I'm gonna read verses one through four. Hosea 11, when Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them, and they sacrificed them to Balaam, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I was to them as they that take off the yoke of their jaws. I laid meat unto them. All right. A little weird sounding, at first blush, but at least take some time and think about it. And some of the newer versions word it a little bit better, so it's not quite so cryptic. But as we get into chapter 11, Through 14, the tone changes from where we've been in the book of Hosea. We'll see a shift, that the focus is different. The thing that we're gonna focus on is big, and it's different than the picture that the world paints, because the world paints a picture, and they want us to have a certain perception about God, and what it's painting for us here is radically different. And that can be so beneficial to you and me. Knowing who he truly is, not what the world tells you, but who he truly is. And I think that it can motivate us. I think that's why these chapters are here, that we get this peek into the behind the scenes so that we can be better motivated on how we live in our life. That's the whole point, right? These things are in samples. Examples for us, but the King James says in samples. But to caution us, cautionary tales. This is how we get wisdom, right? By reading this and not having to experience. We as Christians are to have empathy. And we're to have empathy for each other, our fellow man, that is for sure. But this is to teach us to have some empathy for God. Which kind of sounds weird. I mean, God, He's all-powerful. He owns everything. He has all wisdom, all knowledge, and all that, and I'm gonna have some empathy for Him? I'm gonna feel badly a little bit? How? How do you hurt God? Because that's what this is talking about. God is gonna tell us that He's hurt. How do you hurt God? I mean, isn't he, like, unhurtable? Physically, yeah. You know, strength-wise, sure. And again, this racks it down to nothingness, but, you know, if you think of Superman, you know, we're kind of like, you know. It always kind of cracks me up, especially the old George Reeves, black and white, you know, they empty their gun, and then they throw the gun, and that's the one thing he ducks at. Wait a minute, they just shot bullets at you, but you're gonna duck at the pistol being thrown at you? It's because he's a guy playing Superman. You know, it's like, you know, you throw something at him, you're gonna move. But how do they hurt him? They went after somebody they love, and we've talked about that some, but that's not what we're talking about now. Because we can and we do hurt him. This chapter drips with it. How do we do that? By being unthankful. Being ungrateful. Have you ever been greeted by unthankfulness after you've done something that you thought you'd at least get a thank you for? I think all of us have. You ever had to encounter ingratitude when someone wasn't grateful and they should have been? That's what we're talking about. When you do something over and above, and then you get nothing in return? Or sometimes you even get insult back, kind of like they expect of it. Have you ever bought something for somebody? It was thoughtful, it cost you, you really put some time and effort into it, and then you watch them misuse it, and not take care of it, and abandon it maybe, or worse, you find that they never opened it, never used it, never even had any care for it at all? Never give something that never got the gratitude. And then, like I said, they act like they expected it, like they deserved it. Like, well, yeah, of course you would do that. Like, you better have. You know, we have a lot in our system that kind of expect some things. But not a thank you. No note, no card, not a call, not a handshake, not a smile, nothing. I probably spent way too long thinking about this, I have a few examples in my life and a few of them are fresh and current right now. But they still hurt. So I can understand this, you know, when you go out and you put yourself out on the line and then you get ingratitude back. Crickets. I've tried to put a good spin on it. Well, they're busy. They forgot. Maybe they didn't really realize or they didn't know. Or I'll bring it on back around, I'm like, well, I didn't do it for a thank you anyway. I think that's where a lot of us go to first, right? And I think that's good, I think that's a good, positive, Christian way to do it. I wasn't doing it to be thanked, or I wasn't doing it to be acknowledged, I wasn't doing it to be understood, but there's still something there, there's a level of, come on, you know? I think that, at least in a couple of my circumstances, I think they were truly unthankful. Some places, they were just rude, rude, like, yeah, why not, why wouldn't you do this? Look at Luke 17, we're gonna, Jump around here a little. Because this isn't just tied to one place here. Luke 17, verse 11. Once I start the story, you're gonna be, oh yeah, that one. Luke 17, 11. It says, and it came to pass as he went, this is Jesus, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. We already know, like, Galilee's his hometown, Samaria's the bad guys, right, the ones who've turned their back on him, you know, they, you know, they're their enemy, pretty much, you know, that's why we have the good Samaritan story. And he's, you know, the other's his hometown. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. I mean, this is one we teach the kids in Sunday school. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice, glorified God, like you would, right? When you have a disease that there's no cure for, Would you not shout it and tell somebody I'm healed? He did it. And he fell down on his face at his feet. He doesn't have to be far off now. He doesn't have leprosy anymore. And giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. He wasn't a fellow Jew. This was the enemy. Now Jesus is confused. And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. They said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole. Jesus knows what he did. He goes, I know I healed 10. And I'm sure when this guy realizes he's healed, I'm sure he looks over at the other guy and sees that they're healed too, and so they all knew it. It wasn't like, oh, they hadn't paid attention yet. They knew. It's pretty cool, and we can tell here, Jesus isn't doing this for praise and for glory. Because he does it subtly, right? It's not like it's one of them where he's like, has all the Pharisees stand around and he spits on the ground, he rubs mud in their eye, or he licks his fingers and sticks it in their ears, and the other things that he's done, you know, or rise up at the funeral and they stand up and walk, or remove the stone, and, Lazarus, come forth! And he comes hopping out. This one, he just goes, go show yourself to the priest, because this is the law. The law was that if you had leprosy, that a priest was the one that had to declare whether you were clean or not. And then they had a whole thing how you sat outside the camp so long, and then they had to look and see if it was white anymore. The Old Testament goes into great detail on how this was to be done. And so he's saying, let's do it by the law. You go show the priest, he'll declare you unclean, or declare you clean, and then you'll be healed while they're going. Like, oh, they're standing there looking at it, and they're taking some faith here in that they're walking believing Kind of like Naaman having to dump himself in that dirty Jordan River, right? So they're walking in faith and as they are going, they're healed. Leprosy is a little bit on the rise because we don't have checkpoints that people come through now because leprosy is synonymous with poor. for some reason, because they are laid poor and dirty, I said it's probably the most thing that makes it the most contagious is how poor, how poor a situation you're in, how dirty it is, how little food you have, all those conditions are one of the things that make it greatest, and so it's flooding over our borders, but the nerves die, and you can't feel pain, but you're like, oh, that'd be great, I won't feel pain-free. But you get a cut, you get a nick, you cut yourself with a saw, you hit yourself with a hammer, you do whatever, and you don't know it, and you keep on going on. And that wound gets infected, and so body parts would fall off, their nose would fall off, their ears would fall off, fingers would fall off. And I can't help it, but I'm going to take it back old school. Every time I think of that, I think of the medicine cabinet and the fly with Jeff Goldblum from 1986. Come on, I'm not the only one who saw that. You know, but he had body parts that were up there that were falling off as he was transitioning to this fly. So that was how it was. So I imagine as they're walking back, this guy goes to itch his nose out of habit because There's a phantom nose there, and he's like, I've got a nose, I've got a finger. And he looks over and he's like, look at me, I've got my nose, I've got my finger. And the other guy's like, I've got my foot, my feet are working, all my toes are back. And they're all like, you know, because they didn't have wrapping bandages, they'd unwrap and fingers would fall off. And so it's, I mean, I'm thinking probably body parts have grown back on. They lived in colonies, you know. That's how they kept from spreading. You could catch it by being near and around them. So they would put them outside the camp. That's why they had to cover their face and they had to yell unclean. And so, and I considered all this back with COVID. I'm like, the Bible says cover your face and the Bible says stay away if you're sick. You know, outside is good. God made that. The sun, vitamin D. Being around people is good. Being around family is good. Contact is good. You know, human touch is probably one of the biggest healing things. When somebody's in the hospital, somebody comes in and touches them, reassures them, that contact of humanity there, they've shown it, they've done test after test, that is good. You heal faster if you're touched. The Bible says the sick isolate and put them away. That's what they did. Jesus gave them their lives back. They have hope now, they can talk and touch their loved ones again, and not having food set outside a cave that they would come and grab at certain times. So yeah, they should've been happy. They've just given them their families back and everything. They had no time? Are they so excited about what's been done, do they not even go to the priest, they just run back home, look, I'm healed, but they don't run back to the one who healed them? Only one has time for a thank you? And then I think, how many times we do that? God intervenes. After you've been praying intensely. And you were healed. Or your mom is healed, or grandma is healed, or grandpa is healed. They land the plane and you're back on Earth. Kids get there safe. Everybody gets home. It wasn't your house on fire that you could see the smoke for. It was the next block over. We've all had that, right? Where you see the smoke and you're like, I think it's on my side of the road. I think it's in my neighborhood. I think it might be right there. And you get there and you're like, oh, it's not mine. You're like, do we thank him and praise him? And do we pray for the other people? How many times have we just missed that accident? We find that money, and on and on we have so many good things that shower in on us from God. We have begged God for help and we watch and God intervenes. But do we take the time to thank him? I've told you before, before I leave on vacation, I stop and we pray, we pray over the house. I try to be, am I 100%? I'm not, I'm being honest, I'm not. To pull back in and see the house fine and everything's there and the dog's fine and everything's good, I don't always thank him. I should be just as grateful. Thank you, Lord, you did. I asked you and you did. We should be grateful. And then let alone how many of those circumstances do we get in where we're begging and we're interceding for that miracle. God doesn't ask for us to make vows or promises. He doesn't. But the Bible does tell us if you make a vow and a promise through that, you better keep it. Look at Ecclesiastes. One I was thinking about, I'm like, I'm pretty sure the Bible says specifically about it. So, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Chapter five. This is the preacher, Solomon as an old man, Mr. Wisdom. Verse one, Ecclesiastes five one. Keep thy foot when they goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, now upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business. A fool's voice is known by the multitude of words. Now vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay it. For he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better it is that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause the flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error, wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hand? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also diverse fantasies, but fear thou God. How many times have we promised, Lord, I'll be faithful from here on out, if you'll just do that. Lord, if you just take this away from me, I'll tithe, I'll tithe for whatever this new pay increase you've given me, I promise you, I'll set aside, I'll give it to you, I'll use it for you, I'll use it for your kingdom, I'll use it for church, I'll be at church, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, and God's like, I didn't ask for any of that. But if you ask it, I can now expect it. We talked about the rash vow, you remember, we all know Jephthah's rash vow. Lord, first thing that comes out of the house, I give it unto you, and here comes his daughter. I've got to set her apart. I don't think she was a human sacrifice. I think he sets her apart unto God where he doesn't have any grandkids or generations. She goes to serve the Lord. How many times God does it and then we don't do our part. We're gonna be cautious and this is what Hosea is telling us about. Hosea is setting it aside for us saying, we need to think about these things. We need to think about how this hurts God when we are unthankful, when we forget and we make promises. Verse one of Hosea. He says, when Israel was a child and I loved him, I called my son out of Egypt. Who's talking? Here, is this Hosea talking? It's God talking, right? This is him. He's the one who calls. calls them out. And one of the things that all the commentators say that I think it is a good thing to be reminded of is that we're used to thinking of God as the father because we have Jesus Christ, right, who's telling us that God is your father, you know, it's like he's my father and he's your father and in my father's house are many mansions so we are used to that speaking, we're used to that tone. They aren't so much, in the Old Testament they're not. It's still there but they're not used to that mindset and so this is a, a text that kind of brings that out. He is, you get this sense. When Israel was a child, you can hear the fatherhood of God. Then I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. Verse two. And as they called them, so they went from them, and they sacrificed unto Balaam, and burned incense to graven images. It says they and them in here, but it's speaking, I think this is kind of one of those subtleties of the three persons of the Trinity. A few of the newer versions have it, you know, and I call them. but they ran farther from me. That's how we would read it more in our context, is that the more I called unto them, the more I said, Israel, be mine and I am yours, the more they ran away from me. My dog's that way. When he gets out, he gets running, he's like, wait a minute, I'm free? I'm awful far from you. Where's that little leash that you had on me? And you're like, bandit. And he's like, oh no, I'm running. I'm gonna run until I get good and thirsty, then I'll come back. But Elaine saw something on the internet the other day, and she's like, Make sure you run away from your dog and that the dog chases you. You don't chase the dog. That way it's friendly. So now she's running through the house trying to get Bandit to chase her. So if he gets out. We're hoping that works. I'm just hoping he doesn't get out. But he's sitting here. He acts like my dog. The more he gets out, the more you call to him, the more he runs. No, I'm going to have fun. And takes off. So he tried to reach out to him. And think about it. The more he did. And in the Bible it tells us that the signs and the miracles are for the Jews. We don't get that, we get prophecies. But the signs and the miracles were for the Jews. He did signs, literal signs that they saw, saw as a nation. Miracles, wonders, truly astonishing things where it was like, no one else, I am the Lord. He gets a reputation throughout the world for what he has done and God always reminds him, remember what I did in Egypt, you know, telling them. And they run all the more. And it says here, not only do they run, they run to God's enemy, they run to Balaam. Balaam is Baal, but it's the Baals, it's more of them, it's Balaam. And so we know a little bit of Hebrew in that, but I, I, how's that spelled? Yeah, L-I-M. That's their, like an S on the end. So, if you have a cherub, that's one. If you have cherubim, that's multiple cherubs. And so, seraphim, multiple seraphims. Balim, or Balaam here, that is multiple Balaams. And so, these are the fertility gods. That's why they're running to them. Because you run from me, the good and righteous God, and you run to these fertility gods. You run to the Baals. They're all the lords, the little lords. The fertility gods, they run to them because they're all about sex. and money. and abortion and death, even back then. You would offer your child up so that you would have more money. You would do all these things. And do we think those are gone? They're not, and I'm not even saying and pretending here, but there are death cults and abortion cults for money gain. That is the scam they are running. I can't say any more than that right now, but just things that I know. Oh, and they also love the ceremony of it. Why do they run from God to the ceremony? Well, this is the northern kingdoms. They've set up these false gods. They're no longer going down to Israel, and when God does it, he requires it. You know, seven days a week, and you set one day aside for him, and then there's the big high feast there once a year as they come around, and they don't get it very often, but they kind of like the pomp and the circumstance. We want ceremony. I like it when they wear the funny robes, you know, and so they want to go see the robes. They want to see the altars. They want to see the darkness of it. They want to see the secrecy of it when they do it. They want the fire, and they want the food, and they want the incense, the smell of it. They want the ritual, the dancing, all those things, the drums, the edgy, the cool vibe. They run to that. Still sells today. Just watch an Emmy show, anything else, they've gotten darker and darker. It's all more and more Satan, Satan, and more pumping and grinding and everything as they go. Still run to it. They still run to it. Verse two says, as they called them, or basically, as I called them, the more they went from me. They sacrificed unto Balaam, and burned incense to graven images. They go after all that show. Verse three, I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them. So now again, we need to think of God as the Father. He says, I taught Ephraim to go, taking him by the arms. Think of a parent teaching their child how to walk. That's this picture. He's got their fingers, they've got their fingers, and the baby's reached up and got their hands, and then they're walking over them, and that baby just thinks they're going. Judah's right at this part right now. So it's what Levi and Beth have sent us enough back saying, he's probably gonna come back walking, because they're in a hotel room, and he can cruise from bed to bed. So he's probably getting a lot of practice in it. The baby's focusing on his legs. The baby's focusing on their balance. They're learning us. This is new. You're just there to study them. They're going after whatever that sparkly thing that they want to go walk after now that you put out there. And you're telling them to go. But you're holding them and helping control them the whole time. And yet, you look at their face. They think they're doing it. Because we're all going, good job, good job. Right? And that baby's walking. We all remember our kids learning to walk. They're going. And they think they're really doing it. And they're all proud. And they're going. But you're leading them. You're teaching them. You're helping them build confidence. And as a parent, you don't even care to be acknowledged at that point. You're like, yeah, muscle memory. I want them to walk, have this independence. But soon, they're going to go. And they're going to go where you don't want them to go. They're going to get into what you don't want to get into. I'll tell him, Joel. So his boy's a few months behind Judah, but not too far behind. He's an active kid, and so he just mastered crawling. So he's got crawling good. So Joel's taking a picture. He's playing with him upstairs. He says, I look down for a second. I look up, and his rear's going around the corner and going down the stairs. And so he starts rolling. He gets down two steps. And Joel says, I did some Spider-Man dive, or I dove over him, caught him, flipped all around. He goes, my ribs are all sore now. He goes, but I was able to catch him, scoop him up, and stop him from gaining speed going down the stairs. And he's like, I'm like, I told you when he started crawling, your life changes. It's like there's no more, oh, you're right here. You know, now they're everywhere. So let alone, they start walking. Now they're opening everything, going after it. Jacob goes along and starts the, they got a little vacuum that takes off. Now you gotta move all the cat food, or he's gonna eat all the cat and dog food. It's like they just get into everything, and they go. Can't hold him, can't keep him in that little spot anymore. Very, very short time, they go on, and they go on their own, and they forget about you teaching them, and they forget about you walking with them, and you forget about you going through it all. That's been a few weeks ago. I stopped, and Joel was with me, and I was buying his McDonald's, and he's like, Dad, you're not gonna buy my McDonald's. I'm like, buying your McDonald's? And he's like, Dad, I go, I'm like, I go, if Jacob asked you for McDonald's, would you not buy it for him? He's like, all right, I'll take a number two. And I'm like, do you think that quits just because you're older now? You know who bought my McDonald's the other day? My mom, my letter. She had all the coupons. But yeah, that's, you know, they're still your parent, right? You're still, that's still your child. You see them that way. I don't care how old they are. But the bigger they get and the more they can do, the more they can rebel and the more they can wonder, right? God's like, it's a two-edged sword, I gotta teach ya. I gotta put you on the path, but the more freedom, there's more responsibility and more chances to rebel. We all know, that's why the teenage years, it's like, oh, I got a car now, okay. God says here that he healed them. He said that, they knew not that I healed them, Basically, I cared for them. I took care of them. I took care of them from above, just like that parent standing over the child, hovering over them, watching them. God's like, I'm still doing that. You might not be holding my fingers, but I'm still watching. I'm making sure the things you need come up. He goes, they just quit looking up. They never looked up and saw Dad doing it anymore. God's like, I'm still there doing it. They quit looking up to acknowledge me. They quit looking up to see that I was there. They quit giving me the Sabbath day and setting aside a day of the week to say, God created the world. We acknowledge this in the seven days he did it, on the third day he resurrected, on the first day of the week we set this aside to the Lord. That's so important for us, more than we think, that is acknowledging God, putting him first in our life, giving the first day of the week. But if you just troll on, you never think about him. You never consider it, and they didn't. They don't think about that they're living on Earth. They have plenty to eat, there's air to breathe, there's water to drink. Add to that insult, we pay others to teach them that it was millions of years that did it. That's not a baby, it's a fetus. You're just a random chance of molecules. You need to make sure you have self-care, not care about others. They say they never knew God. I don't know who's God. They didn't know God did it all. They were told it was always something else. And that it was all meaningless and pointless, and we are in an epidemic of suicide in our culture, in our county, in our state, in our country. Because it seemed like it's young people. Why bother? There's no answer, and there's nothing here, and why doing that? We're also in a time where less and less children are being born, and less and less people are even conceiving. They're like, why bring a kid into this? Let's do... We need to make sure that we remind them that there's a Heavenly Father that's put them here, and that this is good. He's the creator of it all. He's the giver of every good and perfect gift. Verse four. He says, I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I was to them as they that take off the yoke of the jaws. I laid meat unto them. draws with cords or led them along. My best picture I can think of this one what he's saying is most of us probably seem like somebody climbed up to Mount Everest right you know they all line up on there and they're gonna go and it's cold it's snowing it's windy and they've got all their parkas on and so they have that little paracord line that they can keep a hold of. And God's like, it's like I did that for them. It's like I went in front of them and I led a chord that they just had to follow. I give you a whole half of the front half of the Bible to say, here's how you follow me. Here's how you're to live. Here's between life and death. Here's life. Choose life. Don't choose death. I even make it clear and obvious and go this way. And I have the priest and I have the teachers and I have your parents and I have everybody instructing you. Now you just grab ahold of that line and then Repeat and follow, you know, and go that way and learn as you go. If not, it's dangerous. If you get off that court and you start going off on your own, follow my way. I think oftentimes we're thinking God is so limiting and cruel, but that's what the train thought until he got off the train tracks, right? I'm so constricted to this little track. But once he gets off, it's a tragedy, right? That's the people in Pennsylvania. The train is made to run on a track, and God's like, I put you on a road with guardrails, and the guardrails aren't there to constrain you, the guardrails are there to protect you. So God gives us guardrails, lest we stray too far, but we like to hug that rail. As soon as it's not there, we take off. He says, here, I took off your yoke. Basically, I made it easy for you. I laid out your food. I took care of you. He says, but you never knew it was me. You never even considered it was me. I saw some stupid video there, some woman not knowing where meat came from. Did you know it was cows? It's like, really? This is the education system we know? It's all somehow, same way with a chicken, an egg came from a chicken? Like, man, you got some failure for parents. So as we overlook over these first four verses, You can watch it where he calls him as a child and it ends up where they don't even know who he is. It's like going from a child to the prodigal. And when we kind of read this all together, I think you can sense the hurt and the unthankfulness that God is picking up on. It's like, you didn't know it was me, you didn't realize it was me, you didn't thank me, I'm the one who called you, I made you the nation, I pulled you, I took you, you who are a people who are not a people, you're the least people, and I made you a people, and I made you the people, the ones who's gonna bring my Messiah into the world and have my son, and you guys run from me? God does it all, and they run away. And they never thank me. They never even pretended to thank me. God's like, I'm not even on your mind at all. You never even think of me. I think it sounds a lot like our current culture. God's not relevant, or God's not real, or they are ambivalent, or they just don't care, and who considers him? I'll think about him when I'm old, or maybe I won't think about him at all. They don't know, they don't care. It's just sad. I don't want to cause God pain. I don't want to be ungrateful. I don't want to be unthankful. So after reading this, I was thinking, man, I need to make sure I am thankful more. Because I like it when I give a gift and they're told thanks. I gave somebody something the other day, and as they were backing up, they leaned out the windows, a little kid, and they were like, thank you. I'm like, yeah, I wish I'd have gave you more now. I truly appreciated it. I didn't do it for that, I wanted to enjoy it, but man, I was glad I got the things. We need to make sure we keep our gratefulness, our thankfulness in the forefront of our mind. I think it's part of that first commandment, making sure we put God first. God gave me this, God took care of this, God is honoring this. I can think of a dozen things where God, we were sitting up at three in the morning last night, one, Elaine had called me twice, and then she sends Megan in. I thought you were staying up to help with the storm. I'm like, oh, I was asleep. So we get up, and I even left the window open so I could hear. And so we're both sitting on our radar, and I'm like, oh, it's coming. Yeah, it's really going this way. And so Joel's a storm watcher, too, and he's afraid it's coming his way. So they're all going, here it comes. It's going to be bad. And we're like, what time do we take the kids down in the basement? And I'm looking at the radar, and that light's coming right at us, and then it curves up and goes away and goes on down. and I'm screenshottin' it. I'm like, man, not even rainin' here. Barely sprinklin'. Couple of wind gusts. We had some lightning in the second phase. But Megan's like, I'd much rather had you here and not needed you than needed you and you know, had been here and you weren't here. And I'm like, no, exactly. And plus I got woke up by two little boys divin' on top of me this morning. But we didn't know you were here, cause I didn't tell. You wanna see something cool with this in the last five minutes? And also sad? Cool and sad. Okay, verses one through four. When I, Israel was a child and I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt. And then he goes into everything, he talks about how they've run away from him, I called to him, they go to the grave in images, how I've been trying to help them walk as a baby, as I started them out in their infancy, I made food, I fed them, basically I healed and fed them, that's manna in the desert and all that, I drew them with the cords of a man, I laid a path for them, how to go and I've been sustaining them. Who's it talking about through all this? Who's God talking to? It's pretty clear, right? The Israelites, yeah, he's talking to the Israelites. He's talking to the nation of Israel. He's specifically talking to the north here, but he's also, he kinda lumped them into as a whole as a nation, right? This is clearly him speaking to the nation of Israel. Judah's not gotten there yet, but they're gonna be, and so he's like talking to them. I mean, you can't read this text, and you'd have to be dense not to pick up that it's not Israel, especially after going through the first 10 chapters. So, let's go to Matthew 2. We're gonna jump back to Christmas. Matthew 2. Verse one will set the tone for us. It says, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Which is always pretty cool to think about. That's not exactly how we always think of it. It was not just three guys. It was probably a whole entourage. It was probably scary for the whole nation of Israel because these were, Persians, yeah, they were the Persians. Who was Daniel? And so they were an empire, you know, and they were had been, they were still there, you know, they had been, Roman take it over and all that, but there's still a, there's an invading force, you know, and so they're scared, and the Gaul goes on, and it's like, oh, who are you seeking? Oh, the king? All right, where's he supposed to be found? So they go, that's the wise, you know, that's the scholars, oh, in Bethlehem, and so they tell them and all that, and then you get to verse 11. It says, and this is talking about the wise men, they go to find him. We have the whole account of the star in here. Verse 11 says, and when they were come to the house, and this is where, you know, you can make a whole message on this. This is why a lot of people are like, I don't know why we have the wise men at the nativity scene, because that was at the barn, and the manger, at the creche, and all that stuff. But here it truly says the wise men didn't show up until they were in a house, because obviously once they have the baby, people are like, we're kind of jerks making you be in a barn. So they move them to a house, you know, they're not, They're not in the barn anymore, so they're like, this is later, you shouldn't have your wise men in there. That's why a lot of people make sure they have their nativity scene set up and the wise men off just a little bit, just to be technical. So that's why they're off just a little bit. They're not there that night, but they're gonna get there in the next few weeks maybe. Some say a year later. They're saying maybe the baby could be a year old. They get into a great thing, what child means young child here in verse 11. But it's all part of the Christmas story, so I think we can get it, we're all adults. And so when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child. He's not toddlerish. With Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasure, they presented unto him gifts, golds and frankincense and myrrh. So we're gonna see how much this is. It's not a paltry amount. Verse 12, and being warned of God in a dream, that they should not return to Herod. These guys were sensitive to that, because you remember, this is Daniel, what was his job? Interpreter of dreams, right? That's what he did. These guys are trained by Daniel, generations later, to be watching for this sign. They show up because Daniel was good at his job. Daniel made it pass from the Persian Empire to the Medieval Persian Empire, you know, on down to the Greek. He made sure that that knowledge was retained by this group of scholars, like, this is what we're looking for, this is how it's gonna be. They show up, they're on time, And he says, you get there, and says, now they are sensitive to these dreams, a dream comes. And speaking of which, the Islamic nation is sensitive to dreams, and they're talking about some revivals breaking out like in Gaza and stuff, because they're saying, God's warning them in dreams that Christ is the only way, which is pretty cool, I think. He says, they should not return to Herod, so they departed to their own country another way. They don't go back up the same path they went, they skirt around Herod. Verse 13, and when they were departed, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, which he's talked to him before, so I'm sure he'd recognize him, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring you word. for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Which after, they go back a different way and Herod finally figures it out. Wait a minute, those guys didn't come back and report to me like I told them to, which he tells them earlier in the copy there. He's like, I'm not sure, because he asked what time. You remember, he's already kind of plotting when the wise men show up. He's like, what time did the star appear? So he's trying to figure out how old is this child. So that's what we're saying, maybe one to two years old, because he kills all the babies one to two years old in that whole area. There's a slaughter of children. Joseph's warned in advance. God warns His people in advance before any judgment. He puts a spirit on us, He puts a scripture upon us, He lets us know, He warns His people in advance. He says, leave. When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, Luke is a separate portion than Matthew 24. He warns about that. It is said that no Christians were caught up in that. They all had listened and left. Verse 14 says, but when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and he departed unto Egypt. So he goes to Egypt. How long? They suspect by the time, we're guessing when Jesus was born, how old he was at this point in time, to the point where Herod's death, where it's known, and they try to take all those counters, that they are in Egypt for three to four years. They're a poor family. By the time, you know, when they go to make the proper sacrifice for Jesus' birth, they're given the meagerest things, you know, the minimal that they're supposed to be able to give. But they're able to go and live in a foreign country for three to four years. So the gold, frankincense, and myrrh was enough to sustain them for that time. So God gave them provision to be like, I'm gonna keep you safe, I'm gonna keep you protected, and I'm gonna keep you provisioned to where you have until it's time to come back. So three to four years, so that's pretty good. Verse 15. And that was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. You know what prophet he's talking about? Hosea. Hosea 11 and verse one. But we just said that was obviously talking about the nation of Israel. It's not talking about a Messiah. It's not Messianic. It's not about him. That's when we learned the Bible is different. There's prediction, prophecy in that way, and there's also pattern. And here Matthew pulls it out for us and says, no, this is it, this is being fulfilled, that he has Jesus Christ as his son go back and mirror the steps that they mirrored, so he calls them out of Egypt, and so he identifies, he goes back to almost the same path as he comes back through. Matter of fact, in Exodus 4, if you look over there real fast, it's not only, The type fits even with how Moses is talking about it in Exodus 4, verse 22. So this is Moses and Pharaoh, and let my people go, and their firstborn child. So Exodus 4, verse 22, it says, and he said unto the Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord Israel, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son. Not only just his child, Israel's my son. Even my firstborn, they're my firstborn son. Who's his firstborn son? Is it Israel? That's Jesus too, right? The whole pattern is still right there, verse 23. And I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn, which he does. He kills all the firstborn of Egypt, from the cattle, the animals, the barnyard, to all the people, he kills them all. Mess with my son. So it's multi-level at multi-times. Do we have them all? I don't know if we have them all. But I think it's pretty interesting. I also think it's interesting that man and the devil plots evil. Oh, we'll try to stop them. We'll kill the Jews, we'll do whatever. Here, we'll wipe out all the sons. We'll wipe out all the firstborn sons in this area. But God's like, I know your move, I'm ahead of you. I'll have you hide in Egypt, I'll have it funded by the wise men, I'll bring you back in time when it comes and you'll be in Galilee and you'll be able to fulfill all these things. And then later it even says that, how can he be from Egypt and be out of Galilee and how can he be this and how can he be that? Because he's Jesus Christ and God made sure he fulfills all those things. But Herod was an evil and wicked man. who tried to stop God's plan, who tried to usurp and stop his, tried to kill his son, right? He tried to, what do you call somebody who's trying to kill the son of God? You know, this is another, an evil man, right? This is satanically inspired. We know that Pharaoh, as he opposed it, he kills his firstborn son and all the other firstborn son. And so basically, don't go against God's people. Don't go against God's son. And I thought it'd be interesting to tell you how Herod died. We learn about it because Josephus Flavius wrote about it 90 years after his death. And that's the book of Josephus that I think about every pastor has. And it says that he died on this wise. It was a very painful and grievous way. It said that his private parts were putrefied, which means that they rotted and decayed and they emitted foul odor. His breath, they said, smelled like a decomposing corpse. They said that he had worms in his testicles. And so that's right there, they're saying it's like, oh, he made him rot from where he thought he was cool at. And they said he died in gruesome, awesome pain. And now it didn't get any better when he died, because he's in hell. So basically, God's prophecy was fulfilled anyway. Don't go against God's prophecy. Don't go against God's son. It's gonna be bad for you. It's bad for you. And sadly, everything from one through four is Jesus Christ, as we know it applies to him now. was the same as well, that Jesus Christ dies for the sins of the world and people are ungrateful and unthankful. Here Jesus Christ pays for your sin penalty. He serves salvation up for free for you and people don't wanna hear about it, they don't wanna talk about it, that works for you, I'm glad you have to have it. Let's look at one last one real quick, Hebrews 10. just because it's what I think of here. Hebrews 10. I'm sorry, I forgot I had this one hidden. Hebrews 10, verse 25. This sets a whole tone. Hebrews 10, 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. Supposed to be in church. Church continues and we gather, especially when it gets hard. Verse 26, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for the judgment and the fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Oh, how much sore the punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I think that Herod would attest to that. I think Pharaoh would attest to that. That's probably one of the more scarier scriptures. What are you doing with my son? You're gonna trot it underfoot saying, no big deal, I don't want it. What else are you gonna look for? The only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, and yet people are trying to count it as nothing. That's the first four verses. There's some other interesting things that we'll learn here