1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,279 Speaker 1: How did Israel become a nation, why are they God's 2 00:00:03,359 --> 00:00:06,200 chosen nation, and why did God need a chosen nation 3 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,439 at all. We will talk about that on this week's 4 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,919 episode or the Faith by Reason podcast. Welcome to the podcast. 5 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:15,759 The website behind it all is faith Byreason dot net. 6 00:00:15,839 --> 00:00:18,440 Please check it out. Tons of great information there, and 7 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,120 please also subscribe to Faithbyreason dot net so you will 8 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:24,920 get the new blogs and podcasts when they are published 9 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:27,640 by just putting your email into that right navigation bar. 10 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:32,119 So we are starting a new study on a new dispensation, 11 00:00:32,799 --> 00:00:37,240 the fourth dispensation, and this is called the dispensation of 12 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:39,920 the Patriarchs. So as a bit of a history, the 13 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:45,600 dispensations are God's contrastive way of showing that his plan 14 00:00:45,719 --> 00:00:48,359 for mankind is the only one that will work that 15 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,200 on his own, man will never choose God's way on 16 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:56,200 his own. And in order to prove that contrastively, God 17 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,359 comes up with successive scenarios wherein man is given a 18 00:00:59,439 --> 00:01:02,679 choice to either choose God's way or his way, and 19 00:01:02,719 --> 00:01:05,280 if a man, if man chooses his way over God's way, 20 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,079 then the dispensation fails and God has to move on 21 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:12,159 until again he's exhausted every reasonable opportunity to give man 22 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:14,280 a way to choose to be like God, to be 23 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,400 always a completely right in jest, by again, by choosing 24 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:19,719 to do it God's way, thereby earning his way into 25 00:01:19,719 --> 00:01:22,439 heaven and the meaning of life. And once God has 26 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,560 exhausted all of those opportunities for man to do it 27 00:01:25,599 --> 00:01:28,560 on his own, then God can justly implement his plan 28 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,840 for mankind, which of course is heaven. So in the 29 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,280 first dispensation you will find it. Actually, the first threedispensations 30 00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:38,280 has something in common. They were all pretty open ended, 31 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,680 and they all dealt with man we're fairly individually, especially 32 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,239 the first two. In the first dispensation, the dispensation of innocence, 33 00:01:47,879 --> 00:01:50,480 man was given a simple choice as to whether he 34 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:52,959 would believe in God or not, or choose God's way 35 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,439 or not, by whether or not man and woman would 36 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,280 choose to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of 37 00:01:57,280 --> 00:01:59,680 good and evil or not. And of course they failed 38 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:02,280 that this sensation. They chose to eat the fruit and 39 00:02:02,319 --> 00:02:05,359 disobey God. And when God confronted them, they chose to 40 00:02:05,519 --> 00:02:10,280 justify themselves over God, and that dispensation failed. So in 41 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,159 the second dispensation, God took an opposite approach. Instead of 42 00:02:13,199 --> 00:02:16,280 man being completely innocent with no knowledge of good and evil, 43 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,960 God gave man hundreds of years of life in order 44 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,400 to gain all the knowledge he could and to then 45 00:02:22,479 --> 00:02:26,719 see if gaining lots of knowledge would cause man to 46 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:30,080 choose him, to choose God over himself. Of course, as always, 47 00:02:30,159 --> 00:02:34,039 man failed, and by gaining knowledge, it didn't bring him 48 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:35,960 closer to God. It took him further away from God, 49 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,919 to the point where all of his thoughts were continually evil. 50 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,360 And then, of course we have the incident with the 51 00:02:41,479 --> 00:02:45,680 nepheline and the genetic corruption which we talked about ad 52 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:50,000 nauseam earlier. Then in the third dispensation, God changed things again. 53 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,240 Instead of giving man a long time to gain knowledge, 54 00:02:54,199 --> 00:02:58,000 God shortens man's life and controlled his life considerably and 55 00:02:58,039 --> 00:02:59,800 gave him a sense of urgency and a sense of 56 00:03:00,039 --> 00:03:02,479 community because because they have such a short time to 57 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,639 accomplish whatever they needed to accomplish and have to do 58 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,599 it fast and do it with intention. And this also 59 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,120 did not lead man closer to God. In fact, it 60 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:14,560 once again let man further away from God and to 61 00:03:14,599 --> 00:03:17,560 the point where Man and Babel under the leadership of 62 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:22,000 Nimrod tried to erect a gateway Babel means gate to God, 63 00:03:22,439 --> 00:03:25,680 a gateway to God in order to invade Heaven. So 64 00:03:25,759 --> 00:03:30,120 it seemed that by giving man open ended opportunities to 65 00:03:30,199 --> 00:03:34,560 choose himself or God, man kept getting worse and worse. 66 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:36,840 So then it would be unjust of God to continue 67 00:03:36,879 --> 00:03:39,360 to do that. God would need to put a fourth 68 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,759 some actual guidance and some form of representation. Instead of 69 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,919 just letting man go on his own and hope that 70 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,400 man came to a sensus the right way and chose 71 00:03:49,439 --> 00:03:51,599 God on his own, it seems that it would only 72 00:03:51,599 --> 00:03:55,639 be fair and jest of God to give man some 73 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,560 type of direction, some type of direct guidance. And that's 74 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:01,560 and he begins to do that with the Age of 75 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,400 the Patriarchs. And now as a result of Babel, man 76 00:04:05,599 --> 00:04:09,759 was divided into nations. Actually, according to the Bible, and 77 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,680 I'll put the actual chapter in verse into the show notes, 78 00:04:13,199 --> 00:04:16,040 man was divided into seventy nations. And you will see 79 00:04:16,079 --> 00:04:19,399 in some translations where it says that when God divided 80 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:22,279 men into nations, he had divided them according to the 81 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:27,319 sons of Israel. Well, that's that's an incorrect interpretation. The 82 00:04:27,439 --> 00:04:30,000 correct interpretation if you look at the original Hebrew, who 83 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,199 says that God divide the nations according to the number 84 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:36,040 of the Banai hi Alohem, the sons of God, not 85 00:04:36,079 --> 00:04:38,920 the sons of Israel. Because if that were the case, 86 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,839 the Hebrew would have said the Banai Israel. But it doesn't. 87 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:44,680 It says the Bani high Alohem, the sons of God. 88 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,000 And as we found out several podcasts ago when we 89 00:04:47,079 --> 00:04:50,240 looked at the second dispensation, but ni hih Alohem, the 90 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:53,720 sons of God are angelic beings. So God divided up 91 00:04:53,759 --> 00:04:58,920 the nation by a number of angelic beings, beings who 92 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,639 he put over the nations. And that's one reason why 93 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:04,519 we know that it's not the sons of Israel. And 94 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,920 another reason why is because it wouldn't make any sense 95 00:05:06,959 --> 00:05:08,959 because the sons of Israel didn't exist at the time 96 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,680 God divided the nations at the time of Babel. Israel 97 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:16,800 didn't exist because Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel, are 98 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,360 the sons of Jacob, and Jacob wouldn't even be born 99 00:05:19,399 --> 00:05:22,319 for another couple hundred years. So God cannot divide the 100 00:05:22,439 --> 00:05:24,879 nations by the numbers of the sons of Israel. They 101 00:05:24,879 --> 00:05:28,319 wouldn't even if they weren't even around. So why does 102 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,519 the Bible say that? Why was the Bible translated that way? Unfortunately, 103 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,879 it's because it's one of the same reasons that a 104 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:39,519 lot of Bible scholars in the ancient Church bothers and 105 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,879 all those folk called the sons of God the sons 106 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,360 of Seth in Genesis chapter chapter six. We talked about 107 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,079 that before. Because they were embarrassed by the supernatural world view. 108 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,199 They didn't have the supernatural world view and about Genesis six. 109 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,160 So instead of just taking it at face value that 110 00:05:56,759 --> 00:05:59,839 these sons of God, the Beniah Eloheim angels had intercourse 111 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,680 with women and produce these odd creatures called nepheline, they 112 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:04,680 didn't like it. They didn't have that worldview. They were 113 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:08,120 embarrassed by it. So they inserted this false, ridiculous sons 114 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,720 of Seth theory. And because they also don't in this case, 115 00:06:12,879 --> 00:06:16,639 they don't want to consider the idea of the supernatural 116 00:06:16,639 --> 00:06:19,759 idea that there are angelic beings that are over all 117 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,680 the different nations in the world, they decided to come 118 00:06:23,759 --> 00:06:26,839 up with this idea of translating it as the sons 119 00:06:26,879 --> 00:06:29,879 of Israel. But that's completely false. But we will talk 120 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,560 more about angelic beings being over the nations of a 121 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,319 few podcasts from now, so i'll just let that go there. 122 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:44,240 So the nations are all under angelic beings. But God 123 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:47,519 wanted to have his own nation to be an example 124 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:51,000 to the other nations, and so he wanted to In 125 00:06:51,079 --> 00:06:53,079 order to start that nation, he needed to pick someone 126 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,079 to be the progeniture of it, and he picked a 127 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,600 man named Abrahm, who would later be known as Abraham. 128 00:06:59,079 --> 00:07:01,319 I'm not going to talk a ton about Abraham and 129 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,040 his history because I don't want to go too far 130 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,839 over time in this episode. I went way over almost 131 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,000 an hour in the last podcast, so sorry about that. 132 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:11,160 I'm going to try to keep this brief. In the 133 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:17,360 blog post that is attached to this podcast, I go 134 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:20,000 into quite a bit more detail, and I have reference 135 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,839 links to the entire story of Abraham, But just very briefly. 136 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,040 God goes to Abraham and he gives them a rather 137 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,360 spectacular promise, and i'll just quote it here a Genesis 138 00:07:30,399 --> 00:07:33,480 twelve one to three. Now, God said to Abrahm, who 139 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:36,040 would become Abraham, get out of your country, from your 140 00:07:36,079 --> 00:07:38,040 family and from your father's house to a land that 141 00:07:38,079 --> 00:07:39,879 I will show you, and I will make you a 142 00:07:39,879 --> 00:07:42,120 great nation, and I will bless you and make your 143 00:07:42,199 --> 00:07:44,839 name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I 144 00:07:44,879 --> 00:07:47,480 will bless those who bless you, and I will curse 145 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,519 those who curse you, and in you, all the families 146 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:54,160 of the earth shall be blessed. So that is not 147 00:07:54,199 --> 00:07:57,240 only the promise to Abraham that is the parameter of 148 00:07:57,319 --> 00:08:01,560 this dispensation. This is the litmus test for whether or 149 00:08:01,639 --> 00:08:05,800 not the world, whether or not man will pass this dispensation, 150 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:08,959 is based on how he treats the nation that comes 151 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,240 from Abraham. So if these other nations in the world 152 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:17,360 they curse Abraham's family, his descendants, this new nation, then 153 00:08:17,439 --> 00:08:20,040 God will curse them and they will this dispensation will 154 00:08:20,079 --> 00:08:23,360 be a failure. If they bless them, then God will 155 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,000 bless those nations. And just you know, it's a little 156 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:31,600 more than just the blessing. The blessing is is something 157 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,519 that should actually lead these other nations to God. Because 158 00:08:35,519 --> 00:08:38,039 remember the point of the dismissation is not just to 159 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:40,159 be blessed by God, is to choose God over yourself. 160 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,240 So in order for these nations to choose correctly, they 161 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,840 will have to number one bless God's new nation, and 162 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:49,720 by receiving the blessings back from God, that should lead 163 00:08:49,759 --> 00:08:51,639 them to want to be a part of God's nation, 164 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,799 to give up their own nationality and join this nation 165 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,399 that God has brought about. So in order for this 166 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:01,960 dismensation to be successful, the other nations of the world 167 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,720 will have to bless God's nation and they will have 168 00:09:04,759 --> 00:09:08,519 to become a part of God's nation. Okay, got that great, 169 00:09:08,759 --> 00:09:14,000 Let's move on. So Abraham eventually moves to the land 170 00:09:14,039 --> 00:09:15,679 God tells me to go to, which is the land 171 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,000 of Canaan. Again, there's a lot of story. It's an 172 00:09:18,039 --> 00:09:19,759 intrigue that go along with this, and you can read 173 00:09:19,759 --> 00:09:23,200 about it in the blog post. Abraham is very old. 174 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:25,919 He's one hundred years old. His wife is Sarah is ninety, 175 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,240 so they are both beyond childbearing years. Even though God 176 00:09:29,279 --> 00:09:33,120 promised him a son. Unfortunately, they got impatient and Sarah 177 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:37,679 Sarah who became Sarah, Abraham's wife, decided to help God 178 00:09:37,799 --> 00:09:40,120 out because she says, Hey, I'm past child bearing years. 179 00:09:40,159 --> 00:09:41,840 I can have a baby. God says, you're going to 180 00:09:41,879 --> 00:09:44,519 have a son. Here's what I'll do. Since I'm beyond 181 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:46,559 child bearing age. Why don't you go have a baby 182 00:09:46,919 --> 00:09:51,159 with my handmaid in Hagar and Abraham, being the good husband, says, hey, baby, 183 00:09:51,159 --> 00:09:52,679 you want me to have sex with another woman to 184 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:54,600 have a baby for you, By golly, I'll do it 185 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,519 because I love you so much. Of course, I'm being 186 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:00,039 a little facetious here, but the bottom line is this 187 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:02,720 was religion. Religion is when you tried to add to 188 00:10:02,759 --> 00:10:06,000 what God wants to do. Sarah was being religious by 189 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,440 helping God. When you help God, that means that you 190 00:10:08,519 --> 00:10:11,600 must know better than God. And that's pride is contrastive thinking. 191 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:14,519 I mean, it's comparative thinking, and it's wrong. And not 192 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:17,279 only was it wrong, but it resulted in disaster in 193 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:21,600 that Abraham and Hagar had a child named Ishmael, and 194 00:10:21,759 --> 00:10:24,799 Ishmael is the father of many of the Arab tribes 195 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:27,720 that are Israel's enemies to this day, so for thousands, 196 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:31,000 So Abraham, by obeying his wife Sarah and her religion, 197 00:10:31,159 --> 00:10:37,679 actually created enemies that Israel has had for millennia. Anyway, 198 00:10:37,759 --> 00:10:40,559 a little later, God performs a miracle, Sarah does get 199 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:43,799 pregnant has a child named Isaac. We talked about Isaac 200 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:46,480 before it in the faith chapters and the famous sacrifice 201 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,720 of Isaac. I won't spend too much time on that, 202 00:10:48,759 --> 00:10:50,720 but when Isaac came of age, it was time for 203 00:10:50,759 --> 00:10:53,759 him to get married. And I will spend a little 204 00:10:53,799 --> 00:10:55,639 time on this, on the marriage of Isaac, because I 205 00:10:55,639 --> 00:10:58,440 think it's really cool and that it's a model for 206 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:03,600 Christ and the cheer. Prophecy is not just pronouncements. It's 207 00:11:03,639 --> 00:11:05,519 not just God saying that X is going to happen 208 00:11:05,519 --> 00:11:08,519 in the future. It's also model and pattern. In fact, 209 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:11,200 in the Jewish mind, prophecy is more pattern than it 210 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,679 is pronouncement, and this is a great example of it. 211 00:11:15,039 --> 00:11:18,000 The story of how Isaac got his wife Rebecca is 212 00:11:19,039 --> 00:11:21,440 basically Abraham said us to side for my son to 213 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:23,600 get married. So he sent his servant, who is unnamed, 214 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:28,759 is an unnamed servant into another land to bring about 215 00:11:28,799 --> 00:11:31,480 to bring to find a bride for Isaac. Now, in 216 00:11:31,519 --> 00:11:35,159 this model, Abraham is a form or a model of God, 217 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:39,200 the Father. Isaac is a model of Christ, the Son 218 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,080 of God. And this unnamed servant is a model of 219 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:44,799 the Holy Spirit. And for a couple of reasons. Number one, 220 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:48,399 because he's unnamed and the Holy Spirit never testifies of himself. 221 00:11:48,519 --> 00:11:50,879 Jesus said that himself in the New Testament, the Holy 222 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:53,600 Spirit will never testify of himself. He will only testify 223 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:57,399 of the Son. So this unnamed servant is a model 224 00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:59,679 of the Holy Spirit for that reason, and also even 225 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:04,759 though he's unnamed in the story which occurs in Genesis sid. 226 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,080 Chapter twenty two, I'll put a link to there in 227 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,440 the show notes, but we do find out what his 228 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:14,080 name is earlier. The servant's name is actually Eliezer. Eliezer 229 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:17,759 means comforter, and Comforter is the title that Jesus gives 230 00:12:17,759 --> 00:12:20,120 the Holy Spirit. So Aliazar is definitely a model of 231 00:12:20,159 --> 00:12:23,919 the Holy Spirit. So this unnamed servant, which is Eliezer, 232 00:12:24,159 --> 00:12:28,519 goes to a foreign land and finds a bride for 233 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,240 the Sun, and this bride has the option she and 234 00:12:32,279 --> 00:12:35,000 she the LA's, are testifies of the Sun. He tells 235 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,919 this lady, whose name is Rebecca, all about Isaac and 236 00:12:39,159 --> 00:12:41,879 ask her if she wants to join the family. Now 237 00:12:41,919 --> 00:12:45,159 she doesn't have to, but when she hears about Isaac, 238 00:12:45,279 --> 00:12:48,159 she decides that yes, she wants to join this family, 239 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,960 and the model of the Holy Spirit, the unnamed servant 240 00:12:53,039 --> 00:12:56,440 gives her gifts and then brings her to the sun 241 00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:58,879 and then they consummate the marriage. So this is totally 242 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,440 a a model of Christ in the church, whereas you know, 243 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:05,759 we've never we in the church have never seen Christ. 244 00:13:05,799 --> 00:13:08,200 We've only heard of Him through the through the Holy Spirit, 245 00:13:08,279 --> 00:13:09,720 and we have the choice of whether or not we're 246 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,399 going to accept that marriage invitation to become a part 247 00:13:12,399 --> 00:13:16,320 of God's family. So I think that's a pretty cool story. Anyway, 248 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,440 Isaac and Rebecca get married. They have two children, twins, 249 00:13:20,759 --> 00:13:27,399 Jacob and Esau. And Jacob's name means usurper or he'll catcher, 250 00:13:27,399 --> 00:13:29,279 and he was named that because even though his brother 251 00:13:29,399 --> 00:13:32,159 Esau was born first, he was a first born. Jacobs, 252 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:35,159 as an infant reached his hand out from the womb 253 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:37,840 and grabbed the heel of Esau. So that's how he 254 00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:39,799 got his name, and he of course lives up to that. 255 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:44,159 Jacob and Esau were very, very different. Esau was a 256 00:13:44,399 --> 00:13:47,679 very manly, masculine type. He was, you know, a hairy guy. 257 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,360 He was a god man of the field, he was 258 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,039 a hunter, and he was just a very manly man. 259 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:55,519 And Isaac, you know, adored him. Jacob was the opposite. 260 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,960 He was hairless, he was smooth, he was timid, and 261 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:01,120 he was sort of he was a very upfront or 262 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,240 manly who's sort of conniving and scheming, and he was 263 00:14:03,279 --> 00:14:08,639 a mama's boy. Rebecca loved Jacob, and Jacob ended up 264 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:13,159 swindling his brother Esau out of his birthright, his blessing, 265 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,840 and his inheritance, and you can read about that. It's 266 00:14:15,879 --> 00:14:18,840 a very famous story. You can read about how that happens. 267 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:23,600 He basically tricks his father Isaac into giving him the 268 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:27,399 blessing of the first born by posing as Esau and 269 00:14:27,519 --> 00:14:30,600 whatever this blessing he is. Apparently it's non refundable and 270 00:14:30,639 --> 00:14:34,320 non transferable, because after Esau found that Jacob tricked him, 271 00:14:34,679 --> 00:14:36,840 he asked, is school kin to giving the blessing anyway? 272 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,519 Isaac said, no, I can't. I've already given it to Jacobs, 273 00:14:39,559 --> 00:14:42,039 and it's it's done deal. You know, again, non transferable. 274 00:14:42,639 --> 00:14:44,799 So of course Esau's upset about this and he goes 275 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,000 off to kill Jacob. Jacob runs away to his to 276 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,519 his uncle and Laban in another land where his mother 277 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,919 Rebecca came from, and in Laban, Jacob actually meets his match. 278 00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:59,159 Laban is is a better hustler and conniver than even 279 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,960 Jacob is because Jacob falls in love with one of 280 00:15:03,039 --> 00:15:07,679 Laban's daughters, whose name is Rachel, who's apparently very beautiful, 281 00:15:07,679 --> 00:15:10,639 as the Bible says, she was beautiful and well formed, 282 00:15:10,679 --> 00:15:12,519 which means she not only had a beautiful face, but 283 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,240 she had a rock and body. That's that's the gospel 284 00:15:15,279 --> 00:15:17,840 according to me. That's just how I interpreted, But that's 285 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:19,159 that's basically what it means to me. She had a 286 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,879 beautiful body and a beautiful face. Jacob fell in love 287 00:15:21,879 --> 00:15:23,480 with her, wanted to marry her, and he offered to 288 00:15:23,519 --> 00:15:29,519 work seven years for Laban to marry her. Laban agrees, 289 00:15:29,559 --> 00:15:32,120 but then he tricks him into actually marrying his older daughter, 290 00:15:32,159 --> 00:15:35,159 who's Leah, who's not anywhere near as attractive as Rachel, 291 00:15:35,279 --> 00:15:39,000 and then he makes Jacob work fourteen years to marry 292 00:15:39,759 --> 00:15:43,000 to get his eventual bride, Rachel, who he loved so much, 293 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,320 so Jacob got hustled and had to work for Laban 294 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:51,480 for fourteen years. He ends up having twelve sons various 295 00:15:51,559 --> 00:15:56,120 daughters as well, but the twelve sons through Leah and Rachel, 296 00:15:56,159 --> 00:15:58,840 as well as their handmaids. There was another issue where 297 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,399 Apparently in that culture, the most womanly thing you could 298 00:16:02,399 --> 00:16:06,039 do was give your husband's sons. And when the wives 299 00:16:06,039 --> 00:16:08,840 were not able, the sister's wives were not able to 300 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:12,559 give Jacob enough sons, they would give Jacob their handmaids. 301 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,519 So just the same way as the same way as 302 00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:17,879 as Sarah did with Abraham. And of course, of course 303 00:16:17,919 --> 00:16:21,360 again it turned in disaster, because those those sons turned 304 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:24,799 out to be some serious characters. But he had four 305 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:27,679 sons through the handmaids, and he had the rest of 306 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:31,720 the twelve sons through through his wives. The last two 307 00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:35,480 sons he had from his wife Rachel. The sons were 308 00:16:35,879 --> 00:16:41,559 Joseph and Benjamin, who Jacob loved the most because they were, 309 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:44,679 you know, they were the sons of his most beloved wife. 310 00:16:45,519 --> 00:16:48,159 So again, as as you can read in the blog post, 311 00:16:48,399 --> 00:16:52,799 these these guys, these twelve sons of Israel. And by 312 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,120 the way, Jacob's name was changed to Israel by God 313 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:57,879 later on. And it's it's interesting, by the way, if 314 00:16:57,919 --> 00:17:01,919 you go through the Bible, whenever if Jacob is doing well, 315 00:17:02,039 --> 00:17:04,799 God calls him Israel. Whenever he is screwing up, he 316 00:17:04,839 --> 00:17:07,119 goes back to being Jacob. So most of the time 317 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:09,200 when God changes someone's name, he only calls him by 318 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:12,119 that new name. But apparently Jacob's naming was conditional for 319 00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:17,160 how he acts. In fact, the end times are called 320 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:19,920 the Tribulation period. The period which we call the Tribulation 321 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,279 is actually titled the Time of Jacob's Trouble. Is really 322 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:27,200 the time where Israel's kind of taken to the mat 323 00:17:27,799 --> 00:17:31,640 and persecuted to the point where they finally recognize their Messiah. 324 00:17:31,799 --> 00:17:33,640 So because they rejected their Messiah, they have to go 325 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,720 through this seven year period of harshness, and it is 326 00:17:36,759 --> 00:17:39,599 called the time of Jacob's Trouble. And again they're called Jacob, 327 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,640 not Israel, because they were growing up they rejected their Messiah, 328 00:17:42,799 --> 00:17:45,640 and the tribulation is unfortunately a part of the penalty 329 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:48,960 for rejecting their Messiah. But I'm getting way way ahead 330 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:53,079 of myself anyway, These twelve Sons of Israel were again 331 00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:56,119 a pretty rough and tumble bunch of characters. They did 332 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,400 a whole lot of really, really horrible things, and I 333 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:02,119 talk about them in the in the blog post where 334 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:06,799 they are murderers, they are genocidal, they commit incests, they 335 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,240 do a lot of really bad things. But the shining 336 00:18:10,279 --> 00:18:15,160 star of those sons is Joseph, one of the eldest 337 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:19,079 son of Rachel, who, even though he is the eleventh 338 00:18:19,079 --> 00:18:21,079 son that was born to Jacob, Jacob treats him as 339 00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:23,480 a first born, and of course this raises the ire 340 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:28,519 of the other sons. They hate Joseph and Joseph among 341 00:18:28,599 --> 00:18:32,920 other things, he was a very good He was very intelligent. 342 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:37,720 He was also very good looking. He was a great administrator, 343 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:42,000 and he was able to interpret dreams. In fact, one 344 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,599 of the dreams he had was that one day all 345 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:46,839 of his brothers and his mother and father would bow 346 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,240 down before him and Jacob, and he was Joseph, excuse me, 347 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:52,119 when he was a kid, tells his brothers this dream, 348 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:53,720 and that just made them hate him even more, Like 349 00:18:53,759 --> 00:18:56,119 he's bad enough that you're treated better than us, but 350 00:18:56,279 --> 00:18:58,039 you also have a dream that broke and all bow 351 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:00,440 down to you. So they want to give of them. 352 00:19:00,799 --> 00:19:02,960 They decided first they wanted to kill him, but they 353 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,000 decided against that and says, instead of just killing him, 354 00:19:05,039 --> 00:19:06,880 let's make some money off of him, we'll sell him 355 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,519 into slavery. So they sell Joseph into slavery. Joseph ends 356 00:19:10,599 --> 00:19:13,799 up as a slave in the house of an Egyptian. 357 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:16,079 He goes down to Egypt and ends up in the 358 00:19:16,079 --> 00:19:18,240 house of an Egyptian man named Potiphar, who's a pretty 359 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,799 important guy in the in the pharaoh's court, the pharaoh 360 00:19:22,799 --> 00:19:25,160 of Egypt, the king of Egypt is called a pharaoh. 361 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,559 But because God was with Joseph, and God blessed Joseph 362 00:19:30,559 --> 00:19:32,680 and gave him favor, and because of Joseph's intelligence and 363 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:36,400 administrative skills, Potiphar put Joseph over his entire household. He 364 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:43,440 trusted Joseph to run his entire house. Unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately, 365 00:19:43,519 --> 00:19:47,599 excuse me for him. Potterphar's wife was kind of scummy, 366 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,000 and she kept trying to seduce Joseph, and Joseph, being 367 00:19:51,039 --> 00:19:54,720 a man of integrity, kept refusing her her advances, and 368 00:19:54,799 --> 00:19:58,000 she got frustrated and eventually lied and told Potiphar that 369 00:19:58,079 --> 00:20:02,720 Joseph raped her, and so Potter had Joseph thrown into jail. Now, 370 00:20:02,759 --> 00:20:04,880 by the way, as an aside, I don't think that 371 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:08,359 Potiphar really believed that Joseph raped his wife, because if 372 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,200 he truly believed that, he would have had Joseph killed. 373 00:20:10,279 --> 00:20:11,960 Joseph was just a slave. There would have been no 374 00:20:12,039 --> 00:20:15,279 problem in Egyptian law for him having a slave killed 375 00:20:15,319 --> 00:20:18,119 if that slave actually assaulted his wife in that way. 376 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:20,720 I think that Potiphar knew Joseph was a man of integrity, 377 00:20:20,759 --> 00:20:22,480 and I think he knew that his wife was sluty, 378 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,519 and he would have just liked to have let it go, 379 00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:28,279 but he couldn't because he had to save face. He 380 00:20:28,279 --> 00:20:30,799 couldn't have his wife running around saying that a slave 381 00:20:31,279 --> 00:20:33,519 raped her and that her husband did nothing about it. 382 00:20:33,599 --> 00:20:38,599 So Potiphar had n't put in jail and Joseph while 383 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,559 he was in jail again, the jailer saw that he 384 00:20:41,599 --> 00:20:44,440 was an excellent person, a man of integrity, a great administrator, 385 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:49,319 and the jailer put him in charge of the entire prison. 386 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:54,160 He trusted Joseph enough to make him run the entire prison. Now, 387 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,119 some folks might wonder why, if Joseph was so blessed 388 00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:59,279 by God, why did he keep going through all these 389 00:20:59,319 --> 00:21:02,119 harsh times, being sold into slavery, being falsely accused, being 390 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,920 thrown in jail. Well, what God was doing was preparing 391 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,839 Joseph by giving Joseph more and more responsibility and teaching 392 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,799 him how to be a greater and greater administrator, because, 393 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:14,839 as we'll find out in a few minutes, he would 394 00:21:14,839 --> 00:21:17,799 actually need all those skills when God finally elevated him. 395 00:21:17,839 --> 00:21:19,920 And it's something for us to keep in mind. When 396 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,960 God gives us a vision of something great that we're 397 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,720 going to do, and then we wonder why we're toiling 398 00:21:25,799 --> 00:21:28,680 in obscurity, Why hasn't this vision that God gave us 399 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,160 come about? Yet, keep in mind that God sometimes keeps 400 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,880 us in that obscurity because he's training us the same 401 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,079 way he traded Joseph, and Joseph would use everything he 402 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:40,319 learned during these harsh periods of his life to actually 403 00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:44,640 become one of the greatest men of his age. So 404 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,519 Joseph in jail for twelve years. During that time, the Pharaoh, 405 00:21:49,519 --> 00:21:52,400 the king of Egypt, has this dream that disturbs him, 406 00:21:52,599 --> 00:21:55,000 and none of the mystics in his court. And of course, 407 00:21:55,039 --> 00:21:57,759 as I said a few podcasts ago, mystics are always 408 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:02,480 hanging around the the corridors of power, pretending that they 409 00:22:02,519 --> 00:22:04,160 know more than they do, and in some cases they 410 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,000 do have certain power. We'll talk about that in the 411 00:22:06,039 --> 00:22:09,519 next podcast. But none of the mystics in Pharaoh's court 412 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:13,279 could decide for the dream. Well, there was one person 413 00:22:13,279 --> 00:22:16,480 who really who remembered that Joseph had this ability. He said, yeah, 414 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,039 there's this guy in jail, this Hebrew, that's what they 415 00:22:19,079 --> 00:22:22,720 call the Israelites. This Hebrew has the ability to interpret dreams. 416 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,640 Maybe he can help you out. So Pharaoh, Joseph brought 417 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,640 up and Pharaoh tells him as the dream and the 418 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:33,319 dream is this, And between Pharaoh saw fourteen cows. Seven 419 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,960 of the cows were very healthy, very vibrant, beautiful cows, 420 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:40,119 lovely cattle. Then there were another seven cows that were 421 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,680 ugly and emaciated, just skinny, sickly cows. And then as 422 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:51,119 Pharaoh watched, these ugly, emaciated, sickly cows devoured the healthy cows, 423 00:22:51,559 --> 00:22:54,000 and he didn't know what they made districting greatly. Well, 424 00:22:54,079 --> 00:22:56,559 Joseph prayed, and God gave him the interpretation of the dream. 425 00:22:56,559 --> 00:22:58,599 And the dream was this, that there was going to 426 00:22:58,599 --> 00:23:02,480 be a fourteen year period coming up, and the first 427 00:23:02,519 --> 00:23:06,559 seven years there's going to be great abundance, a tremendous abundance, 428 00:23:06,559 --> 00:23:09,799 represented by the big, healthy cows. But after those seven 429 00:23:09,839 --> 00:23:12,400 years there's going to be a severe famine in the 430 00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:15,519 entire region. It's going to be so severe that it's 431 00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:20,640 going to basically devour all of the abundance that people 432 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:25,400 gained in the previous seven years. And Pharaoh was impressed 433 00:23:25,559 --> 00:23:27,200 so much, so wad he said, Hey, you know what 434 00:23:27,279 --> 00:23:30,839 should I do? And Joseph, again, being an administrator, having 435 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,920 spent all his time learning through the trials that God 436 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,440 put him through how to be an administrator, he told Pharaoh, Hey, 437 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,519 here's what you do. During the seven years of abundance, 438 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,559 store up everything extra, keep all the extra and put 439 00:23:42,559 --> 00:23:45,039 it into a storehouse, so that there'll be more than 440 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,559 enough of food and grain when we have the seven 441 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,599 years of famine. And Pharaoh says, hey, I believe you, 442 00:23:52,039 --> 00:23:54,200 and he tells all the people of Egypt, whatever Joseph 443 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,359 tells you to do, do it. And it came to 444 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:02,079 pass that because of this, Pharaoh basically gave he did 445 00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:03,839 the same thing that the jailer did and that the 446 00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:06,799 Potiphar did, and that he put Joseph over everything. He 447 00:24:06,839 --> 00:24:10,559 gave Joseph all of his authority. So Joseph basically he 448 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,000 ran Egypt. He was second only to the Pharaoh. Joseph 449 00:24:13,039 --> 00:24:16,160 was essentially the prime minister of Egypt, so he in 450 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,039 one day, Joseph goes from being a prisoner to being 451 00:24:19,319 --> 00:24:24,440 the second most powerful man in the powerful Egyptian Empire, 452 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,319 And sure enough, the seven years of abundant comes around. Joseph. 453 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,559 People of Egypt do what Joseph says said, and they 454 00:24:31,759 --> 00:24:34,359 accumulated all of the excess grain and they put it 455 00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:39,200 in the storehouse. And then, as as predicted, seven years 456 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,440 of severe famine came about, and the people of Egypt 457 00:24:42,799 --> 00:24:44,359 went through all of their food and they had no 458 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,480 more food. And they came to Pharaoh saying, hey, we 459 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,079 don't have any food. Pharaoh, what are you gonna do? 460 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,440 You're our leader? What do we do? And Pharaoh said, hey, 461 00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,039 do whatever Joseph tells you. And Joseph said, if you 462 00:24:54,079 --> 00:24:56,359 want food from us, you'll have to buy it from us. 463 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:58,440 They said, okay, we'll buy it. We need food, we'll 464 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,640 buy it. So they bought the food and made Pharaoh 465 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,119 extremely rich, more richer than he was before. Not only that, 466 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,039 but people all over the region because it wasn't just 467 00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:09,880 a local famine, it was regional. It affected the entire 468 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,960 Middle East, and so people came from other nations all 469 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,279 over the world to pay for food from Egypt. Because 470 00:25:16,319 --> 00:25:19,599 Egypt had food and the rest of them didn't. But 471 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:21,880 it turned out that people ran out of money and 472 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,200 they still needed more food. The famine was so severe 473 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,119 that people gave all of their money and they still 474 00:25:27,319 --> 00:25:30,200 needed more food. And people said, hey, Pharaoh, we don't 475 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,799 have any more money, but we still need food. What 476 00:25:32,839 --> 00:25:35,400 do we do And Pharaoh said, do whatever Joseph tells you. 477 00:25:35,799 --> 00:25:37,400 And Joseph said, hey, you don't have any food, but 478 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:39,920 you have land, so give me your land and I'll 479 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,480 give you food. And people said, well, that's fine, no 480 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,119 point having land if we're starving to death. So all 481 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,279 the people of Egypt gave up their land to Pharaoh. 482 00:25:47,599 --> 00:25:51,559 So suddenly Pharaoh, through Joseph, owned all of the Egyptian land. 483 00:25:51,839 --> 00:25:55,319 Not only that, but all the other nations surrounding them 484 00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:57,480 did the same thing. They sold their land to the 485 00:25:57,519 --> 00:26:01,000 Pharaoh to get food. So now Egypt went from being 486 00:26:01,039 --> 00:26:03,839 a nation to being an empire. The Pharaoh and Egypt 487 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,240 now owned the entire region. So thanks to Joseph and 488 00:26:07,279 --> 00:26:12,000 the blessing that Pharaoh got through Joseph, the Egypt became 489 00:26:12,039 --> 00:26:17,839 an empire. So, as the narrative goes along, it turns 490 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,359 out that the sons of Israel. You know, Jacob and 491 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,240 his sons, they experienced a famine as well, and they 492 00:26:24,279 --> 00:26:26,920 heard that there was food in Egypt. So Joseph sends 493 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,200 his sons down to buy some food, just like all 494 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,680 the other nations were doing. And when they get there, 495 00:26:32,039 --> 00:26:34,799 they run into Joseph. They don't recognize Joseph, but Joseph 496 00:26:34,839 --> 00:26:38,400 recognizes them, and you know, they It's actually very interesting 497 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,759 and colorful story how they know they come together, but 498 00:26:42,599 --> 00:26:44,880 I'll spare you that because we're running out of time. 499 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:51,400 Joseph brings the entire family down to Egypt to Pharaoh 500 00:26:51,559 --> 00:26:54,240 and he presents this this new his family, which is, 501 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:55,400 you know, a bunch of them now, all of his 502 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,599 twelve the twelve sons, all of their wives, all of 503 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,759 Joseph Jacob's daughters, and all of their families. So it's 504 00:27:01,799 --> 00:27:04,519 like a pretty big group of people. And Joseph comes 505 00:27:04,519 --> 00:27:06,839 and presents them before Pharaoh. So now you have this 506 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,799 fledgling nation of Israel standing before all the nations of 507 00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:14,200 the world. Because at this point, Pharaoh is essentially the 508 00:27:14,279 --> 00:27:18,039 king of the entire known world. So what's gonna happen 509 00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:23,599 now here? Is that conjunctive issue where you have the 510 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:27,519 choice to make, will Pharaoh bless God's nation of Israel 511 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,119 or will he curse them? Well, it turns out that 512 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,039 Pharaoh blessed him. He gave he welcomed them into Egypt. 513 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,519 He gave them land, not just some land in Egypt. 514 00:27:36,559 --> 00:27:39,039 He gave him the best land, an area called Goshen, 515 00:27:39,079 --> 00:27:42,440 which was right at the Nile delta, which was very 516 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,039 fertile land. It's the best land in Egypt. And when 517 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:50,079 Jacob died, he instituted a empire wide period of mourning 518 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,920 for him and gave him a royal It offered him 519 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,319 a royal burial. So it seemed that the Pharaoh did right, 520 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,440 he blessed the nation. So does that mean the dispensation 521 00:27:59,519 --> 00:28:03,359 was a success. Well no, because remember it's not just 522 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,880 about blessing Israel. It's about blessing them and becoming a 523 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,440 part of God's nation, which Pharaoh didn't do. And I 524 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:11,519 don't know if that's because he didn't want to give 525 00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:14,119 up his gods, or maybe Pharaoh just you know, died 526 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:19,680 before he had a chance to do that. Nevertheless, God 527 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,359 did not judge them yet because it was still open ended. 528 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:26,279 They were they had the Pharaoh had blessed Israel, Egypt 529 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,759 blessed them, and they were doing well. So God was 530 00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:30,920 giving them time to decide if they were going to 531 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:35,160 join up with his nation, and in God's mercy, was 532 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:41,079 giving them time. Unfortunately, something happened that changed things. A 533 00:28:41,119 --> 00:28:44,279 new pharaoh came around, a new pharaoh that the Bible 534 00:28:44,279 --> 00:28:46,880 says didn't know Joseph. This was, you know, a couple 535 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,599 hundred years later Joseph. Excuse me, Joseph had already died 536 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,119 by this time, and this pharaoh didn't know Joseph. Now 537 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,200 that excuse me, excuse me. That doesn't mean that the 538 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,240 pharaoh didn't know Joseph existed. Of course he did. He 539 00:28:58,279 --> 00:29:03,680 was legendary. But remember in the knowing means intimacy. It 540 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,440 means that this pharaoh was not intimate with the story 541 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,839 of Joseph, the legend of Joseph. This means that this 542 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,839 pharaoh did not take the story of Joseph to heart. 543 00:29:13,559 --> 00:29:16,640 In fact, it is strongly implied and many Bible scholars 544 00:29:16,839 --> 00:29:19,559 take the tect that this pharaoh was not even Egyptian, 545 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,799 that he was possibly an Assyrian. Now, why would there 546 00:29:22,839 --> 00:29:27,079 be an Assyrian on this throne of Egypt? Probably because of 547 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,000 a royal marriage. This is something that had happened that 548 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,720 happens to this day, but it was very common back 549 00:29:31,759 --> 00:29:33,960 then and then throughout most of time that whenever you 550 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,559 had when you want to join two powerful families together, 551 00:29:37,559 --> 00:29:40,400 you would do it by marrying one of you know, 552 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,720 the son of one family to the daughter of another family. 553 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:46,680 That way they're they're joined together. And it's quite possible 554 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:49,920 that the Assyrians were kind of maybe bucking the trend 555 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:51,599 a little bit, causing some trouble, and there was a 556 00:29:51,599 --> 00:29:54,200 possibility that they would be a rival to Egypt. So 557 00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,519 in order to call the rivalry, they married a daughter 558 00:29:57,559 --> 00:30:01,960 of Egypt to a son of Assyria, and that Assyrian 559 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,599 became the new pharaoh. So this pharaoh didn't know Joseph, 560 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,720 and he didn't regard Israel very well. In fact, when 561 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,119 he saw that the Israelites had the best land and 562 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,240 that they were multiplying, they were apparently giving birth, you know, 563 00:30:14,359 --> 00:30:18,119 just pretty rapidly, and they were growing strong and numerically, 564 00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:20,240 he became afraid of them. And he said, well, you know, 565 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,160 they're going to outnumber us, and they might side with 566 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,720 an enemy or try to take over Egypt. So he 567 00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:29,319 decided to put them into bondage and to just work 568 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:34,519 them hard to build cities in Egypt. So he basically 569 00:30:34,559 --> 00:30:39,680 made the Israelites slaves. Now, at this point God could 570 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,720 have probably judged them. However, the Israelites being slaves was 571 00:30:42,799 --> 00:30:46,160 part of God's plan. In fact, God told Abraham in 572 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:50,440 a prophecy that the Israelites would serve another nation to 573 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:54,000 turn off Egypt, obviously for four hundred years, but then 574 00:30:54,039 --> 00:30:56,319 God would bring them out of Egypt as a powerful 575 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:00,160 nation and a rich nation, into the back to to 576 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,920 the promised land of Canaan. So it's interesting, isn't it 577 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,920 that God instituted a worldwide femine just to bring one 578 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,319 family down to Egypt so that he could so this 579 00:31:08,359 --> 00:31:13,279 prophecy could be fulfilled. Interesting. So anyway, this pharaoh put 580 00:31:13,319 --> 00:31:15,920 them in bondage, and of course that happened again four 581 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,359 hundred years. Finally, after four hundred years, it was time 582 00:31:19,599 --> 00:31:22,079 that people prayed to God, and God said, okay, it's 583 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,880 time for my nation to come out. And God does 584 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:30,359 this all through Moses, a very familiar story. We hear 585 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,799 it every well. I'm probably aging myself. I don't think 586 00:31:32,799 --> 00:31:34,279 they do it anymore. But when I was a kid, 587 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,920 every Resurrection holiday during the time which we incorrectly called 588 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,519 Easter or Holy Week, they would show the old movie 589 00:31:43,559 --> 00:31:46,039 The Ten Commandments was Charlton, Heston and Moses, and it 590 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:48,319 was actually even though it's an older movie, it holds 591 00:31:48,359 --> 00:31:50,279 up pretty well. But we all know the familiar story 592 00:31:50,319 --> 00:31:53,440 of how Moses was born during a time when that 593 00:31:53,759 --> 00:31:56,200 the pharaoh of that age, you know, a few hundred 594 00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,359 years after the Pharaoh who initially enslaved Egypt. That Pharaoh 595 00:31:59,359 --> 00:32:02,480 wanted to all or ordered rather than all the first 596 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,599 born sons of the of the Israelites be killed because 597 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,720 he was trying to keep their population down. Moses escapes 598 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,599 down the river through his mother's help. He is adopted 599 00:32:12,599 --> 00:32:16,039 by the pharaoh's daughter, who gets some other river and 600 00:32:16,279 --> 00:32:18,680 raises him as her own. He has a falling out 601 00:32:19,359 --> 00:32:22,119 with the Egyptian court. He is driven off into the 602 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,799 land of Midian, where he encounters God and burning bush, 603 00:32:25,839 --> 00:32:28,720 and God commissions him to go to Pharaoh and tell 604 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,200 them to let his people go. Now, keep in mind 605 00:32:32,559 --> 00:32:35,680 exactly what God said. God didn't tell Moses to go 606 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,519 and tell Pharaoh to release them from their bondage. God 607 00:32:38,559 --> 00:32:41,759 actually said to let them go a three day journey 608 00:32:41,759 --> 00:32:44,279 into the wilderness just so that they could worship him. 609 00:32:44,519 --> 00:32:47,480 God basically asked Pharaoh, hey, how about give my people 610 00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:52,160 a weekend pass so that they could they could worship me. 611 00:32:52,359 --> 00:32:54,480 God didn't say I'm going to strip you all your slaves. 612 00:32:54,519 --> 00:32:57,319 I said, just give him a holiday. Now, what did 613 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:02,039 Pharaoh do? Here is Pharaoh's chance to definitively decide if 614 00:33:02,039 --> 00:33:04,400 he's going to bless or curse the people of God. 615 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,160 So Pharah could have said, okay, fine, you guys can 616 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,240 go there and worship your God. But Pharaoh didn't. Pharaoh 617 00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:14,119 did two things. First of all, he said no, they 618 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,480 can't go. And then Pharaoh made their burden even more 619 00:33:17,519 --> 00:33:19,640 difficult by telling him he wasn't going to give them 620 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,920 straw to make brick. You can't make brick without in 621 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:27,359 that time without straw. So Pharaoh not only refused to 622 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:31,559 obey God, he cursed is well. By making their job 623 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:36,920 not just difficult, but virtually impossible. Pharaoh definitively chose himself 624 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:42,279 over God, and by doing so, he failed that dispensation 625 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,000 he could have blessed him. He decided not to be 626 00:33:45,119 --> 00:33:47,759 decided to curse them. It was bad enough that they 627 00:33:47,759 --> 00:33:51,599 were already enslaved, but now he made their work virtually impossible. 628 00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,839 It was impossible for them to stay on schedule without 629 00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:57,480 the straw that they needed in order to make the brick. 630 00:33:57,759 --> 00:34:00,240 So Pharaoh told him to do the impossible. No one 631 00:34:00,279 --> 00:34:03,160 can do the impossible. That's a contradiction. So Pharaoh was definitive, 632 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,440 and that he was going that he cursed God's nation. 633 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:08,880 So the dispensation failed, and God could now end the 634 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,760 dispensation start a new one, and of course judge Pharaoh, 635 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:15,400 which he did through the famous ten plagues we all 636 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:17,519 know about them. That's turning the Nile to blood and 637 00:34:17,559 --> 00:34:20,920 bringing out frogs and flies and lights and boils and 638 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,159 killing the cattle, and darkness and hail and eventually sorry 639 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:28,159 and locus and eventually the death of all the first born, 640 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,760 at which time Pharaoh finally let the people go, and 641 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,440 not really did they go, They also took the riches 642 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:38,119 of Egypt with him with them, and that was what 643 00:34:38,159 --> 00:34:42,400 they were used to build the nation of Israel. And 644 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,480 so that ends that dispensation, And of course it's time 645 00:34:45,599 --> 00:34:49,199 for the next dispensation. But before we do that, as always, 646 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,559 we're going to take a deeper dive into some of 647 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:58,719 the intricacies and very interesting and relevant parts of what 648 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,519 went on in this dispensation, and we're going to start 649 00:35:01,639 --> 00:35:05,480 doing that next week, and the next week's podcast, we're 650 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,800 going to cover a couple of pretty significant and interesting things. 651 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,760 The first is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. If you 652 00:35:12,199 --> 00:35:15,480 look at the narrative of the ten plagues, you will 653 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:17,679 find that after some of them, God, well, first of all, 654 00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,559 God says in the beginning to Moses, said, when you 655 00:35:19,639 --> 00:35:21,559 go down there, Pharaoh's not going to obey you, and 656 00:35:21,599 --> 00:35:23,599 I'm going to harden his heart so that he doesn't 657 00:35:23,599 --> 00:35:25,639 obey you, so that I can send these plugs on him. 658 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,199 And then after some of the plagues, Pharaoh first says 659 00:35:29,199 --> 00:35:31,800 he's going to let the Israelites go. Then later his 660 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,440 heart is hardened. And sometimes it says that God hardened 661 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:36,840 his heart so that he would renig on his offer 662 00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:41,559 and double down on his disobedience, which would allow God 663 00:35:41,559 --> 00:35:43,840 to send yet another plague. But if you look at this, 664 00:35:44,119 --> 00:35:46,239 it kind of seems unfair when you think about it. 665 00:35:47,039 --> 00:35:50,000 God intentionally hardens this man's heart. It's almost like he 666 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:52,719 takes away his free will and does not allow him 667 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:54,280 to do what he wants to do, which is let 668 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,039 the Israelites go. No, God hardens his heart, takes a 669 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,880 seemingly taking away his free will so that he doesn't 670 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,880 let the people go, so that God can punish him more. 671 00:36:04,599 --> 00:36:06,719 And again you take a step back in and you 672 00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,639 look at that. It doesn't seem right, It doesn't seem fair. 673 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,119 But we know that God is right and just always completely. 674 00:36:13,199 --> 00:36:16,199 So there must be a just and righteous explanation for 675 00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:18,880 God hardening Pharaoh's heart. There is, We will talk about 676 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:23,280 it in the next podcast. Also, the plagues themselves, those 677 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,320 ten plagues, Why did God choose those specific plagues? They 678 00:36:27,599 --> 00:36:30,440 kind of seem random, but they are not. God is 679 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:32,480 not random. He did not just pull these things out 680 00:36:32,519 --> 00:36:34,000 of his hat and say, hey, I think I'll do 681 00:36:34,079 --> 00:36:37,880 these things that'll take off the Egyptians and torture them, 682 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:41,559 you know, and judge them. No, God had a very 683 00:36:41,559 --> 00:36:46,400 intentional reason for choosing those specific ten things, and the 684 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,800 reason behind them you can only understand if you have 685 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,840 the supernatural world view, which we talked about several podcasts ago. 686 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,679 Those ten plagues have every these specific plagues and specific 687 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,679 meetings behind them. I have everything to do with a 688 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:04,320 supernatural worldview, and I will tell you how in the 689 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,280 next podcast. So thank you for listening. I appreciate it. 690 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,920 Please subscribe to Faithbyreason dot net just by putting your 691 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:15,320 email into the right navigation bar, and they'll feel free 692 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:17,119 to send me your comments. I'd love to hear them 693 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,159 either on this on the website, which I prefer, or 694 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,159 on Facebook if you like, and I will talk to 695 00:37:24,199 --> 00:37:25,199 you next week.