In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts discuss their move to a new, more spacious office and reminisce about the tight-knit environment of their previous location. They delve into Numbers 3 and 4, explaining the distinctions between the Aaronic priesthood and the Levites, their duties in the tabernacle, and how God organized their roles. They draw parallels to their own setup and teardown teams, emphasizing the importance of organization and excellence in their work for the church.

00:00 Welcome to the Daily Bible Podcast

00:05 Reflecting on Our Current Office

01:32 Excitement About the New Office

02:38 Diving into Numbers 3 and 4

02:55 The Role of the Levites

10:32 Organizational Lessons from the Bible

11:31 Closing Prayer and Reflections

12:25 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody, welcome to Monday's

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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What's up folks?

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Happy Monday.

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It is Monday.

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Yeah.

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It's also the last week,

officially, of us in the Bible.

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Our first office is here.

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Oh, thank the Lord.

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Right.

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The Lord.

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This has been great though.

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It's been great.

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I was thinking about this two

days ago and I was wondering,

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and are we going to miss this?

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It's really tight in here.

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Calling it a shoe box is gratuitous.

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And unhelpful.

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It's an insult to shoe box.

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Right?

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This place is tight, but looking at

our, our new office location and the

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spacing between us, we're not going

to have the same interaction unless

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we do something about it, because

we have to be intentional because

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here you can't bump into somebody.

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You can't help it bump into

somebody even after sneezing, right?

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Oh, you hit somebody cause you sneeze

and you just move your body too quickly.

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But in this new place, the

hallways long and kind of dark.

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And I'm just afraid that people

might forget that we work together.

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Yeah.

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You make this new place sound so bad.

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It's not bad.

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It's wonderful.

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It's an upgrade.

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It's, it's, it's great all the way.

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It's just that this is, this is nice.

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We have attic space even so we can attic.

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If somebody annoys us in the office,

we could vote them and go to the attic.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I do appreciate that.

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I do like that you get

the attic this week.

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We can store stuff in the attic

and not a lot, but I mean, there's,

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there's, I walked in that area and

there's lots of space up there.

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I'm not sure how hot or cold it gets.

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I didn't think about that for

like the two weeks out of the

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year that it's just beautiful.

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We can just put somebody up anything

we want for two weeks of the year.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I'm excited about it, but I

think I'm going to miss how tight

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and how close we feel here because

we're not going to get this again.

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Yeah.

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I mean, this, this is certainly going

to carry the nostalgia for us of

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being like, this is where we started.

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This is where we got

going and everything else.

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Yeah.

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This is Steve jobs garage.

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There it is.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Yeah, if you're wondering,

Hey, where are they moving?

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If you know where Andy's frozen custard

is off of Preston road, there in

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prosper, there's an office complex right

behind that off of, I think that's what

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Prosper trail that cuts behind there.

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I don't think so.

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Is it first?

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First.

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So first that cuts behind Andy's

there and there's offices back there.

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We're just back in there.

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So it's, it's almost directly across

the street from where we're at right

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now, but it affords us more space.

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We're able to have a conference room

and a break room and gets Mark out of

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the break room, gives him an office

without a refrigerator and a a.

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Microwave in there.

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So I don't know.

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I think we should keep it in there.

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Well, he said he doesn't mind.

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He says that repeatedly.

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I think it's time to test him.

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Yes.

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Let your yes be yes.

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And you're nobody.

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No Mark.

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We'll see.

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We'll see whether you want it in there.

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No, it should be great.

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So we're, we're excited about that.

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And it's just a, it's exciting

too, because it's a sign that

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God is doing great things.

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He's, he's growing the church.

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He's building his church here.

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And, and he's added to our team

and those additions have been super

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helpful and, and we're just excited.

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I like Mark.

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Yeah, I was thinking, you know,

mark and Ally and I like them.

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Louis Ali Kelly.

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Yeah.

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You were added to the team recently.

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Yeah, I was.

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I was at some point I

was added to the team.

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Don't like having you around . Alright,

let's jump into numbers three and four.

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Numbers three, we we have the

sons of Aaron first and then

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the duties of the Levites.

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So you might be looking at

this going, wait a minute.

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I thought the Levitical priesthood

descended from Aaron wasn't

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Aaron and also Moses for that

matter, part of the tribe of Levi.

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So why are the sons of Aaron?

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Different and the reason being at this

time that the sons of Aaron are the

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priestly class and the priestly class

is different from The levitical class

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the levites were there to serve in the

tabernacle But their role was different

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than the priest the priests were the

ones that were the mediators between

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god and man at this time The priests

were the ones that were offering the

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sacrifices that were doing the things

that we often associate with The

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tabernacle or temple worship and so

they were distinct from the levites.

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That's why there's A separate section

here dealing with the sons of Aaron.

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And then we get into the duties

of the Levites because there

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is that distinction there.

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The Aaronic priesthood

is what we're describing.

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Exactly.

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And it's kind of, I don't know how

much you can draw the parallel, but

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a pastor and a deacon, the priests

were something like the pastors.

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Levites were like the deacons, right?

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They were in charge of moving things and

taking care of the tabernacle, supporting

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the priest's ministry as it were.

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And.

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Even though it's not quite the same.

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That's kind of the idea.

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The distinction is priests and Levites.

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They work together.

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They're not the same people.

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The Aaronic priesthood under

Aaron, but through his sons, is

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who was meant to govern and lead

in that particular ministry.

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Now, did that stay the same

for all of Israel's history?

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What happened?

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Or should we even, is this not

the best time to talk about that?

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Probably later on.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it doesn't stay the same.

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The Aaronic priesthood is

not, is not consistent.

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In fact, there's lots of gaps in it.

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We don't know who the high priest is

every time someone transitions office.

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You might think, well, United States, the

president, we always know who the next

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president was and who the next one is.

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That's not the case with the high priest,

even though he's super important here.

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Now we don't have an unbroken record of

who succeeded, who, which is interesting.

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And when you get to the new Testament

times, there's even some confusion

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there about who the high priest is,

because they just kind of use a term.

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If you, it's like, when we talk about

a president, a former president,

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so and so former president Biden.

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In, in, in New Testament

times, the high priest was just

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still called the high priest.

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You have Caiaphas.

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You have Annas.

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You have a couple of people

that are listed there.

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So anyway, high priests and the

priests pastors, which is, is even

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an, and I find this is, is a unique.

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Conversation to have with Jewish people

today who are are religious still in

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in that is There's no way for them to

recover the the tribal lineage of anybody

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at this point No, like nobody in israel

right now knows if they're of the tribe

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of judah unless they use 23andme And

which like myself, we can identify.

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I don't think that that

gets back to the 12 tribes.

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Well, I don't think it goes that

close enough, but you think about

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the, like, there's a whole temple

Institute in Jerusalem right now.

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That's ready for the, the, the temple.

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When the temple is rebuilt,

they've already got everything.

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They've got the, the table made.

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They've got the menorahs made.

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They've got everything

ready to go into the temple.

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But the question is who's

going to serve as priests.

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You don't know who the levites are.

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You don't know who the the high priest

is going to be and then on top of

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that they're still expecting a davidic

messiah But you don't know who is

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of the the line of david anymore.

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There's no way to trace that back And

so they're expecting The fulfillment

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of things that we're pointing back

to going it's already been fulfilled

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And by the way, the things that

you would measure to fulfill those

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those don't even exist anymore.

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So Yeah.

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That is an interesting question.

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I wonder how they're

going to approach that.

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I'd be curious to see if and

when that takes place, how they

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approach that, that question.

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My guess is that they're, they're

assuming God's going to provide.

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The direction on that.

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Good luck with that.

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Yeah, that has nothing to do

with number chapter three.

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I guess it does by it's related.

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It's, it's a, it's a flank who the high

priest is who the Levites are fair here.

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It really matters because these are the

people got appointed to have certain

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work and roles within the church.

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Religious practice of Israel, right?

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Well, you'll remember if if you, you've

been with us for this year that in the

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book of Exodus, we were reading about the

death of the firstborn and how God after

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that said, Hey, all of the firstborn of

the Israelites are going to be mine and

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all of the firstborn of the animals.

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They're going to be mine.

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And there were, it was a sacrifice, the

sacrificial offering that was set up

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to, to substitute for the firstborn.

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So that the, the firstborn wouldn't

actually have to be killed.

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Given over to the Lord, but now in

number chapter three, God's going to

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install the Levites as the substitutes

that God is going to say, rather than

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requiring the firstborn from all of

the nation of Israel into perpetuity.

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Instead, what I'm going to do is I'm

going to require the Levites, the

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Levites are going to take the place.

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They will serve me in exchange for the

role of the firstborn of everybody else.

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And so that's what we find here in

chapter three is God's laying that out.

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And that's where we get into this idea

of the firstborn, which again, leads

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us to the question of the numbers.

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So numbers three 43, if you look at

numbers, chapter three, verse 43, it

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says all the firstborn males, according

to the number of names from a month

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old and upward as listed were 22, 273.

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So here's what we have to ask ourselves.

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If that's the total number of firstborn

in Israel at this time, then the

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population would be far less than

the nearly 2 million or so that we

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talked about in yesterday's episode.

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If the total number of firstborn is

only 22, 000 or so, then the total

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population is going to be far less.

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But the alternative is if this is the

number of firstborns since they left

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Egypt that have been born just in the

two years since they left Egypt, because

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we're two years out from this, then

that would imply the much larger number.

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And so again, we can't draw

from conclusions from this

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because it could go either way.

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But that's the point.

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Again, it could go either way on this.

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Chapter four, then we get into some

of the duties of the Levites, right?

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so The, the Levites were

going to serve the priest.

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They were going to serve the

people and they were going to

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have a lot of responsibilities

when it came to the tabernacle.

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And so he, God does rather assigns

the duties of the Levites here, and he

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breaks them down into three classes.

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Here are three families specifically

here, the Kohathites, the

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Gershonites, and the Merorite.

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The Kohathites were to carry the

furniture of the tabernacle, including

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the ark and the table and the

lampstand, but it's worth noting here.

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They weren't allowed to go in

to the Holy of Holies and just

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grab the ark and take it out.

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The priests first had to go in

and cover it and cover it in the

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animal skins and everything else.

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And then the Levites could

come in and take that out.

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But that was the Coethites, the

Gershonites, they had charge over

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all the curtains and the veils,

all the temple hangings, the things

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that separated space from space, the

Gershonites were going to take those.

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And then finally you had the Mararites

and they had the task of transporting

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the structure and the basis, which

leads me to conclude that the

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Mararites probably were the jacked.

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Cause those, those silver

bases were no light load.

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Like those things were massive.

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I would think all of these

things, because how much did the,

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the, the temple furniture way?

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Yeah.

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It was solid wood and then

it was covered with gold.

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Some of it, some of it

was covered in bronze.

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So I would think they all were

probably pretty strong, which is why

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they're, they're pretty They have

to be between 20 and 50 years old.

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We're going to see that later.

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Yeah.

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But yeah, you're right.

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And in fact, Kohath, just in case you

guys are wondering those, that, that

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family is where Moses and Aaron come from.

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So they're kind of a privileged bunch.

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They get to handle the

really cool furniture.

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I mean, if you're going to have a

job, I would want to carry, I would

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want to carry that cool stuff.

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Right.

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I would enjoy that.

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Right.

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If I had to do it, I'd

prefer not to do it.

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But if I had to, that would be my role.

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You get a spoon.

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You can carry the spoon.

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I mean, come on, man.

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Wait a minute.

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I don't want to carry the Lord's spoon.

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Yeah.

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Let me have that thing.

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The Menorah.

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Man, I can't help but but draw

the connection to our setup

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and teardown process Right.

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That's a stretch bro.

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I mean, it's we don't have the arc.

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I'm not saying that Are we gonna

carry you in a chair from now on?

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Yes.

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Is that the goal?

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Yes, you want to throw?

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Absolutely Carry you to the stage Bishop

Bro, we should do the thing where I

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don't know if you've seen some churches.

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They have chairs behind the pastor No, I

I would like that When I'm done leading

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the worship team, I'm just going to sit

down behind you and you make a good point.

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I'll nod and when you say something

else, I just like, what's he saying?

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What's, I don't know.

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What's he saying?

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So at, at Dallas seminary, while

I was there they, they would

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have the faculty sit on the stage

and not just sit on the stage.

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They, they weren't

sitting behind the pulpit.

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They were sitting in front of you.

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No, they were sitting.

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Facing the pulpit and so the guy was

preaching with the faculty of the seminary

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on either side of eggs Like six rows deep

on either side and you've got some of at

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that time, you know, you've got daryl bach

there You've got eugene merrill there.

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You've got these leading brilliant minds.

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They're shaking their head at

you or you're preaching, right?

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I cannot imagine And lf means thousand

come on, yeah Defying yeah That's funny.

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Yeah.

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I, that would be an intimidating.

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Oh, for sure, man.

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I get intimidated preaching in

her own pulpit, much less the

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pulpit of someone else with the

scholarly rankings and books.

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And there was books that I

probably read to study the passage.

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No, thank you.

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Right.

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But I agree.

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This is kind of like our setup in tear

down team that there's a role for this.

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And I find it interesting that God.

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Speaks their organizational chart.

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He's like, this is how

I want you to do it.

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I'm going to tell you precise.

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And then if you'll notice, it's

so organized that the first thing

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that's going is the, is the most

important, important furniture.

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No, actually it's not because

it has to be delayed in order

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for the tabernacle to be set up.

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So the furniture has a place to go.

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That's right.

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So God is wise and his

approach is not haphazard.

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It's not freestyle.

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It's not just like, Hey,

let's just see what happens.

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He's got a plan and he tells them,

here's how I want you to do this.

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And it's, and it's a beautiful,

well thought out plan, which

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of course that's the Lord.

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That's how he does things.

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But I think, man, you

and I ought to take note.

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Yeah.

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And we're actually working on that with

our setup and teardown teams right now.

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We're trying to really refine it.

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Yeah.

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Each area that they're

responsible for that area and

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they're going to get it done.

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And, and and our, our

team does a great job.

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We're grateful for our team on

that organization is of the Lord.

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And God has given some people the ability

more than others, but that doesn't

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excuse the rest of us from saying,

man, this is the character of my God.

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I want to display that character as well.

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Yep.

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A hundred percent.

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A hundred percent.

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All right, well, let's pray and

then we'll be done with this

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episode of the daily Bible podcast.

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God thanks for that truth that reality

that we get to reflect you we get to

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image you through how we organize how we

Pursue the lack of chaos, but but instead

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pursue order in things and we want to

do that with excellence and even beauty

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We've been talking about that that the

beauty for the sake of the glory of God

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and we see that emphasis here They were

gonna take Care for all of these things.

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They were going to cover them and cover

them in skins as well in order to protect

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them while they're traveling so that they

don't get dinged up or anything else.

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I mean, there are parallels though.

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They may be loose and how we

care for the things that you've

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provided for us to do church with.

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We want to be wise stewards of

these things that we have and,

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and reflect a God who's beautiful.

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A God who loves excellence and

loves beauty and loves quality.

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So help us to do that God,

as we labor in your, work.

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Service a week in a week out.

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And so we thank you for

this in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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Amen Keep reading your bibles tune in

again tomorrow for another edition of

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the daily bible podcast to you folks.

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Bye

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Speaker: Hey, thanks for

joining us for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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We hope and pray this has been a blessing

to you and your time in the word.

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If it has, if you would subscribe to

this podcast, leave a comment and

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share it with some friends and family.

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That would be awesome.

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If you need more information about

Compass Bible Church here in North

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Texas, you can go to compassntx.

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org.

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Again, that's compassntx.

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org.

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And we'll be back with you

tomorrow for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.