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February 21, 2025 | Leviticus 24-25
21st February 2025 • Daily Bible Podcast • Compass Bible Church North Texas
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In this lively Friday edition of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts celebrate reaching near the end of Leviticus and prepare for upcoming studies in Numbers. They share personal anecdotes about raising teenagers and the financial concerns of adding them to car insurance. Discussions veer into lighter banter about NFL aspirations before turning to profound reflections on blasphemy, justice, and the year of Jubilee outlined in Leviticus 24-25. The hosts explore the biblical principles behind capital punishment and the complexities it brings to contemporary society. The episode concludes with a prayer for wisdom and discernment, especially in navigating modern challenges like artificial intelligence.

00:00 Welcome to Friday's Edition

00:29 Weekend Plans and Teenagers

02:09 Upcoming Church Events

02:49 Leviticus 24: Tabernacle Regulations

04:35 Blasphemy and Justice in Leviticus

06:07 Sabbath and Jubilee Years

09:37 The Death Penalty Debate

12:39 Christians and Just War

13:49 AI and Moral Complexities

15:42 Closing Prayer and Reflections

16:46 Final Remarks and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Transcripts

Speaker:

Hey everybody, welcome back to friday's

edition of the daily bible podcast.

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Hey.

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Hey, we are back and We are almost

at the end of leviticus not quite

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there yet, but we are approaching the

conclusion of What will be genesis

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exodus leviticus actually our fourth

book because remember we got job in

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there as well So good job everybody.

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Oh, yeah good for you.

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Congratulations.

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Yeah Yeah, and then we get to turn the

page to numbers in the not too distant

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future which You If you're wondering what

numbers is about, it's about numbers,

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especially right at, off the, the outset.

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It is,

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yep.

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Yeah, Friday weekends coming up and we

were just talking about this because

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both of us have young men in our family

who are getting ready to turn 16 Josh is

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going to be just a little bit in front

of Jacob there, but man, we're we're

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already dreading insurance and having to

add them to our insurance and just the

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expense of, of all of that stuff going on.

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I'm just going to get him a skateboard.

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In a, in a stick, in a stick,

push himself along, no stick

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even because that's that's, you

know, that's for the prissy kids.

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He's just gonna have to deal

with it himself and use his leg.

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There you go.

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Yeah, man, it's, it's crazy.

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It's, it's just an expensive time.

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It seems like everything is

costing more money these days.

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And, yeah.

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Somebody brought that up to Trump.

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They were like, Hey, what

are you doing about eggs?

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And he was like, I didn't do it.

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It was Biden.

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I just got into office three weeks ago,

four weeks ago, whatever it's been.

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But yeah, it's a, it's crazy.

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It's crazy right now.

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It is.

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I think one of the things I was

brainstorming with Kristen about is that

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I might go into the NFL for a few seasons

and make several million dollars and

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then just come back to the pastorate so

that I have something to fall back on.

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Yeah.

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What position are you

going to play on that?

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Oh, quarterback, quarterback.

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Of course.

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Of course.

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Naturally.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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I mean, was there another position

you thought I was better suited for?

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No, I mean, offensive

lineman comes to mind.

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Well, you know.

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But, you know, aside from that.

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I'm trying to avoid putting

my body through too much.

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Okay.

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So.

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That's fair.

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I feel like a quarterback.

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Since I'm quick on my feet,

I probably won't get tackled.

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Many times, if at all, that's fair.

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You know, you could also just go into

coaching because the coaches make

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a decent amount of money as well.

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Not as much as the players, but then

they still make a decent amount.

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I want to get in there and out

of there as quickly as possible.

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So I need a really fat contract

for the first two or three years

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and then I'll just be done.

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And then you'll be done.

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Then you'll walk away.

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Right.

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Okay.

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Fair.

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Yeah.

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Well if that works out great, more

power to you and more power to

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the church, I guess, as a result.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'm gonna give off of that.

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All right.

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That's my plan.

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Hey, it is a Friday and we're

coming into the last weekend here.

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Well, I guess not.

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We've got one more weekend in

February, but don't forget about being

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intentional about what's coming up.

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We've got women's Bible study coming

up their first weekend in March.

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I think we got men's Bible study

the second weekend there in March.

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So start planning, making sure

that you're aware of things that

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are going on, plan to be a part

of these things that they're good.

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We want you there.

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They're, they're not really.

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Yeah.

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Offerings to say hey, we think this

would be swell if you could show up.

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We think these are good and beneficial

for you So ladies plan on on that first

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weekend in March being there for women's

Bible study I'm pretty sure men's

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Bible study is the next weekend second.

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That's right.

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Yeah, I'm not a hundred percent.

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Sure.

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I just work here So you just work here?

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That's fair Let's, let's

talk about the Bible.

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Let's talk about Leviticus

24 and 25 Leviticus 24.

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We get into more of the

regulations for the tabernacle.

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The, the first one being the lamps and

how the lamps sort of be cared for.

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And then we get into the bread of the

presence, the bread for the tabernacle.

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This is an interesting one because in the

old Testament, Era, the ancient deities

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would often have their worshipers now.

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I'm saying that as though they

were the ones commanding this.

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Their worshipers, I should say, would

often bring Bread and present it before

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their deities before these idols and

they would leave them there in the

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temples And it was an expression of

the worshiper caring for the deity.

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The worshiper was feeding the deity

And so in this case we have israel

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doing something that from the surface

looks Similar from the surface.

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It looks like, man, we're just

borrowing from the regulations of these

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pagan deities that were in the area.

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And here's Israel now bringing their

own bread and putting it before God.

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But a key difference here is that

Israel was not doing this to feed

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God as though God had need of them

bringing this bread before him.

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But this was an expression of Israel

saying, God, you are the one feeding us.

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And so the loaves were reminder to

the people, not a reminder to God.

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It was not.

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them saying, Hey God, here, take this.

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You need to eat this.

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It was them saying, God, we recognize

these loaves as an expression of

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what you've already provided for us.

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And so they bring that bread and

offer it before the Lord in a way

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to say, Hey, we see this as a, as a

good thing that you've given to us.

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And there's a parallel there

with our, our contemporary

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practice of giving in the church.

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We give in the church, not because

God is sitting there saying,

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Hey, I need your, your money.

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I need your funds to do anything because

he, he doesn't, he doesn't have any need

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but we bring our money, we bring our

gifts, we bring our offerings to church

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as an expression of a, of a reminder

to us and an act of worship saying,

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God, you have provided this to us.

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And so we're recognizing

that we're thankful for that.

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And so here we were giving this back

to you in, in an act of worship to you.

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From there we get into an interesting

case study of a situation with blasphemy.

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And this is the first one I think

that we see brought up here.

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And it's a situation where an

Israelite woman's son ends up

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using the Lord's name in a curse.

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And there was around him who

heard this, bring the charge.

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And those that heard it are the ones

that need to participate in the execution

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because this one was to die for, for

taking the Lord's name in vain for

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cursing, for using the Lord's name in

a blasphemous way, which by the way,

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the word blasphemy means to bring low.

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And so it's taking something that is to

be exalted and treating it as commonplace.

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And so those that heard this were

the ones that were to participate

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in the execution in order that they

may be even cleared and purged of

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their participation in hearing it.

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That's what, what Paul when him suggests

there, he says, man, They were not

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complicit in the act, but complicit

in hearing the name of Yahweh cursed.

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And so in order to, to vindicate even

their own ears, they were to participate

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in the execution of the one who committed

the blasphemous act to begin with.

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That's pretty serious.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We don't do that today.

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No.

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We don't have those kinds of

laws on the books anymore.

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Nope.

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There'd be maybe a lot less

cursing and profanity if we did.

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There was a lot more on the line.

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Yeah.

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I suppose so.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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For sure.

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Verses 17 through 23.

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Then we get into more

laws of justice here.

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This is the old saying an eye

for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

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Where does that come from?

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That comes from the Bible.

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Actually, that comes here in

this latter part of the law.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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As as it's being given here that

there's an, an equitable justice that,

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that if something happened, if you

broke somebody's arm, then your arm

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was going to be broken in exchange.

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And that was how justice was

going to be satisfied there.

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Chapter 25, then we get into some of

the laws and rules and regulations

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for the Sabbath and the Jubilee years.

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And this is significant beyond what

it may appear because the Sabbath year

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and the year of Jubilee, these were to

be kept by Israel and yet Israel would

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fail to keep these charges and that

ends up being one of the main reasons

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for the amount of time that they're

going to spend in captivity in Babylon.

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So second Chronicles chapter 36 verse 21.

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It says of their captivity that it was to

fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth

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of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its

Sabbaths all the days that lay desolate,

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it kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years.

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And so that's what we're

talking about here.

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This was a command of God that that

for six years they were to cultivate

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the land, but the seventh year they

were to let the land lay fallow.

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And there was going to be enough

provision from God to last, not just

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through the seventh year, but also

through the eighth so that the next.

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Years plantings would have

time to grow and mature.

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God was going to provide for them.

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It was a, an act of dependence upon

him and Israel failed to do this.

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And so as a result, part of the reasons

they were in captivity for 70 years

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was to allow for 70 years worth of

Sabbaths to take place in the land there

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in Egypt that they were exiled from.

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Would that include the year of Jubilee,

because I can't recall any place in

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scripture where you see them celebrating

the year of Jubilee, which is the special,

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it's the Sabbath of Sabbaths, right?

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The 50th one or the 49th one, which

is, is kind of a cool idea here.

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The 50th year, although again, you

never see this practice by Israel.

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So it's a shame because

this is a really cool idea.

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This is a really cool picture of God's

giving freedom and giving back land.

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I mean, it's, it's just a

really precious picture.

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Yeah.

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And it's integral to so much of the

rest of Israelite society at the time.

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In fact, the rest of chapter 25

turns on this idea of the year of

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Jubilee, because the idea of redeeming

a slave or redeeming a person or

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redeeming an animal or a plot of land.

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Was all based on how long it was between

the, the time that you were wanting to

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redeem that person and when the next year

of Jubilee was supposed to take place.

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And so the fact that they did

not observe that was going to

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throw a wrench into everything

as far as God's law is concerned.

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By the way, the year of Jubilee, if

you're sitting there saying, what,

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what was the significance about that?

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You'll read about it in the DBR, but

it's that time when, when all of the, the

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indentured servants, all those that had

sold themselves into servitude to others.

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Were released, but then beyond that

to any of the land that they had,

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had sold to somebody else in order

to pay off a debt that was returned

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to them during that, that time.

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So if somebody was to try to redeem

somebody who had been sold into

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slavery from the, the owner, the

owner would basically say, Hey, let's

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calculate the number of years between

today and the next year of Jubilee.

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And that's going to tell me how

much I'm, I'm going to lose out

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by you redeeming this person.

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And that's going to be

the price of the person.

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So obviously the closer.

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You were to that year of Jubilee,

the less you would pay to redeem

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someone, the further away you were

from it, the more you would have to

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pay to redeem someone or to redeem an

animal or a plot of land or whatever.

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And because Israel said, Hey,

we're not going to do this, or

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they just neglected to do it.

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There was no clear structure for

how to do this in a way that, that

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God had Giving clear instructions

for in Leviticus 25 here.

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It's interesting to wonder what it,

what it might've looked like for

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them to practice something like this.

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Cause again, I don't even know that they

did it once, much less every 50 years.

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I think it sounds to me as I read through

the text, it doesn't look like they've

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ever practiced it, which would have been

something to behold and at least read

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about what would have, it would have been

like for them to experience this kind of.

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Widespread freedom and redistribution

of wealth for lack of a better term

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real quick, though, before we move on.

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I forgot.

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I didn't forget to mention this.

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I didn't get a chance to throw

myself in there, but chapter 24

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here, I for an eye tooth for tooth,

the the, the law of reciprocity.

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I just want to point out one thing

here that's really important.

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We are pro death penalty people.

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Would you say the same for yourself?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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We're, we're pro death penalty people.

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Can you help us then identify why?

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It seems like God has

a double standard here.

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You say, God says, whoever takes a

life shall surely be put to death.

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Well, God says you can't take

a life, but if you take a

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life, I'm gonna take your life.

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Respond to the critic who says

Christianity is inconsistent.

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Yeah.

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I mean, it's the idea of.

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There are consequences for our

actions, and the consequences for

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our actions are scalable to what

is considered a just repayment.

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And that's, I think, what we're

seeing here in Leviticus 24 is when

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a life is taken, God is against that.

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And yet the justice for that is

that that life that took the other

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life is then going to be forfeit.

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It's going to be given up

because that's the right path.

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Penalty for what you've done there

in taking the life of another person.

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So I don't think God is

condoning Murder in that sense.

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I don't think he's condoning the, the

things that are, are just willfully

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going out and taking somebody's

life just because you want to.

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But I do think that there is God

saying justice needs to be done.

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This is what justice looks like.

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Right.

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And I think that's a big point here.

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Killing is not murder.

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Murder is the.

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Unjust unlawful taking of an innocent life

where killing when it's practiced, rightly

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is the lawful taking of a guilty life

that has earned that kind of response.

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So it's important for you to

distinguish because you're going to

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see this also in the new testament.

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We're in Romans chapter 12.

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13.

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Paul says the, the government

doesn't bear the sword in vain.

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He's acknowledging the reality

that governments possess the

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ability to take away human life.

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And that's not an accident.

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God enables them to possess that right.

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And ideally they practice

it in a right way.

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They use it when they're

supposed to use it.

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And an appropriate time to use it is

when you take away an innocent life.

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So we are still very pro life, but that

doesn't mean we're not pro death penalty.

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The death penalty should be

applied in cases where there is.

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Evidence egregious syn at place.

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So even now, we distinguish first degree,

second degree, third degree murder.

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Not every, not everybody's equally

culpable, but there is culpability

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that must be dealt with even in 2025.

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I read about a, a story recently in

our area where there was a pastor

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who was brutally taken out, let's

put it nicely by a bad guy, a robber.

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And his congregation was pushing

for the death penalty for this guy.

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And people were shocked by that and

scandalized like, isn't this a church?

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What about, what about turn the other

cheek and, you know, forgiveness

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of sin and all those things.

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And they appealed to the scriptures

to say, look, the, the, the government

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doesn't bear the sword in vain.

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When you brutally kill somebody

who's innocent, who didn't deserve to

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die, you deserve to lose your life.

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And so they fought for that.

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I think they successfully got this

guy all the way through death penalty.

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Through death row to

successfully be taken out.

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And I would say that's a good thing.

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That is justice applied.

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And in fact, if we apply

that more valiantly, I think

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there'd be a lot less crimes.

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As we were talking about blasphemy

a few minutes ago, where people

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would think twice before they kill

somebody because they don't want to

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lose their own lives, but that would

be the appropriate and just response.

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So we're still pro life.

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We're still about protecting babies.

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Innocent life should be

protected and guilty life.

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If it's been forfeited because

of their unlawful taking of human

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life, they deserve to lose it.

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That's Genesis chapter nine, all the way

at the beginning, when when God was giving

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Moses, Noah, rather commandments about how

to live after the flood had taken place.

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So just a couple of comments about that

in numbers, excuse me, Leviticus 24.

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Yeah.

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I think.

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And this is probably a subject for another

podcast, but It gets even trickier when

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we talk about christians in war and combat

Oh, yeah, and just war and when is it okay

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to to use deadly force in that context?

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and how do we know for sure that this

is just war when it's You know We don't

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have god telling america go to war and

fight this war over here the way that

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ancient israel had god saying Hey, you're

gonna go take out these people over here.

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So Man that that gets tricky too.

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I'm not a I'm not a pacifist personally

And so i'm not against christians

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being involved in the armed forces,

but I do think there's a weightiness

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to that And there's a lot that plays

into that as far as conscience goes.

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Oh, yeah And even more so now where so

much of of war is carried out by You

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know, you're sitting behind a computer

thousands and thousands of miles away

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flying something that's firing a missile

that's ending life I mean that that's

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a weighty weighty responsibility for

any Christian to bear Yeah to make sure

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that that is done in a way that that

again to your point It's not innocent

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life being taken out, but it's you

can really truly sign off and say yes

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This person was guilty and deserved

to die and I feel good about being the

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instrument of that execution, right?

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That's tough.

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It has a lot of complexities and in

our world, I don't think that the

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speed of change is going to allow

for any less degree of complexity.

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If anything, we're going to have

bigger and greater challenges

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because of the interplay between

our thinking and artificial

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intelligence, so called thinking.

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There's logic there, but we don't

even fully understand how LLMs

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work, which ought to scare you.

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Because they get great answers,

but how they arrive at their

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answers, they don't computers.

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Can't tell you.

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I've been reading a lot about AI lately.

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And the interplay between us and the

machines is an exciting prospects,

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certainly, but it introduces so

many questions about morality.

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And then at the end of the day,

someone's morality is going to win.

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Just a matter of who's, who's programming

the morality that the machine uses.

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And to what degree do we have

control over those things?

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Artificial intelligence running a drone.

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What if a drone is able to positively

identify in a terrorist, you know,

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because of certain, I don't know

physical features and what have you.

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And then it does the job for us.

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What if it gets it wrong, you know,

and then, and then at what point are we

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responsible or who's responsible if it's

the drone that did it, according to AI,

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it's really complicated really quickly.

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But I think part of the problem for

us is as Christians, we need to be

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really well versed in our Bibles.

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Otherwise we're not gonna be

able to reason biblically.

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Yep.

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Yeah, man.

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Yeah.

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A hundred percent.

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Yeah.

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That AI powered drone may identify the

terrorist, but if the terrorist is holding

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an innocent victim, innocent, loosely used

in front of it as a human shield, right.

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Is that drone going to identify

the innocence there and say, I'm

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not going to fire because I don't

want to take out that, that person.

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Or is the drone going

to say terrorist dead?

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Boom.

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Yeah.

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What's the calculation.

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I mean, even think about the

Tesla self driving thing.

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It's that whole classic, you know,

the classic, Question that you get in

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school, like, okay, on the railroad

track on the right hand is your mom.

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And on the left hand is, you know, five

innocent people that you don't know.

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Who do you take out?

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Right.

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Okay.

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It's fun for humans to do that.

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But when a machine has to make the

decision, what's the machine going to do?

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Right.

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That's fascinating.

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Yep.

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And terrifying and terrifying.

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Yeah, I would agree.

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I would agree.

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So there you go, everybody have a great

weekend with those thoughts in mind.

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Thanks for joining us

today for another edition.

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Let me let me pray and we will be done.

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Yeah.

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We are mindful of all of these parameters

that are out there in questions and in.

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Deep issues that we have to navigate

as Christians and we have to make

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wise decisions and be discerning and

so we pray that you Would help us to

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be discerning God, we we trust you.

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We trust your sovereignty.

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We trust that that we are not sitting here

at the the At the the will of of AI and

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artificial intelligence But ultimately

you are sovereign over those things and

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we trust that and we know that we pray

that you would Enable this world to

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use these things in a way that is not

damaging and not overly harmful You we

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want to help the church to be outspoken

and on the front lines of helping us

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to think through how to navigate this

brave new world in so many regards, but

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God, we ultimately want to trust in you.

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And so help us to trust in you and not

machines, not technological advancements

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or anything else and help us to navigate

waters that are quite honestly, just

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deep and difficult for us to understand.

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And we need your help.

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Your wisdom, your spirit

to help us do that.

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And so we ask that you

to enable that with us.

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And as pastor Rob was saying, enable us to

be in the word, help us to be in the word

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on a regular basis so that we will be well

equipped to handle whatever comes our way.

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So we pray this in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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All right, y'all, we'll keep her

in your Bibles and tune in again

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tomorrow for another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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See it.

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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 like, leave a comment

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and 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.

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