In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts address the ongoing health crisis of the Pope and its implications for Christians, emphasizing that while the Pope's situation is significant, it doesn't directly impact Protestant beliefs and practices. They also recommend tuning into Dr. Moler’s insights for a deeper understanding. The episode then transitions to a detailed discussion on Numbers 18 to 20, covering the roles and regulations for the Levites, the significance and ritual of the Red Heifer, and key events including the deaths of Miriam and Aaron and the disobedience of Moses when striking the rock for water.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:14 Discussing the Pope's Health

00:40 Implications for Christians

01:08 Dr. Moler's Insights

02:00 Future of the Catholic Church

03:45 Transition to Bible Study

03:51 Instructions for the Levites

04:26 The Red Heifer Ritual

07:28 Moses' Disobedience and Consequences

08:52 Journey and Deaths in the Wilderness

11:17 Concluding Prayer and Farewell

11:44 Podcast Outro and Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Hello, y'all.

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Hey PR, I've got a question for you.

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No, it's burning on people's minds.

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Okay.

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It's not quite the burning of the

bosom, but it is it is on people's

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minds I'm sure, because it's in

the headlines and I think it would

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be helpful for us to address.

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I don't think we've talked about

it recently, but over in the

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measles have entered North Texas.

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Close.

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Close.

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It is health related.

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I want to talk about the Pope, so.

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Over in the Vatican or in Rome right

now, the Pope has been admitted to the

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hospital and is battling pneumonia,

and people are saying, man, the

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Pope is gonna kick the bucket soon.

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That's probably not what they're saying.

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They're saying things like that.

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Yeah.

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That, that he could die.

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Meaning they, they probably are not using

the, the euphemism of, of kicking the

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bucket but they're saying he could die.

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Help maybe some of our people

who tune in and listen to this

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do, should we as Christians.

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What, what?

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What's our response to this?

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Should we react to this?

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Should we care about this?

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Is this something that has

any bearing on us whatsoever?

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How do we process when a lot of

people are saying Catholicism,

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Christianity, and, and now you've

got the Pope and the Pope is dying.

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I.

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It's on the, the headlines.

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We've probably got coworkers talking

about this at work, maybe, or we've

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got Catholic friends, Catholic family.

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How should we as Christians navigate

the the Pope's health crisis?

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I'm gonna partially punt and say

you should listen to people like Dr.

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Moler in the briefing on the regular

basis, because he talks about stuff like

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this and he often has a helpful framing of

the subject matter and how to think about

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it, what it means for us as Protestants.

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And that would be my first

point of encouragement.

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Please listen to Dr.

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Mueller's briefing.

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It's usually really insightful.

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Secondly, I would say

that we're not Catholic.

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We don't submit to the Pope.

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We don't receive funds from the Vatican.

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We don't believe in Catholic theology.

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And so for us, it's just like

any other religious leader.

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In some ways, we're gonna

say, well, that's interesting.

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I'm gonna pray about that perhaps, and,

and hope that God uses that for the glory

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of his name and the good of his kingdom.

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But he doesn't have a, any

massive ramification for us.

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But it does have a ramification

for our Catholic friends.

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It has ramifications for people

that used to be Catholic.

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I suppose they're thinking about this

and wondering what it, what it has.

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What meaning it has for

the rest of the church.

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And the answer is really not a lot.

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It let's not, let's not be crazy here.

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The Catholic Church is powerful for sure.

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They have tons of money,

tons of real estate.

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And Pope Frankie has been

kind of a, a bad thing for us.

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Yep.

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He's offered so many different

hot takes that were just not good.

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He has endured same

sex, same sex marriage.

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He has encouraged the further

left trajectory of the

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Catholic church as a whole.

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That is the Roman Catholic Church.

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I'm not a fan.

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I'm just gonna tell you.

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And the the hubbub.

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The scuttlebutt is that he's

already got his successor in

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mind, in place to take the helm.

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Should he expire.

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Now, if that's the case, if he, if

it's a hand selected Pope, Frankie

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choice, then we shouldn't expect the

Catholic church to go to the right.

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We're gonna expect further left,

which is what we expect going forward.

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Is that, is that, I thought they

had to do the, the con Yeah.

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And the smoke, the, the cardinal.

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Yeah.

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Hey man, they, they, they play

politics in, in a different way.

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Interesting.

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But it is, I mean, that's on

the, that's on the horizon.

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And if that is the case, as people

are speculating that it is, well then

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we shouldn't expect much of a change.

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But I guess this is the point I.

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And I'll in here, we, we should pray any

movement like this is, it's a big deal.

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You know, new president, new Pope

Pope's a bit different because he

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usually does more than four years,

but these are powerful figures among

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the most powerful in world history.

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And therefore, we should care about it.

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We should pray about it, but I

wouldn't be too concerned about

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it affecting your backyard.

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Yeah.

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And, and this is obviously

the undercurrent.

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The, the, the question underneath this,

which is not our, our subject matter

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for today, is the relationship between

Catholicism in general and Christianity.

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And maybe at some point in our

DBR this year, it would be good

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for us to, to address that.

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And I think it's, I important

for us to be discerning on that.

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There's some good resources out there.

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I, I would echo your

encouragement to listen to Moler.

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I think Dr.

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Moler does a great job.

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On on laying out a lot of these issues.

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And it does come up quite often because

he, he does tackle the headlines.

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He does.

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And so often things like this

find themselves in the headlines.

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And certainly if Pope Francis

dies, then you are gonna

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find Mueller addressing that.

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So if you, you, if that happens in

the next couple weeks, couple days

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tune into the briefing, especially

the, the day or two after that,

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because I, I guarantee you, Dr.

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Mueller will be addressing what's gonna

happen in the, the fallout from that.

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Indeed.

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Well, let's jump into

numbers 18, 19, and 20.

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Numbers 18.

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Here are instructions for the Levites

as to how to receive the various

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offerings and what they were allowed

to eat and who was allowed to eat it.

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And also in this chapter, the, the

Lord makes clear what that they were

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to receive no inheritance in the

Promised land because God himself

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was gonna be their inheritance.

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Instead, they would be supported

by and provided by or for, by

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the, the tithes of the people.

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The, the people would bring their tithes

and offerings and the, the Levites would

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receive those and be supported by that.

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So kind of laying out the, the boundaries

of the Levis here and talking about again,

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what they can and what they can't eat, and

how they're to be supported and what to

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expect when they get to the promised land.

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Numbers 19, we get the red heifer,

which I don't, have you ever

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seen a red heifer passed around?

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Can't say that.

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I have, I I did consider Googling

it when I came across it this time.

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It's gotta be like a, just a,

a very auburn colored heifer.

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I, I imagine it's not, yeah, that's right.

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I mean, I guess in my mind I can

visualize one more brownish maybe.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Auburn a good color, like

Aaron's gout, like Kool-Aid.

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He's like, oh yeah.

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And he's dying.

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The heifer over in the,

the corner, only like.

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I don't know.

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Only a part of our

audience knows that Yeah.

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That reference.

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Exactly.

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Well, the rest of 'em are

like, what in the world?

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Yeah.

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That's a drop.

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You can edit that.

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Yeah.

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Anyways, the Red Heifer the, the

red Heifer was to be selected

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and killed and burned completely.

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So this is unique note that they're

burning this thing pretty much completely.

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And it's ashes.

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Were gonna be taken outside the camp to a.

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Clean place.

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And that's another distinction here,

that the other times we see references to

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something being taken outside the camp.

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It's gonna be taken outside the camp

because it's defiling otherwise, and

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they don't wanna defile the camp.

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Well, these ashes are gonna be kept

outside the camp in a clean place,

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and these ashes are going to be

combined with water, which would

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then be sprinkled on anyone who

had become ceremonially defiled.

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So the heifer was sacrificed, was

burned completely, and then the, the

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ashes were used in combination with

water as a part of the ceremonially

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ceremonial cleansing ritual.

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And if that person was not sprinkled

with that water, they were not cleaned.

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And in fact, if they refused it.

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Altogether they were gonna be

cut off from their people again.

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So the Red Heifer, again, part of God's

laws and rules and regulations as far

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as how the people were to be cleansed

from their, their ceremonial defilement

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chapter nineteen's important too, because

you have to remember that at this time

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in their history, they're preparing

to wander the desert For 40 years,

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there's going to be a lot of death.

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This whole generation has to die out.

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Now remember, there are

about 2 million strong.

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If we're trusting the numbers as what

they are and we're just taking them at

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face value, we're looking at about 2

million people here, maybe two and a half.

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Yep.

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That means.

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Several mil, several millions, several

Lots of people are dying all the time.

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Yeah.

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So chapter 19 is an expedient way

of dealing with death for those who

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are defiled by some kind of death.

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If someone dies in the tent

or someone dies here, you come

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in contact with the dead body.

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This is a way to expediently purify

somebody without going through

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the same rigmarole that would be

required under normal circumstances.

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So I think this is a mercy of God to say,

here's a more efficient way to deal with

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this, and you're gonna deal with it a lot.

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There's gonna be a lot of death,

and we're gonna read about that.

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Speaking of in chapter 20.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Chapter 20 is a, a tragic

chapter, another tragic chapter.

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It seems like we're compounding

these things in the book of numbers.

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And here you've got the,

the initial tragedy in verse

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one of the death of Miriam.

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And it's, it's noted, but

it's, it's not, there's not a

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lot of, of inks filled on it.

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She dies and, and then they kind

of move on, and, and that's common.

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It's, it's almost.

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It's almost stands out as, as a

flashing sign, how little people talk

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about death in the grieving process.

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For the most part, in some of the

key figures in the, the Torah.

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They die and then they move on and,

and it's like, okay, next up, let's

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keep going with the, the account here.

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Well, Miriam Moses' sister

she dies and she's buried.

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They're in the wilderness

in, in in Kadesh.

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From here verses two through nine,

the, the people find themselves thirsty

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and so they are grumbling and they're

complaining again, just like they

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always do, and they're lamenting.

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Saying again, here again, Egypt was better

would that we were back in Egypt, would

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that we were back in, in our enslavement.

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And so God.

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Calls Moses and tells Moses and gives

him specific instructions to do something

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different than he had done previously.

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Previously, when God wanted to provide

water for the people, he said to

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Moses, you should strike the rock here.

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He tells Moses, and

this is super important.

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Speak to the rock, tell the rock to

pour forth water and the rock will pour

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forth water one verses 10 through 13.

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Moses does not heed the

Lord's instructions, but

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in fact, disobeys the Lord.

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And strikes the rock

instead of speaking to it.

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And as a result, because of this

because as, as the text says, Moses

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did not believe and did not uphold

the Lord as holy in the eyes of

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the people, he was not gonna be

allowed to enter the promised land.

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So the, the, the, the pri the

wilderness generation, they've already

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forfeited their rights 20 and up.

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But Moses was still in the running

to enter the promised land.

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Even though he was in that 20 and

up category, he was still exempted.

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He was still gonna be in the promised

land until this, at this point.

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And notice the reason being

because he, it's, it's the con,

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it doesn't say this in the text,

but the concept is, is blasphemy.

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He did not uphold, he did not hold as.

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High and holy and exalted Yahweh,

the Lord in the eyes of the people.

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His disobedience of the Lord was to

blaspheme the word blaspheme means

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literally to take that which is exalted

and make it common to bring it low, and

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that's what Moses did with God because

he did not obey him word for word.

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Everywhere else that you look in

the, the, the wilderness wandering.

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So far it's been as the Lord

commanded Moses, as the Lord commanded

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Moses as the Lord commanded Moses.

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This jumps off the pages

Moses' disobedience.

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And it's gonna cost him terribly.

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Verses 14 through 21.

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Then the people continue the, the

journey and they come to the Edomites.

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And so when you see the Edomites

here, you should think about Esau.

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And so Esau, this is why it talks

about the, that Israel and talks

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about Israel as, as the brother,

their brothers, because they.

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Had descended from Jacob, Jacob and Esau.

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They were brothers together.

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Here's the Edomites.

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And they asked them, Hey, can we get

some safe passage through your land here?

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And instead of providing that safe

passage, perhaps still smarting

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a little bit from forfeiting the,

the birthright and the blessing.

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They refuse to allow the

Israelites to, to pass through,

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not just once, but twice here.

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And so the Israelites are gonna be

forced to go out and around and,

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and bypass the the Edomites there.

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And then verses 22 through

29 you've got more death.

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And this time it's, it's not Miriam,

but it's Aaron and there's more

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here because of the role of Aaron.

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And so Aaron dies and he has to

give his, his position, so to speak.

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Or Moses does his position, his role

as high priest to the next one in line.

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And so that is gonna be what, what's

gonna happen there in verse 28.

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We find out that that's gonna be eliazar.

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So Eliazar takes the high priestly

garments and dawns them as his father.

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Dies and is buried there

in the, the wilderness.

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They do mourn for this one for 30 days.

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This is unique and this is interesting.

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I don't understand why we mourn

for so few days and I guess even

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for our president, you get one day.

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It's a national occasion, but interesting

nonetheless, that it's 30 days.

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I'm surprised by that.

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We don't do that.

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We don't.

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Although, yeah.

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Yeah.

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I, I don't know why I, the immediate

family I would say was probably like,

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yeah, we've got 30 days plus, right?

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Yeah.

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But I.

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Yeah.

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By extension, you know, those

outside the family certainly

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don't you get into Jesus Day.

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There's professional

mourners at that point.

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Yeah.

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I mean, come on, you're paying actors

to come and mourn for your family.

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Right.

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That's a, that's interesting.

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Yeah, and so, so foreign to our culture.

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I mean, we don't treat death.

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Half the way they did, and they were

far more used to it than we are.

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We're so anesthetized from

it because we don't see it.

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We try to isolate it, keep it

in only in a certain place.

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And man, I think it's helpful.

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In fact, I was driving by a church

not too long ago and they had,

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they had tombstones or gravestones

in, in front of their church or

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the side of their church at least.

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And I thought, man, that is a, a bit

eerie, but I could get behind that.

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Yep.

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I would love to have you buried in front.

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Maybe at the front door whenever the

time comes, whoever goes first, we

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should be somewhere near the front.

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Maybe the, the headstone is actually

cut out to the shape of your head.

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That would be really cool.

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We need a facility to be able to do that.

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Oh, we're working on it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, you challenged me to preach a

sermon recently with my epitaph, my,

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my headstone up on the stage with me.

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I mean, I thought it was

a good, it's a great idea.

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It is a great idea.

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I'm just gonna stand by that.

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Fair enough.

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Fair enough.

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Alright, Hey, let's pray and then

we'll be done with this this episode.

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God, we thank you so much for Word.

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And we want to be careful not to

blaspheme, not to bring you down, not to

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treat you as common when you are exalted.

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And we can do that by failing

to maintain a high view of you.

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That's one of our distinctives.

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And so help us, Lord, to be a

church that does that well, that

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holds you high, that exalts you

and does not compromise on that.

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And so we ask that you would help

us towards that End of Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Keep reading Bibles and tune it

again tomorrow for another edition

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of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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See 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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podcast, leave a like, leave a comment

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That would be awesome.

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If you need more information about

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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.