Latest / But is it Biblical? / Episode 65: Jubilees Part 1 - Equality in the Eyes of God - The Sabbath

Transcript

Episode 65: Jubilees Part 1 - Equality in the Eyes of God - The Sabbath · But is it Biblical?

0:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm Glenn.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Lydia.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: And you're listening to, but is it biblical?
0:07
SPEAKER_00: We invite you to join in as we evaluate church tradition and discover what scripture truly teaches.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you didn't say the apocalypse.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: After Enoch Theology Beer Camp was a good little break.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: But then but then we studied the apocalypse there too.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: So we can't escape it.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Hey, while we're talking about it, right?
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Have you recovered?
1:04
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: And I know we don't talk about the weather and all that, but seriously, it has to be a few years.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: We don't, or we try not to.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: We try not to.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: But it's just too amazing to not say fall has finally come to Texas.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: And now that I say it, we're gonna have a heat wave hit.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: But I just And those of you who know what a real fall is, we're talking about a Texas fall, not a true fall.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: It's just a welcome reprieve, and it's just beautiful.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful meaning anything below a hundred degrees.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we hit 60 something.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: It was 40 something this morning.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I know we're yeah, we're talking weather, but y'all, it's Texas, and we will take the break.
1:49
unknown: Thank you.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: So we're getting back into the Apocrypha this week, and we're talking about the book of Jubilees.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you hear that, do you automatically know what this is about?
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Like part of part of me is like, okay, is it a a document that talks about celebrations, like the things that we should and then I go, well, maybe it's the document of festivals and feasts and festivals, and because that is part of the Jewish calendar.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: But then after that, I'm like, I don't know.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it sounds like you're going to a state fair or something.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Jubilees.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: So what is it, Glenn?
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you later.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to exhaustively study this book.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: The main purpose is to provide some context.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: We'll probably end up doing three episodes.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear the question mark on the end of that?
2:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: But I want to provide some context in case you want to study the rest of it on your own.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: There's some really cool stuff in this, but we're going to go through stuff like the background and the author and that kind of stuff today.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll go through the first few chapters and then we'll go through some notable parts of the rest of it.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: But first, you have to get into the right mindset here.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: You need to change the way you think.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: You've been saying that for how many episodes?
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's true of all of scripture.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: It's true of humanity.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: But especially of scripture that you've never even seen or maybe heard of before.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, as humans, we have this tendency to think and read literally.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Especially when it comes to old things.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't like Shakespeare.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Like when the kids are in a Shakespeare play, I'm sitting there grinding my teeth the whole time.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Or leaning over, going, What's going on?
3:54
SPEAKER_01: What is going on?
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't like the language.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Or I don't understand the language, even though it's technically English, right?
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: But there are people who understand that way of speaking and the context of the time.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And those people absolutely love Shakespeare.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure maybe I would too if I cared to learn how the language was being used.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: You wanted to brush up your Shakespeare.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: But when we read a translation of something, it's hard to know what we're missing.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to know the language because it's been translated into our own language, into something we understand.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: So we miss the idiosyncrasies of the original writing.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: We may not understand that it was a poem, right?
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Or a figure of speech that wasn't meant to be taken literally, or maybe a form of humor.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Like the way they're using the language, it's telling a joke, but when it's translated, you just don't get that.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Which can really confuse things if we're not on the same page as the original audience or the author of what we're reading.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: In Jubilees, you see the term ordained and written on the heavenly tablets.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: All right.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: That phrase is similar to our modern phrase set in stone.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So in other words, it can't be changed.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Right?
5:20
SPEAKER_00: It's something that's just, it's gonna happen.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: We have all kinds of phrases like this in American English today, that if translated into another language 2,000 years from now, it's probably gonna cause problems.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: We have idioms and metaphors like break a leg, bite the bullet, spill the beans, kick the bucket, bury the hatchet.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: The eyes are the window to the soul.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Wear your heart on your sleeve.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be let go?
5:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're fired?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you've been fired from your job.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: But even that can be misunderstood because you were fired?
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: That sounds painful.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Taken literally, these phrases can cause problems.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: They can even cause problems in modern times with people who do understand the language.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: For some more serious biblical examples, we have stuff like baptism, where we miss the true meaning of baptism because we take what John the Baptist was using to symbolize it, and we take that literally.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: As a result, churches today count the number of people they've dunked in water as a way to prove their success rate in religion.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: To be a member of a Baptist church, water baptism is a requirement.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: But the baptism that Jesus brought, the one that matters, doesn't require water at all.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: So this water baptism was just an earlier symbol of the baptism to come.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of Baptists do understand that today, but they still make water baptism a requirement to be a part of that community.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Try to make sense of that.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: But there are other denominations that don't think it's just a symbol.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Like it's a must.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Another example is found in John 6.53, where Jesus says, You must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: And if you do, you will have eternal life.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus meant this completely symbolically and spiritually, but we have some denominations, like Catholics, who take this literally.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Back in ancient Rome, many early Christians were actually accused of cannibalism because of how they interpreted this.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: So we see that it was misunderstood from the moment Jesus said it.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Some of his followers actually walked away after they heard it because it was too much for them.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: They simply didn't understand what Jesus meant.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: John 6.60 says, When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?
8:05
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus tried to explain it to them, but it didn't catch.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 66 says, After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Another example is in Luke 14, 26, where Jesus says, If you don't hate your family, you can't be his disciple.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: This verse is usually used by critics of Christianity.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: They say that the Bible teaches the destruction of the family unit, or it's cruel.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: But we know Jesus was talking about priorities.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Following Christ takes priority.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: If your family is causing you to live in unloving ways, you need to prioritize the teachings of Christ.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Don't let them sway you into denying selfless love.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, on a lighter note, Lydia, you know, I personally use euphemisms all the time.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Adult euphemisms.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: All the time.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: But I usually have to give you that look because you don't get it the first time.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: We talked in another episode, I think it was the Our Story episode, about how we used the phrase go to Walgreens to symbolize having some fun adult alone time.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, even though we came up with that one together, you still don't get it the first time I say it.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, I yeah.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: It's because I'm practical.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, what do we need to get at Walgreens?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: I'll say, Do you want to go to Walgreens?
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And you'll say, I don't need anything.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Or what are you getting?
9:45
unknown: I know.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And I'll end up having to tilt my head, raise my eyebrows, and give you that look to jog your memory.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not a memory thing, it's just uh wasn't fully paying attention, maybe.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone here.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Everyone does this.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And audience, I'm talking to you.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Here's some of the phrases that you may say or understand.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: Fooling around, sleeping together, getting busy, getting lucky.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Making bacon.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: What?
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: Is that I thought so.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: I'll be quiet now.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Hooking up, knocking boots.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: And when you do all of those things, you may get a bun in the oven.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Right?
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Which which wouldn't surprise you if you've been told about the birds and the bees.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh, good grief.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And what about family jewels, your birthday suit?
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's enough.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Where am I going with this?
10:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, please.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: Where are we going, Glenn?
10:55
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew writings, they use adult idioms too.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: No.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: Some of which we're familiar with.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Like to go into.
11:03
unknown: Oh.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Right?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Which means to sleep with, which isn't really sleeping.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: But there are also some that we don't understand as well.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: And a good example would be to cover your shame.
11:16
SPEAKER_03: Oh.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Like what Adam and Eve did after they ate the fruit.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: We do know what it means in a literal sense, which would be to put on clothes, right?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: To cover your privates or your nakedness.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And we take that and use it to say that God doesn't want your physical genitalia to be seen by anyone except your spouse.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: So being naked is a shameful thing to do.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: But once you get married, it's no longer shameful in certain situations, right?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, an evil thing becomes a beautiful thing after you say, I do.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons many people are upset with purity culture.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:01
SPEAKER_00: We're ingrained to think that something is evil until the day you get married, and then all of a sudden it's not shameful anymore.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: But the literal sense of that phrase was not the point.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: It's an analogy that has been way overanalyzed.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, instead of getting the point that the analogy is meant to help clarify, we focus on the analogy.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: So what was the symbolism going on there with the phrase, cover your shame, or cover their shame?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: The male genitalia represented power and authority.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: It has from the very beginning.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: And we see that over time as well, as the Canaanites and Egyptians worshipped phallic statues.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: They represented cosmic divine power.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Power that was never meant to be in the hands of humans.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: We even see it today.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to Washington, D.C.?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: The Washington Monument?
13:01
SPEAKER_00: What do you think that's supposed to symbolize?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you see why circumcision was required of God's people?
13:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a relinquishing of power, recognition that you are nothing, basically.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: And then the female genitalia represented the dwelling place of the divine.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: It was the gateway or the door to the temple.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: And the uterus was the inner room, the inner sanctum.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: It represented a life-giving presence.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: And all of this symbolism is actually explained in the Jewish Mishnah and Talmud.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: But just like the veil that covered the entrance to the actual inner room, that's what clothing did for women.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: When Adam and Eve noticed their nakedness, they covered their shame.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: We see that in both Genesis and Jubilees, because they had exposed their true intentions.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: They wanted power and they wanted to be like God.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: So they recognized that and covered themselves in shame.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: But when you hear a phrase like this, it's just human nature to take it at its most basic and simple literal meaning until you find out what it really means.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to idioms, analogies, symbols, allegories, metaphors, parables, we may completely miss the point, especially if we don't understand the culture and context of when it was written.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Like 2,000 years ago or 3,000 years ago, or if we don't know or understand who the author is, we can get way off base with our interpretations and start creating rules that don't or shouldn't exist.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: This is why contextual analysis is so important when studying ancient writings.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: It's called hermeneutics.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: It gets you closer to understanding the text.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: It's drawing the meaning out of the text rather than starting with what you want to prove and then using the English translation to help you prove that.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And notice I said it helps you get closer to understanding the text.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Not for sure, because it's always possible that you're missing something.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: But this mindset of realizing there's more to it than you may know, that mindset is essential.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: And in order to get into the right mindset for studying Jubilees, there's another thing that we need to understand.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Another symbol.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: We need to understand six seven.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: You guys just missed my eye roll.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: Seriously?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Do it again.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: That was loud enough to hear.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: This fad, when it was so popular here just recently, kids would say six seven and then wave their hands.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Six seven.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Six seven.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And then they'd wave their hands, palm palm up like weighing scales.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: What?
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Because six is imperfection and seven is perfection.
16:35
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Six is evil, seven is good, six is humanity, seven is God.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: We're weighing good and evil.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: God's way and humanity's way.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: If you want to understand the spiritual meaning behind Jubilees, you need to burn that symbolism into your brain first.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: The balance between those two things?
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Between six and seven.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Which represent not just a literal number, it means both good and evil.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: So with that said, what is the book of Jubilees?
17:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you just asked that, because that's like what's been spinning in my mind for the last ten minutes.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: What is it, Glenn?
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, just like with Enoch, Jubilees is in the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, as well as the Beta Israel Jews, the Ethiopian Jews.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: It was written in the second century BC, so sometime between 150 and 105 BC.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: The Book of Watchers from Enoch that we studied was around 350 BC, and then Jubilees was around 150 BC.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Both of them before Christ, by at least a century.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Jubilees is 50 chapters.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And of course, there were no chapters back then.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: It's just the way we organize it in modern times, so it's easier to reference.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: It was a long scroll that we have divided into 50 chapters.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Of all of the writings that were found in Qumran with the Dead Sea scrolls, only 10 of them had more than 10 copies.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: That's out of 400 distinct works.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Not copies, but distinct works that were found.
18:31
SPEAKER_03: Oh.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: So think of a library with 400 different books.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and only 10 of those books have more than 10 copies.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Why?
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Because those are the ones people read.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: The Torah makes up five of those ten.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: All right, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then you have Isaiah and Psalms.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: So that's seven, which leaves three more.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: One of those three is a community rule book for the Yesens.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: So it was basic stuff like how do you become a member?
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, some of the things where you have to give all of your possessions to the community.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a several year-long process, all that kind of stuff.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: So that was another one.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: There were 10 copies of that.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: So that makes eight.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: So the other two are Enoch and Jubilees.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Enoch had 11 copies and Jubilees had 15.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Every other book of the Old Testament as we know it today had less than 10 copies, around two to six copies.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: And then you had all of the other works, which were probably one, two, or three.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: So Jubilees was important, at least to this second largest sect of Jews that were around at the time of Jesus.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And that sect, the Essenes, was the one that Jesus and his disciples agreed with the most.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I base that belief on evidence that is found in our current canon.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: For example, John the Baptist was most likely an Essene, living in the desert to prepare a way for the Lord.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: That was the flagship verse of the Essenes, Isaiah 43.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist claimed that prophecy for himself.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: We see that in John 123.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: He also practiced ritual washing, which he used to explain what Jesus was going to do with our souls.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Also, the Essenes believed that a pure heart was more important than sacrifices.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Not just more important, but it's the only thing God wants.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: We see that throughout both the Old and New Testaments.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: The Essenes believed that.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: And they also practiced communal ownership of property.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: We see that in Acts 2.44, Acts 4.32, 2 Corinthians 8, 13 to 15.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh, like I just mentioned, it was in their community rule book.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus and the disciples also lived with a shared pool of money.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: And just general overall instructions to sell what you have to give to the poor.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that many times.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: The Essenes were also a mystical group, believing in a personal connection to God with secret wisdom that only God can reveal.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: We see that all over the New Testament with the Holy Spirit.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: But an example would be Corinthians 2 7 through 10.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Another thing is that the Essenes also believed that the Pharisees and Sadducees were corrupt, which completely agrees with what Jesus and the disciples thought of those two groups, too.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Just read Matthew 23, Luke 11, Matthew 3 7, Matthew 16.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: There are tons of examples all throughout the New Testament.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and the disciples, though, never called out the Essenes, even though the Essenes were the second largest sect, larger than the Sadducees.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: They constantly called out the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist called both of them broods of vipers.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: So there is a lot of evidence that of all of the Jews, the Essenes were the most aligned with what Jesus taught.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And they believed that this book of Jubilees is very important.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Now the Essenes became a sect sometime around 150 BC.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And since Jubilees was written between 150 and 105 BC, it's highly likely that an Essene wrote it.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Or at the very least, someone who would later help form the Essene group and their beliefs.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Also, most scholars agree that there was just one author.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: So unlike Enoch, which had probably several people involved in writing that, Jubilees only has one author.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, the author of Jubilees was definitely a Jew.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: And Jubilees was written in Hebrew.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, why does it matter that a Jew, probably in Essene, wrote it?
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Why do the beliefs of the author matter?
23:34
SPEAKER_01: I I would think it gives you a better context of understanding.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Like the information that's being recorded, you kind of know the framework that it's being written within.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: Say if a Roman or a Greek, like this time I guess it would be Greek.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Say say a Roman centurion wrote this book.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: Right.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Would would you take it more with a grain of salt?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Is it gonna be scripture?
24:02
SPEAKER_01: No, actually, what I was thinking is it'd probably be more of orders and regulations, and here's how you do things correctly.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, you see that in Jewish writings too.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's true.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: But in in this specific case, the answer is because the author believed and studied Genesis.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Jubilees is basically a retelling of Genesis from creation until the law was given to Moses in Exodus on Mount Sinai.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Some people call it Little Genesis.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's fun.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Well, and a follow-up question real quick.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: So you've you've emphasized the importance of this book, Jubilees, to the Essenes.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Is it found in other groups?
24:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, for me, that means, oh, it was only found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: That's how we know it existed.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: But its existence.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's existence.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: We we have it because it's in the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: And they've been around forever.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: They've been around forever, but the copies they have are in Gaez.
25:07
unknown: Okay.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: Which is similar to Hebrew.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: But when this was when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, we were like, okay, this is legit.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: These are 15 copies written in the fragments that were found were in Hebrew.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: And it completely, like the Hebrew that was found completely matched with the Gaez that we currently have.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's cool.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: But it was in Hebrew and not Gaez.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: So we know it was originally written in Hebrew, even though it was later translated.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: But it's important to know that this author was a Jew.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Because knowing what we know about the author, we also know that he considered Genesis to be sacred.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: He highly valued Genesis.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: All Jews did.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's the story of their people.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: And the Essenes certainly did because the number of copies that were found in Qumran.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: There's like 24 copies or something like that of Genesis.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: Genesis.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: What this tells us is that the author was not trying to replace Genesis.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:15
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't trying to contradict Genesis.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: His writing was meant to provide explanation and clarity to what we read in Genesis.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: There are stories we find in Jubilees that you don't see in Genesis, like little explanations of things.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: It talks about Adam naming the animals, and it says that he did that over a course of six days.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And then in Genesis, we see that Adam was created and then named the animals and everything all on the sixth day.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: So in one day.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: But having looked at Genesis before in this podcast, we've seen that that first account that's in Genesis 1, it was a poem.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: So we we kind of misunderstand that until we see this explanation here in Jubilees that's that's showing us, hey, you know, it actually he named the animals and everything in the second week after creation.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: But here's why knowing all this is important because modern evangelicals reject the book of Jubilees.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: And they do this for several reasons.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: I'll link to the gotquestions.org article in the show notes.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: But the first reason they say Jubilees shouldn't be included in our canon is because it quote changes the biblical record in several respects.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And they give some examples of this.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that Adam thing would be one, but that's not the one they give.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: But if you study these examples that they do give, their examples are not very honest.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: One example they give is that in Jubilees, Jacob doesn't lie to Isaac to get Esau's birthright, which is a flat out lie if you actually read Jubilees.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: The difference is that in Genesis, Isaac asks Jacob, Who are you, my son?
28:11
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob answers, I am Esau, your firstborn.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: All right.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: And when you read that in Jubilees, Isaac asks, Are you my son Esau?
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob answers, I am your son.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: So evangelicals are saying, Oh no, he's not lying.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say he was Esau technically.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: It sounds a lot like how evangelicals, you know, approach things, these little white lies, you know, you twist the truth just a little bit.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: You're not technically lying.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: But if you read the whole passage in Jubilees, it is crystal clear that Jacob is deceiving Isaac.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Everything about the whole situation, including Jacob's mother dressing him up like Esau and adding goatskins and hair to his arms to make him feel like Esau, Jacob confirming what his father thinks, that he is his son, Esau.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: And then when Esau comes back and finds out, both Isaac and Esau cry out in sadness and Jake that Jacob deceived them.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: So this whole claim that Jacob doesn't lie in Jubilees is just flat out false.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: But you see that in this article from Cock Questions.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: And evangelicals use that claim to say that the author of Jubilees is trying to make Jacob appear better or more righteous than in the Genesis account.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: It's evangelicals doing what they do best, twisting the truth to serve their own purposes.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: I think they're just afraid of something, like their canon being questioned, which, according to the Jenga stack that they've created, would cause their whole tower to fall over.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: If this 66-book canon is all of a sudden not the only thing, right?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: They have to do everything they can to discredit any other writings from being considered inspired.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read it to you.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And you'll be the judge.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: This Got Questions article says, There are several problems with including the book of Jubilees in the Bible as part of inspired scripture.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Probably the most significant is that the author of Jubilees, in retelling the story of Genesis, changes the biblical record in several respects.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, then it gives an example, which I can discredit.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: And then the second example is Jacob, and it says, as portrayed in the book of Jubilees, Jacob does not lie to his father, and Isaac eventually declares Jacob to be his true heir.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: So if you read that article without reading Jubilees, what's your takeaway?
30:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, it's it's off.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: It disagrees, like it says something that's opposite to what Genesis says, right?
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Which means it's bad.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: Discount it.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Discount it.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what this Got Questions article is saying is that those two things, all right, him lying and then Isaac eventually making Jacob his true heir, are different from Genesis.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: Because in Genesis, Jacob clearly lies to his father by saying he's Esau, and apparently Isaac never agrees that Jacob is his true heir.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, first off, Isaac does declare Jacob his true heir in Genesis 28, 1 through 5.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Read it.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: So that one is debunked, and it happens and reads just like it does in Jubilees 27, 8 through 11.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: But regarding Jacob not lying to Isaac and Jubilees, here is what it says in chapter 26 of Jubilees.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Isaac tells Esau to go hunting and make him some food so he can bless him.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: Isaac's wife, Rebecca, overhears this and tells Jacob about it and tells him to go kill a goat from his flock and make food so he can get Isaac's blessing instead.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob says, But mom, he'll recognize my voice, and I'm not hairy like Esau.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: So Dad'll get mad at me and I'll end up being cursed instead of blessed.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: So his mom says, Let the curse be on me, then.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Just do it.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all of this matches up perfectly with Genesis so far.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob does it, and then Rebecca dresses him up to look and feel like Esau, and then he takes the food to Isaac.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: And in Jubilees 26, 13, Jacob says, I am your son, I have done as you told me.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Get up, have a seat, and eat some of what I have caught, Father, so that you may bless me.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Was that the truth?
32:46
SPEAKER_00: No.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Because he was clearly pretending to be Esau.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: And Isaac never told Jacob to go catch something and fix him food.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: He told that to Esau, not Jacob, but Jacob was saying that Isaac said it to him.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Clearly a lie.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: It's not even up to interpretation.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: So Isaac asks him how he was able to find something so quickly.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob answers in verse 15, he says, It was your God who made me find it in front of me.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Another lie.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: So Isaac says, Let me touch you to make sure you're Esau.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob comes closer, knowing full well he is lying to his father.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Because his father wants to know if he's Esau.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Isaac is then confused because Jacob feels like Esau, but he sounds like Jacob.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: So he asks Jacob point blank in verse 19, Are you my son Esau?
33:45
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob answers, I am your son.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: All right.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Does all of that sound like the author of Jubilees was trying to make it look like Jacob wasn't lying to Isaac?
33:56
SPEAKER_01: No, there's deception no matter what.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: That's just ridiculous.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And to top it off, Jacob then goes and hides because he knows Esau is going to try to kill him when he finds out.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: When Esau and Isaac figure out what happened in verse 30, Isaac tells Esau, Your brother came deceptively and took your blessings.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jacob lied to me.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: So when gotquestions.org, which is an evangelical website, says that Jacob does not lie to his father in Jubilees, is that honest?
34:34
SPEAKER_00: The article also says that Jubilees adds to the law of Moses, but I can refute every single claim that they make.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Evangelicals who believe the 66-book canon of Scripture is the sole authority, they are afraid and will do everything they can and will say anything they need to to discredit other writings because they can't be wrong or their religion will fall apart.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: The author of Jubilees gave us information that isn't written down in Genesis, but that doesn't mean it's adding to it.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what color was Moses' hair?
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Genesis doesn't tell us.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Neither does Jubilees, but his hair had to have a color.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: If a writer at some point, based on Jewish oral tradition, wrote down that Moses was a redhead, would that be adding to Genesis or just providing more information?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: The author is just writing down something that was already understood based on the Jewish oral law.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: We need to understand something here.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Most of the law we see in Genesis and Exodus was based on oral tradition too, that had been passed down and then written down later.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jubilees is as well.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: But what one author may think is important to include does not mean that the next author thinks it's important too, and vice versa.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: That's why we also see conflicting accounts of Jesus in the Gospels.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Different authors remembered things different ways, and they also chose to write down what they believed was important to the story that they were telling.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: None of the writings are perfect.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: You need to understand where they're coming from.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: And don't forget, please don't forget that the author of Jubilees already believed what was written in Genesis.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: He was not trying to change the story.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: One thing the Got Questions article gets correct is that an Essene probably wrote Jubilees.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: So evangelicals can't argue that the author didn't believe the story in Genesis.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: At least they can't argue that honestly.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: There are Jews that eventually rejected Jubilees later on, but the main reason was because it advocated for a solar calendar rather than a lunar one.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: But the group that accepted it, the Essenes, is the one group that Jesus and his disciples never criticized.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: They called the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: They told them that they misunderstood their own scriptures, but they never said any of that about the Essenes.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And the Essenes wrote and valued Jubilees.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: So logically, we know that anything that may appear to quote unquote add to the law of Moses or provide more details on the biblical stories, maybe there's something to that.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the author understood the scriptures better than the groups who were constantly called hypocrites and being told they were misinterpreting scripture.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: Can I prove that?
38:10
SPEAKER_00: No.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: But it's where the evidence and common sense leads.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: At the very least, this book deserves to be studied alongside our current canon.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: But the author was extremely creative in the way he wrote Jubilees, because the whole writing is based on the number seven, which represents completeness.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: The spiritual perfection.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Six is the number of man, and seven is the number of God.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And as such, seven also represents the Sabbath.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Six days you work, and on the seventh day you rest.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: The seventh day is the day you completely rest and rely on God.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: And no, even though some people do, this is not meant to be taken literally today.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: Although it was meant to be literal for Jews for a long time.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: The spiritual meaning is what is important.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus broke the literal Sabbath and he didn't care.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: He didn't care that he was breaking the literal meaning of the law.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: Because he kept the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath, which is what it was all about in the first place.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: It's all God cares about.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: So in this book of Jubilees, time starts with seven days of creation, and then history is told in seven-year cycles.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Seven of these seven year cycles then equals a Jubilee, which is forty-nine years.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's neat.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:57
SPEAKER_01: There's the word.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: I wonder like it I still am w was waiting to hear how we got the word Jubilee.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: So they call that seven-year cycle.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: The seven There are three sets of sevens there.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: The ha we have the seven days.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: And then the seven years.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: And then the seven sets of seven years.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: So forty years.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Which was 49 years.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: But then on the 50th year, that year that follows the Jubilee is actually called the Year of Jubilee.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: That sounds fun.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: So the 50th year is the culmination of all of these sevens.
40:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: And there were 50 Jubilees.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: So the 50th year is the year of Jubilees.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: But then you take 50 Jubilees, so 50 49 year periods.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's how many Jubilees there were from the time of creation until Mount Sinai, where the law was given to Moses.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this is named Jubilees, because that's how it's broken out.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, to understand what the Sabbath truly is spiritually, God gave us a few real life analogies to help us understand.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: Right?
41:18
SPEAKER_00: We've got the week with the seven days.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: We've got the little larger seven years.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: It's actually called a Shemitah.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: And then you multiply the Shemitah by seven to get a Jubilee.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: So how does that help us understand the Sabbath?
41:32
SPEAKER_00: You have to know what happens on the seventh.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: So at the end of all of these different periods.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: What are you supposed to do on the Sabbath?
41:41
SPEAKER_01: Rest.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Rest.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: That's the Sunday school answer.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you're welcome.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: So all of the toil and work happens for six days, and then you rest your body on the seventh, right?
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're supposed to do.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the number of God, seven, is the day that is peaceful.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: Ideally.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: It is spiritual perfection.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: It is God's day, right?
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Perfection is not found in the six days leading up to it.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, those six days are necessary for sure.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: They must be done.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: But the seventh day is the one everyone looks forward to.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: And why is that?
42:21
SPEAKER_00: Why do you enjoy the seventh day?
42:24
SPEAKER_00: It's because you're comparing it to the rest of your week.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: Without the hard work, you can't fully know or appreciate the peaceful rest on the seventh day.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Just like we talked about with good and evil.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Evil is necessary in order to understand good.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have the six days of toil and all you do is rest for seven days, you're just lazy.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but you don't fully appreciate the rest that you get.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: You don't fully appreciate rest because you've never had anything to compare it to.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: So that is the Sabbath day, all right, the end of the week.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: It's when you find your personal rest and reliance on God.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: So that's the seven-day period.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: Next we have the Shemitah, the seven-year period.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: The seventh year is called the sabbatical year, all right?
43:22
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath year.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: We see this in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 15.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this where they let slaves go?
43:30
SPEAKER_00: It is.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: Because it baffles.
43:34
SPEAKER_01: I remember hearing that just, you know.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: You just let the secret out of the bag.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's like the one thing I have like, wait, I know this.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: No, that's a that's good.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: And the seven year rest, like the fields are supposed to rest as well.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: During the first six years, you work the land like normal, right?
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Like you sow food, but on the seventh year, you eat what the land naturally.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Provides.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, cool.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: God provides that you have you're forced to rely on God.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: You can do nothing on your own.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: So the number of humans, six, is when humans rely on themselves.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: And the number of God, seven, is when humans humble themselves and rely only on God.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: Because during the sabbatical year, all debts are forgiven and all slaves are set free.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: The debts are forgiven too?
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
44:35
SPEAKER_01: So that's a huge step of faith, too.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, yeah, if if someone owes you money and you're you know needing to recoup that loss, you just have to let it go.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: And are you starting to see the spiritual significance of the Sabbath?
44:53
SPEAKER_01: And rest.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Love God and love others.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: You're forced to rely on God and you take care of and share with others.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not about man.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: Six.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: It's about God.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Seven.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: Six, seven.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Weigh them.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: Which one is better?
45:14
SPEAKER_00: And when God is in charge, everyone finds rest.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: All debts are forgiven, and all slaves are set free from what binds them.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what seven is all about.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: And it's really eye-opening when you read Deuteronomy 15.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: God says, There will be no poor among you, and I will bless you if you obey what I'm telling you to do, if you keep my commandments, which is to share the wealth.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: Rely on me and love others.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, what would you do as a wealthy person if someone needed money or whatever, like a loan, and you were in the sixth year?
46:00
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: So you're about to hand over money knowing that whatever you're about to loan is about to be forgiven.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: You'd probably think twice, wouldn't you?
46:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, Deuteronomy 15 says, if someone is in need, you take care of that need, whatever it takes.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: And then verses nine to ten says, Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart, and you say, The seventh year, the year of release is near, and your eye look grudgingly on the poor brother, and you give him nothing.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: And he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, Don't be selfish.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't be greedy.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't expect this loan to be paid back.
46:55
SPEAKER_00: And if you obey that, then God will bless you, just like he will do when Jesus returns.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: People who have lived in love will be recognized in heaven.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: They will be blessed during the time of God's kingdom, the day or year or time of seven perfection.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: So that is the Sabbath year, the Shemitah, and that is the seven-year period.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Next we have the Jubilee, which is seven of the seven-year periods.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: Seven Shemitas, 49 years, and at the end of the Jubilee, you have the 50th year, which is called the year of Jubilee.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: It's similar to the sabbatical year where debts are forgiven and slaves set free, but it adds another element.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: All land and property that has been sold during that Jubilee, so that 49-year period, must be returned to the original landowners.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: This is described in Leviticus 25.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: And the purpose of all this is to make sure people stay on a level playing field.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: It's all about equality.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is supposed to be above another.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: All things are shared.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: It's a communal thing, keeping people from acquiring too much individual power or possessions and reminding them that everything belongs to God, not to them.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: So hold your property loosely, knowing who it belongs to.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: The year of Jubilee is a complete and total economic reset.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: And get this the year of Jubilee is announced with the trumpet call on Jan Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: So on the day of judgment, when people's fates are sealed, the day of complete spiritual cleansing, equality, fairness, treating others in selfless love.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what brings spiritual cleansing.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: Seven.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: And Jews haven't actually had one of these Jubilee years for over 2,000 years because it requires all of the tribes to be on their own ancestral lands.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: At least that's the reason that Jews give today.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Plus, there's no Sanhedrin to declare the start of Jubilee.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: But I think the spiritual meaning and instruction behind this still applies today.
49:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because I was sitting over here getting stuck on logistics of like there is no longer family land.
49:34
SPEAKER_01: Like no matter you just can't.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: It is impossible to do that.
49:38
SPEAKER_00: But the spiritual would go a long way in healing humanity's pride problem.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh, for sure.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: But even before the Jews were dispersed, okay, there's still no real evidence that they ever observed a year of Jubilee.
49:57
SPEAKER_01: Really?
49:59
SPEAKER_00: Or a sabbatical year.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
50:02
SPEAKER_01: Wait, so they never really truly wrested the land though the way they should have?
50:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's no there's no indication that any king of Israel ever instituted them.
50:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's actually biblical evidence to the contrary, that the Jews never observed either one.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, if you read first and second kings, you're like, the bad king so-and-so did such and such.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was a Jewish law.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: But it's one that they never kept.
50:33
SPEAKER_00: When Isaiah and Ezekiel preached, they harped on the kings and the wealthy elite, because they exploited the poor and they bought up land and they kept it.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 5.8 says, Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Woe to those who are buying up all these land and keeping it for themselves, leaving you homeless, basically.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: And when the Jews were taken to exile in Babylon, they had to stay there for 70 years.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: There's that number again.
51:09
SPEAKER_00: Starting with the first sweep in 605 BC.
51:12
SPEAKER_00: But why 70 years?
51:15
SPEAKER_00: It's because that's how many sabbatical years they failed to keep.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, they skipped the Jubilee years as well.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: 2 Chronicles 36, 20 through 21 is talking about Nebuchadnezzar here, and it says, he, Nebuchadnezzar, took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath to fulfill seventy years.
51:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: So God allowed the people to be removed from the land of Israel to give the land time to reset after all of the Sabbaths that had been skipped.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not saying Sabbath.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: You're saying Sabbath.
52:15
SPEAKER_00: Seventy sabbatical years worth, or 490 years.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Which is about the amount of time from King Saul until Babylon destroyed Jerusalem.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: The length of the monarchs of Israel and Judah.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: The numbers are not exact, depending on which historian you talk to.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: It's somewhere between 450 to 500 years, but that's really not important.
52:39
SPEAKER_00: There's a spiritual point being made here.
52:42
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites failed to reset the economy.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: They failed to share, to make sure everyone had what they needed.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: Some lived in luxury while others lived in poverty.
52:55
SPEAKER_00: These things that God commanded, the Sabbath day, sabbatical year, and year of Jubilee, they were God's Sabbaths.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: And he demanded that they be observed.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Sabbaths were instituted even before the law of Moses.
53:16
SPEAKER_00: They were designed to establish equality for all, but the Israelites replaced God with kings, and they never observed the Sabbaths.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the wealthy elite and kings hogged all of the land and treated the poor well poorly, and the land was filled with pride and greed, so as a result, God decided to give the land rest Himself, and He removed them all.
53:43
SPEAKER_00: There's no room for pride or greed in the kingdom of God.
53:48
SPEAKER_00: They are beasts, just like we see in Revelation.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: God's Sabbath, specifically the year of Jubilee, is mentioned in Isaiah 61.
54:03
SPEAKER_00: Verses 1 to 2 says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
54:13
SPEAKER_00: He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: Later at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he went to his hometown, Nazareth, and they asked Jesus to read from Scripture in the synagogue.
54:40
SPEAKER_00: We see this in Luke 4.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus chose to read those two verses from Isaiah 61.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: And then he made the claim that he, Jesus, was the fulfillment of this prophecy.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: He claimed the Spirit of God was upon him.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: He was anointed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
55:03
SPEAKER_00: The year of Jubilee.
55:06
SPEAKER_00: He came to bring equality, to fulfill the Sabbath.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 says, And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
55:20
SPEAKER_00: So God's Sabbaths were fulfilled on that day by Jesus Christ.
55:25
SPEAKER_00: He was bringing equality and setting captives free.
55:30
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what the people of Nazareth wanted to hear, so they tried to throw him off a cliff.
55:36
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds a lot like the message of equality today, doesn't it?
55:41
SPEAKER_00: Some people just really don't like it.
55:44
SPEAKER_00: It's not fair because it rewards people who haven't earned it.
55:49
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus came to give something to us, all of us, and none of us have earned it.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: He was proclaiming equality for all because everything belongs to him, and he can do whatever he wants to with it.
56:05
SPEAKER_00: And he is all about mercy, which he also requires of us.
56:11
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would then go on to talk about debt forgiveness many times.
56:15
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 7, 41 to 43, he tells a woman a parable about a man who forgives the debts of two men, one with a small debt and one with a large debt, and he asks her which one will love the man more.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: She answers, the one with the bigger debt.
56:30
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells her she's right.
56:33
SPEAKER_00: But we see here that even the one who deserves it the least is the recipient of equality.
56:41
SPEAKER_00: Later, Paul would talk about debt in Colossians 2 13-14.
56:46
SPEAKER_00: It says, And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
57:01
SPEAKER_00: This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: So this concept of the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilees.
57:17
SPEAKER_00: It's all over scripture.
57:20
SPEAKER_00: Has nothing to do with closing your business down on Sunday.
57:23
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbaths were and are extremely important to God.
57:29
SPEAKER_00: But it's the spiritual application that matters to him.
57:33
SPEAKER_00: Not the legalistic following of a rule.
57:37
SPEAKER_00: It's all about a selfless, humble, giving heart.
57:43
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was and is the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
57:49
SPEAKER_00: He fulfilled it on the cross, and they rushed to get him in the tomb.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Why was that?
57:56
SPEAKER_00: Because the Sabbath was just beginning.
57:59
SPEAKER_00: And what did Jesus do?
58:01
SPEAKER_00: How did he spend his time during that Sabbath day after he was crucified?
58:07
SPEAKER_00: He spent it proclaiming to the fallen angels that their reign over humanity was over.
58:14
SPEAKER_00: The year of Jubilee had come.
58:19
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came with a selfless, humble, and giving heart, and he brought equality to all, regardless of merit.
58:30
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath was about loving God and loving others, and we also find that all over the Book of Jubilees, which was written before Christ.
58:45
SPEAKER_00: Next week we're going to look at the first three chapters.
58:50
SPEAKER_00: Let's walk in the light.
59:31
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, maybe I'll find one online.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: I've got a copy for you.
59:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can read it.
59:36
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
59:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but thinking of a copy, modern time has me thinking about how you said this book deserves a place alongside our current canon, right?
59:49
SPEAKER_01: Like and the reasoning you gave was it was very logical.
59:53
SPEAKER_01: But I have a ridiculous thought, it seems, which is is this really old enough?
1:00:00
SPEAKER_01: Like is 150 BC really old enough to be old?
1:00:07
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason old, you know, just seems to be more valid?
1:00:12
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_00: Like going back to So we decide what's in the Bible based on how old it is?
1:00:19
SPEAKER_01: I guess I guess maybe validity is given to things across the board when it's quote historic, right?
1:00:28
SPEAKER_01: Like when it has age to it.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_01: So you think about cuneiform.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's like the furthest back I can think of of a written language.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_01: And then my brain starts going to the Mayans, and that just I don't know anything about that.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious, you know, how I actually love this question.
1:00:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: Because it allows me to take a thought and put it into perspective, which a lot of times helps us to rethink our conclusions.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_00: You're correct uh that most evangelicals believe Genesis is way older, like 1500 BC, right?
1:01:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_01: Like old is therefore safe and valid.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, on the other hand, modern scholarship says that it wasn't actually written down until after the Babylonian exile.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: So that would be a few hundred years before Jubilees was written.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, let's assume that Genesis was written in 1500 BC.
1:01:32
SPEAKER_00: Does that make it more authoritative than if it was written later on, like the 400s BC?
1:01:40
SPEAKER_00: And does that mean that everything written after that, so after 1500, is less authoritative?
1:01:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, it just seems like the closer the writing date falls to the event that's being written about, the more close to fact it would be.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_00: So not based on how old it is from where we are, but based on how old it is from what it's talking about.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what it's talking about.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, because I was gonna say the New Testament, which is the thing that forms the foundation for most of Christianity, wasn't written until the first century AD.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: Like the mid to late.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: So that's actually newer than Jubilees.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: Right, but comparative to the date of the events.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later, and facts are lost to time.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_00: So let me remind you that the New Testament quotes Enoch.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's true.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_00: And the New Testament authors highly valued that writing.
1:02:47
SPEAKER_00: And it was written in 350 BC.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_00: And it talked about things that happened before the flood.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_00: So if 150 BC isn't old enough with Jubilees, then 350 BC probably isn't old enough either.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_00: Because they both deal with things that happened at the same time.
1:03:10
SPEAKER_00: Back in Genesis.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: But it was old enough for the New Testament authors.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_01: To quote it as a source, right.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_00: Even though they knew for certain when it was written, and also that it was not actually Enoch that wrote it.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_01: Oh, right.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_00: They knew both of those.
1:03:29
SPEAKER_01: That's yeah.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_00: They knew it was based on way older ancient oral tradition, and that was good enough.
1:03:40
SPEAKER_00: Both of these books, Enoch and Jubilees, were in the same boat as far as the essayings were concerned.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_00: So you can't value one without valuing the other.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: Evangelicals, really, anybody who views the 66-book Bible as the only inspired authoritative writings has a really tough road ahead.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_00: With all of the information that's coming out since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, I mean they're still being translated.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_00: These people are going to have to face some facts and make some decisions.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_00: Because they can't reject Enoch and Jubilees, but they can't accept them either.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_00: If they discount them, people are going to see how stupid that is and not take anything else they do seriously.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_00: But if they accept them, their whole stance on a closed canon falls apart, which is the foundation of their statements of faith.
1:04:40
SPEAKER_00: These books have been around for a long time, and they were not considered inspired by evangelicals.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we knew about them before the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we didn't know how important they were to Jews until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_00: How do evangelicals backtrack on this, this concept of the canon being closed?
1:05:01
SPEAKER_00: But in the same way, if they do decide to accept them, I mean, how does that happen?
1:05:08
SPEAKER_00: How exactly do they go about doing that?
1:05:10
SPEAKER_00: Because there is no governing body that decides what is canonical.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's so true.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_00: There never has been.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_00: There's just been various small groups of like-minded men who decide what they think is canonical, but there is no one authoritative body that makes that decision.
1:05:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God came and said, This is what I want you to put in your Bible.
1:05:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he wouldn't have even done that.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_00: It would have to be made on a church by church basis or a denomination by denomination basis, which is even harder for things like the Southern Baptists because all Baptist churches are supposed to be independent.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_00: This whole idea of having a closed canon in the first place is going to prove to be a real problem.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_00: Pain in the neck for their whole religion because they made claims of fact that were not indeed factual.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_00: These sixty-six books are it.
1:06:15
SPEAKER_00: This is what God gave us.
1:06:17
SPEAKER_00: This is God's holy word.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what they say.
1:06:23
SPEAKER_00: And now all of a sudden, oops.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_00: We have we may have missed one or two.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_00: Right?
1:06:31
SPEAKER_01: What I find interesting also is different groups are exposed to different information.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_01: You start getting into more of the academic environment, and biblical scholars who are professors are aware of these materials and they see the value in them.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_01: They're not a threat to this canon.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_01: Even if the scholar is a um an evangelical, this text that is outside our current canon is not necessarily a threat.
1:07:06
SPEAKER_01: It's an inf source of information.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_01: It's also historic.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's all sorts of value to those items.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_01: And so speaking with professors, you know, especially at Theology Beer Camp, it was interesting to say, oh yeah, we've we've always known about these things.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's not a progressive thing.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_00: That's all over the board.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was the same in my college.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_01: Christopher, yeah, Chris Well College, Southern Baptist Roots, and yet here you are being exposed to the Ross.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_00: There's a big gap between biblical scholarship that you see in seminaries, every seminary, and then the pastors who lead those denominations.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_00: The pastors are not scholars.
1:07:45
SPEAKER_00: Almost always they are not scholars because when you get a scholarly degree, it's not leading.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, for example, if if you're going to go to a seminary and get a master's degree, uh, you choose in theology, you choose between the MDiv, which is a master of divinity, and something like an MTS, which is a master of theological studies.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_00: And the seminary will tell you if you want to be ordained and be a pastor, get the MDV.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_00: That one leads to ordination.
1:08:18
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because it teaches you how to be a pastor.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_00: Counseling stuff, how to deal with people, how to run a church, that kind of thing.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_00: And then the MTS is for people who want to go on and teach and be a or get their PhD or something or their doctor of theology, because it's an academic degree, not a pastoral degree.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_00: So you actually learn more and research more about the Bible and stuff like that.
1:08:51
SPEAKER_00: So that's the route that a biblical scholar would take, and then the Mdiv is the route that a pastor would take.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_00: But they're that divide is pretty clear when you go and research biblical studies and actually research stuff like this, and then you hear a pastor start spouting off his theology and doctrines that really don't have any basis in the Bible, even though they're claiming they do.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_00: But this whole thing, like you said, like the scholar wouldn't have a problem taking Jubilees or Enoch seriously.
1:09:28
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
1:09:29
SPEAKER_00: But the fact is, you can't understand a lot of the New Testament without understanding Enoch.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_00: So why would you keep it outside of the canon if you think there should be a canon in the first place?
1:09:44
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's this uh humility is not present in these statements of faith that make claims of fact.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_00: It's just this whole you see it all the time, especially in a political season like we're in right now, people have these beliefs and they spout off these claims of fact.
1:10:09
SPEAKER_00: But if somebody most people don't, but if somebody decides to research this claim, they see this may not be as factual as this person thinks it is.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_00: And this is gonna get me off on a tangent.
1:10:22
SPEAKER_00: Just give me a minute.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh boy, buckle up, butter.
1:10:25
SPEAKER_00: Because this has become a real problem with modern evangelical pastors, jumping the gun on facts.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, right, especially ones that get involved in politics.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_00: Just this week, a brochure went out to it seems almost every Texan home.
1:10:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh we actually got one here at our house.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_00: We found it in the mail today, but it we haven't checked the mail for a few days.
1:10:51
SPEAKER_01: We finally checked the mail.
1:10:52
SPEAKER_00: It was probably there on Monday.
1:10:53
SPEAKER_01: We're terrible.
1:10:55
SPEAKER_00: The subject matter was the trans community, all right?
1:10:58
SPEAKER_00: Which, if you listen to evangelical pastors, is an evil community that wants to come steal your children and turn them into the opposite sex.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_00: In the views of these pastors, it is the world of Satan out to destroy the purity of Christianity.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_00: But the facts on transsexuals aren't what you may think.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_01: There's so much information out there.
1:11:25
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I've I've been following uh this one individual.
1:11:30
SPEAKER_01: Her name is Jackie.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jackie Green is her Facebook, but she has a podcast called The Unedited Body.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_01: She's kind of phased that out because she's gone back to TikTok and done something else.
1:11:43
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, the whole point is this is a woman who has won Mrs.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_01: Michigan.
1:11:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay, she's gorgeous and so articulate and fun.
1:11:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you were to do draw her blood and look at it under a microscope, you would think you're looking at a man's blood because she has That's why.
1:12:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she has this, and I'm gonna say it wrong.
1:12:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, Jackie.
1:12:09
SPEAKER_01: She her body does not recognize the testosterone hormone.
1:12:14
SPEAKER_01: So in utero, the the whatever wash come over the embryo, her body didn't recognize it's like androgen insensitive sensitivity, something like that.
1:12:24
SPEAKER_00: But outwardly her her body, like her genitalia and everything, is female.
1:12:29
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful woman.
1:12:31
SPEAKER_00: Inside her body, it's male.
1:12:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can listen to the podcast because she really goes into it.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_01: But um on the inside, there is evidence that she had surgically removed uh, you know, in that weird pre-puberty stage where they did remove gonads, which are what would have formed to be testes.
1:12:51
SPEAKER_00: So she had them.
1:12:52
SPEAKER_01: If she had the rush of testosterone, but her body doesn't process it.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_01: So those never would have developed into male parts, but they were in her because her body was supposed to be male, but it's not able to process the testosterone hormone.
1:13:12
SPEAKER_01: It's fascinating.
1:13:13
SPEAKER_01: And I just I only bring it up because it was education for me.
1:13:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:13:18
SPEAKER_01: Blown away, this beautiful woman who blood-wise, you would say is a man.
1:13:24
SPEAKER_01: She has not had any surgeries.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_01: She was raised a girl.
1:13:27
SPEAKER_01: She is a woman.
1:13:28
SPEAKER_01: She identifies as that, but yet she advocates for education.
1:13:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to learn more about this, I'm gonna link an article in the show notes from the Scientific American.
1:13:40
SPEAKER_00: Lydia and I have actually spoken to an endocrinologist uh about this subject, about chromosomes and hormones and everything.
1:13:48
SPEAKER_00: It's way more complicated than you think.
1:13:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, this brochure that went out, it made it sound like a trans organization from Texas was attempting to take kids away from their parents, teaching them how to legally get emancipated from their parents.
1:14:06
SPEAKER_00: I go onto Facebook and I see a post by a very prominent and famous Southern Baptist pastor, I'm not going to mention his name, whose political fidelity he has made crystal clear.
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and he has posted a picture of this brochure that his relatives in Texas received and that I am holding in my hand right now, that we pulled out of our mailbox today.
1:14:32
SPEAKER_00: All right, and he said, You can't find a more stark reality check than this on where we are as a society and a culture.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_00: All right, what he was implying here is that this was sent out by a Texas trans organization in order to deceive our children.
1:14:51
SPEAKER_00: But the fact is, the organization mentioned in the brochure had nothing to do with it.
1:14:57
SPEAKER_00: We still don't know for sure who sent it.
1:15:00
SPEAKER_00: By all appearances, it looks like it was a political scheme meant to rile up the conservative base to vote against the Democratic candidate.
1:15:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was Russia.
1:15:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a rich conservative.
1:15:15
SPEAKER_00: We simply don't know.
1:15:17
SPEAKER_01: It's so crazy and so manipulative.
1:15:20
SPEAKER_01: I whatever.
1:15:21
SPEAKER_01: Whoever did it.
1:15:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:15:23
SPEAKER_00: But maybe it was a liberal organization.
1:15:25
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows who sent this out.
1:15:27
SPEAKER_00: But what happens if it turns out to be a Republican that sent it?
1:15:33
SPEAKER_00: This pastor talked about the brochure being a reality check.
1:15:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is the reality if a Republican sent it out?
1:15:41
SPEAKER_01: Manipulation.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_00: Is the reality that Republicans are trying to convert your children to be the opposite sex?
1:15:47
SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_00: What are the odds that this pastor is going to backtrack on that picture that he was painting with his Facebook post?
1:15:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to hold my breath.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention the fact that he clearly does not understand the science behind chromosomes.
1:16:04
SPEAKER_00: It's not as simple as XXXY.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_00: There is a lot more going on there.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_00: Read the article.
1:16:11
SPEAKER_00: Talk to a doctor who deals with this stuff.
1:16:15
SPEAKER_00: And really, does it even matter?
1:16:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is it to you?
1:16:21
SPEAKER_00: What is the job that God has given to you?
1:16:25
SPEAKER_00: To get certain people elected to protect your set of facts?
1:16:29
SPEAKER_00: Your only job is to love others unconditionally.
1:16:33
SPEAKER_00: I can assure you, God can take care of himself.
1:16:37
SPEAKER_00: Humility is our job.
1:16:40
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to our biblical canon, it's going to take humility.
1:16:46
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have humility, you're gonna get it.
1:16:50
SPEAKER_00: Eventually.
1:16:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't make the process harder than it needs to be.
1:16:56
SPEAKER_00: Alright, that was my tangent.
1:16:58
SPEAKER_01: Whew.
1:17:00
SPEAKER_01: Everybody take a breath.
1:17:03
SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, so I've got it.
1:17:05
SPEAKER_01: My other thought about Jubilees, let's take us back to Jubilees, is the fact that you mentioned that there's no real evidence that the Jews really ever observed that whole seventh year of rest or the year of Jubilee.
1:17:21
SPEAKER_01: Um now I do know there's a praise song that talks about the days of Elijah and the year of Jubilee and how out of Zion's Hill salvation comes.
1:17:34
SPEAKER_01: You know that one?
1:17:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes.
1:17:36
SPEAKER_00: Lydia, I know the song of which you speak.
1:17:39
SPEAKER_01: See?
1:17:40
SPEAKER_01: Every time you said year of Jubilee, I was like, oh, I know a song.
1:17:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the lyrics?
1:17:46
SPEAKER_00: Like the rest of the lyrics?
1:17:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:17:48
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:17:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you listen to those lyrics closely, you'll see that the year of Jubilee is talking about when Jesus returns, riding on the clouds.
1:17:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, like the trumpets.
1:17:57
SPEAKER_00: That part's not about the time of Elijah.
1:17:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
1:18:00
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about what we talked about in the episode.
1:18:03
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes and declares the true year of Jubilee.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_00: And there is evidence of possible observances of the sabbatical year after exile, when the Jews returned to Jerusalem, but um most of that evidence also talks about those observances leading to famine and military defeats.
1:18:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh, lovely.
1:18:24
SPEAKER_00: I think Josephus talks about that some.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_00: And there's evidence that Caesar exempted the Jews from paying tribute to Jerusalem during the seventh year.
1:18:33
SPEAKER_00: But what I am talking about is first temple stuff and before.
1:18:37
SPEAKER_00: Like the biblical evidence shows that the Israelites never observed it leading up to Babylonian exile, and that's why they were in exile for 70 years.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says.
1:18:48
SPEAKER_00: So that the land could recover its Sabbaths.
1:18:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh, right.
1:18:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:18:53
SPEAKER_01: But still, realistically speaking, if this was something that was, you know, God, God's plan for the Jews, you know, and then he knew they wouldn't truly fulfill it, right?
1:19:06
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:19:07
SPEAKER_01: So then I'm like, well, what's the point?
1:19:09
SPEAKER_01: Because like so many things, you know, on paper, a year of rest, a day of rest, you know, a year of Jubilee, all of that makes sense and sounds amazing.
1:19:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, it sounds like it brings justice, it brings peace.
1:19:25
SPEAKER_01: But realistically, if it never really happened, then why even, why even write about it?
1:19:32
SPEAKER_01: Why even acknowledge that this whole idea existed, this seventh day, seventh year, seven times seven to equal 49, and then the 50th year is the year of Jubilee.
1:19:43
SPEAKER_01: Why even have another way to show how mankind falls short?
1:19:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, you're hitting the nail on the head here.
1:19:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, God is asking the same question.
1:19:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay.
1:19:56
SPEAKER_00: Like he didn't want to give the law.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_00: This year of Jubilee is part of the law.
1:20:02
SPEAKER_00: None of the law of Moses was God's original plan.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_00: He he gave them his statute and rule, right?
1:20:12
SPEAKER_00: Love God, love others.
1:20:13
SPEAKER_00: He gave them the Sabbaths, which we see here is all about loving God and loving others.
1:20:18
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wanted them to do from the beginning, but they couldn't over and over and over.
1:20:23
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Fine, here you go.
1:20:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you over 600 rules.
1:20:29
SPEAKER_02: All right, yeah.
1:20:30
SPEAKER_00: Do this.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_00: And he knew they couldn't do it.
1:20:33
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, he's probably thinking the same thing.
1:20:35
SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
1:20:36
SPEAKER_00: Everything God teaches, it's not about rules, it's about the heart.
1:20:41
SPEAKER_00: But we're so dense that it takes extreme measures sometimes to get that message across.
1:20:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, captivity.
1:20:49
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:20:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what the law of Moses was all about.
1:20:53
SPEAKER_00: God got frustrated that the people couldn't simply love and worship him and rely on him and treat each other in selfless love.
1:21:01
SPEAKER_00: So he was like, You want rules, you got them.
1:21:04
SPEAKER_00: Try to obey these.
1:21:06
SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, he knew it wasn't possible.
1:21:09
SPEAKER_00: So your question is, why do you do it anyway?
1:21:13
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna find out next week in Jubilees when we go through the first two chapters that, or the first few chapters, that Moses asked God the exact same question.
1:21:25
SPEAKER_00: Because God told Moses what was gonna happen.
1:21:27
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say, I'm gonna give them rules and then they're gonna disobey it, and I'm gonna punish them, and then eventually they'll come back.
1:21:33
SPEAKER_00: And Moses says, Then why don't you just make them obey and skip all the sad parts?
1:21:38
SPEAKER_00: Right?
1:21:39
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that sounds like guaranteeing.
1:21:42
SPEAKER_00: God's answer is no, this is how it needs to be.
1:21:46
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna get, you know, this gets into the whole free will thing again because God wants true love and worship, not forced love and worship.
1:21:56
SPEAKER_00: And the downside is that most people aren't gonna get there.
1:22:01
SPEAKER_00: But God has his ways of teaching us how to get there.
1:22:04
SPEAKER_00: And depending on the level of your stubbornness and pride, it's gonna usually hurt.
1:22:12
SPEAKER_00: For some, it's gonna hurt more because they simply can't let go of self.
1:22:18
SPEAKER_00: But this year of Jubilee, that whole idea, God knew that the people couldn't do it.
1:22:25
SPEAKER_00: Literally.
1:22:26
SPEAKER_00: It was too much for our selfish, proud hearts.
1:22:31
SPEAKER_00: The whole point was spiritual, and it was a prophecy of what was to come later when Jesus makes everything equal and good.
1:22:40
SPEAKER_00: And that happens both on the cross and when he returns.
1:22:44
SPEAKER_00: That's the true year of Jubilee.
1:22:46
SPEAKER_00: If humanity would just humble themselves and treat each other in love, there would never have been a need for the law or for sabbatical years.
1:22:57
SPEAKER_00: And let me clarify, there would be no need for strict rules regarding the law in sabbatical years.
1:23:06
SPEAKER_00: The end goal of those things would still be observed, though, because that's what the law and Sabbaths are all about.
1:23:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it himself.
1:23:17
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 22, 40 says, On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
1:23:23
SPEAKER_00: Right?
1:23:23
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul said, Owe no one anything except to love one another.
1:23:27
SPEAKER_00: All right, Jesus was talking about loving God and loving others.
1:23:31
SPEAKER_00: Those are the two commandments.
1:23:33
SPEAKER_00: Not about rules like not pushing elevator buttons, you know, on the seventh day.
1:23:38
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's right.
1:23:39
SPEAKER_00: Or like we saw in Israel.
1:23:41
SPEAKER_00: Shabbat elevators.
1:23:41
SPEAKER_00: Right?
1:23:41
SPEAKER_00: They had Shabbat elevators where you get in and it stopped on every floor, so you didn't have to push the button.
1:23:46
SPEAKER_01: Our kids are fascinated on that one.
1:23:48
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
1:23:48
SPEAKER_00: It's not about closing down your business on the seventh day.
1:23:51
SPEAKER_00: It's not about uh not harvesting on the seventh day or not healing on the seventh day.
1:23:58
SPEAKER_00: Jesus got it.
1:24:00
SPEAKER_00: He broke the law by keeping the law.
1:24:04
SPEAKER_00: He broke the rules by keeping love.
1:24:09
SPEAKER_00: He broke the analogy by keeping the main point.
1:24:14
SPEAKER_00: What we do as humans is we focus on the analogy or the story.
1:24:20
SPEAKER_00: And like you see with this whole pamphlet thing, we do that especially with sexuality.
1:24:26
SPEAKER_00: We focus on the analogy that was being used to talk about a bigger point.
1:24:32
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and freed us from having to focus on the rules.
1:24:37
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to focus instead on his love, which is unconditional.
1:24:42
SPEAKER_00: In John 13, 34, he says, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
1:24:52
SPEAKER_00: You also are to love one another.
1:24:55
SPEAKER_00: To obey the law as God understands it, we need to give in.
1:25:04
SPEAKER_00: We need to give in to his love.
1:25:07
SPEAKER_00: And that is a really difficult thing to do when pride is in the way.
1:25:16
SPEAKER_00: This week's song is called, wouldn't you know it, Giving In by Savannah Locke.
1:25:23
SPEAKER_00: She sings, I'm giving into your love, I'm giving into your grace, giving into the peace you bring me every day.
1:25:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving into your mercy, giving into your ways, giving into the one who makes every season change.
1:25:43
SPEAKER_00: Next week, we're going to go over the first few chapters of Jubilees and maybe a little bit more.
1:25:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:25:51
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna fly off the seat of our pants on this one.
1:25:54
SPEAKER_01: We shall see.
1:25:55
SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.
1:25:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you then.
1:25:57
SPEAKER_01: Bye.
1:25:58
SPEAKER_01: Bye.
1:26:02
SPEAKER_02: This is the moment of breakthrough.