Spring26 Bible School-Minor prophets- Tim Dobson

This Spring Bible School we will be studying the Minor Prophets and how to read them well. Here is the introduction to the Minor Prophets including historical background and common themes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Paul, when Paul writes things like this in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training righteousness. So all scripture is like that. Now we we call this all scripture, kind of, but for Paul, this was it was only this bit here that was all scripture. So we we say that all scriptures, so we read the gospel accounts, like you're saying, and we read the epistles of Paul, and we think, oh, they're scripture, they're God breathed. But that verse doesn't refer to those. That verse only refers to the first half of the Bible, which is the bit that we find the minor prophets in. Um so I think I think I agree with you, and for quite a few people think I should just these these 12 books are just so complicated. Actually, they seem to be quite judgmental, quite harsh, and and I love Jesus and I love the gospel stories and love the parables, and I kind of get pulled a bit confused by Paul, but he's got some good things to say there. Um, but these minor prophets they they are quite hard to navigate, but they are part of the all scripture that um uh that Jesus looked at, that Paul referred to, though that first come the biblical teaching of of how they understood the nature of God and and that their part to play in the story was all taken from the first half of the Bible, of which the twelve uh minor prophets uh are there. Um is that is that okay? So sometimes we can dash for the slightly easier bits, although some of the stuff that Jesus says is quite confusing, and Paul can be too, but we definitely Genesis is quite nice, little stories, Exodus, yeah, that's okay. Ah, Leviticus Numbers, yeah, yeah. Um uh but the minor prophets particularly. So we've got to take a chance to look at that. Um if you don't know where the minor prophets um appear in the Old Testament, um, the Old Testament uh is arranged a bit like a library. So the Bible isn't one book, it's a collection of 66 books. And in the Old Testament, they're um they're grouped in 16 history books at the start, then there's five what we call wisdom books in the middle, and then there's uh 17 prophecy books at the end. So it's interesting that there's a little kind of uh symmetry to the Old Testament. So history books that recount the story, the history of uh God's people, uh, there's the wisdom books of um uh Job, Psalms, Proverbs, uh, Song of Songs, uh, Ecclesiastes, uh, and then there's 17 of these prophecy books, books that uh have a message from God for a particular people, but also into the future. Of those um 17 history books, there's five that we call the Law of Moses, the Pentateuch. It's those first five books of the Old Testament, and then the rest, those 12 other books that make up the 17, uh tell the the histories of Israel. Um it's interesting for the prophecy books, we've got what we call five major prophets, Elijah, uh not Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Daniel, Ezekiel. Um, and so then we have these, the ones that we're going to look at, this kind of that you've got the twelve minor prophets there. Uh so it's interesting that that there's still a bit of symmetry between those two in our library uh books as well. And uh of those histories, nine of them are before what we call the exile, uh before the people of the temple is destroyed and people are taken into exile, uh, and three of those history books are the histories of uh post-exile. And for the minor prophets that we'll look at, again, nine of those are pre-exile, and three of those are post-exile. So it's interesting that sometimes you look at the Old Testament and think it's slightly chaotic, it's a slightly random collection, but actually, when it was composed, actually it was composed with uh intention, intentionality, that uh as they drew together the uh the word of God, all scripture that God breathed, actually there was some kind of pattern and methods, and quite and symmetry to it, which I think is amazing because sometimes you can just dip in and out of the Bible and you just think, oh, where does this fit in to the big story, like you're saying? Um, but that that's how the Old Testament kind of holds together and works. Is that um have you seen have you seen that before? Um, of how that works. So um, and actually it's reassuring that God who loves, he's not chaotic, he's not kind of he's a God of order, logos, that there's even to the way that scripture's put together.

SPEAKER_08 4:33

Um, I was gonna say, is pre-exile before the exile of the Jews?

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Yeah, so pre-exile is before the exile, when they were taken into captivity, post-exile is after the exile. Uh that so history's there, and again, some of the mind prophets we're gonna look at uh over the next uh four weeks uh down there as well. Okay, when we do our we do public reading of scripture. So we're gonna read one of the books. I thought we'd start with one of the most obscure ones and just see what we feel about it. We're gonna read Obadiah. So um uh so Obadiah, if you can find it, it's only one page, so it's quite hard to find. If you've got a Bible like mine, it's on kind of page 651, but you probably haven't got a Bible like mine, so that's no help at all. Um if you if you find Amos, it's just after Amos, if you find Jonah, it's just before Jonah. Um so we're gonna we're going to read uh yeah, read the whole, this is the whole prophecy of Obadiah. Would somebody like to read from verse 1 to 7 for us? Is that okay? Thank you so much. Can someone read from 8 through to 18? 8 to 18, thank you very much. And some from 19 just to the end. Yeah, thanks, Catherine. Great, so um, this is Obadiah. This is one of the prophets. We're gonna read it and then say to the person next to you what you think about it. Is that okay? So let's go.

SPEAKER_05 6:03

Um Obadiah's vision. The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom. We have heard a message from the Lord, and envoy was sent to the nations and saying, Right, let us go against uh C I will make a symbol of the nations.

SPEAKER_10 7:20

At that time, not a single wise person will be left in the whole land of Edom, says the Lord. For on the mountains of Edom I will destroy everyone who has understanding. The mightiest warriors of Timon will be terrified, and everyone on the mountains of Edom will be cut down and slaughtered. Because of the violence you did to your close relatives in Israel, you will be filled with shame and destroyed forever. But when they were invaded, you stood aloof, refusing to help them. Foreign invaders carried off their wrath and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem, but you acted like one of Israel's enemies. You should not have gloated when they exiled your relatives to distant lands. You should not have rejoiced when the people of Judah suffered such misfortune. You should not have spoken arrogantly in that terrible time of trouble. You should not have plundered the land of Israel when they were suffering such calamity. You should not have gloated over their destruction when they were suffering such calamity. You should not have seized their wealth when they were suffering such calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads killing those who tried to escape. You should not have captured the survivors and handed them over in their terrible time of trial. The day is near when I, the Lord, will judge all godless nations, as you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads, just as you swallowed up my people on my holy mountain, so you and the surrounding nations will swallow the punishment I pour out on you. Yes, all you nations will drink and stagger and disappear from history, but Jerusalem will become a refuge for those who escape. It will be a holy place, and the people of Israel will come back to reclaim their inheritance.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

There you go. It's a minor profit. Okay, turn to the people next to you to think, what do you make of that? What's what's your interesting reaction in listening to that kind of this is this is the word of this is the God-breathed word of God. How do you feel? So having read one and just kind of felt something of the confusion, kind of, ah, how are we going to navigate it? Why don't you just take us through a few little kind of um a few little tools that might help you to navigate these books so that you can get um what I believe, I mean, it is, it's it's God, they are God breathed. Paul was convinced that they were profitable to teach you, to rebuke you, to correct you, to train you in righteousness. He was convinced these twelve books weren't to be ignored because they were hard. Within them there's kind of things to encourage you, challenge you, provoke you, teach you, uh, inform you. Uh so um that's why we're doing this book, because they are underread books and there's some treasures within that. Is that okay? Um, so just so again, the Bible is made up of different kinds of literature, different kinds, uh, different genres of literature. And um uh like in any library, some are um uh biographies, some are history books, some are how-to books, uh, some are books of um of speeches, some are poems. Uh and again, those those books you'll read in slightly different ways. So uh you might read a biography and you might start at the beginning and work your way to the end because you want to find out about Nelson Bandela, you want to find out about his early years and how politically what happened, and uh so you for a biography you start at the beginning and you read through to the end. But if you wanted to, I don't know, cook a meal, you wouldn't start at the beginning and read all the way through a cookery book. Actually, you just go to find, I want to cook a very nice green tie, coconuts, something, kind of, and until you flip through the index and you turn to the actual to the actual bit that you want. The wisdom books are there for the bits that you need, wisdom for living. And you may not read the book of Proverbs right from the start, right to the right to the end. Actually, there may be some just some nuggets within the book of Proverbs that you think are just a really helpful nuggets to live by. Um, again, from uh a poetry book. Actually, you don't read a poetry book in the same way as you read a history book, because poetry deals with with pictures that are conjured up by uh words that are chosen with with great precision, and and they're not in some ways meant to be taken literally. I mean, this this history was probably literally what happened. Actually, in a a poem, it's not literally what happens. Actually, you have to read a poem in a slightly different way. Um, it conjures up imagery that's true, but the actual statements that are made may not be true. I wandered lonely as a cloud. I often say, Well, how'd you do that, Tim? Did you turn into water paper? Well, it's not literal. I didn't literally turn into a cloud. I wasn't wondering, um, but actually that's what it felt like when I saw these daffodils and kind of and and and so poetry words conjure up truth, but maybe we shouldn't take them literally. And so we need to understand which parts of the Bible are poetry. Now, when we come to uh the um minor prophets, actually we understand that the minor prophets are our speeches. Um, so uh here here's some of the books kind of um Poetry, Journaling, Wisdom, Prophecy, Biography, Tract, Letters, Apocalyptic. Actually, within the prophecy, yeah, Amos and our twelve little minor prophets would come into this kind of writing. Uh, and and prophecy, I think sometimes people would say that prophecy is predicting the future. Actually, biblical prophecy is not just predicting the future. Uh, it's not just uh foretelling what God's gonna do, it's forth telling what God is doing and will do. So it's a a now and then kind of word. So prophecy is God speaking to the prophets, through the prophets, to the people then and there, but actually, within those words that are coming to the people then and there, actually there's something about the overarching story that contains something that will apply to the future as well as to the present. But prophecy is always supposed to be understood as something that we can understand that was being said to that generation, but also something that may refer to the person of Jesus, actually may refer to our own personal experiences as well. Um so um, yeah, to understand the genre that we're looking at here, these these are um uh they are dramatic speeches. They're actually dramatic speeches from God to people, but they're actually set within historical context. And actually, speeches make more sense when you understand the historical context. So, for example, a speech of Winston Churchill, never in the course of human history has so much been owned by so many to so few. Actually, that was a famous speech, but actually, when you understand what was happening at the time, the threat of invasion, and actually just a few brave pilots managed to stem an invasion, actually, the historical context means that the words that he spoke come with extra drama and with extra weight. When uh Martin Luther King says, I have a dream, actually that speech is in the context of oppression, it's in the context of rioting, it's in the context of human rights being violated. And if you understand something about the history of America at that time, actually his speech then really comes to life. And the drama of what those first listeners would have experienced as they heard those words within the historical context, those kind of uh rousing speeches meant something and did something. Does that make sense? So, in some ways, we need to understand the history that was going on when these twelve prophets were prophesying, because they were prophesying because something was going on. They're not just kind of random utterances of God speaking, actually, something was going on, and God wanted to address what was going on, and in speaking about that, there was also the knock-on into the future. Does that does that kind of make sense? Any questions on on the nature of prophecy?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Or does that is that kind of makes perfect sense what you said, but referring back to what that lady said earlier on, unless you all know all the names and all you know what the actual history of what's going on, it that makes it much more difficult to access, but for me.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so that's how in some ways, when we come to look at these books, our first challenge is do we know in the in the story where where they occur? I mean that that's probably an interesting thing. So so if you know that this this most is the story of of the Bible, this is his story, his story, this is God's story, kind of. Um, it starts with creation then uh and universe history, the history of the whole world, then just the history of one family, the call of Abraham and the Patriarchs, the Exodus, entering Canaan, the quest of the lands. The period of the judges that is slight chaotic. If you think that these books are chaotic, the book of Judges is actually we're gonna on Sunday evening, it's uh this Sunday coming, is Sunday Bible School. And we're actually doing the book of Judges in Sunday Bible School. So if you happen to be around on Sunday evening and want to come down to the crypt, I'll be doing um a little session on how to read the book of Judges. Well, because there are some fascinating, weird, uh, gruesome stories in that book. Um, we then have uh the monarchy, how the kings uh uh through David and through uh Saul and David. Um we then have the division of the of the ten tribes in the north and the two tribes in the south. Uh we have the fall of those northern ten tribes, those the ten lost tribes of Israel, as they kind of got dispersed, um, and the fall of the southern kingdom, the the exile that we mentioned earlier on, the Babylon Exile, uh the restoration of the land, post-exile, end of New Testament. That is the story of the Old Testament. So I suppose the first thing if we're going to understand and read one of these books well, is where within that story do those fit? Um this is a slightly more confusing. So if you if you want these slides, um at the end there'll be a little QR code. If you scan the QR code on your phone and just register, I'll I'll email this to you tomorrow. So if you want the slides um as a record, then do uh at the end, just do the QR code and register, and you'll get the slides. Um this this is kind of um the northern tribes of Israel, the southern tribes of Israel, and other empires that are going on at the time, um uh Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian empires. Uh so we have here we have um the the northern tribe and the and Judah. Uh the northern tribes are first to be taken into uh captivity. Uh we then have the uh Judas being by itself, and then there's two waves of exile under the Babylonians, uh, and then through the uh Persians they they return and they start to rebuild uh the temple here. So here's where some of these guys fit in. So Amos and Hosea, actually they're prophesying to the northern ten tribes before they go into exile. So so here there's imminent judgment. Take the Hosea, imminent judgment for the northern tribes. Repent, turn around. Um, you get uh Isaiah, Micah, Naam, Nachhabakuk, Zephaniah, they're prophesying just to the remaining, the remnant two tribes in the south. You get people like Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi, but actually prophesying when the people are returning from captivity to start to rebuild Jerusalem. So again, uh within that it helps you to kind of picture and understand uh what's going on. Um if you wanted to uh um I think the first Olympic game Olympic Games happened around about here, kind of um was kind of just as the the Greek Empire was starting to rumble on. This is this is the um uh the end of the Bronze Age, beginning of the Iron Age, kind of around here. So again, if you fit it into kind of history you might have done at school. We're talking kind of uh late Bronze Age, early Iron Age, for this kind of end of the story here. Um uh yeah, the rise of um uh the the Persian Empire, the sobra-Apollonian Empire, uh and the Persian Empire. Is that okay? So part of it is to say where does that fit within within God's story? Um and if you know where it fits within God's story, again, some of the characters that are mentioned here you can track back to see, oh yeah, this is like a when they mention this person or this place, actually, it would have meant something to the first hearers that it doesn't mean to us. So, what would it have meant to the first hearers? So, what would Esau have meant to the those first people that heard Obadiah? Well, it would have meant they were our kind of our brothers, they're not kind of part of the family, but they they should have been. It's that kind of tribe over there, it's the ones that are just on the fringe of who we are, kind of um, and so it would have it would have meant something to them. So understanding the place within the story. Is that okay? I suppose the where they fit within the story of God is important. I suppose in some ways where they fit in the story of civilization is also important because actually they you kind of you read the prophets and there are There is histories going on round about them. So the Bible is it is, I believe, quite historically reliable. But there is other history kind of happening round about them that we do see in the Bible. So there's always been superpowers. So now we might say that superpowers, China, America, Russia, the superpowers, they have influence, they have values, they have structures, they want dominance, they want to have economic prowess, they want territory. Kind of superpowers want to control and influence and expand. And the reality is that there's always been superpowers at work throughout history. When, obviously, for Moses and in Egypt, Egypt was a superpower, Tutankhamun. It was around about that kind of time that building pyramids like that without any pneumatic lifting equipment, just from human kind of engineering. Again, but when we come to these minor prophets, there are three empires, there are three superpowers that followed one after the other. So the first superpower was the Assyrians. The Assyrian Empire, again, based around, kind of started off with kind of where Iran-Iraq is, kind of present day. And the Assyrian Empire, they would invade a country with kind of, I suppose just brute force. They would just kind of go in there with muscle and might, uh, invasion of marauding armies. They would offer surrender. If a nation surrendered, they had to pay high taxes, they would loot, they would take slaves, they would insist they worship their god, uh, the Assyrian god. Um so that here's some of the uh um Assyrian uh carvings that are still existing in museums from around this kind of time, so around kind of BC uh uh seven to six hundred, um they were quite ruthless uh and quite violent. So they had ruthless armies. Actually, mass murder was common. I mean, they'd just go there and they'd rape, pillage, kill. Um uh they would do these forced marches where they would chain people ten by ten, ten long, ten wide, and they so you have a block of a hundred people. Um, and you they would then force march them. So the way they maintained their political power is that they thought if if everybody with one language just lived in one place, maybe they could form a resistance movement, maybe they could form a rebellion. So what we'll do is we'll take people from here and we'll move them to that country, we'll take people from that country, we'll move them to this country, we'll take people from this country, we'll move them to this country here, and from here, and we'll actually just jumble everybody up. And as we jumble everybody up, there won't be any people, there won't be any kind of sense of national identity, any sense of national pride, any sense of of resistance. Actually, that's gonna be how we're gonna hold our nation together. Um, and so they used to have these forced marches where they would march literally thousands upon thousands of people from one part of their empire to another part. Um and uh again, here's one of the uh the um uh ink drawings from the time. This is an Assyrian king, and there's another king here, and he's cutting out his tongue and poking out his eyes. Um that was that was kind of this was popular imagery. That was kind of well done, you guys, that's our king, hooray! They were super violent, super progressive. So obviously, when someone like Jonah is told, go to Nineveh and tell them their wickedness has come before God and that God's gonna judge them, kind of he thinks, well, they're so wicked, actually they don't deserve to be forgiven. I'm gonna run away, I'm not gonna do it. And then when he goes and he just says that in 40 days you're gonna be, actually, these guys here blow me down, they repent. Ah, that shouldn't happen. Jonah's mad. No, God, you don't realise that the 10 by 10 forced marching. If someone beside you got ill, you had to drag them along. If they died, they didn't unlock dead people, you just had to drag a dead body along with you. I mean, they were so violent and cruel as an as a uh a national entity that you can understand why Jonah was slightly miffed when God forgave them. God, you shouldn't, not them, you shouldn't forgive them, kind of, and and why that funny little bit that we're gonna look at in uh on the fourth um week of of the Bible school. It's okay, so that's the Syrian Empire. Um it's interesting that the survivors of the of the mass invasions were scattered throughout the empire and lands resettled by people from other conquered nations. So in 2 King 17 and Ezra 4-2, um, so there's no coordinated uprising. Now, historically, what that means is those northern ten tribes, people were taken away from the northern ten tribes, and actually then people from other nations were moved into those ten tribes. So, actually, those kind of those ten tribes, that that that area of Israel, actually became very much intermarried, and that's where the Samaritans came from. That that's the history of the Samaritans. That's why, when we come to the New Testament, why the Jews hated the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were from the northern ten tribes of Israel. They should have been true to the law, but because they were taken into captivity and other nations were brought into there and they intermarried, actually, they weren't truly part of us anymore. And they were despised and they were hated. That was because of this political intervention from the Assyrian uh Empire. Does that does that kind of make sense? So when we read some of the minor prophets that were during this time, actually you have to understand uh books like Jonah and Nahum, they're they're prophesying about this this nation, um, this empire. Um it's interesting that uh this was the empire in uh BC 824. Uh this is how far it got by BC 671. Um all the way down into I mean that was a huge territory for uh this area to expand into. And what's fascinating, they managed to take all that territory, but they couldn't take Judah. And do you remember the the story of um uh Hezekiah when they were invading and they came up to the up to the gates and Hezekiah prayed and they were whisked away and they survived. So although they expanded, all this all these countries were taken over, even Egypt with all its power was taken over, and yet a faithful remnant trusting in God resisted the political power and might of the Syrian Empire, which is why those little stories within there of how Jerusalem was delivered are amazing stories. I mean, we we read them now, we don't understand what was what was going on. It's like just a little few villages managed to resist kind of uh in Poland managed to resist the the whole German invasion, the Nazi invasion. I mean, it's it it was it was so supernaturally unlikely that just a little nation here could resist that empire. Does that make sense? So even knowing some of the history of what's going on makes the divine deliverance that we read about in books like uh Isaiah uh um even more fascinating. So is that okay? So that's the Assyrian Empire. Any sorry, I I could just talk all evening. Uh but any any any any questions at all at the moment um on that?

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Uh um prophecy be actually uh warning.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Uh yeah, yeah, we'll come, we'll we'll look at that in a moment, Trevor. Is that is what is the point of these twelve, what was the original point of these twelve books, and what's the point for us? We'll we'll look at that moment. If we just kind of just go through the bit more of the history, um so the second the second world power was was was Babylon. Um Babylon was uh uh they they had a different political system, they had a different way of waging war. Uh and they they had rapidly moving so it wasn't this kind of just scorched earth policy, kind of of just killing everybody and destroying everything. They had rapidly moving armies, actually they would just lay siege to the major cities, because they thought that if we could win the major cities, then the rest of the land could be ours. Let's not bother with just burning down small villages and towns, we'll just go for the centres of power. So they would they move rapidly moving armies that were they cedar cities large sum of money and young hostage taken in payment from for withdrawal, and then a puppet ruler was put in its place. So hand-picked young hostages were taken to Babylon, they were well treated, uh, they were kept in Babylon where they were indoctrinated with the Babylonian culture and trained to be administrators. So you take people from all over the empire, you'd bring them to Babylon, you'd indoctrinate them with Babylonian kind of philosophy, ways of doing things, Babylonian religions, and then what you do is you send them back to be administrators in the different regions. So they were nationally from those regions, but they'd been taught the Babylonian way. So Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abedneo, actually they were, Daniel chapter one, actually they were part of what happened when the Babylonians came on their first invasion to Judah. They took away some of the young men to train them with the idea of sending them back. And obviously for Daniel, he was too, he turned out to be too valuable to the uh to the king to send back. So so he was kept in, but the idea would have been for them to be sent back. But there's something extraordinary about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, particularly when they're thrown into the furnace, and there was a fourth person there walking with them. Actually, aha, there's something about these guys and the god that they follow. Actually, maybe we'll keep them, rather than sending them back to their nations, we'll keep them here. Um so they actually stayed in Babylon. Um and so you read towards the end of Two Kings that that puppet rulers were put into Judah, into Jerusalem. Um, but they rebelled. They thought, let's get some help from Egypt and kind of we'll rebel. And actually, if they rebelled, there could be a follow-up invasion. Submission would include deportation of militia, upper class families, all craftsmen. Um, they settled in ethnic groups, and craftsmen helped to build Babylon into an impressive city. So, what they would do is they would take away the influencers, um, so anybody who could have a gift of leadership, uh, the upper classes, uh, those who were trained militia fighters. Actually, if you take away anybody with a bit of mouse, you're just left with a fairly dull group of people who probably aren't going to do you any harm. And so that was the philosophy here. We'll take it away anyway, anyone with any initiative, anyone with any institutional kind of power, we'll take them away, and therefore, another rebellion is probably likely not to happen. Um, and they also wanted to build Babylon to be the most impressive site of humanity in the whole of history. They wanted Babylon to be built, which is why Babylon becomes the image of all that humanity decides to do, and why in the end it's it's kind of that this kind of the humanity, the um Babylon and Jerusalem in the book of um Revelation, there's this conflict because Babylon stood for all that the world had to offer. And in some ways, the craftsmen from every nation, they the craftsmen came and they they built Babylon into this amazing city. So one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the hanging gardens of Babylon. Now, this isn't an actual photograph because photography hadn't been invented, um, but kind of it was this impressive construction uh of um of masonry, of uh of water, of plants. That um again, it was one of the major wonders of the ancient world, seven months ancient world. So they wanted to build uh Babylon to be an impressive city. This is what the best of humanity can do, which is why that in rebellion against God. Um if there was a further uprising, then they would go for the Assyrian squash death policy and destroy everything. Actually, there was a third uprising for Jerusalem. They came in and they did just flatten everything. They flattened the walls, they flattened the temple, and and they um uh took people into into uh exile. Um so that was the the Babylonian empire. This is that's how they held, so that was the the political way they held their empire together was through um just going for centres of power, uh indoctrinating people and sending them back to their countries. If there was further uprising, you removed anyone with any influence and then scorched earth policy, was the third and most drastic thing. And that's finally what happened to Jerusalem. So then we then come to the um the third empire, which was the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire, if you read in the book of Daniel, it seemed to be quite a stealth overnight. Somehow the Persians seemed to take over the Babylonian Empire. Um uh they were much more humane. Uh they took cities without destroying them, if possible. Daniel chapter five. Um uh and they their their way of holding the um the empire together was uh a religious policy. So the religious policy was kind of we realise that in our empire we are we are different kinds of people, and actually different kinds of people with different kinds of cultures and different kinds of backgrounds and different religions. And actually, we know that if this Persian Empire is going to help be held together, we want to value your history, we want to value, actually, we want to resettle some of your people into the lands that the Babylonians or Assyrians took you away from. Actually, we want to rebuild the shrines that that you used to worship your gods there, on the condition that when you go back to your countries, you pray for the true god, Marduk, uh, and you pray for the king, uh Cyrus and his children. Uh that was the deal. But there was much more of a political, and this is in the British Museum, it's called the Cyrus Cylinder. Um, the way they used to send edicts through the whole empire, which again was quite a wide area, is they would, in wet clay, they would um indent it with commands, and then they would bake it, and then they would send this kind of uh this uh cylinder around the empire, and people would read it and say, actually, this is what the emperor has decided to do. And so when you translate this, actually, it is um uh the policy of reinstituting uh idols and temples within the nations where people came from. And there's instructions there that when you go back, we'll search through our um uh our vaults, and and actually, if we can find any of the gods that were taken, we'll we'll put those gods back in their shrines and uh and uh we'll we'll reinstitute your forms of worship. Um, and and and that is actually in the British Museum, and that's exactly how the book of Ezra starts off. King Cyrus says to them, actually, you go back and rebuild your shrine. It's the temple. Actually, we've tried to look for an idol or an image. Actually, there doesn't seem to in our collection, there doesn't seem to be any Israel idols or images that we can return, because there wasn't one. We are the image of God. So we found a few kind of gold plates and a few silver bowls. Why not take these? And if you read the first of the book of Ezra, actually find a little inventory of the kind of things that Cyrus says you can take back to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. Actually, what we'll do is we'll give you the funds that you need to rebuild your temple. And actually, it wasn't just in the Bible that was happening, actually, it was all throughout the whole empire that was happening. All these different little religious groups were being put back into their nations, and it and Israel was one of those. God's purposes were being worked out through a political institution. Um, and so in this uh era, Persian Empire, we have um the book of Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther, we have the prophecies of uh uh Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi within this era. Okay, just with the person sorry, but this is extra-biblical. I mean this is in the this is not a Bible thing, this is actually nations. Yeah, yes, yes, yeah. I mean for for as much as we that we have, so this this has survived. Obviously, this was 2,600 years ago. So obviously uh papyrus may have rotted. There's been lots of wars, invasions, kind of mould, and whatever. But so not a lot has survived by which we can judge history, but this has survived from the time when Cyrus, who's mentioned in the Bible, he he is mentioned on this cylinder. So um just for five minutes, turn to the person next to say what you found interesting or or fascinating or helpful about about that. Any little bits of any little bits of feedback? Any little comments on any of that? Any questions that it's um it's raised in your minds? What we talk about in your groups there?

SPEAKER_09 39:43

Your chart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

Yeah, the the three zones and the chart, yeah, yeah. You can I'll I'll send you the yeah, have a little look and see again. There's something about just understanding that the story, uh again, I think for some people, because the Bible is so long, actually it's quite hard to get an understanding of the story. Uh and it, but it is so important to understand the story, uh, to position the particular books you're looking to just the story. Um, one of the things that I I found so helpful as a teenager is I was in a quite serious car accident. I was hospitalized and off school for about a month. Um, and uh they just brought out the um the comic Bible. Um so it was the it was the Bible in comic form. It was those six kind of books, and and I probably read through the Bible twice, kind of in in comic book form. Uh and what it did was obviously it wasn't the Bible, kind of, but it was the story Bible. And actually, over those over that month, I just got an uh an understanding of of how the story hung together and therefore where these bits fit fit in. Um so uh at some point, if you don't think you know the story from creation to Abraham to Moses to uh David uh to Exile to Jesus uh to Paul to Book of Revelation. If you actually that's probably something at some point to try and find out, ask AI, summarize the Bible story in a thousand words, or something like that, kind of um, and and and try and understand the story. Does that make sense? Because it will really help when you come to look at a particular place, and it'll help you not to misunderstood or misread some things as well, because sometimes you can just pluck verses out of context and think, actually, this sounds nice, pluck it out of context, and actually you can make the Bible say all kinds of stuff that it wasn't originally intended to say. Uh and church history, unfortunately, littered with people who've taken bits of the Bible out of context and used it to justify all kinds of stuff. Um any other comments or uh questions while you were just talking just then? The Middle East is the s is the same place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is where it's all kicking off. Yes. Yeah. So over the last two thousand years, in some ways Jesus is the final word and and Jesus should be the reconciler, Jesus should be the peacemaker, should he he should be the healer, the forgiver, the restorer. Unfortunately, again, people take bits from the Bible and you have the crusades or the inquisitions or the conquistadors or and you think, oh no, kind of the person of Jesus has been lost because they've taken some kind of mandate of scripture plus state and and they've twisted it to say things that Jesus never intended to say. Um uh but Jesus is is the the th the final word that we'll look at in a moment or two.

SPEAKER_06 43:20

Um that's a horrible story that you need.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I know. Yeah, and when that little map with the little Judah there, we read the story and we think about the two lepers that go out and find the empty camp, and we're fascinated by the two lepers getting rich and getting food. But they would have Fascinated by why is this mighty army that's conquered everything? Why have they just suddenly disappeared from us? There must be something about the god that we worship and that we serve that's so much bigger than this whole empire that's conquered everything from Iraq, Iran through to Egypt, and this little bubble of Judah has survived. And we we get we read the story and we think, weren't those two lepers really lucky to get food and kind of um and we bring the big story down to a small story. It's not the small story of if you find the goodness of God you should share it, which is in there, but the amazing, the first people to have heard that would be amazed that that they managed to survive this marauding empire. Um okay. Um just a few more little hints. Sometimes, again, names can help. Um so that the five major prophets were delivered by by, although they're called the five major prophets, there's only actually four people, there's five books. So uh Jeremiah did Jeremiah and Lamentations. Um but it their names are even interesting. Again, how if how their names fit into political history? So um Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah means salvation of God, Jeremiah mean means God's exalts, Daniel means God is my judge, Ezekiel means the strength of God. Actually, it's interesting there's there's the four prophets there have got God in their name. Did their mum or dad think there was something about a destiny on their lives that when they gave them the name that actually they thought God was up to something? Um it's a fascinating to track through the Bible about the importance of the name and the personality and and destiny over people's people's lives.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Um but it's interesting the in which language does it mean that?

SPEAKER_03 45:44

So so this would be uh Aramaic would be would be the Hebrew. Um uh and it's it's interesting that um the yah bit and the l bit are are the god bits. So where all those those four those four names um had God in them. The the God here is the yah bit, Isaiah, Jeremiah is Yahweh, is the God of Israel. So actually, those two, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they prophesied in Israel. Whereas Daniel and Ezekiel, that word for God is not Yahweh, it's actually Elohim. And actually, Elohim is the god of the whole world, the god of the nations. And so Jeremiah, Isaiah were Yahweh, they prophesied in Israel to the people of God. Daniel, Ezekiel were in captivity, they were in the nations prophesying uh in the in the in the nation, prophesying in exile. So even the names help you to locate them within history. So when you went read Isaiah, Jeremiah, it's about before, it's in Israel, before um Jerusalem falls. Or actually, Jeremiah recounts the fall of Jerusalem. Whereas Daniel and Ezekiel, they're they've been exported, they've been in exile, and they're prophesying in exile.

SPEAKER_07 47:03

Um is that or demiah as well? Does that because he's preaching to the non-God people, isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 47:08

Sorry?

SPEAKER_07 47:08

Or demayah. Obadiah. Obadiah.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Oh Obadiah. Obediya. Yes, Obadiah, yes. Uh yeah, the y the yah there would be the same, would be the Yahweh. Um Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Yahweh.

SPEAKER_08 47:27

How do you how did you figure out what how did that?

SPEAKER_03 47:30

So the the y the yah bit, it it so it is that links to the Yahweh, the the uh like I said, there's no no no vowels in in Hebrew. So it's so so Yahweh or Jehovah, but the yah bit is there. Where the Elohim is the word for the God of the nations. The L bit of Elohim, it's the is that bit of the word for God is put into Daniel Ezekiel.

SPEAKER_08 47:52

The bits in red means yah.

SPEAKER_03 47:56

The bits and bits in red, so the origins of the yah there and the yah there is Jehovah, the origin of the L there and the L there is Elohim, which is the God of the nations. Um okay, so when you come to the minor prophets, then um I suppose that the the first question is how would the minor prophets have been understood at the time? Okay, so so uh Hosea was prophesying to the people that were alive when he was alive. Obadiah was prophesying to people who were alive when he was alive. That these prophecies were first said to the people who actually were alive. Now, we can look at them and we can look for other kind of meanings in the words, which is which is great, but maybe our first port of call should be what would it have meant from the original speaker to the original hearer? Uh now, it's more than that. Some people have a kind of uh a way of approaching scripture that that's the only meaning. What you've got to try and find is what does it mean to the original speaker, to the original hearer, that's the that's the true meaning. Now, I think there's more to scripture than that, but I think it is a good starting place. What would have meant to the first people that heard it? Um and as you read through those minor prophets, there's probably three themes that the original people who heard it would have heard. Does that make sense? So the first theme that reoccurs in most of the minor prophets is that there was a covenant. They were God's covenant people, and that covenant had been violated. That there was this deal when they came out of Egypt, um the promise to Abraham to bless them as a nation, and it wasn't that they would be blessed, it was that they were to bless the nations. And through Moses on Mount Sinai, a covenant was given. If you if you obey me and follow my ways, this, this, and this will happen to you. If you don't follow my ways, this and this will happen to you. But actually, I'm gonna make a covenant with you. You're gonna be my covenant people. Um, I'm gonna bless you, and you're gonna follow me, and things are gonna be great. But time and time again, they violated that covenant, that they worshipped other gods, they didn't do the sacrifices, or they bought crippled and lame sheep when they should have been pure and spotless, and and and just time and time again, this their destiny to be God's special covenant people, they violated that comment that covenant time and time again. So as the prophets came, they were trying to to to the people that are to God's people, so Nahum and um Jonah were to Assyria, but to the other ones that were where they're prophesying to the people of God, actually, they're violating the covenant. There was this deal that you were called to, and you're not upholding your part of the bargain. Therefore, trouble's coming. Actually, the the the second thing is kind of it's not too late. It's not too late. Actually, you can still repent. You can still turn around. There still is an option for you to turn around and find restoration, to find once again, I'm a God who's slow to anger, abounding in love. Actually, there was the call to turn around, the call to repent. That theme again is spattered throughout these minor prophets. That would have been something that they would have heard. They would have heard, actually, we have failed God. We failed to be the covenant people, we failed to obey Him, we failed to not worship other gods, we failed to not give in to sexual immorality, kind of we failed to and we've intermarried with the other nations. Actually, we violated that covenant. But there's the opportunity to return, and if you repent and return, actually, God is God of forgiveness, of of covenant, of restoration. Um, but there are consequences of disobedience still. That's part of the covenant promises back up, even with Moses. Actually, if you do disobey, actually there are consequences, which is why some of those minor prophets can sound quite doom and gloomy. It's because he wants to say, actually, it's not that God wants to beat people up, but actually, that is the consequence of what's gonna happen to you. If unless you encounter me, encounter my love, and and turn to me and be my special people. Actually, you're open to the ravages of the world. And actually, kind of these guys might do this, and do you know what? I might just give them a little bit extra power, a little bit extra kind of so when they come, when the when the assumes come, I'm I'm not gonna protect you, northern ten tribes. Actually, that's the consequence of your disobedience, is you will be invaded. I'm gonna protect Judah when they come in because they are still being faithful to me. But for the Northern Ten Tribes, there's consequence of your disobedience. And a little phrase, probably about 18 or 20 times, that appears through quite a few of the um the minor prophets, is this this thing called the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. And you'll see in quite a few of the minor prophets that that there was going to be a day when the consequences of our actions are gonna be visited on us. Uh and for people who continue disobedient, continue breaking the promises, actually, the day of the Lord was a day to be dreaded. Watch out, beware the day of the Lord. Actually, for those who loved God and loved his purposes, and were actually the day when God turns up, the day of the Lord actually is a great day. Um and it's this double thing that if you fulfil covenant, kind of the day of the Lord is a blessing. Actually, if you're disobedient, the day of the Lord's day that brings vengeance and destruction and the consequences of your action. And so the day of the Lord has kind of mixed kind of connotations for people. It's it's the now and next, not yet of the kingdom. There's there's God's doing some stuff now, but there will be a day when God will do his stuff. And when it came to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, that was the day of the Lord for that generation. Um does that so if we go through these 12 books, what would have meant the original here is there's something about violating covenant, because they're God's covenant people. There's something about the call to repentance to find once again God's grace and God's love, and there was the reminder that if you continue on this path, there will be consequences, which include judgment and destruction and exile. Okay. So we do look and say what does the what does the people there and then what does it say to them, and we can learn some stuff from there. But actually, how do the mind prophets contribute to the story of Jesus? Um and if you've been to Bible school before, uh you'll know that I have a little addiction called when I come to read the Bible, which is called a Christocentric hermeneutic. I imagine some of you may have heard me talk about that before. What the Christocentric hermeneutic is, is what glasses do you wear when you come to read the Bible? And when you come to read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, but also I think Paul and the epistles, actually, you should be wearing Jesus glasses. Kind of the lens through which you look at scripture should be Jesus. So when the book of Hebrews says, um, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, these are the guys we're looking at here, the minor prophets, and uh Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel Zeke. He spoke to the prophets in many times, different empires, the Syrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, in various ways. Some of it's kind of oracles, some of it's drama. Here's Isaiah bearing his underpants and taking them out in their rotten and but he's in various ways, kind of God spoke. Um, but in these last days, he's spoken to us in a dramatically different way. God is still speaking, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory, he's the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his path word. Now, for me, that that sums up what how we should approach this word of God. We should approach this word of God by coming to Jesus, who is the word of God. So Jesus, who um who John uh says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. Uh the word was God, the word became flesh, Jesus. The word of God became flesh. Actually, what God wanted to communicate along through that half of the book, now he communicates in perfection in a person. You've always kind of wondered what God thought about dot dot dot. Well, when you look at Jesus, you know the exact thoughts of God because he's the exact representation of who God is. Actually, the but Paul says that the fullness of um the Son is the image of the invisible God. We've kind of wondered what God's like, but but now we have an image to to look at, to see, to understand. Actually, for in Christ the fullness, this is a mystery. The fullness of the deity dwelt in Jesus. That was an affirmation from Paul that that somehow he was 100% a human being, but somehow the fullness, the 100% of God was in him. So if you want to understand this word of God, you must look for this word of God. Actually, you must, because he is the exact word of what God wants to speak into humanity. The exact way to be compassionate, the exact way to be just, the exact way to be moral, the exact way to be uh loving, the exact way to be serving. Actually, the fullness of God was there in Jesus. So if the word of God became flesh and did this stuff, in some ways we should come to Jesus. When we come to the minor prophets, we should come to the minor prophets with some Jesus glasses on. Where do I see Jesus here? Because this word of God should be pointing to Jesus, the Word of God. Paul says that the Old Testament is like a shadow, but the reality is found in Jesus. So on a on a sunny day, you might see a shadow on the ground, and that shadow is cast by a person. The person is solid and real. That shadow gives you a little outline of what the person might look like, but actually it doesn't tell you, it's not the same as the real person. The Old Testament is like a shadow, but the real person is Jesus. You can see the outline of Jesus in the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, the temple, the high priest. There's a little bit of a shadow that, but the reality comes in in Jesus. So we look for Jesus in the shadow that's the Old Testament. Does that make sense? Um, so which is why when it comes to, we've just celebrated Easter. Um sorry, so Matthew says, records Jesus' words, don't think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to do away with Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi, I've not come to do away with Habakkuk. No, I've I've actually I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Actually, the deal is that I've come to fill up the old, what looked like a shadow, I'm filling it up as a three-dimensional human being. I'm living out all that the law and the prophets said. He perfectly obeys the law without sin. He fulfills the law, he's the lamb slain once for all. He's our great high priest. We we saw, see, all the fulfillment of the law is there now in bodily form in Jesus. Uh we follow Paul's teaching. He says, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. People knew that Paul was a Jesus fanatic. I mean, he would just do anything for Jesus. He gets stoned, he gets shipwrecked, he gets beaten up, he gets 39 lashes, and it's for Jesus. They knew that he was Jesus crazy. So they always interpreted his words in the light of his Jesus obsession. So we can't even look at the epistles without thinking about Jesus. Does that make sense? Um on the road to Emmaus post-Easter, um, talking with the two friends on the road to Emmaus, it says this. He said to them how foolish you are and how slow to believe, or that the prophets, the minor prophets included, that we're looking at, all the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, including the minor prophets, he explained to them what uh was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. I mean, that would have been a great Bible study. You think spring Bible school is okay, actually, that Bible school would have been amazing. Jesus went through all scripture, through the law and the prophets and said, actually, this is about me, this is about me, this is about me. You're not know this is about me, and that was about me, and this is about me as well. And and and he he just explained to them that all script was concerning him. No, we get wrapped up in Old Testament scripture because we think it's about other things, it's about rules and regulations, it's about religious observance, it's about how special Israel is. We we we we reach the Old Testament and we put all kinds of things onto it, but actually it should have been about Jesus. Um, when he appears to his disciples um later on in Luke 24, he said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that was written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. He then opened their eyes, their minds, so they could understand the scriptures, and he told them, This is what is written the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. So, again, if all scripture is supposed to be pointed towards Jesus, how do the minor prophets point towards Jesus? So, a little group question. Okay, from your previous knowledge, and again, this might be a short discussion, um uh, but do you know any places in the minor prophets that you think could point towards Jesus and his ministry? Now, I'll give you three or four minutes. You might just turn to us and say, ah, not got a clue. Grab yourself some fruit and another cup of tea. Any things that people came up with that um might be things that point towards Jesus on that rotomaus that Jesus might have mentioned?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

Jonah in the well, that was a real reference to Jesus, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:11

Okay, Jonah and the and the whale, how Jonah was in the well for three days, three nights? Okay. Okay, yeah, so there was uh a prophecy there about a ruler coming from Bethlehem, kind of uh uh and Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Any other things that you're gonna do. Okay, Son of Man vision from from Daniel, yeah, from yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:57

Yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's cult.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:01

Yeah, yeah. So Zechariah Palm Sunday is in there? Yeah. Okay. Well what we'll try and do as we go through the next three weeks is we'll we'll each each time we look at a book, we'll probably say, actually, where is the where's where's Jesus here? Where can we see the person of Jesus? So even in the book of uh Obadiah, uh a friend eating bread betraying, ah, there's there's there's a little bit of Jesus kind of that's that's that's kind of even in a book that's seems quite bizarre, like the book of Obadiah. Um so just just the last thing for me, and then then uh we're gonna have it finished Stephen with a little meditation. So um each of the book uh probably does have a unique, so if all scripture is God breathed and useful, profitable for teaching, training, correcting, rebuking, training righteousness. Um I think probably each of the books has a bit of a unique contribution to the gospel story. So, Jose, this idea we're looking at next week, I will I will have loving kindness. Uh, and actually, as Jesus arrives, that when God appears, what's he going to be like? Is he gonna be riding on a white siren with power in mind? Actually, Jesus arrives humble and serving, he arrives tender-heartedly. Loving kindness, it's cleansing the leper, it's healing the blind, it's reaching out to the marginalized and the oppressed. Actually, there's something about the loving kindness in Hosea that the ministry of Jesus is a ministry of loving kindness. Um we see in the book of Joel, again, the prophecy that I will pour out, not pour, pour out my spirit. Um again, Jesus says, it's it's to your advantage that I go. When I go, I will send the Holy Spirit. Um, sent, the book of Joel is quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Um, Amos. Amos has this little reference to the tabernacle of David. There was the tabernacle of the temple, and there seemed to be this other place where that David set up where you could encounter God. Actually, people who were non-Jews could go there and encounter God. So when in Acts chapter 15 they're starting to have this theological discussion, should Gentiles be included in the church, what do they look at? They actually look back to the book of Amos and they talk about the tabernacle of David, and that seems to be a theological rationale from one of the minor prophets as to why the Gentiles should be accepted into the uh emerging church. Um, Obadiah, we've just looked at again, the kingdom shall be the Lord's, again, the multinational people of God. Um yeah, like Alan said, the sign of Jonah, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, three days, three nights. Um Micah, again, we've had that one, uh, in Bethlehem incarnation. Uh Nahum, uh, actually it's judgment on the world, actually, the final judgment will come with Jesus. So when Jonah preaches to Nineveh, they repent and they're forgiven. When Nahum preaches against uh Nineveh, they don't repent, they're destroyed. Again, the final There's mercy with Jesus and there's judgment with Jesus. Habakkuk, this little phrase, the righteous shall live by faith, again picked up by Paul, is from the book of Habakkuk. Again, justification by faith. Trusting our faith in Jesus alone is enough. Zephaniah talks about God being with you, actually fellowshipping, encountering, being alongside God. Jesus Emmanuel, God with us. Haggai talks about the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former house. And talking about actually God's glory not being shown through a physical building, but being shown through uh through the church. Zechariah, uh again, I had that read out here. Behold your king while riding on a donkey. Again, Jesus uses particularly the book of Zechariah to interpret himself. Kind of uh there's four passages that we can look at that are called the um the servant songs in Zechariah that again profoundly prophesy the life and action of Jesus. Um Malachi, the voice of one calling in the wilderness. Again, John the Baptist Harold was going to be John the Baptist, he's gonna be a voice in the wilderness. So each of those minor prophets contributes something to the the New Testament story as well, and and either being quoted by New Testament characters as they look back, quoted by Jesus or by by Paul, or adds something to the overarching story. So as you read the minor prophets, look out for the parts of the story that they uniquely contribute to the gospel. Is that okay? Um just before we have a little meditation, any final questions on the whole kind of deal? Again, next week we're gonna look at Isaiah, particularly, the week after that we're gonna contrast uh Zechariah and Haki, and then the final week we're gonna look at the um uh Jonah as a prophet. Um did there were any prophets now in there? Uh they would have lived at different times. So so yeah, the reality is probably that probably not. Um great.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:02

What was the time overall time to go then? Because the minister is there's a gap between the last of the prophets and the Jesus about 400 years.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

That's 400 years. So from Malachi, there's the last prophet. Uh so he's the last prophet, and then there's a 400 years gap until Jesus arrives.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:21

That's interesting. The spread of the prophets before was massive, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:28

Yes, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 400 years, uh why 400? Uh again, at the right time Jesus was revealed is a little kind of quote. Um, what was right about that time? Well, actually, you had after the Persian Empire, you had the Greek Empire, Alexander the Great. Actually, what the Greeks brought in was um the power of thought. So rather than the power of armies, it was the power of thought. And so actually, people started to be a lot more thinking and reflective. So, in some ways, when God is revealed in the world, actually, there's people who are going to think and reflect about it rather than it kind of, and it might be it will stick. And then you have the Roman Empire, who comes after the, and actually, for the Roman Empire, actually you suddenly have this commerce and these um communication connections, which means that someone like Paul could travel quite easy and freely through the whole of the Roman Empire. And so maybe at the right time Jesus was born, because in the history, particularly of the Greek Empire and then the Roman Empire, actually, maybe the situation was right for the message of Jesus. So within one generation, the message of Jesus came from a peasant in a backwater of Judah to uh the kind of the gates of of the Caesar's palace, kind of and place of influence within within a generation. Now, again, with at the end of if it had been 400 years earlier, that wouldn't have been able to that this the explosive spread of the gospel, there wasn't the commercial infrastructure, there wasn't the rational thought that those two empires bought that enabled the gospel to explode across there. And so maybe it was more to do with God biding his time to see, oh, when's gonna be a right time for you to be go, Jesus? Uh yeah. Oh, those Greeks have done great, haven't they? Oh, oh the Romans, what they built, they bought those roads and wonderful, Jesus now. Maybe they're just waiting for for the time. I don't know. Conjecture. Great, Megan, you okay to um take us to the last bit.