BibleProject - Moses, Israel, & The S’neh Tree – Tree of Life E6

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

The story of Moses repeats key themes from the stories of the garden, Noah, and Abraham. Moses and Israel both face tests before trees on high places, and Moses takes the act of sacrifice one step further. Listen in as Tim and Jon discuss Moses and the s’neh tree.View full show notes and images from this episode →Show MusicDefender Instrumental by TentsSundown by Aarbor x AarigodDaylight by Jay SomedayConiferous by KuplaShow produced by Dan Gummel and Tim Mackie.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey there, this is Tim at the Bible Project, and welcome to the Bible Project Podcast. If you've been tracking with this series on the Tree of Life, you'll know that we are following the theme of trees on high places throughout the storyline of the Bible. Today we are going to arrive at a really interesting set of stories about Moses. Moses had some really important moments in front of trees, especially by bodies of water or on high places. We're going to look at two of these today. The first is a story of Moses and what has come in English to be called the story of the burning bush.

And we're gonna explore why that translation doesn't quite capture the whole meaning and significance of what this burning tree bush is all about. The second story we're gonna look at is one of these odd short stories in the Bible. It's an Exodus chapter 15 after the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt. They're wandering the wilderness, looking for water, and they find this pool of water that they can't drink from because it's bitter. And so what happens?

Moses saves the people by tossing a tree into the pool. This strange little story is full of meaning when you see it in light of the bigger design pattern of trees in the Bible. We're gonna explore all of this and even more on today's episode. So thanks for joining us. Here we go. We're talking about trees, and we are going to the subsoot talk about Moses and how he is connected to this theme of recurring design pattern motif. Yes. Of trees on high places, but actually more specifically, the high place being or humanity and God dwell together. Yeah, and the tree being Well to trees to trees to create a plot tension between them. Yeah How are you going to live in this high place with God?

Are you going to take a physical life? Yeah God brought you up here to become his eternal partner in real and creation. Are you gonna eat of the tree of life, live by his wisdom and his presence, or eat of the tree of knowing good and bad, seize wisdom on your own terms. One tree leads to eternal life, one tree leads to death.

And God kicks exiles the humans because if they also eat of the tree eternal life, one tree leads to death. And God kicks exiles the humans because if they also eat of the tree of life, this death will become eternal death. Eternal death. Bad news. You know, it's interesting that if you open the Bible thinking, the Bible is about how do I get to heaven when I die? It's very different. It's saying, God created you to rule with me on earth forever, but you're gonna die because you are doing your own terms. Yeah, but I want you to rule the earth. Yeah. Yeah. Which means forever. Yeah. That's right. So it's not how do I get to heaven. It's how do I get to this? Yeah. This vocational calling. Yeah. Of ruling the earth with God. That's right forever. And all of a sudden, Revelation 21, 22, pop into focus.

Which is... Well, the last sentence of the biblical narrative is, and they ruled with God forever and ever. And they're in the New Eden, which is the New Jerusalem, which is the New Creation. All those images are connected to the Bible. Correct. So, that was a cosmic narrative.

That's right. That was the cosmic. Because this is humanity and its infancy, innocent, with a choice before any bad choice has been made, everything is good. Now, death enters the picture, relationships are divided. Yeah, humans are doing what God warned. He said eating from the tree of knowing

good bad would result in death. And what the humans start doing outside of the garden, is killing each other. God is not the first one to bring about anybody's death. Humans are. Yeah, hating each other, fighting each other, taking wisdom on our own terms. Participating in building human structures that participate in corrupt spiritual powers that are also in rebellion, resulting in widespread violence in the building of Lamex City.

Yes, this isn't just our choice. It was a choice that was connected to this. A cosmic rebellion. Cosmic rebellion choice, which we haven't really been talking about. So God tells them, look, there's going to be a seed of the woman, an offspring, a human who will deal with the mess you've made. That's right. He'll overcome the agent of evil at its source.

You won't be able to do that. You're stuck now with that choice. That's right. But someone will come and undo it for you. And while doing that, in the act of doing that, we'll suffer the consequence of the choice as well. Yeah, so he'll suffer along with Adam and Eve and all their children coming under the power and death power of the snake, being bitten by it. But paradoxically, that being bitten by the snake will be his way of overcoming it, which is something Adam and Eve did not do.

So the rest of the biblical narrative you're thinking humans will need to get back to the high place. Back to that moment. Back to the presence with God, eating of the tree of life, in connection with him, trusting his wisdom for what is good and bad. And to do that, it's gonna require some sort of sacrifice. And that whole idea, as they wait that, there is the practice of sacrificing animals, which we know later is all connected to this, of like getting back to the high place, the holy of Holies, the hot spot where the tree of life is. God's presence is to do that. You sacrifice an animal to go in and it's a substitute. That's right. So Noah is

given a choice connected to another tree about whether he will build an art. He's righteous and blameless. God wants to preserve the future of the seed of the woman through him. He makes the right choice at that tree. He doesn't eat of the tree of good and bad. No, he hands off, and in so doing, he builds the vehicle of salvation with the tree. That land, that wooden vehicle of salvation, he turns the tree of testing into the vehicle of salvation, which floats on the waters of divine justice and lands atop.

True. A new Eden. I'm wax and poetic. Yeah, yeah. And then he takes of the wood of that arch tree and offers not himself, but a sacrifice. He turns the tree into an altar. And that's the image we see in the temple moving

forward is we don't walk past the tree of good knowing good and bad to get to the holy police. Yeah. You walk by the altar. And you make a sacrifice. And so now parallel image of being in a high place. Yeah. Where God and humans lived and ruled together. And it's original design was the tree of life and the tree of knowing good and bad. Now you've got this taste of it. Let's get back to that. And you to get to the tree of life, you are not eating of the tree to get there, but then you make a sacrifice on the tree. You are not eating of the tree to get there, but then you make a sacrifice on the tree. To deal with the fact that the mess has already been made. And by doing that, you actually do get to participate in God's life.

You get to start to enjoy God's life, not in the eternal sense that you would want to. But in your own mortal narrative, you experience a fleeting gift, glimpse of the tree of life. Yeah. And somehow, by Abram doing this, and he gets a glimpse of that life and the rest of you have his son, and then he ends up becoming this great family. But the whole point of that was because he wants to get humans back to eternal life. And this family is going to participate in some significant way. There's still going to be a seed from this family who is going to deal with the cosmic evil that's been unleashed and do it through sacrificing himself. That's it. So.

So. So. What is this? The story moves forward. The family multiplies. And through a whole bunch of episodes we don't have time to explore. The story of Isaac, the story of Jacob, the story of Joseph. But the sin of Abraham's family, they replay the sins

of their fathers and it lands them exiled down in Egypt. And that's where the book of Exodus begins. Exodus begins by saying, the first sentence is Israel in exile, mirroring Adam and Eve, humanity in exile. And yet, in their exile, the sons of Israel were fruitful and were multiplying in the land of their exile. That's how the book of Exodus begins. However, that fruitful multiplication of immigrants looks to Pharaoh like a threat. And so he begins to kill them off. And he has three attempts to destroy them. The third attempt is to start throwing all the baby boys into the waters of the Nile. And here we are introduced to a new Noah figure in Exodus chapter 2. Yeah. Exodus chapter 2. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took

a daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and bore a son. This is all before a daughter of Levi and the woman conceived in Boris' son. This is all before the House of Levi had the import of being priests. Correct. Correct. It'll be important that Moses and his brother Aaron are Levi's because they're going to found the priesthood. Yeah. But yes, this is before the priesthood exists as such.

But the reason why the narrator's telling us they're from the House of Levi This is the origin story of the of the priestly line. Yeah So verse two, Exodus two verse two the woman conceived and bore a son. Oh, we've got a seat of the one on the way And when she saw that he was good. Oh, she hid him for three months, but when she went someone see something is good They're about to do something bad. That's right unless this is an inversion story Okay, but when she could hide him no longer she got an arc of reads Tevat go met the same word that no built. Yeah, the word arc appears two times in the Hebrew Bible It's the Tevat of Gofer Hebrew Bible. It's the Teva of Gofer, that he builds, and then the word arcapeers right here in the introduction to the Moses.

It's Teva, a teva gomat. No, it builds a Teva gofer. What's that in Hebrew, Gofer? Gofer. Yeah, it's a translation. This translation, yeah. Teva gofer. Moses' mom gets a Tevat Gormat. And she covered it inside and out with tar and pitch when Noah gets the commands to make the Tevat gofer. He covers it with. Yeah, he covers it with a pitch inside and out. Then she put the child.

There's another design pattern. Another design pattern. She put the child into it and set it among the reads by the bank of the Nile. So into the waters of death. There's all these babies drowning because of Pharaoh's evil. But here is one seed placed in an ark into those same waters of death. But he is saved and him will be the salvation of the whole family. The new Noah. So he floats into Pharaoh's house, he grows up and he somehow still knows that he's in his real life because he goes out one day to look upon his brothers

and he sees an Egyptian slave master beating in his real life slave. So he murders that Egyptian. Pharaoh hears about it, he's angry, he wants to kill Moses, Moses flees into the wilderness. His own exile. Yep, so now he's an exile from Israel.

From exile. From the place of his family's exile. Yeah. Double exile. That's right. Exile inception. Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, totally.

Exist 3. Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jess Grove, his father-in-law, who was the priest of Midian. We skip that story, but that's a cool story. And he led the flock to the west in the wilderness and came to Chorev, which is the Hebrew word for dry place, the mountain of Elohim. Oh, his flock like wandered up to a high place.

This is the mountain that's gonna feature in the rest of the Torah. Now, the angel of Yahweh became visible, became seeable to him in blazing fire from the midst of a Siné. Siné. Not a Nets. Not a Nets. It's a type of Aets. It's a type of tree. But it's a Siné tree. but it's a Sinai tree Sinai

Oh, okay Sinai Sinai yeah, okay. Yeah, so this is the only time the species of tree bush Is appears in the Hebrew Bible and it's spelled with the same root letters as yeah the word Sinai Okay, yeah, so he's that Chorev the mountain of God So that's interesting. I thought the mountain was called Sinai, but the mountain is called the mountain is called the mountain is called by two names in the Hebrew Bible. Choreb and Sinai. Here both are used one as explicitly Choreb and then Sinai is here with the word as a word play on the Sinai. Okay. Okay. And so Moses looked and behold, the Sinai was burning with fire,

but the Sinai was not consumed. So you have a Sinai. What is the fire? The fire is the presence of the Holy One in the tree, the holy divine presence sitting in a tree. So you're supposed to be thinking, is that on a mountain of God? Yep.

There's a type of tree. It's not called an aides, but probably because it's trying to remind you that this is gonna be Sinai. So it's called a Sinai. Species of tree. It's a tree. It's a tree with the word Sinai. Yeah.

It's burning because of God's presence. Yeah, God's presence appears when angel Lord. Or the angel Lord, which, yeah, that's burning because of God's presence. Yeah, God's presence appears when the angel lord, which, yeah, that's right. Is the human Yahweh figure who always appears on a throne? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's right.

So it's a type of tree of life? This is where this is going to end in the last chapter of the book of Exodus, is with this glorious fiery presence taking up residence in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. The same exact divine presence. In the same visible form, we'll take up residence in the Holy of Holies. Okay. So which is a representation of the high place on the moon?

On Eden. So this is how design patterns work. This becomes a retro commentary. You're supposed to now go back to the Eden story and be like, wow, yeah, the tree The tree of life was where they would meet God and participate in his eternal life Now there was no fire in the tree of life. Yeah mentioned, but now the Here gods present moments are joined were supposed to kind of merge them together in our imagination and see them as reflect just like the two lines of

Biblical poetry like an a line and a b line So you have the a line is the Eden story And now the b line is like Moses here. Mm-hmm. We can God. It's cool to think about the tree of life on fire Yeah, totally, But not being consumed. But not being consumed. That's right. It is a cool image. So Moses said, I must turn aside now

and see this marvelous sight. Why the bush is not burned up. When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, God called him from the midst of the Sinai, saying, Moshe, Moshe, and Moshe said, Hineini, look, here I am. That's this is how the story of Abraham and Isaac began. Came about after these things that God tested Moses.

God said, excuse me, God. Tested Abraham. Came about after these things that God tested Abraham. God said to Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham said, Hineini, here I am. Just was be connecting that story too. Yes. Yeah. When's the last time somebody was called to go to a mountain or was up on a mountain and God repeated their name twice and they said, Hineini, that happens one time, one other time, with Abraham called to go up and sacrifice his son for his own sins. Now, here's a new Noah going up to a mountain of God and he's talking like Abraham.

He's meeting God the way God met Abraham on Mount Mariah. So do you see now all the three Mariah. So do you see now all the three narratives of high places with trees, Eden, Mount Ararat, Mount Mariah are all being hyperlinked in this scene. They're all supposed to come together in your imagination. Then God said, don't come, don't draw near to here. That's priestly language. You're in the Holy of Holies. You're approaching it. You just approach the Holy of Holies. Don't draw near. Take your sandals off your feet. You got dung and dirt on your feet from outside the whole of shepherding. Holy yeah. So leave the signs of the world of death out there and come on into here for the place on what you're standing is holy space.

So he just walked into the Holy of Holies. This is the Holy of Holies. He's just walked into the, and he's the son of Levi. Which is what the Tree of Life is, too. Exactly. It's being in the Holy of Holies. Exactly. The Tree of Life is the Holy of Holies, at the Holy of Holies.

He said, I'm the God of your Father, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, and what is the normal human response when they wake up or discover that they're standing He said, I'm the God of your father, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. And what is the normal human response when they wake up or discover that they're standing in the midst of that space? He hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. Okay, so a new Noah just walked into Eden, an Eden place. But notice, we're not in Eden. We're at some other place on the dry land.

Yeah. But he just discovered this is an Eden spot. Just like Jacob was in a field near Bethel and he woke up and that's an Eden spot. Here's Moses. Okay. So we have new Adam, new Noah, and Abraham called upon here, Moses, Moses, in any here I am. When God called Abraham, it was to go sacrifice his son at this place, right, at the high place. So we're supposed to then in our minds go back and compare each narrative.

What do I anticipate will happen on this Eden spot? A test. There's gonna be some kind of test. It's gonna involve somebody having to make a choice related to all those other stories. What are you going to do? Hey, you can decide what's good and bad. Yeah, that's fine. And yeah, God's going to give a command.

Are you going to participate in my desire to use this family to rescue the world. I want to bring people into my presence so that they're transformed to become my representatives and rulers in the world. However, to draw near, you're gonna have to make a choice. Will you trust my wisdom and command or you're gonna do things your own way? This very spot is gonna host that narrative pattern yet once again. That's what all these patterns are.

Setting us up to expect. And look at verse 10 of chapter 3. Therefore, come now. I'm gonna send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt. And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign that I'm the one who sent you.

When you bring the people out of Egypt, y'all shall worship Elohim right here at this spot where you are. In other words, he's going to send Moses to liberate the people. And then what Moses just experienced right here, he is now to bring all of the people so that they can experience what he just experienced. It's setting up now, this is a design pattern for the people to undergo. Moses just underwent what all the people are supposed to undergo.

Everyone's supposed to enter the Holy Holies. The whole nation will come up here and meet me here just like you did. Why is he called a sign? Ah, this will be the sign. Oh, because Moses is doubting that he's the one. He brings up five objections of like, ah, who am I?

I'm not very good at speaking. Please send somebody else. And so God finally says, listen, trust me, come here and watch. It'll be a replay of what you just experienced. When you have a sign, it's a foretaste of the ultimate real thing. So the sign here is more of a promise. Correct. It's a really interesting sign because it's usually signs come in the moment. Yes, this is not a sign in the moment. This is a sign to say, if you trust me, and you lead the people here, it's a sign you will come in the moment. Yes. This is not a sign in the moment. This is a sign to say, if you trust me, and you lead the people here,

it's a sign you will see in the future. You'll see a sign in the future that will vindicate your trust. I would call this like a confirmation. Yeah, it's a unique word use of the word sign. Okay, so think. This narrative just told me that what Moses just went through is what all of the people are going

to go through. So what happens? You go back into the story and you have Israel enslaved Pharaoh and then the Ten Plagues. And then Israel is brought through the waters of death, just like Moses. And then Israel is brought through the wilderness. And then Israel is brought to the mountain to meet with God. So it's as if Moses, Exodus 2 and 3, in his own personal narrative, just anticipated the narrative of all of the people who are enslaved in Egypt, going to go through the waters

of death through the wilderness and to meet God at the exact same spot. It's like Exodus 1 through 4 is the Exodus story in a nutshell in the life of one person who's then going to lead all the way. And it's a design pattern riffing off of the story to 4. Yeah, it's two of both things. Yeah, it's Biblical authors did.

It's packing it in. Packing it in, okay. So that's just set up for the Sinai story. Yeah, because when they get to Sinai, they don't go up the mountain correct Let's pause real quick here after the deliverance through the waters of the sea Israel Goes into the desert just like Moses did

But before they get to the mountain they have an incident Exodus 15 verse 22. So Moses is rescued. Yep. Through Moses God's rescued Israel. Now they've passed through the waters. They're in the wilderness. In the wilderness, on the way to Mount Sinai. Yeah. Okay. And this happens. Exodus 15 verse 22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea. I mean, we're literally walking away from the shoreline of the sea. Okay. It just happened. Yeah. Then they went into the wilderness of shore, and they went three days into the wilderness, and there was no water. It was a long time from the water.

Three days, and then we faced a test. When they came to Mara, which is the Hebrew word for bitter, they could not drink the waters of Mara because they were Mara, so they named the place Mara. That's good. Come on. That's good. But then the people grumbled at Moses.

It was the first of many grumbling narratives. What are we going to drink? This is an important question. What are we going to drink? What are we going to drink? You're going to die. Three days of that water. You just said you're going to save us This is an important question. What are we going to drink? What are we going to drink? You're going to die. Three days without water. You just said you're going to save us and you brought us now three days.

It's about as long as a human can go with that water, right? Yeah. Three days. Yeah. Yeah. Not a week. You'll die within a week. Yeah. Yeah. So Moses cried out to Yahweh and Yahweh showed him a tree. A tree. A tree. A tree. And eights. And so Moses threw the tree into the waters I showed him a tree. A tree. A tree. And eights. And so most of us threw the tree into the waters, and the waters became sweet.

That is drinkable. Are you a potable, potable? Potable, potable. Yeah. There, God made for them a statute and regulation. There, God tested them. This was a test, it turns out. This was a test.

So they're not at a mountain, they're in the wilderness. In the wilderness? How about the die of thirst? They came to, and they find a spring of water. They find a pool. But the pool represents a test. Are they gonna trust that God could provide for them even out of these death waters, bitter waters? No, they don't. They grumble and protest and say, what

are you going to do? But Moses, he trusts. He thinks that God can provide life for them even in this place of death. And he cried out to the Lord. He cries out to Yahweh. That's the classic term for intercession. Yeah. And plea for out to the Lord. He cries out to Yahweh. That's the classic term for intercession. Yeah. And plea for God's help. Yeah. So Moses not unlike the people. He cries out to Yahweh. People grumble. Yep. But Moses intercedes. People don't trust God. They grumble. Now, can I just say? Yeah. I empathize with these people. Of course. Totally. But at the same time, we have to remember they just were miraculously raised just just witness this is the first story after the insane

Insane provision from God. Yes, and what any person would do after being delivered through the waters of the sea is say Yahweh has power over water. Yeah But take three days without water totally and that starts to fade back into the memory a little bit. Yeah, totally. And you start to go... And that's the point. Okay. And that's the point. Okay. Yeah, that's exactly the point. But Moses trusts so he cries out to God.

Mm-hmm. And what does God do? He shows him a tree. And then says this tree will become the agent of salvation to turn the waters of death into waters of life. Trees become salvation like the ark. Just like the ark went into the waters. This story presents itself to the reader as a riddle. Yeah, it is because I've read this story and I'm just like, okay, it's a riddle. These stories, they're usually very short. They're puzzling. It's hard to even understand who's doing or saying what.

And they seem bizarre. And this is the biblical author's way of winking at us and saying, dear reader, follow the design patterns. Do a song one, take a long walk, and you'll start to see what we're inviting you. I think whenever the story that wasn't tree, it was branch. Let's see what NIV, I think it's branch. I got you.

Showed a piece of wood, says NIV, says piece of wood. Whatever reason I have the image of a branch, like when I've heard the story before, I always had an image of a branch. ESV has log. New American standard has tree. Oh, OK. Yeah. Good old Linnaeus.

Yeah. So let's keep going. Oh, good. Yeah. Good old Linnaeus. Yeah. So, let's keep going. Yeah. It gets better. Okay. So, the whole point now is this was a test. Verse 25 tells us.

Yeah, he tested that. This whole thing was a test. And only Moses passes the test. People grumble. And the tree becomes, the vehicle goes, the tree goes into the water, becomes the vehicle of turning death into life. And there, he made for them a statute and regulation, which is covenantal law. Hmm. Yeah.

Vocabulary, but the covenant hasn't even been made yet. Yeah, so it's foreshadowing now. It's foreshadowing it. So what's the test? Before the covenant's been made, what is the test of their covenant? Relicious God for provision. Verse 26, God said, if you will listen, listen to the voice of Yahweh, your God, and do what is right in his eyes.

Shema, Shema, Shema. Yes. If you will shema to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases that I've put on the Egyptians on you for eye, Yahweh, and your healer. And that's called a statute? A statute and regulation. This is, do you remember how this was in the law series? There's that story of after Abraham passes his test on Mount Moriah and offers up Isaac and then God gives Isaac back. Later in the book of Genesis, God recalls back to that moment and says,

in that moment Abraham kept all of my laws and statutes and regulations. That's right. Before it's using the vocabulary of the laws of the covenant from Mount Sinai and saying, Abraham kept the laws of the covenant by listening to God's voice. And obeying it.

It's a way for the biblical author to show you that this story is connected to these other stories. That's right. What does God really after in the covenant relationship, just people who listen to his voice? And when you listen to the voice, you're making the right choice when you stand before the tree. So here's this real, before another tree,

and Moses passes the test, but the people fail. And so God says, listen, this is the test that I'm inviting you into. Will you please just listen, listen to my voice? And if you do, that will be listening to the commandments and regulations. So Moses by interceding was listening to the voice. Moses? Yeah, and he's a contrast to the commandments and regulations. So Moses by interceding was listening to the voice. Moses?

Yeah, and he's a contrast to the people. The people grumble to Moses, but Moses cries out to Yahweh for salvation. And this might be just parsing too much, but listening to the voice is connected to obeying a command, right? Correct. What's the command here that they're not obeying?

Oh, yeah, got it. They're just worried that they're going to die. Yeah, that's right. So you're right, it's in this sense, it's about faith and trust. Okay. You're right. The command would be to have faith and to trust. Because the narrative is they came into the wilderness, there was no water.

They finally found water, but it's water of death. And then what they grumble, instead of crying out to Yahweh, oh Yahweh creator of heaven and earth and the seas. Yeah, turn this water into, give us, give us, provide us water of salvation, the water of life here. Know what they say is, what are we gonna drink? They grumble, they get angry, but Moses in contrast

cries out to Yahweh for salvation. The narrative would seem cleaner to me. If the story went, they found the water, God said, put the tree in the water, and they're like, whatever. Oh sure, sure, sure, sure. We just wanna go back. I get it.

Because now they're not listening to the voice, we're not listening to the command. Correct, correct. You're right. So the way the narrative is designed, the test becomes back at the moment when they grumbled. Yeah. They're failing the test when they grumble. The test becomes when we're out here with no resources or we're going to trust that y'all we can provide for us or not. And they're grumbling. It's failing a test. These tests are

hardcore, man. Oh, yeah, they are Abrams tests. Yes. Yeah, totally. Will you sacrifice first one son? This test you gonna trust me after three days with no water. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And now you're in front of a pool of water. You can't drink. Yeah. You still can't trust me. I would have failed that test. Yeah, these aren't easy tests. No, they're not. No, they're not. I'm with you. Okay. I'm with you. But Moses passes the test on their behalf. Thank you, Moshe. Thank you, Moshe. This is setting up the role of Moses in the narrative on the mountain. So he does trust God, and God rescues the people through a tree thrown into the waters. Then he says, listen, guys, we're going to do this test again. He tested them. There's going to be more chances. First 26, if you will listen to

my voice, then I'm going to save you from death and evil. I'm your healer. We're going to we're going to test you again. Not just going to be about go thirsty. We're not one and done here. You're going to be multiple tests. I want you to be my representatives to the nations. Then after Moses intercedes and saves the people, what's their next stop for his 27? They came to oak trees. They come to a whole grove of trees.

And there were 12 fountains of water, 70 palm trees, and so they camp under the trees by the waters. 12 and seventy. Yeah, come now. Come now. Yeah, this little Eden spot right here. It's a little Eden spot.

That's right. Water under trees. Yeah. The number twelve and seventy is interesting because that's foreshadowing twelve tribes, right? Yeah, well they are the twelve tribes now. Oh, okay. Yep, they're the twelve tribes.

So they find a water of life for each tribe, a little spring of life for each tribe. These tribe gets there a little spring. Yeah, totally. And 70 is how many descendants of Jacob went down into Egypt at the end of the spring. They went from the 70 with Jacob into the 12 tribes. So it's saying there's enough for everyone here. Yes, yeah. It's Eden forever. Yeah, it's the equivalent of Eden and the equivalent of Insolven's reign.

Everyone got their own vine and fig tree. It's interesting how God says, I'm gonna be testing you more. Yeah. But here, let me give you a little Eden, anyways. Yeah, that's right. And in this story, who were what passed the test, that gave them the gateway into the little Eden, most of them.

Yeah, Moses on the raft. So he enters, oh, wow. The story's five verses. Oh yeah, so easy to skip over, because you're like, that's right. Weird random story. Yeah. How did that make it in the Bible?

Totally. Let's just keep going. Yeah, so this story is put here as a riddle to invite the reader to meditate, to link the story into design patterns through the key repeated words. And then all of a sudden, you find yourself in five verses, you've replayed the story of the whole Bible in five verses.

Wow. Humans, life and death choice, test it at a tree, they fail, but one intercedes on their behalf and leads them to a new Eden. And you're just like, oh, sweet. Wow, the seed of the woman. This is what you mean by literary genius. Yes, totally.

This is what I'm talking about. The whole Bible is like this. Every paragraph. That's my blowing. I really, these are the moments where I'm just like, okay, it's brilliant humans who write brilliant literature. I think this is a human literary art form. Supercharged with divine.

At its peak. I can't say this is evidence of the inspiration of the divine and human partnership with scriptures, but when the more years I spend seeing how intricately every word is crafted in sequence, at a minimum is crafted in sequence. At a minimum, at a minimum is human literary genius. Yeah, yeah, totally.

And at a maximum, it's an inspired gift of God. To help us know how to choose wisely. Yeah, totally. And embrace eternal life. So let's take our next step then into this whole story and watch it get played out on a macro level at Mount Sinai Hold test Okay, we can spend a lot more time for what happens at Mount Sinai. But for the purpose of the video, I think we can do the pieces pretty quick. Chapter 19, Moses leads the people to Mount Sinai.

The word Sinai appears for the first time in Exodus 19. So now it's not called Mount Sinai. Well go go Mount Horev. Yeah Mount Horev. Yeah. Now they're just like oh it's a circle on a sound. Yeah totally. And then it will go back and forth between Sinai and Horev throughout the rest of the Torah. But right here at Exodus 19 they come to the place we're at the Sinai bush where God said the people were going to come, and in the third month after the sons of Israel came out and allowed them to V Egypt, on that day they came to the wilderness of Sinai, where Moses met God at the Sinai.

So the significant of that is the tree at the top of this mountain is not going to be mentioned in the narrative again. But the mountain is now called the tree. The mountain is called by the name of that tree. And I meant to imagine that tree at the top of the mountain for every scene when Moses goes up there. So the famous thing is God says again to the people, you're going to be a kingdom of priest of the nations if you listen, listen to my voice. Listen, listen. Yeah.

So God shows up in the fire and cloud, just like he did to Moses. On top of the mountain, he's doing for all the people what he did for Moses. Yeah. Little grander. But more grand, not just fire in a bush. Yeah. The bush is lighting up the whole mountain with the storm cloud. Yeah, it's the bush is lighting up the whole mountain. Yeah, with the storm cloud. Yeah

The people saw the thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking and the people saw it and they trembled and stood at a distance and they said to Moses, You speak to us and will listen. We'll listen to your voice, but don't let God speak to us. Yeah. Because he's going to kill us. We'll die. Yeah, that looks dangerous. It's dangerous. So this is the trick, right? Moses thought he was going to die.

He was afraid, so he hid his face. I mean, he was freaked out, but he didn't die. Yeah. He was transformed by that in care. But even he was scared. But he was scared. Yeah. And, yeah.

Rightfully so, right? Yeah, yeah. You're in the presence of some power. Yeah. And we know, and this is interesting, maybe I'm gonna do far with this, but eating of the tree of life can be a curse. It could actually, you know?

Yeah, well, at least say this. Do you remember the tree of life represents God's eternal power and life and glory being eaten by a mortal dirt creature? Yeah, it's gonna change you. Yeah. If for a human to exist as an eternal partner of God, we're gonna need some kind of upgrade of the hardware. Yeah, and it might not be pleasant.

It looks unpleasant. What if it is unpleasant? What if it is unpleasant? That's what the burning bush represents. It's like, whoa. It's going to consume me like that bush. I'm now here in the presence of my creator. He's telling me to come close. To fire consuming a bush.

But it's going to mean the end of the version of me that I know and that I'm familiar with. I get consumed by this fire. Yeah. What's it going to do to me? It's like, no, no, no, no, this is come here. I've got the next thing for you. And Moses is like, I'm going to stick with the version of me that I know. I want to upgrade you. Totally. So this is what the people are saying right here. They see the divine glory and they say, we don't want to go near. So they say Moses, you got you've been up there. So you go on our behalf

and we'll listen to you. If you tell us what God says, but we don't want to go up there and meet and talk with God. And then look what Moses says. Moses says, don't be afraid. God has come in order to test you. This is your test. Is it your test? He's come to test you in order that the fear of him might remain with you so that you don't sin. So Moses went up to the mountain, he faced the fear, and he ended up in the Holy of Holies, and it didn't kill him. It transformed him.

He brings the people to the foot of the mountain. It's the burning bush times a gazillion in terms of like the light show. And the people are called to go up, and they won't go up with Moses. And Moses says, no, you guys, this is the test. God doesn't want to kill you. He wants you to become his kingdom of priests to the nations and they say no, they say no. They don't pass the test.

In order that you may fear him. Yeah. Which is. Yeah, that's from Garden Vocabulary, Garden of Eden. Yeah, and it's just wisdom vocabulary. Correct. The fear of the Lord. Yeah, yeah, that's from Garden Vocabulary Garden of Eden. Yeah, and it's just wisdom vocabulary correct the fear of the Lord Yeah, yeah, that's right so that you don't sin So you can know how to live in a human way heat truly human way That doesn't lead to yeah violence and destruction. Yeah. Yeah, when you come to the tree of life now There's a narrow developed you realize it's a fearful thing to take from the tree of life. That's

what I was just thinking about was, was that an anyway for Adam and Eve? Can you go back and go? Yeah, right. Was the tree of life intense in some way? That they're kind of like, I'll take for this other one. This other one looks a little more chill. Yeah. That one's on fire. Correct. I think that's how the design patterns are meant to make our imaginations go back and ponder. Yeah, it's interesting. I can trust in God and His presence, but what will happen to me?

Yeah. Will I be okay? Will I be okay? Yeah. So now all of a sudden, it's not taking from the tree of knowing good and bad that is the test. It's will you enter into the presence of the tree of life? That's the test. Right?

The test is will the Israelites go up like Moses to stand with him in the divine presence? Which was the first command? By the tree. And now it's God has come in order to test you. What's the test? Are you going to come up and sit before the tree of life and be in God's presence? That's the test now. Does that make sense? It does, I don't know if I fully appreciate it. Oh, well it's just that when design patterns work, it's never a full repeat.

It's the same concepts but in inverted relationships. The test Abram was don't eat of the tree, knowing good and bad on your own terms. And then, but listen to my voice in obey. The test wasn't eat of the tree of life or be in my presence. Correct. In Eden, it was eat of the tree of life, don't eat from that tree.

So the test is don't eat of the tree. So the test is don't eat from that other tree. The test here is be in my presence. Come up to the burning tree. Yeah, right. To be in God's presence. And the test is, are you gonna come up or are you not gonna come up? But this is a unique calling.

This isn't a calling for every human. This was a calling for a people that God wanted to. We're getting pretty cosmic here. Yeah. Turns up up to that cosmic story. One nation becoming God's royal priest, all of the other nations. I'm the reason why I'm saying that is because before

the narrative logic is God's protecting you from that tree. Oh, sure. So what's he doing telling humans to come in and now partake is, is it a trick? Or is it an actual invitation? And it seems like it's an actual invitation, but it's because he's doing something unique here. It's like an exception.

This seems like an exception is what I'm saying. Hold on, I guess what I'm saying is the test has switched trees, right? The Sunab bush, the burning Sunab bush, is the tree of life. It's where you meet God and are transformed. That's the tree that the test now relates to. Are you gonna come up to God?

So how's it a trick? I would wonder if it was a trick, because if I knew the story of Adam and Eve, and I'm realizing what's happening here, I would go, hey, God, if I eat of the tree, I will have eternal death. Oh, I understand. You're protecting us from this tree.

I see, I see. Oh, God, they You're protecting us from this tree. I see. Right. Oh, God, they're not eating from the tree of life. This is a the tree of life. This is their tree of life. But it is the it's God's presence. But it, oh, I understand. Yes. Yes. It is the tree of life. I understand. But for I think for them to eat from the tree of life means to take on the job that what God wants to give. Yes, and I think that's what I'm saying. I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a unique calling for unique people. Thanks. Okay, that's good. We're just trying to understand how your process looks at the analogy. Yeah, because my expectation of this point is like, no, no, no, don't do that.

We need the person to first do it with evil. Yeah. Because you go and being God's presence, eating of the tree of life on the cause of his mountain. I understand. God's protecting us from that until this is all dealt with. Yeah, God. And now we've got the story of God saying, I'm going to deal with it. And I'm going to deal with it through you guys.

So I'm inviting you back in. Yep. This feels like an exception. I see. Yeah, it is. It's the chosen family. It's the chosen family. It's the chosen family. It's the election idea.

The election motif of the chosen, I'm gonna do something unique with you. Yeah. So that you can mediate my purposes out to the nations. You've chosen for the many, but this is unique. Yeah, he's not doing this with any other nation. And so, the test is, will you listen to me, even though everything inside of you is saying, that's dangerous, that's dangerous, I'm going to die.

Will you trust me that my wisdom is greater? My purpose is now to test of trusting God's wisdom, is actually eating of the tree. But before, that was the thing that they got to do. Yeah, correct. You got it. That's it. Okay, next step in the story, come the list of covenant commands that God asked them to listen to. And only Moses goes up to receive them.

The people say, we don't want to go up, you go up Moses. Moses goes up and he's up there at the sanitary and he gets these, you know, the commands of the covenant and the tablets that represent. He brings them down and says, these are the terms of the covenant and the people say, we will listen and we will do them. The first two... Here's God's wisdom for you. Yeah, here's God's wisdom.

The first two, the covenants are, I am Yahweh, no other God created heaven and earth and no other God rescued you out of each other. Don't represent me with idols. Yeah. You didn't see any image up on the mountain in the cloud. I'm not a tree. I'm not an animal. I'm not a star.

Yeah. I'm the maker of all this thing. So don't do that. Okay. The people say yes, deal. So Moses says, Exodus 24, okay, you're on board. I'm going to go tell God that you want to get married. Yeah, you said you get married. You said yes. And so let's go and seal the deal. Moses goes up 40 days, go by and then comes the story of the golden cat.

Yeah, four days go by. Yeah. And they're like, where's Moses? Yes. What are we doing here? Yes. Yeah. Are we protected? Are we safe? Yeah. Exist 32, that when the people saw that Moses embarrassed them, delaying, it's the word caused shame. Oh, that's not. It gets translated delayed.

It's Yutipushashru. They were embarrassed about his not coming down from the mountain. We've been saying it. Yeah. It's also the last time the word was used was, and they were naked, and there was no bush. There was no shame. So they were ashamed by Moses' delaying, meaning, where is he? This ridiculous.

We were just about to get married in the 40 days. Goodbye, what is this? He's up there. What's he doing? The people assemble around Aaron and they say, here, let's make an Elohim that will lead us. As for this Moses, right, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what happened to him.

He's gone. So give us, let's make an Elohim. Yeah. And obviously, the violating the first commands of the covenant. Yeah. The first idol they're violating the first commands of the covenant. The first idol in the biblical story is happening at the foot of a high place. So the real high place is Moses, a new Adam up there at the tree, meeting with God's presence. Here at the foot of that real high place, they make like a fault eaten. They have this party, they're having rich

food and drink and they're playing and seeing and dancing, but they're not up in the real eaten, they're creating a false and they're creating a false God down at the so it's this contrast. You got the real eaten up top. They're creating a false God and a false eaten down below. This is important for what the meaning of idolatry and the high places are in the rest of the story of Israel. And so let's just get to it. I'll bring it all together. Moses is up on the mountain. God says, look what the people are doing down there. I'm going to destroy them. Leave me alone. We've talked about this. God says leave me alone. And Moses proceeds to not leave God alone. He tells God to change his decision about the people by remaining consistent to his promises to Abraham.

And God says, good, that's what I'll do. Then look at this down in Exodus 32, the end of the chapter. Verse 30, on the next day, Moses said to the people, you all have committed a great sin. They failed the test. Yeah, big time. Big time. With a flourish. You, they failed. They failed.

With pizzazz. With jazz. With jazz. The whole thing was, you're under it. This is the test so that you don't sin. They failed the test. You've committed a great sin. Yeah.

So now I am going up Moses is going to go up the mountain and Perhaps I can make a tonement for your sin. He's gonna go up in a tone for their sins sacrifice What? Yeah, so think of all the design patterns Noah Abraham Perhaps I can make a tonement for your sin. So Moses returned to Yahweh and said, Oh, this people has committed a great sin. They've made a God of gold for themselves. So what we're ready for him to do is to get out an animal. Right? Just like Noah. Right.

And then verse 32. But now, if you will, please forgive their sin. But if you're not, kill me. Hmm. Block me out from the book that you have written. Please forgive their sin, but if you're not, kill me. Block me out from the book that you have written. He offers himself. He offers himself. That's what we're looking for. Yeah, Genesis 3.15.

He offers himself. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha so important for the storyline of the design pattern of the wounded victor. He gives his own life in the place of the people as a sacrifice of atonement. And what's interesting, Yahweh, Yahweh says, you don't have to do that. Yeah, he doesn't make him do that. Yeah, what he says is, the one who has sinned against me, that's the one whose name I'll blot out of my book. But as for you, go down. And there we supposed to go, oh, so he isn't the one. He's not the one, but he did. But man, he did. He was ready to be the one.

That's right. But he wasn't the one. He's not the one. Now this then is a part of the complex portrait of Moses character, where Moses has his own series of failures. He's already had a failure before this. When he met God at the burning bush, he had a failure at that moment, where he said, I'm not going to go send somebody else.

And it says, Moses, God got angry at Moses and says, your brother's going to come and he'll do it in your place and you'll just stand next to him and talk to him. Whisper in his ear. But then Moses, will have his own. Is that good with you Moses? That's not work. And then Moses will go into have his own failures. And actually in the inversion of this, he's going to ask God in numbers 11 to say,

I don't, I can't lead this people anymore, they're grounding against me. And he says, kill me. If you're going to make me lead this people, kill me now. So then he offers his life again. But for selfish purpose. To get out of this deal. Totally. And then he has a failure at the water, the rock,

restrikes it instead of speaking to him. So anyway, all that to say is, this is one of Moses' high points. Yeah. And then this is the same narrative moment where he's gonna, his face is gonna be transformed in the divine glory. So he's complex. At his best, he's like a human transformed in the divine glory. So he's complex.

At his best, he's like a human up in the New Eden. His face starts glowing. He starts being transformed by the divine, holy creative power of Yahweh. And he's like a human giving his life for the sins of others up at the New Eden, but then even he fails and the story goes on. And the rest of the story of Israel is going to be Israel worshipping idols in the form of at luxuriant green

trees on top of high places, worshipping their gods of wood, stone, and metal. And all of the high places that are the culprits of, when the prophet's name, why Israel ends up in exile, it's going to be just replaying what happened to Mount Sinai. So the high places that Israel sacrifices at, that appear all throughout the story to follow are just fallout from this moment right here at the story. It seems like in some way creating or worshiping idols is really connected to choosing wisdom on your own terms. It's creating your own tree of life. It's creating your own tree of life. Yeah. Make us a God who will go up for us.

What more explicit way are you defining and taking ceasing things on your own terms and crafting your own tree of life? Correct. That's right. They didn't see it that way. They actually thought they were creating a god that, right? Correct. The golden calf, like we represented.

He is a god who will lead us out of here. Like they, yeah. So it's interesting. Humans in their own wisdom don't say, well, I'm going to, I'll figure this out. They're like, we'll just find another power. That will help us. Yeah, yeah, here's something that can rescue us out of the wilderness that can lead us out of this place.

And we still do that as humans. Like we give ourselves to other powers. Correct. We think we're like getting our own freedom, but instead we're really just kind of creating allegiances with whatever the other power structure or force is. This conversation is a long one, that's okay. But we're connecting, as we're connecting that golden

calf, it becomes the icon moment for the whole history of Israel's idolatry in the Promised Land. Where does that idolatry take place? In the narrative takes place at what the biblical narratives call the High Places, And every generation of Israel's kings keeps worshipping other gods at the High Places. They're called the Bamot in Hebrew. And the particular... What's called the Bamot? The High Place in Hebrew is called Bamot.

Jeroboam, when he goes and he breaks off the Northern tribes from the Southern tribes, this is in 2nd Kings chapter 12, he makes a new temple and he installs two golden calves and says, these are your gods of Israel who brought you up out of Egypt. He's presented as now replaying the sin of a golden calf, but on a grander scale. And then he sets up in verse 31, houses on high places all throughout the land and brings in a new priesthood that was not from the stents of Levi. And then the rest of the narrative is you get little descriptions of these high places.

And there's two things on these high places. They're either called the Ashrah, which is the name of a Canaanite fertility goddess. Yeah, and the poles. And goddess is symbolized as a symbolic pole placed in the middle of a garden on top of talliles. And sometimes that pole is called in Hebrew, the luxuriant tree. In Hebrew, it's the it's rangan. And the word rangan is the word like luxuriant or green,

but it's spelled with the letters of the word Eden So Eden is I and Dalit noon and then the word rotten on the Dalit D looks like the Hebrew letter of Rish when you see this phrase in Hebrew the luxuriant tree It looks like you're looking at the word the tree of Eden, but it's back all the letters are back ones. It's like a mixed up. It's a perverted Eden. And so you're just reading through the story and you're like, oh, these false high places, these false Eden's were the worshiping. They're on human-made trees of life and it ends them in exile in Babylon.

So we just brushed through whole section of the Hebrew Bible. But the whole point is you get the whole story of Israel in a nutshell right there at the story of Mount Sinai. And so, you know, but what you never get in the stories of Israel to follow is another Moses who offers his life for the people. That prophet, a prophet like Moses never, never arose. What's interesting to me of a new thought is,

when I pictured the tree of knowing good and bad, I think of it in my modern construct of, I'm going to be my own king. But now we're talking about the titles, which is saying, I'm going to give my allegiance to another power. We are creating our own salvation. The thing that we think will give us the life that we want, right? Yeah.

But in an ancient psyche, you're not creating another power, you're just creating an opportunity to worship the other power. I understand. Right? Because they actually thought these were real That's right. They thought these were and in some ways they are correct because what are they these gods represent whether fertility? War yeah metallurgy kingship fertility is sex And also the economy yeah fertility abundance and then

kingship and war which which we would call politics, sex, money, and power. So it's like by taking of the tree of knowing good and bad, I think of it as like, I'm taking my freedom. I want autonomy. Yeah, I'm taking things on my own hands. But really what you're doing is you're just giving your allegiance to replacing your allegiance. You're replacing your allegiance to replacing your allegiance.

You're replacing your allegiance to some other power because this becomes connected now to creating idols. Creating idols. That's right. You're giving over your allegiance to And the idols are like false. Idols are human-made representations of real divine ideals. Yeah, divine ideals, trusting in a different way, not God's wisdom, but another wisdom of how to get to those ideals. Totally. That's right.

Yep. And one of these false gods is Bale. Who's Bale? He's the God of Thunder. But also, if you look at statues of him, he's usually carrying a mace, big like Bashar Head Scepter and a Thunderbolt. The God of War and Thunder. So when I am a king, and I, oh, like the king of Moab in the book of kings, he sacrifices his son to Kimosh, the God of Moab, and then he wins a battle. And then if the king

he goes, oh yeah, if I give my son over to chemosh, he will help me crush this goals of my enemies. And it creates this, right? I let cycle creates. Yeah, these cycles of humanly created narratives of how I get the good life and victory and abundance from me and mine. And I'll give even the life of my own sons to sacrifice my sons for the net for the preservation of my tribe and the gods look on it approvingly. All of a sudden you have a recipe for a, it's idolatry. Yeah. Did the call of the calf have a specific God in mind?

Oh yeah, people have wondered this. The calf was, I'm afraid to say this off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure it's associated with bail, the calves. But what Aaron says is people is these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of land of Egypt. And Aaron says tomorrow we'll have a feast of Yahweh. So this is even more tricky, is that they think they're worshiping Yahweh,

but what they're actually worshiping is of their own creation. They're perverting it. I think the fact that it's not associated with another deity is it makes it a paradigm that can fit. They're gonna like, we'll do it on our own terms. Yeah. You want us to sit here and wait. Another deity is it makes it a paradigm that can fit. They're gonna like, we'll do it on our own terms. You want us to sit here and wait, for us to come down.

We'll just, we'll come up with our own way. Your way seems scary, and now I'm getting bored. Totally, yeah, and it's crazy. It's a storm up on the mountain. I'm like, what, I can't, I can't. We have another idea. I can't work with a god like that. I can't work.

It's not manageable. This makes something manageable. Yeah. We can understand and know, and we'll take us where we want to go. This God who leaves us out into the wilderness, we think we're gonna die every other day, wants us to trust Him in crazy ways.

That's crazy. I can't do that. Man, all this is swimming in my head now Because you've got the tree of knowing good and bad. Yeah, which then becomes in some stories really an altar Yep, by which to to a tone But then also the tree of knowing good and bad also becomes these idols. Yeah, that's right. By which?

False trees of life. Yeah, false trees of life. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think for, again, the way, thinking of how we've been able to do videos in the past, many of our theme videos have these cycles of patterns. Yeah. And we can use composition, color, visual devices to draw analogies between scenes, but the scenes can develop just like these patterns are developing.

But we need to follow one continuity. Yeah, yeah. If the trees are constantly kind of ticking on different forms, and doing different things, the continuity is, will you trust my wisdom, be in my presence and rule with me, or will you do it on your own terms? Correct. Yep. Yep, that's the continuity.

And because you've done on your own terms, and death has been unleashed, will you also, well, I'm going to deal with that. Yeah. By raising up the seed. Sacrifice. And the sacrifice we will get to will eventually make that sacrifice by hanging on a tree. Correct. Yep.

That's right. And Moses becomes the image of that. Take me in that. Inactive. He's up there on the high place at the tree, talking to God, and he says, take my life in the place of the people. Yeah. God likes the attitude, but he's not his job description. Yeah, it's not Moses. Moses is not the one, but he becomes an image of of that one. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast.

We are still taking questions that you all have about this series on the Tree of Life. We're going to do another question response episode during this series. So, if you have a question about this theme of trees in the Bible or any of the stories that we have explored explored we want to hear your questions. If you could record yourself asking the question, give us your name, where you're from, hopefully keep it to about 20 seconds or so, and email it to us at infoatbibleproject.com. Next week we're going to continue in this series by looking at some stories about trees

in the life of David and in the book of Isaiah. I've been dwelling on this image of the tree of life being on fire and a little bit intense. Terrifying, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And having that same thing was like, if I eat that fruit, it's going to burn me. And that's kind of this image you've got here of like,

you're handing me coal from the fire and you're going to put it on my mouth. Yeah, that's right, that's what's funny. Because what Isaiah, he announced, when he sees God in the burning throne, is I'm a man of impure lips. Today's episode was produced by Dan Gummo. Our theme music comes from the band Tents.

The Bible project is a crowd-funded non-profit in Portland, Oregon. We make free resources that are showing how the Bible's a unified story that leads to Jesus. You guys, thank you for being a part of this with us. Hi, this is Gila. I'm from Oregon. A story.

Yeah, a story. Ha, ha, ha. Hi, my name is Liam. I'm from Orton. What about you? Hi, my name is Aylika and I'm from Ola-Dem. Awesome. Thanks. What was the first video you watched?

The first one I watched was outside. You watched the outside guys? Do you remember what video you watched? No. Do you remember that say you are you watched? No. Do you remember that burger was good, all right? A burger was really good. Yeah, that's one thing I remember.

We believe the Bible is a unified story at least to Jesus. Or a crowd-funded project by people like me. Find food videos, fill in out podcasts, and, you know, at the mile-park you'll stop. you