Book of Nehemiah Part 8

All right, let's pray lord jesus again as we open up your word and we consider The the great sins that have been committed in the past in the history of israel as they've cast your word behind them and the

Consequences that they have suffered as a result of it We pray lord that you would have mercy on us and that we would not

Cast your word behind us as they have and that we would not stiffen our neck against your word and that we would not

It be inattentive to it But we pray lord through your holy spirit That we may continually abide in your words so that we may properly believe confess and do according to it.

We ask in jesus name amen All right. Now, hang on a second here. I don't know what just happened there

I'm going to stop sharing and i'm going to reshare And we're going to share that.

All right, so there that should clean things up just a little bit. Voila All right, those of you online should be able to see my screen as well and all right, let's we've already prayed and you'll note that in the sermon today, you know,

I went ahead and focused on the emphasis as it relates to Who is listening to god's word?

And last time we were in the book of nehemiah uh, we'll note that uh, we

Had begun chapter nine and taking a look at this big prayer and confession of sins on the part of the people of israel and their elders after the exile which did last 70 years just as jeremiah prophesied that it would and then you'll note that um that You know, you know poor hananiah man.

I mean Presumptuously speaking words from god that god hasn't spoken assuming that god only has positive things to say

Uh that that that same sin that same spirit is is greatly at work today

Among the churches, but we are here to pay attention to god's word and consider this portion of scripture

Which is a sobering confession of sins and a sobering confession of the very heart of the guilt that they were guilty of and what

Led them into such great idolatry vice and shame So nehemiah chapter 9 verse 1 reads now on the 24th day of this month

The people of israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth And with earth on their heads, you'll you'll note that they they took their penance very seriously, you know uh, they've disfigured themselves they have humbled themselves in ways that Uh, we

I don't even think we have like a contemporary context for such a thing um, if somebody were to do this today and they filmed it that might be part of a comedy sequence because this is just so Foreign to us as far as an attitude is concerned

So the israelites separated themselves from all the foreigners and stood and they confessed their sins

And the iniquities of their fathers and they stood up In their place and they read from the book of the law of yahweh their god for a quarter of the day

You'll note that um true revival has broken out if you want to say it in those terms, right?

But we're not talking about some special visitation of the holy spirit causing people to Bark like dogs and cluck like chickens and and to lose control of themselves true true revival

Is a returning to the word of god and so in the previous chapter they had read the entire torah

Uh in the presence of the people and the and the scribes and those who knew the bible Well, they were assisting the crowd to help them understand the proper

Sense in which the scriptures were written And so they can understand its meaning properly and so here as part of their penance

They spent a quarter of their day A quarter of the day reading from the book of the torah and for another quarter of it

They made confession and they worshiped yahweh their god on the stairs of the levites

Stood jeshua bani kadmiel And they cried out with a loud voice to yahweh their god and then the levites jeshua kadmiel bani

Cherubiah This is a verbal gymnastics here

They they said stand up and bless yahweh your god from everlasting to yet everlasting

Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise

You are yahweh You alone you have made heaven The heaven of heavens with all of their host

The earth and all that is on it the seas and all that's in them

And you shall preserve all of them and the host of heaven worships you now host

Savah here probably is referring to the angel armies the army the army of heaven

Worships you you are yahweh the god who chose abram

And brought him out of ur the chaldeans and gave him the name abraham And you found his heart faithful before you and made

With him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the canaanites the hittites the amorites the perizzites the jebusites

And the girgashites and you have kept your promise for you are righteous

Now again, you're going to note here what has happened is is that this resurgence of interest in reading and studying and learning the word of god

They are reciting back to god the things that they have heard in the biblical texts

They have taken them to heart memorized some of the details and are now praying those details back

Now I recently did an episode of fighting for the faith where yet again andy stanley

Has gone on a tear against the bible And over and over again andy stanley, you know, one of these main leaders within these, you know mega churches

Has gone after the old testament He's even called for christians to unbuckle themselves from the old testament which is just nonsense

I I think a better way to think of it is this is that a

More careful reading of the new testament will help you much I mean of the old testament will help you better understand the new testament.

In fact a good way to further think about this Is that the old testament?

Has the stories that jesus held dear to him Jesus in his lifetime never read a single text in the new testament

So all of these biblical stories were the stories that jesus was raised on that he meditated on clearly had

Studied to the point of having mastery of their of their content This includes not only the stories and the histories but the prayers and even the songs these this the old testament

Basically forms the entire basis Of the culture and the religious upbringing that christ had

Uh, you know as a child and and on into his adulthood And you'll note in fact, let me show you kind of an interesting thing here

Um, let me go to the gospel of matthew matthew chapter one I am absolutely convinced

Uh that you cannot understand the new testament Unless you're reading it through the lens of christ and understand how

The old testament works so the very first words Of the new testament are found in matthew chapter one verse one

And it gets translated This way the book of the genealogy

Of jesus christ the son of david the son of abraham however biblion biblios ganeseos um

You could make an argument Here that this is that you that matthew is making a you know, kind of a little bit of a hebrew word play here

That this is a reference back to the beginning back to genesis itself His use of the this is the book of the beginnings

Okay It's it's it's a little bit of a tortured translation But i've read several scholars who make a compelling argument that that's a better way to read this

That matthew himself in the very words that he uses to open up The book of matthew he's clearly writing for a hebrew audience and the words that he chose

Well, they they carefully match the subdugent. In fact, let me do something real quick here

I didn't plan on doing this but this is what happens when I nerd out during the week Okay, I By the way that my summertime reading has been going great

Let me find my subdugent real quick here um I want to let's see here.

I thought I had it open recently. Uh, it's my nestle aland. Hang on a second here

That's the book of concord I might as well just search for it because i'm gonna need it That way, all right, let me do this let me find my subdugent

Let me go to my library There we go subdugent manuscript explorer subdugent version greek, here we go and let me go to Yeah the beginning uh -huh and okay

All right Yeah, okay So I I wanted to double check something in the way the subdugent works and it didn't quite go the way

I thought it would But I gotta restudy my material here, but you'll note that.

Um Here in rk a poieson in the beginning Uh god created hoteos

A pois and god created tony ron on the heavens and the uh, ten gain the and the earth those those same words

And rk get rolled back up in the book of john, you know john chapter one

John chapter one mirrors that the same opening the same two words that begin

The subdugent the greek version of the old testament same two words that begin the gospel of john and then in matthew like I pointed out in matthew 1 there's the the book of the genealogy or the book of the uh of the beginnings if you would

Of jesus christ and so a good way to think of the old testament Um when when we've read matthew chapter one, uh, you'll note that most people do not read the first part of matthew chapter one

Unless they absolutely have to because it contains one of these sections of scripture That is how shall we say a little dry and a little gravelly, right?

and and so listen to the way the words begin the book of the genealogy or the the beginnings of Jesus christ the son of david the son of abraham

Abraham was the father of isaac isaac the father of jacob jacob the father of judah judah and his brothers and judah the father of perez and zarah by tamar and Perez the father of hezron and hezron the father of ram

Now you're going to note here when you read this list if you have read your old testament

These are not merely names each name

Has a story A portion of the story and then and you'll note that this these this isn't just a genealogy

Every good jew reading this stuff would say. Ah, this is our history and a good way to think about it

Is that jesus christ? Is the jew of jews? He's the fulfillment god had chosen one tribe.

He chose one nation for the purpose of blessing all nations

That was the whole blessing of abraham and there's a fascinating thing that takes place here in matthew's genealogy

Is that what you have here are three sets? of 14 14 generations 14 generations 14 generations three times

And if you were to think of it this way the number of completion is what seven? Right, so you've got two numbers of completions repeated three times

And in the genealogy of jesus itself, it's like preaching and screaming to us that the

Preparation that we see in the old testament has now been finished and that the conclusion of that preparation has now finally arrived

That's the whole point of it and you couldn't really get these points without a careful

Reading And loving of the stories of the old testament Right, but you're going to note that the jews of Nehemiah's time and jews throughout the history of israel

They went in and out of apostasy Just like we do There were times and seasons in their lives when hearing the word of god was in vogue and everybody

Penitently was seeking the face of god and hearing the voice of god in the scriptures and and confessing their sin for Not being attentive to god's word

And then you have times when they're not only not attentive. They are flat out hostile to the word of god right

I don't know if you guys have been paying attention to what's going on in our history right now But this is not a good season for the word of god

People are actively hostile against it But we come back here. So here they're recounting they're

Summarizing a portion of the old testament you found Abraham's heart faithful before you and made with him

The covenant to give to his offspring the land of the canaanites the hittite the amorite the perizzite the jebusite

The girgashite and you have kept your promise for you are Righteous and you saw the affliction of our fathers in egypt

Heard their cry at the red sea. You'll note that That these people believe these stories

They believe that god created the heavens and the earth and that everything that exists was created by the hand of god

And and and here they believe that god by powerful acts of judgment and curses

Had set the children of israel free from their slavery in egypt, including the crossing of the red sea

These people aren't sitting there going. Yeah. Well, we know that the bible says that but of course we live in the in the you know

The 6th century bc and and in our modern times, it's silly to believe that this really happened.

Nobody They all believe these words, right? And pay attention to their belief

And the signs that you perform and the wonders against pharaoh and all the servants and all the people of his land for you knew

That they acted arrogantly against our fathers and you made a name for yourself as it is to this day

And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land

And you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters

By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day and by a pillar of fire In the night to light for them the way in which they should go

You came down on mount sinai spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws good statutes and commandments

And you made known to them your holy shabbat the sabbath and commanded them commandments

And statutes and the law by moses your servant you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water

For them from out of the rock for their thirst And you told them to go in and to possess the land that you had sworn to give them

Now this isn't the first time i've said it but it's worth reviewing here All of that exodus talk

That's the roadmap for all of us We were born in slavery to a false god king

Okay, who wore a serpent? Hat, okay. The pharaoh's a stand -in for satan

And god by powerful acts of judgment, you know culminating in the death of the passover lamb, jesus christ whose blood

Has caused the destroyer to pass over us. He's brought us out of slavery Baptized us

We are in our wilderness wanderings now as we head towards the promised land, which is the new earth right

So, you know if you pay attention to these stories, they absolutely have meaning for christians

Because they are a type and shadow that reminds us of the mighty hand of god that who has delivered us from Forces that we are not strong enough to overcome right but they and our fathers

Acted what? Presumptuously Okay When we heard hananiah prophesying

In two years god's gonna bring back the exiles from from from babylon

What was he doing? He was prophesying presumptuously All the nonsense we cover on prophecy bingo.

It's just this straight -up presumptuousness Okay, and this is an act of wickedness But they and our fathers acted presumptuously

They stiffened their neck and they did not obey your commandments They refused to obey

And were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in egypt

But you are a god ready to forgive gracious and merciful

Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and you did not forsake them

Right You'll note that what we expect to hear at this point they stiffen their neck

They refuse to obey your commandments and now they are a poop skid on in the pages of history, right?

You know, that's what we expect Okay But we don't get what we expect here

What we get is the long suffering and mercy of god and you'll note that they are quoting again

That famous passage from the book of exodus like was it 34 or 35 or 36 somewhere in that neighborhood?

Where moses says god I want to see your glory because he's trying to figure out how to Reconcile the people of israel back to god so that god in his presence will go with them

And so in this weird hail mary pass, you know kind of religious pun intended He says god.

Let me see your glory and god says well, you can't See me and live so i'm gonna hide you in the cleft of the rock and cause my goodness to pass before you

And so while moses is hidden in the cleft of the rock and god's hand is covering it God's goodness is passing before that cleft.

He can't see the glory of god, but he hears it And he hears yahweh yahweh slow to anger abounding in steadfast love pardoning iniquity right beautiful words

And it was from there that moses was able to pray that god would forgive the people of the children of israel for their transgressions

For their idolatry and the thing that they had evil that they had done and making for themselves a golden calf

And so you'll note that I love where the butts show up in scripture here.

We got they sinned but You are a god ready to forgive That's the nature of god and you'll note then why is it that we as christians forgive each other because we are forgiven

You'll note that this forgiveness of god is expected to have an impact on how we treat each other

And so because we are forgiven we forgive and is that not what christ taught us to pray

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us Always ready to forgive and to pardon those who sin against us and seeking to be reconciled

So you are god ready to forgive gracious merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and you didn't forsake them

Even though when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said this is your god who brought you up out of egypt

And they committed great blasphemies Ah, they're calling it what it is

Look at how god's word has completely been embedded in their mind that they can call the thing what it is, right?

You and your great mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness the pillar of cloud to lead them in the way

Did not depart from them day by day Or the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go

You gave your good spirit to instruct them and You did not withhold your manna from their mouth

Isn't that what we get every week by the way lord's supper Bread from heaven isn't christ the true bread of heaven

That's the point that we learn we learn from jesus that the manna from heaven Was a type in shadow pointing to the one the real bread that comes down from heaven, which is christ

Right and so, you know that god feeds us in our wilderness Wanderings every week here we have that we have the body and blood of christ.

We have the bread from heaven As he continues to sustain us Right and again the hebrew word for you know, the bread from heaven is manna

What is it? Right? That's still the question today always and again, you know, what do you get in the lord's supper?

Yeah, what is it manna? Right? What is it? Oh, it's just a symbol. No, it's not right right

So you gave your good spirit to instruct them and you did not withhold your manna from their mouth And gave them water for their thirst

You'll note that that big rock that was struck by moses and all that water came flowing out of it

Okay hearkens to this the side of christ when he was pierced by the sword of the uh,

Of the roman centurion at the cross, right? And out came blood and water 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness and they lacked

Nothing, their clothes did not wear out their feet did not swell. I wish

I had that Right, yeah Neither are true for me and you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner

So they took possession of the land of sihon the king of heshbon and the land of og the king of bashan

Og, okay, isn't that from a monty python that name, you know, you know, you know, what happened?

Yeah og the king of bashan you multiplied their children as the stars of heaven

You brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and to possess

So the descendants went in and possessed the land and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land the canaanites

And gave them into their hand with their king and the people of the land that they might do with them as they would

And they captured fortified cities And a rich land took possession of houses full of all good things

Cisterns already hewn vineyards olive orchards fruit trees in abundance now

This is a type and shadow of what's going to happen when we take possession of the new earth

You're going to know we're not going to have to spend the first six months Of our of our existence on the new earth building homes for ourselves

Right christ is prepared for us all of these things We will just simply walk in and take possession, you know,

I I think of you know, I I think of you know of The people who work as carpenters and and construction workers.

They're going to be they're going to be out of a job just like I am okay, at least initially because it's like If you want to put on an edition, right?

but i'm out of a job because no one's going to need a preacher anymore because we're going to hear from christ i'm going to be as worthless as worthless gets i'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to get calluses on my hands or something.

Yeah, I just So, why are you a pastor because I can't dig and I don't want to bake you're right

All right, so I have to become an honest man, I guess. Oh, well So so they ate and they were filled and became fat.

They delighted themselves in your great goodness nevertheless They were disobedient

And they rebelled against you And here's the problem And they cast your law behind their back

And they killed your prophets who had warned them And in order to turn them back to you

And they committed great blasphemies Note in this summary of the old testament what's at the heart of all of this?

Rebellion is that refusal to listen to the voice of god? Isn't that exactly what adam and eve did?

Right. In fact when you go back to the book of genesis listen to god's judgment against adam

Genesis chapter three. Hang on a second here. I gotta learn how to spell genesis

Three, there we go Okay, listen to god Rebuking adam and so Here's what he says

And to adam he said Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

Now I would note here normally under normal circumstances. That's a very smart thing to do

Okay Husbands pay attention right Okay, i'm just saying

Okay, you want to stay out of trouble keep your head down mouth shut don't make eye contact and listen to your wife

But in this particular case eve her voice Was contradicting the voice of god

And what adam and eve had done is they had taken god's word and we just went whoop

Thrown it thrown it behind their back And this is the reason why we have the misery that we are in today

And so um, yeah Listening to the voice of god is a big deal.

But where do we find it only in the scriptures? Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer

And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you And you heard them from heaven and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors

Who saved them from the hand of their enemies? Isn't that interesting?

Huh? He gave them what? Notice it doesn't use the word judges

So one of the rules of scripture scripture interprets scripture

And so he's he's talking about these this prayer. They are invoking the time of the judges

But if you read your whole bible, then you know that nehemiah Chapter 9 specifically refers to the judges as moshiah

As saviors Huh What does that mean?

That means that all of those stories in the book of judges are little tiny types and shadows of christ saving us

Right, so think of it this way If we were to go into the book of judges

And we were to look for gideon. Okay. Gideon shows up in judges chapter 6 judges 6

Okay and Let's talk about how this normally gets preached And how nehemiah teaches us otherwise so the people of israel did what was evil inside of yahweh

And yahweh gave him into the hand of midian for seven years They did evil.

What did they do? They were worshiping baal. We'll see that in this text Okay And the hand of midian overpowered israel and because of midian the people of israel

Made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains in the caves in the strongholds.

They started living like gophers Right because they had to hide their food.

Otherwise, it'd be taken by the midianites For whenever the israelites planted crops the midianites

And the amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them and they would camp against them

And devour the produce of the land as far as gaza and leave no sustenance in israel and no sheep or ox or donkey

That is a formula for death by starvation And you're going to know god is the one who gave him into the hand of the midianites to punish them for their wickedness

For they would come up with their livestock and their tents and they would come like locusts in number

Both they and their camels could not be counted So that they laid waste the land as they came in and israel was brought

Very low because of midian and the people of israel cried out for help To yahweh now, by the way, have you um, you've seen the pixar movie of bugs life

It's a modern retelling an insect world of the story of gideon Flick is gideon

Okay, just it's it's the same concept in this particular case. The locusts are actually locusts right

Just keep that in mind. Okay Now when the people of israel cried out to yahweh on account of the midianites

Yahweh sent a prophet to the people of israel And he said to them thus says yahweh the god of israel

I led you up from egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery and I Delivered you from the hand of the egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you

And gave you their land And I said to you I am yahweh your god

You shall fear the god you shall not fear the gods of the amorites in whose land you dwell But you have not obeyed my

Voice right Huh They engaged in what rank

Idolatry now If you haven't seen this all I can tell you right now is I don't have any way to prepare you for what you're going to see you just you

I don't know. I have no other way to explain this to you then to maybe apologize

But um This past week I became aware of something called the sparkle creed

Okay. Now, let me see. I'm gonna I'm gonna make sure that y 'all can hear it through what's through this but I'm waiting.

I'm waiting standing by standing by This isn't even her church, is it?

No, this is an elca congregation Yeah All right.

Hang on a second here. We're grabbing something here. What am I supposed to be doing? Yeah. All right.

Hang on a second here. I'm gonna make sure that my microphone is sitting on my laptop. I won't have to You want me to?

Hang on i'll do this And let us confess our faith today in the words of the sparkle creed

I believe in the non -binary god whose pronouns are plural

I believe in jesus christ their child Who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of god

I believe in the rainbow spirit Who shatters our image of one white light?

And refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity I believe in the church of everyday saints

As numerous creative and resilient as patches on the ace quilt

Whose feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder

I believe in the calling to each of us That love is love is love

So beloved let us love I believe glorious god

Help my unbelief amen That is what we call idolatry

Okay, the sparkle god Is as real as baal

The sparkle deity the god with you know inclusive pronouns and all this nonsense is a demonic figment of imagination

And so you'll note here looking at the story of gideon the story of gideon

God is the one who has delivered us from slavery to sin death and the devil And there are churches now that have

Taken god's words And cast them behind their backs and they are legitimately worshiping a false god openly

In a place that's supposed to be christian Is that any different though? Than israelites

Worshiping baal in israel It's the same thing

You know, you remember that game that you used to watch on sesame street One of these things is not like the other in this particular case.

They're both the same Okay, there is no difference. They are qualitatively quantitatively.

It's exactly it's the same sin They people have taken the voice of god in the scriptures

Refused to believe it And as a result of it, they've kept all the trappings of of christianity note that that woman wears an alb and a stole

And they have a cross And this looks like a church and they have an altar they have all the trappings but those trappings mean nothing

That's just an outward veneer because their creed isn't the athanasian creed or the nicaean creed or the apostles creed or the augsburg confession

Their creed is the sparkle creed Okay I hate to say it their god is gay

All right. This is the gayest thing i've ever seen in my life Right But that's the truth of the matter

And their deity doesn't even Exist. This is utterly demonic

So here we see what's going on in in israel They have taken

The good things that god has done They have forgotten who brought them out of egypt now they are worshiping false gods

So the angel of yahweh then came and sat under the terebinth at ophrah which belonged to joash the abarizerite

While his son gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the midianites So when we come across gideon for the first time and what does nehemiah say about gideon?

Gideon is a what he's a savior He's a type and shadow of jesus christ

And so when he shows up on the scene he shows up in want He shows up in need he shows up without any strength against the midianites at all and he is

Hiding he's hiding the fact that he's beating the wheat out because if that midianite saw him

They'd be getting all of his grain And so the angel of yahweh appeared to him.

That's jesus the pre Of Basically, this is a pre -incarnate appearance of the son of god the second person of the trinity

So the angel of lord appeared to him and said to him Yahweh is with you. Oh mighty man of valor

And gideon said to him, please my lord if yahweh is with us

Why then has all of this happened to us? And where are all of his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying did not yahweh bring us up from egypt

But now yahweh has forsaken us and given us into the hand of midian And yahweh turned to him and said go in this might of yours and save israel from the hand of midian

Do not I send you? And he said to him, please lord. How can

I save israel? Behold my clan is the weakest in manasseh

And I am the least in my father's house And yahweh said to him, but I will be with you and you shall strike the midiates midianites as one man

And he said to him well if now I have found favor in your eyes then show me a sign that is

That it is you who speak with me Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you

And he said I will stay until you return Now, let me tell you how this gets preached in other churches nowadays, right?

So This is how it gets preached You are going to have an encounter with god

God is going to come and reveal to you a purpose or a vision or a task that he wants you to accomplish

And when he comes to you, he comes to you and says, oh look at you mighty warrior.

Oh And you sit there and go but I am not a mighty warrior But who are you to challenge god if god says you're a mighty warrior then you are a mighty warrior, right?

So you just need to receive that word in faith And just embrace it

And let that be your identity, right? What's wrong with this? The story isn't about you

And if you're going to find yourself in these stories put yourself into the idolater category

The person who rightly deserves to be punished by god whom god in his mercy and grace

Sends a savior to save your butt Right That's the right way to look at this

Because gideon is a type and shadow of christ And this is all about him

It's not about you And when you make it about you, you are as much of an idolater as any worshiper of molek

Ashira or baal or the starry host of heaven It's just that the deity that you're worshiping is yourself

The image that you worship is the one you look at in the mirror But the story is not about you it's about what god does for you

Right. So gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat And unleavened cakes from an ifa of flour

The meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot And brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them

And the angel of god said to him take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them

And so he did so And then the angel of yahweh reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes and fire sprang up from the rock

And consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes and the angel of yahweh vanished from his sight

And gideon perceived that he was the angel of yahweh and gideon said. Oh, yeah. Oh lord god for now

I've seen the angel of the lord face to face. What is he afraid of? I'm going to die

Okay But yahweh said to him peace be to you do not fear you shall not die

So then gideon built an altar there to yahweh and called it yahweh is peace

Yahweh shalom Yahweh lech shalom Yahweh is peace and to this day.

It still stands in ophrah, which belongs to the abirezerites That night yahweh said to him

Take your father's bull And the second bull seven years old

And pull down the altar of all that your father has and cut down the ashira that is beside it

Now if this were to happen today gideon would be arrested for a religious hate crime Okay, let's just kind of keep that in mind

Yeah, this is an act of religious terrorism, right? But what was really the act of religious terrorism

Setting up an altar to baal in the first place. That was the actual act of religious terrorism

And so and you'll note that not only does gideon's father worship baal

He also worships ashira Which means he's a believer in ancient gnosticism

That means he believes in gods and goddesses All right, he believes in the divine feminine

So Tear it down cut down the ashira. God is not hip on her this god does not like this lady

Okay yeah, I don't know what it is, but There were people back in in gideon's day and in the days of the old testament

They had set up the spiritual version of tinder and every time ashira's face would show up They would have yahweh swipe the right direction and they wanted to Have these two hook up Okay And god just just doesn't want to have anything to do with her cut her down Right.

What's really funny somebody on on the recent episode of the prophecy bingo in the comment section

Can you please do an episode of fighting for the faith talking about ashira?

And I know why the question's being asked. Let me show you this. Okay But more idolatry, okay,

I I some of you have seen this others who haven't seen it. I don't know how to prepare you Um, so all

I can say is hang on. Um i'm going to open up my kindle library and I am going to go

To here and i'm going to look for wife Okay All right, the name of the book

And let me get to the cover page Okay The reason why this is a this is needs to be done is because of books like this when god had a wife

The fall and rise of the sacred feminine and judeo -christian tradition by lynn picknick and clive prince who are both notable gnostics

They made cameo appearances on the da vinci code Okay They they they were on a london bus.

I recognized them and saw oh, that's lynn picknick and her and clive Okay, uh, yeah, so these people are the ones making popular this idea and here's how their how their narrative goes

If you look at the archaeological evidence in israel The people of israel during bible times

They believed in the divine feminine in fact There was a time when god had a wife and they had set up an ashira pole inside the holy of holies

That's ashira, by the way, that's what she looks like. Okay It looks like he needs a little work on her face anyway

So lynn picknick basically says this is true judaism

Because all the archaeological evidence shows that they the people of israel they believed in and worshipped the divine feminine

Okay And the person who knows the bible sits there and goes Yep, they sure did

They worshipped the divine feminine But that was not Not biblical judaism

That was idolatry right so so these

So if you've spent any time have you guys ever like scrolled through tiktok and just gone into the cesspool?

That is the spiritual section of tiktok Holy waka moly, you guys can get tarot card readings.

You can get people doing spiritual cleansings and checking in with your your your spirit guides and And and there's and there's a thing caught on there called the museum of tarot a guy's a full -blown gnostic and he hates

Absolutely hates biblical christianity and he's a big advocate for the divine feminine right

So don't get your spirituality from that. And yes, the archaeological evidence would show that the people of israel

Believed in the divine feminine because they disobeyed god, right?

That's the point so we'll pick up we'll pick up the story of gideon a little bit more next week because this is all kind of part and Parcel of what i'm trying to unpack in this prayer of uh in the book of nehemiah