We're starting at Hosea 11, 12, because the Hebrew Bible ends chapter 11 at verse 11, and I think that's right. because Hebrews 11, 11 is the happy ending. We kind of have a little synopsis there where he's like, Ephraim, what am I gonna do with you? And then he kind of shows the dilemma that he has. It's like, I need to give you wrath for all the things that you've been doing, but I love you and I don't want to give you wrath. And he's like, so good thing I'm not a man, I'm God, so I have an answer to this. And then we kind of get the revelance. how it relates to verse one. I can't think of the word I was looking for. The relevance, yeah, of verse one, where he calls, hey, I called my son out of Egypt, talking about the nation of Israel. But he also called, we saw in Matthew, where he said, no, this is talking about Jesus. It's like, oh, the Jesus that he called out of there is gonna be the answer to the problem that he has with Ephraim, because he's gonna be the one that sacrifices himself to reconcile Ephraim back to God. And so we kind of get a synopsis of the gospel there from verses five down to 11. And it ends with, he's like, yeah, I'm putting wrath on you and it's gonna be a hard time, but I'm going to bring you back. Verse 10, he talks about trouble coming from the West. We talked about how all their enemies are from the East. So Hosea, you know, probably had a wrestle with you. Sure, you're saying West, but this is referring to the second time when he brings them back. And so they're all after the dysphoria or when he, Puts them after Rome comes in, that would be to the West. And then everybody that's in Europe and everybody's in the United States and all the Jews as they come back in. We have a nod here to the day in which you and I live right here in Hosea, which is pretty exciting to be living in biblical times. And then he says he's gonna put them back. They're gonna be scared and trembling. But the very last part of verse 11, I will place them in their houses, sayeth the Lord. He'll return them to their land. He'll restore things back as it was. They live happily ever after. Riding off into the sunset. Then that should be the chapter break. And so, because he starts out in verse 12, Ephraim cometh me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. See, he's changed topics. And so that's why the Hebrew Bible makes a break there. Again, men put these in, not God. And they get it mostly right. So every once in a while, they have a place or two off, and this is one. But Ephraim compassed me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah yet ruleth with God. and is faithful with the saints. Chapter 12, verse one. Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation, and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. And so I'm gonna start with those two. At this time, we have that reference in chapter 11, verse 12, that Judah still has some good kings. They've not gone the way of Ephraim yet, or the house of Israel. And as we've said several times through this study, they will fall in about 100 years. I forget how many more kings that is, but it's a few. But they have a few good ones, but then they fall to their corruption. They get taken into Babylon, but God brings them back. Ephraim and the house of Israel, they're taken away and gone. He talks about their lies. He says they're deceitful. They lie to me. They're trying to do two things. They're trying to please foreign gods and they're trying to please me at the same time. And he goes, I'll tell you this, that doesn't please me at all. God doesn't want to be the list of one or number one of the list of 10. He wants to be number one on a list of one. You know, he does. I don't share. So he's a little sick of their promises or saying his name. And he's called him deceitful before. Chapter 12, verse one talks about, and some of their bad decisions. They eat wind. Well, how long do you want to live on that? Not very long. You need oxygen, that's true. But if you just eat wind, you're not going to live very long. So he's just like, it's just bad. It's emptiness. It's not, you know, their path, the decisions they make, and the plans that they have, and the choices they are making, it's not sustainable, basically is what he's saying. It's like eating wind. You know, you can't live on that very long, and the way you're going, you're not going to last very long, and it's not very long after this, you know. Tim stopped me on the way in, said he cheated and read a couple of chapters ahead. He goes, it's not good for Israel. I'm like, no. If only he'd have sent him a warning. He's been sending a warning that the judgment is coming and they get judged. And so they make bad decisions. They don't have a sustainable past. They keep, now air begets air as they go. It says here that they follow after the east wind. Doesn't mean much to you and me because we live in America. Our wind changes. Most of our wind comes out of the west. But not always. As soon as you count on it, the wind will shift. I built the Feast of Booths this year. Strong wind all day. Me and Levi built it. We braced it all one side. It gets dark, wind shifts, it falls over. I'm like, blah. It's like, you can't. You can't base it on the wind. It shifts around. But to them and their culture, the east wind is a worse bad decision than eating wind. This is the wind that comes off the desert. Where Israel is, it puts them in this little narrow strip, but if you look directly to the east when you're tired of braying and you're looking at the maps in the back of your Bible, there's a whole bunch of land right there, but nobody can cross it. It's desert. So they all have to go up and come down to the Fertile Crescent. It curves around as they come down and travel through this narrow strip, which just happens to put, God put Israel right in the middle between everything going north, everything going east, and everybody trying to get to Africa. Oh, y'all have to come through Israel. And so it makes us the most valuable strip of land there was. But coming off that desert, You had an east wind blowing, and so it was super dry. It would like suck moisture out. It's like the Sahara Desert grows now, but it's because the wind. It'll blow, it'll dry out that area, then it'll succumb, and then it'll just consume it, and then turn the dirt to dust, and then... Because I've always found it fascinating. They'll show somebody the fire out in the middle of the desert. And I'm like, where do they get their wood? Do you read into it? They just dig down a little bit because the desert just went over the forest and the trees. And so wood's down there. They can pull it up and they can burn it. There's just nothing can hold moisture because it's all dry. So it's dry, hot, parching. They call it. It's an injurious wind. It's just that dry and hot and nasty. It's not anything like we normally have. And it's still there today. It still happens in that way. And he says, so you've gone from just eating wind to you have this dry disaster that is coming upon you. And you're chasing after that. So they say, they feedeth on the wind, and they follow after the east wind. You know, you're just following after destruction. You can't win for losing, and now you've gone insane, and you're gonna keep doing insane things. Kind of reminds me of like the World War II stories, you know, the guys floating in the raft, you know, and then they water, water everywhere, and now they drop to drink. You know, they're finally like, I'm gonna drink some. Oh, it's good, it works out. And then they all go crazy, you know, and then it kills them. These guys are doing the crazy stuff. And then he says there at the end of it, it says they do make of the covenant with Assyrians and the oil is carried into Egypt. Assyria is their enemy. And so it's really a bad idea to make a, a bad idea to make a covenant with your enemy. The peace government, that would probably be good. Hey, we're gonna agree and we're going to do this, but this is a trade agreement. We'll do business with our enemy. Why do you think that's gonna work? You know, we all had that one brother that's gonna mess you over every time. Like, I'll give you this, then I'll give you that. No, I won't. You know, it's always a bad deal with them. Don't deal with that guy who's gonna do that to you. And so Assyria is the bad guy. He's always gonna give you a huckster deal. It's always gonna work out to his benefit. But you know what's worse than making a deal or a covenant with your enemy? To break a covenant that you have with your enemy. And that's what they do. He says, oh, you make this trade agreement with Assyria And then you turn around and you start trading oil with Egypt. And he's not talking about crude oil. They weren't driving Lexuses and stuff. They're talking about olive oil. You know, that was a thing that they could produce and sell. And so. Because the Jews have a saying, it's like, God has chosen us the only place in the world that doesn't have oil. It's like everybody around them is rich because of oil. And God's like, I give you this spot, no oil there. And so they have olive oil. And so it's like, now you've broken this agreement with Assyria and now you trade with Egypt. And so now you just turn your enemy into an enemy enemy. And so they're the ones that come down against them to attack them and lead them into captivity. And so he's just saying, you've gone from bad to worse. out of the frying pan into the fire. And then we have the next five verses that are gonna take us on a little trail. All right. The house of Israel gets it. As he gives them this history lesson, they understand, they pick right up. They are fallen. Yep. They are backwards. Yep. They are rebels true, but their history is ingrained in them They've been raised with who they are. They know their history. It is there that as part of who they are I wish we do that in our country who we are what we're founded on who our founding fathers were what they stood for you know, I wish You know, we get revisionism we get everything else, but they know theirs they know who they are They know what it is, especially it's a heritage, you know So I'm gonna give that, we're gonna go through that so that we can understand this passage and hits it as them. So God calls Abraham, right? And Abraham has the son Isaac. Isaac has seven twins, Esau and Jacob. Now this is where it gets interesting. And so they have a unique birth. Let's hold our spot here in Hosea and we're gonna go to Genesis for a while, Genesis 25. I didn't have time to get the flannel graph out, so you're gonna have to, these are flannel graph stories that were taught in Sunday school. Genesis 25, verse 24, it's pretty, I don't know, I'm very visual, I picture at the same time every time, but it's Genesis 25, verse 24. 24, I'm at the right place, right place. And when her days were come to be delivered, were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. So you have to imagine, this is before. You know, anything to give you a warning. It's like it still seems archaic that we didn't know who any of our kids were before they were born. Maybe Joel, we might have known a little bit. But mainly we're like, I don't know, we didn't know until they were born. Let alone, if they're having twins, you're just like, man, you must have a big kid. Oh, it's twins! What a shock it is for them. Verse 25, and the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment. Okay. And they called his name Esau, which shockingly means Harry. So they named him Harry. Verse 26, and after that came out his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel. He grabs it. And his name was called Jacob, Jacob. And Isaac was three score years old when they buried him. And so Jacob, Yaakov means heel grabber. Heel grabber, that means a heel holder, heel catcher. Or supplanters, kind of the one that gets kind of known for, the supplanter. Supplanter means one who wrongfully or illegally seizes hold of another's place. And so he didn't like him being firstborn. He wants to be first. This is a plague for his whole life. I want to be first. What do you mean you're first? So he grabs him by the heel, he's trying to pull over, trying to rerun it. It's almost as bad as the other twins, remember? I don't know what this one was like, but the ones coming out, they stick their hand out, and they wrap thread around it, red thread around it, because it goes back in that way. They remember which one was born first. I mean, Bible births were battles, man, as it was going on. And so, so literally, these guys are named like the Indians, right? Where you have Harry, because he's a hairy baby, and Hill Glider, because he grabs a heel. I just remember, this is a fifth grade joke, so that's where my mind resides. And so, when the Indian daughter asked her father how they got their names, and he says, the first thing we saw when we stepped out of the tipi in the morning, that's what we named our child. For you, daughter, it was the beautiful morning dawn. You were called Morning Dawn. He says, you, Flying Eagle, it was quite a sight when I saw all that going on, and oh, you, my third son, it was a scary morning when we saw Running Bear. That's why we named you Running Bear. And the fourth boy raises his hand and says, daddy, daddy, why'd you name me my name? And he says, shut up, pooping dog. So I remember that in fifth grade. I'm always like, that's not right. And believe it or not, that was better than the one how they said they named Chinese people. So I'm not doing that one. That was totally inappropriate. But it's literally, you know, their names mean what they are. And we're kind of like, you know, I was a teenager before, I wonder what Brian means, and looked it up, they just liked it. I think there was like six Brian's in my class, everybody liked it in 1965. It's not like it is now, when you name them after, or then, they named it after that. But Jacob wanted to be the leader. Verse 27, the same chapter. It says, and the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. He's outdoorsy type. Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. He's basically an urban guy. He likes to be in the tent. He helped mom. He's an indoor kid. Sometimes we have one of each. Verse 28, and Isaac loved Esau. So he has a preference. This isn't good. There's some parroting tips you can learn from the Old Testament, and sometimes it's how not to do it. By having a favored son, it never works out. Hey, Joseph, I love you. Here's a fancy coat. Oh, brothers all try to kill you. Here he favors Esau. And he says, because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved Jacob, and so they're divided over it. And Jacob sawed porridge, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. You know, so he's a cooker guy. Verse 30, and Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore his name is called Edom. So now they change his name from being hairy to Edom. You know what Edom means? Red. And so he's red-haired, he likes red porridge, and so there's like, it's going red. It's in red, verse 31. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. Oh, you're hungry. I'll sell it to you. And Esau said, behold, I am at this point going to die. I don't know if he's that hungry. but it smelled good, I guess. And what prophet shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this day, and he swore unto him, and he sold him his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. He didn't count it valuable. He didn't see it for what it was. And I think of that often when I think about Jesus. How many people use his name as a cuss word? Swear by his name. We'll talk about, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus. Or yeah, I've heard about Jesus. We're gonna do this about Jesus. And they don't understand the value of who he is and what he's done for them. Just like Esau didn't understand his birthright. So they treat it as a light thing. He's like, what's your birthright? I want some stew. And so he trades it. And people right now are like, who's Jesus? What's that matter to me? It's gonna be the name that is most precious and the name that you better be pleading when you're standing before God the Father or you have no hope. And so they'll see the importance of it, but it's generally too late. And so they trade their, They trade life with the son, with Jesus Christ, for riches, for pleasures, for just a short time, just like Esau trades it for a bowl of stew, and he's hungry again. People think they can just cast off Jesus to satisfy and satiate their flesh, but it's never satiated, it never satisfies, and they have cast off, or they despise, basically a birthright, something that we could have given you to made you the firstborn son, to made you, You know, part of the family of God, and yet they've despised it. There's still the Father's blessing. The Jews had two different things. You know, they had a birthright, being the order of the firstborn, and they had a blessing that would come upon them, and that's a big deal. Do I understand it all completely? I don't, you know. But in court, it's almost like a will, in a sense. You know, the things that are going to go in this order would come on the deathbed of the Father, you know, and that he'd be able to say it. And so, Genesis 27, if we turn over there, We know how it is. You know, he's ready to give it. He thinks he's going to die. He didn't die quite yet, you know, so it's kind of a false start. But he tells Esau, he's like, oh, if you make me that venison that, you know, I like. So there you go, dear hunters. Yep, it is the choice food of heaven here, at least from the patriarchs. They like a good venison stew. And so he said, why don't you go out and take a bow and get me one and make it for me and I'll give you my birthright. We'll have a big meal and then I'll give you your birthright. And he's like, deal. Rachel hears it, Jacob's mom. She's like, go kill two goats. I'll cook it. I'll make it taste like venison. I'll make it like his way. And he goes, and he'll give you the birthright. And he's like, wait a minute. Have you seen my brother? He's Harry. And they're like, yeah. She's like, we're going to put some wool on the back of your hands. And we're going to put some wool on the back of your neck. And then I'm thinking, when they mean Harry, they mean Harry. It's like, this is what he rubs and it fools him. Because he's like, later he's like, Your voice sounds like Jacob. So this is early on, and it really does crack me up as we go through the Bible, how early on all this is. When deception, like there's the story where in Kings, I think it's David, who takes the pillows and make it look like he's laying in bed. You're like, wait a minute, this is the first time that happens? That gets copied all the time. When I was a kid, I remember my dad worked nights. And so I got up, and mom kept a glass of milk in the fridge, and a bowl pulled out of Cheerios. And so I'd get up, and I'd take the glass out of the fridge of milk, and I'd pour it on my Cheerios, and I'd sit and eat my Cheerios, and do whatever I did, you know, until mom got up, because she would get up in the middle of the night, and because dad could come home for lunch in the night shift. So she slept in a little bit. So I'm in there eating my Cheerios, and I hear, So any of you know you're my mother, this won't surprise you, but she'd be like, Brian. And I'm like, I don't know, I wasn't in school yet, you know, so I was pretty young, maybe four. And so I go run into the room and I could see her laying in the bed and I hear Brian. So I jump on the bed, and I push, and it's all pillows. And I'm like, what is happening to my mother? I'm in the house by myself. And all of a sudden, she jumps out of the closet. I'm probably thinking, he's four. He'll never remember this. Scarred me for life. I had gray hair that day. But I fell for the trick. And she got it from the bottom. I don't know where she got it from. But this is the first time it happened. Here's the first time. It's like, oh, you're acting like you're somebody else. You're going to act like you're Esau, and you don't think to disguise your voice. Hey, I'm Esau. Hi, I'm Jacob. And he's like, no, you sound like Jacob, but you feel like Esau. I didn't think of that. And so he's a deceiver. Listen, here he has his mom to help him. He's gotten the birthright. Now he's gonna get the blessing. And so, for time's sake, I'm just shortening it up, but it's all in this chapter. It goes down through verse 41. So he comes, he gives him the blessing, and he basically talks about how, Your brother's gonna serve you. I'm trying to think if I can find it there real quick. It gives him all the good stuff. I'm not finding it. I can find the second one where he has. Anyway, but he gives him everything that you would want in this blessing. You know, that you're gonna be the leader, your brother's gonna follow you, you're gonna have all this blessing, it's gonna be upon you. And then Esau comes in just as soon as, I mean, it's literally like a TV show. It's like literally one walks out, he walks in, hey, here's your stew. He's like, what do you mean? I already had your stew. He's like, oh no, Jacob's fallen. Don't you have a blessing for me? So it's different than just saying, well, bless you, son, go home. You know, so this is like he goes, No, I got nothing. I gave him your, I gave him, made him the leader. I put everything underneath his feet. I don't have, I hope you do well. You know, it's basically how his blessing goes to him. I think maybe, you know, you'll maybe be rich. You know, maybe God will bless you in that way. He kind of puts that upon him. You know, the fatness of the earth will be yours. You'll have plenty of corn and wine. You know, can you take that? And he's like, ah! And so then he makes this big vow. I hate Jacob. I'm going to kill him. And he kind of has it coming a little bit, right? He vows to kill him. Until then, Jacob. His mom hears, oh, you know how I heard your dad say he's gonna give him the blessing? I also heard what Esau said because you got the blessing, he's gonna kill you, you need to leave. I got Uncle Laban, you can go hide out at his place just for a little while. Turns out to be over 20 years. But he goes up there because Uncle Laban's gonna teach Jacob a few things about being a cheat and a scoundrel because Uncle Laban is a cheat and a scoundrel. And so he goes there, he finds Rachel, he meets her first. He's like, oh, I love her. And he's like, oh, can I marry your daughter? He's like, yes, you must work for me for seven years. And it is interesting when he tells him you have to work for me for seven years, he says for one week, a week of years. And so that ties in with Daniel 9. We talk about 70 sets of seven or 70 weeks. It's how the Jews think. And so that's just a side note, but he tells him seven years. And so he's like, oh, he loves her. It was like seven years, it was like a day, you know, it's like, and the seven years are up, he marries her, you know, and apparently it's a veiled wedding and a veiled honeymoon, because the next morning she takes the veil off. He's like, hey, you're her sister. He's like, what have you done? Oh, don't you know it's our custom? We have to give you the firstborn. So now you have to work for another seven years to get her. And he's like, okay, because I want Rachel. And so of course, that's seven years. He has a lot of kids. And so I guess he wasn't that upset. But so he has these two wives. And so he finally gets Rachel. And then Laban does, you know, that's 14 years. And so He does some other things, like, well, you don't want to leave just yet. He and other knives. He ends up getting him, like, for close to some 20 years. You know, there's a bunch of shenanigans about the goats, and you'll get these goats, and he carves this bark weird, you know, and it makes the goats have spots and all. Anyway, he gets a whole bunch, and he's had all these run-ins with Uncle Laban. You know, even when they're leaving, you know, one of the girls steals an idol and all this stuff that happens, and he's getting out of Dodge. He's going to go back home. He finally gets free of Uncle Laban. He's coming back home. He's like, the closer he gets to home, the more nervous he gets. Okay, I'm away from Uncle Laban. But he's all set, he's gonna kill me. I bet you he's still upset about that. And so as he gets closer, he's like, I know. I will send him 200 she-goats." And so he divides his camp into these groups and he sends some servants and he goes, give these Esau's a gift. 200 she-goats. And he's like, 20 he-goats. And then he sends these 20 he-goats ahead. And he says, I'm going to give 200 ewes, two girl sheep. You go out there. And then he goes, I'm going to give them 20 rams. And then you prenate in there next to it. So Esau's like, what's all this? I got a zoo coming? And they're like, they're all yours. Then he gets 30 camels and their babies as they come. And then they have 40 cows that come in. And then he gives them 10 bulls. And then he has 20 mules. And then he has 10 different foals that come in. And then he's like, I'm out of animals. What am I gonna do? So he sends Leah ahead and says, you tell him that you're my first wife. And then he sends Rachel, his trojan. You go ahead and tell him that I'm coming. I'm gonna be there. But before he gets there, look at chapter 32. So he's scared to death because he has also heard this rumor. I'm getting ready to meet Esau and Esau's coming with 400 men. I got animals. So he's trying to bribe him basically. And so he's hoping it works. So Genesis 32 verse 22, it's on this way during this part. This is when he's running away here in verse 22. And he rose up at the night and he took the two wives, these two women servants and his 11 sons, and he passed over to the fort of Jabbok. And he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over to the head. And Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the dawn. You know, this is the whole wrestling with this angel of God with God. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. So this must have been some battle. And he goes on all dire, once Jacob got a hold of the guy, and this was like Grapplefest 2000, he's got a hold, he's never letting go of this angel of the Lord that he's wrestling with, pre-incarnate Christ, we're not quite sure, but he wrestles with him, to the point where the angels finally, yeah, God's finally sick of wrestling with him, so he pushes his hip out of joints, and he walks with a limp the rest of his life. And it has a whole weird saying here at the end, and so he basically, he makes him powerless. He wrestles with God and God finally makes him powerless so that he'll submit. And that's his whole story. Because there was a blessing from his grandfather that said that he would be the one. But Jacob tried to manipulate God his whole life. Oh, I'll get the birthright. Oh, I'll steal the promise, the blessing. He was the conniver and the wheeler and God's like, you know what, for me to work in your life, I need you to quit. So he makes him powerless, so God says, now it's me. I need you to surrender to me, and you quit trying to do it. And I think a lot of times we do that. We're like, oh, I'll manipulate God. If I stay faithful in church, and I give God money, and I tie, and I do this, and I do that, all those are great, and all those are good, obedient things we're to be doing, but if we're doing it to manipulate God, you're doing it wrong. We're to be doing out of service, out of humility. The thing we're to be offering God is not our stuff and our time. We're to offer God us. That's what he wants, us. And then that is an outflow of who we are out of being thankful unto him. He's like, now we're working. Now you're powerless. Now I can do that. Surrender to me. Let me be the Lord of your life. You quit trying to manipulate me into doing the things that you want. I think I need that. And so he says, no, God says I need to make you powerless first. And so verse 26, and he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And this tells me why he's got some grip strength. I mean, he's got some endurance. He's still hanging on and he's not letting go. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob, surplanter, hill grabber, all around crook. He said, that name shall be no more Jacob. Because he's had an encounter with God, he's made humble, he's made powerless. Now God's like, I can work in your life, your name is now Israel. God prevails. God prevails in your life. God is the one who wins. You quit fighting me, you quit trying to manipulate me, you let me be in charge, we can do something. Israel. For as a prince hast thou the power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Whereof? Is it thou dost ask me my name? And he blessed him thereof. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And he passed over Peniel, and the sun rose up, and he halted upon his thigh. And then it has this weird verse, the verse three says, therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the shank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, and to this day, because he tips the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of that shank. And so, they're hardcore. How is this hamburger made? But they avoid, in their culture, they don't eat that. And so he finally learns, I can't force it, it's God's way, it's God's timing, and I can represent because we're all Jacob, right? It's not until we finally surrender and we let God have charge and we have God in control that God's gonna do something. It's usually through some big night where we all have a wrestle with God and who's gonna win, how's it gonna be that determines how we end up serving him in our lives and the world. But Esau has these 400 men coming. So they finally get together, they meet. Look at Genesis 35. Again. We're just trying to get caught up with the Jewish people before we read this verse. And so, they meet, Esau's like, brother, what's all this parade of animals? He's like, it's a peace offering to you. And he's like, I got plenty, it's all right, we're cool, it's kosher. And he's like, nah, I really would feel better if you took it. And he's like, okay. And so he takes it and they chill, you know, they're good. And so then they're gonna commemorate this big event, like this could have been bad, this could have been epic, you know. So chapter 35, verse one. He says, fled us from the face of Esau, thy brother. And then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. You know, because they had hidden some with them, and they brought them with them as they were coming out of Uncle Laban's place. Get rid of them all. Let us arise, go up to Bethel. Bethel means house, Beth, house, El, God, house of God, like Bethlehem is house of bread. This is the house of God. I will make thee an altar unto God, who answered me in the day in my distress, and was with me in the way in which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all their strange gods, which were in their hand, and all the earrings, which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak, which is by Shechem, so treasure hunters, that is what it is. And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Cana, that is Bethel, and he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, or God's house of God, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. Now Hosea. So there's this whole place that comes out of the house of God, this encounter that God was with him and God had used him and God brought it all around. He finally was powerless and he's opposing to them. And when Jacob is being Jacob, when Jacob is being fleshly, he's called Jacob. When Jacob is being spiritual and being right and walking with the Lord, he's called Israel. We see this other places too. God changes the name. That happened. He tells us that about ourselves in the book of Revelation. He goes, I have a name for you written that I'm gonna call you as well. But we think of, I'll flash forward time sake again, Simon. He calls him Peter, right? And so you can go through the Bible and when Simon is being worldly and Simon's not walking with the Lord, he's Simon. But when he's being spiritual and he's doing what Jesus wants, he calls him Peter. He's like, so what are you being? Are you gonna be the one that I changed, that we had the encounter with, that you're the rock? Or are you gonna be trusting yourself, Simon? Why are you doubting old Simon? We wanna be the Peter, right? We wanna be the ones walking in the spiritual. So Jacob's the same way. Jacob or Israel depends on how you read it and what he's doing, how he's being. So verse three. And he took his brother, By the heel and the womb, so they're all making, okay, yeah, talking about Jacob. And by his strength, he had power with God. Okay, when he's fighting. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplications unto him and he found him in Bethel. And there he spake with us. Remember all this happened? We wrestled the game and we set this whole big altar up. Even the Lord of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore turn thou to thy God. Keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually. That was to be what they were. He gives them this brief little history lesson. It was shorter for them because they got it all. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Have they waited on God continually? Did they do what they promised to do at Bethel? No. No. That's what we need to remember what God calls idolatry. He calls idolatry an abomination. And so now think about it, when you put an idol in a spot that is prepared for God, that's worse. That's what Bethel was. It was a place that was called the house of God. The house of what, God? House of God, God. They made a spot that was set apart and set only for him and they're like, we are now gonna remember all these events that show us who we are because Israel becomes the forefather of all the nation. And what did they do? That's where they had a golden calf. That's where they erected a golden idol. A place set apart for God, and they're like, oh, but no, we want a golden calf here. Put a golden bull. This bale, we're gonna worship this bale, a false god. So now, if you have an abomination of desolations, that is to take and erect an idol, an abomination, in the worst place imaginable. Not just Bethel, that's bad. You put the house of God and you put an idol there, but where's the worst place you could possibly defile? In the temple? Yeah, not in the holy place. In the holy of holies, that's where the antichrist puts it. It is the abomination that makes desolation. He's done the most worse and heinous thing in the most holy and sacred spot. That's what he's trying to tell us about the abomination of desolation, about what is coming ahead for us. Everything's about ready to turn upside down. They're doing it in the most holy of place. That's what the beast will do. He will be a supplanter. He'll be one who's trying to hold on to a place that is reserved and set apart for God. He's gonna try to wrestle that away like Jacob. He tries to remove God out of his place. He tries to hold God's office in God's space. He tries to set that up for himself. And people will and do now worship him already. There's already people who worship the Antichrist now that have set themselves apart and say that they worship him. They usually make certain hand symbols and things that they do it, and I'm not gonna do it. to show that they are on his side. They make themselves an abomination. They've taken in their holy place and say, come and be with us when they deem in possession or open themselves up for whatever that is. That is abomination of this place reserved for God that's supposed to be there. Now you've set it up and put a false idol in there. And so let alone to put and call somebody else in the place of God to do that. So yeah, so he tries to do that. And I think that spells a lot to them. He's like, you've done this, I'm done with you. And we have one, it wasn't the Jews who did it before. It was Antiochus Epiphanes. But one who's coming, that the Jews will get behind, and he will do that in that most holy place, and that's when Jesus says, run, flee, hide. Because it's gonna get bad, and we'll pick up there. But that's what he gives him this history lesson. He's basically like, you were supposed to be with me continually. You didn't. You made an abomination and you put it in this spot, a spot that you said was set apart unto God. So I think that's something we need to think about ourselves sometimes too. Have we set things apart from him and what do we allow back in? To make sure that we keep those promises, that we keep things safe and secured and set apart for him. What is his is his. Let's not relinquish it back to the enemy. And let's make sure we're speaking, we stay in our true names, the names of who we are that he's given to us, whatever that may be. And we're walking in the spiritual light and not walking in the flesh. And so, yeah, I think I hear it too often, Brian, Brian, Brian. I don't know what the other name is, but I guess I'd look forward to hearing it from him one day. It's probably Goober, but I'll take it. If it's not an endearment. Appreciate y'all being here. Do plan on coming on the Good Friday. Mark your counters for that. We might have some more information this weekend. I don't know. So when I ask you to grab a handbook, grab it. All you guys are like, I know this song. I'm like, no, I'm telling you something. But get it, and yeah. Look at your cars before you leave. Don't get all the way to Greenwood. No, Whitewood. Under your windshield wiper. Yeah, flop it around. We'll hide it better next time. No, but yeah, we're just trying to. I'm excited about it. I'm not going to say too much. We've made promises that we won't. And so it should be a fun night on many different levels to see many different things. And so it should be cool. So set apart some time and come and role play.