40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 154 (Numbers 35:1-36:13)

Episode Date: February 28, 2019

Chad and Daniel wrap up Numbers. Cities of refuge are established. There are rules and commands for "blood redeemers." What does the Old Testament concept of being a brother tell us about Jesus. What is going on with commanded polygamy? All this is discussed as Numbers comes to an end. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network CHF City Events Law & Gospel In Action Pre-Order Upside-Down Spirituality Pre-Order Become A Supporter

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. That means you can go over to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other things that we've got going on over there while you're checking out things. There's a new book. It's not out yet, but you can preorder it. Shoot, Chad, there's two new books.

One is a 1517 book called Law, Gospel, and Action, and that is by Mark Mattis, and it is good. I've read it. It's a good thing. And if you're interested in, you know, I know you guys listen to 40 Minutes. I know that you know that law and gospel is the way to go. It's the way to read the Bible. But what does it look like functionally?

Well, Mark Mattis has got your back on that. He's going to explain that to you real good. You'll get an inside look on how it looks in preaching, how it looks in life. So you can go over and preorder that now on Amazon. And while you're preordering books on Amazon, you should probably just go over and preorder Chad's book. He's got one coming out. He's got one coming out very soon. Was that in April?

Was that an April release there, Chad? Yeah, it's April 2nd. Look at that. It's coming up real soon. Yeah, it's called Upside Down Spirituality, The Nine Essential Failures of a Faithful Life. So if you want to fail in a blessed way, then read this book. Yeah, it kind of takes the approach of the Beatitudes,

where Jesus turns everything upside down from what you'd expect and pronounces blessed those things that the world would not consider to be blessed. So I break it down into three different parts, the first of which deals with our lives as individuals, second, our lives as those who are rooted in families and in our vocations, and then the third part is about the church. And in each of these, I talk about blessed failures. So I approach the scriptures from that upside-down perspective and kind of give a lot of examples, spell it all out there. So check it out, Upside-Down Spirituality. There you go. You guys got two books to go over Amazon and pre-order today.

That's your mission. Chad, I think that we are going to wrap numbers up. Yeah, we need like a drum roll because here we are. This is it. I know that people are going to be disappointed to leave numbers. I'm sure. Yeah, we've come to that point. We have.

The end is in sight. Wrapping books up is an exciting thing for us. I mean, we've only done it three other times. Yeah. Right. Yeah, we have two chapters to go. The last chapter will be a quick cover. There's not a whole lot there. In fact, it deals with something that we have already talked about with the inheritance laws of these daughters of Zelophodad who were inheriting their father's land because he had no sons. so we'll touch on that toward the end of the episode but before we get there we have a beautiful beautiful rich theology to talk about here in chapter 35 this is one of those where you know i i knew this chapter and i've studied it before but as i was looking back over it today

all the stuff started leaping out at me that i just had not spotted before there's some real rich christology in this particular chapter you wouldn't expect it because if you look at the the title of what it's about you think oh this you know might be of interest but as far as like christological depth i'm i'm not so sure well as it turns out yeah there is some uh there's some fantastic grace-filled theology in this in this chapter which is uh you know that's uh that's what we're looking for we're if we're if we're looking for christ all over the old testament then all of a sudden wow we find him he's uh he's gonna leap out at us right here in this this particular story so yeah we're gonna spend most of the 40 minutes talking about it and then we'll uh we'll

save a few minutes at the end to talk about chapter 36 and then we're ready to jump into deuteronomy next next episode yeah the one the sermon that's longer than even if you're even if pastor is a little bit of a long-winded guy he's probably not this long-winded yeah this is this is moses swan song this is his last last chance to preach and he takes full advantage of the opportunity he's like steps into the pulpit i have uh 50 points that i'd like to make in today's sermon. Point one. There's a fine line between a sermon and a hostage situation. Yeah, Deuteronomy can kind of feel that way. But you know what's, well, I don't want to steal too much of our own thunder, but one of the great things about Deuteronomy is that not only is it just a great

sermon, but in some ways it sums up everything that we have been talking about. I mean, of course, it is the last chapter, last book in the Torah. It is the concluding part of that foundation of the Old Testament. So you might expect it to actually draw from Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, and it does. And it's probably the most explicitly theological book of the Torah. I mean, there's a lot of embedded theology and ritual and a narrative that we have in the four prior books, but Deuteronomy is just like overflowing with this real explicit theology, a lot of good law gospel stuff there that we will be walking our way through episode by episode.

Yeah, I mean, the New Testament quotes Deuteronomy quite a bit. It comes up more than you might think it does. When the New Testament quotes Moses as to saying things, Most of it, I think, if I'm not mistaken, I'm just doing this off the cuff, guys, but as I reflect on the New Testament right at this moment, I think a lot of the times when Moses is quoted, it's Deuteronomy that's quoted, and Deuteronomy is certainly a book within the Jewish tradition that's quoted a ton. Yeah, absolutely.

It's kind of the go-to text, as you say, for a lot of those Moses quotations, And I think the reason is because it is so explicitly theological. It just lends itself toward a clear expression of the theology of covenant and law, gospel, the way that God's saving ways are reflected in his historical actions, all that beautiful stuff. So we're leaving numbers behind, but we're just about to wade into some great stuff in Deuteronomy. Awesome. Well, all right, now that we've got you guys all hyped up for Deuteronomy, you probably should have done that at the end of the podcast, but you never know.

We might go so long we wouldn't have time. And so now you're ready to go for Deuteronomy, but we're not there yet. We've got a little more work to do in Numbers. That's right, that's right. So chapter 35, next to last chapter of Numbers, what's it all about? Well, on the surface, it's about cities, and in particular, not just cities, but Levitical cities, that is cities where the Levites are going to live, but also within these cities, within these Levitical cities, cities that are called places of refuge, asylum cities, or cities of refuge.

There's a couple of different ways that you can translate that. And it's when we get there that we really get into some quite amazing Christology. So that's the direction we're going. Now, The chapter starts out in the first eight verses or so to basically delineate how these cities are going to be, are going to function and for whom they are designated and where they're going to be. So there's going to be a total of 48 cities. Six of those cities are going to be these cities of refuge, and 42 of them are going to be just cities for the Levites. You remember, as we've talked about before, that each of the tribes were given a certain portion of the Holy Land,

and their place was determined by the casting of lots. probably that Urim and Thummim that the high priest had in his breastplate. I'm assuming that's how this was decided. But anyway, it's decided by casting of lots and it was understood that God was guiding the casting of the lots so that each particular tribe received the inheritance that God wanted them to have, all except the Levites. So there wasn't like a certain portion in northern israel or in southern israel or along the jordan that was like levitical territory instead they were spread out throughout the holy land and they they did have land but this land was city land and then a certain amount of land around the city that was used for

grazing so they didn't receive like a certain number of of acres within the holy land but they did receive these cities and the grazing lands around them so unlike some of the other tribes they they didn't really become farmers instead they were they were herdsmen that was the reason they were given the land around the city so they could take care of their their sheep and their and their cattle and their goats and whatever else whatever other animals that they had and it worked out as i think i mentioned before it worked out actually for the levite to be scattered throughout the Holy Land, because the Levites could have served then as the teachers of Israel. So they were the ones who were entrusted with, from their tribe came the priests, and so

they were entrusted with the Word of God. And even if they weren't priests, if they were Levites, and they served in the sanctuary, and so they were the ones who especially should have known the Torah and how God wanted the Israelites to conduct themselves and all the various teachings of the Torah. So spreading them out all over the other tribes would have facilitated the Levites carrying out their vocation of teaching Israel. So you can kind of see how God's plan was being fulfilled in that sort of way. And it's also, this is kind of looking ahead here, but this is also why in later years, for instance, in the time of the New Testament, When a priest who is from the tribe of Levi, when a priest served at the temple, he actually, except for maybe a few, he had to travel from his home city to Jerusalem to serve.

So it wasn't like all the priests who served at the temple lived in Jerusalem year round. instead they had it divided up according to the various families of the of the the priestly the priestly families were divided up into all these various sections and then if it was your turn then you would travel to jerusalem and you'd serve your i think it was two weeks something like that you'd serve your two weeks at the temple and then you go back home and that's why for instance in the parable of the uh the good samaritan the priest is traveling from jerusalem down to the city of Jericho, and then the Levite doing the same. Chances are both these guys had been serving at the temple, they'd been doing their duty, and now they were going home. And

presumably they both lived around Jericho. So they didn't live in Jerusalem, they just served there when it was their time to serve. But they would have lived in one of these Levitical cities that were scattered throughout the land of Israel. So that's what the first part of this is about, basically dividing up all of the various Levitical families into these total of 48 cities. But some of these cities, as I mentioned, are called cities of refuge. And there's a total of six of these. And three of these are in the Holy Land proper. And three of them are what's called the Transjordan,

which is the area on the other side, on the eastern side of the Jordan. And the reason for that is because, if you remember, two and a half of the tribes didn't want to cross over the Jordan and settle in the Holy Land. Instead, they wanted to remain where there was plenty of grazing land for their cattle. So they kind of made a compromise and they agreed to be the first force of troops that entered the Holy Land to help out their brothers to conquer it. But when that was done, they were to come back home and they were going to live in the Transjordan. And so there were going to be a lot of Israelites there. And so to accommodate this unexpected life outside the Holy Land, three of these cities were going to be in that particular region. So the two and a half tribes would have three cities of refuge and the other tribes would have three cities of refuge as well.

And these were spread out throughout the land so that if someone needed to flee to them, and we'll get to the reason why in a second, But if someone needed to flee to them, he wouldn't have to travel like 300 miles in order to get there. They were close enough to where if he needed to flee there, then he could get there as as quickly, quickly as possible. So let's get to what these cities of refuge are are for. So it starts in about verse nine. God is speaking to Moses and he says, when you come, when you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge so that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there and the city shall be to you as a

refuge for the from the avenger so that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for trial and then it goes on in verse 13 and 14 to say that there's going to be six of these, and three cities across the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, as I just described. So here's the situation. Suppose two guys, and they're friends, and they need to either cut some firewood, or they're going to build something, and so they go to where there's a stand of trees and they have their axe and they're chopping out the trees. They're going to get some lumber so they can go back and do with it whatever they're going to do. And as the one guy's chopping with his axe, all of a sudden the axe head slips off his axe, flies to the air and

whacks his friend right in the head and kills him on the spot. Well, of course, this was an accidental killing. He didn't mean for the axe head to slip off and strike his friend on the head. But in the culture in which they lived, he was still in trouble because he couldn't go back and just simply say it was an accident.

I'm terribly sorry. And there was really nothing that we could have done about it. It just happened. It's just a freak thing that occurred and I had no control over it. He couldn't do that. Because the problem was in this particular culture, not just the Israelite culture, but in that culture in general across all the various countries, usually, I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but usually if someone killed someone from my family, say my brother, someone killed my brother, then it was understood, culturally speaking, to be my responsibility to take revenge for his blood.

And so if someone killed my brother, then I would go after him and kill him. And I would so I would be kind of the self-appointed executioner. I guess today we would call this vigilante justice, but that's the way it worked. So when the Bible talks about, let's see, which verse was that in verse 12, it says the city shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger so that the manslayer may not die until he stands trial. The word for avenger is in Hebrew is goel, which is the same word that we usually translate as redeemer. So this particular guy is, to use the full Hebrew phrase, would be a goel hadam, which is a redeemer of blood, or as it's translated here, an avenger of blood. So there were all sorts of responsibilities of redeemers in the Old Testament. I mean, we hear about one of these in the book of Ruth, right?

That's probably the one that most people are familiar with, because Boaz redeemed Ruth in the sense that he stepped forward and he did what was necessary in order to take care of her. But there's all sorts of other redemptive actions that people take in the Old Testament. For instance, if I have an impoverished family member who has to sell some property to pay debts, then my redemptive responsibility is to step in and take care of those debts and my family members so they won't lose their land. And you could you could think also of it being a redemptive responsibility if if my brother marries a woman and a few months later he dies for some reason and leaves her childless, a childless widow, then it would be my responsibility to step in and be and perform what's called the leveret role where I would take her as my wife and father a child. and that child would be the the the legal heir of my deceased brother so he wouldn't be my my son biologically yes but legally he would be the the child of my deceased brother and thus would inherit everything that belonged to to my brother so there's a lot of there's a lot of redeemers in the old testament a lot of different responsibilities that redeemers are are are bound

to engage in and one of these is this kind of blood redeemer this goel hadam this adventure of blood he's not required by biblical law but this culturally speaking that was one of the things that redeemers did is they they took justice into their own hands literally and they would seek out the one who had killed their uh their their family member so let me kind of lay all this out uh and then we can talk about some particular so that's that's kind of the one situation that could happen so you got a guy and he accidentally kills somebody else and he's got this avenger of blood who's after him and so what's he going to do well i guess theoretically he could explain the situation and who knows that might have happened and he didn't have to run away

to one of these cities of refuge but if that didn't work out then he basically hightails it to one of these cities, either the three in Canaan or the three in the Transjordan. And when he gets there, he meets the leaders of the city at the city gate, and he explains the situation, and they take him in. Remember, these are Levitical cities, so these would be Levites that he's dealing with. So they take him in, and basically this city then becomes a place of asylum, of rescue, of protection for him. so that you know say he gets there and the very next day the avenger of blood shows up and he's

been hot on his trail because you're looking for revenge well the people of the city cannot turn this man over to the avenger they are to protect him until and this is significant until there's a trial so it's not as if he gets off completely scot-free because first of all his guilt or innocence has to be determined i mean he could he could be a legitimate murder murderer and just be claiming that it was uh it was an accidental death so there is going to be a trial that takes place so what happens if someone actually murders someone well they can do the same thing they can flee to this city refuge they can claim that it was uh it was an accident and in their case also there's going to be a trial. Now, what happens then? Well, if a trial is conducted,

or when the trial is conducted, and a person is found to be not guilty, a person is found to have accidentally killed his neighbor, then he is freed of the charges, but here's the deal. so he's he's declared innocent but he cannot leave the city until the death of the high priest so say i kill somebody it was an accident we were chopping wood and i run to one of these cities of refuge and they have a trial and i'm declared innocent well unlike in our like in our legal system where you know once you're declared not guilty well you you're a free man right you can go anywhere you want to there are no inhibitions whatsoever unlike our system in this particular case you had to stay in that city of refuge until the death of the high priest and then once the

high priest died then you were free to return to your to your native land but even if you were innocent if you left before the death of the high priest and this uh avenger of blood this goel hadam found you so you decided you want to yeah just going to risk it you're going to go back home and the avenger of blood found you then he could kill you uh because you had left the the place of place of asylum now what about in the other scenario suppose there's a murderer who shows up in one of these cities refuge and he claims that that you know it was an accident he didn't mean to uh and they have a trial for him and there's there's at least two or three witnesses that claim no no this was no accident this guy had it out for him he was waiting for him he

ambushed him he he murdered him this was not some sort of accidental death this guy is a murderer then if he's found guilty on the basis of this trial then he the murderer is handed over to the he's handed over to the blood redeemer and the blood redeemer then becomes the executioner of the state he's like the state appointed executioner and he will then shed the blood of this murderer who shed the blood of his of his family member the reason this is so fast well at multiple levels this is this is fascinating the one that especially struck me as i was as i was reflecting upon this this text this morning is that in both cases it doesn't matter if it's an accidental death or if it's uh an outright murder in both cases there has to be a death

to atone for the death so if it's if it's a murderer then his blood is shed so his blood becomes the i don't want to say it's the means of atonement but there has to be some sort of purification there has to be some sort of expiation that takes place when a person's blood is shed and so the murderer's blood ends up being being shed but and this is the best part even if even if the person is is guilty only of an accidental killing he's not free to leave the city of asylum until the death of the high priest, and it's the high priest's death that finally completely liberates him so that he can leave the city of refuge and go back to his native soil. So the high priest, whose vocation was to bear the sins of Israel, that's some of the language that's used to

describe the priest, the ones who bear the responsibility, they bear the sins of Israel, and they're always engaged, of course, in sacrifice, especially on the Day of Atonement and covering up for the sins of Israel. So these people who are high priests, who are directly connected with the forgiveness of sins, with the atonement of sins, they, as it were, absorb the responsibility of the death and then at their own death, then that death is considered to be atoned for. And as a result of either the death of the murderer or the death of the high priest, in either case, after that particular death,

then it's understood that the sin is completely taken care of and the land which had been polluted by the death is now considered to be cleansed and everything is put back the way that God intends it to be. One of the things that is different, and I think that we— something that we can lose just in our current times that we live in, when the Scriptures speak of Christ being our brother—so I have three brothers. I mean, we're close. I mean, it doesn't mean nothing to be someone's brother.

You know, we're very close, and we would do things for each other and help each other out and stuff. But biblically speaking, if you're someone's brother, that's very different. This means that you are in it with them. I mean, so if you're someone's brother, this means you might have to go avenge somebody. You might have to marry somebody. I mean, there's a lot that if you're my brother, that means that we are taking responsibility for each other.

We are going to make sure that everything is taken care of. And so when it talks about Christ as your brother, this means that he is committed and invested to you and to your family and to your belongings, all of this stuff, right? This is what it means to be a brother. And so when the Bible uses the language of Christ being a brother, we know that this is what he does. And in some cases, I mean, you even have the Bible talk about Christ as there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and this is speaking of the biblical idea of brotherhood, which is pretty dang close, and saying Christ is even greater than that to us. So I think that's fascinating, particularly in the Old Testament. I mean this might sound weird when you were talking about the ways in which people have to be redeemed and the way the brothers do this. And speaking of the marriage thing, I can't tell you how many times I've been asked about polygamy in the Bible and all this stuff.

And they'll say that I've heard it's one man, one woman for life, all this kind of stuff. You hear this kind of stuff talked about. And I've always found it difficult, not that I recommend polygamy, not only, when asked that question, not only do I not see the prohibition in the Old Testament, there are certain instances where you actually are commanded. I mean, so you wouldn't just, like, take your brother's wife if you just happen to be single.

Like, I mean, it doesn't matter if you're married. If you've got three brothers and both of them die and they were both married, then, I mean, this is all on you, man. And so you'll be hard-pressed to make an argument that – I've always struggled with it because you want to be biblically faithful, but I think you're hard-pressed to make an argument that multiple wives is somehow not only – not a good idea, which I think it probably isn't a good idea in our current culture, but certainly there are instances where you would be stepping outside of the commands of God if you didn't. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you would be, you were stepping out the commands and you would be, you'd be publicly, publicly shamed. I mean, so there, I guess there was a possibility that a brother could refuse this. But if that took place, then the widow would be, would publicly shame him, which would probably be in some ways worse than death in this particular culture. So, yeah, I mean, is polygamy recommended? Absolutely not. I mean, we have example after example in the Old Testament of how this did not work out well.

Just read Genesis, right? Read about the family life, the non-Norman Rockwell family life of Jacob, who married two sisters. And that ought to take care of any polygamous ideas that anyone might have. however we have certain situations, this one in particular where it's not only not only

something that was accepted but actually commanded you just can't make the argument that like, again ill-advised, probably outright sin you're going to have a hard time making that argument there's just nowhere that it's condemned

and there's ample opportunity to condemn it you know, so And it's obviously a different time, and so there's no need for it. There were circumstances where it was out of necessity, obviously, in this state, but that's not a thing now. But there's ample time—I mean, there's loads of times in the Bible where it's not out of necessity, happens, and God seems fairly indifferent. And so that's a total aside, but— Yeah, well, I think you have to keep in mind, too, the intent. I mean, the intent was really completely off of the surviving brother.

I mean, it wasn't like to his benefit that this happened. Number one, it's going to be more difficult for him because he has more people to care for. He has two wives now, and thus he's going to have basically two families that he's responsible for taking care of. So the intent of this was twofold. And I know this is still kind of an aside, but it's worth talking about here. the uh the intent was first of all to make sure that the widow was taken care of because there was as we've mentioned many times there was no social safety net back then so if if someone was a widow and especially if her own parents were deceased then who's going to take care of her

well in this it's going to be the surviving brother that takes care of her so she's the the number one person who's being taken care of but then the second person is the deceased brother because he has inheritance, he has his own family that they want to perpetuate, and so he would have a son even though he himself was deceased because the son that was born to his widow and to his brother would then be legally considered to be his own. Yeah, and we see that—actually, we have a biblical example of a guy who does this but doesn't do it

correctly and how this is very much condemned yeah I mean if you go back and you read what is it Genesis it's in the 40s now I can't remember exactly the chapter it is but yeah I mean

Judah is Judah Tamar I mean Tamar is a widow and then her deceased husband's brother is not willing to do his job uh and so god is not only upset but he strikes him down dead yeah so god god took this responsibility seriously yeah and so and all of this i think is is to point to this thing that uh that when the bible speaks of god as our father and christ as

our brother there's a very it's very significant because being a brother was not just um you know oh well that's my brother you know we just kind of got born into this uh there is a commitment there and a responsibility there you have um and what is being theologically said when christ is referred to as our brother is that he is committed to us in that way yeah and what's beautiful about to bring the Christology to focus here on this particular part of it is that there's a twofold beauty because he's not only our brother, but he's also our high priest. And so as our high priestly brother, he takes on even more responsibility in the sacrifice of Christ in his atoning death. He not only atones for those accidental sins, if you want to call them that,

like this this accidental killing that that takes place that's talked about in in uh in number 35 but also the purposeful so his death covers not only manslaughter involuntary manslaughter accidental death but it also covers outright murder as well so he becomes the one who bears who sheds his own blood to cover for the bloodshed of someone else and he becomes the one who atones for all of the other transgressions and brokenness of life in this world. Okay, so why don't we just use these last three, four minutes just to sum up this last chapter, and then we will close the book on Numbers. So the last chapter, chapter 36, takes us back to actually something

that we talked about a few chapters ago in Numbers 27. So if you remember, the daughters of this guy named Zelophadad they come to Moses and they say, hey, our dad died in the wilderness and just a bunch of us sisters. There are no sons. And so what's going to happen to his inheritance? So Moses goes to God and God tells him, well, it's going to go to the daughters. So this became a law in Israel. So, and it seemed like, okay, well, that took care of that problem. But we circle back to it in this last chapter because some from that tribe approach Moses and say, hey, we're concerned because we know what the law is for the daughters of Zelophadad and for any situation like this where a father

has only daughters and who's going to inherit the land? Well, their concern is that what if these daughters marry outside the tribe? Well, if they marry outside the tribe, then the land, which should have belonged to the tribe, in this case, like the tribe of Manasseh, is going to go to another tribe because the husbands are going to be the ones who have now control of that property. So in that case, the land is going to pass from one tribe to another tribe. And these guys argue, well, that shouldn't be. And Moses ends up agreeing with them. He says, you're right. Whatever land is given to each particular tribe needs to stay within that tribe. And so he lays down a rule, basically, that if there's a situation like the daughters of Zelophodad, then they have

to marry men within their own tribe or within their own clan so that that land will not pass from tribe to tribe and that's exactly what these what these daughters did they ended up marrying what we today would call uh our our first cousin so they they married uh the the sons of of their their uncle and that way the uh the land that they had inherited from their daughter stayed within that particular tribe. So I think the reason this chapter is placed where it is as the concluding chapter is it sort of forms the parenthesis around this last section of Numbers, which is all concerned with making sure everything is straightened out and taken care of and planned before they enter into the land of promise. So this section sort of began with the census and

And then with this discussion of the Daughters of Zelophodad, then we have all this other stuff spelled out, everything from the tribal allotments to what we discovered in the cities of refuge. And now we're circling back and we're finishing out once more with this question of inheritance. And we're when we're so it forms is what's called an inclusio, which is just kind of a big word for a parentheses around this particular this particular section. So that takes us to the numbers. we've had quite the journey through here seen a lot of pretty amazing stuff and the way that God was active in the life of Israel

taking care of them in some cases disciplining them and in all cases in one way or another providing the framework in which we can see Christ foreshadowed and Christ active and preparing the way for his eventual coming So I hope you have enjoyed it.

We certainly have. Yeah, you know, whenever people talk about numbers, well, I often hear people talk about numbers, and they say, oh, man, numbers, just a bunch of counting and a bunch of census, a bunch of lists, just all this stuff. And I'm like, well, there's a little more going on than that. And hopefully that's what you were able to see, is that there's a little bit of that.

I mean, if you're reading through it, there's some of it that can be a little tedious, But there's a lot about Christ There's a lot about what is promised What is coming Buried in there And sometimes not even buried that deep Sometimes we're sitting right there on top of the

On top of the soil So I hope you enjoyed it Guys, if you're listening to this When it comes out You are really close To CHF Austin You are really close to it Because March 9th

Me and Chad along with Daniel Van Voorst, Scott Keith, Valerie Locklear, Donovan Riley. We're going to be in Austin, Texas, talking about the Christ, the cross, and the Christian. That's the theme of the city event. It's free. You can come. If you're in Texas, anywhere in Texas, you know you want to make it, go over to the city events page at ChristWillFast.org. You can register for free.

All you've got to do is sign up, and we would like to see you there. Also, while you're over there, slide over to that Donate. if you want to know how we were able to go through the entire book of numbers and then you were just downloading it for free it cost you no numbers of money and you're like you know what I want to give back

I want to play a little part in something big well you can do that you can go over to donate and that makes it all possible and if you are one of the people that do that on a regular basis we appreciate it the people that take advantage of all the free stuff appreciate it

and so thank you very much Chad I'll see you next week and then I'll see you twice next week because I'm going to record with you and then we're going to go and I'll see you in Austin in the flesh yes you will alright man we'll see you soon