Dr. Dean Alley PhD: Alright, Chaplain Dean Alley here. I had a moment. Thought I would quickly go through twenty-six with ya. As you know, we've been doing a series through Genesis. Thought I would jump on here. I hope you're doing well. Always, always, always thank God. Always give him the glory. It's not a cliche. It's something you should live by. So I spent in I we talked about 25, chapter 25 of Genesis. Wow. We're in 26 now. We are just over the bump now where we're going to be able to head downhill now to the finish line. And then I hope you're enjoying this verse by verse comment well, I don't know if I want to call it a commentary, but more of a Bible teaching and hope it's a blessing to you. And I know I've spoken to a lot of people. some people are doing well, and some people call me the Satan of the synagogue synagogue of Satan. You haven't arrived on your podcast until you've been called a synagogue. of Satan and far far be it from for that. But nevertheless, it's all part of being in the public and being in a situation where you are teaching and when you're teaching you sometimes get criticized good and bad and you have take it both ways. I am one to say I would love to have a conversation excuse me with anyone that has a disagreement with what I'm talking about, which I'm pulling from the Bible and Coming from the Bible. If you don't like what's coming out from the Bible, folks, that you gotta look you gotta look you gotta look yourself in the mirror on that because I'm giving you the truth. That's what I'm here for. I would say this though. Yeah, it would not be a good comment. This would not be a good time, but this would be a good time. You don't know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, today's the day you know him, today's the day you repent, you ask for his forgiveness, you turn from the way you're living. Earn from the way you're living, put your faith, hope, and cr in Christ, and believe on him that he came and died on the cross. He was buried three days later, he's our risen savior today. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Believe on that. Find a good Bible-based church, find a good Bible teacher. if you can't find one, call me. I do all my sessions and counseling and discipleship I do it for free and lots of people want to know why sometimes because Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for me and I do not feel that I need to profit from it because he has already paid for me. And it's my responsibility to tell people about him. And that's what I'm trying to do here. I'm not perfect. I am some say a scholar I am not I'm the As Paul would say, I'm the chief center. Please anything I say on this ch on my podcast, I want you to fact check that. If you got a question and you wanna talk about it, I would love to have a I will say this. If you use any form of profanity, that that's a that's a that's a no go at this station. I have to remove you from the post because of the the profanity in case there's children or whatever. but nevertheless, to me it's important to to be G rated. I think we could do that and have a great conversation together. And I think that we we can do that. So let me just look at a couple pieces here. You guys know my whole start and out of the gate is what? Context, context, context is king. So let's just talk about some things, okay? In this chapter, and I'm just gonna give you some outlines and give you some historical and a few other doctoral context just to set that stage for us. so the same famine, the same road, the same fear, the same lie that Abraham did. But a different command, a different outcome. God keeps his covenant while Isaac is afraid. And you're gonna find this out because he basically is gonna be challenged in Egypt and he tells everybody's wife is his sister. Anyways, more to come behind that. And I don't know about you guys, but I get a lot of spam. I don't know. My fan club, I don't know. But anyways, history is going to repeat itself. God is an orderly God, folks. I know my charismatic friends out there, my those relationships out there, they're gonna tell you that we we get loud and we get excited and we get we're we're praising Jesus. but keep in mind it's all should be done in in an orderly fashion. I'm not discouraging I'm not discouraging you from loving and serving Jesus. I'm not. I'm just saying that Go to read Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created and he starts in order. Okay? That is the first mention of order. I think we should follow that. Just me. We don't change that. God is unchanging. And so we shouldn't change his words or his teachings. after Abraham, Isaac starts towards Egypt. Why is he going to Egypt? There's a famine again. It's repeating itself. through Egypt to to Gara. So a royal store city on the trade route. Amalek is the title of the father king, if you will. not the not the man in Genesis twenty. And then we're gonna talk about the wells. And they they equal this is historical. The wells will equal life and it's a legal claim. Let just give you a little colour here. He had flocks, he had herds, he had things he had to water down and had to make sure they got the water. So they dug wells to take care of their flocks. What you're gonna find is that There's going to be a lot of wells being created. And that's because he's being blessed. And I'll talk about that as we get into it and how he's being blessed. So he's filling, he's filling Abraham's wells with economic war. Beersheba is still the oasis. that's again where they're at initially. So the events sit before Jacob and Esau, and they're born. Isaac. sows as a herdsman so he's he's a herdsman and in the drought the famine the not normal setting it's not a normal settling there's a hundredfold harvest is supernatural and and the reason I'm gonna say that is he was being blessed how was he being blessed he was being blessed in his harvesting when he was down there it was supernatural he was an average yield would would would would be probably 25 to 50 yield of his harvest. And that would be that would be astronomical. But God was giving him a hundredfold. Yes, the people around him did not like to see the success that he was getting from the divine God. And you're gonna find why nobody really messed with him because, you know, even the king you know why the Philistines hated him. You're gonna find out why this they're doing this because he's the wealthiest guy and he continues to to to to expand his you know, his His crops and all of his harvest. Sorry about that. So from a doctrinal standpoint, the covenant passed and intact. The land, seed, stars, nation is blessed in thy seed. We're gonna see this and talk about it. Because Abraham what? He obeyed and he stayed in the land, and I will be with thee. Blessings is tied to the presence, not escape. So the wife, he's not escaping. He's going because he's there's a drought. History's repeating itself. He's got to go to Egypt. the wife sister lie, that's gonna play a factor in this doctrinal. It's not a covenant of a cancel. And I'm gonna I wanna talk about that. somebody asked me today in one of our my sessions today some questions on that, and I hope that I can give you some answers on that. So the first. Old T Old Testament use of the laws, the Torah. This is where we're gonna find verse five. That's it. That's where we get the first mention of Torah and the laws. that's in verse five. So the envy of blessed Israel as a later pattern. It's treated the treaty sealed by an oath and a meal. Esau's Hittite wives, which you know that is not a that's not good. They did not want you to marry outside of their their clans because they wanted they knew that you may be Drawn away from the Lord and God and Savior. So that was that was discouraged. We'll see that in the latter part of the chapter. Already shown the next generation and leaving the line. So it's gonna come through. We're gonna talk about it. From a theological standpoint, Yahweh, twice directed, it's not a dream. I am the God of Abraham, thy father. Fear not, verse 24. The nation's blessing in an organic way to Isaac's line. And who's his line, folks? The Messiah. So God works through famine, not around it. There's patterns behind this. An orderly God, folks. Patterns, the famine, sojourn. We see the lie. We see the envy of his excess. He builds these wells. That creates a big deal. The oath. They do an oath because don't attack me, I won't attack you, and you're successful, and I want to be successful. They were going, he, they were, they were, they were, they were taking the wells and covering them up. Philistines were doing that. So he dig a well for his flocks, and they would come around and fill up those those those wells, creating an issue. All right. So we need to talk about. I'll talk about the inspirational part. I'll talk about the application towards the end. But the famine itself, Isaac starts what we would call the Egypt Road. Yahweh appears and he says, Do not go down, dwell here. I will be with thee. The covenant is now renewed. Isaac dwells. He's not going to leave because he's getting blessed at a hundredfold. There's a reason for that. God knew that and Blessed him a hundredfold. He's not going to tell him to go back there, go back up to Canaan or go back up north. He's gonna have them stay right there. And so he's gonna dwell in Gir, Gerar, and then he lies about the sister thing. Amalok sees it and he forbids anybody to touch him because the wife is not taken. So nobody to take. Nobody take advantage of it. So Isaac sows again a hundredfold. He's wealthy. The Philistines are angry. The wells get stopped, and they're telling him, Go from us. So the valley of Geer, Essex, which means stribe, and Sina means hated, and Rebuth means room. So those are three key words there, and then Bathsheba, the night word, fear not, and then the altar, and then the tent. and well. So these are some key words we're gonna kinda pull out of this verse. we're gonna talk about that that oath and that meal that they have. in Esau he takes forty wives. Not too good there, big guy. Grief is Isaac and Rise and Rebecca. They're not happy about that. So let us get into chapter 26. And it says, this is God's covenant to Isaac. And there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. We just mentioned And Isaac went to Amalek the king of the Philistines, unto Gar, or Garer, And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell you thee thereof, or thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and I will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear with Abraham. thy father, essentially. And I verse four, I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars in heaven. That's where we get that your your descendants and is is you can't even gonna be able to count there's gonna be so many just like the stars of heaven. And will give thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And so when he says countries, he's talking about descendants, by the way. And then we get into because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandment, my statutes, and my laws. He did what God wanted him to do. And Isaac's following suit. He's going right down that path. He gets a chink in the armor when he starts lying. But anyways, so there's a dispute g that starts with Amalek. And Isaac dwelt in Gere, and the men of that place asked him of his wife, and he said she is my sister. Mm mm. For he feared to say she was my wife, lest he said he the men of the place should kill me for Rebecca, because she was a fair woman to look on. So when we see in the Bible, when it talks about fair, beautiful, right? We we see that with Rebecca, we saw that with Sarah. Or Sarah, Sarah. So in I would say in that culture, think about this. In that culture, it's all about pilferage, control, seize, grow your population or grow your wealth by stealing it, killing who's in your way, taking what you want. And a lot of the Middle East cultures, that was their way of gaining their wealth. They it wasn't like they were gonna sit on Wall Street and throw a few stocks out there and make a few beans off that and live off that. No no. This was this was their way and their culture. So did Isaac have r reason to be doubtful? Yeah, I would. I mean there's a lot of that out there in that culture. I say that because I've lived there. So anyways, so So okay, so let me just go right to and he said, She is my sister, and he feared and said that they may kill him and take his his wife who was fair to look on. And it came to pass when he had been there a long time that Amalek, the king of the Philistines, looked out at the window and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with With Rebecca. Now, what does the word sporting mean? It means caressing is what it means in a nice way. So if you're sporting he was sporting his wife, he was caressing her. And and Amalek saw this. So Amalek called Isaac and he said, Behold, of the surety she is thy wife. He's basically saying, This is your wife, dude. it's it's it's it's obvious. You're not gonna get around that. And how he saith, She is my sister. And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. So he was thinking He was gonna have he was gonna that that account he was gonna have to he'd be he'd be killed on it on the account of so her. So he would be killed for her. Verse ten and Amalek said, What is this that thou hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly have lain with thy wife almost almost like in today's day it would be like savage, savagery and raping and pillaging and all that stuff. and it's hard to believe in twenty twenty first century, but it happens. Then in that time. And I would say that When he says one of the people might soon have laid with a lightly meaning laid with his wife, and you shouldn't have brought guiltness upon us. So he was he was a little concerned. And Amalek charged all his people, saying, He that touches this man's wife or his wife. So there was there was two two right there. Shall surely be put to death. Verse twelve, and Isaac sowed in the land and he received in the same year a hundredfold, we talked about, and the Lord blessed him. And The man waxed great and went forward and grew until he became a very great. So when we we say the word waxed, it means grew. He was growing his his profitability. He was God was blessing him with with more stock, more a harvest, more a hundredfold. It it was unheard of, folks. Twenty five or fifty. fifty would be crazy in that time frame. Average would probably be about twenty five in yield. But he was yield yielding a hundredfold in harvest. And So when he says a great store of servants, a great basically he's talking about a a great number of servants. So he's growing with people. He needs people to help him run this this massive corporation in that time. I'm I'm kidding. And For all the wells that were dug by the father and the servants had dig in the days of Abraham his father and the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth or dirt. Amalek said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we. So he's recognizing this. So there's a dispute here. And Isaac departed thence and pitched his tent in the valley of Gir and dwelt there. Still in the area of Egypt, folks. And Isaac digged the wells of water, and they digged into the days of Abraham his father, just as Abraham did in his days. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called them of their their names and their names by which their fathers had called them. And Isaac's serve servants digg the valley and found their w their well water or springing water herdsman. So they're getting along a little bit. The water is ours and is called the name of the well, Esau. So he's using the word Esauch here, which which is quarrelsome I guess is the word they use, or literally quarrel 'cause they're they're they're both competing, if you will, for the well. They don't like each other. And I would say this the Philistines or the Palestinians are they come from those tribes and clans of the Philistines and they're still active today. At one time they got along because they made a covenant. We're gonna talk about that. Isaac digs the well again, does the same thing his father does, they're quarreling, So and he called the name of it Sitna sense. So twenty one is which means enemy or enemy. And he removed from thence and digged another well. So he's given up, going dig another one, and for that they that day strove not, and they called the name of it Rehobath. And Reh Rahoboth is what they're using here. Literally spacious, enlarged. And then he goes on, and he says, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. And he went up thence to Bathsheba, and the Lord appeared unto him it's in the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father, fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee. And multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he buildeth an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servants dug a well. So they built a well or dug a well in that in that place, Bersheba. So the covenant comes in here as we we look at this part with Isaac and Imelech. So in verse 26, then Imelech says Or Emalek went to him from Gir Ahusa, one of his friends, and Pikal, and the captain of his or chief captain of his army, and Isaac, and he said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing you hate me, and have sent me away from you. So why are you here? And they said, We want a certainty, or certainly that the Lord was with you, or thee, and we said, Let there be an oath betwixt or between that's where you hear the word betwixt between that's what he's talking about between us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant, an agreement, right? And or a treaty. You know, let's have a treaty here. And then he goes on to say that thou wilt do us no hurt. So so don't hurt us, and we won't hurt you basically or harm us. And As we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace, thou art now the blessed of the Lord because of his yields. They're seeing it. They're seeing that there is a great almighty divine nature that's supernatural. Nobody yields a hundredfold. So they see it. They rose up at the bedtime, or early, they call it bedtime. Member. bedtime. So their days start at usually at All right. So In the mornings and swear unto another, and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servant came and told his concerning concernings of the well which had been digged. We would use proper English as dug. And said unto him, We have found water. And he said, It is Sheba. And again we talked about that a few minutes ago when we said that that's essentially literally the well of Oath was the well of the seven, basically. And therefore the name of the city is Bathsheba, and unto this day, and then it transitions in thirty four and thirty five. Esau's wife, and Esau was forty years old when he took a wife of Judith and the daughter of Berea the Hit Hittite and Bath Bath Bash men and the daughter of Elon, Elon and the Hittite, which were grieved to the mind of Isaac and Rebecca. So as parents they were not happy on his selection of going outside the clan, and especially anything with the Hittite behind it. Or height, Canaanite, Hittite, all those different things. So that he wanted to stay. he was marrying heathen people. We talked about it yesterday. The prerequisites of finding a wife. It's not in high school. It's not in college. You're finding as a male, you're looking for your male groomsman. If you're a wife, you're looking for your bridesmaids in college for your future husband. Notice I said don't find your husband and wife in high school. And then the other thing I talked to you about about my personal my personal way that I picked my wife. She doesn't even know. But I had a set of rules that I was going to go by. If she met them, I was going to ask to marry her. I guess God put that in front of me. But, anyways, the first one that was on my list. almost thirty eight years ago is you had to be a godly woman. So when we had kids you would raise my kids, our kids, in the in light of God, in light of Christianity, and I didn't want to marry somebody that didn't believe in God. Or in this case, a heathen like Esau. And that will definitely play a factor big time against him. And We're we'll talk about the blessing later in twenty seven, but that's gonna be a dynamic one. Twenty seven, I mean it's gonna be it's gonna be big. And so the Philistines had asked Isaac to leave, he did. So he encamps at the Cotention and the Sitna, which is the enemy, those are the the wells that they built. They typically would stay around the wells to take care of their flocks. That's what they were gonna do. They're you don't you know build a well and move in such a tent twenty five miles away. No, you're gonna build everything around the well, and that is gonna be your lifeline. And that led to a spacious and fruitful place in Rehoboth, which meant plenty of room, and he had struggles, but we can identify with him and hopefully see how God worked in his life of an average man. And in Bersheba, we think about Beersheba, God appeared to him again and confirmed the Abrahamic covenant. So he worshipped there and built an alt altar. So he built that altar altar and they dug and they found water in spring and it was running water. So God was blessing them again and because he's he's being obedient. I think he's being obedient. and That's what God wants from us, right? He wants us to be obedient. Okay, so let's run down some high points here. So when we start in chapter twenty six, Isaac faces what? A terrible loss of temptation for for or temptation to forsake the promised land. He he had a he he had a temptation to to forsake it. Isaac, you gotta remember too, the the maps are not like they are today. They're different. Every time there was a ruler or something, there was These maps changed. If you look in your back of your Bible, and I don't know if this one has yeah, so it has different yields, you know, like here has in the back of the Bible it'll show you The different land of Israel and Palestine and all that. So he didn't want to forsake. So Isaac's weakness, he turned from the land of Egypt, and God intervened and he instructed Isaac not to go down to Egypt. Commanded Isaac to stay to journey as he led. So he was tempted to run because of the droughts and needing the provisions for his flock. The grain. He commanded Isaac to journey as he led. Follow me. God promised and reconfirmed that Abrahamic covenant, the promised land. Then we learned that and I will make thy seed multiply. The seed is nations. Okay? So we see the word nations, that's usually also Gentile. So it's used throughout the Bible. The Savior. in thy seed the Messiah the one in whom all nations shall be blessed and okay so I I don't need to say anything more about that but God's reason for Abraham's faithfulness and obedience because he obeyed my voice because he obeyed my voice he kept my charge is what he's saying and my commandments my statutes and here's the first word we see of law teaching law Very first mention of Torah in I would say Protestant Bibles. Alright, so Isaac's half-hearted obedience. So he was kind of in, half out, and then he's faced with danger, the fear of lying, and actually it was an act of selfishness because he didn't want to die. The sin Isaac claimed that Rebecca was his sister. that sin was discovered. By Imelech, who looked out the window, and he saw him sporting. Remember the word we use? Sporting, he was he was caressing her. And the sin was discovered, and the sin was rebuked. Emalch said, Hey, you lied to me. The sin brought shame to Isaac. Okay? And this then he confessed. And he said to to basically to Emelech, I fear that you would put me to death. And that's why I said what I said. 'Cause that culture probably was pretty stout about killing people and taking hold of people. anyway, so Isaac faces envy and in rejection and Because of the prosperity, God blesses Isaac. Number one, he farming is greatly increased. Remember I told you normal crops are around twenty five, maybe fifty, if you're lucky, he was at a hundred. Supernatural. People knew it. So his personal wealth became so great you can't not see it. And his kind of like Solomon, I think of Solomon is another great person that would expanded his wealth, and God gave that to him, and all he asked for was basically wisdom to be able to lead his people and know how to talk to them. And personal wealth became great, and his flocks and herds they prospered. The Philistines began to envy him because of the wells which his father's servant. Had been dug in many days in Abraham, the Philistines stopped them, stopping them by filling them in with dirt. They envied, turned into spite. They filled the wells with that dirt. They requested him to leave. Get out of here. Isaac showed respect and he departed as requested. So he wasn't looking for a fight. He wasn't trying to get into a fight with anybody. Isaac faced strife and hostility. Isaac reopened the wells that Abraham had dug and laid the claim to the wells. Isaac's workers also dug some new wells. And then the strife erupted between the two locations, between the Philistines and between Isaac's people. As at the well of Esek, meaning the contention or strife, we see that. And it says, In the herdsmen of Gir did strive with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, The water is ours. Not yours, it's ours. At the well of Sinitka, Or Shinica Shina meaning opposition or hostility. Isaac showed meek spirit, he moved on again. The strife ended unexplainably. So that went away. I would say God probably fixed that. Because he moved him where he told him to go. Remember he moved every time. He was told to move. And then he he built he did another well, Rehoboth, and the meaning that God had made room and had brought peace. So that was that was a kind of the end of the madness there. Then Isaac feared fear and failure from God's promises. So Isaac moves to Bersheba, verse 23, and he went back up thence to Bathsheba, and the Lord appeared unto him that same night. And he said, I am the God of thy father, fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee and multiply thy seed in thy servant for Abraham's sake. So God meets Isaac in a vision, maybe a th an off theophany, which is a vision or an outline of God, erased his fears with his presence. So let me let me calm you down a little bit, buddy. Assured Isaac and his promises and he heard these things. Isaac worshiped God, he built an off altar, and he settled there in Bathsheba. And Isaac faced the need to build good relationships. So Amalek approached Isaac. Now remember, the whole time he's jealous, he's pushing him away. Amalek approached Isaac, and Isaac questioned, Why are you here, Amalek? you treated him with such hostility over the years. And now you're coming to me? Amalite stated his case. He felt the presence of the non-aggression treaty and needed it to be made. So he knew he needed to make peace. And and he said we s we we certainly we saw certainly that the Lord was what? With thee. So we need I mean they're not that they're not following the same God as Jacob, but they could see something unbelievable. So Isaac he forgets the forgot the past, receives and celebrates with a feast with them, and he took an oath of friendship. Okay. Isaac was blessed by God and discovered the well of Arsheba. So the people of Israel Philistines, Arab nations, they had peace. In chapter twenty six of Genesis we learn that these two nations or these people got along. Got along really well, side by side. So at one time they were peaceful. And then lastly, Isaac faced a disappointment in the wayward child. We all have one sometimes, but that's where you pray a little little bit more. Isaac married two unbelievers, his parents are grieved, and they're not happy at all because he's see y you know, think about it for a moment, folks. I put out on Facebook today a a a lady that was a She was deconstructed from Mormonism. Now, hey, it I I'm not here to judge. I'm here to present the gospel and share the Bible and teach you what I know. So She deconstructs as she starts from A and goes to Z, soup to nuts. Thirty years in the Mormon church, and she deconstructs from it. she marries her husband, who's a Christian, believes in the gospel, and she's a Mormon, and she's thinking, Well, I'll make him be a Mormon. I will get him to go through the the the levels of fatherhood, and he'll get his own universe and he'll be whatever. And which is not biblical. And she explains why. She logically and systematically lays out the the reasoning and then how she deconstructs, probably better than I've ever heard anybody ever say. She's a now former Mormon, praise God. She's gonna go to heaven. And She learned and she said that she had an epiphany. When she found out from her friend who was a Christian about the gospel and had words with her, she just kind of froze, grabbed her her children, and went back home. And she goes on to say that she starts reading the Bible through and through, and she learns, and God and again, I'm telling you, the word of God is quick. And it will help you grow. It will it will bring people to God. If you read this thing, it's gonna bring it's alive and thing, it's not thing, it's God's word. Sorry for that. So she said she started crying, she got on her hands and knees, and she gave her life to Christ right then there. What turned was the day that she was sitting there talking to the lady, and the lady talked. said that you know that that the devil comes in the angel of light. Now you can't prescript that. Why did the lady say that word or that phrase in that time frame at that very moment? She's a Christian. She shared what the Bible said. She didn't make that up. Well the Bible says the angel comes in an angel will come, the devil will come in an angel of light. She immediately went to the the what is it more morani or what it morani is the light and talked about how you know the leader of this this this this group saw a light it was recognized he found some golden plates if you read the story there's there's in and out there's some things on him. I don't think he is Jesus Christ because every she said every religion nobody brought up Jesus Christ as the living Savior that is coming back for us and is a positive hope. And all the other religions weren't. They were had to go do something. You had to work for something. You gotta do this. You gotta do that. And she said I I couldn't believe all I had to do was do what Abraham did, what Isaac had done, what I Jacob had done, and all through history is to believe on who. And it and back then it was the it was the Lord Yahweh or Jehovah. back then. But in the New Testament we have Yahweh, which is Jesus Christ Lord our Savior, and we're to believe on him. She couldn't believe it was that easy. And then she just sobbed. She cried. It can't be. This is cheap grace, is what she's saying. Folks, you've heard me say it. If you land in hell, it's because you wanted to be there. You closed your ears, your eyes, and you did not you you were not open to truth. You didn't seek the truth in the Bible as we're told. We're told to rightly divide and seek the truth in this Bible. We are to continually, as a workman, Work through this Bible. You'll never be an expert, ever. I've been studying it for over ten years and I am Barely scraped the surface, trust me. I wrote a sermon on one verse that took me almost two weeks to study, and I could have gone deeper. That's how deep the Bible is. And I only went to a fraction of it. So I in experiences understood where she was coming from because I went out to try to find out from the historical standpoint, the the the theological standpoint, the other religions and all that. And and let me say this: religions with an S. ruins Christianity. Just so you know. most of that stuff is man made, especially mainline Protestants. Catholics, you read their Bible, they take out different things and put the word priest in there. So you you read the Bible, you go look it says priest. No. So seek the truth. What I would say is always seek the truth, continue to study Always being open to whatever you're hearing and whatever God's trying to show you. And you have you're gonna grow. You're gonna grow in grace, you're gonna grow in knowledge, you're gonna grow in the Bible, and it's gonna open up things more and more into your your thinking. And remember, we're finite, and we live in a four-dimensional area, you know, length, width, height, and time. Some of your scientists will say there's ten dimensions out there. I don't know. I am a scientist, but I don't know. I didn't haven't studied it. So I can't give you an honest answer there. But there's people talking about it. But, anyways, study the Bible. God wants your heart. Be open to it. He doesn't want your money. He doesn't care who you are. From the least to the highest. He says that from you know the least will be first and the first will be last into heaven. And you have to be logical, like this lady. She was critically logical in her thinking. She was breaking it down from a systematic standpoint. And she eloquently explained how she deconstruct towards the end. My message is not to make you become a Christian and believe the gospel and leave your religion. I hope you do. But my message is to give you what the message of the Bible says and let the Holy Spirit do the work in you. That's it. That's that's my task. My job is to share what the gospel says to you and let the Lord and the Holy Spirit work inside you. And you've got to be open to it. And if you just close down and say, Nope, my religion like this, this is what we do, I can ask a Catholic and I've talked to I don't know, thousands but hundreds, and I'll say, Why are you a Catholic? And I already know what they're gonna say. They say, Well my grandmother's grandmother and grandmother and mother, they were all Catholic, so I'm Catholic. When I ask about the Catholic the Catholicism, the Catholic doctrine, can you share me some can you share some of it with me? And most Catholics, or let me say this, the ones that I've met typically can't. I've got somebody that's a good friend of mine, very good, good friend. He's in his probably late seventies, early eighties, devout Catholic. But you know when he comes and he sits on my couch or I go and sit at his kitchen table. And I start talking to him with the Bible, and he goes, That stuff's interesting. I never heard that. Wait a minute. You've been a Catholic for seventy years and you never heard this verse? Yes, people. That's keeping things from you. That is not giving you the truth. That is not sharing what God wants you to know. That's why they they balked at all the Bibles and burned them all up. All these other Bibles, and they said, No, this is the only Bible you can use, and we only give you one per church. You've you've heard my analogy about discovering America. It's documented that Columbus when he went across the ocean he discovered America, which was a huge thing. The same time the Geneva Bible came out and people could read the Word of God for themselves the first time, they were more excited about that than they were finding new land in America. Think about that. So the Bible is powerful, it's been around a long time. It's cool, it's very powerful and it will get your attention. But you have to be open to it, you have to let it work. And you have to be open to I'm if if you spend any time In any form of ministry, any form of you know service rendering or whatever, you you have to consider both sides. If you're a leader, you consider both sides in arguments, you look at things from all sides, you make rational decisions, you you you base them on your knowledge and your principles. Same way with the Bible. You read the Bible and you base your thought process on the principles that are there in the precepts. And then you make your decision on how you're gonna play. I always ask you know, I ask myself certain questions. Why am I a Christian? Why am I a Christian? I'm a Christian because Jesus came to earth. He died on a cross that I should have been on. He was buried. Three days later he arose. He's the living Savior. Saw by well over five hundred people. Documented, documented, and documented historically. My atheist friends will say no, not enough. Jesus could come down and write their name in the sky and they still would not believe. That he is God and Jesus is God. So I challenge your thinking. I challenge your critical thinking. Don't shut down. I don't shut down. I mean, I I study all the religions. And it's not that I'm going to disrespect anybody. Well, that's not what I do. I'm not here to win an argument. I'm not here to win the debate. My job is to share the gospel and let the Holy Spirit do the work. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Like I got called, I got called a Satan Satan D or no a Sina something the devil or something. get called every once in a while. That's okay. You're what did what did Jesus say? You will be persecuted for my sake. Because I said something in the Bible. I remember one of my posts, this guy was criticizing me, he was tearing me up. And again, if they don't cuss, I they stay. I don't I don't pull them down. Even if they disagree with the with everything, I will try to engage. So, and that's the right thing to do. Because I'm not trying to I'm trying to understand where they're coming from. That's it. So, and then give them something to think about alternatively. I remember one of the guys on that same post sent a response back, the guy was criticizing me, and he said this that I thought was amazing. What did what did he say that wasn't true? Isn't what he said. This other guy that's on the chain of things, what did what did Dr. Dean Alley say in his video that was not true? I wanted to know because you're beating him up because you don't like what's in the Bible. You don't like how it feels heavy, feels like you're being controlled. That's the Holy Spirit. Sisters and brothers, not me. I'm just a messenger. So, anyways, I could go on and on and on. But more importantly, this is chapter twenty six. I'm really excited to get into chapter twenty seven because I found something that I think that you should know about. I hope maybe I could no I don't know if I can do it tomorrow, but I hope I can share with you. But it is it's profound it's profound in your religion. not religion, but in your your studying of the word from the Old Testament to the New Testament and something that gets missed and again slowing down verse by verse, precept by precept, chapter by chapter, you learn more. And I learned something when I read twenty seven. I'm coup I'm a I'm a little I'm a couple I'm a couple chapters ahead of this format, but that's okay because I try to prepare myself and study. Including I read. The Torah. I am not. a Jewish person. I do not believe as a Jew does. I don't believe Orthodox Jew. I think there's Christ there's Christian Jews, but I study a lot. You've heard me say it, I'm not wasting your time. I assure you. I was very cynical in the research I've done, I've come to a conclusion. Similar to what that lady did in her post. And if you did if you missed it, go back, go find my feed on Facebook. Look it up and she and it was it was priceless. I don't think I could ever say what she said, and she said it from the heart. She said it from her thirty year life in Mormonism. Anyways, Chaplain Dean Alley, I had a moment. Y'all take care. If you need anything, let me know. I love you and take care. Hopefully we get together on twenty seventh.