WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.280 Say more about it. 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:02.720 Me? 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:03.759 Both of you did. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:40.479 Um the message in so far in in the disciples is um both and and I I just like the way that the poetry aspect of it, but I also like the way that the message is um God loves us, and I'm enjoying trying to figure out where the Jews and the Gentiles both have a covenant. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:49.679 And he just said something very interesting about breaking the covenant with the Jewish people, which I've never heard that that covenant was broken. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:53.280 So that that kind of confused me. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:01:05.280 But I I find it refreshing and rewarding that um particularly in today's environment where you can get wrapped up in the politics and the where are we going in the world? 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:13.519 Um person at a time to turn it around. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:17.200 And I get that inspiration from the project. 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.840 We're not too small that we can't do something. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.280 Okay, yeah, we're not too small that we can't do something in love. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:29.200 I love that. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.239 So I just love this chapter six where I desire studies love and not sacrifice. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:39.040 The knowledge of God rather than offering is pretty clear. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.159 So I I just find that lovely. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:43.439 I find that lovely. 00:01:44.239 --> 00:02:00.400 And the uh they're breaking the covenant, at least certainly symbolically, and I think more than symbolically, was so alarming that he doesn't comes back around. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:17.280 I I thought this is a bipolar God, not to be making light of it, but it's like he's killing babies and then he's uh coming back to not pity and one translation read no mercy and mercy. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:21.199 Mercy is kind of a hot word for me and non-mercy. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.400 We saw this like when we studied songs. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:00.240 So it it's really kind of winding. 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.120 The indictment of the priesthood, by the way, that came out a couple times. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:15.599 I thought it'd be mine. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:17.680 Thank you. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.599 And there is beautiful poetry in here. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.000 I love this part about Jacob in chapter 12. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.759 In the womb he took his brother by the heel and his man home. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:42.240 He strove with God, he strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and saw his favor and met God at Bethel. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.719 I'm not really sure how that fits in here. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:04:01.520 So I also found myself kind of having some sympathy with the farmers when I was reading this part about the nature of religion. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:05.280 And I think my grandparents were farmers here in Texas. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:09.039 And you know, that's why I went to college. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:22.560 It's really hard, and it's not substantially farming here more like it is the holy land where the brain doesn't come here in the star. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:28.240 So I myself have any sympathy for that. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:33.439 Let's cover all of our bases sometimes. 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:47.120 Also the I mean I think I've certainly done that in my personal history, and we see it on the news all the time. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:05:11.439 We see it in this dynamic in our world, but it's certainly the thing that like you're in your integrity, but then you get a little stressed, and you say, well, you know, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I just ran by the Bale Temple and a couple of years. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:17.279 Just in case just in case they control the wind and the rains. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:33.199 I've been done something here and I can't remember a cross room to a person can be near the things of God without recognizing the grace of God saying and doing the right things without action. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:52.879 That strike me as how do you I mean they're living a lot of question, like I guess doing the right thing is concerned about people that they don't really know God. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:58.800 Yeah, that they would have to know God. 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:08.800 That part of my work is uh daily awareness of God. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:10.879 Where am I? 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:11.439 Where are you? 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.160 I wrestle with something. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:57.439 And that's um this God that um whether they be the the God uh that is uh the, if you will, father of Jesus, or whether it be the God that the Israelites are their God. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:04.000 Um Russell because as a physicist, you might appreciate this. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:25.519 There was an article not too long ago, back last week, about redefining the um Hubble constant and the fact that uh the they're saying now that there are those that they they recalculated it and determined that instead of 13.8 billion years old, the universe is really 11 billion years old. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:29.199 I mean, you know, that's splitting hairs in a way. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:39.439 But I think that, I think, okay, here's this God that created this universe that's expanding, um, and and as big as it is, it's also as little. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:45.920 I mean, you can go the other way, not only big, but you know, how small is matter? 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.040 You know, I mean, we're talking quarks and what have you, but is there something smaller than that? 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:52.399 Does it go down further than that? 00:07:52.639 --> 00:08:09.439 So I'm looking at this God, and then I look, and then I read it in the in the old, you know, frankly, in in like um Deuteronomy and and some of the Torah text about a God who wants you to burn lamb's fat so he can smell it and it smells good. 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:11.920 Uh and I get the covenant. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:12.720 I get that. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:20.720 Because I don't think you can live without following certain covenant rules, but I'm thinking, boy, for a God that's created all this, this is kind of petty. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:23.199 And violent. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:24.079 Yeah. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:25.360 And it's all about us. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:33.519 I mean, you know, there how many of us are there out there in other other other other worlds, other planets? 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:44.879 You know, clearly, I mean, they've just defined they've just found a planet that is in, we'll call it the good zone, in another, around another star that could have water and could probably have life and what have you. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:54.080 So I sometimes it's very confusing to me to think about this and then think about yeah. 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:11.519 There's this interesting thing, interplay, right, between an expanding universe and that being um in some ways crippling to the meaning of human life, particularly our own, and um the opposite side, gratitude with that awareness, right? 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:12.639 I mean, yeah. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:14.080 I don't know if you feel that way. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.200 Sometimes life is so big that it doesn't matter. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.799 And sometimes because life is so big, it really matters. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:24.399 Life is so eternal, so it does matter. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.679 I think we live in the middle of those, though, and depending on the day, I could go either way. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:36.320 I mean, we we've been talking a lot about the writers, but at no point that we really delved into God. 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:53.200 Well, this is good that you this is good, and let's do that now because you mentioned the word covenant, and I want to know what you guys think about covenants and whether or not they're different than contracts or commitments. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:54.480 How so? 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:59.279 Can you break covenants and what happens? 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:00.559 So, what are covenants? 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:02.960 Where how do we use the word covenant now? 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.960 In what context? 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:08.000 There's neighborhoods. 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:09.440 There's covenanted neighborhoods. 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:13.360 Yeah, yeah, how we use it, how we use it. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:14.320 What else do we use it for? 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:16.320 In some ways. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:28.480 I mean, you know, you've got a covenant with your with your neighborhood association, you know, you pay whatever, and they keep the lights on in the streets, and they make sure the streets are are taken care of and and and such. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:29.600 So there's that. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.279 Do we use it any other way? 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:32.240 Can you think of? 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:34.000 I don't use it. 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.480 Covenant of marriage, maybe? 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:39.840 But that's very similar to this, I think. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:41.840 Think of it as a contract. 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:49.840 I think a covenant, the word covenant to me means uh mutual agreement. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:55.759 It's like a marriage without the contract. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:01.120 Um I think once you have that life for someone, it never goes away. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:08.720 So it's more like that. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.879 It is God's covenant. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:16.879 It is God's covenant. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.919 I brought you out of Egypt. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.759 I'm going to give you Canaan, but here are the rules. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:32.960 Is that how we view and now in terms of the rules, I don't have a problem with them. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:45.120 I think that in my mind, if not all of the rules, are how society survives almost itself. 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:48.879 If you do these things, society will survive. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:54.000 If you don't do these things, you do certain things, things are going to happen that are not good. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:12:00.399 So, but so God said to the Israelites, here's Canaan. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:02.480 Follow these rules. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:04.080 And they didn't. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:09.120 There's a difference maybe between rules and laws of nature. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:13.679 And, you know, when you say, well, God made these rules, but these rules were there. 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:15.679 Those are laws of nature. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:21.679 If you do these certain things, bad things are gonna happen. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:25.600 You know, there's gonna be hate and karma built up. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:27.039 People are gonna despise you. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:36.639 I mean, and if you really have God in your heart, which is what he put into the Israeli people, they were his people because they were part God. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:38.720 They had that in them. 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:40.960 Because there are people who don't have it. 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:45.360 They think nothing of murdering millions and millions of people. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:46.320 They don't care. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:48.960 Those are not God's people. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:51.120 That's what I'm saying. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:52.320 That's an interesting thought. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:58.720 So maybe I can tell you a little bit more about covenants biblically, because that was the first thing he mentioned that caught my eye. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:02.559 So covenants are never made in the Bible, they're always cut. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:06.799 This may sound funny, but in Hebrew you can't make a covenant, you cut one. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:07.600 What's that? 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:09.200 Oh, you mean it's already there? 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:14.320 No, no, you can never make a covenant, the verb is always cut. 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:14.720 Okay. 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:25.519 And so the first covenant actually we see is when God makes this covenant with Noah, and Noah kills the animals, right? 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:26.559 On the altar. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.720 This is after the flood, and God says, I have cut a covenant with you. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:36.159 I will never again destroy the world with water, and here will be the sign of my covenant. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.639 I will put my bow in the sky. 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:41.120 We used to think that rainbow is being a cute thing. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:42.720 It's actually God's weapon. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:45.200 It it shoots arrows, lightning. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:47.840 So Zeus is similar. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.639 The rainbow is God's bow. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:52.639 Did you see that on television? 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:55.840 No, I read it in like 19 books. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:58.080 Oh, I had a picture of it. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:13:59.279 As a bow? 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:00.399 It was a bow. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:01.360 It was a photograph. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:01.759 Yeah. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:02.639 Of a bow. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:05.279 Maybe you saw it, and lightning was in the middle of the blue. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:05.440 Oh. 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:13.440 So they thought Baal, people in the Canaan thought Baal was the Lord of the sky and the rain, and and it would have been Baal's weapon as well. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:15.759 Can we come back to the very first thing you said? 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:16.320 Yes. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:23.440 So Noah sacrificed an animal and God smelled it. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:24.159 God. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:25.600 What is that all about? 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:26.240 Yeah. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.279 So uh so good, great question. 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:37.279 So in the ancient world, people understood, and this is a good thing coming back to covenant, is that there's mutual obligations between parties. 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:40.799 Now, I will tell you in the ancient world, there's multiple kinds of covenants. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:41.600 Kinds. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:48.639 One is the kind that says, I'm the king, you're my subject, here's what you'll do, I'm the king. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.000 A large swath of Leviticus reads like that. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:57.919 It says things like, You will not make garments and two kinds of fabric, I am the Lord. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:00.720 There's no, in exchange, I will do this. 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:03.120 There's you won't, I'm the Lord. 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:06.000 You will give me a tenth of your props, I'm the king. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.679 So this is because I said so, and I'm bigger than you. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.519 This suspects one kind of covenant. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:14.879 There's other covenants in which you do this, I'll do this. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:18.240 So there's a mutual obligation, and there's sort of this promise. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.879 If you keep this, I will keep this. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:22.320 So that's transactional. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:31.039 It's a transactional covenant, and those do also exist between lords and thieves, essentially, but a lord didn't have to do that. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:31.440 Right? 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:35.600 By virtue of being lord, you've got the biggest stick, so you may do what you like. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:43.919 Most uh ancient Near Eastern religions in fact believe that uh covenants are transactional. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.200 I would say most people believe that today too. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:47.759 Right. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.559 So, where did the animal bit come from? 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.720 Well, I think it comes from this idea, and we find it. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:58.960 I can't really tell you why we got this idea, but it's very, very old. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:08.559 And you can read it in plenty of mythologies, whether they're Greek, you know, in the Greek mythology, um, the gods are tired of the world because it's noisy, and they decide to kill all the people. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:12.000 And then they realize that they're hungry. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:17.279 Because the people are feeding them, and gods are pretty lazy actually, and they don't like doing work. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:28.399 So there's these two folk that they save and they throw rocks over their shoulder, and when a rock hits the ground it becomes a person, and then the people then go about cultivating animals and they sacrifice them to feed the gods. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:33.200 Now you and I both know that the gods don't devour a carcass. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:40.240 So you have to think that the gods feed off the essence of the animal, if I could put it a different way, the life force or the qi. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:54.559 So what would happen is you would go to an altar and you would kill an animal to feed a god, and in return you could be nourished at the god's table because the truth is you ate that. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.720 So the god ate the life force, but you ate the meat. 00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:07.200 So almost all killing in the ancient world is given to a god, and then you dine off the god's table. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:11.359 And we hear a bit about idols, but people are not dummies. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:14.240 You know, you hear, oh, you're bowing down and worshiping the wood. 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:15.119 No, no, no. 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:16.880 The wood is just a representation. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:23.359 So it is true that priests would wash the idols and clothe them and dress them. 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:30.720 This happened in ancient Greece, but they didn't really think they were clothing and dressing the god. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:36.319 It was a symbolic act of caring for the gods, life force. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:38.559 So we just have to think about life force. 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:45.599 The Enlightenment kind of got us away from that, but we're coming back where we realize there kind of is something to life force. 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:50.240 You know, chi, chakras, you know, that sort of idea. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:53.359 Um so I think that's where you get it. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:59.279 Now there's only one time, really, there's only two times God smells stuff. 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:00.640 Really. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:08.240 The one is when Noah sacrifices that animal and God cuts that covenant, God smells the thing, and it's really pleasing. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.119 You that's one of the oldest parts of the Bible. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:12.000 It is. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.359 Because nowhere else does God smell sacrifices. 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:29.039 The other part, interesting enough, is in Jonah, when God sends the word to Jonah and says, Call against the Ninevites, their evil has arisen up before me, like God smells their evil, which is a different kind of odor. 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:46.799 Um, these tactile, very tactile bits for God represent really old stories, most people would tell you, and in that sense, puts God in very strong parallel with the Canaanite deities, who again smell the flavors and their mouths water. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:54.880 You can read this in the Epic of Gilgamesh as well, where the gods smell and they eat and they consume sacrifice. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.640 So we don't really quite know. 00:18:58.880 --> 00:18:59.759 This is an interesting thing. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:07.440 I was teaching class the other day to fifth graders, and I was telling them about the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:10.079 And I said, here's what Catholics believe about this. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:12.240 And she said, wait, what do Catholics believe? 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:21.119 And I realized there's a difference between what a Catholic person believes and the official teachings of the Catholic Church. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:29.279 See, what we've got might be the official teachings, but we have no idea what the average person believed. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:38.960 In the official teachings, you go to the temple and you offer up these animals because the life does not belong to you. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:40.880 The life belongs to God. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:42.319 Now, is God nourished? 00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:44.000 Does like God consume it? 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.799 Well, the text isn't exactly clear. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:49.039 So it didn't say yes. 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:50.960 Maybe not. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:58.480 I mean, at the at the at the most granular level, you can't drink the blood of an animal because you can't have the animal's qi. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:19:59.839 You can't have it. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.519 It's God's qi, if that makes sense. 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:05.440 It goes back to God. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:11.839 So when they when they pour it out, pour it out or splash it against the altar. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.599 That's essentially taking the life force back to God. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:23.759 Now, we don't we don't have an image of God dobbling it up, but we have this idea people can't have it, if that makes sense. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:33.519 Something that splashed into my mind, not to interrupt anything you're saying, but I thought about this earlier when we were talking about not the blood. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:54.400 We do organ transplants, and people anecdotally report that they find themselves taking on the characteristics of the person who received the transplant from, you know, one guy develops a liking for certain foods, he starts carrying the purse around. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:00.400 I I mean, I can't recall exactly, but we have stuff like that. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:15.680 So, you know, obviously, you know, you and remember too, you know, in the flatworm experiments, where they fed certain flatworms who had learned the maze to other flatworms and then they knew the maze. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:26.160 So maybe taking on characteristics that you maybe as a holy person ought not to be taking into yourself, I'm just saying. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:28.079 So interesting thought. 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:28.799 Interesting thought. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:30.880 No, no, no. 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:46.160 I think we're coming back to a more holistic idea in which there are things you know, I don't want to call it the ghost in the machine, but there are some levels of mechanics, call them quantum or not, that we don't seem to really have our head focused around. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.720 Drugs to keep to ensure that it doesn't still the same thing. 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.640 That's a different genome than mine, right? 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:11.359 And you might be picking up some of that that might make its way into the whole body at some point. 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:17.359 Yeah, and so we we decided we're just cogs and we have interchangeable parts, and and maybe not, right? 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:18.960 Um maybe not. 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:38.880 Maybe not, because he has his hands full trying to protect these people that have a seed of God in them that he's trying to preserve into perpetuity, living in a world where they are constantly surrounded by things that trying to destroy that in them. 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:42.079 You're getting where I want to go, but I'm meandering more slowly. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:44.079 And I'll try to I'll try to speed up. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:48.079 No, no, Abraham cuts a covenant with God. 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.839 And the way that works is there's a heifer and Abraham cuts it in half. 00:22:52.559 --> 00:23:02.240 And then Abraham passes, and it gets very dark and gloomy, because apparently God's presence in that episode is really dark. 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:07.519 And Abraham walks between the two halves of the animal with a torch. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.880 And God says, This is what you do when you cut a covenant in the ancient world. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:18.720 You cut an animal in half, and both parties walk between it, and you say, if you don't keep the covenant, you will be like this. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:20.480 Oh dear. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:26.559 Um covenants are different from contracts in the ancient world because a contract you have to enter in individually. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:30.480 So, like if my son is going to have a contract with you, he has to make it. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:32.960 A covenant goes forward. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:36.160 Contracts are limited to geography, covenants are not. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:39.599 So the covenant holds in Egypt just as much as it held in Canaan. 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:41.680 So contracts would not work that way. 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:50.240 Um, funny thing is, we talk about the covenant of marriage because two people make vows, and the question is, can you ever break the marital covenant? 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:52.960 I'm gonna tell you, I think so. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:54.640 Personally. 00:23:55.599 --> 00:24:03.839 Even though I think there's remnants of covenant that maybe know never go away at a deeper level than contracts, which is what I heard you say. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.400 But for me, the first time you abuse your spouse, the con the covenant is over. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:11.839 You might decide to be reconciled. 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:16.960 So fine, but that's essentially another cut another another covenant. 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:17.920 I don't know if that was. 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:19.839 One ended the other, a new one began. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:20.480 Yes. 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:27.200 Or you rededicated it, or whatever you want to call it, but but when you break your vows, you broke them. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:27.839 Right? 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:34.480 Um, funny thing about marriage, though, in this world, remember, women are property. 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:43.359 Well, you know, that's an interesting because in this in this reading, you know, women are whores, right? 00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:45.039 Certain women are whores. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:50.960 Um men go in and do the same thing, they sacrifice. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:54.240 It's which to me was like, this isn't fair. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:25:05.759 So part of the context here is really, really important, which is, remember what the guy said in the video is it's really abhorrent when a wife offers her sexuality to other people. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:10.559 The reason that's abhorrent is because the wife belongs to the husband. 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:15.759 So she's taking his stuff and giving it away. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.240 And that's why it's a problem. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:22.319 If a man has sex with a woman, he just has to buy her. 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:25.359 This is how the Torah reads. 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:30.319 If you have sex with a virgin, you don't have to keep her, but you do have to pay for her. 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:34.799 You have to pay for her like you married her, which meant you bought her from her dad. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.480 Now, she can still live with the dad as long as you paid for her. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:40.960 So marriage is really different from what we think. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:45.039 There's no chuppa, and there's no stepping on a wine glass. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.480 We're not really even sure if there's much of a marital ceremony. 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:49.200 It really depends. 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:53.119 We don't have any marital ceremony in the Hebrew Bible at all. 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:57.200 There's a wedding at Cana in which there's a big party and a lot of wine drinking. 00:25:57.440 --> 00:25:59.440 We don't know how normalized that was. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:00.640 We really don't. 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:04.880 So back to this possessing, possess possessive thing. 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:14.400 So if the father, if the virgin is has sex with a man, the man pays the father. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.039 Now the man owns her forever. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:22.160 Well, it's a great question. 00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:29.839 I mean, because once a woman has had sexual relations, uh any children she produces will be of questionable origin. 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:31.920 So she's damaged goods. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:33.920 And see, that's why you have to pay for her. 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:43.920 This is a very, very, I don't want to say like primitive society, and this is not even that long ago that in 50 years like bastard was a very bad word. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:56.160 Now we kind of don't use it much and people don't realize actually what it meant, which is being born outside of a of a celebrated covenant. 00:26:56.319 --> 00:27:09.359 But even a hundred years ago, fathers, and this still happens today, fathers give the bride away, and of course, that's an image showing daughter belongs to father who is now transferring his goods to husband. 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:12.000 You can say it doesn't mean that, but that's why we do it. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:13.519 It is why we do it. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:15.519 Um or why we don't. 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:16.640 Or why we don't. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:18.079 I didn't do that. 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:20.160 I say who's come forward to bless the marriage. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:22.160 And I wouldn't say anything about giving away. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:29.680 Um so the prostitutes in the temple were virgins. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:30.960 Where'd they come from? 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:36.240 Well, initially they probably were virgins, and you can read this in James Mitchner's book, The Source. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:42.880 They probably were taken uh during um skirmishes or wars. 00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:52.160 Um preferably they were virgins, and the sort of the prize is to be the first man to visit the virgin priestess. 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:55.920 Now, priestess really is diminutive status. 00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:15.839 But remember the idea in this is that a man has sex with this priestess who represents the goddess Asherah or Estart, and in so doing he represents the god Baal or El or somebody else, and the idea is you're encouraging fertility. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:22.319 So think about when you eat this animal, you're also giving the you're feeding the gods. 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:27.920 When you couple in the temple, it's not like regular sex or red light district sex. 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:32.400 You're you're you're sort of doing this to ensure fertility in the heavens. 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:37.359 You're you're trying to get the gods to do in heaven what you're doing on earth. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:38.960 Now that may sound strange. 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:45.920 It's very masculinely convenient, let's be honest, which is exactly why the people keep doing it. 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:47.119 Very, very popular. 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:48.799 It's very popular. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.319 They don't designate these places as uh they do designate them. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:56.240 They designate the temples of temple. 00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:01.440 If you worship if you worship a sky deity, they're at high places, relative maxima. 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:02.640 What countries? 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:03.920 All of them. 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:06.079 Oh hilltops. 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:11.119 If you worship an earth deity, they're at nedir's relative minima. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:12.160 So valleys. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:18.079 Okay, I'm I'm just so you're thinking it's happening today right now. 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:18.880 Oh, I don't think so. 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:21.119 Oh, that's what I thought I thought you meant you were. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:22.400 No, no, no, I didn't think so. 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:23.839 I was like, yeah, where is that? 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:25.920 Because we kind of changed our understanding of. 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:27.519 Yeah. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.960 It's hard for us to grasp this mentality. 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:41.599 It's hard for us to grasp this, but it seems to be a base assumption that this is, again, how it is that you not only encourage the gods, but actually how you care for the land. 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:52.319 So in in Israel at this time, Israel is mostly up on the Trans Jordan Plateau, and 90% of your diet comes from a two-pound loaf of bread every day. 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.079 So the Atkins diet, you nobody was paleo. 00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:58.160 They were all eating two pounds of bread a day. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:05.519 And without rain, I mean, this is like San Diego, honestly, you will not have bread, which means you'll die. 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:08.240 Animals were not a daily fare. 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:13.119 Animals got eaten on festival days or when there was some kind of sacrifice. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:20.319 It was very expensive to kill a a a calf or a sheep, you'll forego all the milk and all of the wool. 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:23.519 So it's really expensive to kill an animal. 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:30.799 When they ate veal, it's because it was miscarried, not because they terminated a pregnancy, if that makes sense. 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:33.119 That was still happening in the Middle Ages. 00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:35.359 So when you hear about vellum, things are written on vellum. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:36.559 That's a veal skin. 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:45.519 Enormously expensive to produce a book out of vellum because you you'd you'd lose the future goods from that from the animal. 00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:49.839 Um what happened to the children prostitutes? 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:51.519 Well, it's a great question. 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:53.759 Probably they were slaves of some sort. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:56.799 Now, if they were girl slaves, then they're also prostitutes. 00:30:57.119 --> 00:30:59.680 Um if they're boy slaves, hard to know. 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:03.920 Slaves weren't like African slaves, but they could have been. 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:11.279 You may or may not have been born into slavery depending on the culture in which you lived in. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:16.880 And you may or may not have been allowed to have been whipped and beaten and all of that business, depending on where you lived. 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:24.160 I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot, but by and large, the images we have of terrible, oppressive African slavery are probably too harsh. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:27.519 And and honestly, they're probably too harsh for this country as well. 00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:34.000 Most slaves were not treated in the most oppressive, brutal ways we see in movies like Roots and Twelve Years of Slave. 00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:36.799 That did happen sometimes, but that wasn't the norm. 00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:41.839 Nonetheless, right, these were people who had essentially no rights. 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:47.119 They were dependent upon the whims of their overlords to be kind or not. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:55.440 Um so covenants are really hard to know because if you cut a covenant, you'll be like the animal. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:00.559 And essentially, oh, that kind of happens. 00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:08.079 The Israelite people break the covenant and then they are wholesale slaughtered, if that makes sense. 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:12.400 But then you get this image that God says, Well, I'm gonna come back for you. 00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.599 So what you said is you kind of get this bipolar image of like killing and coming back. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:26.480 Now, some Jewish folk, there's a rabbi Emery who says God is essentially an abusive parent who gets really mad and then makes up. 00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:28.319 This is typical abusive behavior. 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:30.480 You abuse and then you go back and you're really sweet. 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:31.359 Very much right. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:40.960 But I think there's another possibility for understanding this, which is that the prophet sort of gets caught up in this extreme feeling. 00:32:41.039 --> 00:33:10.079 And I think the best thing I can think of is if you deeply love somebody, be that a spouse or a parent or a child, and someone does something to hurt them, then you may not be like me, but if someone does something to hurt them and they don't take care of it themselves, I often find myself caught up in vengeance, fuming, fuming, because I love them so much and they are too good to get their own revenge, so I will do it for them. 00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:19.119 So the relation the the comparison between God as a parent and you as a parent is the same thing. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:30.720 Well, so I think uh what's interesting is even though the person I love may not want the revenge because of my love for them and want to protect and vindicate them, I might want it for them. 00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:42.079 So what I want to suggest, and I'll tell you this story, when when when my dad was drafted to Vietnam against draft codes, his draft number was really high, and his father drafted him anyway because he wanted him to go. 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:44.720 His father was on the draft board, so he pulled his number. 00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:46.319 This is how the story goes. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:50.160 I never really know if the stories are true, but this is an old one. 00:33:50.480 --> 00:34:00.160 So my dad went, even though he'd only been married for a couple of months, and as soon as he arrived, his twin sister had some birth complications, and he came back and she was dying. 00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:04.480 And he got back, I think, to see her in a coma for a couple hours, and so she died. 00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:10.400 And this was his his twin sister, arguably the brightest light in the family. 00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:24.239 So on his way back to Vietnam, having just done that, he was wearing his fatigues, and the the May Lai baby incident had just happened, and so a woman came out in the airport and spat in his face. 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:27.280 And I didn't remember who told me that story. 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:28.400 I think it was my mother. 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:30.400 I don't know my dad would ever tell me that story. 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:32.719 And he didn't do anything. 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:46.719 But you know, that's one of those stories where no matter how complicated the relationship you have with your parents, there's this like extreme grief, and this like pathos, I think is the right word. 00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:53.039 But pathos doesn't have to just be compassionate, it sometimes can map straight to fuming fury. 00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:57.760 So what if that's what Hosea does? 00:34:58.559 --> 00:35:00.079 So I think there's this really great question. 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:01.119 It's really interesting. 00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:03.599 Does God feel stuff? 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:05.760 Does God feel stuff? 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:08.320