So as we continue tonight, we're going to be talking about the giving of the law. And that will we will start there talking about that with the exodus. And so we just got into that topic last week. The reason for the exodus, we're going to talk a little bit more about the exodus. And as the children of Israel go to Mount Sinai, as we've just read here, the Lord then speaks to them and he then gives them the law. And so let's Think about this last time, as I said, we were considering the beginnings of Israel. We were seeing just how God had had saved them in the past. And I don't have the right notes. So that didn't matter at all. So that's all right. I'll just go off of the screen here. So they considered the beginning, or we considered the beginnings of Israel last time. It started with God's calling of Abraham. You'll remember from Ur of the Chaldees all the way into the Promised Land. And he gave him the covenant there that started in Genesis chapter 12. God then, of course, continued that covenant through Isaac and then through Jacob. And we talked about the fact that God had renamed Jacob Israel, Israel, one who wrestles with God and his children, of course, would become the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph, you'll remember, was sold into slavery. I think that's just about where we are in our morning Bible readings. But he was able to by God's grace to rise up through the ranks, become second just under Pharaoh himself and save many lives, including the lives of his brothers who sold him into slavery and the life of of Israel. It's himself. And so the family was saved there. It was all within God's providence. And Israel spent generations. You would think they would just stay there until the famine was complete over and then they would go back. But they settled there in Goshen and they became very populated there in that region as they spent some four hundred and thirty years there. And eventually a new Pharaoh arose. We read that did not He did not know Joseph. He didn't remember what Joseph had done to save Egypt and all of the people in the region from that famine. And so that Pharaoh just looked at the children of Israel. He said they're numerous. They're too many for us. We need to enslave them. And then we also need to start killing off all their male children. Well, there's one male child in particular who did not get murdered through that, through that pogrom. And that was, of course, Moses. Because of the enslavement and mistreatment of the children of Israel, God raised up a Redeemer in Moses. And Moses even becomes a type of Christ as, as, as the people of God are languishing, suffering in Egypt, in the world. He delivers them out of bondage into the promised land eventually. Now, he's an imperfect type. Jesus Christ is the one that Moses eventually points to. And he says, another will come after me. And that is, and so he looks forward prophetically to that. But let's talk about the Exodus for just a moment God ordained plagues and why did he do that? Well, if you look back at chapter 12 verse 12, you can see that he says that he has these plagues and of course, this is after several plagues have occurred. And this is right before the final plague, the last plague. Chapter 12, verse 12, he says, I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. I am Yahweh and he says here he is he is executing judgment against all the gods of Egypt. But as we look at the plagues, that's exactly what he did. He first turned the river the Nile into blood. Well, that was an attack against against their gods that would protect the river that provided their river. God shows that he is over that God. God shows that he's over the frogs. The frog God isn't more powerful than Yahweh. He shows that he's more powerful than than the God of lice. He shows that he's more powerful than the God of flies. He shows that he's more powerful then the God of the livestock there, the God of I'm having a lot of trouble reading that boils. There we go. And Hale, he's more powerful than all these gods. Of course, he sends the locusts, the darkness. And with these last plagues, he even creates the separation. The people of Egypt can see that some of these plagues, especially the remaining plagues, they are not affecting the children of Israel like they were affecting the Egyptians. God is showing, no, it's only you Egyptians that these plagues are coming against. And then finally, the death of the firstborn. And that shows that God is not only more powerful than all the gods, including Ra, but he's also more powerful than Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh's supposed divine lineage is not able to protect against the God who would execute judgment. And so God shows his wonders in the land of Egypt. He is glorified in the Egyptians. This is so much so that even 40 years later, when the children of Israel finally get into the promised land and they they begin to head toward Jericho, we read of the people of Jericho that they are terrified because they remember 40 years prior what God had done to the Egyptians. Word had gotten out. And they're terrified. But it's in the midst of all this that God ordained the Passover was the Passover. The Passover, of course, was when the angel of death was passing over. I don't know if you thought about that. The Passover. Oh, he's passing over. Well, who is he passing over? This is actually a good thing. You want the angel of death to pass over you and not to stay and visit with you, right? Well, the angel of death is passing over those households that have the blood of the lamb. on the doorposts, they would take the blood of an innocent animal. Did the animal deserve to die? No. No, but there there has been death decreed. And so because there's been death decreed there, the animal dies. The blood is put on the doorposts of the house, literally covering the house, covering the entrance of the house. And all the people inside the house are safe. Why? Because they're under the blood. Now, I hope you see that this is a strong image of what Jesus Christ does for us, because death has been decreed for our sins. We want to be under the blood of the Lamb. And of course, that's exactly what we see. The blood of the Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, John 1 says. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the true Paschal Lamb. And even as they had their feasts to celebrate their deliverance from bondage, we today have a Passover meal of sorts. We have the Lord's Supper to remember what He has done to deliver us from our own spiritual Egypt, where we have been brought out of darkness into light. And so the Passover becomes an image of what the Lord has accomplished in our lives. And he takes them out of Egypt and he ordained a passing through, not just a Passover, but a passing through because he parted the waters of the Red Sea. Did he really part the waters of the Red Sea? Yes. Yes. I've seen some interesting explanation. So maybe there's just a strong wind blowing. There's this land bridge. They kind of pass through. Maybe the water just wasn't that deep. You know, God drowned all of Pharaoh's army. So, you know, we have either the miracle of God parting the waters or We have the miracle of God drowning all of Pharaoh's army in water that's not that deep. So I guess pick your miracle on that one. Yes, I do believe that that they went through. And I don't know if it looked exactly like it did with Charlton Heston as he parted the waters there. That was pretty impressive technology, by the way, the filmmaking when they made that movie. But I don't know if it looked exactly like that, but it certainly was a parting of the waters and they passed through on dry ground. I used to struggle with that too. Well, I don't know, God could part the waters, but I think it would still be pretty muddy under there. Then I thought, well, if I can believe God can part the waters, Why can't I believe that the ground would be dry to like he dried up the land they pass through. It says that it's only when the Egyptians started coming through that the start getting muddy and they got bogged down. God manifested his glory there and he also manifested the fiery pillar there. and his manifestation of his Shekinah glory there to block the Egyptians so that the children of Israel would have plenty of time to cross. Why? Because this is probably somewhere in the ballpark of two million people at this point. This family has become a nation. And so it's going to take time for them to pass over and they probably were afraid when they saw the Egyptians coming and then God manifests of this fiery pillar. And there's nothing like this like a supernatural fiery pillar to to make you. rethink your priorities in that moment. And so, of course, Pharaoh's army stays back, withholds while the children of Israel cross. And then God allowed the Egyptians to follow. And they followed. Now, again, of course, I know how the story ends, but I have, I would think anyway, if I were in the Egyptian army after having survived 10 plagues, and I see the waters being supernaturally suspended as the last of the Children of Israel cross, I would think I would say, no, I'm not going. I'm not I'm going home. I'm not going after these people who are being protected by their God after the fiery pillar and everything else. No. But like I said this morning, sin makes us stupid. Sin makes us stupid. And they follow the children of Israel in the into the parted waters. The waters collapse, of course, as God in his withholding there and they drown. They drown. Now, where was this crossing at? Well, we don't know for certain. It's debatable. We can't say that the southern route is the traditional route, but we don't know exactly which route it was. I know some people have said, oh, we found chariot wheels at the bottom, possibly, but we're not 100% certain where the route was. When was this? And this is another debatable point. The traditional date is 1446 BC. 1446 BC. A lot of people will debate that. They'll say it happened later on. Some say as late as the 12th century BC, sometime in the 1100s. I don't think it happened that late. I do believe it was the traditional date. And there's a really good documentary, if you are interested in that question, it's called Patterns of Evidence, and it's specifically the one on Exodus, because there have been a few Patterns of Evidence films. I don't know, have we done a movie night with this particular one? This is a good one. This would be a good one to do a movie night with one night. But until then, I mean, it's it's there. There is a website where you can look it up if you want to purchase it for yourself. It was streaming at one time on Amazon Voodoo. Google Play, YouTube, you can check that out and see if it's still on those streaming services as well if you don't want the DVD. I don't know, I'm a little old school with that. I like to have physical DVDs, but some people only like the streaming, that's okay. You have those options. What's that? Oh great, okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah. So, yeah, maybe coming up, we do have a movie night coming up, by the way. And that's the essential church. We're going to be watching that November the third. So if you want to come out to that November the third at 7 p.m. The law now. Because if we are reading through the book of Exodus, you might be surprised that the exodus is over. In chapter 15, And then we get to chapter 16 and 17. And oh, the book continues on. What's going on? Well, God is calling them out of Egypt, not just to rescue them, but to make them a nation. Just like God doesn't just save us from our sins and then lets us go. He saves us to make us a people unto himself. And so the Exodus ends, but that's not the end of the story. The children of Israel come to Mount Sinai and they receive the law there in Chapter 19 of Exodus. That's where we are. Remember the purpose of the Torah. And we just read this exodus, 19, four through six here. He says that he is making a kingdom. God chose Israel to be his. priestly nation over his created Earth. He chose Israel to be his priestly nation over his created Earth. And I think that still holds true. God still has a plan for Israel. And so it is interesting to see the conflict that's going on over there. I do think that there is coming a salvation for the people of Israel. And that's a subject probably for another time. But God does have a purpose here. He is calling a priestly nation to himself. And everything at this point begins to slow down in the Torah. There are 40 years of wandering in the book of Numbers, but not much is devoted to that. Most of the rest of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses are devoted to the giving of the law. And we've noted this before, you know, as we, as we go through, we have this focus on Adam and Noah, and then of course, Abraham and Jacob or Israel and and we see the slowing down that's happening because after Genesis all the rest is focused on Moses. All the rest is focused on Moses and and that's from Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy. And so we have this slowing down. Moses lived, lived by our standards, an incredibly long life, 120 years. We can divide it up into three sets of 40, 40 years in Egypt and then 40 years in the wilderness as God's preparing him there until he can then deliver the children of Israel. And then there's 40 more years with the children of Israel as they are wandering in the wilderness. As we go through that, we can look at Exodus Chapter 19 all the way through Numbers Chapter 10. They are at Mount Sinai. That's only one year. So that's a huge chunk of the Torah just devoted to one year. And we noted also that the Book of Deuteronomy, the Book of Deuteronomy is is focused on the last month of Moses's life. And so there is a slowing down that happens. And yes, there is a 40 year span that's in the middle of that, but that's not the focus of the book. That's not the focus of the book. And so the law is very important and the law will direct everything. When we get to the history books, we see Okay. How did it go for Israel when they obeyed the law? How did it go for them when they didn't obey the law? When we get to the prophetic literature, we see how the prophets call them out for not obeying the law. And this is why these problems begin to happen. We see it as early as Judges and even Joshua to an extent. As we move on, we see all of this. It's pointing them back to the law, pointing them back to the law. They needed to listen to what God said. The law is given and it's given as part of the Mosaic Covenant, and I should have told you to keep your Bibles open to Exodus 19, but let's take a look now. As we continue on, because God says that he wants them to obey his voice and keep his covenant. Right. Keep my covenant, he says. And you shall be my own possession among all the peoples. For the earth is mine. All the earth is mine. And not just Israel, not just the promised land. And you shall be. Excuse me. He shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set them before and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken. We will do. Well, I'm sure they intended it when they said it. But just like we intended, sometimes when we say, Lord, I promise all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. Last time, remember, we talked about the unilateral covenants with God. This is not a unilateral covenant. This is a bilateral covenant, which is a normal covenant. One party has stipulations that the other party has to keep and vice versa. God is saying, I'm going to protect you. I'm going to keep you in your land. I'm going to be your God, but you keep my laws. And the people say, OK, we will keep your laws as long as you protect us, et cetera, et cetera. The giving of the Ten Commandments is part of this, Exodus chapter 20. And then the following chapters give us examples of the moral, civil, and ceremonial stipulations of the law. It's not the whole law, but it gives us some key examples so that we will understand how the Ten Commandments play out in the rest of the law. And the people are then to affirm that in Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter 24, let's take a look there. Verses six through eight. Verses six through eight. Moses took half of the blood and put it in the basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And then he took the blood of the covenant or excuse me. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all that the Lord has spoken. We will do and we will be obedient. See this is like signing on the dotted line. This is them committing to the covenant. And so Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. They are bound by the blood of the covenant. Earlier, I talked about the fact that we have the Lord's Supper, we have communion. Remember, when the Lord instituted that, he said, Take and drink for this is my blood, which is poured out on your behalf for what for a new covenant. or a new covenant. This is the old covenant. There is a new covenant that he is enacting in his blood. Now we're not under the blood of bulls and goats, but we're under the blood of Christ. And that's the new covenant. This here is the mosaic covenant. And so the law is given as part of the mosaic covenant. And when we are looking at the Mosaic Covenant and we're looking at the Ten Commandments, we're looking at a summary of that law. Understand the Ten Commandments. I hope you understand this. They are not the whole total of the law. You know, when we get to the New Testament, Paul will say that or we'll start with Jesus. Jesus says. These are the two great commandments that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and that you love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Paul says love sums up the law. And of course, yeah, love of God, love of neighbor, love sums up the whole law. And so there can be summary statements. The Ten Commandments are summary statements. Now, as we look at that, people have divided them up slightly differently over time. There's the traditional Jewish understanding, for instance, which starts with chapter 20, verse one or verse two. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It's not so much a commandment as it is a premise for the commandments. God's the one who delivered them. And that's important. And if we do a study of the Ten Commandments, which I do want to do eventually, we'll talk about the importance of this premise that it starts with the fact that God has delivered them. They are delivered from Egypt. Therefore, because he's the God who delivered them, they should keep these 10 commandments. And so we we agree with our with our Jewish forefathers here that, yes, this is an important word. It's the basis for it all. But it's not the first commandment. And the first commandment is to not have any other gods before God. Now the Catholic Church has summed up what we would consider to be the second commandment with that, which is to not have any engraven images, not have any idols. We see that as a separate commandment. And they they make up for that by dividing the 10th commandment in half. Don't covet your neighbor's house. Don't covet your neighbor's wife. They see that as two different commandments that covetousness. That's the commandment that's being told in the 10th commandment. But but there it is. So we would we would definitely fall into the reformed camp here. No other gods, no images. Don't take God's name in vain. And remember, the Sabbath day, those first four commandments Teach us how to honor God, how to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second commandment is like unto it. Honor your parents, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness or lie, and don't covet. That's how you love your neighbor. You don't hurt your neighbor. You don't do things against your neighbor, starting with your parents as a child and then moving on out from there. You're not loving your neighbor if you're killing them, right? That's pretty obvious there, but that's where those commandments are kind of broken down there. And the rest of the law helps to expound that. Now, it also expounds some other things, but if you found that you are in violation of the law. God designed within the law forgiveness. And that is seen first in the tabernacle in the tabernacle. And this is from the MacArthur study Bible here. These images just say just say illustration of the tabernacle. But you have there on the east side where the altar would feature the slain animal where the blood is being shed on your behalf to pay for your sins, the brazen labor. And then you move on into the holy place where there's the altar of incense that symbolizes prayers that go up before God. the menorah, which symbolizes the light of the world, which is Jesus Christ, the table of showbread. Of course, Jesus is the bread of life. And you move on from there into the Holy of Holies, where the ark would be and the mercy seat where the blood would be sprinkled on the mercy seat. The blood would be taking from the east side of the tabernacle all the way to the west side and g and and God says that your sins will be forgiven and he will cast them as far as the east is from the west. There is a level of Well, this is definitely meant to represent what God has accomplished on our behalf. And your sins will be cast as far as the East is from the West. God designed the law in this way. Now, does the law still apply to us? Because I did say we're under a new covenant. So does it still apply to us? And some folks would say, no, no, of course not. Because doesn't Roman 614 say you are not under law, but under grace? That's right. It does say that. Did not Jesus say he fulfilled all the law and the prophets? That's true. He did. And so some would say, so there it is. The law doesn't apply to us. And there have been some, and I would say some people who are heretical in church history who have said, we don't even need to read this part of the Bible. That's for a different administration. That's for a different era. That doesn't even apply to us. It's not even worth reading that part anymore. I don't think that's the right approach because one, The New Testament writers reference the law often starting with Jesus and Jesus said whoever teaches the least of these to to obey even the least of the of these laws. He will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. He does that in the Sermon on the Mount the New Testament writers. They constantly reference the laws as we went through the book of Ephesians together just a little while ago. We saw that that that there is a referencing of the law there. Paul does that through the rest of his letters. So does so does Peter and so does John. Second, Timothy 316 says all scripture is profitable, not some, not much, not just the New Testament, but all scripture is profitable. Does that include the law? Well, it's the law of scripture. Yes, it is. So it is profitable to us. It is something that bears some profit to us for teaching, for correction, for reproof and for training in righteousness. And in the context of Romans 6 and 7 there, we who are in Christ are no longer under the condemnation of the law. That's what's being said there. We're not under the law's condemnation. Therefore, those who are in Christ Jesus have no condemnation, right? We have no condemnation, or there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You would think I would know that verse a little bit better, but there we go. This law still applies to us, too. This law still applies to us. Bless you. It applies to us in its moral teaching. Does the law have something moral to say to us? Yes, it does. Yes, it shows us what what good morality is. It also shows us what true holiness is. And so if we want to say, okay, what does it mean that God's holy? We need to look at the law. But the law does not apply to us in its ceremony. And it's ceremony. We don't go out back after the service and slaughter the fatted calf. Well, we might for a potluck, but that's that's something else we don't. We don't continue to offer up the blood of bulls and goats. Why? Because Jesus has paid it all. We don't need to engage in those kinds of offerings. Jesus is also cleansed all food. So, praise God, we can now have Well, with clear conscience, we can now have those ham sandwiches. We can have the barbecue. We can have those things. And I do thank God for that. Because he said, take and eat. He told that to Peter, take and eat. So, so no. The ceremony and all that, that is passed away, but the moral teaching is still applicable to us. Bless you. And even in the ceremony, we see aspects in which Jesus pays for our sin, because we can see all the different kinds of sins that were being covered in the Old Testament sacrifices. So what does the law teach us? Well, first that we are sinners before a holy God. This is the first use of the law. The reformers said there are there is a threefold use of the law that we can have. The first one is pedagogical use, a teaching use. And it is that we are sinners before a holy God. What does scripture say? Scripture says in places like Romans seven, that that the law actually increases our sinfulness. It shows us our sin. Paul said he wouldn't even know what sin was, except for the law that said thou shalt not covet. It produced all manner of covetousness within him. He was constantly wanting more. And so, yes, the law shows us our sinfulness, the sin of or the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. First Corinthians 15 says. And Galatians, of course, makes the case that the law is a schoolmaster or a tutor that leads us to Christ, it doesn't just teach us that we're sinners. It shows us that we need Christ. If we go through the Ten Commandments, We can see in the Ten Commandments that we have broken every single one. You say, wait a minute, Pastor, wait a minute. I've never killed anyone. Yes, but Jesus said, if you are unjustly angry in your heart at your brother, you have committed murder of the heart. And so in your heart, you may be guilty of that. You you may have stolen. You may have done these things, even though you haven't been committed or you haven't been prosecuted by the law of the land. You may you may have sold something small or you may just have taken time. You may have taken something that doesn't belong to you. Every one of the commandments we have violated in some way. They all show us that we are sinners, that we need Christ. that we need Christ. And so that's the first use of the law. It takes us to Christ. So I think great comfort has a good system where he takes people through the law and he shows them exactly where they have fallen. And he says, now, this is where Jesus Christ comes in. It's a tutor, it shows us our need for Christ. So that's the first use of the law, but it doesn't end there. The second use of the law is a civil use. It shows us what a just society looks like, and it restrains evil, like thou shalt not murder. There is a very plain and present application of that that needs to be enforced in our land. We cannot have a society if we wink at certain things like murder, right? We have to address that if someone is out there killing other people, if someone is out there stealing things, we have to address that. This also not only applies within a nation, it applies within the church as well. And so when we are thinking about church discipline, which we've talked about now for the last couple of Sundays in the morning service, church discipline. Well, what what's the basis of church discipline? The law actually helps us to see what the basis of church discipline is. If a person is in an adulterous relationship, for instance, and they are unrepentant, we have to address that. And that's something that Paul says in First Corinthians five, because there was someone in an adulterous relationship and the church there thought, well, we're just going to be very gracious and let it go on because, hey, If we sin, doesn't God's grace just abound all the more? We're showing people how gracious God is. No, you're not. You're making a mockery of the gospel. The gospel says that Jesus saves you and transforms you. He saves you so much that you are not like you were. How are you going to have someone just in a flagrant, unrepentant relationship like that? No. Cast that person out so that his leaven won't leaven the whole lump of clay, of dough, right? And so, yes, we have this other use, civil use here of the law where we can see what is right, what is wrong. What does it look like to love God? What does it look like to love our neighbor? We also have related to that, and I think it's closely related to that, the normative use of the law. How to live a pleasing life to God. Because that might be a question you have. OK, well, is God pleased? You might even be tempted to think about that, like with our adultery example, for instance, I've had. People tell me, well, God wants me to be happy. Doesn't God want me to be happy? So this is OK. No, no, that's not the way that works. God has been very clear here. God wants you to be holy. And so break off this relationship. Be reconciled to your wife. And develop, cultivate happiness there in the relationship with the wife of your youth. Don't pursue another. This is how we can learn to have a pleasing life to God. Jesus said in John 14, 15, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. It's not to be saved. It's not to prove that you are worthy of my salvation. Keep my commandments. No, no, that's not what he says. This is an expression of our love. This is after we have been delivered from unrighteousness. We should live that way. We should, out of our love for Christ, want to keep the commandments of the Lord. And so there's the tripartite or threefold use of the law. It's there's a teaching use the civil use the normative use. And so that's that's about it. Now, there there is a lot that I have skimmed over with this. What what have I what have I overlooked? For instance, there's that whole golden calf incident. Right. God said, don't create idols. What's one of the first things that the children of Israel do? They make an idol that that is given to us as an example. God is not pleased with idols. And we could certainly dig into that. We could dig into the different kinds of sacrifices. As I mentioned, there are different kinds. And I just mentioned earlier, for instance, the sacrifice for sins of ignorance. I mean to think that Christ also pays for the sins that we are unaware of. Because let's be honest, we probably sin so much that we are unaware of how much we sin, right? And if we're honest with ourselves, we're probably unaware of how much we sin. He also pays for the sins of ignorance. That's incredible to me. So we can think about the different kinds of sacrifices if we were doing an extended study just on the law. We could think about the fact that God confirmed Moses. When there is that rebellion, chorus rebellion, God confirmed that Moses was the leader, that he was the mouthpiece that he had chosen to lead the children of Israel. We could talk about Aaron, how God had verified him when his staff budded and proved that he was the high priest. When Aaron pulled out his staff to show that all others were pretenders, he held it up high and he said, this bud is for you. No, no, he didn't say that. Sorry. That's an old one. The bronze serpents, speaking of holding things up, the bronze serpent. Remember when they when when they all had sinned and God had sent the fiery serpents and he said, OK, this is what you need to do. Just look at the bronze serpent that Moses is holding up. Oh, that's silly. That's not going to. How's that going to take care of the of the snake venom that's inside me? I'm not going to look up at that thing. And those people died. But the people looked up upon the bronze serpent. They were healed. You say, what does that symbolize? Well, Jesus said, just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so too will the Son of Man be lifted up. We look upon Christ and we will be healed of our sin. You say, really, just looking at Christ, just believing that Jesus is going to do it. Wait a minute. No, I've got it. I've got to do it myself. I've got to become, you know, a better person. I need to start doing more. I need to pay it forward. I need to, you know, do those little acts of kindness everywhere. And then maybe God will take notice of me. No, don't look anywhere else. Look up at the cross. Look up at the cross. And so the bronze serpent becomes a picture of Christ. We can talk about why. In the midst of all of this, they didn't get right into the promised land. God said, I'm going to take you from Egypt and I'm going to put you in a land flowing with milk and honey. And then Moses sent 12 spies to spy out Canaan. And as the song says. Ten were bad and two were good, right? Ten were bad and two were good. And the people believed the bad reports. And so God said, OK, well, if you're so scared to go into the promised land, well, let's just spend some time outside of the promised land, 40 years to be exact. And that's that's what they do. We're going to talk more about that next time as we move into Joshua, Judges and Ruth. We are in part five of what I'm hoping to be a 12 part series. And you were very doubtful with the first couple of parts because we were in Genesis for a little while. But now with part five, we've completed the fifth book. And then next time we're hoping to get to Joshua, Judges and Ruth. Maybe just maybe we can make it in 12 weeks, we'll see. But. Until then, put your full faith and confidence in the Lord and follow his word, follow his ways, because they are good ways. They are ways full of wisdom and ways full of instruction. And there are ways that he has given to us for our own profit. Let's follow what