Week 17: Exodus 19-20; 24; 31-34

Who is on the Lords side? 

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Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Receivers. Um, I'm a little late making it this week, so sorry, but you know what? It is what it is. Um this week is we're talking about um kind of the establishing of the law on Mount Sinai. So let's talk about why this is interesting, why is this important? And obviously it's important because it's the establishment of the law of Moses, which becomes super, super big throughout Israelite history, but it's also important because through Latter-day Revelation, we get kind of a different perspective of this story. And um it's an interesting perspective of this story. And I think we maybe look at it wrong, but we can see God's mercy through this story and throughout it. And we see God trying to get his people as close to them as they want to be, as close to him as they are willing to be. And part of that is to make them a different people by what they do. Part of that is to mostly make them a different people by who they are and by who God is. So let's talk about it. Okay, we begin in chapter 19, and they reach Mount Sinai and the people are consecrated. So the people are getting ready. The people are getting ready, um, getting holy, they're, you know, washing themselves, anointing themselves, and they're getting ready to go up to the mountain of the Lord. At least, like that's what it seems. And you're reminded, we're reminded in Moses, um, in the book of Moses, that the Lord tells Moses, I'm gonna make a kingdom of priests. You're gonna know that I called you when you're back on this mountain. And this is it. He said he wants to make them a kingdom of priests and priestesses. These people are essentially going to be receiving at least, this is what we would we would interpret, interpolate, right? We would place upon this, is that um the people are going to receive their endowment. And they're being prepared to do that. So that's what the Lord, he's like, don't touch the mountain. Because it's sacred space. The mountain here represents the presence of the Lord, it represents sacred space. They need to prepare to enter the presence of the Lord. Think about the way that we live our lives and we are prepared to enter into the temple. I want you to think today that Mount Sinai was the temple. Mountains are synonymous with temples in the ancient Near East, and that's what's happening here. And so they're not allowed to touch the, they're not ready, they need to be prepared. It's going to be a very sacred experience. And so, and the Lord is kind of showing unto him his power. The whole it seems that, you know, the trumpet sounds and the mountain shakes, and that's scary for these people. And I was listening to Follow Him This Week. I highly, highly recommend the Follow Him This Week. Why it is my professor that I've worked with for like two and a half years now, Dr. Aaron Shade. I love him so much. Like he's just genuinely one of the sweetest, nicest, and so and empathetic men I've ever known in my life. And he just reads the story so beautifully. And he's he has empathy, and I think he he points out what we should have for the Israelites here, which is that Moses himself, back when we read his story of the burning of the bush, he's afraid, right? We read about Alma when he sees the angel and he's afraid. It's frightening and awe-inspiring to see the Lord. It can be fearful at times because you don't know what's happening, and so they're afraid. But, and he's like, you know, like go down and warn the people, like not breathe. So then there also seems to be smoke. Like the presence of God is shown in smoke and fire, similar to Joseph Smith's experience, seeing uh God the Father and Jesus Christ, right? He explains it as like the light was so bright, he thought the burn the trees were gonna burn, and that's similar here, and so we need to consecrate yourself, right? And so that's what's happening here. And here we it seems that they are afraid, and we get the story also as well, that they are afraid and they don't want to go up. And they send their priests, or at least at this at this time, the priests and Moses are their representatives, which is without which which makes sense. So then they get the Ten Commandments. Let's go through the Ten Commandments here. You know, you should honor God. God is the one and only God, do not make any idols. We've talked about this a little bit, but I'll just reiterate it again. The reason that I think for sure God asks them not to make idols is because we are already fashioned in his likeness and image. Also, because in a lot of these ancient Near Eastern practices, what you would be doing to this idol is feeding them. They were the representation of the Lord on the earth. You're feeding them, you're taking care of them. And the Lord, throughout these scriptures, basically provides in a unique way. He's unique among the gods of the ancient Near East in that he provides these things for himself. He does not need humans to feed him or to anoint him or to take care of him. He can do it himself. In fact, he wants them to do it for themselves so that they can become like him or do it for each other. And so that I think is an interesting thing here. He's telling them how to live the way that he does. He interestingly points back to a lot of the things that he's doing to say that this is the way that they should live, right? He also says, like, don't bow down to them, worship them. I am a jealous God. And as I was reading that this week, I was like, okay, what does the word jealous mean? Because like, I'm like, okay, can I that's jealous in Hebrew? And I'm like, okay, what does that mean? And I looked up on Bible Hub shoutout, and they were like, it is more about his zealousness in the relationship. Maybe I'm a zealous god. Jealous, zealous, intense. He cares so much about this relationship that he doesn't want us to mess it up. He's intense about this relationship, he's fervent on it. It's a relationship, it's a covenantal relationship, and he means business when he's talking about it, right? It means a lot to him. It's special, it's sacred, and that's what he's establishing here. He's basically establishing his relationship boundaries with us, where he's like, this is really important to me, and I ask that it's important to you. Like, I care about you so much, and I ask that you do the same thing for me. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. This is so interesting because in modern-day context, we're like, okay, don't say, you know, don't, don't swear, basically. Um, or use cuss words. But what they're saying here is do not use the Lord's name, meaning I swear by God that this will happen, or the Lord says that this is gonna happen, if it's empty, vain, empty, meaning you won't fulfill your promise, meaning like you're not gonna fulfill your promise, and now the Lord's name looks bad, right? Or that the Lord hasn't actually said that that would be so. So don't pretend to know something that you don't that the Lord has said, and don't use the Lord's name to fulfill a promise that won't be fulfilled, because the Lord will always fulfill his promises. It's more about covenant making, again. So that's important. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Why? Because it's about creation, because I created and I rested. And the word for Sabbath also comes from the root for to swear in Hebrew Sabbath. Swear to me that you will do this day. And again, Dr. Shade always talks about this kind of also being the Sabbath can be our day for our own creation, right? Especially since the Lord ties it back to creation. What is our week gonna look like? What is our year gonna look like? How can we create it? We talked about a little bit about that last week. So that's what we have here. Honor your father and mother, make them great, glorify them, so that your days may be long in the land which the Lord giveth you. This is just also practical advice, but it's just an I think it's so interesting that the Lord is also saying, I care about families, and you need to take care of them and respect them. I love that, right? You shall not murder. It's not you shall not kill or kill, right? Kill or murder, but I would say it's mostly the word for for murder. Don't murder people, don't commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear fault with false witness against your neighbor. Again, appointing kind of the same thing. Don't take the Lord of God in vain, don't don't lie to your neighbor, right? Don't or covet your neighbor's house or your wife, right? Like, don't compare yourself to your neighbor or want anything that they have, be happy for them. Um so when they when they heard this, they were afraid, and they s so this is what's happening is the Lord is saying this to the priests who are representation of the people, and the people hear this and they hear the smoking and all these things, and they're like, you know what, Moses, we actually don't want to speak to God. We're too scared. Why don't you speak to God and then you tell us what he said? Because we were scared. Like, don't be afraid. The Lord has come to test you. Um Dr. Shade points out this means experience to give you experience. The Lord wants you to, you know, have this experience and that you do not sin. And so Moses goes instead up there because the people are not ready to meet the Lord. They're afraid. And I think, you know, we can take two things, which is like we shouldn't be afraid of the Lord to go up to his presence. He's wonderful, he's merciful, he knew that they weren't perfect, and he would have showed them love and light, just like he did to Moses, right, in the burning bush. But at the same time, maybe we can give them a little bit of love and compassion, because like I also understand what it would be like to be afraid and nervous about seeing these most, you know, glorious and beautiful power of God. Again, back to the Ten Commandments. Um, if you look at the first five commandments, it is the way that you honor the Lord, right? Love God, and then the last five commandments, love your neighbor. And so that is what that, and that is what a rabbi said um around the same time as Jesus. And so that's what Jesus is quoting there when he's saying, like, listen, the best way to keep the law, Ten Commandments, and the law of Moses is to love God, love your neighbor. That's shown in the Ten Commandments. And these are just ways that you can do that specifically. And, you know, I think that that is ways that we can think about it in life, which is okay, how am I honoring God? How am I loving my neighbor so that I can become like God? Because God understands his own holiness, and God also understands the importance and holiness of other people. And so, how can we honor that as we continue to live the law? Um, so then the Lord saying, Yeah, don't make any other altars, right? He then gives the law of slaves, which is interesting, which again, we don't need to go through all of the laws of Moses because there's just so many in these chapters, and the Comphal me doesn't even go through them, right? But um it's important at the same time to see this as um that there is a lot of mercy found within the law of Moses. I think a lot of times we think of it as like, oh, it was pretty carnal and it wasn't merciful. But the law of Moses is very merciful um in its own way. I'm sorry, before we we talk about that, I just need to go back and talk about uh chapter verses three through six in Exodus 19, in which the Lord talks about being uh a peculiar, right, a peculiar people. So this is three through sixteen, and he says, like, I want you to, I were you on eagle's wings, and I brought you out myself. Like, I want you to be here with me. You're gonna be a priestly nation and a whole kingdom, you're going to be my treasured possession. A peculiar treasure, right? My treasured possession. I want to treasure you. You're special to me. I want you to make and through these people, everyone else would be too. This is important because this was also a mixed group coming out of Egypt. These were not just Israelites, these were anybody who chose to follow Moses, became this special, you know, this special treasure, this treasured possession. So as we follow the Lord's prophet, no matter who we are, so we're following good and righteous, and we choose Jesus Christ, we can become his treasured possession through the covenants we make with him. So now we'll go back to the mercy that we see here. So the law concerning slaves, right? Like, you let them go after six years. You if you especially if you take a Hebrew to be your slave, there were six years, and then the seventh year you let them go, unless they want to stay. And you're like, why would a slave want to stay? Stability, right? But there's that idea. Like, you know, um there's a place to go when somebody, you know, fights. There's actually cities that are set up where if you're awaiting trial, or even if you've killed or accidentally slayed someone, that you go so that you can be protected. It's basically like a a sovereign city. So that's nice, right? Like restitute, give to what people what they owe. Um, give it give more, right? Um then it will be not just um, you know, not just exactly, but give more. And so these are practical, these are really good advice, and they're very just, right? Justice for all, do not spread a small fort. False report, chapter 23, do not pervert justice for the poor, right? Like protect the poor. And then the sabbatical year in the seventh year, you shall let it rest and flow, like so that the poor of your people may eat, right? So seventh year, we're gonna, we're gonna not gather everything in the land, we're gonna let the poor people eat. We're gonna let them gather in the year. This is just good agriculture practice, and also um, there's this idea of gleaning, which is that you're just gonna, when you glean and when you harvest, you're gonna leave a little bit extra so that the poor people who don't have access to land will be able to gather and eat. There is possessions for this, you know, festivals so that you can remember the Lord, your God. Three festivals every year that will become important. Um, we can talk about it, right? So there's the festival of Sukuk, which are um the festival of tabernacles, um, reminding of these 40 years in the wilderness, um, where they build booths to remind that, they still do that. Um, then there's Passover, right, and unleavened bread coming during right that we still have. And then there is Savot, which is the harvesting of the first fruits, and then Sukot represents the end of the harvest. So there's just fun, like it was to also help with agriculture and just times and stuff like that, which we get today. That's just a natural human want to like celebrate the natural cycles of life, but the Lord wanted to also be remembered in those times, and I think that that is an important thing to remember too, which is like the Lord is in the cycles, and how can we remember him in the cycle? Life is cycles, but the Lord is there for one eternal round. Then on um 24, right, we learn that 70 elders of the Lord go up to the uh mountain of the Lord after having shown that the people are purified by by blood, right? Um, the the the blood is dashed upon all the people. What does that mean? What is it? You're like, oh my gosh, gross, right? Like that's kind of gross that Moses slays this animal and then dashes blood upon the people. This is an idea that this animal now has your sins. The blood, right, is seen as making this atonement, which is now you are by the death of this animal, you are cleansed. So that's where we can see Jesus Christ in it, which is by his blood we are cleansed, just like here. Basically, this animal has taken upon itself the responsibility, but they maybe wouldn't have thought about that too. They could have seen it as God forgiving their responsibilities. Um, right? Another thing that's interesting is that he's also reading um in verse 7, he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people. So he's like, this is a covenant. And they're saying, Yes, all that the Lord saith, we will do, and we will be obedient. This is tying back also to King Benjamin and his people, right? Reading out of the law. This is what the law says. Will you make a covenant? And they say, We will. So they're not not making covenants, even though they wouldn't go fully up to the temple of the Lord. The Lord is respecting that. And he's like, Yeah, I will send my servant, and you're still gonna make covenants with me through the atonement of my, you know, all this is representation of Jesus Christ, and we see that here. Then they go up to the mountain with God, right? So they go going up there, the seventy elders, and so we have the people at the bottom, we have this middle space where the seventy elders are, and then we have Moses talking to God by himself. And we can see here kind of three levels, and this is important because a lot of things in this story will be split into these kind of three levels. You can think of this as an ancient uh Near Eastern temple practice, where there's the outer courtyard, the holy place, and then the holy of holies. This will be the same in the tabernacle and in the temple. Um, we can see this even, someone pointed this out to me on my mission and I loved it. We can see this in the Garden of Gethsemane, where we have all of the apostles, then we have Peter, James, and John and Jesus, and then we have Jesus by himself. And so there's this attitude of three different delineations of space, each one being holy, but each one perhaps being more holy. But the 70 elders go up with with Moses and with Aaron, and they eat with God ceremoniously. Now, do I know if God was there or not? I don't, but this is what they were doing: this idea of eating with God, being in communion with him, being equal with him. They're eating with him, they're celebrating with him. God is, and this was seen in again in these temple practices in this in the ancient Near East as being equal with God, being peace with him, living in a bountiful life, was sitting down with the gods. Gods would come down and eat, and that's what they're doing here, and they're having the law written upon their hearts. So he says, wait. And um the Lord, uh, Moses says, Wait, I'm gonna go up, and he then receives the law from the Lord, and the Lord tells them what offerings they're gonna do, how they're going to build the Ark of the Covenant, the table for the bread of the presence, right? He's giving him a um revelation of how to build the temple and the tabernacle specifically. And this is interesting because, again, this is a common practice found in the ancient Near East where a priest would go up to the mountain or in a dream and would receive specific instructions on how to build the temple. And we can see this even with Joseph Smith having visions and the builders having visions of the correct um building of these of the of the Kirtland Temple or the Nauvoo Temple, or the Salt Lake Temple, and just how beautiful and wonderful that is, because it shows that the Lord cares about every detail. And I don't know if every detail has a symbol in it. Like I'm not, I won't go as far to say that, but I do think that it shows that the Lord cares about every detail as much as he cares about whatever you know, what the larger concept is about making covenants with us. And he's also using, and we'll see here later, people who have this specific skill through making this. And speaking of the different delineations, and we'll go through the tabernacle tabernacle more as we go through, but let's just go in for a second kind of what it would look like. So you have the outer courts outside of so the t the tent, right? Tabernacle in Hebrew would be the place of meeting. I love that because it the Lord is going to meet his people there. This is the place where he wants to come. And they he they first you know, we have the outer courtyard which is which is taken off. It's there's still a a gate around it made with all of these beautiful colors purple, red, blue, um, you know, royalty, the sky would be blue, red, the blood, atonement, right? And so there's just beautiful, there's beautiful symbols even in the colors, and then they walk through this into the delineated space of the courtyard. In the courtyard would be the altar, whereon sacrifices would be made. There would be the bringing of the animals, you would place your hands upon the animals and say, This, you know, is representative of me. Kind of saying this is taking my place. Then the animals would be sacrificed. There would be a place for the other, you know, animal to be taken so that the Levites could eat. Then you go into the holy place. Anybody can enter. Into the courtyard. Not everyone can enter into the holy place. That is only for the priests. And the holy priest is holy place is actually in this kind of structure that had, you know, maybe dolphin skin or beaver skin over it to make it waterproof. And then also the same colors as the outside of the of the gate, which is beautiful. And in it you had the table of the bread of the presence, which would be um twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes of Israel. And also, I think back to that ceremonial eating of the priests, right? They ate bread and wine. We could even think about it as, you know, maybe more of a connection to the sacrament. Then we have the menorah, the lighting of the menorah. His beautiful lights and God's presence shining there. And then um you have a veil, and on this veil would be cherubim for protecting the presence of the Lord. There are mythical creatures, right? Um, that are symbolized to protection. And in front of that, you have an altar of incense, in which the priest would make um special signs in front of, holding incense and praying, smoke representing the prayers, lifting up to God, and then he would walk through the veil, the holy priesthood, and the in uh would be the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies would be the mercy seat or the seat of atonement. At one minute of covering, it's covered in gold, maybe represents this this the you know the place of the temple. Inside of this mercy seat, and inside the Ark of the Covenant are two cherubim, again protecting it, and inside will be Aaron's bud, which we will talk about. The two uh tab the tablets of the covenant, manna, representations of the things that the Lord has done for them. So that's the tabernacle. But there is some idea that maybe um that bronze rite was made for the altar, and then things get more silver and more gold as you enter into. So there's even three levels found in that, in what things were made out of. So each gets increasingly more holy. Everything gets um holier as you enter into God's presence. And we see that in our temples today. The closer we get to God, the more holy it is. The oil is also made for with um olive oil. This is important to me, and I love it because number one, get Simony right place of oil, the oil press, so kind of a callback to Christ. Oil also needs to be squeezed, it goes through a lot of preparation and hardship to become pure. The first juice that comes out of an olive when you press it, it's red, it's crushed, but then it is pure and it is good, it burns for a long time, it's healthy, it has all these properties, and so oil is important for me because it also shows being purified and put through trial, and that's what we can see with the oil. Then the priests will have the ephod placed on them. Now, what is an let's go through what the priest would be wearing. Basically, he's gonna be wearing um he's gonna be wearing a white robe, he's gonna have a blue apron over himself most of the time, and then he's gonna be wearing a breastplate made of gold, and it's gonna have 12 jewels on them with um the names of Israel represented by those twelve jewels, and then on his shoulders he's also gonna have the names of Israel you know his shoulders. So he's literally bearing the name of the tribes of Israel as he's as he's going through. I love this too because it makes me think of us even just carrying the names of our ancestors when we're in the temple. Then there's the breastplate, right? And it's beautiful. Um, it has all the same colors, right, as the tent. And then there's robes to and a sash to kind of keep that on, and then that he has a turban on his head, and then he also has a crown, and it says holiness to the Lord. And that's kind of what the high priest would be looking like. There's some great examples online of what you can see of what they might have looked like, but the the importance of it is that he was he's he's covered, he's covered with representations of Israel entering into the presence of the Lord, being holy, being anointed, um and you know, put in special special places to remember to remind himself that he has authority, he's going in there on behalf of the people, and then he also represents God to them as well. So the priests can both represent God to people and can also be representative of the people to God, which I think teaches us about Jesus Christ. He's both our representation to God and the representation of God to us. So then it tells about how the priests are going to be um ordained, and you're gonna take the vestiments, right, and put upon Aaron and anoint them and um right, and they're gonna be in front of the temple and in front of the tabernacle, and you're going to anoint them and sanctify them. How cool that these is still done in our temples today during the initiatory where we are washed and anointed just like they were, just as they were set apart to do these things, right? Um, consecrated, set apart. And so this is what's happening. This is what the the the things that Moses is receiving when he's up there, and we'll get these laws repeated throughout. But then we yeah, and the Lord also says, I have special people in chapter 31 who have skills enough to make this, right? We get Biazeel and Ohullah. He's like, I've made these people there, they're gonna know. Like they have this skill. And it's like, where did they get these skills? Maybe they were helping out in Egypt with the production of their temples. And like we said, there were probably some Israelites who were higher up in the Egyptian government and were familiar with these types of things. So the Lord is also speaking to them in their cultural context while also emphasizing his own. For example, he says, Do not deny a stranger, but also, you know, a stranger shouldn't partake of the sacrifices. This is similar to what we would see in like Hatti at the time, the Hittites. They were like, No stranger should be entered, and we cannot let them in to the temple. And I don't know if that's the case here. The Lord is more like, don't let them partake of the sacrifice, like the sacrifices that they don't know, be careful about them letting in getting into the holy place. Like, we do need a little bit of separation, but they definitely need to be within the society. And so the Lord is speaking to them within a cultural context so that they know he's not introducing just crazy new ideas to them, he's speaking their language while also teaching them eternal truths, right? Like, yes, the priest is gonna come and he's gonna come, but I'm gonna be with you. And like, even at this point, right, you all can be priests. And that's like, I want you all to be with me. I'm not far away. Again, you don't have to provide me with food. The priests need to eat, but it's not like they're eating my food. I'm fine, I can take care of myself, but I need you to take care of other people. Beautiful things. And then we get the classic story of the golden calf. It is possible that this golden calf is being made in representation of Jehovah, of the Lord. It is thought that El, or Jehovah, or Yahweh, as they are known as in his name is known anciently, could have been represented by the bull. Uh, me and Dr. Shade have, I've actually done extensive research on this, and it is possible, it is a thought process and scholarly things that the bull they're actually making a representation of Jehovah. Um, that he would have been associated with the bull in some way. And so they're like, oh, we're gonna make a representation of him. Yeah, like he said, don't make any idols, but we're we're making him. We're not making just any idol, we're not making the Egyptian idols, we're making him. And I like that because it just speaks a little bit again to the empathy that maybe we should have for these people. And also, like, this is what they know in Egypt you make idols. They've seen it. And Moses has been up in the mountain for a long time, and maybe they want to worship God now. And so they ask Aaron, they're like, Aaron, let's make it. And I think there's a possibility that Aaron and everyone's like, Yeah, you know what, this makes sense. So they do it, and then Moses comes down, he's happy, he has the plates where the Lord's like, Yeah, you all are gonna be priests, and we're gonna set up a tabernacle and great. And we learn from Joseph Smith translation it had the Mechastic priesthood and all the its things on it, and then he comes down and he sees that they're worshiping this golden calf. And not only are they worshiping it, but they are, you know, um, they're eating and drinking and rose up to revel. So revel could also mean, I believe, to laugh. They're acting perviously. They're not being perverse, they're acting perversely, meaning they're making mistakes, but they themselves are they're just they're making mistakes. Just go down and get them. They're doing similar things to what Isaac is doing when when he or what uh Hagar is doing to Isaac when they kind of sorry, that Ishmael's doing to Isaac when they kind of get in trouble, right? So they're doing something that's inappropriate. And so the Lord says it's like this people isn't good enough, right? And then we see Moses kind of implore and he's like, you know what, Lord, just please be merciful to them. And he is. We see Moses truly acting like Jesus Christ in this moment, where he is stepping in on behalf of them, and he's saying, Please just have mercy on them. And the Lord does. I mean, Moses goes down and obviously like breaks the tab the tablets because they've broken, and he's showing how angry he is, right? Like you could be broken as you're breaking this covenant. And right, and he's like, This is not good. And then the sons of Levi step up, they're the ones who are the most zealous, you know. Moses is also a son of Levi, so they're like, oh, our our, you know, our leader basically said this, and so they they come and they, you know, take care of, you know, the people who are creating the perversion. And this can be hard sometimes. Why would the Lord kill? And I don't have the full answer. But I also think that um at this time, again, it could be a cultural way of getting rid of people, um, getting rid of the perversions that might be. Like, there's no way that, you know, um, we can't leave them because they could follow us. We're the only chance of food. I also think there's maybe, you know, a way of seeing it mercifully is as going back and um and giving them another chance in the spirit world, but it still is very, very hard, and I don't I don't have all of the answers, and so it can be really hard that why would the Lord kill? I don't or or Moses command people to be killed. I don't know exactly, but those are just some of my thoughts. If it doesn't sit right with you, that's okay. Um, I know that the Lord will have answers to those things in his own time, anyway. But um so the Lord then is saying, Hey, you guys did a a great sin. And you know, only the the Levites are on the Lord's side, according to Moses. Who's on the Lord's side who come to me? And the Levites come and they say, you know what? Yeah, we've seen that this is not the right way to worship the Lord. And, you know, but the Lord's like, okay, they did these things, like I, you know, you're stiff-necked people, a sinful moment. I should go up among you. So take off your ornaments, like get rid of all the stuff that you've had, like get rid of your sinning things, and I'm gonna figure out what to do. And the Moses is the only one who can show God's presence. So Moses goes into the tent and sees the Lord. Joshua also sees it, kind of pointing to him being the next prophet. Moses again makes intercession and says, please forgive them. And the Lord does. Again, Moses representing Christ there. And then the Lord says, You know what? I'm going to, they can't keep that part of the covenant. They're not ready. They've shown both in their actions and in their own words by being like, we're not ready. So I'm gonna give them another covenant. I'm gonna um go a little bit of a step down, maybe, in their preparation. It will still point to Christ and it's still based on the same priesthood, but it's going to help prepare them. And so that's what the Lord is. That's what these second tablets are: the establishing of the Iranic priesthood, these Ten Commandments and the law, and this is what it is established again among them. And there is this idea of restitution, there is this idea of cycles and progression that we see in the law of Moses and in these stories, which is we're gonna all make mistakes and maybe worship God in a way that we see fit, which isn't the best way, or he's gonna help us and be like, you know what, this is actually what it means. You know, don't go back to your cultural ways of understanding me, but let me show you who I am, that I'm loving, and I want you to be with me. I want to talk to you face to face as a man speaketh to a friend. And the Lord wants to speak to each of us that way, if we will let him. And he will also meet us where we are, the tent of meeting, right? He meets us where we are, whether we trust him enough to let him elevate us to him, or whether, you know what, we really just kind of have to stay a little bit lower and he makes his way down to us. I know that he will meet us, and that as we turn to him, we can know how to become like him, and we can be forgiven and atoned through Jesus Christ. Not through the blood of an animal, but through a real life person who loves each of us. And I say these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Talk to you guys next week. Bye bye.