
The Straight Bible series begins with Episode 1 breaking down one of the most important teachings in all of Scripture — The Sermon on the Mount. In this episode, we dive deep into Matthew chapters 5–7, starting with the foundation of Jesus’ most...
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David
Let's go.
Daniel
Top lobster productions.
David
Okay, we're gonna do the Sermon on the Mount. Who knows how many episodes it's going to be? It will probably be less than a hundred, but we don't know exactly how many. And so if you missed this right in the beginning of the Sermon on the mount, it's Matthew 5, 6, and 7, then you miss a lot. This is the beginning in verses one and two. This is speaking of Jesus. In seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them. Then he get. Then he gets into the Beatitudes. He gets into the culture of the kingdom of God, which is ultimately what this is all about, is the culture of our kingdom. Can we go back to 4, 423 real quick? I know this might sound seem like boring or like, oh, that. That verse one and two didn't have anything to do with anything, but it has a lot to do with everything. We're just going to unpack it. So back in 4:23, it says, and Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom in healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. So that's the context. He's starting to make waves, if you will. They don't have Twitter, they don't have Facebook. They don't have any of the things. There's just this dude who's just going through the earth, casting out demons, healing sick people, teaching things that they've never heard before. And it's gathering steam. It's gathering steam. People are starting to flock to him. So he's got this giant multitude. And seeing the multitudes. We're back to 5:1 and seeing the multitudes. Okay, let's keep that here. The multitudes. He went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. So he sees the multitudes. That's not who this message is delivered to. This is delivered strictly to his disciples. Right. So this. This matters for a couple of reasons, because I think some people aren't totally sure how the Sermon on the Mount goes down, because it Says the multitudes is seeing the multitudes. He went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them. Now this is the thing that's real crazy to me today as I kind of unpack some of these topics that are happening that I wasn't really aware of before I started to do the podcast game.
Daniel
And I apologize for that.
David
No, it's okay. What do you mean? Exposing me to all the dumb stuff of the world? Okay, so one of the dumb things is like Christian nationalism, they call it, right? And so people are like, yeah, the church will be in charge of the state. And I'm like, no, that's. That's really stupid. If the state decides to honor the law of Moses, a law given to a nation, that's cool. That's cool. If a state decide, a government decides to do that, it's probably very wise of them. But for the church or the kingdom of God to get involved in that, it's not how Jesus operates. He sees the multitudes. He calls to him his disciples. Do you see what I'm saying, how it's subtle? It's subtle. It's like that. That's not the culture of our kingdom to like, dictate this to the masses of people. That's not how he does it, right? And that's good, bad, or whatever. This is how he chooses to do it. And so if you miss this context that he sees the multitudes and imagine everything that goes on with multitudes, you're like healing people, you're casting out demons. There's all this stuff going on, the multitudes. And I always think about, like, even in coffee shops, like when I worked in a coffee shop and I was 17, there's like all these different people. And there was like, coffee was like this great equalizer between people, right? Like, if you notice in a coffee shop, if there's like a big shot society, it's like a wealthy doctor, lawyer, just, you know, some big shot. They're usually totally equalized with like a janitor or a teenage kid. Everybody's kind of on the same level, so that's a good thing. I observed, like, very early in my life about coffee shops. It was really cool. There's this dude, Brian, just a straight tweaker that would come in all the time. He was like, he was a tree trimmer. Like, he was out there with the chainsaw, and he was like this crazy dude. And I knew him from NA meetings too, but he'd come in Starbucks When I worked there, he always got, like, a large black coffee, and he always had, like, water with lemon in it for electrolytes. He's like, yo, you need electrolytes. I was like, but he was always on meth. Yeah. So he was, like, always chewing the invisible gum, like, jawjacking. And he had, like, Kermit the Frog eyeballs, like, everything he was talking about. And I would just be like, bro, you need more than electrolytes. Like. Like you need something else. But, like, he could vibe with doctors and lawyers and, like, everybody was, like, on the same level in a copy shop other than Officer Jacobs. He hated Wayne Jacobs was his name. Yeah, because Wayne Jacobs was like. I think they went to high school together in Shout Out. Well, they, like, didn't like each other from high school. And then Wayne Jacobs became a cop, and then this dude Brian became a tweaker. But other than that, you see what I'm saying? Like, everybody's on the same level. And I think in this crowd with Jesus, it's the same thing. And I think Jesus sees everybody. I don't know, but I always have this feeling. He looks at humans and, like, at. At their fullest potential. I don't. I don't know if that makes sense, but, like, sometimes you look at people and they're in this situation and that situation, you just look on them and you love them. And you could see them at, like, this higher potential. And I think he always did that. So he's got these masses of people. They're unlike. He's viewing them in their highest potential, but they're there for who knows how many reasons, right? It's. It's a mixed multitude. And you just can't give this to these guys. You can't just give it to them like that. Like, you have. You have to get some ones who are willing to receive it and get those to you, teach it to them, and let them live it in front of the masses.
Daniel
This is a. This is also important as a. A point that, like, Missile will bring up a lot or Ed Mabry. Who is he talking to? Like, the context in which he's talking to. Because you'll. You won't understand what he's saying unless you understand who the message is being delivered to. So it's his closest. His closest friends at the time and people that would understand these kind of speaking. So, like, the Hebrew people of this.
David
Day, and specifically those who can receive it, man, those who can submit to the authority of the kingdom of God, don't give this to Everybody, they're not going to be able, like, you start to do, gosh, what's it called again, where the church is in charge of the whole country?
Daniel
Christian nationals.
David
Yeah. Everybody can't handle that. Everybody can't handle that. You can't just give that to the masses. You call those to you who can receive it, and then they live it out as an example in front of everybody else. That's the kingdom of God. So, like, this whole Christian nationalism is like, I feel like people get in this place where they're like, they haven't read the Bible, they don't know, but they're a Christian, they go to church, whatever, and then a topic like this comes up that they haven't studied out through the scripture. They don't have, like, this bigger picture view of things. And so whoever has the best argument within that sphere of Christian nationalism, they just go with that guy. It's like, no, no, you have to have some of these things already, like, ready in your mind, because you already read it in the scripture, you already understand it in the scripture before it presents itself. Not scrambling at the last minute to try to understand a thing because it's like, hot in the news, but to actually, like, have these things sort of understood in your mind before this starts. And this is the culture of our kingdom. So it's like, it's sort of like that mindset is like applying Christian principles to worldly thinking, which happens a lot. Which happens a lot. But the whole context is off. Whack. Like, we, like, we don't demand that the masses live according to the culture of the kingdom of God. It's not going to happen. Right. So the multitudes can never accept it. It's the same thing today. It's got to be preached to those who can handle it and live it and therefore make it attractive. Which is the context. Context of verses 13 through 16. Can we look at. Yeah, watch this. We're jumping ahead a little bit. We're not even gonna, we're not even going to unpack this passage this week. But we're, but we're just going to try to make this point. So everybody's on the same page up front that, that the context is Jesus delivers this to his disciples, to those who can receive it, and then it's their job to deliver it to the masses. Right. He says this. He says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. So, like I said, we're not going to unpack that, but we're just. We're just referencing it real quick to say that's how God operates. He gives this to a. To a remnant, if you will, and then they become that light that shines before men. That's how he does it. He doesn't demand that the masses accept it. And that's where you get into, like, the Matthew 10:14 and Matthew 7:6. If we have these passages.
Daniel
Matthew 7. 6 pulled up here, okay?
David
So Matthew 7:6 says, give not that which is holy under the dogs. Neither cashew your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Right? He says, don't do that. Don't do that. The masses are not going to be able to accept this. Like, don't. Like, let's not do that. Let's not go there. And then this is where. This is 1014, where he's, like, sending the disciples out. He says, hey, man, whoever doesn't receive you or hear your words when you depart out of that coast or city, shake off the dust off your feet, don't stick around to argue and win the argument and demand that everybody accept this way of life. Just get out of there. Don't sweat it. And this is just one of those things where, like, he's got to give it to real ones, right? Like, this is where that saying comes from. Like, it's only as real through you, as real as it is to you. Like, he's got to give it to real ones who can go out there and live it and have people see it. And it becomes attractive to people. They're saying, like, something's different. This dude's otherworldly. Like, he's not, like. And I think that's what you find out as you start to go through these Beatitudes. It's like, these are the characteristics of somebody who's otherworldly. Like. Like, they're just not, like, the ways of the earth. All right? So. So first and foremost, like, with all of these Beatitudes we're going to get into is the culture of this kingdom is. Is internal. It's character. You could say that all these things are, like, characteristics that, like, make up a bigger character, if you will, if that makes sense. But they're internal. They're not like. They're not like, these things that I don't know. So a lot of this is about kingdom as well, right? Like. Like, the whole context for this is kingdom. And so these dudes that are listening to him and they understand that he's coming for a kingdom. And they keep making these references to, like, will you restore the kingdom to Israel? Which they make all the way even to the end. Like, even in Acts 1:9, there's. They're still talking about this after the entire earthly ministry of Jesus. They're still making these references to, like, hey, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? So imagine what they're thinking here at, like, the very beginning. At the very beginning, they're like, yo, what is this all about? Like, is this still about Christianity? Is this about Christ or is this about the kingdom? Like. Like, what's going on here? And it does make you wonder, like, how much they know. Even if they know this is about a kingdom. Like, do they understand that he's the king? Like, I wonder that too. Or are they just like, okay, he's talking about a kingdom. Like, we get it, but this dude's just like a solid teacher.
Daniel
Well, they couldn't. I mean, he hadn't revealed himself as that yet.
David
Right, right.
Daniel
So it's very abstract to these people.
David
You just wonder, though, like, John, you. You super wonder if, like, John got it. Like, maybe John was like, dude, is this the king? Like, like, like he's elaborating on these things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Like, is he the one? Like, is he the king? So the earlier chapters have both John and Jesus saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So people. That's what I'm saying. Like, people know this is about a kingdom. So I don't know, but imagine what they have in mind just based on Acts. Like, is it 1:1 through 9? We need. We need chapter one, verse one through nine. So this is just the intro from Luke. He's saying the former treaties have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. So this is Luke. He's just writing to this dude, Theophil, and he's explaining to him about the life of Jesus until the day in which he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments under the apostles, whom he had chosen not to the masses, to the apostles, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them. This is heavy, bro. Being seen of them. 40 days, right? So this is after the cross, after the resurrection. They've been seeing him for 40 days, and he's been speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. That's rad, because a lot of people, you know, there's this weird phrase today like, invite Jesus in your heart, which I'm not. I'm not like, against this phrase, invite Jesus into your heart. But it's kind of like, it kind of shafts the Holy Spirit. And it kind of sets aside this concept that Jesus is actually seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, which I think it does matter to just kind of understand the context today. Right? So. So he's 40 days hanging out after the resurrection, talking to everybody about things pertaining to the kingdom and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence when they therefore were come together. Imagine this, dude. He's saying, bro, you guys are about to get the Holy Spirit on a level like nobody's ever known. They're like, okay, cool. Therefore, when they came together, they asked him, saying, lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? So you see what I'm saying? This is all the way. Even after his entire ministry on the Earth, he's already, the cross, the resurrection has already happened. And they're still thinking like, okay, this is the kingdom. Israel is going to become the main nation on the planet. We're going to crush Rome, we're going to crush whoever else. Like, they're still in that mindset even in Acts. So, like, where were they? Like, where were they at this time? This is very early in his ministry.
Daniel
This describes that idea of the Christian nationalism today. People are still thinking that today, right? So it's like, I get it. I understand it. Because it's a very physical, physical realm way of thinking, rather than you're not. You're not seeing in the spirit of the world.
David
Yeah, it's like applying these eternal things to this natural way of thinking. And it's like, that's not how he does it, dude. He says, you're the salt, you are the light. Not. This isn't for everybody. All right. So he says to them, it's not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has put in his own power. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? Let's just read the rest of this. He said to them, it's not for you. Wait, what are we doing? We're going in circles. Yeah, it's not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father have put in his own power. We got eight. But you shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you. Like, guys, guys, this isn't about some natural kingdom. That's not what this is about. You're going to receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, in all Judea. This is much bigger than just Israel and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth.
Daniel
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
David
I love that verse. They're just watching and boom. He just goes.
Daniel
They're like, wait, what?
David
Yeah, the story's wild. Like all this. All the stories are wild. They're not like rational, like, reasonable stories. They're very strange stories. Okay, sorry, I haven't been on a pod for a while.
Daniel
Take your time.
David
By the grace of God. So, okay, so there's that. All right, so here's another crazy thing. Like, as you start to get into this, he starts explaining these things about the kingdom of God. And like, in our mindset, we're like, oh, yeah, kingdom, like, how much military power, like, how much economic power, like, how much, I don't know, like minerals and stuff can we mine out of the earth on our territory, on our soil? Like, that's what the kingdom is made of, right? And he's like, no, no, it's like the character of the people. I don't know, this really challenged me this week, even when I was like working on this, that, like, the greatest thing about a kingdom is like, its national character. And I think what I mean by that is, like, I don't know, just watching Everybody in like 2020, you know what I mean? Like, in the chaos, I feel like that really revealed the character of. Of Americans. Right? Like that. Like that. And we could say the church. So, like, the kingdom of God, as far as, like the so called Church in America and then also just America in general. And so this could have been, like, a great time to, like, sink or swim either way. Right. But, like, watching how people acted in during that time. Signing, you know, the petitions. Yes, people signing petitions to get us closed down because we're not wearing masks. Like, it was like, I don't really like the character of that. And then people screaming at each other because this one wasn't wearing a mask. This one's screaming at them because they were wearing a mask. Demanding in people's face if they got an injection or not. Like, I don't know. I think it would have been rad if people would have been like, hey, man, how are you doing? Hey, bro, I'm good. Like, I don't want to get this thing, man. It really increased my vitamin C, D, and zinc, man. I've been getting out there. I've been running barefoot at the park. The gym's closed. I'm getting some grounding. I'm doing jumping jacks, like, at all the corners when I run around the park. Like, I'm feeling good. I got the shirt off. I'm getting vitamin D. I'm getting sunlight. Another guy's like, no way, man. That's great. I'm not, like, really in great shape, but I got some Ivermectin. I found some other ways to kind of, like, get this band. But do you see what I'm saying? Like, that was a way where it could have been like, oh, cool, man. People are, like, thinking, and they're not being, like, just subdued by this system bringing them down. And, like, the character of the kingdom kind of is the raddest thing about any kingdom or any nation. You know what I mean? Like, the more I think through this, I'm like, this is rad. He's explaining the kingdom of God, and it's not military power, and it's not all these other things. It's the character in that kingdom. And so that's. That's really, like, we have to get to the bottom of that. I think John 18:33, 40 really kind of explains, you know, why this is the case with what he's talking about. Let's see here.
Daniel
Then Pilate entered in into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, art thou the king of the Jews?
David
Jesus answered him, sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Like this. This is a very intriguing interaction, dude. Remember, real recognize, real. Jesus is like, did people tell you that, or are you Coming to this conclusion, he's really challenging Pilot. Like, this is the scene where Pilot is thinking, like, okay, like, this dude's on trial. But he appears to be, like, the only one here that's not on trial. Like, you feel like Pilot's like, I'm on trial now.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
And all of the Jewish religion is on trial now.
Daniel
This is a question like, who do you say I am? Right.
David
Yeah. Yes. Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests had delivered thee unto me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. Yo. That's what I'm saying. All of these things in the culture of the kingdom of God that we're about to unpack in the Sermon on the Mount, regardless of how many episodes it takes, it's all going to come down to this concept. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight? That's gangster too, dude. That I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now. But now, not forever, but now is my kingdom not from here. Pilate therefore said unto him, are you a king? Then Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king. He's almost saying, like, by your actions, you say, I'm a king is really what he's saying. Because you could say things with words, but then you can say things by actions, too. He's saying, you say I'm a king. He's basically saying, by. By you doing this, by you crucifying me, by you taking part in this, you're saying, I'm a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I unto the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate saith unto him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find no fault at all. That's heavy, bro. You really wonder how many Christians have been able to do that? Like, how many Christians have really read through the Bible and been able to say, I find no fault in Jesus? Because I know, like, when I first got a Bible, when I was 19, I'm not talking about, like, when I actually started to walk with God, but when I was 19, I was looking for picking Jesus apart. Like, that's what I was looking for. I was looking for not gonna like him. Like, not gonna like this. No, I'm serious. I was like, I'm not gonna like this whole thing. Like, I don't like the whole. You Know, we went to Catholic church when I was a kid. I was like, I don't know. This seems sketchy. Like, the whole everybody I know that's a Christian. I don't know. It's kind of sketch of source Rex. Like, I don't really like this, and I'm gonna read through this and potentially pick this apart. And then I was like, pilot, I was like, okay, wait, there's some disconnect between him and then whatever this is in the earth representing him today. Like, I find. No, I was able to say that. I was like, I find no fault in him. I love this guy. Like, I love this guy. And even before I knew he was God, you know, then ultimately I was like, okay, this is God. But even then I was like, I love this guy, but you have a custom that I should release into you one at the Passover. Will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? So he's convinced that he's the king. He's trying to get him released, then cried they all again, saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. So that's just another example of people saying, anything but God. Anything but God. Okay. So he's going to elaborate about this kingdom and the character of this kingdom. And it's a kingdom that's not of this world. And. And at the core of all of these is this word blessed, which in the Greek is makarios, and it means happy. Like, at the core of this word is, like, happy, which. Which, like, so at the core of this is a king who. He wants his citizens to be happy. He wants them to be blessed. Which is intriguing. It means happy, fortunate, or, like, well off. Like, you know, you hear of, like, somebody that's well off, you assume it means, like, rich. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, like, this internal set, this internal state of mind and this internal being, this is what makes you well off.
Daniel
This is a thing that we used to ask our guest every. After every show, and we haven't in a while. But the very last question would be, are you having fun? Yeah, I think that's what we're asking, like, are you of this kingdom or are you of that kingdom? Because if you're not having fun, then you're not. Yeah, we're not moving in the same direction.
David
Yeah. And it's. It's happiness not based on, like, owning things. I mean, it's blessed. The word is blessed. It's. It's more than happy. But I think the easiest way for us to understand in the context of this conversation is like a hap. You're like a happy person, and it's not based on owning things or popularity among people, which is where. How many people. This is desperately what they're seeking, but they don't understand. Like, you can come to Christ in. In. This is the format, if you will. Like. Like, this is the culture of the kingdom for blessed people. So you have this mindset that, like this. The character creates an environment of happiness regardless of the external environment. Right. It's. It's not like. It's almost like, what do they say, Like a thermostat compared to a. David's.
Daniel
Tweet from this morning. You don't have to read the curse.
David
But, oh, he's nasty.
Daniel
So he says, you're really rubbing off. David says, f off doomer. I'm a little busy rejoicing in the day that the Lord has made. It's hilarious because it's a. It's vulgar and it's not. It's not like the polite person will look at it and go, but the message at heart is correct. It's just delivered so incorrectly that I really.
David
That's your guy's thing, though. That's your jam. That's. That's what you do. Okay. So, like, it's the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer, right? Like, if you've heard this before, but like a dude comes into the room, he's like changing the atmosphere around him. He's. He's creating blessed. Right? He's creating blessed. He doesn't walk in the room. And then depending on the circumstances in the room, that's going to dictate to him if he's blessed or not. Like, he's blessed. He's blessed because of these internal things. And then where he goes. Creates blessed. Right? Which we talk about, like, that's like the job of a father. That's the job of a husband. That's the job of a boss. That's the job of anybody in leadership is to create an environment where those that you are responsible for can thrive. That. That. You know what I'm saying? If you're a pastor, like any. That's the context. Is it like you create an environment where people can thrive in. The blessed man does that. He's blessed. He shows up. He creates an environment around him. Yeah. All right, let's just get into it then. That's just kind of a little bit of an intro. Just everybody's on the same page. We're going to get into a lot of topics, but right now we'll just read through. We'll just read like five. One through 12. What were you doing? One again. One and two. Okay, so that's the setup. Seeing the multitudes. He went up into a mountain. Sorry if that was like a long winded opening, but I just think we kind of needed all that for context. So a little bit of a long winded opening or you were tracking.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Okay. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are pure, persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. There's a lot in there. There's a lot in there. I like that in the end, where he says, like, great is your reward in heaven. Because that's another thing that comes up in this. I've noticed some Christian people are really offended by the context, the concept of, like, rewards in heaven. Some people get, like, offended at that. Like, no, either you're saved or you're not saved.
Daniel
That's it.
David
It's like. Okay. But Jesus talks a lot about rewards in heaven, so there's that. Do you want to, like, do so. Why?
Daniel
What am I supposed to do?
David
I don't know.
Daniel
He wants me to preach jokes or something. I'm supposed to give a message while this guy takes his shirt off.
David
Yeah. I figured you had something you wanted to talk about.
Daniel
Yeah. What is. What is this part right here? Blessed are the peacemakers.
David
That's not you.
Daniel
We're not doing that.
David
It's not you yet.
Daniel
I'm not doing.
David
Getting there.
Daniel
I don't know. We. We'll see. There's a lot of other categories that I can fall underneath.
David
Exactly. Okay, let's. Oh, I don't. Like the comments, still less than 50 minutes. That's hilarious. It's a little long winded opening. I'm not doing this. Okay, so we're in. So. Okay, so we're back to verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And like I was saying, these are all like characteristics of the culture of the individuals in the kingdom of God. These are characteristics of a greater character.
Daniel
What does it mean, poor in spirit?
David
Well, let's unpack that. The poor in spirit is like the thing about someone who's poor, they know that they're in need. Right. They know that they're in need. They're poor. They're not, they're not in delusions. Oh, I'm rich, I'm wealthy, I'm in need of nothing. They recognize that there's something that they're lacking. But the context here, poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The context is that they know that there's a provider and that that provider is the king. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So they're in need, but they're aware that they're a provider. That there is a provider.
Daniel
And this is the first thing that he.
David
It's almost. There's a reason it's the first. It means like, you've got to be submitted to the king. Like step one is you have to be submitted to the king. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But step one is like you've got to be poor in spirit. You've got to recognize that you're, that you have a lack. And then you have to recognize that there is one who can provide for that lack. And that one is the king of this kingdom.
Daniel
So that's all this is like submission, the most important thing.
David
Yeah, yeah. That's how I take it. Yeah. And I think there's different ways that people unpack this. But this is my take on it. Yeah. Submissiveness to the king. Yeah. Being able to submit to the king, which a lot of people can't do. Especially like strong minded people, they really can't submit. Right. They can't just let come under the authority of another. But like, this is why I say it's easier if you were a junkie than if you were like a normal person. Because I've already been down this road where there was this thing that I didn't want to do anymore, but I didn't have the strength in myself to stop. Right. And so I had to come to this conclusion that the only way this was going to stop is if one greater than me helped me to stop it.
Daniel
You've already been brought to your knees in a way. I've seen. I've seen people that bring this up and say, like, almost as a criticism, like, why.
David
That you're weak.
Daniel
Why do you have to be weak in order to be strong? Like, look at these Christians being weak. And it's. But this is what it's calling for.
David
Yeah, right. And that's why, like, it. Like, you're going to notice all of this as the opposite of pride. You could say that about. You say what. What is poor in spirit? Well, you could just say, very simply, the opposite of pride. But really, you can say that about all of this. Like, all of the characteristics that unfold in the character of citizens of the kingdom of God is the opposite of pride. Yeah. Submission to the king is step one. I want to stop, but I can't. But someone can give me the. The ability or the strength to do it. Right. Like. Like, I already came to that conclusion because of drugs. So that got me, like, I didn't know it, but that got me way further down the road than somebody could have got to in the kingdom of God of never, like, realizing that and all of this just being concepts. Like, I think it's. I think it's hard for people if it's just concepts, if it's never actually unfolded in their life. But, like, this is another thing where I'm seeing, like, all these things that are unfolded here. People talk about, like, what's. Like, what's the number one thing I can do for the kingdom of God. And I've always said, like, get alone with God. Like, the number one thing you can do for the kingdom of God is not the canned food drive or the fish fry or the spaghetti dinner or the mission trip. It's, you've got to get along with God and cultivate this inside of you, man. Like. Like, this is. This is the number one thing anybody can do. And it's sort of sad when you talk to people and they're like, oh, yeah, such and such is on fire for God. Oh, really? No way. What's up? Oh, yeah, he did this mission trip. He did this youth camp. He did, like, this canned food drive. Like, yeah, that. That's cool.
Daniel
I'm not.
David
I'm not knocking any of those things, but, like, those aren't the things that are. That our kingdom's based on, dude. Like, our kingdom is based on this culture. Is unfolded right here in the Sermon on the Mount, dude. And, like, you cultivate this by getting alone with God. And I don't think these are things that, like, you read, you memorize, you create a creed around it. I think these are things that you have to reflect on and look at. I think these don't happen as you try to make them happen. They only happen as you become intimate with God. You get in this time alone with God and you cultivate this personality that's compatible with God. And it looks like this. And these are more for, like, reflection. These are more for, like, looking back on, not for memorizing and trying in your own strength to live like this, but to read these and say, man, am I poor in spirit? Like, am I. Like, am I poor in spirit? Am I mourning? Like, am I like, am I these things? Am I hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Like, these are things you have to reflect on, which like, like, I always say, like, all of these things you see in your life, if you don't like them, you have to say, like, what was my part in this? That's a big part of, like, the culture of our kingdom, man, is being able to reflect, being able to look at these things and say, am I cultivating this? Am I living this? Do you see what I'm saying? Okay, so that's. So that's really step one. Poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Daniel
I feel like we should have blue letter Bible pulled up for the translation of mourn.
David
We could.
Daniel
All right, let's. Let's go ahead and. And check that out.
David
Blessed are they that mourn. Almost. I wish the raven was here for this. I know he never watches the show, but if he cries a lot. No. Blessed are they that have a heavy spirit. I know you guys love to mock that, but there's an element of that in the kingdom of God, dude. There's an element of, like, looking at the world, understanding that the majority of the world people, you're at, like, your kids baseball games with, your kids jiu Jitsu with, you're at Walmart with, you're at the gas station, you're at work. A majority of these people are on a path away from God. That should cause you to mourn. That should cause you to mourn.
Daniel
You should watch, like, to lament.
David
I remember when I first came to terms with this. This will say, like, what time period it was. I remember Being like, yo, if you, like, watched Oprah and Dr. Phil, like, yeah, you're gonna mourn like. Like, if that's your context of, like, what's going on on the Earth, like, that should make you mourn to, like, look at the people in the state that they're in. And you should. You should have this mindset of, like, yeah, no, something's not right, man. I have a heavy spirit about this. This is not good. Blessed are those that mourn. Right. It's like the rational result of observing the world. They know that's not where their happiness or their blessedness comes from. And so it's like looking on this fallen world, and it does create a mournfulness. And I think there's also another element of, like, looking at your own sin and your own missing of the mark, Mr. Archery. Your own, like, missing of the mark. And that causes a certain sense of mourning as well. But blessed are those who can reflect, who can, like, look at this from the bigger picture and mourn over it. Right. You know what's intriguing about this, too, is that it says, like, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And that word comforted is the same Greek word. Yeah. If you got it, you got it on Blue Letter Bible. Yeah. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. That word comforted is the same word that they that's used of the Holy Spirit. Paraclete. It's paracleo. It's paracleo. It's. It's almost saying, like, blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be holy spirited. That's how I heard. That's how I like it. That I want to read. It is, like. It's the same word. They shall be comforted. He's called the comforter. He's called the Paraclete. That word is they shall be paracleo. Like, they shall be comforted. They shall be holy spirited. Yep. You there?
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Here it is, bro.
Daniel
This guy's good.
David
You're the best producer in the game, dude. Now I know what everybody's talking about. Isn't that wild? So it's that same word. So blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Let's look at, like, James 4, 4 through 10, just to throw in some more pass messages to kind of give this a little bit better context.
Daniel
Go ahead, start reading. I'll pull it up.
David
Okay. Sorry. I thought you were like, mister. Sorry. I should have got ahead of it.
Daniel
Now. You said I'm good, and then you.
David
Know you got a little abstract. Yeah, you start like answering, all right.
Daniel
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is. Is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
David
We brought this up before. We brought this up on our episode about the world. But like, again, blessed are those that mourn. They're looking at the world and they're looking at its decrepit state. And they know their happiness isn't coming from it. Right. They're not a friend of the world. They know that's not where blessedness comes from. Do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit that dwells and dwells in us lust to envy? That's saying like, God not only is intrigued by what we're doing, he's jealous over us. Isn't that crazy? Like, when you're spending your free time in this or that or the other and not with God, God's watching that and saying, like, no, I want you to spend that time with me.
Daniel
That's a form of worship.
David
That's crazy.
Daniel
This is Ed maybe was just on Tony Merkel show and the title of the episode was like, it was. Is. Is worship Heroin to.
David
I think I saw that. Yeah. They love it so much and they want worship so bad.
Daniel
Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Evil God. God's jealous of it when it goes elsewhere.
David
Yeah, yeah, amen. But imagine that, like, I, like, I'm doing something in my free time and the creator of the universe is like, bro, you don't want to hang out? I mean, it's really like that. But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and he will draw close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Right, so this is a passage about like, don't. Don't have play time in the world. That's not where you're going to get your happiness from. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 5, 1 and 2. These are gonna, these are just a couple instances that like, of things that should make you mourn. This one's in the church.
Daniel
Well, that scripture there, though, really quickly when it's talking about, draw closer to God and he'll draw closer to you. Yeah, this was something. Remember I told you about this entire. Whatever happened last week? And it's like, I. I didn't. I, looking back, would have rather not done it. Being in New York City, I told my father I was like, man, in New York. It felt like I was, like, far from God. Just the place itself, like how everything is. And it's like I was like. One of the things that was not on my mind was God. And then on top of that was the conflict that was 100%.
David
Wait, what conflict? From last week? Is that what you're talking about? You love that you were in your glory for that?
Daniel
No, but not just that. It's the. It's the compiling of. Of the conflict plus being in this place.
David
Well, then that's not good.
Daniel
No, it's not good. That's what I said. You should be able to walk through.
David
Hell with gasoline boots on and still be super close to God, dude. It shouldn't matter, like, where we're at.
Daniel
It's hard being in New York City and. And walking through these old places. Like, you want to talk about mourning? Yeah, yeah, it's that. But it also, for me, felt like a distance from God. I'm like, mourning in this place because I'm seeing my old friends and all these people doing the same thing.
David
We did a trade show in Vegas one time, and we took everybody to the Cirque du Soleil show. Yo, that thing I don't know anything about Circus Ole. That's got the spirit of death, like, in the entire show, bro, it's all. I'm not, like, into theater.
Daniel
I know you look like clowns.
David
I know you, like. I don't know if you knew that stuff, but, like, theater is, like, not my thing, but I'm taking, like, fancy designers. It's like this real expensive thing we're doing for everybody or whatever. I'm like, watching the thing. Well, I gotta get up and leave in the middle of it. I'm like, I'm not gonna subject my spirit. I know you guys like to mock this, but I'm not gonna subject my spirit to, like, the spirit of death like this. Like, I'm not playing this game. I' not going to engage in this.
Daniel
And isn't there a heaviness of it when you're. When you're in it? It's. It's almost like. And maybe it's a flaw on my part, but I could feel like, whatever closeness I have to. God, I feel that stretching off of me.
David
No, that's okay. That's not supposed to happen. What's supposed to happen is your spirit gets heavy. I know you guys love to mock, but you're like, I'm not going to take part in this. Like, I don't want any part in this. So just asked another rep to like keep an eye on the people that I brought, the interior designers that I brought. I was like, I'm going home. Like, I'm going home. But they were all going to the club and party until like 2 or 3 in the morning anyway. So, like, that's what you do when you're on the out of town trips. And I was like, I'm not gonna partake of that, bro. I don't want to be involved in this. And it's heavy and it feels gross. So I go back to my room, right? I get up at like 4:45. I read the scripture for a while. Nobody else is going to be up to like eight or nine for the show. So I go out for like a jog on the Strip and there's these. It's like playing cards, baseball cards of porno chicks everywhere. Everywhere on the street, dude.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
You're just like, God, what is going on in this place? Like, this is crazy.
Daniel
You're on Fremont. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, Vegas is another one of those places when I was there and I'm walking through the street, I'm like, man, God's not here. I don't think God's here, dude.
David
It's. I don't know, dude. But you. But you should mourn. Like, you should like. And then I went back to my room and I looked out the window, you know, and you're like looking at the whole city and you're just like groaning. You're groaning. You're saying, oh God. But this happens in the church too. Look what we. We. I think we did this last week or two weeks ago. I don't know. My time's mixed up because like, you were gone, then I was gone, then you had the guy. Timothy, Wolverine.
Daniel
We don't want to talk about that. What scriptures? Let's read the scripture.
David
1 Corinthians 5:1 and 2. It is reported commonly there's fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he. That had done this deed might be taken away from among you. So we don't need to unpack that because we unpacked that in our last episode. But he said the, like, you guys were puffed up. You were like glorying in this and your tolerance for this. But it should have been the opposite. You should have been mourning, right? So blessed are those that mourn, man. Like, they see these things that are opposite of the kingdom of God, opposite to the good of humanity, and it makes them mourn. And they see it in society around them and they see it in themselves. Like, that is one thing. The closer you get to God. I remember when I first started reading, like, deep dudes who really knew the Lord, they would be saying this stuff about like, things they saw inside them that they wanted to get rid of. And I felt like it was a little over dramatic. And I was like, dude, these guys are like, I really like this guy, but they're a little over dramatic. But just I hadn't entered into that experience yet. I didn't know that yet. That got a lot a little further in the game and I was like, oh, dude, I do some stuff that, like, I cringe at. Like, I do, like, I think about stuff from before I knew the Lord and I think about stuff from a couple years ago and I think about stuff even now that I did. I go, oh. Like there's just this sense you just kind of mourn over some of this stuff, but you know that one day it's going to be made right. You know what I mean? That. And that's the comfort. Like, blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Okay, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I don't know. So meekness. I think the only way to say meekness is to like, read some passages about it. But I think, I think at the end of the day, like, the meekness thing is like those that know that self is not the most important person in the story, right? Like, like that's really what this comes out. Like, there's a lot of people that they are the main character of their story and everything revolves around them. I think meek people, they recognize, like, okay, I'm part of this bigger story and everything's not about me. Like I'm. It's like I'm a support character in this story. I'm not the main character. Like, like, like, of course the main character is God. But then the unfolding of life on the planet is the bigger picture and it's not all about What I want, what am I getting? Like, me, me, me. Like, meek people, they're like the. They're the opposite of that. Let's see here. Okay. Genesis 13, 1 9. Are we there? Sorry.
Daniel
Yeah. Well, strong's. Strong's definition of this is mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit. That's what meekness means. Yeah.
David
Well, I think that's good. I think that meekness, biblically, also, there's an element of it that, like, you're those things, but not from a. Not from a place of weakness.
Daniel
Yeah, it's the guy that has the sword but chooses not to draw it, if that makes any sense.
David
That's a fair. Yeah, well, that's what we're going to read. That's what we're going to read. Watch it. Like, I feel like these are stories that kind of unpack the concept behind meekness. Right. All right, so we're in Genesis 13. We're going to read 1 through 9. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the south. And. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. Those are running right now, dude. Running.
Daniel
How much Bitcoin did he have?
David
He wasn't into that, dude. But silver and gold have been. In cattle, have been money, like, forever. And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, under the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hague, under the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. We'll unpack Abraham's life one day. But those. Those are the two things that mark the life of Abraham. His tent and his altar. Like, his tent was like, God, I'll go when you tell me to go. Like, these guys, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are like, the richest dudes on the planet, and they live in tents. Like, they could have built palaces. They could have built their own Tower of Babel. They could have built whatever they wanted. They could have built any structure. And they live in tents. They live in this not permanent thing as if to say, God, when you tell me to go, I go. Like, when you tell me to stay, I stay. But I don't live in, like, a permanent thinking. I live in a state of mind where I'm connected to you and I just do whatever you want me to do. And I got an altar, which is. Yeah, the worship. It doesn't say. He had a guitar, drums, which. I'm not saying you can't use those for worship, but, like, an altar is really the place of worship. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord and Lot also, which went with Abraham. Abram had flocks and herds and tents. So Lot, who's his nephew, that he took in like a son because he loved him. Lot only has what he has because of his connection to Abraham. Like, if Abraham just leaves him, Lot doesn't have anything. Maybe he just kind of dies in Mesopotamia, in Ur of the Chaldees, you know, maybe he just kind of leaves him there and, hey, good luck, Lot. But no, Abraham brings him with him. And because of that, Lot is blessed now. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdman of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee and between my herdman and thy herdmen, for we're brethren is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If you will take the left hand, then I'll go to the right. Or if you depart to the right, then I'll go to the left. Like, to me, that's. That's a biblical example of meek. Like, you only have what you have because of the blessing you've obtained from your relationship to me. So. So I have every right to say, hey, I'm picking the left or the right. You go the other way. But Meekness says, no, no, it's. It's cool, man. I'm not the big shot here. Like, I love you. I'm not the main. I'm not the most important person in the story. You go wherever you want, because I'll be good either way. I'm with the Lord, so I'll be good either way, bro. So you pick away, and then I'll go the other way.
Daniel
This is. This is a great example of this. This kind of, like, old guard thinking that we've been discussing on the show previously of. You have this issue, right? There's a land issue, and it's just. It's just a sustainability thing, right? My. My cattle can't eat here because your cattle are here. But I enjoy your company. What do we do? Do we fight over this little bit of land, or do we realize that there's a lot more and. And there's, like, there's no famine Here, we just have to go that way. You go that way, I go this way. And it's like, what a. What a genius thing to do. Rather than being trapped in this. We should kill each other over this land. You know what I'm saying?
David
That's a. Yeah, that's a great. Yeah. Yeah.
Daniel
That's what they could have done. And people do all day.
David
Sure.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
No, you're right. Yeah. That is an intriguing thing of how they handled it.
Daniel
It's a sacrifice as well. Right. Because I'm sure that he wanted to hang out with Lot. Seems like they enjoyed each other. But he's like, well, time has come. We'll split it up. Or we can kill each other. What do we do here?
David
Right? Yeah.
Daniel
And then he lets him choose to.
David
Yeah, it's meekness, man. Watch this. This. This one's heavy. Because the context of this is like, Saul has been hunting David like a dog, dude. He's just trying to kill him. David's running for his life. Like all. You read all the Psalms, where he's just, like, pleading for his life, and he's at the point of death. He's just over it. Like, Saul has put him in that bad of a spot. Watch how he deals with. With. Watch how David deals with Saul. And it came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, behold, David is in the wilderness of engetti. Then Saul took 3, 000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. So he's just living with the wild goats. David's got, like this band of thieves. He's just got, like, all of the. Like all of the men that have been rejected from society. It's almost like Florida. They all just go, like, bond to David. They all are with David now. And he came to the sheep coats, by the way, where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet. And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. I think that means he was going in and go to the bathroom. And the men of David said unto him, behold the day of which the Lord has said unto thee, behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it shall seem good unto you. So they're like, bro, God has delivered Saul here. Like, he's taking a dump. You can kill him right now, dude. He's completely defenseless. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.
Daniel
The new David movie, the Kids one does a really great job of this because it brings us this example, but David's within a cave, and there's a small waterfall. And Saul is in front of the waterfall, and David can see him, but Sol doesn't think to look through it. It's. It's a really powerful metaphor because, like, he's right there.
David
Yeah, it's interesting.
Daniel
So he grabs it, cuts it.
David
Think about the composure this dude's got to have in that moment, bro. Think about when you get buck fever just to shoot a deer.
Daniel
Shaken.
David
Imagine there's a human that. That's been trying to kill you, that's been hunting you to kill you. And he's got to, like, roll up on him and just kind of cut a little piece off of his cape, his skirt.
Daniel
Wearing a skirt.
David
This is wild, bro. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut Saul's skirt. Not because he didn't kill him, but because he did even this thing to cut off the edge of his skirt. Yeah, you don't like that? You're like, yeah, you should have got him. No, I. Oh, yeah.
Daniel
Don't feel bad about the skirt.
David
And he said unto his man, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master. The Lord's anointed to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord, which is a common thing with David. He's like, I'm not going to go against this dude because he's the anointed of the Lord. It's very honorable man. So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also arose afterward and went out of the cave and cried after Saul, saying, my lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. He bows down to this guy that he could have just killed. And David said to Saul, wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, behold, David seeks thy hurt. He's saying, bro, you're listening to people, like, say something about me that's not true. Like, I'm. I'm not trying to kill you. I don't want any harm to happen to you. Behold this day your eyes have seen how that the Lord has delivered you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but my eye has spared thee. Remember, we talk about your eye must be single. That's an interesting phrase. My eye had spared thee. And I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father. See ye see the skirt of your robe in my hand, for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe and I didn't kill you, know thou. And see that there is neither evil nor trans. Transgression in my hand. And I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my soul to take it. He says, look, dude, I cut off your skirt. I could have killed you, and I didn't. The Lord judged between me and you, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon thee. I know you guys don't like that either, but it's like this mindset of where, like, let God deal with it. Let God deal with it. You can go around, like, getting revenge on people. You can go around one upping people, but you can also just be like, here, God. You take it.
Daniel
Yeah, but God also delivered this. He delivered him to David.
David
Amen.
Daniel
I guess it was David's choice to make this example, but, hey, God gave him to you.
David
So you're just saying you wouldn't have did what?
Daniel
Probably not, bro.
David
What? Okay, but you're just saying you're growing. You're kind of early in the game. But don't deliver.
Daniel
Don't deliver me. My enemies. We. We don't play games around here.
David
No, you don't. You don't.
Daniel
I'm not David.
David
The Lord judge between me and you, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients. Wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon you. See what I'm saying? After whom is the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog, After a flea. This is meekness. He doesn't say, yeah, you punk, like, I had you. I could have killed you. He says, no, man, I could have killed you. But I'm just a dead dog, man. I'm just a flea. Like, that's what he says. This is meekness. He doesn't say, yeah, I got you cornered now. He goes, no, no, man. Who are you coming out after? I'm just a dead dog. I'm just a flea, man. So of course there's this humility that's wrapped up in meekness, too. The Lord, therefore, be judge and judge between me and you and see and plead my cause and deliver me out of your hand. He Keeps coming back to that. Let God deal with this. And it came to pass when David made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, is this your voice, my son, David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. I think this is what some people would call a moment of clarity. And he said to David, you're more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded you evil. And you have showed this day how, that you have dealt well with me. For as much as when the Lord had delivered me into your hand, you didn't kill me. For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou has done unto me this day. And now, behold, I know well that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear now, therefore, unto me by the Lord that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear unto Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men got him up under the hold. That's a wild passage, bro. So you can make the argument that Saul fell more than any person has ever fell.
Daniel
What does it mean? They got him up onto the hold.
David
They just got him back into the hiding place.
Daniel
Okay.
David
But Saul, like, in a moment of clarity, says, hey, man, at least don't destroy, like, my. At least don't destroy, like, my descendants. Like, he's. Like, he kind of has this concept of eternity, but, like, he's already screwed it up so much that he can't. Like, he's gone.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
But he ate. But he at least has this moment of clarity to say, like, hey, don't destroy all my descendants. It's just a wild story, but it's another example of meekness.
Daniel
So you don't think if David slayed him right there, it would have been all right? Because, you know, David says, the Lord anointed you, but no, the Lord anointed David, and that. That anointing on soul passed long before.
David
It's an interesting discussion.
Daniel
But he also needed him there to teach him. He needed him to teach him how to be king a little bit. Like, a couple of these lessons afterward.
David
What do you mean?
Daniel
If he kills him right there, he dies. But I think David still had a lot more to learn.
David
Yeah.
Daniel
You know what I mean?
David
I think that's a great way to look at it.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Yeah. And I think to your point, like, this story, like, that's always the funny thing about people who believe in, like, hyper predetermined, like, they call it predestination, but what they really mean is predetermined. It's like, yeah, I think we have to look at these stories and know they could have went a lot of different ways. And don't just think that, like, because it went this way, that, like, oh, it was predetermined it was going to go that way. No, dude, he could have killed him right there in the cave and to your point, could have been justified.
Daniel
God gave it to him.
David
Meekness is on another level, though. Meekness is on another level.
Daniel
Having the sword, not using it, though.
David
Yeah.
Daniel
Being very dangerous. Dude, this is a. Also a Jordan Peterson point.
David
You love him, bro. You even get, like, your names from him and stuff is.
Daniel
Yeah, some of his old stuff was great.
David
I thought you said he was a wanker because he was like, I got the thing, Trudeau. You now. Are you happy?
Daniel
Yeah. But in his first book, he talks about when he's talking to young men.
David
That's so embarrassing if he said that like that.
Daniel
It is embarrassing, but the things he said before it, like, he's talking to a young man. He's saying, you have to be able to. You have to be able to be dangerous, but have the ability to withhold that.
David
I like that.
Daniel
You gotta be like, you know, you have to be that animal, but you have to. Yeah.
David
You can't just be a wanker and be soft. That's not meekness.
Daniel
That makes you really.
David
I think that's the point we're trying to get across. It's like, meekness is not weakness. Like, I think that's maybe even on a bumper sticker, a T shirt. But meekness does not mean you're like this little wanker that can't do anything. It means, no, no, you can, and you choose not to. Right? That's like this ultimate strength, man.
Daniel
That archetype is the dude that goes to. That goes to the protest to just hit on the girl. So he's like, oh, look at how weak I am. Like that. You know what I mean?
David
But that.
Daniel
That dude's dangerous inside. It's true. Because he's festering. He's festering anger. But the dude that's strong and confident within himself, that chooses not to do this outward expression of violence, that's the guy that's meek because he can be violent, but he's not.
David
Right. I think that's the main thing you got to get. Because some people are like, well, I'm just a wanker. So I'm meek. No, no, that's okay. That's good that you're not, like, nasty and mean or whatever, but, like, meekness is specifically that you're able. Like, Abram had every right to say, I'm taking whatever land I want. David had every right, to your point, to kill Saul. Right. It's like they had the ability and the right, and they still chose not to. Like, that's meekness. And that's why we like to use biblical examples. But you can't talk about this topic called meek or meekness without bringing up the dude, Moses. Or as they say in the Hebrew, Moshe, I know you've been spending time with the Jewish group back there, and you don't want me to, like, tell everybody, but that's fine.
Daniel
Thank you. I appreciate if you kept it quiet.
David
Numbers 12, 3 says this. Now, the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Do you know what says that? Numbers 12, 3. Moses was very meek above all the men which are upon the face of the earth. He was the meekest man on planet Earth. And some people would say, yeah, but he wrote numbers.
Daniel
He's like, I'm the best.
David
That's kind of funny. I mean, he's being inspired by the spirit of God to write that, but it's just a funny statement anyway. All right, so to look at the meekness of Moses, this is a passage that, like, made me cry the first time I, like, really, like, read it.
Daniel
Is crying meekness?
David
I don't know, but I'm just saying that this passage is so. Yeah, you're laughing now. Wait, do you. Where do you hear this passage, dude? Okay, we're just gonna read all of Exodus 32, and then, I don't know, maybe we'll wrap up after this, because this is going to be this ongoing, like, long thing, so. Well, yeah, let's go with this. All right. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together under Aaron. This is just a great story to know anyway, if anybody doesn't know the story. The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us lowercase G gods which shall go before us. Because, friends, for this dude Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. Now we read this and we're like, oh, those trashy church people. They should have known better. They were part of the covenant people. How did they, like, turn away from God? The Dude's been gone 40 days. Yeah, the dude's been gone 40 days, bro. So I get it if, like, after the first week, they're like, hey, Aaron is. What's up. What's up with Moses, man? You come back the second week like, hey, bro, so Moses, he's doing, you know, he's doing the thing. Like, we're out here in the wilderness. Like, we just came out of Egypt, and we're just, like, in the middle of nowhere. Like, he's. He's coming back, right? Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, 40 days is like six weeks, bro. You go this many weeks into it, they're like, hey, okay, he's not coming back. They. They don't know what's going on.
Daniel
He ran out of food up there.
David
They don't have the scriptures. They don't have Facebook. They don't have. It's even, like, crazy when you think about, like, the weather. Like, we were 85 yesterday, right? If you didn't have, like, the news today and, like, weather forecasting, you'd have no clue that this morning we were under freezing. You'd have no clue, like, that's where these guys were at. The Dude's been gone 40 days. They. They're like, he's not coming back. And we need gods, Aaron, so make us some gods. Make us some lowercase G gods. And Aaron said, and then break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives. Oh, I hate this part. I hate. You don't know where they got the earrings?
Daniel
No.
David
God made all the Egyptians give them all their gold when they left Egypt.
Daniel
Oh, yeah.
David
So it's like this blessing from God. It's like this. It really makes you think, like, okay, dude, like, the things I'm getting from God, like, what am I doing with them? I don't want to be some guy who gets this, like, major blessing from God and then I use it to go make a. Like, I don't want to use my gold to go make some false calf, some false God to just totally disrespect God. And I think people have to think about that, dude. Like, these blessings that God has given you and put in your life, like, what are you doing with it? You don't want to stand before God and be like, hey, those gold earrings that you gave me, I turned it into a golden calf to worship it. But that's what they did. Aaron said, and then break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your Sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them into Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. So I don't know. This is like mixed worship now for him. They say, they said, these be thy gods. These lowercase g gods in verse four. And then in verse five, he says, tomorrow's a feast to the Lord. So I. It's like they're still kind. Like Aaron at least is still kind.
Daniel
Of like, sounds like Catholicism.
David
It just gets a little wild. It gets a little wild. What's going on here? And they rose up early on tomorrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Remember, this is intriguing. This is all before the law. A lot of people don't ever, like, think about these passages. Something's going on on planet Earth before the law. Like, it's not just the Levitical priesthood that brings forth the burnt offerings and peace offerings. Like, there was a beginning to that. They haven't even started that yet. Moses hasn't even come back down from the mount yet. But they knew enough to know they're going to make. Be making these offerings, right? And then people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. That's a little sketch of Source Rex which we're going to find out in a little bit. Rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, go get thee down for thy people which thou brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. I like when God says this, you know, because Moses will say to God, these are your people. Here's God saying to Moses, these are your people. This is so wild, bro. The story is like, why if, like, Moses is like the greatest type of Christ in the Old Testament, we have all these types of Christ. We have all these foreshadowing of, like, how could a man do that unless he has Christ in them, right? And like, that's what this story looks like. God, God tells Moses, get you down for the. For your people which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They've turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They've made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed their unto and said, these be thy lowercase g, gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. So Moses is in, like, I. I would argue he's been in heaven for this 40 days, or dare I say the spirit realm. But, like, he comes down and this is what he walks into. Like, like this is what he walks into because God tells him, set up the tabernacle according to the pattern that I showed you in the Mount. He says that later on in the. I think it's Exodus or somewhere. And then it's referenced in the Hebrew letter too. I don't think that's because God was just up there with a table and, like, rolled out a blueprint. I think it's because he saw the pattern in the Mount. Like, he saw the heavenly pattern, right? He saw the spirit realm pattern. He said, okay, make that down there. Like, that's what he's saying. So no matter what, he's with God for 40 days, regardless. If this is what he comes down to is the people have just completely forsaken God and they've made false gods, lowercase she, gods. Out of the gold, they've turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They've made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this, people. And behold, it's a stiff neck, people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. Do you ever read this passage? This is crazy. God is pissed. He says his anger is waxed hot. Now therefore, leave me alone, Moses. This is a stiff neck, people. Leave me alone. That my wrath may wax hot against them, and I'll make. And I that I may consume them. But don't worry, I'll make a great nation out of you, Moses. Bro, Matt, look at this, like, reference this against Satan. Satan would do anything to have, like, a people brought from his lineage, right? Would do anything to be worshiped as God. You see what I'm saying?
Daniel
Like, isn't it almost like you have the 40 days that Jesus is fasting, and then he has that confrontation with Satan, and Satan offers him the kingdoms of the world. It's almost like God is offering him this right to him. Man, what a crazy inversion, right?
David
No, that's a great insight by you. That's what I'm saying. I Love the way you guys analyze stuff even though you're crazy people. Like, that's a great analyzation of that is like almost God tempted Moses with the same temptation that Satan. Satan tempted Jesus with.
Daniel
Maybe that's the same temptation that David had as well, right? He's like, you're gonna kill him, right?
David
And, and the question is like, which kingdom do you belong to? Do you belong to the kingdom which is blessed are the meek, or do you belong to the other kingdom? Which can justify killing Saul, which can justify you picking the land. Which can justify saying, yeah, God, I kind of had enough of these dudes too. Like, smoke their ass. Like, let's start over. Let's start over. Because I'm kind of over this too, God. I can see you're over it. I'm over it too. Let's just dust him and start over. No, not Moses, dude. He's the meekest man in all the land. That's why this is this great story of me, bro. And Moses besought the Lord is God and said, lord, why does your wrath wax hot against your people? Now he. Now he calls them your people. God tells Moses, he calls them your people. And then Moses is back to God. No, they're your people. There's a dude who's close to God. Look like, like, think about how close this dude is to God to have this conversation.
Daniel
These are tests. Clearly these are tests because you're not going to remind God that these are his people. He puts it on Moses and it's Moses job to. To put it.
David
Yeah, yeah, that's. I mean, that's why people would say just this whole realm, like this whole, like the whole concept of like what's happening in this realm is. It is a testing ground like that. Like, that's the whole context of why you live in the natural temporary realm for 120 years before you go into an eternal realm. What's the point? If it's all already been determined, if it's all already set, then why are we doing this? Why are we doing any of this in the temporary real? Unless it is a testing ground that I don't know. That just seems very logical to me from like a 30, 000 foot view, just kind of looking at the pit, at the picture as a whole is like, yeah. And all. Everything going on in our life is a testing. Everything in it is like, what path are we going to go on? And thank God for the Sermon on the mount that gives us the culture of our kingdom because it's something for us to reference back to. It's something for us to look back to and say, yeah, man, am I exhibiting the culture of the kingdom of God or have I gone a little off track? Let me get close to the Lord to start to cultivate these things inside of me instead of just trying to act it out. That's where people run into problems. They just want to act it out. What's the Christian thing to do right now? Well, I don't know, but you better already have it in you now, because you, you can't just come up with it at the last minute to say, what's the Christian thing? It's going to be whatever you do right now, if you are the Christian, wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, this is another thing that dudes who love God, they're always watching out for his character and saying, what will your enemies say then? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief? Did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Dude, this is a crazy statement from a man to God. Turn from your fierce wrath and repent of this evil against your people. That's what Moses says to God. Can you imagine to be that close to God to have that conversation? Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven in all this land that I've spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. A man interceded on behalf of those people, and God changed his mind, if you will. I know a lot of people are going to be super offended at that, but that's what the text is clearly saying. The text is clearly saying God was going to smoke those people. And you could say, yeah, but in the foreknowledge of God, he knew Moses was going to plead with him and he knew he wasn't going to do it. That's fine, that's fine. But in Moses life, Moses still had that kind of authority, still had that kind of power in that conversation with him. And this story could have gone another way. Like, like, that's the thing for me, man, is like, all these stories could have gone another way, right? Like, I remember working for dudes that are, like, I remember doing a job in downtown Sumter Landing one time where the owner of the flooring company I was Working for was like super nervous and stressed about getting this job done because he had to have it done by Monday. And it was like, packed with furniture. It was a bank. It was the bank and it was their upstairs bank. It wasn't like where you come in and out, but it was where, like the office space for the banks. It was like huge desks, huge heavy file cabinets.
Daniel
You got the tables packed with stuff.
David
No comment. And this place is just packed, bro. So that all this furniture needs moved. There's a ton of floor prep. There's a ton of floor prep needs done. And he's freaking out because he's saying with that much, like, ardex and that much self leveler, like, it's gonna need 10, 15 hours just to dry out, let alone however much time it takes you to do the floor prep. Like, they're only giving us from Friday to Monday. And I told him we could do it. And he's like, freaking out, right? I said, well, dude, it's no problem. It's no problem. I'll get in there after work on Friday. We'll move all the furniture, we'll do all the demo, we'll do all the floor prep, like, whatever. Even if we're there till 2, 3, 4 in the morning, whatever. We'll do all the floor prep. We'll go home and sleep. And during that time, while we're sleeping, all the floor prep's drying. It's all drying. We'll get back in there Saturday. If we wake up at 10, we wake up at noon. Whatever time we wake up, we'll get back in there Saturday. And then we'll just install everything all day Saturday. We'll install everything all day Sunday, finish all the base, finish all the trim work, finish whatever else we got to do, put all the furniture back, and Even if it's 9 o' clock Sunday night, like, whatever, we're good. He says, okay. You sure? I said, yeah, you know, and then he says, okay, well, how much, you know, for this and that? Okay, yeah. Give me this much for floor prep, give me this much for the carpet, give me this much for the furniture, blah, blah, blah. We get the job done, we get the paycheck, and the money is much less than what we discussed, right? And I'm like, damn. Like, bro, what? Like, what happened? Like, we had. We had a very clear discussion. Oh, no, I'm not. I'm not paying you that much for. I mean, that was one weekend.
Daniel
What kind of hat was he wearing?
David
You stop. You can't. No, no, Nobody should be making that kind of money just for a weekend of work. I said, dude, what? We had, like, this very. It wasn't just a weekend of work. That was really, like, I don't know, between Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. That's a. That's a full week of work. If you add up all the hours, bringing the guys in, after hours, working late hours, not to mention. I mean, I couldn't tell him I had to get everybody jacked up on oxycontins and Red Bull just to, like, get everything done. But his whole thing was like, oh, no, I'm not paying anybody for that.
Daniel
You know how much drugs cost these days?
David
Yeah, that was. That was so easy. You did that one weekend. Do you see what I'm saying? Before it got done, he's like, oh, how are we going to do it? He's freaking out, right? Once it's done, he's like, oh, yeah, nothing to it. And I think some people read the Bible like that. They're like, oh, yeah, these stories, that's just. Yeah, it had to go that way. Like, no, these stories could have went different. Does that make sense? Yeah, I don't know. That experience, like, shaped so much of my thinking. Like, as I'm reading scripture, I'm always looking at this and saying, I don't know. There's people who just think, like, if a thing went, they go, could Paul have declined the call of God? Like, yeah, of course he could have. Like, look at Judas, look at Solomon. Like, no, no, no, he couldn't have. I'm like, yeah, you're just like the guy who, like, saw the job get done and then was like, oh, yeah, nothing to it. Of course the job got done. No, no, this story could have went a totally different way. Dude, all this story with Moses could have gone a totally different way. You see what I'm saying?
Daniel
Yeah. Well, if God's going to get something done, it's going to get done with or without you. Different.
David
Different dudes. Yes. So, yeah, and so, like, the reward system, I think, like, even in the book of Revelation, it says, like, let no man steal your crown. It doesn't say, let's don't let Satan steal your crown.
Daniel
That's your reward.
David
Says, let no man steal your crown. Yeah, I think that's a reward. I think the reward system might be a lot more vast than we comprehend. But that's part of it is a crown, a type of crown, which is multiple types of crowns mentioned. But it's like, to Your point? This stuff's going to get done. There was a song my boss used to play with or without you. I think it's you, too. Yeah, because he would. Because I'd be like, hey, man, I need time off. He's like, oh, really? Then I'm going to fire you. Because, listen, this is going to get done with or without you. He'd, like, play the song. But I think there's an element of that where God's saying, yeah, my will is going to happen whether I use you to do it or not. That's still up in the air.
Daniel
I had.
David
So don't let some man steal your crown. If I call you to a specific destiny and you're too busy with Facebook and TV shows and whatever else you're doing, you're gonna. You might still end up in heaven if you're safe. But you're gonna watch that dude who fulfilled the destiny I called you to walk around with your reward for all of eternity. Don't let any man do that.
Daniel
Have I ever told you about, like, when I was in the old church, there was a older sister, Anna La Piccolo, her name is. And she, like, heavy Italian accent, and she prophesied over me.
David
You didn't tell me this. You tell me nothing, though, which is tell you nothing.
Daniel
And that's the way it should be. But I'll tell you now because we're on the show.
David
Let's go.
Daniel
So she prophesies over me, and I have one foot out of the church already. I've been kicked out by the pastor, but I'm still attending because I'm stupid. And she goes, brother Daniel, you going to talk to millions of people one day about Jesus Christ? And I want to look at her and go, shut the. You know, like. And I go, thanks, sister. I know. And I. Then I leave.
David
Where was she from with that accent?
Daniel
She's from Italy.
David
Yeah, Yeah, I like that.
Daniel
But I, like, at the time, I wanted to be like, shut up. You know, like. And I. But I didn't. I walked away. And what I said to myself was, absolutely not. Whatever you say, I'm doing the opposite now. Don't put that on me. And I was telling this to Tony Merkel not too long ago when he. Because he was asking me, he's like, how do you. Like, where do you start? How do you get on a path like this? So I told him that story, and I was like, you know, lo and behold, here we are doing this thing, and yet we've talked to more than a million People.
David
And it's prophesied, right, bro, Prophecy is real. Yeah. That's why false prophecy sucks.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Because it makes so many people look at it and go, that's a. That's a scam.
Daniel
But Tony told me correctly. He said, I'm glad that that happened for you, but that was going to happen with you or without you.
David
Yeah.
Daniel
So it was like. It was my choice there to leave it, but I guess God had enough grace with me to leave it for the 10 years where I. I told him to shove it, and that was still saved for me. But God could have taken. He's like, God could have. God could have given that to anybody if he wanted that to happen.
David
The dude Merkel knows the Lord. Like, is he. Yeah.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Really?
Daniel
Yeah.
David
I mean, I don't know a lot about him, but he's like a dude that's a Bible reader.
Daniel
He's an actual. Like, an actual Christian.
David
Nah.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
I thought his shows were just like, the supernatural and, like, crazy stuff and.
Daniel
Yeah, the supernatural, but it's. It's through a Christian lens.
David
Yeah.
Daniel
It's what formed a lot of how me and David think. And obviously, we're still. We're much crazier. But, like, his show is really aimed that way. But that was. That was actually. It was like a punch in the face when he said that to me. I was like, what?
David
He was saying, like, dude, if you didn't do it, somebody would have did it.
Daniel
Yeah. Basically, like, yo, you're lucky, because you. You let that sit on the table for that long. And he's like, that was going to happen whether you wanted it or not. Someone would have. Someone else would have taken that. And I was like, huh? And I sat there for a second.
David
Yeah, that. I think that's what that passage in Revelation is alluding to. Let no man take your crown.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Like, the purposes of God. They are going to happen. They are going to happen. Exactly what our part is in the play, in the story. He. He leaves us freedom there. Right. We can't do anything outside of his grace. We can't do anything outside of his grace and mercy. But is. But really, like, the one thing we can't bring to him is our will to do it. And he even encourages that. He even is involved in our will. So it's like, it is a. It is a wild game. It is a wild game, but this is the culture of our kingdom, and that's why we submit to him. That's our only chance. Let's get on with this, dude.
Daniel
Moses, here's a question, though.
David
Go ahead.
Daniel
If I don't submit and I do continue on this path, I remain the weak person that I was attending a church, following rules, so I almost had to go through that. Like, you had to go through this drug phase, right?
David
Yeah.
Daniel
Yeah. So it's like. But thank God that. That was, I guess, saved or held on to.
David
For.
Daniel
For me, it was prophesied, but it was. It was held on for me, if that makes any sense.
David
Yeah. And you have to go through these hardships that. That shape who you are. Like, you don't. Yeah, I don't know. If a dude just has, like, this really simple, easy path that would be sketch. I don't even think that exists, dude. I don't even think that. Like, I don't think that there's, like, some dude who's, like, doing wonderful things for God. And there was no sketchiness in it. There's no way. Like, it's like, there's passages. I mean, I even think we're about to read one. Blessed are you when men persecute you for righteousness sake. Like, it's. You got to go through the hardships. You got. You got to go through the things so that you can understand, like, other people.
Daniel
Yeah. But when you. I guess, again, this is the thing that you have to decide. When are you giving up your blessing and when are you just kind of, like, when are you supposed to put that to this? It's very hard.
David
Well, I. I think that's why you have to live in this constant connection to God. Right. You have to be in this constant connection to him and say, lord, I want to do whatever you want to do. And I think you have to mean it, you know, because there's no point in having that conversation with God and not meaning it, because he's like, bro, you're just being a hypocrite. Like, you're just saying words right now. And I think some of that takes experience of realizing, like, okay, I'm butchering every situation. Like, I'm having a pattern of butchering every situation. Right. Like, that's the crazy thing about this. And me and Jess talk about it sometimes is like, there's a difference between living under the blessing and living under the curse. And if you never lived under the curse, you don't know, like, you don't know how, like, incredible and lovely and wonderful it is to live under this blessing that's being stated here unless at one time you lived under the curse. And, like, living under the curse is this Scenario where everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Like, when you look back, you're like, how did it even go that? Like, how could it get that bad? Like, how could this situation have got that mangled? And then on the flip side, you live under the blessing, and you start to reflect on your life over the last couple years, and you're like, wait, wait, how did all of that fall into place? Like, how did all of that go so good? How did. Like, wow. If that, that, and that didn't fall together, we would have been screwed right now. But that, that, that, and that fell together and we're thriving. Like, this is wild. The whole thing's wild. But it's just like submission to God, man. It's just submission to God. Which I'm not saying it's going to be like, happy time, playtime. I'm not saying you're going to not suffer persecution. I'm saying you are going to go through hardships, but you're blessed. You're happy either way. You're good either way. You're well off, as that word would. Would say in the Greek. All right, let's keep rolling with Moses, because I know how you get. What verse were we in?
Daniel
And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto us. He repented in Genesis.
David
That's. Wow.
Daniel
Six as well.
David
Six. Six.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Well, doesn't say he repented. It says he was grieved at his heart. Does it say he repented? Maybe it did, yeah.
Daniel
He. He repented. But that's what that means.
David
Oh, repented himself. Yeah. That he made man on the earth. Right?
Daniel
Yeah.
David
Is that what you're saying?
Daniel
So this is the second time, as far as I'm aware.
David
It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Oh, yeah, that was a passage that shook me, too, because I was like, wait, there's a thing you can do to grieve God at his heart. This is.
Daniel
I think this goes to an Ed Mabry point about knowing the character of God. And character of God is being just, always just. Moses uses that against them. And I guess when this wasn't a just thing that God was about to do, so he used it against him. So God had to repent for it, because that's not his.
David
I don't think that. No, no, no. I think God would have been totally just to dust them. He didn't owe them anything.
Daniel
So then why apologize? Or why feel bad for what you were?
David
I don't think that's not. I don't think that's what that repented means. It just means he changed. He turned. Like, I know in the Greek, I'm not sure what that Hebrew word is, but that Greek word, metana is like a turning. It symbolizes it. It's. It's saying a turning, which is an internal first, but then it does turn into an external turning as well. So it's just. I think it's just saying that he turned from. He was going to do that. Now he's not.
Daniel
Okay.
David
I don't think there's anything in that. That's like, God was like, okay, Moses, you're right, I'm wrong. There's. I don't think that that's possible. I think he's just like, you know what? I'll give you that, Moses. You've earned that with me. That's a wild thing, dude. You've earned that with me. You got. You got enough dollars in the bank account to cover that check. I'll honor that check.
Daniel
Naham is the word here in. In Hebrew, and it means to be sorry, to console oneself, to be moved to pity, to have compassion.
David
I could see that. Yeah. To be moved to pity.
Daniel
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of meanings for it.
David
So, yes. You just got to unpack it. And we just got to know that God isn't like. God's not like, well, I was wrong, but you're right, I'll correct it. He's. He's not doing that. The testing too, man. He's testing Moses, bro. Is this the dude that's really gonna lead my nation and deliver the law to this nation that I'm giving to them? Can I trust him? What's his heart like? What's his character like? There's, like, modern stuff like this, you know, this dude, Captain America, when they're trying. I think it's like the first Captain America, they're trying to find, like, which.
Daniel
Guys doing pop culture references, and they're.
David
Doing, like, buff the buff guys and stuff. And then there's this little squirmy guy, and then they throw the grenade and he jumps on the grenade. You see what I'm saying? They're like, yeah, that's. Yeah, that's the guy we're looking for. I think there's some of that, which I. Which that obviously they steal that from the Bible. The Bible doesn't steal that from Captain America. Captain America gets that concept from dudes like Moses, right? Like, these are selfless people willing to die for the good of others. Like, yeah, that's the one we're looking for. And Moses turned and went down from the mount and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both of their sides and on the one side and on the other were they written. This is crazy, man. And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God craven upon the tables. So God like there's the, there's the 10 commit. God's writing it with his own finger, which is wild. When you think about when they bring the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and he's like riding in the sand, he's just ignoring them. He's just writing in the dust of the earth. I don't know. It's an interesting thought. We're not getting into that. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted. So they're like having a party down there. They're having a party down there. I think as we unpack this, not to jump ahead, but in verse 25 it says they were naked. This was just a wild ass orgy is what this had turned into.
Daniel
Like Sodom and Gomorrah.
David
Yeah, they're just like going wild, dude. They're. I think maybe this has to do with the worship of lowercase g gods as they get you into sexual sin and like stuff's going crazy. So that's the noise is like this wild party down there, right? But this dude Joshua, he's built for war. He's made for war. Like God made all his parts specifically for war. Like the way he made his brain and the way he made his ears, the way he made his eyeballs and everything in his heart. This dude is just designed for war. Like you look at his life, this dude's made for war. So when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he sent him Moses. There's the noise of war in the camp. He's just always got war on his mind. And he said, no, no, it's not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But the noise of them that sing. Do I hear, dare I say, in the words of Top Lobster, them that worship. And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh into the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses anger waxed hot, right? Verse 10. God was hot, right? God was angry. Now Moses, here we are in verse 19. Now Moses is angry. This is why they say like, the more time you spend with God, the more you'll act like him, the more you'll be like Him. People don't like this because it involves the word anger, but that's the reality. The closer you get to God, the more you're like him. The more. The more the things that anger him anger you, the more the things that make him happy make you happy. Like all the things you become, like his character, the more you spend time with him. And it came to pass as soon as he came down to the camp. He saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses, anger waxed hot. And he cast the tables out of his hand and broke them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it. So he's a gangster. See what he did there?
Daniel
Drink that.
David
And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people do unto you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? Not just you, Aaron, but you brought this great sin upon them. I thought you were a leader. We can preach on that another time. And Aaron said, let not the anger of my lord wax hot. You know the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him. He's gone 40 days, and we don't know, like, when he's coming back or if he's coming back. And I said unto them, whosoever has any gold that God gave them from everybody in Egypt, let them break it off. So they gave it me. Then I threw in the fire, and there just came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked. So Moses has this. He first goes to Aaron, says, dude, what just happened? Moses? Oh. Aaron says, yeah, man, the earrings I threw in the fire. And then out came this calf. And then Moses is like that. Like, right in the middle of him being like, bro, what the. What? Then he looks. And then all the people are naked. When Moses saw the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies. So it's not just this golden calf now. There's some kind of sexual perversion going on. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him, and I think this is why the tribe of Levi becomes the priestly tribe, is because of this story right here. We'd have. We. I don't have that in front of me, but I think that's why. I think I remember that being why. And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day, about 3,000 men. It doesn't make any illusion to women here. So I don't know that maybe that's just what it was. Was like dudes with dudes. It says brother, companion, neighbor, and then it says 3, 000 men in verse 28. I don't know.
Daniel
Doesn't this also rhyme a little bit with the garden of Eden? Like, he comes down, he kind of asks a question. He asked a question to. Who did he ask? He was talking to. To Aaron. And Aaron goes, oh, but your p. It's. You know, these people. Your people did this. Right? Right.
David
You're saying how, like Adam was like, oh, the woman that you gave me.
Daniel
Yeah, And. But. And then. Then the people are naked as well, and their shame and.
David
Yeah, yes.
Daniel
Kind of crazy. It rhymes. It rhymes too much.
David
It does. Then the children of Levi did, according to the word of Moses, and there fell the people that day, about 3,000 men. For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man, upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day for those who were killing the evil in the camp, saying, this is going to spread. We have to get rid of this. This can't be in the camp. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin. So the dust has settled down. It's. It's the next day. You've sinned a great sin. And now I will go up unto the Lord per adventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. This is why Moses is this incredible type of Jesus, dude. He says, all right, dude, you guys have done bad. I'm gonna go up there and make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin. And it made them lowercase G, gods of gold. This is the most crazy passage in all of scripture. Possibly one of the most craziest passages you'll ever read in your life yet. Now, if you will forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray you out of the book which you've written. What these people who have all over Moses, this entire time in Egypt, out of Egypt, this entire time through the wilderness. He pleads with God on their behalf and says, if you don't save them, take me out of the book of life. Nobody thinks that's crazy. The craziest thing ever been said. Let me become the curse on their behalf. We know what that is. That's a type of Jesus. Exactly what Jesus did. He became the curse.
Daniel
Yeah.
David
He didn't just pay the penalty for the curse, he became the curse. And you want to talk about, like, spiritual darkness or like a heavy spirit, Dude, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? He's on the cross, and there's all this physical thing going on to him on the cross that we can relate to, but I don't think we can relate to that spiritual feeling that he felt on the cross, man. That kind of darkness. I don't think we have any concept of that. But that's what this dude is saying. This dude Moses. This isn't God saying this. This is a dude.
Daniel
Moses put that on me, dude.
David
I just remember reading this and getting it one time, and it changed my life, man. It changed my life. Because I think at that time I thought that, like, yeah, the whole reason you're a Christian is to go to heaven. Like, that's it. That's why you're a Christian. Like, you want to do whatever you want on the earth. You just don't want to do something so bad that you go to hell. You just want to go to heaven. I'm like, wait, this dude is saying, if you will forgive their sin, but if you won't forgive their sin, let's make a deal. Let's trade. Blot me out of the book which you've written. Block me out of the book of life.
Daniel
I just. How bad.
David
Shocked to hear that.
Daniel
How bad is this? Was this sin? How bad was this. This whatever they were doing for 40 days for him to come down and have to kill these people?
David
Dude, I think it's. I think it's nothing new, man. They've made false gods. They're worshiping false gods, and then it's issuing out in sexual perversion. And I think we see it on a mass scale today. See it on a mass scale today.
Daniel
Is that.
David
And it's One thing if it's in the world, it's another thing if it's in the church.
Daniel
So is that the solution? You know what I'm saying? Like that?
David
No, the solution is God. The solution is always God. And the solution is death to self. The solution is your old man must die. So in a certain sense, yeah, in a certain sense, it's. It is that. And so, like all the sexual perversion, all of the worshiping of false gods, there only is one solution. It's God. And therefore for you, it's, you must be born again. Execution of the old man. The old man must die. You must become a new creation. So, yeah, it's always that. It's not. It's not reforming society. It's not even reforming the Christian. It's death to the old self. You must be born again and become new. And the Lord said unto Moses, nah, man, it doesn't work like that. Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, my angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made.
Daniel
Because they made the calf which Aaron made. That's an interesting sentence, huh?
David
Yeah. They were all in on it, man. I don't know. What do you do with that? Like what? Like, what do you do with that? For Exodus 32. 32. Everybody should have it underlined in their Bible, and everybody should just be aware that that passage exists. I just remember it changed my life to know that that passage existed. He said, man, I love these people so much that have treated me so bad. You like, I, I. That's why you have to read all this stuff in context, too, man. If you haven't been reading up to this point, you don't know how bad they've been to Moses. You don't know how much he's gone through with these people. That's why when you read it all the way through, you get to that point and you're wrecked by it, it doesn't mean so much. Just reading it with us right here just like, hanging. What? You know what I mean? But when you read the whole thing and you're like, dang, they did all of that to Moses. And he said, still says this, this is crazy. And then you're like, I need to up my game. I need to up my game, man. Like, I'm. I'm Still, I'm not meek enough. I'm not like. I'm not like, somebody who's this close to God. I'm not somebody who loves people that much. Like, I need to. I need to bring my game up because these are our examples. People in the Bible, there are examples. People at the local church is not our examples, man. The word of God is our example. So I don't know. That's just kind of. Moses was a real one, Z, man. That's just kind of where I think we should wrap it up there, because otherwise this is going to go hard, man.
Daniel
You've only covered two. Literally just two scriptures, no. Sermon of the mountain, two principles. Sure.
David
No, we're further than that, and I think.
Daniel
So we've gotten to meekness.
David
What?
Daniel
Yeah. That's it. No, three. We've done three.
David
Okay. I mean, I got some notes on verse six and seven. I don't want to go too long, Dude. This. I just feel like this is gonna go for a while anyway, so there's no point in, like.
Daniel
Don't rush it.
David
Yeah. Yeah. I feel good about it, man. Do you want to talk about anything?
Daniel
No, I don't want to talk with you. Are you sure? Well, keep them. Keep them on a cliffhanger for next week.
David
Yeah, next week's gonna be a good one. Don't miss it.
Hosts: TopLobsta (David) & Daniel
Date: February 11, 2026
David and Daniel (with occasional references to Raven) launch a new series deeply analyzing the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7), exploring its context, meaning, and implications for believers, especially in today's world of cultural and political confusion. The episode mixes intense scripture breakdown, personal stories, and pointed critiques of trends like Christian nationalism, all with a candid, irreverent, and engaging style reminiscent of an open small-group Bible study.
"It's not how Jesus operates. ... He calls to him his disciples. ... That's not the culture of our kingdom—to dictate this to the masses."
"At the core of this is a king who wants his citizens to be happy. ... It means happy, fortunate, or well off. ... this internal state of mind and this internal being, this is what makes you well off."
"Meekness is not weakness... You can, and you choose not to."
"[To God:] If you don't save them, take me out of the book of life. ... Let me become the curse on their behalf."
"The purposes of God... They are going to happen. Exactly what our part is in the play, in the story—He leaves us freedom there. ... Don’t let any man take your crown."
"Next week's gonna be a good one. Don’t miss it." (David, 97:07)
If you missed the episode:
David and Daniel begin a deep, hard-hitting exploration of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, arguing the message is radically internal, countercultural, and relevant. They emphasize true citizenship in God's kingdom is shown in character—poverty of spirit, mourning over the world’s brokenness, and meekness—even when holding power. Directly critiquing modern political movements and shallow Christianity, they challenge listeners to seek personal transformation and live out these qualities so the world may witness a true “culture of the kingdom.” The session is profoundly scriptural, peppered with pop culture, worksite stories, and tough honesty—leaving listeners eager for the next installment.
Memorable Moment:
David’s breakdown of Moses’ plea:
"If you will forgive their sin, but if you won’t... blot me out of the book which you have written. ... Let me become the curse on their behalf." (92:48)
This encapsulates the Jesus-shaped heart the Sermon on the Mount teaches: intercession, cost, and the culture of God’s upside-down kingdom.