Common Sense Bible Study's full discussion of Proverbs chapter 3.
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00:00:00Proverbs 3.
00:00:05I just want to talk a little bit about the first, well, 12 verses, really, because I think they all come in a unit.
00:00:15So the first verse, my son, do not forget my Torah, but let your heart keep my mitzvot.
00:00:21I use the English Standard Version for pretty much all of the verses I include here.
00:00:27This one I modified a little bit to put the Hebrew words in there instead of the English.
00:00:33There are some literary structures here at the beginning of Proverbs 3 in these first 12 verses.
00:00:39And I want to point those out.
00:00:43First off, there are actually, it starts out with three parallelisms, verses 1 through 4, verses 5 through 8, and verses 9 through 12.
00:00:51Those are three separate parallelisms, but the main topic of each one kind of puts them in a thematic chiasm.
00:00:59So the first four verses are about listening to your father's advice.
00:01:04Listen to his teaching, hold it tight, and honor him with how you treat what he's told you.
00:01:09And the last four verses, verses 9 through 12, are about listening to your heavenly father and honoring him with what he's taught you.
00:01:18And the middle part is about trusting the heavenly father's wisdom above your own.
00:01:26Let me look at this in a little bit more detail.
00:01:28In verses 1 through 4, it starts out in verse 1, my son, don't lose my Torah, or don't lose my teachings, or forget my instruction.
00:01:40And then meditate on my commandments.
00:01:42I'm paraphrasing here a little bit.
00:01:45In verse 2, the benefits of doing that, long life and peace.
00:01:48And then it starts this sequence over again in verse 3, chesed and emet, which is loving kindness or mercy or grace, depending on your translation.
00:02:00And emet, which is truthfulness or faithfulness, again, depending on your translation, from father to son.
00:02:08Meditate on my loving kindness and my faithfulness.
00:02:12And the benefit of that is that you will have favor and success in the eyes of both God and man.
00:02:16And, you know, the first part, let me go back to that, has three elements in each parallel.
00:02:23So, my son, don't lose my Torah.
00:02:27The loving kindness and faithfulness from father to son.
00:02:31Meditate on my commandments.
00:02:32Meditate on my chesed and emet.
00:02:35And then the benefit of both.
00:02:38In the middle part, there are four elements to each parallelism.
00:02:41And so, it begins, trust Yahweh, not yourself.
00:02:49And in the other side, don't trust yourself.
00:02:51Fear Yahweh.
00:02:54Consider his will in all manners.
00:02:55And on the other side, repeat from evil.
00:02:57Repent.
00:02:58Sorry about that.
00:03:00The benefit is an uncomplicated life.
00:03:03And healing and revitalization.
00:03:06And then, finally, the last part, verses 9 through 12, is, again, a three-part element, which connects it back to the first part, or a three-element parallelism.
00:03:19And it begins with honoring Yahweh with all that you have, with a firstfruits offering, and you'll get even more.
00:03:26Give back to God just a little bit, and he'll give you more.
00:03:29And then, the parallels are, my son, don't despise Yahweh's discipline, which is connected to, honor Yahweh with all you have.
00:03:38Don't weary of his rebuke.
00:03:41And, like a father, Yahweh rebukes whom he loves.
00:03:44The connections in this parallelism are a little harder to see.
00:03:49The easier part is the beginning and the end.
00:03:52Honor Yahweh with all you have.
00:03:53And, my son, don't despise Yahweh's discipline.
00:03:55Are pretty closely related.
00:03:58And, you'll gain even more.
00:04:00And, like a father, Yahweh rebukes whom he loves.
00:04:03Well, that's kind of hard to see the connection right away.
00:04:06But, these are things that you get back for what you give.
00:04:10In the first part, you give a firstfruits offering as a sign of honoring Yahweh with everything that he's given you.
00:04:18He gives everything that you have.
00:04:21He gives all of that to you.
00:04:23So, you take a little bit and give it back to him, and you'll have even more, whether that's material gain or understanding or relationships, health, whatever it is.
00:04:35And, in the second part, don't despise Yahweh's discipline.
00:04:41This discipline is something that God is giving you.
00:04:43And, with the little that you give back is, don't weary of his rebuke.
00:04:48Accept it.
00:04:49And, this is honoring him.
00:04:51This honors him by respecting what he's giving you.
00:04:55And, then, the benefit is Yahweh's love.
00:04:58Or, the evidence of Yahweh's love.
00:05:00Like a father, he rebukes whom he loves.
00:05:03This is how you know that he loves you and that he still has a plan for you.
00:05:06That he is still disciplining you.
00:05:08That your conscience still bothers you.
00:05:10But, as long as you are still feeling that pull, when, you know, whenever you know that you're doing something wrong, and you still feel that pull to go back to God to repent, you know he still loves you and wants you.
00:05:23And, that's the part that you gain even more.
00:05:27So, you can see those verses here.
00:05:30If you wanted to look at the text.
00:05:33But, it's pretty obvious.
00:05:35If you pay attention to them.
00:05:36Yeah, in this passage, verse 1.
00:05:45Let your heart keep my commandments.
00:05:48In ancient Hebrew culture, when they talk about the heart, they're not talking about just your emotions or your feelings.
00:05:57This is the center of, essentially, everything that you are.
00:06:01So, your feelings and your thoughts.
00:06:05Your conscious thoughts.
00:06:07So, when it talks about keep something in your heart.
00:06:10Or, let your heart dwell on something.
00:06:13It's talking about meditating on it.
00:06:15Thinking about it.
00:06:16Analyzing it.
00:06:17Trying to figure out what it means.
00:06:19How it applies to you.
00:06:20And, in verse 3, tie them, bind them around your neck.
00:06:28Write them on the tablet of your heart.
00:06:30Is kind of repeating the same idea.
00:06:33Write them on the tablet of your heart.
00:06:35Means to memorize them.
00:06:38And, to keep repeating them.
00:06:40Keep going back to them and reviewing them.
00:06:42So, that they become part of who you are.
00:06:45So, that whenever you need them, you can bring them out.
00:06:48And, really, bind them around your neck is the same thing.
00:06:53You know, you're probably all familiar with Tzitzit.
00:06:58The mezuzah on the door.
00:07:01You know, writing God's law on the doorposts of your house and your gate.
00:07:04All of these things are meant to constantly remind you of God's commandments and the covenant.
00:07:11And, binding them around your neck is the same kind of idea.
00:07:15Carry them around with you everywhere you go.
00:07:17Now, you can certainly put a chain around your neck and, you know, maybe wear a little mezuzah around if you want.
00:07:24But, really, it's a symbolic thing.
00:07:26It's just saying, wherever you go, carry these commandments with you so that you're always thinking about them.
00:07:31So that they become a part of who you are.
00:07:34And, the last parallel, long life and peace, says, for length of days and year of life and peace, they will add to you.
00:07:43Connected to, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
00:07:48And, how these are connected.
00:07:50I mean, first, they're connected because these are the benefits of following these instructions.
00:07:55But, they're really kind of the same benefit.
00:07:58If you don't have a good relationship with the people who live around you, you're going to have a hard time staying there.
00:08:04If you have a good relationship, if you've got roots and all the people around you respect you, it becomes so much easier to stay where you are.
00:08:13Not just because it's a friendly place, but because it creates security for you.
00:08:18Physical and financial security.
00:08:20When you have trouble, your neighbors will be there to help you.
00:08:23When somebody else threatens you, they will be more likely to take your side if they respect you.
00:08:30And, this is also connected to Paul's discussion of the qualities of an overseer in 1 Timothy 3.
00:08:42Let me go there.
00:08:43See, he must, here it is.
00:08:55Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
00:09:00Now, whether Paul was specifically thinking of this passage when he wrote that or not, I don't know.
00:09:08But, that is a sign of somebody who has wisdom that they have the respect of their neighbors and the people who live around them.
00:09:16Now, of course, that isn't, that doesn't really hold true if your neighbors hate God.
00:09:20So, Lot living in Sodom, the respect of his neighbors would not have been a good sign of his character and his wisdom.
00:09:29In fact, him having those neighbors at all was probably a sign of negative wisdom.
00:09:37All right.
00:09:37So, these were the three questions that I had posted on the Common Sense Bible Study community earlier this week or maybe Friday last week.
00:09:47Anybody have a chance to think about these?
00:09:50Um, I did on the, on the first one of the verse three.
00:09:56Mm-hmm.
00:09:56When I was rereading it in different translations today and then I was looking at Oni's sword.
00:10:02But it came to my mind that, um, well, in my younger years, I had an Etch-A-Sketch heart.
00:10:11Anytime trouble came, I got turned over upside down and whatever I had there was shaken, gone away.
00:10:19Mm-hmm.
00:10:20And then with Torah, things are now engraved.
00:10:26Things are now not pounded in, but they're etched in pretty deep.
00:10:34Mm-hmm.
00:10:34And, um, and, um, it was painful, but I'm very thankful for it.
00:10:40And it's easy to see Etch-A-Sketch hearts all around us because of whatever storms or winds may blow through, things that come around and they get tossed to and fro.
00:10:53So, I try, I'm going to try to remember this part of the study as, um, well, some of, some of my grandchildren may not know what an Etch-A-Sketch is anymore.
00:11:06So, we'll see.
00:11:09Mm-hmm.
00:11:10And, and so when we're drawing with it, you know, we, we use the stylus that's there as best we can.
00:11:15And we try to etch the things on there so that we can make a picture or whatever.
00:11:19But, again, things get turned upside down, turned over, and it's gone.
00:11:25And that was my life before Messiah, and that was my life even before Torah.
00:11:31As a Christian, there were things that would come around, and it would turn me upside down.
00:11:36And so it made me question how much faith, how deep of faith I had.
00:11:42And when I would walk away saying, there's got to be more to you than this, and that's where Torah became alive.
00:11:48In my life.
00:11:50So, that, that's what I gleaned from that verse, and I'm hoping that it stays with me, that I'll be able to present it in ways, you know, to other people, that they'd be able to get a, maybe a little bit more understanding of why they have some issues, why they have some trouble, why they have some differences.
00:12:11So, that's what I got.
00:12:13Yeah, you know, I think there are, there are, there are things that we should hold lightly to, that we should be willing to, you know, to, you know, turn the etch of sketch over and shake it up, just to let those things go.
00:12:25But God's commandments in the scriptures aren't one of them.
00:12:30Exactly.
00:12:30Sometimes our pet interpretations of things, we need to hold a little lightly to, but the plain meaning of the text, the words themselves are, they last forever.
00:12:44I mean, the commandments were given in a specific time and culture, so they, it takes a little bit of effort to think through how they're going to apply to us today.
00:12:52Like, you know, do we really have to worry about yoking an ox and a donkey together?
00:12:58You know, most of us will never have to deal with that.
00:13:01But the, the text itself has a much broader meaning.
00:13:06And if we write those words in our heart so that they're always there, the meaning, the application comes of its own.
00:13:16If that makes sense.
00:13:19Yeah.
00:13:21All right.
00:13:22So what about those specific words, steadfast love and kindness, mercy?
00:13:27Yeah, I noticed that there's a lot of disagreement about how exactly to translate that Hebrew word.
00:13:33And the Hebrew word is chesed.
00:13:35But, you know, in the ESV, it's translated steadfast love in King James, it's mercy.
00:13:46And tree of life version translates it as kindness.
00:13:52But I think looking at how that word is used throughout scripture can give us a much better idea of what what Solomon was talking about.
00:14:00But in the, when they mentioned the fruits of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, there's, there's nine, not nine fruits, right?
00:14:14But nine adjectives and how to show that.
00:14:19And it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, right?
00:14:24So, I mean, kindness and steadfast love, and there's two separate words on, on that one.
00:14:34So I don't know if there's, there exact will be the exact same thing.
00:14:38When I think of steadfast love is, you know, you can think of like relationships that they have their ups and downs.
00:14:46And you can have your ups and downs at work, you can have your ups and downs with your diet, you know, but it's always better, I think, to have that steady.
00:14:58That's what I think when I think steadfast, I think of steady, of just being there, of consistency.
00:15:09And I think that the, the father, it's like that, right?
00:15:14Because he, I think people, when you read the scriptures, you think that he's, if you don't read it right, you may think that he's a God of emotion.
00:15:24And in a sense that wherever the wind, you know, blows, that's where he goes.
00:15:30But obviously he has emotion, right?
00:15:34His anger and love and all these things, but, you know, he's, he's so just and fair that to me, that's how he shows his steadfast love.
00:15:44Even when, you know, his people have rejected him, even when I've rejected him and turned my back on him, he's always been there steady the whole time.
00:15:54And that makes you feel his mercy and in return, you know, kindness, you know?
00:16:03Yeah.
00:16:04Yeah.
00:16:05I think, you know, the passage in the fruits of the spirits in Galatians five, and I think, you know, Paul was writing in Greek.
00:16:13So there isn't going to be a direct translation from the Hebrew, but I think several of the words there, if you think of them together, are a good representation of chesed.
00:16:25So he's got love, which is agape, and long-suffering, and gentleness, goodness.
00:16:33All of those are part of chesed, that loving kindness that God has and that he wants us to have for others.
00:16:41I think I've seen it translated as grace, like not, not like the supernatural power that people, a lot of, a lot of modern preachers like to use the word grace to refer to God's supernatural power, which isn't really the way the term is used in scripture.
00:16:57But, I mean, understanding that scriptures, none of them were written in English.
00:17:01So, I mean, there is some fuzziness there in the translation.
00:17:07But the idea of graciousness, of, you know, what some people call unmerited favor, which I think is part of it, but not the whole thing.
00:17:19If someone is, well, being good to your enemy, someone strikes you, you turn the other cheek.
00:17:25Don't respond in kind immediately.
00:17:28Hold back, wait to see what's going on.
00:17:30That's part of graciousness, and that's part of chesed.
00:17:33The long-suffering patience, not, not being judgmental, not, not being Zeus, standing up there with a lightning bolt, ready to, you know, fry anybody who gets out of line.
00:17:46That's the opposite of who God is.
00:17:49He's got the lightning bolt, but he's not just waiting to throw it at somebody because he has loving kindness.
00:17:56I actually, I wrote an article about this.
00:17:58I'm going to send in an email tomorrow morning, but, and it'll be on the American Torah website.
00:18:03But I wanted to show it to you now.
00:18:07So, verse 3, let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
00:18:12And then turn to Genesis 24, 27.
00:18:17This is Eliezer, Abraham's servant, whom he has sent to find a wife for Isaac.
00:18:21Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.
00:18:30The exact same two words, well, three words if you include forsake.
00:18:33I think that Solomon wasn't just trying to describe God-like, godly-like character in a father and in a son towards his father, but he was also making a direct reference to the relationship between Abraham and Isaac.
00:18:49And that Eliezer said that Abraham had not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward his master Isaac.
00:18:57And if you look at the prophetic shadows of Abraham and Isaac, and you think of God the father and the son,
00:19:10the father also showed loving kindness and faithfulness to his son, even though both of them sacrificed their son for the benefit of a greater good, for the benefit of a covenant.
00:19:23That sacrifice still showed steadfast love and faithfulness, because part of being faithful to your relationship between people here on earth, between father and son, is being faithful to your relationship with the heavenly father.
00:19:41If a father, I mean, we talked about this last week, Carlos, if a father is not faithful to his son, isn't showing him gracious, loving kindness,
00:19:50because the son is going to have a much harder time understanding those things from God.
00:19:56And so the father has to discipline his son because he loves him.
00:20:01Sometimes he has to make his son sacrifice.
00:20:04He inflicts pain on him at times, but he does so out of love and concern for his future.
00:20:11It's not because he wants to hurt him or it's not for revenge, or at least it shouldn't be,
00:20:16but he should be emulating Abraham, who treated Isaac with loving kindness and faithfulness.
00:20:25Yeah, I shared a video on our phone chat, and it was a video from you from two years ago, pretty much talking about that relationship.
00:20:37I mean, it's the same thing we just we talked about, you know, yesterday, your video was pretty much the same thing, you know, about the relationship.
00:20:45You said you said that it is it is in us instinct wise for us to look at if you had didn't have a good father and say,
00:20:59well, my father treated me this way, and in your mind, consciously or subconsciously, right?
00:21:05Think that, well, I must be the same way, too.
00:21:08You know, and that's why a lot, you know, we talked about this last week.
00:21:12That's why probably a lot of men, a lot of men and women, but, you know, men reject, you know, their God because their father wasn't there for him.
00:21:22Yeah, I wrote down a couple of thoughts about the second question that if we if we lose grace and truth,
00:21:37which is what my version actually or translation says, which I connected with a little bit easier than the mercy, steadfast love and kindness one.
00:21:46And but that if we lose that, if if we lose those things, then we lose our relationship with our heavenly father.
00:21:55And so we go after those two things, understanding that our our spiritual life depends on it.
00:22:01In essence, we hang them around our necks so we never lose them and they are close to our hearts.
00:22:07And then also just just thinking about, you know, Yeshua, you know, telling the disciples to seek first the kingdom of Elohim and all the other things will be added to you.
00:22:20And so it just seems like a lot hangs on us.
00:22:25Keeping those things in our life.
00:22:29Yeah, very good.
00:22:31What about what does it mean to honor God with your wealth and first fruits in verse nine?
00:22:36Anybody have a thought on that one?
00:22:41First thing that came to my mind is, well, is the.
00:22:47In relationship to the temple.
00:22:50But I think we see.
00:22:54From the very beginning in Genesis, can't enable right already having that understanding of giving your first fruits anyway.
00:23:00And, you know, they didn't do that.
00:23:03Well, Cain didn't do that.
00:23:06And then, yeah, in relation to the temple as well, as does the thing, first thing that came to my mind.
00:23:12Well, specifically says first fruits of your produce.
00:23:15But, you know, many of us may have gardens, but we're not necessarily farmers.
00:23:20So how do we honor that today?
00:23:23I mean, there's no temple.
00:23:24There's no priesthood.
00:23:27We're not living in the land and growing crops.
00:23:30Right.
00:23:31Yeah.
00:23:32My mind on that is, you know, I guess coming from the church and the church telling you, you know, tithing and there's money involved in there as well.
00:23:41I still believe in giving your first fruits regardless, just do it in a different way.
00:23:49There's no temple or anything like that.
00:23:51But, you know, he did instruct us to, you know, love our brother and sister, to take care of the widow, the fatherless, the homeless and everyone else.
00:24:01And so in my mind, it just, that's the way of honoring God, you know, it's transferring over that to my brother and sister so they can be, so the father can be honored and glorified through those things, you know.
00:24:16So at least that's where I'm at at this point in life.
00:24:21Yeah.
00:24:21What do you think about the second verse 10, the next part of that?
00:24:25And your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.
00:24:29And is this, you know, the oft-repeated promise that, you know, you send some seed money to the church, then, you know, God's going to pay you back a hundredfold?
00:24:38Is that what this is saying?
00:24:40No, and not to me.
00:24:42And, you know, again, I was, you know, I was the one that used to, you know, faithfully always give and stuff like that.
00:24:50But if you know me long enough, you know that I'm a little bit of a skeptic about everything.
00:24:57And so I just, there was, you know, and you guys know where I've been, so it's just very uncomfortable not knowing where those things go.
00:25:06So the way I saw it is like, you know, taking responsibility on your own to, you know, I pray about it.
00:25:14I say, Father, you just show me who needs from the abundance that you've given me.
00:25:19And obviously I'm not wealthy or anything like that.
00:25:21But, you know, in comparison to the rest of the world, you know, we're, you know, pretty well off.
00:25:27So if I can help anyone, and we've done it before in the past, all of us as a group, right?
00:25:33So, you know, and I honestly believe that, you know, it's funny how they twist the words because, I mean, they're right.
00:25:43You know, they're right.
00:25:44And I believe that if you give, you know, the Father gives you back, you know, tenfold or whatever it may be.
00:25:51But it's in your heart, right?
00:25:54If you're giving, expect something back, then, you know, that's a no-go.
00:25:59You know, he'll know that.
00:26:01If you're giving it in order to get back.
00:26:04Right.
00:26:04But when you give, and it doesn't mean it's going to, you know, somebody's going to come in with a big old check in front of your house and, you know, tell you you won, right?
00:26:13But I think you've mentioned this before.
00:26:15You know, you can be blessed with health.
00:26:18You know, you can be blessed with children, grandchildren, with all kinds of different other things.
00:26:24I mean, look, I would take Shalom over any amount of money ever, right?
00:26:32So you may look, you know, somebody that has money, you may be tempted to, especially at work, you know, we have senior leadership that, you know, I'm sure they make a lot of money.
00:26:43But I see the stress they carry, and I'm like, man, I don't know if it's worth making all that money for that amount of stress, you know?
00:26:50So that Shalom that he gives you, it goes even more further than, you know, and everything else is lanyard.
00:26:59If he gives you, you know, plenty of wine and food and all that, that's great.
00:27:03But just his presence and his Shalom, it's more than enough.
00:27:07Yeah, I think there's actually a verse.
00:27:09Yeah, go ahead, Heidi.
00:27:10I was just going to say that, you know, when it says give from your wealth, you know how I always like to look at words, I'm always saying stuff about words.
00:27:19What I find really interesting is that it's almost always translated wealth, which is understandable, that it's absolutely one of the meanings.
00:27:25But the etymology of the word comes from the word strength, your generative power, your wealth, your physical strength, and then also to be easy to be ready.
00:27:44And so there's sort of that implication that you are, you are ready to offer those things that you are strong in and having, and having, having adequate financial place, you know, being in a good financial place is strength.
00:28:01I'm not going to lie about that.
00:28:02But it is such an interesting thing that, you know, to say, it's not just about throwing money in an offering plate.
00:28:10It's about having that generous spirit of being ready to give of my strength, to be willing to give of my strength in such a way that, what does it say?
00:28:24And with the first fruits of all your increase.
00:28:27And so it's like, whatever I have, I'm willing and eager to share it.
00:28:32And when that is happening, when that, that generous spirit is present, then, then the other side occurs.
00:28:41It's not just about, you know, the seed money kind of thing we were talking about.
00:28:45And it's not a new conversation, but I just, I just love the idea of ready, eager to share my strength.
00:28:54I mean, it has so many more applications.
00:28:56Yeah.
00:28:56Yeah.
00:28:57It takes a lot of gratitude.
00:28:58Because, I mean, when you understand that, that whatever you have, all of your substance or your wealth was given to you by God.
00:29:07How can you not give something back or pass it on to somebody else who, who is also one of God's children or is somebody who carries God's image?
00:29:19Not to seems.
00:29:23Selfish.
00:29:24Greedy.
00:29:25Yeah.
00:29:26It also reminds me when it says, kind of piggyback on what Heidi said is the, you know, when you're, you're firstborn is your first is your first fruit as well.
00:29:37Right.
00:29:38If I, if I understand that right.
00:29:40Like Abraham.
00:29:40In a way, yeah.
00:29:42Abraham, you know, you know, it's interesting when you read the story of Abraham and Isaac, right?
00:29:47As, as he was, you know, presenting him to God.
00:29:50If you see the movies, it makes it seem, and I've been wanting to, to, to write about this, but it makes it seem in the movies.
00:29:59Like he's, Abraham is devastated that he's taken his son to the altar to be sacrificed, right?
00:30:06Movie.
00:30:07He's crying.
00:30:08He's, he's torn, but by this, but as you know, as I've read it multiple times over and over again, it doesn't seem that way to me.
00:30:17Right.
00:30:17I think there's even, I don't think, I know there's a verse that even says, uh, whoever he went with, he tells him, Hey, we'll see you in a bit.
00:30:25Because he knew that regardless, the father already made that promise to him.
00:30:31Right.
00:30:31So he was confident going up that mountain, understanding that whatever happens, you know, he's, his son wasn't going to go away anywhere because, you know, he already made promises that, you know, that we're going to be generations after him, you know?
00:30:46So he was more than happy to give the first fruit, um, to God.
00:30:51And he didn't have any problem with that.
00:30:53Right.
00:30:53He didn't flinch on any of that.
00:30:55The movie make it sound all dramatic.
00:30:57Like he was like, Oh no, you know, it wasn't even like that.
00:31:01You know, he, he knew that everything was going to be all right.
00:31:03So he was a joyful giver.
00:31:06And, you know, I wonder how many people in a church environment just give just to give.
00:31:13And that's, that's when the father has already worked in you and it transformed your heart.
00:31:20And you just give knowing that you believe in his promises that blessings will come upon you in one way, shape or another.
00:31:29Right.
00:31:30And his own time and will.
00:31:33Yeah.
00:31:33He knew that, that giving up Isaac would not be a permanent thing that whatever happened with Isaac, God had made a promise that Isaac would be the father of nations.
00:31:45And for that to happen, I, he would have to give Isaac back.
00:31:48So, you know, God gave Isaac, Abraham gave Isaac back and God gave Isaac right back again.
00:31:56However, it was going to happen.
00:31:57He knew that it would.
00:31:58I, I think this is probably one of the top five most confusing areas or, or areas that, that really stumps people.
00:32:10When, when you have a heart to honor him, there's, to me, there's some, some difficult questions that, that come to mind in this area of finance in our lives as believers.
00:32:26Because, you know, when we're, you know, when we're reading the Tanakh, there's a very clear set of parameters and expectations.
00:32:36And then when you read the Gospels and then even the writings of Paul, you're reading about things that are happening still in the, much of it anyway, in the environment of Israel.
00:32:53And the, some of it, you know, was obviously written when the temple was still there.
00:32:59But then you have things like, you know, Paul saying maybe to those that are lazy that you need to work to, to have something to be able to give or to be able to share.
00:33:11Instead of this idea that we, we go give something so we get, you know, reap a harvest on that.
00:33:21And, and so I, for me, I've, it's my perception of it has continued to evolve over the years.
00:33:28And, and, and I think where I've come to settle is, is just with the understanding that obviously when it comes to the requirements in the Torah that Yeshua fulfilled that.
00:33:40But that it's no longer a set of rules and parameters, but it's really ultimately being led by his spirit with the understanding that he owns everything.
00:33:56As far as we're concerned, we've given him our lives and that includes everything that we have to be stewards over.
00:34:03And, and, and so ultimately to be led by his spirit, I think, I think is where you'll see his kingdom manifest in your life, whatever that means.
00:34:16I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean that if you go give, that you're going to get something back specifically for giving that thing.
00:34:23But at the same time, it does say that he, you know, whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.
00:34:29And so it's, sometimes it's difficult to see that distinction between hard, you know, defined rules and discerning, you know, the discernment that comes from his ruach.
00:34:41So.
00:34:42Yeah.
00:34:43Yeah.
00:34:44And you also have to take into consideration that, that everything that God gives or takes away is mitigated by the needs of the kingdom.
00:34:52Um, so that, you know, whatever you ask for, as long as you're asking in accordance with God's will, God will give it if it furthers the needs of his kingdom.
00:35:03So, I mean, it's not a sin to be rich.
00:35:06It's not a sin to have a nice car or, or to be healthy or any other good thing.
00:35:12But sometimes it's not what God needs for you.
00:35:14Maybe he needs you to be sick for a while so that you can, so that you'll come into contact with certain people or so that you'll have certain experiences that you can build on and talk about later.
00:35:26Um, or maybe he needs you to be filthy rich so that you can have those experiences so that you can use your resources to bless and, uh, finance somebody else's work.
00:35:39It's, there are so many factors that go into this stuff that go into why God blesses one person, one way and another person, another way.
00:35:47Um, that it's, I think it's impossible to say, I'm giving 10% of my tithes and God is going to give me a raise next year.
00:35:57It's not the way it works.
00:36:01In the, in the practical sense of this specific verse, you know, we don't, we don't have a temple or a functioning priesthood.
00:36:09Um, we don't have the, the community storehouses that God's law commands.
00:36:15We're not even living in the land of Israel.
00:36:19So the commandments about tithes are, I mean, you know, you think about what Abraham tithed to, uh, Melchizedek.
00:36:28There was no commandment there.
00:36:30Abraham just did it.
00:36:31It was a voluntary thing.
00:36:33The tithes that were commanded later were commanded to be done from specific things to specific people or to specific groups of people at least.
00:36:43And so we can't really do those things exactly the way that God said to do them.
00:36:49So we have to, we have to emulate it the best we can, where we are.
00:36:53Uh, like you were saying, Carlos, there are people in our community who need help.
00:36:58There are poor people that we know of.
00:36:59There are orphans.
00:37:00There are, uh, people in prison.
00:37:03There are sick people.
00:37:04Um, you know, one of our, one of our common sense Bible study community members had a minor injury at work today.
00:37:13Um, and we forgot to pray when we started.
00:37:15We'll have, have to make sure that we do that before we quit.
00:37:18Um, and we can say a prayer for her and another person in our, who used to be part of our local community here who is in the hospital right now.
00:37:31These are good people.
00:37:32I mean, they're not mass murderers or, you know, they're not out robbing banks.
00:37:36Um, God's got a purpose for all that.
00:37:40And one of the purposes is that we can take what God has given us and help those people with it.
00:37:47And sometimes that's just our prayers.
00:37:49Like in this case, um, unless it turns out that one of these people has a financial need with their medical bills.
00:37:55And, you know, those of us with the resources to help can help.
00:37:59Uh, there are also the, um, the annual feast days.
00:38:04Um, if we were living in the land and going to Jerusalem for Sukkot or, uh, Passover, part of our tithes would go to pay for those expenses and go to pay for the festivities.
00:38:15But we're not doing that, but we can still set aside money to pay for those events.
00:38:21And that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do with what we're calling a tithe.
00:38:26Technically, it might not be called that.
00:38:28It might be called the first fruits or, you know, a tithe isn't even necessarily a tenth.
00:38:32I think the, the word originates in the concept of a tenth, but, you know, like the tithe of your livestock wasn't a tenth.
00:38:40It was a fiftieth in some cases.
00:38:43Let's move on in the chapter.
00:38:44And I mean, this chapter is loaded with stuff that we could talk about it.
00:38:49You know, it reads like it's just a random series of bits of advice, but there really is a lot of depth.
00:38:56And each one of these verses seems to connect to a dozen different places in scripture where we can either see examples of it or elaborations or somebody else saying the same thing in different ways.
00:39:06If we go to, say, verse 13, I'm sure there are lots of things that we could talk about with the meanings of silver and gold.
00:39:19And the meaning seems pretty plain, though.
00:39:23Wisdom, wisdom is better than those things.
00:39:25But specifically, how is wisdom better than silver or gold?
00:39:33You ever seen somebody win the lottery?
00:39:37Heard stories.
00:39:40Well, yeah, right.
00:39:41Having wisdom is better than being rich because there's a lot of people who are rich who have no wisdom and they isn't fast.
00:39:48They squander it on silliness.
00:39:50Yeah, I remember a guy like maybe 30 years ago now who won the lotto up in Chicago and bought a bowling alley and then he was bankrupt in like two years.
00:40:02Yeah, it's like that, you know, that thing to tell you about what would you rather have?
00:40:09Would you rather have a penny that doubles every day or would you like a million dollars?
00:40:14And, you know, if a penny doubles, I think by half, by the 15th date or something like that, you're still not up to a million.
00:40:26So it makes it seem like you're not going to make it.
00:40:29But eventually, by the end of the month, you have five millions, right?
00:40:35So, you know, that's that's the whole point of like, you know, it's better to have that wisdom and a discernment because if you didn't have it, you would think, well, I'll just take the million dollars, you know, and I'm good.
00:40:48But if you have that wisdom and discernment, it gives you even more than that.
00:40:53Right.
00:40:53You would know that now I'll just take the penny that doubles all the time.
00:40:56And I know by the end I'll have five million dollars, you know?
00:40:59Yeah.
00:40:59Yeah, I think I heard someone kind of someone I listened to this week put it wisdom can't be bought with silver or gold, but silver and gold can be obtained through wisdom.
00:41:14So just like when, you know, God told Solomon, you can have whatever you want.
00:41:19And he asked for wisdom and God gave him silver and gold.
00:41:22And really, I mean, once you have once you're the wisest man in the world, you're going to have silver and gold anyway.
00:41:30So.
00:41:32Yeah.
00:41:33And I also think.
00:41:36That wisdom.
00:41:39Crosses over between.
00:41:40We'll just say that the physical world.
00:41:43And the spiritual world.
00:41:47At least in my mind, when I think about wisdom.
00:41:50That it's, it's, it's the ability to live your life in a way that you're not just living for now.
00:41:57You're not just living for this, this fleshly existence, but you're living with eternity or a spiritual existence in mind as well.
00:42:09And so that's why I see, you know, when, when gold and silver are just physical things used for buying things that, you know, that, that having wisdom is, is definitely superior to that.
00:42:23And at least when you're looking at the bigger picture.
00:42:26Yeah, I agree.
00:42:28All right.
00:42:31So I forgot to talk about one of these, one of these questions for conversation.
00:42:36Again, in what way did God found the earth by wisdom, prepare the heavens by prudence and bring water from below and above by understanding.
00:42:47That's in verse 19 and 20.
00:42:51What pops in my head is there's this, I think it's in Proverbs where it says to first, make sure you get your garden going before you build your home.
00:43:06And to me, it's kind of like, that's wisdom because in your mind, you're like, man, let me build the house first so I can have some, you know, some, you know, something to cover from the rain and the weather and stuff like that.
00:43:19But now in reality, it makes sense to first, you know, get a garden going so you can have something to eat, you know, get that.
00:43:26So to me, it's the same thing.
00:43:29If you look at the way God created, you know, the heavens, the earth and the seas, it's all make it all makes sense.
00:43:34He was preparing everything for men.
00:43:38And to me, that's wisdom when he thinks about the way he established it and he does it the first day and the second day and the third day.
00:43:45That's that's what popped in my head.
00:43:46One thing I want to point out in some translations, I think the King James says, by wisdom, have founded the earth.
00:44:00Pretty sure that there's a translation that says fix the earth, but the word there for founded can mean to fix or to.
00:44:09As in to put it in its place and make it stay there.
00:44:16And so this is one of those verses that somebody who believes that the earth never moves might go to to say, you know, from the beginning, God fixed the earth in place.
00:44:27But that's really just one of many possible meanings and even things that are fixed move.
00:44:34We have earthquakes and volcanoes and floods.
00:44:37All of these things make the earth move around.
00:44:39And God has prophesied in multiple places that, you know, the the mountains will be brought low, the valleys brought up.
00:44:48All of those things involve the land moving.
00:44:52And not only that, but the word for earth.
00:44:55Doesn't mean the planet.
00:44:57It usually means the land of Israel, the physical ground that you're standing on.
00:45:02Which sometimes does move.
00:45:05But from the perspective of a normal person in a normal lifespan.
00:45:10Under normal conditions.
00:45:12The earth is pretty darn solid.
00:45:14It doesn't move around.
00:45:15You can depend that if you're standing on a piece of earth.
00:45:17It's going to be there tomorrow.
00:45:18And that's really what it means when scriptures talk about the earth being fixed in place or not moving.
00:45:26Need to be careful not to.
00:45:27I mean, especially in proverbs and in poetic works, they're intended to be metaphors of bigger things.
00:45:36So we're supposed to be reading things into it, but we have to make sure that we're not reading stuff into the text that is foreign to the text that the author didn't intend.
00:45:46So we have to understand the author's perspective in what he's writing.
00:45:52I think one way that God created the earth and the heavens and all of these things with wisdom.
00:45:58I mean, like what you were saying, Carlos, about preparing the groundwork for things that comes later, building the foundations.
00:46:06The foundations, the closer you look, the deeper the foundations get from what God has created.
00:46:12You can look at the observable universe.
00:46:17You know, we can see that if you throw something up in the air, it comes back down unless it has wings or it's lighter than air.
00:46:23There's all these things that that modify what we expect.
00:46:27And if you throw something really fast, it might not come down.
00:46:32It might just keep going up or it'll go up and it'll stay up and keep falling.
00:46:37It's trying to come down, but it never does because it's going so fast that it goes over the curve of the earth.
00:46:43On its way down, it comes back up the other side.
00:46:46And that's what we call an orbit.
00:46:48God has created all of these rules, this network of.
00:46:54Physical laws that we will never know.
00:46:57We will never understand.
00:46:59But these things didn't come into existence.
00:47:02You know, when we started learning about them, they were there before the first atom was created.
00:47:09All of the physical laws were already established.
00:47:12God created.
00:47:14He planned.
00:47:16A perfect universe for mankind to live on this world.
00:47:20I mean, you may have heard of the.
00:47:22Essentially, it's the idea that everything is just right for humanity to live on Earth.
00:47:29And if anything was different, just a tiny bit, life couldn't exist here.
00:47:34And, you know, it's one of the reasons that what's called a Fermi paradox.
00:47:39Why don't we find life out in the universe?
00:47:41Why aren't why aren't we seeing radio broadcasts from other planets?
00:47:45Why does it appear that we are the only living things in the universe or the only intelligent living things in the universe?
00:47:53Because God designed the universe so that we could live in it.
00:47:57And he did it from.
00:48:01Subatomic foundations beyond our our comprehension from the very beginning.
00:48:06And there is wisdom in that, that we will never be able to wrap our minds around.
00:48:14But what if we discover there are aliens?
00:48:18Well, then I'll have to modify my opinion on that.
00:48:22Then God will have made the universe perfect for us and for them.
00:48:27And we'll have to figure out what that means.
00:48:29The Catholic Church already said that aliens can be take communion and be saved, so.
00:48:39Really?
00:48:40Okay.
00:48:41Yeah, I heard that.
00:48:43I would think that that would have to mean that aliens are descended from Adam, though.
00:48:48So.
00:48:50I don't know.
00:48:52Yeah.
00:48:53That's to show you how much Catholicism doesn't read the Bible.
00:48:56Yeah, well, I'll wait and see.
00:48:57Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.
00:49:01Or what they really know about what we call aliens.
00:49:05Well, there's another wormhole, so to speak.
00:49:10You're welcome.
00:49:13Okay, so.
00:49:15Do not be afraid of alien invasions or sudden terror.
00:49:18Or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes.
00:49:25Where is that verse?
00:49:26Oh, verse 24.
00:49:28That's the one I was looking for.
00:49:30If you lie down, you will not be afraid.
00:49:31When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
00:49:35How does wisdom enable you to lie down and sleep better?
00:49:42Wisdom should guide you to the straight and narrow path.
00:49:45And when you walk the straight and narrow path, that means that there's less curses in your life, less trouble.
00:49:53I didn't say no trouble, right?
00:49:54Like we talked about, but less trouble.
00:49:56And again, it goes back to what I was saying earlier about, you know, just shalom, right?
00:50:01When you carry your life with wisdom, you will have more peace.
00:50:10Not complete peace, because, you know, we live in a fallen world, but you will have peace.
00:50:14And when you have peace, you sleep better at night, for sure.
00:50:21Yeah, Psalm 4, 8 says,
00:50:24In peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, O Yahweh, and make me dwell in safety.
00:50:30And I didn't check the superscription on that, but I'm assuming that that was David writing it, who did not always live in safety.
00:50:37And for a very large part of his life, he was in constant danger.
00:50:42But God kept him through it all.
00:50:45You know, God saw him through the Philistines hunting him, through Saul hunting him, and through his own son hunting him.
00:50:51And always found a way for David to make it through.
00:50:56And, you know, David frequently cried out to God, and it's like, God, why are you putting me through this?
00:51:03But he always ended those Psalms by saying, but I trust you.
00:51:07You know what's best.
00:51:08You know what you're doing.
00:51:10And at the end of the day, whatever else is happening, if you know that God is in charge and he is, whatever is happening is because it's part of God's plan.
00:51:21There's a lot of peace in that.
00:51:23And there's also physical security.
00:51:28If you are living a wise life, you are making fewer enemies.
00:51:31You don't have to worry about people coming and attacking you.
00:51:36Keeping God's commandments, just like with David, are always going to make you enemies.
00:51:40But most of us are not David.
00:51:42We're not out there making political enemies other than, you know, whoever runs Facebook.
00:51:48They're fact checkers.
00:51:49They might not like us, but they're probably not going to come to our house.
00:51:53There are all kinds of caveats to these things because there are people who might want to come to our house.
00:51:59It's yeah, but good sleep comes to those who don't have to worry about either their future or their past.
00:52:09If if you don't have to spend a lot of time with regrets, you'll sleep better.
00:52:15If you don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about what you're going to eat tomorrow, you're going to sleep better.
00:52:20Are there any other verses in here?
00:52:23I mean, there are a bunch of them.
00:52:25We could if we took one verse at a time, we could be here all night.
00:52:27But are there any other verses that stood out to somebody that they that you want to talk about?
00:52:34Now, you mentioned that, you know, some of the stuff is like poetic and, you know, but I think you work both ways.
00:52:42Sometimes when I when I read the one where it says, goodness, where I had it, oh, verse eight, and it says, you know, you know, be be not wise in your eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
00:52:56It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
00:52:59And I think I've talked about this, my mom, that when she's in a lot of stress, she's an older lady, but she's a lot of stress, you know, she feels it in her bones, you know, like the stress is there's maybe something to that, too.
00:53:19Right. Like, but it makes sense.
00:53:20Right. That when when we're more at peace, you should have it should translate physically as well.
00:53:27Right. I mean, I mean, your blood pressure should be where it needs to be, you know, your stress and should be where it needs to be, hopefully very low.
00:53:39And I think that attributes to you physically and life.
00:53:44I know that.
00:53:46I can definitely trace where I've had stress, like a lot of high stress in my life, and that's where I get my, you know, my white hairs, you know what I mean?
00:53:56And I still remember, you know, coming back from a stressful point in my life and seeing my first white hair and like just breaking out because of that.
00:54:06And it's happened before multiple times where I was just like, man, I had to all of a sudden I just get, you know, a bunch of white hairs and it just comes from stress.
00:54:14So I think whenever you are at peace, all that translates over to your to your health as well.
00:54:21Yep. Yeah, I think Paula could probably tell us more about that, but about how your emotional state and stress can affect your health in a lot of ways.
00:54:35One of the obvious ways that we were just talking about the other day is the way that you eat, that stress in your life can have a huge impact on what you crave and, you know, how often you eat, how much.
00:54:54I'm definitely a stress eater.
00:54:56You know, if I'm, you know, if I'm bored, if I'm upset, I want to eat.
00:55:03And that's certainly not good.
00:55:07Same, man.
00:55:08I probably wouldn't eat much, but if I'm stressed or even, it's funny you said bored, I tend to just start snacking.
00:55:15I think boredom is a relatively new phenomenon when we, when you think about it.
00:55:23I think it is a stressor for most people in the, in the modern world.
00:55:31Makes sense.
00:55:32You would think that we wouldn't be bored with so much stuff around us, but for some reason, you know, I'll find myself bored sometimes.
00:55:40And if I don't, if, if I don't realize it, then I'll start eating, but I'm, I'm getting better now and saying, oh, I'm bored.
00:55:50I need to go, go for a walk or read or do something.
00:55:57Now watch TV for sure.
00:56:00That's interesting.
00:56:01Cause I think, you know, like my, my, there's no commentary, you know, underlying the whole boredom thing, except that I think, you know, when people had to work so hard,
00:56:10to survive in terms of like, just plowing the ground and making something grow and all the other things that had to go on.
00:56:18It's like, I don't, I don't imagine anybody ever had a time where they sat down and were like, I'm bored, you know, just like, there was always something to do.
00:56:26But I do think that, um, boredom in our modern world is probably something we should evaluate.
00:56:34Like in terms of reconnecting with things that are more meaningful.
00:56:40And I do think it is, it really, I think it really is a stressor for a lot of people because they feel like they're not doing something meaningful in that moment, you know,
00:56:49because there's so much disconnect from think about how we, you know, we work hard to get our food.
00:56:57Um, you know, just to put food on the table in terms of like actually going to work or whatever, um, or, you know, to pay the mortgage and to do whatever.
00:57:06And I think those are things that are still very disconnected though.
00:57:10So a lot of times, like a couple of steps away from how do we put food on the table, you know?
00:57:17Um, and so we're just doing a lot of different actions that don't necessarily connect us to the land.
00:57:23We also aren't in the land.
00:57:26So I think there's just a lot of difference in the way that we live now.
00:57:29I probably contribute to that kind of stress.
00:57:32And having, having been a person who did some homesteading at one point, I find that like, as hard as the work was, when we were doing those things,
00:57:43there was so much more gratification and so much more like sense of connection and accomplishment at the end of the day that it's like,
00:57:51just did, there wasn't this opportunity to have boredom.
00:57:56You know, it's, it's just an interesting thing, um, to me.
00:57:59Anyway, I'm sorry.
00:58:01I'm just kind of going off.
00:58:02No, it makes sense.
00:58:04I think that we, as a, as people are afraid of quiet, um, that we think, you know, the industrial age did a lot of damage to what it means to be a valuable human being.
00:58:20So much of it has to do with productivity.
00:58:22Um, where if we're not producing, if we're not consistently expending energy or whatever, that we consider that a waste of time instead of, you know,
00:58:34I think of like the middle ages when contemplation and monastic periods and contemplation and things like that were so profoundly part of, of, uh,
00:58:44uh, spiritual experience as well as just, you know, life.
00:58:49And, and I know for me, when I find that like, I'm bored, I've got to do something.
00:58:53I will sometimes just stop, but like, maybe I just need to be still for a minute because the Lord talks to us in the stillness, you know?
00:59:03And I, and remembering that, I mean, you know, a lot of, of Torah, of, of the, you know, the Bible, the Proverbs and Psalms, they talk about, you know, the quietness of being before the Lord.
00:59:15When you go to a refuge, that's not like a part, you know, you know, the word is my rock and my refuge.
00:59:20You're not going there to be entertained.
00:59:22You're not going there to be busy.
00:59:23You're going there to draw away in solitude.
00:59:25And anyway, I just find that sort of where we are as a society versus the idea of that, that simpler lifestyle where, where silence and quiet was not synonymous with boredom.
00:59:42Um, I mean, often if it's quiet and we're bored, maybe we just should go to bed.
00:59:49It's 1030 Heidi, turn the TV off.
00:59:53Good point.
00:59:55You know, that's not a, it's not a problem to say it is quiet in the evening.
01:00:00I shall now get rest instead of, Oh no, I have to do something.
01:00:03And that, that drive.
01:00:06Yeah.
01:00:06Yeah.
01:00:06You're right.
01:00:06I just built, I know we're going to way off course, but honestly, I just, I've built like bad habits since I was a kid.
01:00:14My dad used to get me to watch TV with him late at night.
01:00:17And that just kind of stuck with me.
01:00:19And, uh, finally after, you know, it's been, it's been probably like 10 years since I've removed like,
01:00:25you know, cable and TV for my life, but it's, I'm still have trouble with it, especially with, you know, the phone.
01:00:32Um, and I'm doing better, but getting my brain to shut down at night is very difficult.
01:00:38Um, I think it's part of what you said of like, um, not doing anything meaningful.
01:00:45Um, I'm at work and I'm constantly being challenged, but it's just, it's not meaningful at the end of the day.
01:00:54Um, especially once you know what's important in life and you, you know, you know, you're like, man, I should be doing, I don't know, something else, just not this.
01:01:04And, uh, so you feel unfulfilled.
01:01:09So I, I, I agree with you, Paula on that, you know, there's probably something missing there.
01:01:14Um, and I've been knowing that for a while, uh, but sorry, well, I, I was going to say, I don't, I don't know that it's always that like, it's that, that we're not doing something meaningful altogether.
01:01:28I, I think that it's hard to connect what we're doing to the things that have meaning to us.
01:01:34You know, like, I think it's very, it's very difficult to connect what we do in a day to how are we serving God?
01:01:44How are we worshiping God?
01:01:45How are we doing?
01:01:46How are we keeping the commandments?
01:01:49Like a lot of times it's really difficult for us, for us to actually see the connection to that.
01:01:53It's not, it's not so much that I don't think we're doing things that are, that are meaningful and valuable.
01:01:59It's that I think it's harder to see how, how that connects in our lives to what we're doing day to day, especially, you know, with somebody like you, Carlos, who's already like taken a lot of things out of your life that, you know, have kept you from being able to pursue the things that have more meaning to you.
01:02:18Um, it's like, it might not be as much about like adding things that are more purposeful as it is connecting the dots to the things that are actually meaningful.
01:02:30Um, and saying this, this is part of how I do that in my day to day life, you know, like, is this meaningful?
01:02:38How is it meaningful?
01:02:39And, cause I do think, I mean, going to work every day has a lot of meaning.
01:02:44It has a lot of purpose, you know, um, it, and it may not be, it may be fulfilling in some ways and maybe not in others, but ultimately it feeds your family.
01:02:56No, yeah, no, you know, that's a huge thing, right?
01:02:59Yeah.
01:03:00No, I think I know what you meant by that, but, you know, I try to, I try to play a game and last thought for me, I don't want to keep anybody, but I try to try to play this.
01:03:08And the opposite is not a game, but I try to make it to where when I go to, when I go to work, there's, you know, purpose in the faith as well.
01:03:17Like I have to, um, tell myself to be kind and, and, and show steadfast love to everybody at work, even if they don't do it to me.
01:03:28And, um, you know, my, uh, you know, I think I'm quiet for the most part, like if I, if I don't know you, but if like you, you know, maybe like most people, you push my buttons, then I'm, I might have an intent to not let somebody push me around.
01:03:44Cause I, I was pushed around so much when I was a kid because I was quiet and, you know, and even to my teenage years, even to my adulthood, you know, people will take advantage of you.
01:03:53You're quiet, you know?
01:03:54So if I'm working quiet and somebody tries to, you know, take advantage of me, I would automatically tend to push back and not let somebody do me harm.
01:04:06You know, it's, uh, um, what would you say that is, is a, uh, it's a way for me to protect myself, my emotion.
01:04:16Right.
01:04:16But now, you know, I, I try to, I do turn the other cheek as much as possible, but at the same time, balance it out with people not, you know, going over me.
01:04:29But I try to show, since I can't go there with the scriptures right in the morning time, reading the Proverbs up and down the, you know, up and down the, the cubicles, um, at least I can show with, with, you know, some kind words or encouragement or, you know, just helping somebody else out a smile or something like that.
01:04:51And hopefully the idea is maybe, you know, who knows, maybe one day somebody would ask, you know, will ask me, it's like, Hey man, you know, how come you're so easy going or kind or whatever.
01:05:02I'm not there yet.
01:05:03I'm not saying that, but, you know, hopefully, you know, that's pushing me to change because, you know, I want more of a purpose than just going to work and making a dollar.
01:05:12You know, hopefully while we're at work, somebody will ask me, you know, Hey man, well, what was that stuff hanging out from your loopholes, you know, from, from your belt loops, you know, Hey man, you know, you know, why, why this and why the other, who knows, you know, where it comes to that.
01:05:28So that's how I try to find my purpose at work because I get it, you know, provide for my family, of course, it's very important, no matter what it is, but it has to be a little bit more than that.
01:05:38I think we got to push ourselves a little bit more than that.
01:05:41And I'm speaking to myself, to be quite honest to you, I, you know, I'm by far perfect and I, you know, tend to get angry and, you know, I, it's hard for me to deal with nonsense.
01:05:54It's like people that have no logic, it drives me insane sometimes.
01:06:00So I have to remind myself that I have my own flaws and, you know, I have to be kind to everybody and hopefully, you know, that will lead them to Yeshua.
01:06:11Perfect word.
01:06:12One of the, one of the ways that it's hard to find meaning in our, at least in the modern world is that, you know, we're so far removed from the way that we were created to live.
01:06:25You know, it's easy.
01:06:27Well, I imagine it's easy because I haven't been there.
01:06:29I think it's easy for a farmer to say, I am having an impact in the world.
01:06:35I can see the direct impact I'm having.
01:06:38I'm feeding people, people without me, people would starve.
01:06:41That's a huge impact.
01:06:43But then I, you know, I think about my job and I sit at my keyboard all day and I type stuff and, you know, I, I type some code.
01:06:53I click on buttons.
01:06:56I help farmers grow food.
01:06:58I help ranchers manage their ranches.
01:07:01But there are like five people between me and the rancher or me and the farmer.
01:07:05And I'm helping the people who help the people who help the people who help the farmer.
01:07:11So it's, it's a long ways away from that without getting our fingers in the dirt in seeing the physical results of our labor.
01:07:18It's hard to be really connected and to, to get that gratification directly out of our work.
01:07:27It's probably easier for other people who have, you know, who, who physically work on things and create things.
01:07:35I suspect it's a little bit easier for them to, to have that direct fulfillment there.
01:07:40Something that has been on my mind recently, probably for the last few months, is, I mean, it started with kind of a whole thought process on the crisis of the 24-hour news cycle where there's just, you know, bad news 24-7, right?
01:07:58And it's everything, everybody's worried about what's happening in Burkina Faso or what about what's happening in Germany and then, oh my goodness, Putin and all.
01:08:08And it's just this great giant global awareness.
01:08:10And so that's kind of where the thought started, but kind of what it's morphed into is that one thing that has happened within the body, within the church is this, and I've seen it probably more in like Bethel type environments or more charismatic environments.
01:08:30But this drive, this obsession with having a big vision and a missions out impact that changes the globe.
01:08:41I mean, it's, I mean, the, the verbiage is so excessive and all of that.
01:08:46And what is, what has happened is on the one hand, you know, not everybody's Billy Graham, right?
01:08:52And so then you feel like your life has no purpose.
01:08:56And I think, you know, what we were talking earlier about our wealth and giving and holding on to, you know, don't forsake steadfast love.
01:09:06I mean, these are fairly simple ideas that are really hard to continually implement.
01:09:13But I, but I, but I, I really have been personally wanting to take the time to look around me and say, what is meaningful right now that my hands can touch and not belittling that effort myself.
01:09:31I'm not, you know, I, I do that.
01:09:33I look at that and go, this doesn't matter.
01:09:35What does this doesn't matter?
01:09:35Who cares?
01:09:36You know, who cares that I brought food to somebody?
01:09:40It was just a meatloaf.
01:09:40Well, there's, there's other elements involved that I want to minimize because it's not earth shattering.
01:09:46And that's been so much part of my paradigm that if I'm not doing something that changes the face of the, of the earth, that I haven't done anything worthwhile.
01:09:57And, and I just think that, you know, coming back to that, what have I done today that honored God?
01:10:03What, what impact did I have today?
01:10:05And then being, not belittling the impact we have, not belittling the fact that we each took, you know, an hour and a half or so to come together and look at the word fellowship.
01:10:15That's meaningful.
01:10:17And we don't know what seeds we're planting.
01:10:21We don't have the, we don't have the packet that says in six to eight months, this will be this.
01:10:26You know, we just know that we're planting.
01:10:30So anyway, those are just some thoughts that I've had and things that I've been pondering and conclusions that have encouraged me.
01:10:38So hopefully they'll do that.
01:10:40I like that.
01:10:41I should, I should have had a little reaction to that.
01:10:43That's good thoughts.
01:10:43You know, when you were saying that, Heidi, I was, it got, it had me, this image popped into my head of like Abraham, like talking about and thinking about his vision and obsessing over his vision.
01:11:03And it's, it's, it's not something that he necessarily did.
01:11:06Like God gave him a vision for what he wanted for him is what he wanted to bless him with, how he wanted to make a great nation from him.
01:11:15And, um, and Abraham just was faithful to God.
01:11:21That's it.
01:11:23He, he didn't like go around talking about the vision and how he was going to like accomplish this whole thing and blah, blah, blah.
01:11:30It was like, he was just faithful in all the things.
01:11:34And I think that what you're saying, what you're saying is that same, very same kind of thing.
01:11:39It's like, look at what happened because of what Abraham did.
01:11:45So the question is like, if we're faithful in our lives, we're faithful to God in our lives.
01:11:51What could happen?
01:11:53We don't all have, we're not all Abraham, but that's a whole different.
01:12:00That's a whole different ball game.
01:12:03We're kind of like, you know, we're kind of at the end of the whole story in, in a lot of ways.
01:12:09And maybe that means we're part of the, you know, uh, the harvest and maybe that's a big role that we have to play.
01:12:19And maybe that's a big deal, but, um, who says that every believer who's faithful to God doesn't have the same impact that Abraham had in a, in a different way.
01:12:33Like, I don't, I don't mean same, same as Abraham.
01:12:37Exactly.
01:12:38Just in a more metaphorical, like spiritual impact way.
01:12:45I don't know how to say that.
01:12:47I was like, did, did Abraham know who was Abraham?
01:12:51I mean, was he one of the things going based upon me and behold the patriarch?
01:12:55Yeah, like, did he go around saying, am I like, am I as good as Billy Graham?
01:13:00Like, I mean,
01:13:01There was one other thing that I wanted to mention that I, I noticed about the, um, um, verse 20.
01:13:14By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.
01:13:20There are, that represents two extremes.
01:13:23The, the deeps breaking open is that's what happened before the flood that destroyed the world.
01:13:31The clouds dropping down dew.
01:13:33That's what happened when God planted the garden.
01:13:37So when he planted the garden, garden of Eden, it was watered by dew.
01:13:41And then when he destroyed it all, it was destroyed by the fountains of the deep.
01:13:47Which also reminds me of, uh, you know, what Hannah said when she was at the temple praying for,
01:13:53or a son and she tells God, you are the God who kills and brings to life.
01:14:01He brings down to shell and he brings, and he raises people up again.
01:14:06That's all pictured right here.
01:14:08And this is one verse that by his knowledge, the deeps are broken open and the clouds dropped down the dew.
01:14:15He destroys and he brings to life.
01:14:23So that's the complete solution.
01:14:27He brings down to the blood of the coming of Eden.
01:14:35And this guy he brings down to the nostril.
01:14:43What does he say?