have derived from that relationship. So I would love to 296 00:25:04,020 --> 00:25:07,860 know more about Melchizedek because there's just not enough. It's kind of like when Enoch, 297 00:25:07,860 --> 00:25:11,380 it says Enoch walk with the Lord and then he was taken up into heaven. You're like, 298 00:25:11,380 --> 00:25:16,100 hold on a second. I need more of the story. Right. And then he goes, the book of Enoch 299 00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:20,020 and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a little too much for this story. That 300 00:25:20,020 --> 00:25:27,700 doesn't quite explain that. Um, that Melchizedek is, uh, I think the, the bigger thing to your 301 00:25:27,700 --> 00:25:33,420 point is that you were talking about, we see God working in other places besides just Israel, 302 00:25:33,420 --> 00:25:41,100 right? Spoiler alert. He's always been doing that. Right. One of the things that, uh, they 303 00:25:41,100 --> 00:25:45,060 keep finding in, in mission work, and this is going to make some of you a little uncomfortable 304 00:25:45,060 --> 00:25:49,860 and that's okay. I'm okay with that. Um, they go to these, these, uh, remote places in the 305 00:25:49,860 --> 00:25:54,620 middle of nowhere, right? Where people have never met, uh, Christians, they've not, they 306 00:25:54,620 --> 00:25:59,720 don't have people coming in and, um, uh, there's a number of occasions that these people living 307 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,500 in these isolated places and they come to a guy and they said, oh yeah, we were expecting 308 00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:09,260 you. And this is a specific story I'm going to tell. We were expecting you and they get 309 00:26:09,260 --> 00:26:12,420 in and they get, they get somebody to start translating and they say, what do you mean 310 00:26:12,420 --> 00:26:17,060 that you were expecting us? They said, oh, the great God told us you were coming. And 311 00:26:17,060 --> 00:26:20,540 they're like, oh, okay, now we're dealing with mythology. They're like, they're like, 312 00:26:20,540 --> 00:26:28,180 uh, oh, really? What is, and then like, oh, his name is Jesus. And he said that you would 313 00:26:28,180 --> 00:26:32,860 tell us more about him. They're like, who was here before me? Who was here before me? 314 00:26:32,860 --> 00:26:37,980 Right. Um, and, and, and they're, and they're like, they said, yeah, he came and he told, 315 00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:41,980 he introduced himself, but he said that there were people coming who would tell us more 316 00:26:41,980 --> 00:26:47,260 about him. And so like, Jesus is going to these random villages out in the middle of 317 00:26:47,260 --> 00:26:51,180 nowhere. And then like the missionaries are coming in, they're like, yeah, let me open 318 00:26:51,180 --> 00:26:54,700 my Bible and I'll tell you about Jesus. And like, they're all, they're all in because 319 00:26:54,700 --> 00:26:59,420 they've already encountered God because God's at work places where we aren't. Yeah. It's 320 00:26:59,420 --> 00:27:03,580 his world. He's at work in people's hearts all the times. Um, I love the stories that 321 00:27:03,580 --> 00:27:08,280 come out of, uh, like Afghanistan and Israel and, uh, Palestine and these different places 322 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:12,860 where there are people, uh, specifically like people, Muslims and, and different people 323 00:27:12,860 --> 00:27:18,420 in the, in the middle East, will they be on the middle of the desert? And Jesus shows 324 00:27:18,420 --> 00:27:24,900 up in their tent or, uh, at their campfire and he starts talking with them and inviting 325 00:27:24,900 --> 00:27:31,300 them. And he says, go here and find the Christians, right? And they'll tell you more. And, uh, 326 00:27:31,300 --> 00:27:34,660 and like people didn't, don't necessarily believe these stories, but God is doing these 327 00:27:34,660 --> 00:27:39,300 things and there's just so many of them and these people's lives are changed so dramatically. 328 00:27:39,300 --> 00:27:45,060 They're like completely sold out, uh, jihad Muslim gonna live into this life. And then 329 00:27:45,060 --> 00:27:51,420 they have a random campfire encounter with Jesus and they're going to find some Christians 330 00:27:51,420 --> 00:27:55,500 because they said, Hey, I gotta leave everything to follow this guy who showed up at my campfire. 331 00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:58,940 They're like, well, can you describe him? You know, always clothes and why, you know, 332 00:27:58,940 --> 00:28:04,100 like all sorts of like, like stuff. And it's like these stories give me chills, man. Yeah. 333 00:28:04,100 --> 00:28:07,580 Right. Um, I want to share one more story that I think is like really cool because we've 334 00:28:07,580 --> 00:28:11,900 talked about how our job is to represent Jesus in the world and to, and to put him on display 335 00:28:11,900 --> 00:28:17,820 so that everybody is invited into this relationship. Jackie Hill Perry in her book, gay girl, good 336 00:28:17,820 --> 00:28:23,220 God. Um, she threw like sexual abuse in her childhood and some different things. Like 337 00:28:23,220 --> 00:28:30,300 she found herself in, uh, same sex, uh, relationships and, and, uh, and, and living apart from, 338 00:28:30,300 --> 00:28:34,660 from the church where she was like originally supposed to be like, like called into, and 339 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:38,600 she was in a relationship and she was living in this house and nobody had been talking 340 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,500 to her about God. And then one day she wakes up in the middle of the night and God says, 341 00:28:42,500 --> 00:28:49,460 I choose you and you're going to be mine. Right. And, and there's more to it. Like, 342 00:28:49,460 --> 00:28:52,660 please read her book. But she's like, there wasn't somebody didn't come and preach to 343 00:28:52,660 --> 00:28:56,580 me. Somebody didn't come in and do these things. God called me and I had to go figure out where 344 00:28:56,580 --> 00:29:01,660 he was. Right. And, uh, and then like, she, you know, she explains like she had, does 345 00:29:01,660 --> 00:29:05,860 have to do things and work towards those things, but like in the middle of, in the middle of 346 00:29:05,860 --> 00:29:13,300 what we would consider, you know, like completely away from God, God's like, no, no, I'm coming 347 00:29:13,300 --> 00:29:17,860 in here and I'm taking you home. Well, my wife's story, like how she came to follow 348 00:29:17,860 --> 00:29:23,700 Jesus as she was in her room one night and very still night. And she's like, well, God, 349 00:29:23,700 --> 00:29:28,220 if you're real, make those trees dance. Gusto, when came in, blew the trees like back and 350 00:29:28,220 --> 00:29:34,100 forth for about 30 seconds and then perfectly still after that. And she was like, okay. 351 00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:39,980 Like, like God shows up in his ways. Like he shows up in these ways. We often dismiss 352 00:29:39,980 --> 00:29:45,860 it as like, oh, it was this, this or that, whatever. But God does show up in these ways. 353 00:29:45,860 --> 00:29:49,740 Yeah. And I think the other thing with milk is that because we learned that God works 354 00:29:49,740 --> 00:29:54,420 in a lot of different ways with people. Now, please don't miss here what I'm saying because 355 00:29:54,420 --> 00:29:58,380 I think somebody could easily take what I'm saying and say all roads lead to God. That's 356 00:29:58,380 --> 00:30:02,940 not what I'm saying. No. Right. I'm saying that God works in a lot of different ways 357 00:30:02,940 --> 00:30:10,060 to communicate his reality to people and invite them into relationship. Right. That Melchizedek 358 00:30:10,060 --> 00:30:15,660 is priest of God most high before there's a priesthood. Right. So obviously God is doing 359 00:30:15,660 --> 00:30:23,580 work before the mosaic covenant. Right. Before this covenant at Sinai. Yeah. And, and God 360 00:30:23,580 --> 00:30:27,820 is by the way, while Israel is going through these thousands of years, he's still doing 361 00:30:27,820 --> 00:30:33,100 things with people in the middle of those relate in the middle of those covenants. It's 362 00:30:33,100 --> 00:30:37,700 not just Israel he's working with. There's people all over. In fact, that might be a 363 00:30:37,700 --> 00:30:41,780 fun thing for us to go through is talk about all these people who are non Israelites that 364 00:30:41,780 --> 00:30:45,220 God keeps interacting with and keeps sending back to the nations. Yeah. Like you think 365 00:30:45,220 --> 00:30:52,380 about Nehman, right? By the way, that's a fun story in the story of Elisha, Elisha. This 366 00:30:52,380 --> 00:30:59,300 really big to do guy named Nehman who has skin disease comes to Elisha and he says, 367 00:30:59,300 --> 00:31:02,060 he says, yeah, I've heard that you might be able to kill me. And he says, doesn't even 368 00:31:02,060 --> 00:31:06,780 go to see him. He just sends his servant to the door and says, yeah, go bathe in the Jordan 369 00:31:06,780 --> 00:31:13,420 River, which by the way, the Jordan River is nasty. Yeah. Then, and essentially the 370 00:31:13,420 --> 00:31:20,420 story is that naming gets healed after being humbled, but that he, he asked Elisha if he 371 00:31:20,420 --> 00:31:26,060 can take the dirt from Israel to go back to his homeland so that when he is there, he 372 00:31:26,060 --> 00:31:31,620 can still worship God because in his mind, God is linked to the dirt. And Elisha is like, 373 00:31:31,620 --> 00:31:36,980 okay, sure. Go ahead and do that. Because like, like, does Elisha not know that God's 374 00:31:36,980 --> 00:31:40,980 not in the dirt? Of course God knows Elisha is not in the dirt, but he's going to let 375 00:31:40,980 --> 00:31:45,740 the guy take something that's going to connect him to God knows high. Right? Yeah. And, and 376 00:31:45,740 --> 00:31:50,740 I think sometimes we get so, so focused on everything being right that we forget to just 377 00:31:50,740 --> 00:31:55,900 connect people to God most high, let him fix the stuff in between. Well, if you think of 378 00:31:55,900 --> 00:32:00,220 the narrow road, right? Yeah. We're like, cause the Bible talks about how there's the 379 00:32:00,220 --> 00:32:06,620 wide path that leads to death, right? And the narrow road there's, but the thing that 380 00:32:06,620 --> 00:32:11,660 at least I've heard someone say it this way. One time I was like, there's lots of paths 381 00:32:11,660 --> 00:32:16,060 to the narrow road, but once you, but to get on the narrow road, you got to say yes to 382 00:32:16,060 --> 00:32:22,820 Jesus. Yeah. Right. Like that's how you get on that narrow road is by saying yes to Jesus, 383 00:32:22,820 --> 00:32:27,820 but God will meet you wherever you're at to get you to that road. Yeah. Right. And again, 384 00:32:27,820 --> 00:32:32,060 like be, I want to be really clear. There's lots of roads that do not lead there. Right. 385 00:32:32,060 --> 00:32:36,580 Right. We're not saying that all paths lead to God. Yeah. Eventually we will all be before 386 00:32:36,580 --> 00:32:41,780 him and there will, and there, you might have a pleasant conversation with him. You might 387 00:32:41,780 --> 00:32:45,820 not. Okay. We're hoping for pleasant. We're hoping for pleasant. That's what we're hoping 388 00:32:45,820 --> 00:32:51,940 and praying for. Right. But, but there's lots of roads that lead to that narrow path. Yeah. 389 00:32:51,940 --> 00:32:57,140 The best, the best thing about the, the Bible is that we get a, we got a chronological look 390 00:32:57,140 --> 00:33:02,860 at God working with one people and like how, who is this God? How does he work with people? 391 00:33:02,860 --> 00:33:07,260 What is his patience like? And the first, one of the first glimpses we get is in the 392 00:33:07,260 --> 00:33:12,860 book of Genesis through this King. That's not even an Israelite. Right. It's going to 393 00:33:12,860 --> 00:33:20,300 be fun. This was part one. Melchizedek. I am sure that you have questions. Please send. 394 00:33:20,300 --> 00:33:24,020 So do we. But if you have some that you think we might be able to answer, send them to us 395 00:33:24,020 --> 00:33:28,820 at love and context at gmail.com. Feel free to comment on our video. It's okay if you 396 00:33:28,820 --> 00:33:33,620 disagree with us, try to be nice. Remember, we're trying to represent Jesus here. So be 397 00:33:33,620 --> 00:33:37,580 nice. And if you're not going to be nice, we'll probably just delete your comment. So, 398 00:33:37,580 --> 00:33:46,220 or we'll use it to fuel our algorithm. One of the two, one of the two until next time. 399 00:33:46,220 --> 00:33:50,460 And that's a wrap for today's episode of love and context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging 400 00:33:50,460 --> 00:33:55,140 conversation and gain valuable insights into the powerful message of love within the Bible. 401 00:33:55,140 --> 00:33:59,220 We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. Connect with us by sending us 402 00:33:59,220 --> 00:34:05,100 your questions, thoughts, and suggestions to love and context at gmail.com. We greatly 403 00:34:05,100 --> 00:34:10,540 appreciate your feedback and ideas for future episodes. Stay connected with us on social 404 00:34:10,540 --> 00:34:14,940 media for updates, behind the scenes content, and additional resources. You can find us 405 00:34:14,940 --> 00:34:19,920 on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook at love and context. Don't forget to hit that 406 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:24,420 follow button to stay up to date with the latest episodes and join our growing community. 407 00:34:24,420 --> 00:34:28,300 Thank you for being part of the love and context family. Remember, love is at the heart of 408 00:34:28,300 --> 00:34:33,860 it all. Until next time, keep seeking wisdom, embracing love, and living out your faith 409 00:34:33,860 --> 00:34:58,060 in the context of today's world.