40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 158 (Deuteronomy 3:15-4:8)

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

Moses continues addressing the people. He recounts how God has fought for Israel and how he pleaded with God a final time to let him enter the promised land. Why does Moses think he can change God's mind and how does he try to do it? Who does Moses blame for God's denial of his request? How does Moses talk about the law and why does he think it's important for the nation? Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network CHF City Events Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go over to 1517.org slash podcast and see all the other things that we have produced to go into your ears over there. There's a lot of things. And if you like this thing, you would undoubtedly like and benefit from at least a few of the other things. So you should go and go take the sample run. It's like when you go into a bar, Chad, and you order the flight. I would never go to a bar.

Well, you wouldn't, but I sometimes would go into a bar. And sometimes, you know, with all these craft breweries, we have like 5 million of those around here. I'm sure you do as well. Everyone started a craft brewery. And you walk in there and you're like, I don't know. You can't tell by the names because, you know, I don't know what these things are. Everyone's getting too creative. So you just got to order the flight.

And the flight is just where you get just a little taste of all the different ones. So then you can decide which ones you want to drink. Well, you might need to go do something similar over at the podcast network. Maybe you just need to do a little sample of each one because there's probably two or three that are just going to taste real good to your ears. Yeah, you got some sober intoxication going on there with theology. Yeah, it's like a reverse beer, though. It'll keep you sober-minded. That's what it'll do.

So go over there and check that stuff out. Also, you probably want to come hang out with me and Chad if you're in the Des Moines area because we're going to be in Des Moines real soon. When this releases, like two weeks, we're going to be at Luther Memorial Church on the campus of Grandview University. But you don't need to go to Grandview University or even be a college student to come hang out with us. It's for everyone, young, old, in the middle. We want you all to come out. Here's the great thing. It's absolutely free.

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Maybe you're out in that area a little farther north. We're going to be having a city event in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May the 4th. I know, Chad. I mean, I see the data. I know we have listeners, lots of them in Minnesota. That's like 15, 17 Christ told fast country up there in Minnesota. So I know you guys are up there. So go over to the City Events page.

May the 4th, you go and register. That is also free. We'd love to hang out with you. Chad, people are probably wondering, like, wait a minute. The Podcast Network has a lot of podcasts, and those are all free. And then the City Events, those are free. and then maybe they maybe they're going to sign up for your upcoming academy class that's going to be free they're like how how is this how is this sustainable well it's only

sustainable because some people go over to that little donate button on the 1517 site or the christville fast site or any of the sites they all go to the same place and uh they all do a little bit bunch of people doing a little bit to keep the thing going and if you want to do that if you've been uh if you've benefited from the stuff that we're doing that would be much appreciated and if you're someone who has already done that then thank you very much you are indeed helping us uh keep it going so yeah all right chad so here we are in deuteronomy here we are yeah we are uh i don't i won't say we're trucking along but we have made it to chapter three halfway through chapter three so we're making headway yeah there's a deuteronomy is uh

it's got more going on i mean like some people i think maybe think of deuteronomy is just kind of like a rehash of everything that came before it, but it's a little bit different because we're getting sort of Moses exegeting Exodus here. Yeah, this is like Moses the theologian. This is his most theological, explicitly theological work. So, I mean, we're really going to get into it in chapter 4. Chapter 4 is just overflowing with some extremely rich biblical theologies. So that's going to be a fun chapter to cover. But yeah, I mean, throughout the book, we've seen it already. We'll see it through the rest of the book. He's taking the narratives and he's exegeting them. And he's using that

in order to encourage Israel, because he knows his days are numbered, right? He's at the end. he uh he's an old guy he's 120 years old and uh the the horizon is quickly approaching for for his life so this is his last chance to give give it all to israel before before the lord takes him home so because of that uh there's a lot of good stuff here yeah well let's get into it so in uh chapter 3 verse 12 which is where we're we're starting here the the first eight verses or so is a recap of something that we've seen actually a couple of times, and that is that not all of the tribes are going to cross the Jordan and enter into the promised land. We have two and a half tribes, the tribe of Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, who are going to stay behind.

And this is a reaffirmation of that, and also a reaffirmation of the fact that as sort of a compromise that they made with Moses, even though their wives and children, their families will stay behind, they will enter ahead of the rest of the Israelites as the armed guard, the special forces, if you will, the vanguard that's going to do a lot of the hard military work for the rest of the Israelites. So that is spelled out in verses 12 through 20 of chapter 3. So I think that's enough said about that. We've covered that before. So I want to jump down to verse 21, and we have a very interesting section here in which once more, I guess for the last time. Moses tries his best to get God to change his mind about he himself entering into

the promised land. So verse 21 starts out, I commanded Joshua at that time saying, your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. Do not fear them for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. So this is his way, of course, of encouraging his successor, Joshua, to basically look back at everything that God has done for them up to this point. The Lord fought for them in Egypt. The Lord fought for them against Og. The Lord fought for them against Bashan. The Lord fought for them against the Midianites. I mean, he has been fighting for them all along and giving them victory all along. So Moses says to Joshua, don't be afraid because the land that you're

entering is going to be a repetition of the same divine activity on your behalf. So the Lord who has fought you for you will continue to fight for you as you enter into the land which he promised you. So do not fear because the Lord is actually the one who's always going to give you the victory. and but then interestingly even though he's like talking to Joshua and with the assumption that Joshua is going to be the one who leads Israel even though he just said that he can't help but try one more time to see if he himself is going to be able to to cross over verse 23 I also Moses speaking, I also pleaded with the Lord at that time saying, oh Lord God, you've begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand for what God is there in heaven or on earth who

can do such works and mighty acts as you have done. So he starts out this prayer with, in a typical fashion, in kind of the traditional prayer fashion, you start out by calling upon God and And then you you basically confess to God who he is and what he's done. So, oh, Lord God, who has done all of these things or who is all of these things? This is what you've done. You've you've started to show this is interesting language. You've started to show your servant all your greatness in your strong hand. In other words, Moses is like, he's seeing that great things are happening for Israel. Because, I mean, if you look back on his ministry, his leadership with the people of Israel,

there weren't really a whole lot of super hopeful, optimistic time periods. I mean, outside of a few early on, and maybe there when they were at Mount Sinai, There were a whole lot of years of desperation and wondering and dealing with divine punishment. I mean, there was a lot of darkness and not a whole lot of light. Well, now, at the very end of his leadership of Israel, he's beginning to see all of these magnificent victories that the Lord is showing to Israel. So in the mind of Moses, he's thinking, hey, since things are looking up for Israel, well, maybe they'll also begin looking up for me. Who knows? So he says that, and then on the basis of that, here's what he prays.

He says, let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon. So this is his plea. Change your mind. Let me cross over. It seems to me that since Moses is a guy who has changed God's mind before, he does have sort of some basis to root this in, right? Yeah. Look, it's not as if I haven't taught God out of something before. This would be something I'd be really interested in talking him out of.

And if I'm just reading this from a very human element, this sounds like something my daughter would say to me right before she wanted something. Dad? You've been such a good dad to me. You're so good, so strong, and you've always taken care of me. There's just no other dad like you. I mean, I just can't even imagine that there could ever be a dad as good as you. Can we go do this thing? Like, if I'm just being real, like, that's how this reads to me.

Like, God is being buttered up right now. Yeah, that's exactly how it reads. And I think that's probably exactly what's going on with Moses. He's got one more chance. So he's talking to his dad, right? He's talking to God and God, you're great. You've done some magnificent things. And I mean, just to look at what you've done recently, it's just amazing how much you've

been able to do for Israel and things are just looking really, really great. So can I cross over the promised land? But even though at least twice before, Moses has been able to change the mind of God. I mean, in big ways, because two times God was about to completely annihilate Israel and started with Moses twice. And both times Moses pled to God, pleaded to God on behalf of Israel and said, don't do this. Show mercy and save your people and save your reputation and be faithful to your covenant. So it worked twice before, but this time, well, alas, it doesn't work for Moses because it goes on to say, verse 26, but the Lord was angry with me on your account. And we have that phrase on your account again, and would not listen to me.

And the Lord said to me, I love this, enough, enough, speak to me no more on this matter. Now, that does sound like a parent. Yeah, yeah, it does. I mean, two things happen here. One, Moses is like, but God was angry with me because of you guys. So he has that thing again. It's like another sort of shot at the people. Like, I'm not going to go in here.

It's definitely your fault that you have that happen. Yeah, and then God, in the ESV, it's even more explicit. It says, enough from you. that's great yeah that is perfect I've heard enough from you don't ever talk to me about this again

what parent has not said that right that's great I mean it's one of the beautiful human elements about the biblical story is not only is Moses portrayed in just his full humanity here but even God

and kind of his condescension to Moses is exactly the same way. It's like, just stop. Enough already. Yeah. I don't want to have this conversation again. It's over. I've given you my final word. Just take it. If you think about this as a sermon that Moses is delivering, he's telling people, like, I went to God. I went to him in a very pious and humble way,

talked about his greatness, talked about his goodness, but he's still angry with me because of what a bunch of chumps you are and then he told me that he didn't want to hear from me again so thanks a lot yeah this is where you wish you had a video of Deuteronomy

just so you can see Moses' face at this point how he's looking as he talks enjoy the promised land punk right so after God tells Moses enough already he says uh here's what i want you to do don't talk to me about this again but i want

you to to go to the top of mount pisgah and look you know take it all in right i i'm letting you see it you can't go there but i am going to let you at least see it so lift up your eyes and look to the west and the north and the south and the east so look every look every direction that you that you want to let it all just soak in and you'll see it with your eyes but you will not cross over this jordan instead he says in verse 28 here's what i want you to do you charge joshua and you encourage him and strengthen him because he's going to go over as the head of the people and he will give them as an inheritance the land which you will see so at least Moses is able to to check out what it looks like to kind of get this grand vista of of the promised

land he is at least able after all these years to be able to look at the land which his descendants will be able to to inherit so uh he won't be the one to lead them Joshua will and then ever it the chapter ends verse 29 by saying that we remained in the valley opposite Beth Peor and that actually is where they will be for the whole rest of of deuteronomy they are camped there they haven't crossed the jordan yet this is going to be the the location where they are basically sitting and listening to moses deliver deuteronomy yeah when you when you think about the the life of moses it it should give you pause to want god to choose you to lead anything uh because if you really look at it man what a what a frustrating arduous thing that he has he has had to do

and then and then you don't even sort of get the payoff the payoff is just seeing what everyone else will inherit and and you will not and uh if you if you rewind and you go back to the you know the burning bush and god saying yeah i'm gonna have you do this and moses is objecting like no i know i'm good i'm sure you choose anybody but me yeah i i think there's a reason god didn't say like no let me explain to you how glorious it's going to be and like how the end of it's going to be awesome and then you'll be convinced no god does not tell him like that no i chose you and trust me it's going to be great no he just says that you're the guy and this is how and this is how it's going to go because if he had shown him like no no don't

this is what it's going to be like it moses would have been like doubled down and been even more emphatic he'd be like no i'm gonna stay right here with these sheep i'm not doing that that's that's terrible this whole thing looks awful yeah that's why it's it's good that we don't know everything about our future yeah if we if we did then we'd be we'd be scared to death especially in those future during those dark years because you know it's bad enough dealing with all of the various troubles we have right now but if we knew all the troubles that are coming then it would be so overwhelming that we wouldn't be able to to go forward in the future so i mean the the hiddenness of the future is a is a blessing that i don't think that we always appreciate enough

yeah well and i feel like people always we see this this pretty pervasive within the christian culture of everybody wanting to do something great for god or lead something great for god and if you look at the life of moses you're like i don't know man like it's it's not i don't think it's usually all that glorious like most of the people that god calls to do extraordinary things i mean for the most first of all for the most part god calls us all to do regular things and the ones that he does call to do sort of extraordinary things if they could redo it they probably be like oh i don't want anything to do with that like time and time again you're like this looks miserable that's why i i'm always amazed at isaiah's proclamation that you know

he says to god here am i send me send me like does he know what it means to be a prophet yeah does he know what usually happens at the end of a prophet's life and even after he says here am i send me send me when god goes on to tell him okay here's what it's going to be like i suspect isaiah was like uh let me rethink this i'm not so sure that i want to do this yeah and this isn't just an old testament thing i just ever this hasn't changed go read the life of the apostles like it's not great like yeah they're leading the church but dude it's like that's just awful like it's not a good it's not like oh yeah dude that's the good life and i i think this is why it's uh it's a matter of matter of hope and trust when i look to the future it's not a matter of

just assuming that everything is going to be everything is going to be good on the surface yeah it will be good in the end it'll be good the way that god works it out it's not going to be something that uh is always enjoyable or full of glory or full of success or anything like that but it will be good it'll be good in the sense that god will be the one who's working good out of whatever happens even though we might not be the ones who always see that in the end yeah it's good in the sense that god will accomplish his purposes uh but it certainly isn't good in the way that we necessarily think it's not how it's very rarely is how we would write it up yeah i Our picture of the future would be much different.

You know, maybe a few stumbles along the way, a little bit of burden to bear. But overall, it's going to be nice and enjoyable. At the very least, we're going to get to where we're going. Yeah, at least we'll be able to cross the Jordan River and not just see it from the hilltop. That's what happened to Moses. I guess when you look at his life, you kind of have to look at it from a long-term perspective. uh we it's probably one of our one of our greatest weaknesses these days is we want everything right now and i mean we we don't want to wait till the end of our life to have certain things we wanted

to it as quickly as as we can get it so looking at things from a long-term perspective is pretty hard for us if you look at the life of moses long-term perspective well then yeah it was it was all worth it because he brought the people there and the people got across and the people settled there they conquered there and eventually you had kings and eventually you had the messiah so he he was part of a much longer story and i think the more that we can understand ourselves in that same way the more content that we'll be because we might not always have immediate gratification for what we want but if we're looking at things from a long-term perspective in regard to like our children or our grandchildren and what we do now affecting them

then it makes it a little bit easier to bear not having exactly what we want in the here and now. All right, so we'll transition now to chapter four, and we'll leave Moses and the Israelites there at the valley opposite Beth Peor. I mean, that's where they're sitting, and now they're about to hear Moses kind of transition into the next part of his discourse. Chapter four is in many ways a summary of the whole book, honestly. There is so much that's packed into here that is thematically unfolded in the rest of Deuteronomy. So we're going to see a lot of the various themes emerge here, either quite a bit or at least hinted at that Moses is going to expand upon in the rest of the book.

So this is the way it starts out. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving to you. So right away, we hear one of the keynotes, not just of this chapter, but the rest of the book, and that is to listen. We're told over and over in Deuteronomy to listen and to watch and to guard and to keep. Those are several of the verbs that we're going to see over and over here. There's a special focus upon hearing that which God has to say in this particular chapter, to take His words and to let them sink into you, become part of your heart and part of your soul,

so that they are able to transform you from within, so that you guard them, so that you keep them, so that you abide in these words. And the special focus of this chapter is upon guarding and keeping the first commandment. And the first commandment is scattered all throughout chapter four. And there's a reason that it is, because Moses understands, as do we still today, because this is accented in in our teaching still today that unless that unless we we believe and fear and trust and and hope and love god above all things then every other thing is going to have its way with us so the first commandment is calling us to have no other gods so what does it

mean to have a god what it means to to fear that god above all things to love that god above all things, to believe that God above all things, to hope in that God above all things. And so unless that is right, everything else is going to be wrong. So there's a strong emphasis upon clinging to the one true God in this chapter and not letting our hearts go astray, be lured away by the limitless number of idols that are out there trying to woo us away from the truth. so we're going to see the first commandment surface repeatedly in this chapter as indeed we will in the in the rest of deuteronomy so it starts out with the call to to listen to the statutes and the judgments and all of the other kinds of words that god gives to israel

verse 2 says this you shall not add to the word which i am commanding you nor take away from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, which I command you. I think this phrase about not adding or subtracting occurs a couple of different times in Deuteronomy. And the special focus both times are actually not just upon all of the laws, but in particular, the first commandment. So don't take away from it. Don't add to it. Just in other words, receive it as it is, because as it is is is sufficient everything that it communicates is exactly what what you need so don't somehow make room for other gods or don't somehow take away or or in any way add to the commitment that god is calling you to to believe in him to trust in him to fear him above

all things and then he goes on in verse three in good in good preacher fashion to remind the Israelites, that actually in the past, they have taken away from this word. And it's here that he recounts what just happened to them not very long ago at Baal Peor. Actually, you know, they're sitting in the valley opposite Beth Peor. And so you can almost picture Moses pointing, as it were, from the pulpit, you know, pointing over at Beth Peor and saying, you remember, right, what happened over there. Verse three, your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Peor. For all the men who follow Baal Peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. That, of course, we talked about in the book of Numbers. This is when the prophet Balaam

encouraged Balak to get the pagan daughters to seduce the Israelite men, to get them to hang out with them, get them to date them, get them to marry them. And in that case, we had full-blown idolatry taking place. And there was a great plague that massacred like, I don't know, 24,000 of the Israelites. So that's relatively fresh in their mind. And Moses is using that as an example of what happens when they don't cling to the word, but instead get drawn away to the false idols. verse 4 but you who held fast to the lord your god are alive today every one of you interesting verb usage here the verb to hold fast is dabak and that we encountered that verb for the first time in in the early chapters of genesis when we were told that a man is to leave

his father and mother and Davach to his wife and Cleve to his wife. So it's this idea of the most intimate union imaginable taking place. So that's what Moses is telling them. When you hold fast to the Lord your God,

that is to say that you become one with Him. And that's what happens when His Word dwells within you. There's this intimacy, there's this connection between the people of Israel and the Lord that's likened to marriage, to this One, the one flesh union of a husband and wife is like the the union that God and Israel have by means of the fellowship of his word, which he's speaking to them.

Then he goes on, verse five, that I've taught you the statutes and the judgments, just like God commanded me to do. verse 6, so keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Now, it's interesting what Moses does here, because he's basically saying to the Israelites, hey, what God has given you, his words are so magnificent. They're so great. They're so unusual from the eyes of the world that all the nations around you are, as it were, going to be envious when they look at what God has given to you. Because they're going to look and they're going to say, wow, this great nation is a wise and understanding people, not in

and of themselves, but because of what God has given to them in his word. And not only that, He goes on in verse 7, he says, what great nation is there that has a God so near to it, as is the Lord our God, whenever we call on him? So the words that God has given to Israel set them apart, and also the fact that God doesn't dwell in some sort of separate sphere from his people. He's not this great and powerful deity who has his throne in heaven and really has nothing to do with the day-to-day lives of his worshipers. After all, he's the one who actually said, build me a tent, make me a tent, and put it right in the middle of your camp so that I can dwell in the midst of you. That's how close God wants to be to his people. And so he hears them when they call upon him. He doesn't have to be in the tabernacle to hear them, but he has a tabernacle built so he can actually have his address right there in the neighborhood of the Israelites.

And his ears are open to the cry. His eyes are always pointed toward them. And that also sets Israel apart. Verse 8, he goes on, what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law, which I am setting before you today? So as a result of this, I want you to give heed to it and guard it and to impart it to your sons and to your and to your grandson. So it's interesting. We don't I don't think we we always think about this, this aspect of of the word in the Old Testament. This actually comes up quite a bit. The distinctiveness of what God has given to Israel. I mean, we have a lot of law codes from the ancient Near East, but we don't have anything like what we call the Old Testament from the ancient Near East.

We don't have any set of laws, for instance, that are exactly like what God has given to Israel. Certainly there's parallels, but there are so many distinguishing features of the word that God gave to Israel, and there's so many distinguishing features of the way that God interacts with Israel, that even in their culture, even in their day and time, this set them apart from all the other peoples. And he's going to say later in the chapter, not only that, but also what God has ever rescued his people from within another nation and brought them out. Well, none has because no other God is able to do what I've done for Israel. So this becomes a drumbeat that we hear through the rest of the chapters that the distinctiveness of Israel is based upon the distinctiveness of Israel's God. What he gives them, what he does for them, how he listens to them, the extent to which he will go to be with them and to rescue them sets him apart from any other deity because it proves the fact that he is the only true God and that all the other gods are nothing more than imposters. I think a lot of times we think about the law, and we think that this is sort of the way that we make God happy. He's given it to us, and he just wants us obeyed because, dang it, he just wants to be obeyed.

But here we see that Moses says, here's the law. Hey, be careful with these things. Don't forget about these things. Hang on to these things. Cleave to them. because these are the things that are going to set you apart and make other nations look at you and say, like, man, that nation's really got it going on.

And I think some of this is taken for granted, but it shouldn't be because back then it wasn't a normal thing to have a nation that says, like, okay, how are we going to build? What's going to be the ethics of this nation? Well, we're not going to steal from each other. We're going to be faithful to one another. We're not going to lie to one another. especially the second

table of the law this all has to do with your neighbor right and the second table of the law is about being a good friend and a good neighbor and a good brother and it's going to build in as much as they do them and obviously

they don't do them perfectly we see how Israel is the rest of the way but in so much as they are done and just the fact that they are the law of the nation is something that's different from other nations where they're like, well, this nation is actually, like, they don't just go and take something

from their neighbor that doesn't belong to them. There is no, like, thing where, well, if I'm more powerful than you, then I can just have your stuff. Or I can just, if I have more influence, then I can just lie about you, and that's fine. They're building a nation on a set of laws, and this is what he means by saying, like, oh, has there ever been a nation with laws so righteous as these laws, and to see that this will bring about peace and harmony in so much as those

things are followed. I don't think we think about the law that way a lot of the time. I think we think about it as just something that God just wants us to do because he's God and he demands it. But that's not how Moses is speaking of it here. He's saying, if you just cast this stuff aside, there'll be nothing that distinguishes you outwardly from the other nations around you. Yeah, I think when Israel was at its best, and when the church is at its best too, it does have this innate attraction to those that are around it. I mean, when Israel or when the new Israel, when the church is actually living in conformity with the way that God has constituted it, it is by its very existence, by what it does, by what it speaks, going to stand out so much from the rest of the world that its distinctiveness becomes a curiosity, if not an attraction to those who are outside it. They say, they look at it, they look at Israel,

they look at the church and like, you know, this is not just a typical kind of group. There's something that's different about this. Look how they love each other. Look how they care for each other. Look at the righteousness of their laws. Look at the way in which they care about their neighbor. Look at the way they care for widows and orphans

in the Old Testament. All of this is, yeah, is it matter, just a matter of God saying, here are my laws, do them, period. The purpose of everything that God has given to Israel is so that actually that Israel could be the kind of people that, if they were honest with themselves, they would actually want to be. Just like, you know, the church is the same way. when the church is truly being that which Christ wants it to be, it's being truly human, human in the best possible way. It's living up to what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. And that's going to catch the attention of those who are outside of the community

because they're going to see there, even if they don't realize it consciously, they're going to see there a representation of actually who they themselves were created to be. And that kind of outward attractiveness that is based upon being in conformity with how God has created us to be is always going to have this draw to it from people who are longing in one way or another to be who they were created to be. Yeah, yeah, and it's definitely a different kind of thing when you have a society built on love of God and love of neighbor as opposed to, well, really anything else. Yeah, yeah, especially the love of the neighbor part. I mean, we're not all looking out for number one, but actually we're looking out for those that God has placed into our midst to care for. And that kind of love, love toward God as well as love toward neighbor, is going to catch the attention of people because it is so distinctive from almost everything else that we see in our culture. Yeah, if you want an explanation of this sort of thing, you can go and if you'll read Martin Luther's explanation in the catechisms on the commandments and then you think to yourself, would that society be all right?

I mean, I think the answer is like, yeah, that'd be pretty good. Yeah, that's as good as it can get right there. That's pretty good. Well, it sounds like a society I would go screw up, but that's the problem, right? Right, that is the problem, yeah. I read it, and I'm like, that sounds like a place I want to live. And then I realized if there was such a society that was doing all those things, they definitely wouldn't want me hanging around. Yeah, but that's why it's an ideal, right?

Yes. And ideals are good because they give us something to work toward and something to repent of not reaching or screwing up, but they still remain the ideal. And the ideal is the embodiment of actually not just God's will, but God's will for what is best for us and is actually going to be the good life in which we will thrive. Yeah, they throw me and Chad into that society and then be reminded why they need a Savior. Yeah, that's the truth. All right. We would serve our purpose in one way or another. That's right.

That's right. All right, Chad. Well, we are out of time, so we will have to pick it up next week, guys. Love to see you at the city events. Go over and register. It's free. We'd love to hang out with you. Chad, I will see you next week.

All right. See you then. We'll be right back.