Slaves In Our Own Land

Please turn your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9 that can be found on page 405 if you're using pew Bible. Nehemiah chapter 9 it's a Fairly long chapter. So Well, the whole chapter is useful context. I will only be Reading 32 to the end of the chapter.

Nehemiah’s Confession and the Burden of National Sin

Please go ahead and stand when you have that Nehemiah 9. Now therefore our God the great the mighty and the awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love. Let not all the hardships seem little little to you.

That has come upon us upon our kings our princes our priests our prophets our fathers and all your people. Since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous and all that has come upon us for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.

Our kings our princes our priests and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments or warnings that you gave them even in their own kingdom and amid your great goodness that you gave them and In the large and rich land that you set before them.

They did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. Behold we are slaves this day and the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts behold We are slaves and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins.

They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please and we are in great distress. Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing on the sealed document are the names of our princes our Levites and our priests.

Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father. We thank you for your word which guides us in all things. We thank you for your incredible blessings upon us as a church your blessings upon us as Californians and your blessings upon us as a nation as Americans.

We pray that you would help us to think rightly about our civic condition as well as our civic duties today. Jesus name. Amen. If you have been attending this church for some time, you know that I do very little preaching on holidays at all.

This includes the quote-unquote Christian holidays very little. To address those things as sort of routine matters. Yet the situation that we find ourselves in the dawn the next quarter millennium Should the Lord be so kind to us seems so monumentous that I did not want to neglect the occasion by failing to say anything of our national condition and trying to Bring the word forward to give clarity at a time when I think very few people have any kind of clarity about how to think of government.

Everyone sort of does what is right in their own eyes they are wise in their own eyes and they think about these matters as matters of personal opinion and and Just practical or pragmatic Ideas but really matters of civics come down to core principles of justice that God has given us in Scripture and In this passage I believe we have the statement with great clarity about The nature of taxation and the nature of slavery that we should take to heart for ourselves.

We live in a wonderful country that has received incredible blessings from God we are more prosperous than any nation has been in the History of the world. He has been most kind to us and we are people who in many senses are incredibly free.

You look at the the Bill of Rights and Certainly, you could have various gripes about different ways that it gets encroached on but by and large we have a freedom here That is not enjoyed so In such great measure in many other countries you hear in other countries of headlines of People being taken to jail over social media posts that aren't threats of violence or anything like that.

Many places just don't have the same kind of rights that we do here. And so we think of ourselves as a free people, but there is another way that we are not a free people. This nation was formed because of the nature of the taxation that exists at the time people from another land taxing this This land in order to build up its stores for other purposes.

This nation was formed under the very basic idea that Taxation should be for the good of the people that is That is being taxed at least in terms of advancing its own justice now We live at a time where there is much taxation that has nothing to do with the ends of Justice or for the for the good of the people in the same kind of sense that the founders would have Considered it now they are not scripture.

But we have scripture here to tell us of what freedom and slavery look like. And if you believe that you are a free person in every sense Would like you to qualify that with scripture with a scriptural understanding of what freedom and slavery mean so that you would understand your condition in a way that you are able to respond to it correctly and Likewise able to appreciate your citizenship in the kingdom of heaven.

If you are one who knows Christ you are a citizen of a kingdom that is not of this world. And it is a far greater kingdom, but you may not understand how great it is if you don't understand the nation nature of kingdoms in general.

If you are not one who knows Christ Then perhaps this is an occasion for you to consider your duties to that high king To consider the ways in which you have sinned against him and that you must turn to him for his mercy.

The context of this passage the people have Built the foundation of the temple they have built a wall. They are People who God has blessed in rebuilding and in the previous chapter They have read from the law and they are understanding the law of God more.

They are celebrating the feast of booths. Remembering that they were people in the wilderness for a long time and then God established them and here They are people who are exiled and God has Re-established them and so they are rejoicing in what God has done.

But at the end of their rejoicing they end that commanded rejoicing with mourning. They know that they must mourn. The sin that has brought them to this condition where they are oppressed where they are slaves and their own land.

It is because their sin that they are oppressed that they are heavily taxed. And this is described here at the end of I'll read the first two verses to to explain this. This confession now on the 24th day of this month The people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth with earth on their heads and the Israelites Separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

Okay, so they're they're confessing their sins and As they go on you see this chapter is long. This is describing all the sins of the fathers. And then what's the conclusion from that in? Verse 35 and 36.

Even in their own kingdom amid your great goodness that you gave them and in the large and rich land that you set before them. They did not serve you or turn from your wicked works. Okay. So they continued on in their sin.

Now verse 36 behold We are slaves this day and the land that you gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit its good gifts behold We are slaves and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins.

They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please and we are in great distress. You may be inclined to think of slavery as being a matter of being in chains and every Waking minute of your day being assigned to a particular task.

That is not the way the Bible Talks about slavery talks about slavery in a more general way that is on a sliding scale such that yes You could be 100 a slave. But you might also by having to give up the fruit of your labor that is your body.

If you have to give a great amount of that then you are a slave if if your possessions exist in a great measure For blessings for others rather than yourself that you don't get into enjoy those fruits.

And you are a slave. This is the nature of slavery and this is in many ways the situation that we find ourselves in today. Now all this must be qualified with something that I wish I didn't have to qualify it with but it is very common Among churches today that they will cite various passages about Israel and Israel's Relationship with God in a way that does not seem to understand.

The distinction between Israel as a nation and covenant with God in our own nation as one that is not Israel was under a very particular covenant that they had a divine right to the land that they were in.

Should they obey him and it was by their disobedience specifically that God had guaranteed by obedience. They would keep the land by disobedience. They would not keep the land there were covenantal agreements in place.

Yet we would be fools to think that Just because there was a covenant in place with Israel that in the case of every other nation There would be no kinds of dealings with God in any measure. It is evident throughout scripture that God deals with various nations as nations.

Okay, it speaks of Edom as a nation speaks of Moab as a nation, etc Etc. And God deals with these as nation. God deals with their their widespread sins as a nation with widespread sins even though they are not in covenant with him and So despite not having absolute guarantees To certain kinds of blessings should they obey in certain kinds of blessings if they disobey it is evident repeatedly Throughout scripture that God deals with nations as nations.

And so he deals with our own people as a nation and it is by our sin that we invite curses upon ourself and is by righteousness that the nation flourishes. Once again, we do not have the same guarantees that they may have but We would be fools to think that that means there are no implications for ourselves.

Heavy Taxation as Slavery

First principle you need to understand here. Is that heavy taxation is Slavery. The Bible speaks of slavery. The Bible speaks of taxation in that way. Proverbs 22 7 says the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

For a long time. I thought that was just an analogy. That It was something where. Okay, there's some kind of metaphorical sense in which the borrower is a slave to the lender but then as you see the way the Bible you slave go through look at all the uses of the word slave you look at The uses of the word servant you realize that any kind of owing someone something Makes you a servant of that person any kind of owing something makes you in some measure slave of that person.

The Difference between whether or not you might use the word servant or you might use the word slave would be a matter of degrees. But still any measure of owing someone something makes you Is a mark of servitude.

Matthew 17 25 through 26 says what do you think Simon from whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tax from their sons. Or from others. And when he said from others she has said to him then the sons are free.

Okay, what is what is Jesus distinguishing between free and slave whether or not you're taxed or you're untaxed or those who are free. They're those who are not free. Second Samuel 8 2 and there are countless passages in the Old Testament that speak of tribute tribute being another word for taxation this way.

Second Samuel 8 2 and the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute. I always I always wondered as a younger man reading the Bible. What does it mean that they were servants? Aren't they living over there?

Does this mean that they're? Coming like some of the tribes where they're woodcutters and water carriers like it describes for some of it. Like how many woodcutters and water carriers do you need in a land but know these different nations who are called servants?

To David are Essentially just servants in that they are taxed and that he takes many of the fruits of their labors. Second Samuel 8 6 and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. So the same statement for the Moabites also for the Syrians.

First Kings 421. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. Tertullian this is a third century.

Excuse me, he may be second century. I'm having a Blanking my memory right here. Tertullian a very early church father. He's the earliest Latin father the first. The first theologian that was right major theologian that was writing in Latin and his apology he wrote.

But indeed lands are burdened. Lands burdened with tribute are of less value. Men under the assessment of a poll tax are less Noble for these things are the marks of servitude. Okay, so this has been understood for Ages, this is clearly in Scripture and you might think well so many of those verses said servants.

Servant is something very different than a slave. In English, we have the term servant and slave to separate degrees of duty. These are in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament typically just the same word being used that just translated differently into English for its palatability to modern readers.

For example Leviticus 25 verse 42 for they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. Okay, that's actually the same word both times for they are my servants.

They shall not be sold as slaves. This is saying they are my slaves. They shall not be sold as slaves. Okay, and all these other passages that we looked at. It's all the Hebrew word a bed. It's all the word slave every single time.

They became slaves of David. They became slaves of Solomon. And In the New Testament You have the word to los. To mean slave now some of you know that the LSB renders that word always as Slave in order to make this point.

However, the LSB does not always render the word a bed a slave in the Old Testament. So there are you still see inconsistent and I'm not saying that this, you know translation theory. It always needs to be slave or anything like that.

I'm just letting you know, there is not the hard distinction that you see in English and Hebrew these are all it's all using the word slave. Okay now there is in Some measure a rightness to this there is a rightness to the servitude to a king to a government.

Romans 13 verse 5 says therefore one must be in subjection. This is talking about the civil authorities. One must be in subjection. Not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience for because of this you also pay taxes.

For the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing pay taxes to all. Pay tap pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed.

Honor to whom honor is owed. Okay, so it is it is right in some measure to have that kind of servitude to a government. But there are clearly different levels of this servitude and the way that many Christians think about this once again.

Speaking of my younger self as I was, you know, a young man reading the Bible trying to understand these things I understood it to mean that the government had all authority to take as much as it wanted.

It could take 1 it could take 100 if it's so desired. We would just have to be subject to this but Is that what it's saying repeatedly throughout the Bible you see Statements to the contrary that make it clear that Governments do not have an absolute authority.

They have a dominion. That means an ownership, but not an absolute ownership people are given dominion. God told us to subdue the earth and take dominion. This is something every man can do every man has property is a real thing property is a real thing.

And so If instead the government has all rights to it property wouldn't be a real thing. If you know in the Old Testament Ahab Wanted Naboth's Vineyard and he cried to himself because he couldn't take Naboth's Vineyard and eventually Jezebel helped him Steal away Naboth's Vineyard what he was king.

Why couldn't he just take Naboth's Vineyard a king can't just take land. He can't just do whatever he wants. There's there's a limit to what is right. To what God has actually authorized him to do and it has to do with what Romans 13 has described here in verse 4.

For he is God's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is a servant of God an Avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer? Okay, this is what?

The civil government is for it is an Avenger. It is a wielder of the sword and it is right for them as one who is providing that who is performing that duty. Providing that service to take taxes in order that they would be able to do that.

So provide for the actual enforcement of justice the actual defense of the people and then the majesty in Some good measure of the one who is performing those things. That is all right and good. But what we see today is something far beyond that far beyond just defense far beyond justice far beyond what the Civil government's job is and I would like to give you a couple of examples from scripture to explain this but first of all, I couldn't find very certain numbers but different people theorizing about what the tax might be during Nehemiah's time that the That the Persians would be levying on the people.

It's about 1 12th. Okay 1 12th of their yield. That's like eight point something. Percent. All right, and 1st Samuel chapter 8 verse 10. I'm gonna read verses 10 through 18. 1st Samuel 8 10 through 18.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king for from him. He said these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and Appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots and he will point for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and Some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He'll take the best of your fields and your vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants.

He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to work. He will take the tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves. And in that day, you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourself.

But the Lord will not answer you in that day this is describing a people becoming slaves to their own king a People with no cause no no reason for the man to do this to go so far. They would become slaves when he takes how much in verse 15.

He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. Later on in verse 17. He will take a tenth of your flocks and you shall be a safe is slaves. 10 Would be regarded this way why?

Well, this is the amount that God requires of his people. It's what he requires in the Old Covenant and even prior to the Old Covenant. Just something that's been understood by people is this is the right quantity that would be given to God.

Abraham gave this in Genesis 14 to Melchizedek the priest of God. Jacob gave this to God at Bethel. He pledged 10 at Bethel in Genesis 28. This is a quantity that is fit for God that without cause for someone to require 10 is for even a king is for him to elevate himself to the level of God and just to reinforce this idea that as we See this prophecy regarding Saul and the oppression that he's going to put the people under.

That a king does not have this kind of absolute authority. The passage that you heard just read to you by James is actually one of the important proof texts as you read reformed writings on political theology.

Okay. So does Saul have absolute authority to kill his son making a vow before God. No, he does not have absolute authority to command these sorts of things and enforce these kinds of penalty. His authority does comes from God but comes indirectly Through the people such that the people have the authority to resist the king and say no you will not kill your son.

It is not an absolute authority To command the people in absolutely everything. It is not an absolute authority to take absolutely everything. Now, let's look at a different Tax that you see in Scripture and this is one if you go ahead and turn to Genesis 47.

This is one that comes up a number of times when people want to either justify very high taxes from a Perspective that wants them or to justify living under them without any kind of Speech to the contrary from those who would prefer not to have them that basically we have no reason to object Genesis 47 beginning in verse 18.

And when that year was ended they came to him the following year and said to him We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent the herds of livestock are my lord's. There's nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our land.

Why should we die before your eyes both we and our land buy us and our land for food that we? With our land will be servants for Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die and that our land might not May not be desolate.

Okay, so the people of Egypt are Struggling their suffering and they asked for Pharaoh to buy them. Okay, you buy them you become a slave right to buy them and to buy their land. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh for the all the Egyptians sold their fields because their famine was severe on them.

The land became Pharaoh's as for the people he made servants of them. Same word, by the way same word for slave from one end of Egypt to the other only the land of The priest did he not buy for the priest had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them.

Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people behold I have this day bought you and Your land for Pharaoh now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land and at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as Food for yourselves in your household and as food for your little ones and they said you have saved our lives.

May it please my lord. We will be servants to Pharaoh. Same word. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth a land of the priests.

The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Okay, a lot of people will point to this and say look he's taking a fifth. That's 20 Joseph is a good king. 20 tax totally reasonable notice that what's happening here.

This is not a free people living under a king this is a people who is selling themselves to the king in order to be slaves to the king and. So how much do they give the king? How much do they give Pharaoh as slaves to him?

20 20 And this and this is reasonable. I'm not saying that this is bad. I'm saying that this is slavery. Okay, this is this you should understand this. This is not a free people. This is an enslaved people and they are happy to make themselves slaves given the conditions.

The exchange is reasonable for them, but it is still slavery. We are ostensibly a free people and yet the median household in Santa Clara County Gives more than far more than 30 in taxes. Okay, you have that statement in 1st Samuel 8 that an oppressive King would take 10 and make his people slaves.

Okay, Joseph actually having bought the people themselves in their land takes 20 and We the median in this county giving well over 30. Can you say that you are a free person? Using the language of Scripture it is right to use the language of Scripture.

I understand being grateful for the blessings that God has given you that we are a prosperous people. We have such excellent conditions yet. If we are going to commit ourselves to viewing things as scripture would view them to using the language that scripture would have us use.

Can you say that you are a free man? If you were to take just the median individual in Santa Clara County and kind of model the the scope of his Career. I tried doing this if you don't like the numbers you can adjust them yourself, but take someone at.

Who starts off as a 20 year old making $40 ,000 a year and let's say that his He either gets raises or improves his career by 3 every year until he is 60 and he Invests every year of his life 10 Okay, so he's very diligent every year.

He invests 10 and He has a 10 return on that investment. Okay at the end of his life He would have that that median man would have saved up 1 .8 million. Okay, and that's that's it. That's a good number.

You might be very impressed by that. Yeah compounding interest and everything. It's amazing. But at the end of the day, what does that mean? You know around here you get a house and then you have a few hundred thousand.

If you have a family and stuff, you might not be ready to retire on that if you were to reduce the taxes for that man. Just to instead of the actual tax rate at those different levels of income just to 5

Okay, just picking a number, you know half of 10 that number that we looked at in first Samuel 8 just 5 flat. He would be able to save up 6 .3 million. Okay, so that that's over a three times difference in the wealth that he is able to save up from 20 to 60 now.

That's the median, okay, right as you get into the higher brackets for the top 10 10 percents for the top 1 Which that sounds like a like those are the really elite you meet a hundred people you meet one of these, you know, they're not.

This isn't out unheard of kind of person. That number grows to 10 times basically 10 times the wealth. They would be able to save up if if they were tax less a Lot of people are not aware because God has so prospered us that we can bear with the oppression.

Many people are not aware of how much is being taken away in a very cruel way in a very wrong way. And why is this happening? It is because of our sin. It is because of our sin. You look at this passage and how the people confess their sin that Oppression has come upon them because of sin.

It is the same for us oppression has come upon us because of our sin and if we are senseless to our misery if we are senseless to the the difficulties that we face because we're Enjoying our prosperity in a way that doesn't account for all of reality.

You'll miss it. But this has come upon us because of our sin. You look at church attendance over the last 50 years, etc. It is declined greatly. You look at sexual immorality. It has increased immorality has increased greatly.

We look at all different kinds of sins that exist in our world. Injustice the government has switched from. And even people themselves has switched from thinking of the job of government to being to punish evildoers and rather to correct them.

Rather to show mercy to no longer be a minister of vengeance, but to be a minister of mercy these are these are great ills that affect our land and That is heightened By the fact that God has been so merciful to us and Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 34 you see our kings our princes our priests and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your Commandments and your warnings that you gave them.

Okay, they understand it's sin. Even in their own kingdom and amid your great goodness that you gave them and in the large and rich land that you set before Them they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.

So what has compounded that sin? What is what's known in theology an aggravation of sin there that God was incredibly merciful and blessed them with all? Kinds of prosperity and they still did not just swear from sin.

You live in the most prosperous County of the most prosperous state of the most prosperous nation in the world. God has blessed us Immensely and for all that we have not turned from our sin. In fact, we are.

As a Santa Clara County people you talk to the people of this neighborhood and elsewhere. So far from God because think we have our needs met. People think that they are. That they are self-sufficient that they do not need God.

For all of God's mercy they take it and they throw it in his face and do not understand their need of him and so. More and more they fall under an oppression that they don't even understand that they are senseless to.

Now in many ways this is happening supernaturally as I'm describing our sin God. Bringing these things upon us because of our sin many much of it is a natural consequence of sin as well. Think about how this oppression is happening.

Who is it? That's getting rich. You might think about you know times of oppression in the past with a rich king sitting on his throne, you know. Diving into his money vault of gold coins. Whatever the case may be like Scrooge McDuck, you know, that is not the kind of situation we have art.

Our rulers are that you might have some arguments to the contrary, but our rulers are paid fairly modestly. You know from what I understand, you know, our mayor doesn't even if I remember correctly. He doesn't even take enough of a salary that he he still needs a second job.

You know, our rulers are paid fairly modestly. It's not the rulers so much that is oppressing us in this land where we have. So where so much happens by vote and especially in California where there are propositions that are passed by the people themselves.

It's because we are the oppressors. We are the ones oppressing ourselves people. Hear about the the prosperity of their neighbors and they say I want that and they vote for what they think will get them more things.

Right, and so they do not care about what is just they do not care about what is right. You know. The Bible says that a few of you should become teachers because teachers will be judged with the stricter judgment.

The same is true for civil authorities. You should become civil authorities because you will be judged with the stricter judgment. But in our land it functions so that we have such a stake in it that all of us are taking part in something that brings on grave.

Responsibilities and we take those things lightly and just do the thing that we think will work out best for us. Not thinking about justice not thinking about what God has actually called us to do for what is right.

Just thinking about pragmatics. What's going to happen? You know a lot of these propositions that get passed or something along the lines of would you like to add? 1 to the tax on boat owners so that you could get more parks and you say to yourself.

Well, I don't know to boat and I go to parks sure. And you don't think about justice at all. We need to be a people who recognizes that we have fallen under oppression. We need to be a people that recognizes that is because of our own sin.

And this is a particularly grave Kind of curse. I don't know if you just just think about the the perversion that's happening here. Okay, who is the government according to Romans 13 a servant of God a minister of vengeance a minister meaning a servant.

Performing a duty as a steward of God. Okay, he is supposed to be a servant of God yet We've made him a servant of us, but then in this in that sense because we demand more and more for social programs, etc.

We make ourselves servant of ourselves. Okay that in Scripture that kind of devouring one another is one of the worst curses people can face. Okay, you see it a number of times you see it in Judges 7 with the Midianites where they all destroy each other.

You see it in 1st Samuel 14 with the Philistines where they all kill each other. You see it in 2nd Chronicles 20 with Moab and Ammon where they're coming against the people of Judah and then they just sound nowhere.

Start fighting each other and kill all each other as a constant Refrain in the prophets that they talk about brothers pulling sword against brothers and this be representing. You know God is really cursed to people when they turn upon themselves and then you have the statements in the New Testament that describe the the worst kind of fate for the church would be to bite And devour one another and to consume one another and yet this is what we are doing as a nation.

Is a is a terrible Misery that we have fallen under where we are biting and devouring one another for the sake of our own greed and so rather than everybody becoming rich everybody becomes poor and People do not recognize how much because they are so prosperous and can bear under it.

They do not realize how much more prosperous they would be. Otherwise if we had a sensible understanding of the role of government and the role of These contributions that are to be made to the government.

We are enslaved. We are enslaved due to our own sin, but Christ sets free. He sets free. We need forgiveness. We need forgiveness from our sin doesn't matter if it's the kind of sins that supernaturally lead to oppression.

Sexual immorality, you know all kinds of irreligion all kinds of mocking God hating him. You need forgiveness from all those things, but you likewise need forgiveness for any way that you have participated in our in our nation or our county or our state in a way that has not upheld justice.

If you have Voted for things that oppress other people if you have spoken to others and praised Programs that oppress others because they take money from one and give it to another in a way that you think is good.

These are all these are all kinds of oppression and you need forgiveness from your sins people think about this stuff as you know, just a fun kind of social conversation that you might have and Certainly it is it is good for iron to sharpen iron to work out.

What would be best? But if you think of this stuff as merely matters of opinion and not trying to Approximate the justice that God has given us and you have taken all these things lightly you have Sacrilegiously treated the Word of God and you need to go to it to understand it and you need to repent.