40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 71 (Exodus 7:8-8:15)

Episode Date: February 7, 2017

The plagues are upon us! Chad and Daniel only get through the first two but spend some time talking about the reversal of good creation and why God sends the plagues He does. The Nile is turned to blood and frogs are everywhere in this episode. Check it out!

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament i am daniel emery price joined by chad bird chad what's going on man dude it's going on it's going on all the things are going on and uh we have come to this point in the in history where once again you realize this is episode 71 well we didn't make a big deal out of it last episode but last episode was episode 70 we've we've made uh this is that's that's a very biblical episode you know yeah it seems like we should have like done something uh yeah i mean that ranks right up there with uh 10 and 40 12 and 20 yeah i mean 70 episodes got the 70 elders yeah yeah we're uh we're moving along yeah so this is 71 i've decided in my mind that uh we're gonna we're i don't know what we're gonna do

let me do something great we're gonna on episode 100 i don't know what what's gonna happen but We're going to like do something big. We missed, I missed, we missed 70, but this is it. This is it. So 71, I was, I was, I was like, man, I can't believe that we, this is the 71st time that we have done this. It's good. It's a good stuff. I don't know how long my time will be in Exodus, but I'm guessing we'll still be in Exodus by the time we get to 100. Probably so. Probably so.

I'm also shocked that I know that there's people who have listened all the way. I mean a lot there's a lot of people that listen to this and there's I know there's a lot a big percentage of them that have listened to most of the people that listen that go all the way back when you could tell by the episodes that get downloaded all the time most people end up listening to an episode along the way and then they go all the way back and start over and so the fact that there's people out there that have been have listened to us do this 70 times they've listened to like 60 hours of me and you talk is i gotta tell you guys that is shocking it's very shocking they must be very patient people yeah but but let me say also like we

really really appreciate you guys uh doing that and uh as much and you know it's it's shocking and humbling that so many of you have listened for this long and continue to to download and listen every week so thank you very much we're very grateful i mean we got folks of course in the us but i i've i've received emails from from listeners in australia and england and germany and elsewhere so it's uh it's it's great that uh it's getting uh getting all around uh all around the globe so we're we're grateful for everybody out there who's listening and uh joining us on the weekly studies yeah yeah well right on man well uh i think we're gonna i think we're gonna get plagued this week i think we thought we were gonna get it last week this week i think uh most

assuredly the plagues are going to arrive yeah yeah it's gonna get uh it's gonna get pretty uh pretty dirty here uh pretty soon you're gonna get uh our 10 plagues beginning after a brief episode dealing with snakes and then we're gonna we're gonna be in the plagues for the next few chapter so lots of gospel coming up buckle up guys so we left off at uh around exodus chapter seven verse eight last time we had uh the genealogy that uh was kind of a pause in the narrative brought us up to speed on how we got to the birth of moses and aaron these two central figures in the story. And we're told that Moses was 80, and that his brother was 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh. So after this narrative pause, we're going to get right back into the story now.

So beginning here with Exodus 7-8, it says that God talked to Moses and Aaron, and he told them that when they go to see Pharaoh, he wanted them to work a miracle. And this miracle is the one that moses says has already prepped for already back in the burning bush because god says he wants wants him to uh for aaron to take his staff and throw it in front of pharaoh and it's a beginner and it's become a snake and that's exactly what they did so uh these two brothers they go to pharaoh they did just what god told them to do aaron throws down his staff in front of pharaoh and his cohorts. And lo and behold, it becomes a serpent. I had to laugh. I was reading one commentary on this. And it does make, I think, an interesting point that the Hebrew word here

for serpent is a different word than what was used back in the burning bush. Back in the burning bush, the word that was used means a snake, means just a regular serpent. But here, the Hebrew word that's used can can mean crocodile now doesn't doesn't doesn't that just put a a whole different spin on this this uh your your kind of your your vision of what's going on here aaron throws down his staff and it becomes a a tannin which could have been a serpent but also could have been a crocodile is that what you learned in sunday school that's not what that is not that is not i like that though i kind of do you know what and it sort of fits because i mean you got the nile which we're going to get to in just a second and you got you got crocodiles in the nile uh so it

kind of fits with the whole you know egyptian ethos and uh they're you know the the animals that they would associate with violence and vigor and danger and all of these things. So when Aaron throws down his staff and it becomes a crocodile, now, hey, man, when I was in Sunday school, I think I would have liked that story even better. It eats up the other one? Then the crocodile turns around because, of course, if you know the story, Pharaoh calls for his wise men and his sorcerers, and they did the same thing. They threw down their staffs and threw some of their magical arts.

They turn into tanim, which could be serpents, could be crocodiles. But whatever they were, whatever long, dangerous animal these staffs turned into, Aaron's staff turns right around and swallows up theirs. So whether you want to picture Aaron's snake swallowing up the snakes of Pharaoh's magicians or his crocodile swallowing up the crocodiles of the wise men, either way, that's what happens. So it's kind of a it's like a big joke in many ways, because these these Egyptian magicians think, oh, that's no big deal. We can do that, too. Look, you know, we can turn our our staffs into animals as well. and then aaron turns around and and his one staff swallows up all of these staffs of uh of the magicians which in many ways is kind of a window into what's about to happen because we're going to see god's victory over and over again against the egyptians and the magicians in the

ten flags i'm i'm choosing to believe that that it was a little bit of both so it's like oh it's was like a serpent crocodile yeah it's like a it's like a like a crocus snake thing where uh where it's you know you don't know what it is like is that a snake was that a crocodile what is that and uh it's just like a dragon i like that crocus snake we got a new animal yeah yeah just sounded just just crazy thing i think i saw one of those at the zoo the other day crocus snake crocus snake dude whatever i don't know how to be uh yeah i don't know how to put those two words together well if uh if you're if you're listening to this podcast and perhaps you teach a bible class at sunday school you're gonna have a whole new uh whole new spin on this story

to tell to your students uh next time you cover it yeah well you'd be like what or uh i know that my my kid has drawn some animals that i'm not sure of now i'll be like oh that's a that's a serpent dial i know what that is yeah it's either a serpent dial or a crocus snake i'm not sure one the two. So anyway, that's kind of the, you might think of this as sort of the preface to what's about to follow. We have this confrontation between the two brothers and Pharaoh. We have the working of a miracle. And through this miracle, the demonstration of the superiority of of yahweh over over the egyptians and that kind of sets the stage then for everything that's that's about to come as we begin the 10 plagues so uh are we ready to go there

dude we're ready let's let's do it all right so i i want to say a few things uh about just kind in general about these plagues to kind of set the stage for what's coming up because i think it's it's helpful if you uh before we begin looking individually at this at this first one and then the subsequent ones to kind of get the bigger picture of of these plagues so that we can kind of see them as a totality and the the structure of the total number of plagues kind of gives us an idea as to uh as to what what god is doing in using using these plagues against egypt now the first thing i think is is interesting and i and this is the time when i wish we were kind of on video so that i could i could show show everybody this but i'm looking at a i'm looking at

a chart that's from a book by nam sarna who's a jewish scholar it's called exploring exodus and he talks of course about about the plagues and he he's not the only one who's done this he and many others have have noted that there is a there's like a there's a very clear structure to all 10 plagues so it's like you know this was all this god knew all of this was going to happen and when it was written down it was written down in such a way that you could see how everything follows a certain sequence things don't just kind of happen haphazardly it's not as if god gives plague one and and he really hadn't planned on plague two but then he goes and does plague two and he thought maybe that would do it but no he needs another one so he doesn't plan three no

there's there's a whole structure to to the plagues let me just and i'm just giving you a couple examples to see how to see how this works so you got basically you got the first three are unit so the first three are three plagues or one series and then the next three four five and six are a series of plagues and then you have a final three series seven eight and nine and then ten stands alone it's like because it is the uh it's it's the worst it's the most cataclysmic of the of the plagues it kind of stands alone so you got three groups of three series of plagues each. And then within each of these, they follow the exact same structure. So for instance, in each of the series, in 1 and 2, and in 4 and 5, and in 7 and 8, in every single

one of these, Pharaoh is forewarned that the plague is going to happen. So the first two, there's a forewarning. The third just happens. 4 and 5, he's forewarned. And then 6 just happens. seven and eight he's forewarned and nine just happens and then it's kind of the same same structure when it comes to when these plagues happen so the very first in each of these series so number one and number four and number seven they all happen in the morning every single one and then the others in those sequence just just happen and we're even told in each of these three series it follows the same structure where moses is supposed to go when this plague is about to happen so in each for instance in each of these three series he's told in one and four and in

seven that he's supposed to station himself before pharaoh when when these plagues are about to happen so i mean there's a lot more that i could go into there but just kind of give you some examples To show that it's like if you remember way back in Genesis one, there was a certain structure to the creation narrative. So the first three days kind of create a space that days four, five and six fill in with particular. So there's a there's a definite structure to the creation narrative. Now, when you get to Exodus 7 and the chapters that follow it, we've got another clear structure, except this time, it's not a structure of creation, but it's a structure of uncreation. What God is doing in Egypt is basically reversing Genesis chapter 1. So the plagues, you can think of the plagues this way.

They're kind of God's way of plague by plague by plague, uncreating Egypt. So he's taking away the blessings of creation and he's putting in their place darkness or pestilence or blood or gnats or lice or any of these other things that are part of creation that basically are making creation. to preach the law to the Egyptians, show them God's wrath, and call them to repentance. So the plague cycle is God working as creator, revealing his anger against Egypt and Pharaoh in particular by on Genesis 1, if you will, the work that he did in Egypt when he created it to begin with. So that's kind of another thing to keep in mind when we're looking at the plagues is kind of the implication, the theological implication of the plagues. And that's one of the that's one of the big things is that the plagues reveal that god preaches the law in these

acts of uncreation because what he's ultimately doing is he's reducing pharaoh and he's reducing the egyptians he's putting them down to their knees he's reducing them to nothing in order that he might demonstrate that he is the lord that they rebelled against him and that they need to need to repent yeah god god happens to use uh creation a lot to do this kind of thing i mean that's what he does with the flood yeah the flood is another great example of him on creating the whole world in that case in order to in response to sin yeah yeah you know i didn't uh uh i don't think that we uh we often think about this but we have the same thing that happens uh all the time of the world today i mean that

the very fact that we have tornadoes we have hurricanes we have floods we have fires we have all of these these things that happen in creation that are not the way that they don't fall under the category of good or very good of genesis chapter one all of these are symptoms of a world gone wrong now it doesn't mean that you know if a tornado hits a small town in texas that oh that town must have been just a terrible town full of full of awful people but there was a lot worse in the town that was spared no that that's not the point the point is that every time that something like that happens in creation it's a reminder to us of the fallenness of creation the fallenness of ourselves and the fact that this world is is royally messed up so in that sense they're a

constant call to repentance for for all humanity because they these this is that kind of groaning of creation that paul talks about in romans chapter 8 as it waits waits for the revealing of the sons of god so creation is is groaning creation is is broken creation is full of all kinds of tumultuous things that that cause all sorts of all sorts of harm to humanity and this this too is a is a reminder of the fact that just as our world nature is broken so so are we it all began with us uh to begin with too much pollen is nature growing groaning and tornadoes and and hurricanes is like nature screaming out to be recreated yeah that's that's a good way to think of it i mean any any uh anything i mean even even the fact that that uh nature itself is so

bloodthirsty and violent i mean all of this is if if we have eyes to see we see the preaching of a law in the world all around us you know people talk about going out into nature and feeling feeling close to god and i get that i mean creation does declare that the glory of god and the heavens declare the uh you know the work of his hands as the psalmist says but also when you go out into creation you see how bad the world is because you see how uh how broken it is you see violence you see destruction you see the earth coming unraveled in many cases and so all of this is a all of this is is a demonstration of of how sin has has affected not just humanity but animals and nature nature in general yeah i mean you can tell

this even in uh in pagan cultures where where they create gods after parts of nature uh whether it's the sun or or you know you have like thor and you know when when it's when there's lightning and there's massive storms that's you know thor beating his anvil or all that kind of stuff but they're not like uh the conclusion that they come to is not okay like each of these things in nature are a god and these gods are really loving and kind no like that like that they they come to a conclusion by looking at broken fallen nature that these are gods that need to be appeased

because they'll kill us all. That's the conclusion that all pagan religions come to that worship that is nature is not simply, that's why you've got to make sacrifices to it because it'll take its own

if that's what it needs to do. That's a great point. All of these all of the, kind of the divination of creation is mankind's attempt to, in some way, placate the anger of the gods. You know, if we know that there's a volcano god, and we're afraid the volcano is going to erupt, then we need to maybe try and placate the wrath of this god. Or if there's a tornado god, we need to offer sacrifices in order to placate that god so he doesn't come and destroy our homes and our cities.

So all of these, this divination of creation, which Egypt did, just as much as religions around the world have done, are nothing more than an attempt by humanity to deal with their greatest fear that things aren't right between them and God and that they could be destroyed. I mean, it demonstrates really the same thing

that that that we demonstrate in the preaching of the law today that things are things are are not just broken but dead the humanities and rebellion against god and that something needs to be done the only difference is we have the answer to that in christianity and it's not through all sorts of sacrifices on our part that's going to in some way appease the wrath of god it's god's sacrifice of himself that is going to take care of the problem and reconcile us to god and bring about the peace and the protection that we only get as a result of as a result of christ so that you know other religions might be good at pointing out what's wrong with the world what's wrong with themselves but they don't have the answer it's only it's only the the gospel that provides the answer to

the same thing that that most of these religions are are seeking that's it be ready to look at some of these these things yeah let's let's look at these so uh we got the first one uh is uh is the nile turning into turning into blood so here's how to start out god talks to moses again he says uh look pharaoh's heart is hard he's stubborn he refuses to let the people go and so here's what i want you to do so here we begin this first series he says go to favor in the morning as he's going out to the water and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the nile and take in your hand the staff that was turned into into a serpent so he's got it all set up he's going to meet him at the nile early in the morning staff in hand and he's supposed to say

the lord the god of the hebrews sent me to you saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness but you have not listened until now and then he says to to raise the staff and to strike the water in the nile so that it turns into blood and that's exactly what happens They strike the water of the Nile And it turns into blood And not only that, but because of that The fish that are in the Nile, they die And their rotting corpses turn the water of the Nile

Foul So that in the end The water is incapable Of being used And so as the story wraps up The Egyptians are digging around the bank of the Nile to get water to drink because they can't drink directly out of the river. But it's interesting that just like the magicians of Pharaoh imitated

the staff turning into a serpent or a crocodile, so once more the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts. Now, we're not told if they reversed this or if they turned more water into blood what they did but it says they did the same with their secret art art the important thing is that when pharaoh saw this his heart was hardened still more and he didn't listen to them just like god had said that he wouldn't so this is this is the first plague and it's it's significant not only because it's first, but because it involves the Nile. Egypt is synonymous with the Nile. There was a 5th century BC Greek historian by the name of Herodotus who coined this phrase that you might

have come across, where he said that Egypt is the gift of the Nile. The Nile gave Egypt to the world, in other words, because it was impossible for Egypt to exist without the Nile. One of the kind of the strange features about Egyptian topography is that sometimes you'll hear reference to upper and lower Egypt, but in this case, upper Egypt is in the south and lower Egypt is in the north. So it's direct opposite of what you'd expect because the Nile flows from the south to to the north so it flows from the south and then it empties into empties into into the Mediterranean but what it would do every every fall from about August to October something like that about that three-month period it would flood it would be the annual inundation and what would

happen is as the waters expanded they would carry this nutrient-rich silt over the banks of the river and spread it out and then as waters went down the egyptians were able to plant their crops in that rich soil and were able to to grow uh to grow abundant crops as a as a result of it so the egyptians used the nile they they lived from the nile like like nothing else in their whole in the whole country so without the nile egypt wouldn't exist because of the nile egypt But Egypt was able to not only exist, but to thrive, become one of the most incredible civilizations in the ancient world. Now, the reason this is all significant is because the very first thing that God attacks is the Nile. But there's also another reason that it's important that he attacks the Nile.

And that's because what we were talking about earlier, the Egyptians, in addition to connecting gods and goddesses with other aspects of creation, also understood the Nile to be the personification of the god Hopi, H-A-P-I. So the Nile itself was understood to be kind of a visualization of this God. So when God has Moses turn the Nile into blood, it was his way, not only of demonstrating his anger against Pharaoh and the Egyptians for what they've done to his people, But this was God's way of engaging in a divine war with the gods, with the gods of Egypt. And in fact, we're told a little bit later, this is in chapter 12. We're told that one of the purpose of the 10 plagues was for God to attack the gods of Egypt, for Yahweh to attack the gods of Egypt. He says that he will strike down all the firstborn of Egypt. This is Exodus 12, both man and beast. And he says against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments.

I am Yahweh. So it's it's one of the things that I don't think we always always realize about the plagues is is that the plagues were were not only directed against Pharaoh and against the Egyptians, but also this was a theological war. this was a war of Yahweh against the false gods of the Egyptians and the first one that he attacks is the river god the god of the Nile so this was

this is the way it all started and the Nile was like this it says for seven days this is the way it kind of all gets all get started the plagues that are going to to follow follow after this yeah and that is a

huge deal too because this is uh this isn't like turning the uh yeah like you were like you were pointing out this isn't like like turning you know the local lake into blood but it's cool because you know you have city water so it's gonna be fine yeah it's not it's not like that no this is This was everything that the Egyptians needed. I mean, this was their, I guess, you know, this might be the equivalent of Moses and Aaron walking into the Oval Office and declaring to the president that they're going to shut down the U.S. economy for the next seven days. Because that's what, I mean, this was the economy. This was their life. This was the livelihood.

This was the life of the nation. and so for seven days it was uh it was ruined it was spoiled it was unable to be unable to be used so this is this is a declaration of war against pharaoh it's declaration of war against the egyptians and it uh first and foremost is a declaration of war against the false gods of the of the egyptians and and this is when you i think it helps too because of course we're not part of this uh part of this history we're not part of this it's kind of the cultural understanding so we don't always catch this but one of the things that that is part of this ancient world kind of the mindset of the ancient world is that every nation every people and every every location

they had their particular gods and these gods were understood to be more or less geographically bound. I mean, you've got the God of the Nile, right? That's where he's at. We have the God of a certain mountain. Well, that's where he's at. So there was a certain understanding that these divinities were spatially bound to certain places or certain kinds of geographical locations, whether that's a lake, a river, a mountain, a forest, whatever it might be. So this is like Yahweh invading the land of Egypt. He's coming onto soil where he's not supposed to be because, at least according to the Egyptian mindset, this is a foreign god invading their land, attacking their gods, and not only attacking, but he's demonstrating his victory over them

time after time after time. So this is a theological invasion of the Egyptian pantheon in which Yahweh demonstrates that he is not bound to some kind of geographical area. He's the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and he's come to demonstrate that the supposed lords of Egypt are nothing they uh they fall before him as uh as nothing more than the empty empty divinities so that's plague one that's it we're uh we're rolling so uh that's that's a that's a lot on one plague there man it's a lot on one play yeah let's see what we got next uh we we move we don't move very far because we're gonna move uh actually sort of this is the nile part two if if you will, because the second plague is the plague of frogs. So once more, God tells Moses to

go to Pharaoh and make the same demand, let my people go, that they may serve me. And if you don't, then I'm going to send frogs over your whole territory. The Nile is going to swarm with frogs. I love the image. This is verse three of chapter eight. It says, they'll come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed. If you're, if you're listening, of course, so you can't see, you can't see Dan's face, but his face just communicated the disgust of, you know, imagine getting into bed and there's like 25 frogs between the sheets of your bed. That kind of gives you a very gross image of how disgusting this plague would have been. I like that.

I'm not even – it's not even – it says also they're going to go into your ovens and your kneading bowls and your kitchen too. I think it's kind of funny that God's like, okay, second plague, frogs. And he has to – he knows that he has to explain exactly how many frogs. I mean, not exactly how many frogs, but, like, what's going to happen with the frogs. How bad it's going to be, yeah. Yeah, because let's be honest. If somebody's like, hey, do this thing or else I'm sending the frogs, you'd be like, yeah, all right. Like, it's not like, you know.

Lions or something. Yeah, I'm sending the frogs. I mean, there is this sense in which you're like, right, the frogs. Like, that's, yeah, that's scary stuff. not a great frog phobia out there no most people i mean yeah maybe there's you know maybe there's some people you know that are like you know oh gross i don't want to touch a frog but i don't think that's probably the case in this culture i don't think anyone's got like some kind of they're not grossed out or um or afraid of a frog i think i feel like they're probably

pretty cool with a frog so when he says frogs he has to then go and be like like you don't need Like, when I say a plague of frogs, I'm talking about frogs everywhere. Like, no escaping the frogs. There'll be so many frogs that they'll be forced into your homes. You'll find them in your coffee cup in the morning? Find them everywhere. Like, they just can't escape the frogs. And here's the thing, man.

Like, frogs gotta poop. Frogs gotta pee. like i mean like you know like it's gonna like this that many if you're just talking about a plague of any kind of animal that has some kind of digestive system going on any kind of animal that's not you know like i'm i don't know you know your worms or something uh even even just frogs man even though they're small you don't want frogs pooping and peeing all over your house If you're in a house full of frogs It's going to stink in there

I don't know the lifespan of frogs But people are going to start killing these frogs And then you're going to have burn piles It's going to be a mess And that's what happens As the story goes on Then Pharaoh actually calls

For Moses and Aaron And he asks them To pray that the Lord removed the frogs from his people. Isn't it interesting that that move doesn't really happen with the frogs

that instigate that move? I can't take the frogs, man. I just can't take them. I can take the Nile turning into blood, but get the frogs out of my bedroom and out of my kitchen, out of my throne room. I can't take them anymore.

It's weird that he's like, the Nile turning into blood is like, you know what, we'll wait it out. The frog is like, I just can't handle the frogs, man. I can't handle it. I'm completely over the frogs. And it's kind of humorous at the end because God does

get rid of the frogs. But not in really the way that Pharaoh wanted him to because it says the frogs died. But where they died was in the house, in the courts, in the fields. And so they made these huge, heaping

piles of dead frogs and as if we need to be told this, it says and the land became foul. Yeah, I'm sure it did. You got piles of dead amphibians all around the country.

So, yeah, no telling how long the land smelled like the rotting corpses of these frogs. Man, there's, where I live every once in a while, I'll walk outside you know me and my wife will be like going somewhere and we'll walk outside

and i'll get this big gigantic nostril full of fertilizer and i know that that means that they're yeah there's there's um cornfields that are not far from my house and i know that they have they have fertilized the fields and and like and there's a bunch of fields around around like the town where i live and the whole town smells like manure for like a week like for a week it's just like every time you walk outside you're like good lord it smells like nature out here like it is like this is too much like living downwind from a pig farm yeah yeah it's it's it's crazy now i mean that's nothing compared to what we're talking about that's strategically placed fertilizer you know tilled into the ground this is just heaping mounds of i don't i don't even

know i'm picturing just like pyramids of frogs that you i mean dude you know that it is i mean there's probably like you probably got disease problems like going on you got like i mean the like flies and maggots and you've got just stench man and you know it's miserable people walking around just covering their faces uh yeah it sounds terrible yeah it it does i wonder if anyone was eating while they were listening to this podcast by the way sorry they might have had to put down their put down their food but you know you would think as bad as this got that that would that would do the trick you know after the whole frog episode then pharaoh would realize the error of his ways repent and do what yahweh wanted him to do but uh we're we're told as we uh as we come to

the end of our 40 minutes here we're told at the end of the second plague that when pharaoh saw that there was relief that they at least were dead once more he hardened his heart and did not listen to them just like the lord had said this is a great illustration of the fact that that sinners the minute they find some sort of relief from whatever it is they're they're suffering from are prone to harden their hearts and instead of learning from that instead of repenting instead of seeking the uh the forgiveness of the lord and striving to do his will they'll go right back to to where they were before so pharaoh is not yet broken his heart is still hard as can be and it's going to take a lot more plagues to bring him to the point where

where he's going to actually let the Israelites go. Yeah, that's a good illustration of why we constantly need law and gospel. We hear the law, and we're despairing of ourselves. We get some relief, and you would think that, okay, good enough, but it turns out you're going to need that law again later on. So that's just the way it goes. Yeah, it's our constant need. And so we have our own plagues in our life.

uh maybe they're nothing like rivers turning into blood and frogs dying all around us but uh we have the law preached to us because each of us are are way too much like pharaoh and so we're we're shown our sin we're we're called to repentance uh we're admonished to uh to uh to confess and god comes along and he forgives us he gives us grace and mercy in christ and points us toward the fulfillment, really, of all of these plagues and the death of the firstborn upon the cross, where we find true relief, where we receive a new heart and a new spirit, as Ezekiel says, and we're told that we have peace with Yahweh.

We have peace with the Father through Christ. Yeah, yeah. all right guys that's it thank you again so much for joining us uh but a blast 71 episodes in uh we are uh i don't feel like we're slowing down we're gonna we're gonna keep it rolling so uh so thanks so much uh share this uh this podcast with your friends share it on the on social media that's that stuff helps us out uh rate and review on itunes that gives us a little more visibility as well and uh yeah so thanks for for sticking with us this long and uh we will be back next week.