Exodus 29—Deuteronomy 7 with Shawn & Nathan

Nathan Stearman 0:12

(Transcribed by https://otter.ai)

Nathan, and I want to welcome you back to the 13th week Bible. This is episode three, the second of 13 episodes designed to serve as a guide to each week's upcoming reading as we move through the entire Bible in just 13 weeks, I hope you've been enjoying your journey so far. I'm here, by the way with my good friend, Sean brace, and we're going to chat together about what to expect as we move into this week's reading, which begins in Exodus 29. And takes us all the way through Deuteronomy seven. Shawn, how is it going for you?

Shawn Brace 0:51

It's going great, Nathan, I'm really enjoying it and seeing the different themes and patterns that emerge is always very interesting. And every time I read the Bible through, I just pick up new insights. And that's why it's so powerful to do this sort of thing.

Nathan Stearman 1:09

Yeah, and I find it pretty incredible. Even going through the Bible at this speed, as one of your friends said, Who would do that. But I found that it contributes so much insight. It may be one way that I pick up a handful of important ideas, but those important ideas seem to be on can sometimes be very profound in my perception of the larger story.

Shawn Brace 1:37

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, I, as we've talked about before, there's definitely pros and cons of doing a quick reading versus a very slow reading. But I just think there's so much to be gained from doing a very fast quick reading, because you do see those, those big themes emerge. And also, I mean, not to be almost sounding sacrilegious. But when you do a quick reading, you don't get as discouraged. Because you're quickly going through sections that maybe aren't as engaging liked. The very section that we're going to be talking about today, which is probably where most people kind of abandon their Bible reading plans is in this very section that we're going to discuss today.

Nathan Stearman 2:23

And I that's huge. And and, again, we'll probably talk about this more than once. But that's one of the big benefits of reading fast. There's two days, and I think you're talking about Leviticus two days in Leviticus, and it's alright, it's great, you know, you do move through it, Leviticus is one of those books, by the way, where you there's several sections, you can kind of run through really fast, because to really get something out of them, especially the first few chapters of Leviticus, you need to slow way down. And that's not the purpose of what we're doing. So, and I think that's important to keep in mind. This is not the full spectrum of the study of Scripture. This is a specific approach designed to capture big ideas, and some other sprinkling of insights along the way. So we're not disrespecting the text, we're using this tool of rapid reading for a specific purpose. And it doesn't serve the purpose of understanding in detail, the sacrificial system, which in Exodus, and in Leviticus is a big piece of what's being set up. And so just respecting the tool for what it is using it for what it is, and using other forms of Bible study, to investigate those portions that you don't have time for now, or to investigate in a different way, the portion of Scripture that we're moving through so quickly, so the last part of Exodus, this last day of reading, is going to take us from 29 to 40. Any specific highlights about this section, which is basically setting up the tabernacle service, that's the big chunk of what's happening here?

Shawn Brace 4:09

Well, it's very interesting that, you know, chapter 40, talks about this sort of what people have called the inauguration of the of the sanctuary. And that brings up all sorts of interesting, theological, you know, discussions and conversations down the road. But this is basically, you know, the inauguration service where we're Aaron is an iterated as priests and again, there's, you just put that in the back of your mind because little preview if we remember to bring it up, but when you get all the way I'm sorry, Nathan, I have the habit of going. Wherever you get all the way to this book called Hebrews in the New Testament. You're going to hear some of that language again. Down At least as I've come to understand it, there has been great debate about what exactly Hebrews is talking about. But scholars I, I respect have noted that Hebrew seems to be pointing to this inauguration of the sanctuary in heaven, which is echoing what's going on there and Exodus 40.

Nathan Stearman 5:24

And that's one of the things I love, again, about this fast reading, is within 13 weeks, we're going to be watching the construction of the witches this week, last week, the construction of the tabernacle, its inauguration. And then within, you know, by the end of our time together, I think it's probably in week 13, we're going to read Paul, at least as I assume the author of Hebrews to be, and his kind of recap, an application and his his looking back at the tabernacle in hindsight, through the lens of the story of Jesus and how the two interface so what you're reading now is setting us up to understand Messiah in the future. So it's a great thing to keep in mind, I think it is valuable to jump ahead and say, okay, when you're reading now, we're going to see echoes of this coming back online, when we move into other parts of the book, especially as the New Testament looks back and re frames things through the Messiah story. That's

Shawn Brace 6:29

right. That's right. And I think it is so tempting for us, and I'm assuming most people who are listening are coming from a Christian perspective, it is so tempting for us to do one of two things, I would say number one, that just kind of discount the whole Hebrew Bible and say, well, that's a different era to different dispensation, it doesn't have relevance to me as a follower of Jesus. So it's tempting to do that, which I think obviously is a huge mistake. Because the New Testament does not make sense without the Hebrew Bible. So that's temptation. Number one, temptation. Number two, is to be over overly literalistic with the Hebrew Bible and say, okay, everything applies to me. And I have to figure out every little detail, I have to make sure that I know exactly how many, you know, gems, were on the breastplate of, you know, Aaron, and all that. And, you know, what does that mean? What does that mean, for me, you know, do I have to buy, you know, similar whatever do I have to follow these feasts that they were told to follow, and all that stuff. So I think those are two of the dangers. But, as you said, understanding how it fits in the story, the story here in the Hebrew Bible is pointing ahead to Messiah. And so that takes on a whole different level of meaning, when it comes to how we understand that. And I think and

Nathan Stearman 7:59

again, this goes back to what we talked about, in the last episode, letting the story tell that story, letting God tell its story and tell his story. And that means taking what we read, holding it, not necessarily applying or interpreting it at the moment, we want to do that that's part of Christian life, but maybe not at the moment that the story unfold. Let the story tell us how to think about the story, how to think about the stories in the story, how to think about what happened before and how to apply it. There's so much as the story develops, that we start to see, okay, this is how it's meant as the prophets in different eras speak into the story. They frame things differently. And help us to understand the larger that help us to understand the story in a more robust way that then we can apply more wisely, right now. I

Shawn Brace 8:52

think that is so huge, Nathan, because I'll admit, myself, I get impatient. I want to, we all want to take shortcuts and say, How does this apply to me? You know, how does this apply to me? How do I apply this to my life? And again, I think there's an important place for that. Because we scripture is not just a bunch of trivial information. But yes, at the same time, we do want to slow down and see how it fits with the narrative with the story before we immediately go, Okay, what does this mean for me? You know, yeah,

Nathan Stearman 9:29

yeah, so good. So, again, one of the reasons we're doing this fast reading is so that we are keeping in mind that understanding the story of God must include the big picture perspective. Just opening up Exodus and doing a deep dive is not going to be the wisest use of time in Scripture, unless that happens in the in the context of the big story, and I find that the big story is For me more helpful than digging into little pieces, if I have to choose one or the other, I'm gonna choose big picture perspective and lean less on deep dives, because the big picture perspective helps me not lose track of the storyline. That's right. Well,

Shawn Brace: 10:16

I mean, the Bible is written in this way. Because even though it's a big long book, the Bible 1000 pages or so it covers, you know, three to 3000 years. So yeah, so, so the Bible itself is giving us the big picture, even though again, there's some weeds, there's some details. But that's, that's what its itself trying to do. And, and so just recognizing that is critically important.

Nathan Stearman: 10:47

Yeah. So a couple things. Just to mention, I think it's pretty cool that God gifts in this these last few chapters of Exodus, you'll notice that God gifts, a group of people with the skill for craftsmanship, highly skilled, magnificent craftsmanship, which is just a cool thing to just to notice. Gods God's eye for design and beauty, and his his attention to detail and his gifting of people to produce exquisite works of craftsmanship.

Shawn Brace: 11:26

Yeah, I was gonna say, you know, when I read these sections, I roll my eyes and I say, oh, boy, what do I care about, you know, the measurements, the whatever, the weights, and then I realized that the Bible has many different genres. And there might be somebody who, who is an engineer or a builder, and they think, Wow, this is really interesting. You know, this is exciting. And so you know, there's all sorts of different genres and types of literature that the Bible covers, you know, we're gonna get into the book and numbers, of course, as well as like, I'm not a numbers person, what do I care about numbers, but there, there there are accountants reading, you know, mathematicians reading the book of Numbers were like, Oh, this is really cool. I really, like you know, this sort of thing being brought out. Yep.

Nathan Stearman: 12:13

So just one other piece to slow down for Exodus 3334, tragic time timeframe, where God's people are just turning their back on him. But in in kind of that, around that story, Moses has a profound encounter with God. So xs three through 34 recount that story. And that's just a super important story for orienting our sense of the long story.

Shawn Brace: 12:40

I was, I was going to mention that as well. And I think it continues this theme of, of presence in the sense that Moses wants to see God's glory. And God says, basically, you're a sinful person, you can't see my face and live. So picks up this theme of, of so started in Genesis, you know, one and two, where God and human beings could be in each other's presence, but because of selfishness, and sin and rebellion, human beings cannot be in the unmediated presence of God. And, you know, it's not that God doesn't want it. God would love for human beings to be face to face with Him. But He says, You can't do it and live, you know, it's just the way things are right now. And so again, the whole story is trying to recapture that, you know, experience of us being able to look God in the face and live. Hmm,

Nathan Stearman: 13:44

yep, yep. So I'm going to do a little Shawn thing and jump ahead of the story a bit. I'm working on another project, which is part of it writing project right now. And I was doing some writing the other day, and it says, this thing, this idea struck me. So the tabernacle is constructed specifically, based on God's desire to be with his Peden back in Exodus 25, God specifically says, Make me a tent, make me a tabernacle, so I can be with you. Okay, so this is God being with his people. And normally we would see, I would have thought traditionally, okay, sort of, without putting words on it. God wants to be with us. But then he wants us to be with him, right? So he's going to take us to his house. That's kind of the picture I've often had. What's fascinating is actually when we get to the end of the story, the witness of God is him coming to be with us. So this picture in Scripture, is God moving close to us. Yes, he wants us with him. But he's the one doing the moving. In basically the entire story. God is moving in with us, rather than him extracting us to his place. He's saying listen, I want to I want to be with You, and I'm going to come as close to as I can, because you're the person you're the people I want to be with. And that theme carries through the entire scripture, wrapping up in Revelation, with God coming to being with us here on Earth. It's a crazy theme that I'm just sort of seeing with fresh eyes. So a

Shawn Brace: 15:20

friend of ours, or at least of mine, maybe you know John Peckham, as well, Nathan. He's a theologian in our faith, community and tie that taught at our seminary. He just published a book that is supposed to be used now as a textbook for introductory theology students at our various seventh Ave US institutions, and the name of the book is God with us. And initially, when I, initially when I thought of, you know, it's kind of supposed to encapsulate the theology of our faith community, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and initially I thought to myself, Well, the book should be really entitled God is love. But the more I thought about it, the more I love that idea that that, that that that summarizes how we understand Scripture is this theme of God with us, God always wanting to be with us, God wanting to be in our presence. And yeah, that, that, you know, again, going ahead, John one literally uses that imagery, and the Word became flesh, and the word next is in Greek, and he tabernacled among us, he lived among us. So it's pulling that sanctuary, God with us idea out from from the Hebrew Bible. So

Nathan Stearman: 16:37

there's another theme for you to track as you read as you go through, because we're going to move into Leviticus. Now, that's the next entire book you're going to read this week, is over two days, the Book of Leviticus, but again, keeping in mind that as you read, or skim through some of these tedious details, that this is all against the backdrop of Gods longing to be with us. Just keep that in mind and know even though they're not. Yeah, go ahead.

Shawn Brace: 17:04

No, no, I don't want to get into too much here. But it's just developing in my mind is we're talking about this, but it's interesting. God announces his desire to be with his people. And then what's the first thing in Leviticus, God sets them up to do? It's confession. That's what that's what you know, as I was reading the first 10 or 15 chapters of Leviticus that I'm currently writing on this for my newsletter, and I'm reading all the sacrifices that God has His people doing over and over and over and over and over again, I'm thinking, why all the while the sacrifices while the details, and it suddenly occurred to me that God was wanting to get his people in the habit of regular confession, because relationship cannot be fully restored and cannot be experienced, if there's not confession, because anytime there's something between me and another person between me and you, that relationship cannot be restored unless I get in the practice of confession. Yep,

Nathan Stearman: 18:12

that's a great observation. The other thing that I think is worth pointing out is, is it's kind of a big idea as you go through scripture, and that is the intentionality with which God works to connect cause and effect for his people. So the cause that a wrong action has an impact, a consequence, not a consequence, so much as punishment, but has a result so if you plant tomatoes, you get tomato plants. If you plant dandelion seeds, you get Daniel, it's that cause and effect relationship is built in wired into the way the universe works. But then God interposes, a layer of sort of artificial layer of cause and effect, so that he can teach his people the relationship between actions, decisions, and outcomes, without the outcomes being devastating, sort of like your child, disciplining your child for going in the street. Like we could just let the natural cause and effect teach them that the street is dangerous. The problem is if we do that, they may never get the chance to learn the lesson because the first time they go on the street could be the last time so so God is imposing an artificial layer. Evil is in the end the thing that's destructive, but God wants to impose the education of cause and effect in between the real cause and effect so that his people can learn that cause and effect relationship without it, destroying them before they learn the lesson.

Shawn Brace: 19:57

I think that's such a huge and critical eye Yeah, and I use that analogy a lot myself as well with children. Right? You have to, right? You have to, you have to be very black and white and dogmatic with them for their own safety. And yeah, you do impose rules that sort of are guardrails, right? You don't want to, you don't want them to get even close to touching the stone. Right, and you get so now. Now, what's critically important is to realize that some point, the guardrails have to come down. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But that's, that's that's kind of like advanced calculus. Right? You know, we're, we're in a different stage in the Bible in the story right now. And the problem is, is when many of us in our own maturity, have been arrested development where we don't move beyond that. But we think this is the way it's always supposed to be when Ray in reality, that's just one part of the story, one part of the process. And

Nathan Stearman: 20:59

I think one other piece to add to this before moving on is that the imposed the consequences imposed by God, that's not the cost of evil. That's the training wheels, the real destructive piece is in is essential to sin to rebellion to, to violating the way of love itself. So the consequences that God uses that are that we find imposed in Scripture, they are temporary, God, that is not the cost of doing evil. That's not the cost of doing life, your own way instead of God's way. That's a teaching piece, the real cost we see developed in Scripture, but the real cost is broken relationships, the real cause is, is suffering is society that eventually self destructs. That's the real cost. These intermediary pieces that we sometimes think are the cost of evil, are just teaching pieces that are designed to keep us away from the edge. So we don't catastrophically fall off, before learning that evil is a costly way of being and that it is a self destructive, and unsustainable way of doing life. This is probably something we'll talk about more and more through our journey. But just the important thing to keep in mind that evil is not bad, because God's going to punish you. Evil is bad and its own of its own self. The punishment piece, the discipline piece, is, is a training piece, trying to help us get it before it's too late. Yeah,

Shawn Brace: 22:44

that's certainly a Pauline theme. You know, the apostle Paul in Galatians, he brings that out with the law was supposed to be sort of like a tutor that was supposed to just keep us safe for a while. But ultimately, God wants to take the training wheels off.

Nathan Stearman: 23:00

Exactly. And I don't know why I just feel like sometimes we repeat when we look at God, we often see him as kind of the reason why evil is bad. So we're like, Well, if God doesn't see it, then I shouldn't be able to get away with it. Right. But the thing is, and this is a proverbs theme. So it's a theme we're going to talk about again and again, is the idea that evil is bad in itself and doesn't need God to do anything for it to be bad and destructive. This layer of training in between is designed to help us correct course and get the best of life before we just self destruct. Anyway, we'll run around this idea many times as we go through. So we're in Leviticus, and you're running through, say Leviticus eight is is just lots of detailed instructions on sacrifices, you'll find very, a lot of similarities from one sacrifice to the next as far as the detailed instructions. Watch the similarities, things like leaven, things like fat, things like blood, you're going to see that coming up some some commonalities of how to treat those things. Shawn, anything in those first few chapters you would highlight other than what you've already mentioned?

Shawn Brace: 24:13

Yeah, well, yeah, again, the confession piece, but then again, realizing because you and I, and all of our listeners are reading this in 21st century AD, and we just are like, what is this all about? Just realizing that again, God was using the language that people understood by enacting sacrifice. I don't think I'm just putting this out there. Maybe I'm way off, but I don't think God ideally would use this type of animal sacrifice system. If he was, you know, starting with a blank slate. I think it probably had a lot to do with just what people were familiar with. I'm in those days. So, you know, that's just again, something to remember and to keep in mind that that this is God speaking to people 3500 years ago or so. And this is this is how they understood, just like today God speaks to us in ways that we can understand because of our context. This is what is going on with a bad case, I believe.

Nathan Stearman: 25:25

Yeah, good. It's good. So then we're going to move through some instructions on what you eat. We're going to also move through instructions on feminine hygiene is there. I am fascinated by the guidelines on dealing with molds and contagious

illnesses. Yeah, just

at the level of hygiene that God's got really interested in the welfare of his people. And it gives them these very practical guidelines before they ever do germ theory, right? God is happy giving these details for addressing things that were spreading were contagions.

Shawn Brace: 26:05

Yeah, that's what struck me as well. When I was reading at this time, I was like, Okay, this is God, being concerned about making sure that people were healthy, and, you know, being able to have clean spaces. And, you know, obviously, having come, just come through a pandemic, maybe this is a little more relevant and understandable in our minds, but that's like, our own children were like, Okay, you gotta shower, you gotta brush your teeth, you have to use deodorant. I mean, these are just basic things that they probably didn't know much about. And it looks like God is trying to micromanage people, but he's just literally wanting them to survive, right? He's wanting to continue to prosper and help.

Nathan Stearman: 26:49

Yep, I mean, we do things today, like radon remediation, where you spend 1000s of dollars to have a system to protect your family from radon, if you're in an area that has high radon, we did this with black mold. My kids had gotten a little careless on their bathroom cleaning and some mold growing. And it's super important. Like if that black mold gets into the air, if that black mold is allowed to get into the structure of the house, you can end up having a whole house condemned. So it's not really that different. From what we find from fabrics to, to houses, there was a time just anyway, just read those sections through and just notice how interested God is that they have an environment that's conducive to physical flourishing, not just spiritual flourishing.

So and then we're going to move through some of the feasts, I believe chapter 17. is, I think at that time, right, chapter 17. Dresses, dealing with blood. And well, you do you

Shawn Brace: 28:04

have obviously, we have chapter 16, as well, which is a very Yeah,

Nathan Stearman: 28:08

that's what I was thinking of. Thank

Shawn Brace: 28:09

you chapter six. Yeah, many identify, as some of you have said that this is actually the very center of the Torah, very center of the Five Books of Moses is actually lands on Leviticus 16, which is talking about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is sort of the climax of the whole year and the whole sacrificial system is this day of ultimate cleansing, kind of spiritual cleansing. But, you know, I think you and I probably would be inclined to see it as having big significance in sort of the big story of God trying to, maybe, I don't know, to what degree they could understand it in those days. But, you know, in hindsight now, having the benefit of seeing it through the lens of Jesus, maybe on a macro scale, God, announcing that he's going to once and for all put an end to sin and suffering and pain and, and, you know, selfishness, and ultimately, he's trying to kind of cleanse the sanctuary. And just again, we won't develop that right now, because I'm sure we'll talk about it later on when we get to later books in the Hebrew Bible, in the New Testament, but just put that in the back of your mind, Leviticus 16, the cleansing of the sanctuary, the day of atonement has a pretty important place in the story of Scripture.

Nathan Stearman: 29:42

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Excellent. So then 17 is I was stumbling over my words a bit. 17 goes into more guidelines, 1718, et cetera, you're going to see just lists of guidelines a heavy emphasis on sexual purity And I'm

Shawn Brace: 30:05

sure it's obviously a big topic, big

Nathan Stearman: 30:07

topic, but I think part of it is not just a general sexual purity, but they're also coming from a culture where sexuality and human life are treated, you know, as slaves, they were at the bottom of the totem pole. So God was having to retrain them as to the value of the human body, and of each other. And so you're going to see some stuff in, in Leviticus that you're going to scratch your head about, but that you're going to see things that are really straightforward on as far as sexuality guidelines, as far as fairness in the treatment of, of people who are not part of your who are core foreigners, the treatment of people that work for you the even conduct in trade. And so, for me, the thing that's really stands out is God's effort to create a fair and equitable society.

Shawn Brace: 31:05

Yeah, absolutely. And, as you pointed out, he's often reminding them that they are not to act like the people from whom they were liberated, like, you are not supposed to sleep with, you know, this person, just as they did back in Egypt, you know, you're there, they were gonna be a different people. And it wasn't just different for the sake of being different. But as you say, to to value the body to value life to value relation, relational integrity.

Nathan Stearman: 31:35

Yep. And so the other piece we're going to notice, well, that I think you should notice is, is the provision for the poor that comes up in more than one spot in Leviticus, just just notice that God specifically speaks to provisions for the poor, and to foreigners. So again, an equitable society where goodness defines the rhythm of that society. That's what God's trying to build. So sure, we have a hard time understanding some of the particular guidelines, we have sometimes stumble and choke over. And more so in the future and future readings over the way certain situations are dealt with. But noticing the bigger picture, just stepping back and asking yourself, if, if this social dream that God's after had been created, what kind of society would that be? And when I asked that question, I just come to this, this realization that it would be a beautiful just society, if the dream that can sometimes again, get lost in some of the things that we don't understand. But if the just the big picture, dream was carried out, it would be an incredible way to exist, is a nation or even a town city, etc.

Shawn Brace: 32:53

Great points.

Nathan Stearman: 32:56

So then we move kind of moved through the end of Leviticus and into numbers. And actually, I was wrong. We're finishing Leviticus and Numbers this week. And so numbers quite a book. Again, some of this initial book is a book to kind of cruise through, at least for me with the lists of counting of families.

Shawn Brace: 33:29

Yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure. I didn't, I didn't slow down to, you know, parse every, every number that came, came upon my, my reading, for sure. But there's also stories, there's also stories, there's some good stories, some really important ones about, you know, Caleb and Joshua and the spies that go into the land and do and that's, again sets the table for the wandering that takes place after that for 40 years, because it does say said we can't take the land and God was not happy with them about that. Right?

Nathan Stearman: 34:05

So beautiful blessing. And in number six, just be looking for that beautiful blessing and number six, and so we're going to skip through all these sort of counting things and setting up who's responsible for what, and just noting the story to watch out for the stories in the text. And one of those is, is God dealing with Miriam and Aaron who are questioning Moses central leadership and how God clarifies that?

Shawn Brace: 34:42

Well, one of them as well as the daughters of Celexa had who are wanting an inheritance and there's no you know, they don't have brothers and you know, and they say, wait a minute, we we deserve an inheritance and it's really neat to see the the value that guy places on on women here. Yep,

Nathan Stearman: 35:03

exactly. And so then we have the inspection of the land of Canaan. And there are a group of spies chosen. And those spies come back and they give this awful report. And that is a huge huge turning point in the story of Israel. It's like two months journey about two months, two to three months within, I think within three months, if you follow the storyline is or would have been either right on the borders of the promised land or actually having entered into it, but instead the story turns when the spies 10 of the 12 spies that go in bring this discouraging report, and the people are just devastated because they believe the report instead of trusting the God who part of the Red Sea.

Shawn Brace: 36:00

And that's the theme, Nathan that comes up over and over and over again, the people God, the people complain, God delivers them. Then the people complain again, God delivers them, people complain again, that just goes round around. And this is maybe the, the height of that pattern, where they are. And every time where they say, let's just go back into Egypt, you're better off there, you know, bring us back there.

Nathan Stearman: 36:26

Yeah, how quickly they forgot how miserable Egypt I mean, they're getting we know that back in excess, they get free free bread every morning called manna. And except for Sabbath, but other than that, there's free bread every morning. It's double portion on Friday, so that they have food for Sabbath, but they don't have to collect on Sabbath. This is happening throughout their journey, there is never food insecurity. During the entire journey. The food doesn't stop until they're eating the food in the land that God gave them that God promised to Abraham. And so the food we have water provided they run into a few times with their lack of water crisis mode God provides, we find that story showing up in numbers, God providing water. And so there's a story interesting, tragic story, actually, after the death, or after the people just rebel against God, these guys band together core data in a Byram. So kind of a tragic story of rebellion there that is dealt with very decisively to prevent rebellion from kind of collapsing the, this fledgling civilization that had to make it through the wilderness all the way to this promised land.

Shawn Brace: 37:46

Yeah, and that comes up, you know, a few times throughout the story as this kind of revolt that that takes place, you know, between these various people who think they know how to do it better. And, you know, again, there's all sorts of theological questions that arise. Well, how could God have struck these people dead, but you know, just recognizing again, that that that's an important, that's an important piece for God. And we'll talk about this later, I'm sure. When it comes to, seemingly, the jealousy of God, I'll put it in that in that way. You know, we can talk about that in a future. Probably episode, but yeah,

Nathan Stearman: 38:30

yep. And I think we're gonna definitely touch on that. Maybe we'll touch on that in Deuteronomy. I just just one more thing to highlight just to keep your eyes open for the story of Balearic and balem. takes up a few chapters here. Some of the most magnificent prophecies about God's people and about the Messiah actually are given by this prophet that has no connection as far as we can tell to the Hebrew people.

Shawn Brace: 38:55

That's the story. Yeah.

Nathan Stearman: 38:57

Slow down for that story. If you know skim the other stuff to slow down for that story. Certainly, there's a couple other stories spots that are good, but the bailiff bailiff story is fascinating. And it comes up all the way in the Revelation. By the time we get there, we find the basic story of a love story coming up again, which is kind of interesting. I think the only other major thing is to mention as you're going through numbers, Leviticus, etc, is how God reminds the people. Listen, I'm setting you up for blessing. If you go along with the instructions I've given you, you're going to prosper if you don't though, it's going to be awful. And I think this is something we got to talk about when we get to Deuteronomy, because there's the blessings and curses at the end of Deuteronomy. We're going to keep our eyes open for that. Anything else in numbers before we just dab our foot into Deuteronomy? No,

Shawn Brace: 39:49

I think Deuteronomy is calling our name.

Nathan Stearman: 39:54

Yes. Deuteronomy is probably my favorite of Well, one of my favorites, Genesis. and Deuteronomy I think are my favorites of the first four, five books of the Bible. Deuteronomy I find for me is, is kind of a fatherly recap of the entire story. It's interesting that some of the, some of what we is, is recorded in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. When Moses recounts it, he puts a little bit of a different spin on it. I don't know if you've noticed that, Shawn, but it's fascinating to see that. Yeah,

Shawn Brace: 40:30

I did notice that obviously, even the 10 The 10 commandment. Yeah, exactly. The reciting of the 10 commandments. And Deuteronomy five is a little, most of them are, are the same, but especially the Sabbath commandment. It's framed a little differently. So that's an interesting, that's an interesting thing to notice. Of course, the reason part of the reason Moses gives these farewell sermons, if you will, is because he's now speaking to a different audience. Yes, that's right after the 40 years, and so these people, these, these people who either were children or they weren't even alive, when, you know, the journey began, he's now having to recite this stuff for them to keep them on track as to where they're headed. That's

Nathan Stearman: 41:17

right. So you're going to notice as you read the story, that when the Israelites got discouraged and angry, over the spies report, the 12 spies report, they ended up not be able to go into the Promised Land so so those folks that just turn their backs on God at the first encounter with the promised land or or on the borders of the Promised Land, the first time, those folks didn't go in, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. And Deuteronomy is the end of those 40 years, Moses, which is a story left to look for, is not going to enter the Promised Land himself. So watch for that story that explains why so he is passing the baton. And Deuteronomy is Moses communication to the people of Israel to set them up for success, as they follow their new leader, across the Jordan and into the promised land. That's the entire purpose of Deuteronomy is setting them up for success by the recap. And the teaching that that essentially is, again, essentially a recap of the history and the guidelines from not not all the guidelines, but the big picture guidelines from the previous 40 years. So this week, you're only going through Deuteronomy seven, Sean, go ahead.

Shawn Brace: 42:44

Well, let's say you can't, you know, Deuteronomy six is arguably, you know, the most important part of scripture for for for Jewish people were the, what is called the Great Shabbat, here in Israel here, the Lord our God, the Lord, our God is one. And then, you know, it sets out that you know, the greatest commandment, according to Jesus, you know, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. And so that's a really important and you know, of course, he talks about making sure the children you teach this to the children, and so forth and so on. So, you know, just just notice that when, you know, it's fascinating, of course, that when Jesus comes along, and he talks about the greatest commandment, the second greatest commandment, you know, they're taken, and we could have mentioned this in Leviticus, but we're the second greatest commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's actually right in the heart of this very painful book, Leviticus. Yeah. So anyway, fascinating stuff. And

Nathan Stearman: 43:44

again, a great reminder that this God has a big picture vision of where he wants to get things to human family. And we're just looking at how God is slowly, methodically, strategically working to shape the human family over the arc of history. And, and no

Shawn Brace: 44:03

part of that, you know, the Lord our God is one and we're going to, I'm going to bring this out. Just to give you a little sneak preview here in a future episode, maybe tomorrow or sorry, next week, is the incredible cataclysmic revolutionary monotheistic understanding that God introduces to his people. I mean, I don't think we understand the degree to which that approach is just completely earth shattering. We don't probably appreciate it living 21st century America, or wherever we're listening to this, but just how revolutionary that idea was and how important that idea is. That's

Nathan Stearman: 44:53

a great thought to end on. So enjoy your reading for the week. Go dive into the rest of Exodus. All Leviticus all have numbers and then dabble your toes in Deuteronomy, as we move through, almost in fact to the end of the first five books of the Bible, and God bless you. Until next time, enjoy the text

TJ Trueh: 45:37

See, experience, live. Loveshaped.life

Transcribed by https://otter.ai