Alright, we'll go ahead and open to Ezekiel chapter 4 if you would. Now we are in a section of Ezekiel that is kind of, it belongs together. It's lumped together. So I want to spend a good amount of time going through review because I don't want you to lose the forest by getting lost in the trees. So we're talking about four symbolic signs. What did we look at last time and what was the general interpretation or the general sense of what was being communicated. Four symbolic signs. It's in your notes if you need a cheat. So we have the four angels at the beginning. But in the nearness section, there's four signs. We've only looked at one. We're going to look at the second one tonight. What was the first one? So you're supposed to take a tile and pretend that it's Jerusalem and have a siege against it. Yeah, so he's got Ezekiel acting out these drama, this skit, if you will, demonstrating prophecy, right? Now, what is it demonstrating? Something that did happen or something that will happen? Well, future. Future, right? So keep that in mind. I think it may perhaps, hint, hint, wink, wink, come into play in our passage. But basically the promise was that Jerusalem is going to be under a siege. Now, why? Is God just giving him a heads up that, hey, they're planning evil against you, but don't worry, I will come in and I will rescue you. No, it's discipline. It's the opposite, right? And that's how I would interpret the pan that's placed in front. Some take that as the unbreakable nature of the siege, but I think that's pretty clear based on the description that this siege is unbreakable. I think that pan that God tells Ezekiel to put before him and the city is that Israel is gonna cry out to God and God will not deliver them. Now, why is that? That seems cruel, seems harsh. Doesn't God promise that when you cry out, I will? The covenant actually says that if you don't do what you're supposed to do, I won't listen. Yeah. So there's already consequences. They've already rejected the prophets God has been sending them. So there's that aspect. But also thinking about this logically, why would the Israelites cry out to God? Because they are really sad about the way they've been living their life and forsaking the covenant, they want the siege to end, right? And the second the siege ends, what's going to happen? right back to their old ways. So there's a lesson that God is going to have them learn. And that's why it's discipline, it's chastisement, child training. And that's something that's important for us to understand is sometimes there's lessons to be learned and God uses suffering to teach lessons. He doesn't inflict it. I believe he allows it. And in this case, he's going to close off his ears to Israel. So there's four symbolic signs. There's the tile, the posture, which we're going to look at tonight. The third one is the defiled bread. And we'll talk about that. So has anyone ever had Ezekiel bread? I hope not, right? And I told my mother-in-law, she likes to buy that healthy stuff. And I said, that's gross. Why is that in your fridge? But if you don't get that joke, you'll understand next week. But there's the defiled bread, and then there's the basically shaving of the head when we get into Chapter 5. You'll start to see this more hopefully by the end of today's study, but these signs, while separate and distinct, all seem to be depicting kind of the future prophetic plan in this particular area. Now the sign of the tile revealed siege. So if you want to remember these, try to think of a keyword. So when you think of, okay, sign number one, tile, siege, siege, siege. So God is going to allow a siege against Jerusalem. Now, as we come to the sign of the posture, it's going to be time. There's a time element that I believe is being described in this passage. to Ezekiel, but also for the Israelites. Now, with that being said, here's a great note to hopefully encourage you before we begin from Charlie Dyer, who's got one of the more notable commentaries on the book of Ezekiel. He's a scholar. Talking about this passage, he says, this is the most difficult sign in the book to interpret, partly because of the ambiguity of the text and partly because of a textual problem. So that shouldn't be too bad, right? Cause we haven't come across anything too difficult to interpret thus far in Ezekiel, right? So we have our work cut out for us, but I think that the book of Ezekiel, our study on Wednesday night is going to be really beneficial in a way that I didn't anticipate, and that is it's really gonna put to test our Bible study methods. So we're gonna make observations, we're gonna make interpretations, and then if it's clear understanding how the original audience should apply it, we'll make application when and where possible. But how do we make our interpretations? Doing a little hermeneutic review. How do we interpret the Bible? You start with a lot of observation. Okay, a lot of observation. And let's say I observe a word. Let's take an example from the New Testament when Paul says, some of them sleep. So we take the word sleep. What do we do with that? What does that mean? Is he saying, yeah, some people are taking a nap It's a good Christian exercise. Look at the context. Which it is, by the way, right? So you look at the context, but what is the overarching standard by which we interpret? There's three areas. Literal. Literal. Historical and grammatical. Historical and grammatical. Now, under the grammatical category, but also I think a little bit under the literal category, does the Bible have figures of speech? A few, right? Just a few. a whole bunch of it, right? So you need to learn how to interpret figures of speech. Now, when you're dealing with prophetic literature, there's a lot of figures, right? There's a lot of signs. There's a lot of perhaps symbols signifying certain things. Now, does that give us open reign to do with it what you will? No, right? We can't play fast and loose with these signs and symbols. We have to let context be the king. Context, context, context. That's the king of interpretation. And so we'll practice that a little bit tonight. So as you come to verse four of chapter four, let me read the text in its entirety. He says, you also, son of man, take a, or no, I'm in verse one. Verse four, lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year. Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem. Your arms shall be uncovered and you shall prophesy against it. And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. And we'll stop there. So pretty clear, right? Close in prayer, pack it up. So what are some contextual helps that might help us in interpreting this passage? What did we just see? And maybe even before the first sign, what was the context there? God sending Ezekiel out. And what was the general message that he gave Ezekiel? His preparations before hitting the mission field. You'll do great, right? They'll come in droves. Everyone's lined up to hear you preach, Ezekiel. They're not going to listen to you at all because they have stiff necks. Stiff necks. They're rebellious. They're stubborn. They're hard of heart. And so God is preparing them for this and preparing Ezekiel for this. But what was Ezekiel's task? His number one task. Speak, right? I'm giving you words. You speak. That's it. Don't worry about the results. Speak. And I will do the rest. So that is his mission. But now we're starting to see the role of prophet isn't full of glitz and glamour, right? If we were in the ancient world, I don't think any of us would be signing up, longing for being a prophet. although they did get to speak with God, so maybe we would. But the fact remains is a lot of the prophets had to endure a lot, and we're gonna see it just begin for Ezekiel. So the instruction, so we get kind of a format, verse four gives instructions, verse five explanation. Verse six gives instructions, verse seven gives explanation, and then verse eight kind of summarizes the passage. So in verse four, we have God's instructions. The first part we see lie on your left side. So there's one observation we can make is what is Ezekiel to do? to lie down on which side? Left side. Okay, fairly simple. Now, pop quiz, is Ezekiel inside or outside at this point? Is he lying on the ground outside? Is he lying on the ground in his bedroom, in his kitchen? Here, there, anywhere? Shut yourself inside your house. Okay. So we saw in the prior passage, the context that he was told by God to shut himself in the house. Now, a lot of commentaries are divided over whether that was for that. And with these signs, he wants him to go outside so that it's a public spectacle for Israel. Because This is me personally, because I don't see any change in location, I'm going to assume that this is going to be at his house. Now, I think it could be that maybe it's out on his front porch or his front stoop, if you will, that these things are being done. So lie on the left side and then lay iniquity on it. Now, is there just a bowl of iniquity and he's got it on his table and he lays it on it? Or what do we do with that? Literal doesn't make good sense, right? So perhaps this is figurative, but in what way? with all of the sins of Israel written on it and he's going to lay that on top of him when he's laying on his left side? That's kind of the imagery I get. We're not told what it is, right? But I think there's an association that him laying down on the left side is associated with the iniquity of the house of Israel. So him laying down is being assigned the iniquity of Israel or the iniquity of Israel is being assigned him laying down. So sometimes when it comes to interpreting especially difficult passages like this, you can't get all the way home, but how far can you get? How close can you get? How many conclusions can you draw? And so long as you're not stepping over any lines hermeneutically, sometimes you just have to say, all right, that's all I can say about that. And so that's where I'm at. Any other observations that maybe I am missing or we've missed thus far? and perhaps there's some relationship in the Hebrew. I haven't gotten that far yet in my training. Lie also on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. And then he said, so who's iniquity? Israel, the house of Israel. Is it a literal house? It's talking about his family, right? So now we're learning certain things. We know that's commonly used to speak of the entire nation of Israel. And then we get the duration, end of verse four, according to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. So what's Ezekiel's role according to the end of verse four in relation to Israel's iniquity? Look at the pronouns. According to the number of the days that You, who's you? Ezekiel, lie on it. You shall bear their iniquity. So you as Ezekiel, who is there? Israel. So Ezekiel is going to bear the iniquity of Israel. And this apparently is done by him laying on his left side. Now that's not too bad, right? We could all do that. But then we keep reading and we get an explanation, verse five. So we have, for I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. So beginning of verse five, we see Ezekiel bears it. Now why? Why do you think is Ezekiel being called upon to bear the sins of Israel? It's a picture. That's a great answer, right? We're not told exactly, except he is a prophet and prophets often do perhaps a lot of things that they don't quite understand. In fact, one of my favorite things is in Daniel. when the angel reveals something, or I might be confusing someone else. Maybe it's John. What is this? He asks him a question and he's like, Lord, you know, like I have no clue what I'm looking at, but you clearly do. And so a lot of times prophets can be dealing with a lot of confusion. In fact, I think Ezekiel probably at this point is thinking, okay, why are we doing this in particular? But it's, It's a sign, it's a picture. And now we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, okay, what is this picture designed to picture? What are the thousand words that this picture is trying to paint or say? And so thus far we have him laying on his left side and it's him bearing the iniquity of Israel. And so that is significant. So then we have the second part of verse five for 390 days. Now, hello, do you think he was laying on his side for 390 days straight? Yeah. What's that? Not yet at least. Is there anything in the context though? Yeah, it'll be tied with rope. So that's problematic. So maybe it is indefinitely. Yeah. So what about the next sign of the bread? When we come to, let's see, verse nine, also take for yourself wheat, barley, for yourself during the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days you shall eat it. So we're getting a little bit more description in the later signs or the later pictures, but it seems... Apparently he was not laying there all day, every day, but every day he was laying there part of the day, most of the day, something to that effect. But when I first came to this passage and I read that, I was thinking that, well, first of all, this is a miracle because he's not eating or drinking for 390 days. That's impossible. So that's huge. That's pretty special. But I don't think that's the case, although I don't think it's a consolation based on what he's eating. during that time, but I think that apparently he was doing this. So in fact, that would, especially if this was designed to be a public spectacle, that would probably enhance the public, I guess, Attract attraction as you know that Ezekiel he's going out again. He look he's Tied up he's laying down. Why is he doing that? And you know, he day in day out doing that for 390 days now, how long is 390 days a Year in a month, right and if we go by the numbers Biblically, how long is a year? Yeah, 360, so 360 plus 30, so that's a year and a month. It's about a year and a month either way, 365, but that's a long time, right? So he's doing this for that long. Now, what do we do or what do we make of the Septuagint saying it's 190 years? Who's correct? The Masoretes or the Septuagint? The Masoretic Text or the Septuagint? Masoretes. Now we'll answer this more fully here in a moment, but I think 390 days is correct. I think 190 was added because even the Septuagint had a hard time interpreting this passage. And so we'll see something I think is significant here in a moment. So any comments or questions on that? 390 days on his left side. So then we have a summary verse five. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. So again, this picture is he is the picture of bearing the iniquity of Israel. And so is there any significance with the amount of time given? How long is he bearing the iniquity of Israel? Yeah, so 390 days represent years. So 390 years. And we'll talk more about that here in a moment. So now we get instructions, some more instructions, verse six. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year. So same thing, right? A day represents a year. And why does Judah only get 40? Because he doesn't have as many bad things. It's got to be because they were in Egypt for close to 400 years, right? So there's the 390. And then they were in the wilderness for 40 years, right? So is there significance there? It's a trap. No, right? It's just the same amount of days. Now, I say that because there's a lot of commentaries, a lot of teachers that will say, Oh, similarity means sameness. That year 40 is is significant. Now, I'm not saying don't investigate it. Maybe there is something interesting, something peculiar. But I think that it's just the the amount that they are going to pay for their iniquities. And I kind of revealed a little bit there with what's happening. Yeah, I was just thinking verse one. Ezekiel is addressed as son of man, and in verse five, he is going to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. I wonder if this is somehow foreshadowing the fact that there's going to be a representative bear the iniquity of the people and son of man and it's all kind of vaguely messianic people for there to be a substitute. It certainly has messianic undertones, right? Or maybe even overtones. with that language being used, I would totally agree with you. The bearing their sin, certainly that's there, right? In fact, the fact that Israel is going to bear their iniquity should also prepare them that, hey, there's someone who will bear your iniquity. Oh yeah, Isaiah told us about him, the suffering servant. He bore our sorrows. And so, yeah, I think that's an interesting connection that could be. So now he's told to lay on his right side for Judah's iniquity and this is 40 days instead. Now putting some things together a little bit. When was Jehoiachin's deportation? I know you guys have random Bible trivia in your head. I did not have this date. The only date I have is 586. What's that? Not quite. Yeah. That's the final destruction of the city, I think, in the temple. Yeah, so 586 is the fall of Jerusalem. That's the date I remember. Now, Jehoiachin's deportation is 597, which means if Ezekiel's prophecy... Just as kind of an aside, if Ezekiel's prophesying 5 years into Jehoiachin's exile, what year is it in Ezekiel's? time or setting. 592? Yeah, 592. So that is a helpful thing that we can learn. That's when Ezekiel began his ministries, 592. And so 586, the fall of Jerusalem, is that before or after 592? After. After. So the fall of Jerusalem has not happened, but God said it is about to happen. The siege is about to happen. And so here's the other issue. So you take the amount of time, 390, and you take 40. That's 430. Is this iniquity before or after? Is it pointing or directing to the past? So because of their iniquity, I'm having you do this. So is it kind of more of a historical look, or is it more of a prophetic look? It's looking future. This had me stumped, by the way, all day today. I came to a conclusion. And if you disagree, that's fine. Just know that there's great scholars on both sides. So what I did just to take you through this process is, okay, you've got, let's say we take the date. We don't know when it starts. Is it the time that they were speaking? Is it the time of Jehoiachin's deportation? Is it the time of the fall of Jerusalem? So is it 597 or 586 or 592? So I experimented with all of those and I added 430 to that. And that takes you about to what? I'm not gonna do math on the fly. One of them, I can't tell you which one. I remember the number because it was a nice round number of 1020 BC. Anything, what was going on in Israel in 1020 BC? It was the reign of Saul. Well, it was, there's some discrepancy. That's the other issue I ran into, but Saul. So my line of thinking was, if you took this as a, because of their iniquity, they've been sinning for 430 years. What's the nearest event? What sin is it that could perhaps be in view here? And it was interesting because the closest antecedent would have been Saul's reign, which would have been them asking for a king, right? Now, if you took that view, that's a possibility, but the dates don't line up great. So I think you gotta be really cautious with that. The other thing is, who's to say we're supposed to add 390 40 and get 430. So that's the other issue. Are we taking liberties there? So I would take the alternative, especially in light of, again, pop quiz, is 586 before or after 592? After. So that's a future event that God just foretold in the first sign, right? Might I suggest he's doing the same thing with the second sign and he's giving some future Timeline as to how long something's going to happen Now is it the siege is the siege gonna be 430 years? No Just to kind of give you my answer, and then you can see the observations that led me to this conclusion. I think it's similar to some of the prophecies in Daniel, the time of the Gentiles. God is telling Ezekiel and the Israelites the time span in which they would be under Gentile suppression. Not time of the Gentiles, and that was kind of a poor comparison, because that's in a strict sense, that's from now and from, Nebuchadnezzar to the kingdom, but oppression in which Gentiles would be directly ruling over the Jews. And so that's how I see that. So if just to break down the dates, let's say we're not given the date when to start, but let's say Jehoiachin's deportation, 597. Minus 430 takes us to 167 BC. That's pretty close to Christ, but not close enough, right? Is there anything significant that happened that year? The Maccabean revolt happened that year. Now that's interesting. So then we have, let's say the fall of Jerusalem starts the calendar. 586 minus 430, that takes us to 156 BC. Anything happened that year? That's when the Maccabean kingdom was established. Now the tricky part is this makes me want to break a habit that I really try to avoid when I'm studying the Bible and that is I let history or something determine the interpretation. I don't like doing that but man it lines up really sweetly and I think it fits very nicely with what the general message seems to be conveying. So he conveyed this siege that's going to lead to the destruction of Jerusalem. So I think sign number two is giving us the time span in which God is saying they shall bear their iniquity for this long. So could it be now I'm holding this very loosely. I'm totally willing to have my mind changed on this. But could it be that God foresaw the Maccabean kingdom and revolt and perhaps was even behind that? I think so. Now, I don't think endorsing everything, not necessarily, but I think we sometimes get this conception of the inner testament period. What is it called often? The 400 years of silence. Now, I understand where that's coming from. It means God is not actively speaking through a prophet, but sometimes we conclude as Christians that that's when God went on vacation for a little bit and just let things run and then picked up with season two before the grand finale. But I don't see that at all. In fact, I see God very busy during that time. Everything coming into place to where when we get passages that say, in the fullness of time, he sent forth his son, Well, that time was being prepared during that quote silent period. And I think the Maccabean kingdom is when the Jews finally had autonomy in the land again, in preparation for the Messiah. Now you can maybe argue as to how autonomous they were, but the thing is, is Rome was such that they often allowed the autonomy of their vassals, if you will, and let them do their own thing so long as they pay tribute or tax to Caesar. So any comments, questions, issues, criticisms with that interpretation? Yes. Just in general, verse four. 6, it's on Judah. But when you said the house of Israel, you said the nation. Is it just the 10 tribes? Because of the distinction between Israel and Judah? When did I say nation and what verse? You just made, when we were talking about the house of Israel, who is that? And you said it was the nation. Yeah, I wouldn't have any issue doubling down and saying essentially the nation. And that was the 10 tribes. Wouldn't it? The northern kingdom. Yeah, the northern. Yeah. When you say nation, I think of. Sure. Yeah. So maybe nation's a misnomer. So yeah, the northern kingdom. And then we're going to see Ezekiel speaks a lot about the one of my favorite prophecies is the branch or the two sticks becoming one. and combining both kingdoms into one, and that's ultimately fulfilled in the kingdom. But we've got plenty of time before we get there. Any other thoughts, comments, or questions? So if this is a timeline of the Maccabean, what's the significance? Well, sort of what It is convenient that it lines up with the Maccabean revolt. But I wouldn't primarily take this because it lines up. I think that there's enough evidence that suggests this is forward looking. And I think there's also evidence that suggests there is something happening with the first sign where the siege is doing what? Well, it's ultimately destroying Jerusalem. So that means this time frame element, what would be the most pertinent question on the Jews mind after hearing about the destruction of the city? Okay, well, how long will it be destroyed and trampled underfoot? And so that's what would lead me to, okay, maybe that's the under Gentile oppression. So he's giving a timeline for how long they would be under Gentile oppression. And it happens to line up perfectly with the Maccabean revolt. But he would have, Ezekiel has no idea about that at all. And so that, if you're not quite where I am on that, and I'm there very loosely, what I do want you to leave here with is that I think this is clearly future direction, not giving a history. It's saying that based on their iniquity, they will bear their iniquity for 390 years, Judah for 40 years. Now, if you're not quite there that those should be combined, that's a separate issue. But that's I think the gist of it is it's giving us time. Elements which God has done before right? God gave time elements to Jeremiah. He gave time elements to Daniel In fact, some of the most specific time elements were given to Daniel. And so I think there's something similar happening here Strong Gentile oppression with under Greece. I For the most part, in fact, Antiochus Epiphanes or Epiphanes, Epiphanes. OK. But under Alexander the Great, they were not. What's that? Also the Parthians and the Parthians. Yeah. Initially, no, because my understanding is, according to history, when Alexander the Great was coming down and he entered Jerusalem, a group of rabbis said, hey, you're in our holy book. God told us about you. And he thought that was pretty sweet, so he gave, I think, gifts or something. But when he died, what happened to the Grecian empire was split four ways, and the one that controlled Israel, they were not friendly towards Israel. So, but good question. All right, well, let's finish verse seven and eight then. Explanation of this in verse seven. Therefore, you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem. Your arms shall be uncovered and you shall prophesy against it. Now, again, that seems to be speaking directionally future. I don't see this as saying because you've done this, this it's because of their iniquity, they will bear their iniquity for this amount of time. So then we have verse eight, God's binding. And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. Now I thought Ezekiel was going to be bound with ropes. In fact, does someone have a new American standard version? What does that say in verse eight? I will put ropes on you. God will? So I have a note in the notes. Note the irony with chapter 3, verse 25. And you, O son of man, surely they, who's they? Israel, will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. Now, why would they, Israel, bind Ezekiel? Because they don't want to hear what he has to say. They don't want to hear what he has to say, more specifically God's word. If I may take a liberal jump in that direction. So why would God bind Ezekiel? Because he told him to do it, but he's going to bind him to make sure it happens, right? Because perhaps the sign and what it's communicating is a sure thing. So I see a tremendous amount of irony in which they're trying to bind the word words of God and God. It seems like there's a play on words here where he is going to bind his word and it's a sure thing. So they're binding it in the sense of trying to keep it from happening. And God is demonstrating through binding Ezekiel that this will happen. So it's just an interesting. I think, intentional play on words there. And do with it what you will. So then we have the summary, end of verse eight. And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. So he's bound for the reason that he's got to endure this entire Process right because God wants him to do this and it will certainly happen. So quickly getting through the Application Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy in vivid fashion So rather than just prophesying thus sayeth the Lord saying this it's through demonstration. He's doing Skits he's doing drama. He's doing these sort of things now I'm not saying because some people take this as justification for skits and drama in church And I'm not against skits and dramas in church. I just don't think this is necessarily justifying that. But he is prophesying in a very vivid visual fashion. Number two, the first sign, the plate, concerns the siege. Three, the reason given is the iniquity of Israel and Judah. Number four, the prophetic sign focuses on the duration. So the siege's focus of sign one, the duration seems to be the focus of sign two. It's kind of similar to parables where stuff like this you really don't want to read too much into the details to where you get lost. But we'll touch that more on in the Gospel of Matthew. Number six. or excuse me, verse five or number five, the timeframe appears to direct forward. Also notice we didn't get there tonight, but verse 13, then the Lord said, so shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them. So these signs seem to correlate, they seem to stack. And so that's going to give us, I guess, a four, no pun intended, a four taste for next week is, what life will be like during that time of Gentile oppression, but it is future directed forward towards the future rather than history. Number six, I conclude that God is revealing the duration of Gentile oppression over his people after the fall of Jerusalem. So giving us a timeframe element. Number seven, how, so this is for you, how binding is God's word? this little word picture that he does with Ezekiel, does he have to do it? Yeah, so God did it, but I think, did he do it because Ezekiel wouldn't do it or wasn't willing to do it, or was he maybe trying to prove a point? Basically proving a point that my word is bound, and I have bound myself to my word, this will surely happen. So how does that relate to other things that God has said? Is his word binding? That could be good or bad, right? God says he's going to judge evil, and we're evil. That's not good. If God says he will reward the righteous, and we're among the righteous, and we have rewardable works, that's good, right? It's a sure thing. His word is binding. So how does that relate to us, his word being binding? Any closing thoughts, comments or remarks on his word being binding? Yes, sure, it will accomplish that for which he sent it. Yeah, that's a good parallel. God's Word is true word to word and from cover to cover, right? and we can trust in it. We could build our lives upon it. And it's not just a social thing. It's not just a, yeah, on the weekends I like to go to church, hear some interesting stories and learn to be a better person. It is the foundation of our lives. And we have to see it that way. Otherwise, because there's no neutrality, right? You know that, right? There's no neutrality. You're either operating under a biblical worldview or you're not. And if we don't have this understanding that the word of God is the foundation of our life, then the foundation is going to be built on other things. You know, the wisdom of man, the wisdom, or even the folly of man sometimes. And so I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E, right? Any other comments, thoughts, questions? Do you understand Ezekiel 4 verses 4 through 8, a little bit better. No, a fraction. Halfway to first base. Okay, yes. Hey, it's better than striking out at home.