Badlands Media - The Choice S4E6: Dedication

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Ashe in America and Ghost are back to unpack Season 4, Episode 6 of The Chosen, "Dedication," and this one is doing a lot at once. Expect a surprisingly deep detour into Alexander the Great and how his conquests reshaped the world Jesus and the disciples actually lived in, plus a spirited debate about which Bible verses tend to get conveniently trimmed by preachers who like half a promise more than the whole gospel. Hanukkah brings warmth, tradition, and family scenes worth savoring, but the hosts also dig into Judas's growing impatience, the quiet courage of an unlikely disciple in a moment of crisis, and a devastating letter that closes out the episode on a gut punch. Ashe and Ghost trade sharp character analysis with plenty of tangents, humor, and a shared appreciation for the show's attention to detail. It is equal parts Bible study, TV recap, and buddy banter, and it sets the stage for what they promise is a very big episode next week.

The Badlands, what are the Badlands? Explain those Badlands. That's a hell of their name. Good morning, everyone. Well, good afternoon. Is it after? No, it's morning still when this airs. We're recording this.

This is a recorded show, but it's only a little recorded. Because it's only like a couple hours before it air. So it's almost like we're live. Yes. It's about as close to getting live as you can without being live. Yep. It is. That's right.

Welcome to the Choir. Today we are going to be covering season four, episode six, dedication. It is a weird episode. You can tell that we're getting close to the season finale. And I wonder if there's going to be kind of a two-part season finale like we saw in season three. But the plot is moving along more quickly. This episode, they are celebrating Hanukkah. and we get the story of Hanukkah and we see kind of the celebration and how they're celebrating.

And then there's some devastating things that happen as well. And we'll get into all of that. How are you doing today, Goss? I'm great. How are you today? Doing all right. I'm doing all right. It's early.

Yeah, it is early. And I appreciate you accommodating my schedule and jumping on here early because it's much earlier in Colorado than this here in Virginia. Two whole hours earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But definitely want to give a shout out to Cacao Bliss. Absolutely. sponsoring this show today.

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Yeah. And the bigger kind of gift set comes with a bowl for the mixing, you know, all wood utensils. Really beautiful presentation would make an absolutely extraordinary. gift. It's a beautiful box. It is. Yeah. And the gift keeps on giving, gift keeps on giving because, you know, you're getting seven superfoods. And I'm sorry, 63 times more antioxidants than broccoli and 54 more than kale. Now, I like broccoli, but apparently if you, you know, cook it a whole lot, then you kind of destroy its health benefits. And of course, you know, I like broccoli and soup and broccoli casserole. I'll still eat a bowl of broccoli. Like I actually really enjoy broccoli. Kale,

no thanks. I think the whole kale fad, you know, 10 years ago was a thigh up to make, just to convince, just to convince Americans that they wanted to eat rabbit food. And I can drink, I can drink chocolate and get more antioxidants than a bowl of kale. Yes. Yes, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I've been out of town for the past week, but I did just receive. I was gone, like the beautiful box. So I've never had a chance to try it yet. I'll try it today after the show and I'll report back. But if it tastes as good and works half as good as it looks in the presentation,

then it's probably a great product. So thank you. We appreciate the sponsor. We appreciate the product and the support and I will report back my findings from my own autistic experience. And so I do have the video uploaded now. We'll do a second reading for them. Okay. With the video later in the show.

But let's jump into this. So, you know, to your point, I kind of think the two big moments in this. Number one, like, I loved the presentation at the beginning of the episode with like the telling of the story of Alexander the Great who Jesus says, we call Alexander the worst. Because I've actually talked about Alexander the Great a bunch recently. just because of like the importance of the history there. And what he did. And so that's basically 300, it'd be about 350 years, 300, 350 years, something like that,

before this time that we're looking at where Jesus and the guys are all sitting around. And basically his father, they're from Macedonia, and they develop a better version of what you saw in the movie 300 with the phalanx. They developed a better version of that where instead of every guy holding a shield and a spear, you had a front row of guys holding shields and then a second row of guys holding much longer spears. And then they had, you know, a system for how those guys were replaced when they were when they died when they were killed in battle. And because of that, their spear was like four feet longer or

six feet longer. They were far more effective than the old Greek phalanx. And so in the matter of two years, basically, they conquer the entire known world from from Macedonia. which is just north of Greece all the way to India and down to Egypt. This is to Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great. And he's about like, he's like 22 when he does this. He's like 23. He's a young boy.

I mean, in the eyes of you and me, he's basically Caleb's age. Yeah, that's like age for that for that time, isn't it? Well, no, he was still considered pretty young at the time. Like a thousand, didn't they in the Bible? Yeah, but he's still considered pretty young because even before then, he, you know, even as like a teenager, he was like, you know, he was like the, um, he was like the stud just like, like physical specimen before that. And so he was just considered like this, um, you know, he was like a mountain of a man in terms of

just his physical appearance. Had a boyish look about him though. Um, and, you know, that's why like he never had a beard. So he's always presented as like clean shaven, um, which at the time, of course, makes you look far younger. Um, and yeah. And then just the fact that in two years, he conquers like every single known civilization, including Persia, which Persia was kind of the big, the big one at the time. But then he unites East and Western civilization because he's really fascinated, despite being Greek effectively, he is really fascinated by the Eastern culture. And so he kind of unites, he kind of brings a lot of the Eastern culture into Western civilization, a lot of like their nuance and their practices, their, you know, their fashion, their spices,

their food, like all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of intermingling that happens in a very short period of time. And that's the significance that he kind of brings to history, is like the merging of East and West and this intermingling that was far more pronounced than before, because of course before it was just war. It was a war between the Greeks and the Persians and whatnot. So, yeah. So from Alexander the Great.

And this is, as Ghost said, playing out in the play acting of the disciples as they celebrate the feast of Hanukkah, the different nights. So from Alexander the Great, we then move into Antiochus Epiphanies and the abomination of desolation. This is a big point of contention, I think, between Zionists and non-Zionists, just biblically speaking, that Antiochus Epiphanes, is it a fulfillment? of Daniel 9, the prophecy in Daniel 9, or is it one of those things where it's going to happen twice, right? Double meanings exist. And so is the Antichrist going to do the same thing that Atticus Epiphanes did? And what he did was slaughter a peg on the altar. And essentially desecrate the temple. Now, this, I thought that that scene, that where they're talking about that, that, that part of the story because then after and you know with the antichist epiphanes you get into judah juda judah of macaby

uh judahabee and the rebellion and then you know they rededicated the temple and the oil lasted for eight nights which is the you know the the celebration and i'm way oversimplifying that i know but that's um I think that's a good scene to play for I think so because the the importance of the blood is so lost in modern Christianity. I was like, oh, stop talking about that. Like, that's, you know, that's not something we should, but, but the blood is everything. And it's the, it's the, the, so, you know, in, in the temple on the day of atonement, the way that they could be reconciled, the way that God provided. for them to be reconciled for their sins is that the blood of the spotless lamb needed to be poured out on the mercy seat for the atonement of their sins. And then for another year, their sins were

covered and, you know, they could be reconciled to God. Desecrating that was probably the worst thing you could do in their worldview, in their religion and in the eyes of God, certainly. And we talk a lot about the blood. But why is the blood of Jesus important? Why is, you know, why isn't it just that he was, you know, he came and he was the best and everybody, you know, everybody should know Jesus. And that's enough. And we move on. Well, no, it's actually really important to understand why he had to die. It's important to understand why the blood is important. And I think that this, their play acting of the Hanukkah story actually kind of helps us get there. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I agree. So Leah, let's go ahead and watch it and then we'll discuss. Okay, cool. After Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian, whom some have taken to calling. Wait, let me slow it down. I have it on 1.25. The rising of the son to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the head. After Alexander's son of Philip the Macedonian, whom some have taken to calling Alexander the Great, but whom we call Alexander the first.

Oh! He defeated King Darius of the Persians and the Medes. He succeeded him as king. He fought many battles. Who? Who? Who? Who?

Who? Conquered strongholds. and slaughtered the kings of the earth. He advanced to the ends of the earth and plundered many nations. He gathered a very strong army and ruled over countries, nations and princes. Then he fell sick and perceived he was died. So he summoned his most honored officers and divided his kingdom among them. Then he died.

From them came a sinful root. Antiochus Epiphanes. and he hated God. He attacked Jerusalem on the Sabbath, knowing the Jews would not fight. He went into the temple and defiled it by slaughtering a pig on the altar, sprinkling its blood on the holy of holies, and poured the swine's broth onto the Torah scrolls, which were then shredded and burned. The abolition of desolation trembled.

earth and the presence of the Lord and the presence of the God of Jacob who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Yeah, I think that's, I was just looking, I think that was one of the Psalms. Yeah, so. Yeah. So before we get into the biblical elements of this, let's just talk. about the geopolitical and even really just the modern news cycle because this is actually a very, very relevant conversation. So here's the map of Alexander the Great. So his military campaign technically lasts 10 years. It's a 10 year campaign, but a lot of the action is happening in like a

two to three year period. He comes in, he takes over as Philip the Great's successor at the age of 20. he dies at the age of 32. But by the age of 30, he has established everything you see on screen here, which is what is considered the known world. This is where all civilization at the time exists. And he starts way over here on the left in the pink. That's Macedonia.

And the really important, the really most important battles, the most important areas he takes over are modern day Turkey and modern day Iran, as well as Babylon, modern day Iraq. but really modern day Turkey is where, which is considered Asian minor, that's where, you know, the Gordian knot,

the famous story of the Gordian knot, where he breaks the Gordian knot, the prophecy being anyone who can untie the Gordian knot will rule the world. And instead of trying to untie, he just pulls a sword out and chops it and breaks it. That was in around Frigia, which is right up here on the left in Turkey.

And then, of course, when he takes over Persia, Persepolis Media Parthia and then he establishes Alexandria over here in modern day I think it's modern day Afghanistan

but yeah so he goes all the way to Pakistan he goes all the way actually to India the Indus River Valley all the way over here on the right and then he gets sick and he dies at the age of 32 suddenly very suddenly a lot of speculation that he was poisoned but but the reason that he

important is because he was... It sounds like he had it coming, though. Well, that's what, that's kind of what, um, that's what some versions of the history say. Uh, however, it's, what makes him really significant from a philosophical standpoint is that you had Socrates, right? Socrates is the great teacher before Jesus. Um, I would argue that Socrates and Jesus, there's a lot of parallels between their,

their, their, their, um, you know, the way that their life, uh, arc happened. where Socrates was persecuted by the government. He's basically telling everyone to think for themselves and to be humble and to stop, you know, allowing your ego to rule your life. And then he's basically given the option of renouncing all of his teachings or being executed. And he says, I can't renounce my teachings because it's the one,

it's the one truth of the universe. And so they execute him for poisoning the minds of the youth. So Socrates student is Plato. And then students, Plato, a student is Eric. Aristotle and then Aristotle student is Alexander the Great. And so he's of the lineage philosophically of Socrates, which gives him a very unique perspective and a unique character. And that's why he's open-minded enough to look at these civilizations and see the value in them,

as opposed to wanting to erase them from the earth, which is really what the practice was beforehand was you conquer a place and then you force them to adopt your customs. he would go conquer a place and then adopt their customs and say, oh, I see value in what you're actually doing here. So there is a lot to him that is a lot more nuanced and I think thoughtful than what is presented in some versions of the history. Obviously, the Jews view him as evil.

Like they don't like because he defeated the Persian Empire and the Persian Empire is considered the great liberator of the Jews in Babylon with the people. Cyrus the Great. But yeah, I mean, Alex Inner the Great, very, very interesting history. And, you know, obviously the origins of Western civilization are found in Greek civilization. And the reason that that's relevant today is because we had Mike Huckabee, just a few days ago, get up and speak at a Jewish conference, you know, a Zionist conference, and openly say that the origins of America are not found. in Rome are not found in Greek law, but are actually found in Jewish history. It's actually

Jewish history and Judaism are the origins, not Christianity, not Greek civilization, not Greek philosophy, not Roman civilization, but Judaism is actually the origin of America, which is the opposite of everything that we've always taught for the past 250 years, where the origins of Western civilization of America are Western civilization, which is Rome, Greek law, and Christianity, of course. Yeah. And, you know, so I can get on board with the founders of the United States of America were Bible believing, right? Were that the Bible was an important, was kind of the guiding text for them. But more broadly, the idea of Republic, the, you know, that comes from Plato. but I wanted to ask you, are you familiar with the minority scholarly view that Socrates

wasn't real, but Plato made him up? I'm not familiar with that. It's a very real hypothesis, but it is a minority view. Yeah, I think that's a, that ignores a lot of different like independent, um, independent, um, sources that are like around, around the area that all, that all like cite Socrates and say that this guy was very, very, very well known across the known world. And he had a lot of, you know, he lived, he lived a long life. He lived to be like, I think like 60, something like that, well into his 60s maybe.

And even was fighting in the phalanxes in his 50s. He was fighting in the army. Well, they say that. Yeah. And they say that he saved a number of people who would then go on to become like famous leaders. And so those famous leaders all attested he was real. But Aristotle, I would argue Matt, Matt, has kind of put this in my mind's eye and I think he's right Aristotle was kind of the corrupt

deep stater of it it was like Plato was great Socrates was great Aristotle was the corruptor and then he's the one who kind of like for whatever corruption Alexander the Great had that was like Aristotle's doing um but but anyway I I digress Aristotle was born after Socrates died so he would be he would be running on stories as well yeah can you imagine like it's just it's interesting to me. I've always loved this theory because we call a lot of stuff

not real, right? I pretty much look at the entire news cycle and my response is well that's not real. That's a bunch of stories about a few data points that might be real, but the story itself that we're being told about this thing isn't real.

To know that that kind of questioning and skepticism, of historical stories that we're being told goes back to the time of Socrates. Well, I don't know. It just makes me feel like we're in good company and that, you know, to, you know, Chris Paul's point withholding belief is actually maybe the most logically sound thing to do when you're faced with a story landscape that's, you know, you can't validate it. You can't verify it.

Yeah. The only, again, the reason that I would. would push back more, even more so than the, like, the independent accounts all saying this guy was real, is the fact that the problem is that the independent accounts portray him differently. Yeah, but I mean, there's just different perspectives. There are different perspectives of what he was. But his teachings, though, it's like his teachings were so groundbreaking and they were so different from what people were used to hearing and used to thinking about. And they, they aligned far more with the teachings of Jesus than anything else that had come before them. And all of the authorities, all the kings and all the different authorities in the world hated him because basically he was teaching people to be independent thinkers. He was teaching people to question authority and to basically put their belief in what we would call now God and the creator. They like to put their faith in the creator of the universe as opposed to the earthly

masters and listening to the kings. And that really, in my opinion, paves the way for, you know, the thinking that we now associate with Western civilization, which we attribute to Jesus and the teachings of Christ and the moral compass that Jesus sets for the world that we see right here in this episode towards the end when he's confronted by the Pharisees. Yeah. The other thing is, you know, like you said, groundbreaking profound ideas that change the world. We're talking about the cradle of civilization, right, and how it changed the, and how these

ideas changed the world. Didn't write any of them down himself. Well, didn't write any of them down that we've seen, but he could have written them and they could have all been burnt because remember he was dragged out, thrown in prison, kept in prison, and then executed. So you have to imagine that any of his possessions would have been put to the torch. So yeah, good point. All right, where are we going next? So let's, I mean, let's talk about this interaction between Judas and Matthew I think Judas is really again just like the last episode he's really the

important character in this the individual character in this episode because we're seeing his story he hasn't really had much of an arc up until this point I mean we've seen we saw it a lot in the last episode but I would argue that his arc is now kind of being shown a little more

so let's let's look at his Yeah, I think his arc is being shown more. And I also just want to, you know, we do this all the time, but I want to point out that a lot of Judas's story is showrunner invention. I think it's good to remember that in this episode with Thomas as well. Right. We're raised as, you know, Christians to know that, like to view Thomas is doubting Thomas.

Right. He was, he was a skeptic and he's, you know, kind of who's the one withholding belief from all the things, right? the showrunners explore why he might be that way. Why is he so negative? Why is he so resistant? And they've taken the approach that he was in love with Rima and she was killed by Quintus. And so, and he was already a little autistic

and sort of a skeptic anyway. And then his girlfriend was killed. So he is kind of, you know, sort of down, kind of doom. He's doom. He's blackpilled a little bit, I think. He says at this point when they're talking about Lazarus, no, we should definitely, if we're going to go back to Judea,

it might as well be to the House of Lazarus so we can die with him. Right? He's kind of dooming out. So showrunner invention, exploring why he might be the way that he is as described in the Bible, right? Because we don't get the answer to that in the Bible. Judas is similar, I think, in what they're doing with him. So Judas, everywhere that he's mentioned, I think, everywhere that Judas Iscaria is mentioned in the Bible, it says the one who betrayed Jesus, who would go to betray Jesus, right?

They don't let, they don't let his name stand without kind of approaching that, that, you know, making sure that it is attached to his betrayal. What they've done in the show is kind of explore how he got that way. and we see him with Hadid. We talked about that last week a little bit. He's walking with Jesus. And he runs off to his old scammer friend for advice on why the ministry isn't going the way that it's going. That's a little bit indicative of his heart. And again, it's showrunner invention here.

And then Hadid, of course, gives him the, at the end of last episode, gives him the advice to take a, you. should be taking a cut. Of all the money that you guys have, you should be taking a cut. And then we see him, you know, take a bit off the top and stick it in his pocket. I love kind of hero Matthew in this exchange. Matthew is like, nah, man, I did this math in my head. Where's the money? You know? And it's kind of like, like I love that angle of it. But they're building up this. I think they're going to do a good job. This was, I think, the first episode that I have not seen before, which made it much more difficult because oh really yeah yeah because i know you said you haven't seen the fifth season did you not see the end of the fourth season yeah i don't think i saw the end of the four season i knew that i

stopped some time in the fourth season but every episode i've been like oh i remember this oh i remember this i don't remember this one at all so i think that's probably where i stopped and so we're seeing judas is what what i think they're going to pull off is kind of a very natural progression to when he makes the betrayal it's going to be very natural see you know but still a moral conflict, but he's getting there through his doubts and his, he's, you know, when, when, when they started walking with Jesus, and this was before Judas, but you'll remember like Peter, and we still see John and James Act this way a little bit, super skeptical about what are we doing? When are we going to, you know, attack Rome?

Why aren't we building the kingdom? Like we said, now those guys have come to realize that this is different. And you can see the way that they're in. interacting and see the way that John advises, I think it's John that advises Judas in this episode about relying on his own understanding versus why aren't you talking to Jesus about your concerns, right? The disciples from the beginning are, they have been made more like Jesus by this point from walking with him and learning at his feet and listening and taking the, you know, their hearts have changed, their characters changed. As you always say, they've also had ego.

death. And we've seen, we've seen that for a lot of them, right? Not all of them, but we've seen their kind of conversion story. We don't see that with Judas, but the showrunners are really showing us that, you know, you can be with the body of Christ and not be in it. And I think there's many such cases of that. I think that the way that they're exploring Judas and his story of how he gets to, you know, what we all know is coming. I think, I think, I think, I it's you know showrunner invention i think it's creative and well done and it's going to make this seem very natural yeah i would definitely agree with that um yeah you're you're you're gonna i think you're really going to enjoy the way that this season ends um for what i remember i it's been a few years

since i've seen this season all the way through uh but has he over has he whipped and overturned the tables yet no no no no no that yeah i did see that yeah so yeah so i don't know where i'm at But I, and maybe I just, you know, zoned out while this episode was on or something when it was playing back in the day. But I did not remember this episode at all. Yeah, no, no, that's a huge scene. And I can't remember if that's the very end of the, well, I'm not going to, I'm not going to spoil it. But I don't think I saw a chapter or season five at all. So I feel like it's going to be in this one.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's a good one. But to your point, yeah, Judas, again, doesn't have dego death. He does have his ego intact, I think. And you see him going through a lot of the progressions that we saw others go through. Like Thomas in this episode, you're kind of seeing the despondent, almost like cynical. It kind of comes across a little bit of courage.

It's because he doesn't care. Like when Jesus is like, all right, let's go back to Lazarus's house. Let's go back across the river into Bethany to go to Lazarus's house. And they're like, but we're wanted men. Like they're going to kill us. And Thomas is like, yeah, I don't care. Like, yeah, might as well go. that's as good a place that dies anywhere.

Like, let's go die. That's kind of where Matt, I'm sorry, Peter was, Simon was, when they were getting on the boat, right? He was just like, he was like, yeah, whatever, man. Like, I don't care. Like you, like my unborn child died. Jesus could have saved them. Like, my wife hates me now.

Like, what's the point of all this? Like, I don't really care anymore. Like, let's just get it over with. That's kind of where Thomas is right now. You see Judas going through. some of these progressions, but instead of, like you said, turning to Jesus and getting counsel from him, he's turned to his old mentor, an earthly master, and gotten counsel for him. And he's gotten the wrong counsel, of course. And all that guy really did was just

inflame his own ego and just be like, hey, man, you're smart, you're capable. You've already proven yourself as a competent businessman and a great human being and a very, very accomplished, successful person, why would you listen to these losers who haven't really made anything of themselves in life, you know, to the extent that you have, you know what you're doing. You should just trust your own. You have specialized skills. Yeah, you have specialized skills. Why wouldn't you just do, like, don't listen to a bunch of fishermen and shepherds.

Like, you should be the one running the show here and you should be the one, you know, building the resources for this new kingdom that they're going to make. What is lost on Judas is that it's not a material kingdom. It's like the kingdom that's coming is not material. We don't need material resources because we're not building a literal physical material kingdom. And that is the kingdom that the Pharisees have built. That's the kingdom of the Sanhedron is built. I would argue that's the kingdom now that Israel represents, the modern state of Israel.

And that's the kingdom that the Zionists, including Christian Zionists, all worship as opposed to the kingdom of God. And that is why you see the violence, like the violent nature of the Pharisees at the of the episode. I think that is a direct mirror of the violent nature from people like Laura Lumer, Mark Levin, Netanyahu, who are all basically like talking about the importance of vengeance and murder and, you know, getting even an eye for an eye and all that kind of stuff. I think you're seeing a direct correlation between like that's the culture that they've adopted in modern day Israel is the culture of the Sanhedron where it's like, we're going to get ours, we're going to build our kingdom and we're because we are God's chosen people not you and ultimately it comes back to a

supremacist worldview well yeah and biblically spiritually I think it comes back to is it for the glory of God or is it for your own glory and the chosen people thing has kind of I don't know man it's it's it's corrupted souls is what it yeah but you've you've you've convinced a generation that this group of people is supreme is supreme to everyone else because if you have the wrong position about them god could curse you and that is such heretical garbage that you know but but it is the mainstream Christian worldview not catholics right Catholics are a little bit more based on the issue but um when they have their own issues right as well it's gatekeeping yeah it's gatekeeping yeah well it's gatekeeping

but more than gatekeeping, it's exalting the creation to the level of the creator. And, you know, this, this is the story of God's chosen people is that it's Deuteronomy 28. When you're living in my protection and provision, when you're seeking my face, when you are honoring, you know, me and my way, then you're going to have prosperity and peace. and nobody's going to be able to touch you. When you decide that you know better and you want to play God and you want to run after other nations and you want to adopt their customs and you want all of the trappings of the world, but you don't, you know, but God has told you you can't have them, right?

God has given you this very extensive and detailed law that you can't have all of the trappings of the world, but you decide you want it anyway. And why can't you have it? Because you're chosen, right? We're the chosen ones. We're the holy ones. well, that's the story of Israel over and over again.

And that's why I really like the imagery of Israel being God's wife, which he uses himself in Ezekiel, right? God uses that imagery himself to describe this relationship of, you know, his wife is a bit of a hoe. And she's constantly running off and he's bringing her back home and she's running off again and he's bringing her back home. And, you know, eventually there's a reckoning. And the church is referred to. to us as bride, you know, waiting in, waiting in the wings for the, for the wedding feast. I think, I think that that imagery is important. And I think it's particularly important as we examine that issue, right? The, the people of the book thing is coming. It is here already in a lot

of ways that Victor Mark's Coup that just won the primary for governor here, he describes himself as a people of the book. Mike Huckabee describes himself as himself as people of the book. book. People of the book, first of all, you have to ask which book. They'll all say, oh, the Bible. We all believe in the Old Testament of the Bible, right? The Talmud, of course, is the Bible, according to some people. Well, right. And that's the problem, is that we do all, I think, generally the three Abraham, you know, Abrahamic religions, generally accept the Old Testament of the Bible as, you know, a foundational document, if not a, you know, of the most important one. But you have the

prime minister of Israel quoting the Talmud and calling it the Bible in English to justify war. That's a perversion. And it's a pretty profound one when you considered that if he was talking to people in Israel,

he would have been speaking Hebrew. He wasn't talking to people in Israel. He was talking to people in the West to try to convince them to support a war by representing that a very unbiblical, proactive violence is what he was calling for. This was specifically about striking Iran, right?

And it was if you're, if you're Sanhedron 72A, if your, if your neighbor is going to rise up or your brother is going to rise up and strike you, rise up and strike him first. That is a very unbiblical principle. Yep. And yet it was represented as being from the Bible in English to people in the West to justify. preemptive strikes on Iran. And people gobbled it up and swallowed it whole. And that's a real problem spiritually, not geopolitical, the problem geopolitically, but spiritually, it's a real problem.

And then, you know, if you raise it to the Zionists, you'll get either blank stares or, well, you should pray for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And well, and the interesting part about that is, again, like the, I read about this the other day in the news brief. There is now a cataclysm happening in the Jewish community where American Jews are now in rebellion against Israel. And they now, it's like, I think the poll that is, you know, polls can be faking gay, but whatever. But I think there's definitely a reflection in the zeitgeist of this of, according to the times of Israel, one third of American Jews now openly say that Israel did commit a genocide in Gaza.

and I think the same authorities, the same sources say that only only 20% of all Americans, including Gentiles, support Israel and what they're doing now. I mean, this is according to the Times of Israel, which is adjacent to state media, I would say, in Israel. And this goes back to some of my own anecdotal experiences like at Gart where Jewish Americans coming there tell me, they're like, well, I only went to Hebrew. school till I was, you know, 12 or 13, had my bama mitzvah and then just went to just go to, you know, synagogue every week. I don't know any, I've never heard of these other books you're

talking about, like, like the Zohar or the Tallmood or any of this stuff. I just studied the Torah, like, you know, the same Torah that Jesus and them studied. Yeah, it's like that's, that's, you know, the Pentatoc, I think is, is what it's referred to, or the Tanakh, I think, is what it's referred to in the first five books. Yeah, the first five books. And that's, That is the, that's the cataclysm because the Talmud and rabbinical Judaism and the modern Judaism as it's practiced in Israel inherently rejects the Third, the New Testament inherently rejects Jesus. That's like, that's the core basis of their religion, whereas it seems to me, I'm not Jewish, but it seems to me that the Tanakh is really just a continuation of what was already being practiced. and while they of course don't embrace Jesus as their Messiah, there's not an animus towards Jesus that I think is found in the tall mood.

Yeah, well, no, certainly in the text, you'll find that. I think it depends on which, you know, what kind of Judaism are we talking about. And, you know, to the, you know, kind of passive Saturday going, you know, Jew, it's probably much like you're describing for but but there's a core conflict right because to in order in order to practice their religion the and I'm scare quoting all of those words yeah the Jews had to invent a new way because God took their way away they didn't have they didn't have yeah the reconciliation of that conflict as Christians, we believe, can only come through the blood of Jesus. The blood of

the spotless lamb sprinkled on the mercy seat inside the Holy of Holies was replaced with the blood of the lamb on the cross poured out for all of humanity. And that's the promise of Genesis 123 that the Zionist always clips off, right? I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. They stop. But that's not the whole verse. And it's again, one verse, I will bless. I will bless. those who bless you, I'll curse those who curse you, and through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Why do they clip that part off? Well, that's the gospel message. And that's the gospel message being told to Abraham, to Abram, actually, before his name is changed, right?

It's kind of an important thing. And to hear Christians clip that part of the verse off, while just... justify while claiming that this verse is foundational to their entire worldview, claiming that this verse is so important, you have to know it or God is going to curse you. I want to be on the blessing side of that equation, Ted Cruz said, which my head promptly exploded afterwards, but they clip off the part of the message that foreshadows the gospel. Speaking of foreshadowing, one thing we didn't mention is that this episode, has a flash forward in the beginning.

So it appears like we watch them play acting, right? And it appears like it's Hanukkah, it's happy. Everybody's, you know, having a good time. You know, the family's all together and we're playing games and telling stories and, you know, doing all the different traditions. But at the very beginning of this, we see the in the same place where the majority of this episode happens there, I think, are they in Berea? I think at one point they say that they're.

That might be right. They're definitely east of the Jordan River, it seems. It seems like they're east of a Jordan River, which would put them in modern day Jordan. Yeah. So we see this space that they're in, which looks like a beautiful space to spend a holiday, right? We see them in this space throughout the episode and they all seem very happy, et cetera, until the end. But in the very beginning of this, we see that they come into that same space. And, you know, James is hurt, big James, hurt and, you know, not okay. They're all wet. They're very chaotic. There's blood on some of them. And we don't really get, we don't see what happens.

Because it's like, you get the flash forward that something chaotic is coming in this space. And then you get happy for a lot of the episode before we get to that point. But we will get to that point as to why they're all discombobulated. And they just been, they were stoned. is the answer. Yeah. All right. Let's watch this scene

and then we'll talk more about what you're getting at there. I asked Judas. Yes. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Let me back up a little bit. Yes. You can't not give him anything.

Even if it seems pathetic, it's the gesture. Something practical. Like some new sandals. It's nicer sandals than all of us. So they're talking about getting Thomas a gift, Right, because, yeah, because they're talking about getting Thomas a gift. They all recognize that Thomas had a hard time.

And so they need money for that. And it's Hanukkah, and it's appropriate, it appears appropriate to give gifts at this time because they're all doing it. Yep. Thank you. Those were made for standing and showing off, not for walking the number of miles we cover in the day. Yes, I do have blisters. Oh, Thomas, yes. He's hurting.

many other ways. He doesn't even notice. Do we have enough money for the new pill? Matthew? Is there another curse? I asked Judas. Yes. So I think where he's pointing his finger there is where they are. So he's pointing his finger east of the, east of the Jordan. And so yeah, modern day Jordan is where they are, which is where a lot of the important modern day site, Christian sites are, including the crucifient site. This is. This is. where you see that this guy is the kind of guy that will steal your wallet and help you look for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I love this moment because this is, this reminds me of like the modern like anon movement where you have these like the kind of person you just described is these grifters who are

presenting themselves as like our politicians, our thought leaders, our influencers, like our television characters and being like, oh yeah, like we like we have your best interest. Like we're taking care of you. Like we're we're spending your money wisely. And then this autistic guy comes in and he's like, wait a minute, these numbers don't add out. And he's just doing it all on his head. And he just has this intuition to be like, something doesn't make sense here. Yeah, exactly that. We want to buy new shoes for Thomas for his gift.

He has vegetable-pan sandals imported from Cyprus. Yes, but they are not made for walking. Then he should trade them in. He could get three fully functional pairs with that barfam. We set aside money for gifts. For gifts we can afford. When is the other purse? What are you talking about that if there is only one from Joanna?

No, no, no, no. But that has to be another. I went through it and it only contains half of the shekels, Joanna. Yes, we spent them on the inn. It's a lot of people and a lot of rooms. Someone food and then the gifts. No, I've done the math and it does not add up. I know what the allotted the mounts were.

Well, I don't know what to tell you. Do you want to take over keeping the purse? Sounds like you think you could do it better than me. I'm not asking for your job, Judas. And that is something I would like to leave behind. But facts are facts. Numbers don't just change just because I've directed my attention elsewhere. Maybe that's where you should keep your attention.

Oh. People's lives are at stake, man. Lives? Our people have been waiting thousands of years for this moment. I'm aware. We're on a nice edge of history message. The space is finally here and we're moving so inefficiently and slowly that we may very well run out of funds before he can even spread his message.

We owe it to the entire nation of Israel to be more scrupulous with the money that is entrusted to us for his work. Wow, it's too important. It's such a brilliantly written scene because, first of all, like when he walks up, clearly Judas is scheming. Like he's sitting there looking at the map. He's kind of like, like he's planning.

He's obviously plotting, right? And he's doing it based on his own understanding of what he thinks is happening and should be happening. And Matthew just kind of comes up and innocently asks, hey, where's the other purse? Like, there must be another purse. Like, of course, like, there's nothing dishonest going on here. There must be another purse somewhere.

We learned that half the money they're supposed to have is missing, which means that Judas has taken half the money from himself. That's a lot. And we saw him pinching in the last episode. We know that he's taking it, yeah. We know he's doing it. And so then as he's just inquiring, he's like, well, there's got to be more because we're just missing a lot of money.

I mean, even if it's just a small amount, we're missing some money. and that provokes this like backlash like this like anger in in uh judas that startles matthew and he's like whoa like i didn't like i'm not a cute i i literally protest too much yeah i haven't accused you of anything like i'm i'm just saying that there has to be more money somewhere like maybe we've just misplaced it or something where is it and um and then of course judas goes into this like this like this emotional black man where he's sitting there like invoking like the grand vision of the universe and like like moral. Our people have waited too long for this.

400 years, right? So important. This is exactly what politicians do. This is exactly what like the television characters and the emotional blackmailers on like Fox News and the GOP and all of course on the left. This is what they all do whenever you start asking just earnest, honest, honest questions about, wait a minute. Like we're sending $40 million to Pakistan for women studies. Like that doesn't make any sense. And they're like, you don't think women? Why do you hate women? Why do you hate women so much? Yeah. You don't want them to be able to read? Like reading for women is really important.

How are you? Yeah. This is exactly what's going on. It's so funny. And then like, yeah, like you look at like the modern day like Iran situation when people are like, well, I think we should just walk away and like just get out of this like, as you say, like retched. And they're like, you don't think the people of Iran deserve freedom and liberty and democracy? It's like nothing's new under the sun. And it's perfectly written. It's so, it is so perfectly written. And it just, there's so many stories in today's news, you know, the super real news that we're reading. I read your, in the brief this morning, you're Maria Carina Machado.

And it's the same kind of thing. The people of Venezuela have been waiting so long to be liberated. And it's like, well, hang on, they were. But she threw the CIA out of the country and got rid of the central, the centralized, you know, global communist control mechanism. Delsey seems to be doing our right. You know, she's working really closely with the president. No, no, no.

We have to get Maria Carina Machado in there, the globalists that were like, we need to put the globalists right back in after they were just excise from power. Oh, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand Venezuela. Do you understand how long the people of Venezuela have been waiting to be liberated from the evil Maduro regime? It's like, well, Maduro's not there anymore. It's Delci now. Yeah, but it needs to bring Maria Carino Machado.

No, we just got rid of that. Why would we put it back in place? But don't say that to the wrong people. They get room at. Yeah, and the same story is not happening in Iran where it's like, like, we made peace with Iran. And then it's like, but wait a minute. And then they're, but we haven't liberated the people of Iran because the, you know, the same people are still in charge ostensibly. And then we're about to get the same story in Cuba because like like Castro, like the Castro family is now negotiating with President Trump.

And it's very clear that we're going to make peace with the Castro family and they're going to be reinstalled with the leaders of Cuba. And that's going to make people's heads explode when that happened. But, you know, it is what it is. So. Yeah. And honestly goes, the only country that I am on board, with liberating the people is Canada. So let me know when we're liberating the people of Canada because I maintain my position that Canada is our greatest national security threat.

All of these other let them let them liberate themselves. Or let their regional partners and strong allies in their regions liberate them. Why does it always have to be asked? Why does it always? And it's never actually real. Yeah. Let's liberate America. Can we liberate the American people first before we start talking about like

liberating all these other. It's like when the airplane is about to crash, the masks drop down. They're like, hey, put your mask on first before you put the other person's mask on so you can get the oxygen and go into the euphoric state before you crash into the mountain. Like that is like we need to put our mask on first before we start talking about other people's masks. Let's go back and hit the cacao bliss again because we are past the video this time. Yeah, I got the video in three, two, two. one go. This episode is brought to you by Cacao Bliss from Earth Echo,

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And I- Beautiful products. I know. I know. It's, I mean, the presentation alone, I think, sold me. I haven't tried it yet, so I'm looking forward to trying it. I'm going to get busted out when we're done here. Apparently, you can be like an Aztec warlord if you drink this every morning according to John Drake. I know that that would be a good for you. Drake has been

hypeing this up in the Badlands chat. I have to say that. So I'm looking forward to it. And if I do become an Aztec warlord, I will I will. I feel like that's a good incentive. I will appear next week. with like the whole headdress the whole Aztec headdress yeah not on the choice we won't I also I also I also joked last night about I might legally change my name to yeah you Netanyahu because Yaiyernet and Yahoo apparently has

legally changed his name so he doesn't have to be referred to as Netanyahu anymore because he's hiding out Miami from the IDF so he doesn't have to serve in their army maybe I will assume Yaya Net and Yahoo's identity is this his son yeah the son that this Netanyahu That of Benjamin at Yahoo? Yeah, he's like, he's a draft Dodger. Well, he's like 34, and he's like a podcaster in Miami. And so, but he gets invited to like all the big global events. Like he, like, you know, like, CEPAC Hungary, CPAC Europe to speak there.

And so, and so he's like a, he's like an influencer now. But he's at the age where he should be serving as a reservist in the IDF. So all the IDF soldiers like hate him. And they're like, they like post online about how much of a wussy is because he won't come serve in his father's army. And so now he's legally changed his name, apparently. So he doesn't have to go around being referred to as Netanyahu. He's going to remember his.

Yonatan Jan is now his name. So what I'm saying is- Harry and William served in the military. What's that? Even Harry and William, the crown princes of British Empire, so what I'm saying is I might assume Yairi, Netanyahu's identity. Based. I'm going to become Yair Netanyahu so I can gain diplomatic immunity and basically just do whatever I want in America because you can't prosecute me because I'm Yair Net and Yahoo.

I bet you I could trick Black Twitter into believing that I'm Yair Netanyahu. I bet you could convince most of Twitter. Why did you focus just on Black Twitter? Just for you know, Black Twitter is the funniest of all. Oh, I know. I'm aware. They have the greatest sense of humor. They are the funniest.

And I enjoy... American Black Twitter. American Black Twitter is the funniest of all. British Black Twitter takes themselves too seriously. I was going to say... I was going to say the reason that they're so funny and endearing is because they don't take themselves seriously. That's what makes them so wonderful. So I love Black Twitter, American Black Twitter, because they're hilarious, especially when they're commenting on like the Zeitgeist.

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awesome of beer looks right now. I use the beard oil every single day. First thing comes out feeling all silky smooth. I take the dropper and I manually apply the oil directly to my mustache. Nice and, oh man, I love it. And then I do drops all throughout the hair and then I just rub it all in. And then I top it off with the tallow stick on the face. I feel like I have to grow a beard just to try this beer oil.

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Here's what I'll say about the beard oil. You don't have to have like a can con or even like a burning bright in that video beard. Like I'm just out of like the peach fuzz phase here. Like it's a pretty stubby like short beard. This is actually where my kids and my wife complain about like when I go to kiss my kids good night. It's rough. Oh, it's rough. Like they're like daddy.

your face is too scratchy. When I started using the beard oil, even just the very, very stub stage, it softens it up and my kids are at, my daughter actually grab my face and rub her face on my face. I'm saying it's like, don't think that you need to have like a, that's quite the endorsement.

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Well, let's let's, let's, let's, let's, I want to watch the whole scene of like them in the, in the temple. And then we'll, and then we'll dissect it. And so what they've done is they've, they've crossed the river, they've gone to the ferry, they've paid the ferry man, they've crossed the river Jordan, they've trekked across the land and now they're entering Jerusalem. Perfect. And note the gate that they enter, because that's going to become important in the next season.

Which date is it? Well, they don't talk about it here, but they will talk about it the next season. He will note it in his sermon here. Here they're just entering the normal gate, but later he will enter the gate where they leave the lambs in that are to be slaughtered. Listen carefully, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door climbs in by another way. Man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Have you seen him before? Okay, so this is a call back to a sea that happened earlier in the earlier in the episode that we skipped where Judas does go to Jesus and tries to consult him, right? And Judas is sitting there watching a shepherd take his sheep out of the little pin that he has in the middle of a field. And he's calling each sheep, each sheep has a name. And he's calling each sheep by name and the sheep are coming. And Jesus is sitting there saying, I have shepherds and sheep on the mind. This, this shepherd is calling a sheep by name. And that's where Judas is like, I just want to make sure

of that, you know, we have all the resources that we need for your kingdom. Including my cut. Yeah. And Jesus just kind of like rolls his eyes and he's like, yeah, you just don't get it, man. He's like, well, Jesus explicitly tells him pay close attention to my sermon tomorrow in Jerusalem, like, whatever I want you to pay attention. So, so Judas is paying attention. Seems a little annoyed. Yeah. And again, like, I will argue here. I will advocate for Judas here and say that Judas is not a wicked man. Like he is not, I don't think he has. I don't think he actually has malice in his heart towards Jesus or towards the movement.

You'll see that here in a minute, like in his defense of Jesus. But I think because he can't put his ego aside and put aside his own interpretation of what he thinks is happening and what should be happening, that's what leads him astray and leads him to ultimately turn on Jesus. It's not because he's evil inherently. Like he's like a wicked man. These Pharisees, I think, that are about to confront them. I think they are evil.

I think they have corrupted dark souls. But that is a, I think that, I think they are actually different from Judas. The problem is that just like the Pharisees, Judas has his ego fully intact and he can't separate himself. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I struggle a bit with the outright lying to the disciples and that performance he put on in front of Matthew when Matthew was about to catch him stealing from the treasury. You know, that that's, that's malicious. Well, there's definitely wickedness in his behavior.

Yeah, yeah, there's wickedness in his behavior, but is he, but I think in his own mind, well, I guess you could say this about almost, almost any like evil, evil leader in history. They always think they're the good guy. They always think that they're doing the rights or most of the time. At least they tell themselves that story. Yeah, right. They're doing the right thing, yeah. But I think when it comes down to it is that Judas doesn't want what Jesus is selling. He wants what he believes Jesus should be selling.

And that, you know, like he wants the over, he wants to overthrow Rome. He wants Jesus to establish his kingdom. He wants to be the head of the trade. He wants to be Scott Bessent in the new, you know, administration. And Jesus's new administration when they take over the government and they elevate themselves and everybody can finally see over the rest of the world that they're chosen and they're holy. And Jesus is offering something very different.

Jesus is offering, humble yourself, turn the other cheek. If someone takes your cloak, give them your tunic to, you know, you will die by the sword, like all of these things that it's not what they were expecting. It's not what they were promised, you know, promised by their false religion. And the other disciples have come to terms with that. They've wrestled with it. They've come face to face with it. They've realized what it says about themselves and what it means for their belief system. Judas doesn't just hasn't done that and he never does I don't think you know except he probably comes into that knowledge right before he kills himself but you know spoiler alert yeah yeah yeah well you're you'll this you'll see this play out the way it's very brilliant the way that they do it in the fifth season I'm not going to spoil it but you'll it'll it'll make sense once we start watching the fifth season the way they they handle this but just note in this sermon he's giving that he I've called my sheep and they respond to my name because they hear me.

Judas has responded to his name being called. He's called and he has responded. He's just led astray. He's not following him fully. And then the other point that I'll make is the thief in the night. He talks about everyone else is a thief. Everyone else who's come before me, it has been a thief. He's like, I am the only way.

And I think that is, I mean, I think of the modern state of Israel and the Mike Huckabee's of the world when I hear that. It is an incredibly offensive proposition to the other people of the book, right? People of the book that, you know, in the name of harmony and, you know, living together without conflict, we all just need to set aside the things in the book that we disagree upon. And then, you know, we can all just come together and agree upon the things that we agree upon. Well, we have to set aside Jesus and who he is, why he came, and what it means. and the fact that nobody can be reconciled to God for their sin,

which means everybody is cast out into the outer darkness separate from God without being atoned for your sin because God can't be around sin. And therefore, it's hopeless without Jesus. There is no hope without the death and resurrection, the conquering of sin and death by Jesus Christ, the blood atonement that goes back to the wilderness tabernacle and actually goes back to, you know, Abram bringing Isaac to the altar. Like there's like this, this, the, the blood is very, very important.

And when he talks about the lamb, the reason the lamb is very important is because the lamb is slaughtered for the blood to reconcile for sin. You just keep missing that. And I feel like so many people, even those that call themselves Christians, miss that. We don't want to talk about the blood. It's kind of gruesome, right? It's like, why you're always talking about blood? Like, can't we just talk about the love, joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? That's what a Christian is.

That's what a Christian is supposed to look like. It's like, yeah, I mean, you know, there's no one good, not one, and there's no one perfect. There's no one sinless. We all fall short of the standards of the law and we all fall short of the expectations of the fruit of the spirit. But you can't know who Jesus is, why he. he's important, why he died, why that's an incredible gift and what it means to you for eternity if you don't understand why the blood is important. Yeah, boy, it's what separates Jesus from every other person in history who's preached

to those principles, including Socrates, by the way, because that's ultimately what a lot of his teachings were about was about humility and setting aside your ego and understanding that you don't know anything. And so you should open your mind and your heart to what other people, you know, their experiences and yeah I mean what separates all of them from Jesus is the fact is the blood right is the fact that he's the son of God so it's very important let's continue they won't follow a stranger they will flee from them but they do not know the voice of strangers I'm uh not sure I follow this at this trigger speech you're using just said more plainly we want to understand I want to

point out here that this is a great example, I think, of why Jesus spoke in parables so much and spoken metaphor is it was coded language where he could say this stuff and he wasn't being as direct and it allowed him to probably give him a little bit more longevity. Whereas once he starts saying it more directly and more plainly, you'll see that's what gets him in trouble. Yeah, maybe. I think that there is a, you can see if you look at like Mary, Mary Magdalene in this, she seems to be tracking. She seems to be understanding what he's saying. He has straight up told them, I'm going to die.

I'm going to be dead for three days. I'm going to rise again. And they're like, can't you say things more plainly? Can't you just, you know, and he's like, I, I'm telling, like he's did this with his mom when she was washing her, washing his hair in the last episode, right? Like, I keep telling them right to their faces and they just keep missing it. I think a lot of that it has to do with it's not a full ego death, right? You haven't had, you haven't like you're still, you still think you can direct this path.

You still think that you have a say in how things are going to go and you don't. And as soon as you realize that you don't and it's you and God and you let his spirit guide you, they didn't have the Holy Spirit at the time in the way that we know it until later. but like that's that's the that that's the job the job of the Christian is to follow where God leads to be the hands and feet right and we see that in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ we pick up we're going to Jerusalem tomorrow everybody pack your bags right where there's the earlier in one of the earlier seasons Mary was kind of helping train the other girls who were new to the camp and she's like yeah I just kind of keep my stuff packed all the time because we never know when we're going to move Right. That's that's the life and ministry of being comfortable and sedentary and desiring the prosperity gospel is missing the point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the other thing I'll add to what I said before is um, um, when you use metaphor, you use concepts that people are familiar with. That's an easy way to teach, to teach more abstract ideas that are less familiar. So that's the other reason that I think

he taught in parables. Yeah. This is important. I am the, door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. We can't have a discussion. There's only five single books. That's it. There's nothing else. Songs. David. David is not. It's not. It's not with scripture. There is no way in this world that we're ever going to agree with me. What? Okay. Okay.

Hmm. I claim that they may have life and have it abundant in. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd. He does not own the sheep. Come with me. He sees the wolf coming and leave the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he is a higher hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. It fits the description of a man we're looking for. Do you know who he is? Not yet. I was waiting for you. And I have other sheep that are not of this fault.

I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice. Other sheep, not of this fold. Are you referring to Gentiles? So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me. because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. That's not real.

There is no resurrection. At least not one that any mortal man could have authority to an act for himself once perished. We need to do so. Just pay attention, Julius. Someone has to go get Shemai immediately. He's gone for the holiday. How can we pay attention when these men keep talking and insulting him? Jesus never specified what to pay attention.

No one takes my life from me. but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. What do you mean? I would you like to be the self of God? Answer the question.

Who is your father? Will you be quiet? We are trying to listen to a rabbi. Those are not the teachings of an incredible rabbi, but are an insane person. Mark my words. You regret saying that. Watch your mouth.

You're speaking to a member of the great son. Judas, get back here. You're missing all the details. Okay, so I want to point out that brilliant writing right here, because this, I think, speaks to exactly what we've been talking about. Judas is sitting there. He's not listening to the sermon. He's not listening to the teaching.

He's listening. His heart's racing. He's clearly, he's very anxious. He's listening to the guys behind him speaking and getting nervous about what they're saying. He says something. He leans in. The Pharisees are heckling Jesus, he's shouting out questions to him.

And Jesus pauses and then just continues, ignores them. Judas then leans forward and says, we got to do something to Simon. In years past, Simon would have been the one saying that. In years past, Simon was the one, we got to do something. Now he's totally focused, like he's completely locked in to Jesus, doesn't care about the Pharisees, right? He then turns to Matthew. Matthew, like, we really got to do something. Matthew's like, the teacher didn't say, like, what we should specify, what we should listen to.

We should be listening to everything he says, don't worry about these guys. And then ultimately, Judas turns around and starts engaging with them and squabbling with him. He's actually escalating the tension here. He's actually escalating and making things worse by engaging in the squabbling as opposed to just listening to the teacher and locking in. All the other guys have already been through all of this and they figured it out. They figured out that what, you know, drown out the noise, listen to the signal.

Judas can't do that. And so when he turns around and he's engaged in with the Pharisees, I think he's doing it from an earnest position of wanting to protect Jesus and advance the agenda. The problem is that he doesn't understand what that agenda is. He actually doesn't understand the teachings because he's not listening. And so while his heart and his own mind might be in the right place and he is hearing his name called and responding to it and listening to the shepherd when he calls his name, he's not hearing what the shepherd's saying. and that's why he ends up wandering off the path and going the wrong route. It's while he thinks he's doing the right thing,

he's actually engaging in wickedness because he's not listening to what Jesus is telling him to do. Yeah, so I see it a little bit differently. The point you make about Simon Peter is spot on. And while Judas was, you know, we have to do something like, how can we listen when these guys are doing this? It just in my head brought me back to Peter. on the boat, Simon on the boat where he was like, you said we were chosen and where are you and what are we doing and why is this even, you know, but Judas, again, hasn't had that moment yet. I don't, it's very easy to call your, your emotional outbursts righteousness, right? And I think that that's kind of what Judas is, that's the posture that he's in. I don't think that he's upset because these guys are, you know, talking. I think he's upset because. I think he's upset because. they're being disrespectful to Jesus.

And he doesn't think anybody should be able to be disrespectful to Jesus. He thinks Jesus should, you know, establish his kingdom right away. And he's having an emotional outburst based on what other people think about his rabbi. And that that's not a righteous position, right? And it's certainly not. So these other guys, it's not that they understand the agenda because I don't think any of them really understand the agenda. get. It's that they've learned to trust Jesus and have faith that he knows what he's doing, even when they don't understand it. And Judas never gets there.

I think, yes, that is a fantastic clarification. You think back to the last episode when Mary's watching Jesus's hair and he says, my followers want me to turn our enemies into pillars of salt, right? In years past, Simon would have been like, yeah, turn these guys in the pillars of salt, and now he doesn't care anymore. He's like, these guys are irrelevant. They don't matter. and Judas is sitting there being like, we should turn these guys in the pillars of salt. They're disrespecting the king, right? To your point.

And so he doesn't trust what Jesus is telling him to do, and that's why. So let's continue. I didn't see his face when I went to the decapolis to investigate, but Jesus of Nazareth is the man who broke bread with the mass of Gentiles there. A heretic in Shemai's screen is said to be well-spoken, and a remarkable feature.

Those were the ravens. of a matman. Or someone demon possessed. If demon possessed, then he must be removed from the temple. What does he mean by my father? Certainly he's not speaking in a manner of God through the prophet Isaiah, but now Adonai, you are our father. We are the clay, you are our pater.

No, we is Israel. What? We are all God's children. What father is he broken? Shemai's reports hinted claims of Messiah. I was too late last time. I won't. Got him.

One more bags. You, you're Jesus of Nazareth, aren't you? By the way, I love the symbolism of like the workers sitting, they're building, like they're constructing the temple. It's like a metaphor that these guys, the Pharisees are building their earthly kingdom, right, as as opposed to hearing about the real kingdom. I like that. How long will you give us in suspense? If you are the Christ, hell us plainly.

I told you, and you did not believe. When did you tell us? Last female! The works I do in my father's name bear witness about it. What do you mean? My father. You do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. You would utter such a proclamation amid the pillars of Solomon's porch.

Have you no shame? My sheep here. my voice and I know them and they follow me just said that he's the Christ and we did not believe this blasphemy is enough for capital punishment and we are on temple ground we need stone what's getting stone and they will never perish and no one would snatch them out of my hand no one can grant eternal life you just like turn him into salt turn him into salt My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one will be able to scratch them out of the father's hand.

I and the father are one. Don't me. Good works. If you've done any, that's not why we're stoning you. It's for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself gone. You call me a blasphemer because I said I am the son of God? You utter such a thing shall be punished by death according to the law of Moses.

You know little of the law of Moses. You should understand. The father is in me and I am in the father. I just want to point out, you see the three guys who like form the phalanx and hold back the Pharisees. It's Simon. It's Z. And it's Little James. Little James is the third person right there who you see earlier in the-

James is busy being. Yeah. Yeah, no, yeah, but yeah, little James. Little James, you see, you see earlier, like Mary looks at him when they're, when they're making the, you know, they're making, they're preparing the wheat. And he's sitting there like, like, holding his back because he's obviously struggling physically while he's sitting there being like, this is the season where we have to make the food. Like, it's our turn to make the food. We're going to make the food. He physically is incapable.

Like, he's the least physically capable. He's, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's, he's a, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's lame. Right. Yeah, he's lame. He's lame. And yet he's the one who steps up and physically holds these guys back while the others run away. Like, that is righteous. Whereas what Judas is trying to do a few minutes before is not righteous. That's just ego. And they keep cutting to Judas. They keep cutting to him. I think we can probably end it there. They run back. He's twisted face. Yeah, I'd like just on that same point about the Jameses. I thought it was interesting. You big James is presenting. is he's a son of thunder he's kind of the most physically you know

Simon Zella is you know the the kind of warrior training but big James is kind of you know the muscle the and he gets he's the one that gets taken out and they're dragging him in and you see a little it times in that you see little James taking care of him and I like the visual of that like the kind of what they did there with that version yeah yeah because I was sitting there I they clearly put the camera on on Simon and Z and there's the two that you we kind of expect to jump up, but you kind of miss in the fray that it is Little James. He's the third person who like physically, and then they have to drag him away because he's, you know, he can't run.

I love how the camera keeps cutting back to Judas's face, though, because I think what you're watching in that moment is you're watching Judas, like he's very anxious. He's like, all right, here we go. Here we go. Here it comes. Here's the moment. The moment's coming. Like, here come the Blackhawks.

The Black Hawk helicopters are coming in. They're going to arrest everybody. And this is when, you know, the storm is a, on us, right? Here it is. And like, turn him on to salt, Jesus. Like, this is when the kingdom starts. And then James gets hit in the head and they all have to run away. And you can see the disappointment on Judas's face. He's like, wait a minute. Why are we running away? Like, I thought we were, I thought this is the king and like this is our kingdom. Like, when is our kingdom coming? If not now, then when? Like, what's happening here? And you can see him starting to lose his,

I guess, faith in the mission, right? Maybe not his faith in Jesus as the mistake. And he's Messiah, but is faith in the mission of what they're doing and how they're doing it. Yeah, agreed. So at the end, we are right back at the beginning. So that sets up how at the flash forward at the beginning, they were all wet and angsty and James's hurt. It's because they had been stoned for what Jesus said in the temple. At that moment, there was a letter on the table. They kind of sweep it out of the way because they're putting James on the table to treat his injuries. And Jesus picks it up. He reads it, devastated, crushed, hands it to Mary. She reads it to the crowd. Lazarus has died. And so we'll pick up next week, same time, same channel. And we should, I think,

be live unless something comes up. As far as I know we should be. Yep. Yeah. And we'll, so I will be in the chat during this show today, it airs. We'll capture Rumble Ranssen. If any, come in. We will read them at the beginning of next show. We had one Badlands Boost from last week, but I think I can't remember if we read it or not. I think we might have read it, but we're going to read it again. It's from Brian. It's $25 and it says great show. Thank you so much, Brian. We appreciate you. And if you were watching us on delay or just in general and you want to support us, one of the absolute best ways to support us is with the Badlands Boost. The platform takes the smallest cut and the most of your money goes to the

creators when you use Badlands Boost. Just the processing fee with the bank. That's all it is. Badlandsmedia.tv slash boost for that option. Choose the show, the choice. And we will read that on next week's episode as well. Season 7 or episode 7 coming in next week. And then following that, we'll have episode 8. That'll be the end of season four. We're going to run out of show. Yeah. Next episode, if I remember correctly, is the big one. That one's a huge.

The table flipping one? No, it's not that. That's not there yet, but this is going to be just as significant. Oh, the laser. Yeah, this is the last. It's the latter. See, that's the thing is I saw that. I saw, I saw.

So it was probably just this episode I zoned out on or something. It was, you know, when it came out is when I watched it. And watching it, I watched it two, two and a half times. in preparation for this episode and none of it ring a bell but the stuff that is yet to come still does ring a bell so this is this is a big one and the one thing we didn't talk about that I want to point out is I loved how they made Simon like he doesn't have like a sense of smell like they're talking to the market and he's like holding the soap up and he's like clothes that clothes like lavender lavender bro um and uh it reminded me of burning bright like burning bright like burning brights color line

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You'll be on the Blitz this weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be on the blitz. And I'll be on my, I'll be doing the geopolitic show tomorrow at two. So that's, yeah, Friday. Well, this is. airing today. We have to do the whole day calculation thing on this recording. But yeah, so geopolitics tomorrow plus the blitz. I will be back Monday, I think show-wise. I may drop into Onlylands on Friday night. We'll see what happens. But other than that, everybody have an absolutely

phenomenal week. Stay blessed. And we will see you on the next episode. I'm going to play the Zach Payne video for softdisclosure.com. Promocode muffin hit it, only because I love it, and I feel like we need the lotion detector on every show. So that's what we're going to play as an outro. Please hit the like button. Everybody helps us out quite a bit.

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