Over time of the service, you ought to have your focus on that only, okay? Just letting everybody know. So, I usually don't watch to see if you have your phone out during alter call, but people tell me. that people have their phones out. It is disrespectful to God, disrespectful to people who need to do business with God. And it might be that there's somebody here that's not saved. And they look and they see you on your phone and see that it's not important to you. So it's not important to them to get saved. And I would hate for somebody to go to hell because I was playing on my phone. It's legit, it's serious guys. All right, so your questions. Yes sir, Torrance. All right, Cain and Abel. We talked about that last week. I'm just kidding. We talked about everything last week. Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter number four. Turn over to Genesis chapter number four I'm going to try not to take the whole service for that question, OK? And I'm going to have you say that question for us again. I'm not sure, and I will repeat it back to you to make sure that our folks that are listening online or if you want to listen to it again, you can remember what you asked and so on. So ask the question again. OK. Was Abel's life taken out of jealousy or a combination of jealousy and bitterness? That's the question. Alright? So, Genesis 4. Verse 1, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, She again bear his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground on an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought. Of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect under Abel and to his offering but on the cane and to his offering He had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Then we go on to see how the response goes and it says the Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy brother and he said I know not am I my brother's keeper. He said what has thou done. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto the ground unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand and then when thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth Cain said this is this is too much and so on so. If you'll notice here. Keynes So your question was did he slay him out of jealousy or was it a combination of jealousy and bitterness. Was that. So yeah Keynes motives were impure to begin with. We find this because as the Lord said if thou do as well you'll be accepted. The reason his offering wasn't accepted was not because it wasn't a blood offering. because there's plenty of non-blood offerings commanded in the Bible later on. A lot of people will tell you that it's because it wasn't a blood offering. It's because the heart of Cain was wicked. In 1 John, the Bible says, let's look and see, because it actually gives us the answer to your question, at least somewhat. So in 1 John, Now if I can remember where it is we'll be doing very well. Here we go. Chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Verse number 11 for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain. Who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him. So why did he why did he kill his brother. because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." So, was it jealousy? Was it envy? Was it bitterness? It was because his works were evil. It was already in his heart. Cain killed his brother because, and I'll just kind of make it simple, Cain killed his brother because he wanted to kill God. And he couldn't. And his brother was the representation of God because his brother was righteous and his brother did the right thing and he thought well I can't kill God I'll do the next best thing. I'll kill the one who represents him. I'll kill the one who and man's been doing that ever since by the way. So was it jealousy against Abel directly. I would say maybe a little bit. Yeah. Was it. Was it bitterness? I would say, yeah, bitterness against God. I don't think that the issue was actually Cain's hatred toward Abel particularly. It was misplaced vengeance. Cain wanted to fight God over not accepting Him. But then there was jealousy and bitterness toward God. Jealousy toward Abel bitterness toward God. So I would say your second option there jealousy and bitterness combination is probably more likely your answer there. The direct answer is it was because Abel Abel's works were righteous and Cain's were wicked. And so that's that's the direct answer but you gave me two options I would say the second option is the more likely option where you have jealousy toward Abel and bitterness toward God which caused Cain. Well didn't cause it fueled Cain in his wrath on Abel. Does that does that answer your question. Men men love darkness because their deeds are evil. Yeah. John Chapter 3. What's that. You already used it. Now it's good. So does that answer the question. All right. Very good. Amen. All right. Other questions? We have about nine minutes, technically, but we can go a little over. We started a little late. Yes, sir. Was he Esther and Ahasuerus' son, King Cyrus? That is a good question. That is a very good question. When you start talking about the Babylonian kings you have to dig a little deeper than just the text. The reason I say that is because you have to you have to look at how the names are because depending on what language is being referred to will determine what name it is like for example King Uzziah had another name as well. So it has you wear us. And Cyrus, I believe, had, well, Cyrus's name is Cyrus's name. Was Cyrus Esther's son? I have to give a direct answer on that. I can't tell you that I know during our Sunday school session this morning. But it would be something that you'd have to look into genealogy about, so. So that's, I would say, direct answer, I don't know. I don't know. So, what's that one point for you? No, no. This has not stumped the pastor today, okay? And the pastor's not stumped if he gives you an honest answer, and I did. And the honest answer is, I don't know. So, so there you go. So, Cyrus, but what I do know is Cyrus was prophesied about. By name. Long before he was born. And so that's that that's your that's your little tidbit on Cyrus. But yeah. Yeah. Right. Well and then so you kind of have to dig back to OK who's who. in the captivity. And so when you start out the captivity you have Nebuchadnezzar taking over taking taking the southern kingdom Judah into captivity right at that time Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of the whole world. It became the ruler of the whole world right around that time. And so the Bible says the whole world doesn't you know so Whether that whether everybody else knew it or not he was their ruler. So. So Nebuchadnezzar was was the ruler. Then his son takes over and his grandson takes over after him. The Babylonian captivity was 70 years during that captivity there were some changes of hands and so you have. Nebuchadnezzar his grandson messes up and he gets the writing on the wall right if you remember and then he's out then you have in in in the book of Daniel you have next King anybody remember Some of this Q&A is going to come back to you, okay? You got it. Darius, yeah. So, this was the king of? The Medes and the Persians, yeah. And so, you have these various kings that are mentioned. King Cyrus was obviously toward the end of the captivity because he was the one that was going to be. You know releasing the Israelites or rather making the prophecy to rebuild Jerusalem or not making the prophecy making the proclamation to rebuild Jerusalem. And so. So he would be toward the end. Now where the book of Esther falls into that and then the language and the names is where you have to kind of dig a little bit further. Okay. Sounds about right. And Ahasuerus was... I'm going back the other way. Ahasuerus was... You're looking at the genealogy in your hand, right? Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Okay. So what? Oh, oh, King Cyrus. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. King Cyrus's parents. Okay. Okay. So that that's your genealogy there, which is very interesting, because that means that Cyrus was half or a part, part Israelite. Okay. At the beginning of the book of Esther, it says, now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, and it says, this is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India, even unto Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces. Those days when the king Ahasuerus, and so on, it goes on about the things here, but it, so, well, I guess it gives a little bit more information about that. So, it says, in those days, When the king has you were sat on the throne of his kingdom which was in shoe Shan the palace the palace. Yeah. These words man the shoes and the palace. Yes. In the third year of his reign he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants the power of Persia and media, the the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him and it goes on down. But the kingdom basically is the is the kingdom of of media and Persia or Persia and media. So this would be likely successor of or or maybe a couple of generations down successor of Darius. So There you go. But interesting how the Lord works on those things, right? Like the book of Esther. What's that? Yep. Right. Yeah. Yet if Mordecai didn't do what he was supposed to do if Mordecai wasn't faithful Esther wouldn't be in the position she was in if if Esther wasn't faithful there would be no Cyrus if Cyrus didn't happen there would be no return from the captivity. Yeah. God prophesied because he knew these events were going to happen so Prophecy. That's the thing about prophecy. Sometimes people think that because God said this, he's going to make it happen. No, he said it because it happens. So it's it makes your mind bend a little bit because. Sometimes people say, well, you know, the Bible says this is going to happen, so God's going to force it. No, that's not how prophecy works. God says it's going to happen because he knows the end from the beginning. And so So when we start talking about, you know, if this didn't happen, then this would happen and then this wouldn't have happened and so on. Technically. It could it could not have not happened. However. Every choice that had to be made along the way for it to happen. Those choices were made willfully by the people that made them. They weren't forced. God didn't force them. But God knew the choices they were going to make, and so He was able to say, Cyrus, you're going to do this. Right. So other views of that are that God made them make those choices, and that's not true. Those choices were all made voluntarily. God knew they were going to make the choices that they were going to make, and so that is why it worked out the way that it did. And that and because they made those choices but God knew that he was that they were going to make those choices and that's why he was able to say long before it happened that it was going to happen the way that it did make sense. All right. So you found your own answer. So grand son. Yep. That's that's good stuff. That's good stuff. I I will say that my my understanding of the genealogies of kings and priests and prophets is not it's it's it's lacking. I know that I can find it but I don't just have it right on top of my head like oh yeah yeah Cyrus was now now that we've talked about it I will probably remember that Cyrus was Esther's grandson. And so because that's really interesting. to think about and how, like you said, Cyrus's father passed. And so they brought him. And so the the the prophecy that was made of Cyrus, he was able to be told that prophecy by a faithful Israelite. Which, interestingly enough, the Book of Esther has no reference, direct reference to God, but he's all the way through the book at work. So really, really neat. So he is at work. The other thing about the book of Esther is just the amazing, the amazing power of choice. And when you look through the book of Esther and you see, well, Wow if Vashti didn't choose what she chose this wouldn't have happened if the influence of the king would not have been what it was at that time then that then she wouldn't have been exiled if it wasn't for those things there wouldn't be a need for Esther to be involved right. And if it wasn't for Mordecai doing what he did Heyman would not have been mad at Mordecai. If it wasn't for you know Heyman or if it wasn't for Mordecai doing what he did for it has you whereas when he turned in the spies the people that were going to try to take him out if it wasn't for the faithfulness of Mordecai in that situation when he overheard that conversation. then it wouldn't then then Heyman wouldn't be as mad as he was to set the law in place. And if it wasn't for that law being set in place, Esther wouldn't have been challenged to to make a hard decision for her people. And if it wasn't for her making that hard decision for her people, they very well could have been wiped out and herself as well. if it wasn't for all of that, and then how she handled it, and the getting together and eating together and talking about what's going on and everything, rather than her just coming and saying, Haman's trying to kill us! And just the way that it laid out. And then what the king said. The king said, I can't change the law, but we can add something here. We can put another caveat in there where you can defend yourselves. And so he said, we'll put that into law. Then you have. Well then you then you have the whole thing about the festival is still they still celebrate Purim or Purim today where God delivered Israel from destruction from Haman in Esther's day and so and then yeah and then then you have the whole I don't know any of the circumstances of their their children and then the grandchild coming you know I don't know the circumstances of it but amazing that that he gets to come to you know Mamaw and Papaw's house and hear about what God said about him. Right. And and then yeah. And then the whole way that the kingdom and all of that you know probably shifted and changed. You think about the relationship of Ahasuerus and Esther after going through that with Heyman, you know, it was probably strengthened the relationship strengthened the trust of, you know, has you wear us with Mordecai and with and with Esther and with the Jewish people. Maybe. Yeah. But still yet I mean the relationship was strengthened not just with the husband and wife there the king the queen but the relationship was also strengthened between the king and some of the people that he was ruling the Israelites themselves. And so very very interesting how that you know that that that bond there then created the platform for Esther to be an influence, a further influence on her children and grandchildren, so that Cyrus would be ready for what God prophesied he would do. Any other questions? We'll maybe take one more if I can answer it in five minutes. If not, we'll take a break. Yes, sir? How did he relate to them? He was their brother. And so that's the direct relationship. The siblings are named. You have... Can I find it without searching my Bible app? Let's see. Or y'all help me. It names in the Gospels, it says, is not this Joseph's son? And then it names his brothers, and then says, and his sisters are with us? Or is not this the carpenter's son? There's two places in the Gospels that it's named there. Anybody want to look? Use your Bible search app Luke 4, right here. All right. What? What'd you say, Luke 4 what? 22? Yeah, it's not this Joseph's son, but that's not the one that I'm looking for. Because it doesn't name his siblings. Yeah, so the second part of your answer, or the second part of your question is better answered the way I first answered it. He was their brother. How did they interact? They interacted like siblings. What kind of conversations did they have? Nobody knows. Good ones, yes, good ones. Now, you know, I mean, there's some things that we don't know, obviously. He was the oldest we know that he was the firstborn. Yes. And we know that subsequently that Mary was not a perpetual virgin as some religions think she was. She had six, at least six other children after Jesus. At least six. So, yeah. You had James, John, and who else? Jude. James, John, Jude, who else? They weren't named, but they were probably Jessica and Jasmine, because they are all J names. I'm just kidding. Did we have, did we have, I think there was one other brother and I'm forgetting now. Nobody found it in your search? No, he wasn't a brother. Nobody found the search? No, no, in the Bible, man. So Matthew 13, 56. Matthew 13, 56. Yeah, Mark 6, 3. 1356, I have it underlined here. It says, "...is not this the carpenter's son, is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren, James, Joseph, and Simon, and Judas?" These are not the same. Now these guys did become His disciples later, but they're not the same. Like Simon, that's not Simon Peter, and James there. And I said John, I was wrong, it was Joseph. But and I think Simon was kind of the the the off one there because he didn't have the J name but At least in English that is But anyhow, so he's mentioned to have four brothers and it says I and his sisters. Are they not all with us?" So it doesn't name his sisters, but the fact that it says sisters, we know that it's not one, it's at least two. So he had at least six siblings. So there were at least Mary and Joseph had at least seven kids, at least. So Jesus being the first, obviously, and then four brothers and at least two sisters. They may have had 12 sisters. We don't know. It just says sisters, plural. So it's at least two. So we know that there were at least seven of them. How was that? Yeah, they were. And there is a mention in one place in the Gospels that his brethren did not believe on him yet. They eventually did. So there's that as far as relationship. You've got that information. But they eventually did. In fact, Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but Judas, Jesus's brother, wrote the book of Jude. Yeah. So. Yep. So that's that's that. So how do they relate to one another as children? I would say the basic answer is it doesn't matter because God didn't see fit to tell us. What's that? Yeah, they probably played games and things and enjoyed one another's company and grew in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Grew in grace both with God and man. That's that's about the details that we have. So now, interestingly, we have the account of Jesus at at about 12 years old left at the temple. Where were his siblings? Either they were still with their parents or they weren't born yet, possibly. I would say that it seems that it would make sense that they were probably born and the parents were probably slightly preoccupied with the younger children. Which would kind of be part of the reason why the why Jesus would have been left there. But that's my theory. That's that's my opinion. Not that that he was you know the Bible doesn't doesn't tell us why he stayed there or rather why why they left and didn't know that he was not with them. But anyone who has multiple children knows that it very well could possibly have been Because there were a bunch of little ones and they're dealing with the little ones and the almost teenager. They figured he's probably fine. He's probably with us somewhere. Yeah. It was a large group of people. So probably they were probably with other families and they had the little ones and they're probably like well Jesus is probably over there with you know with with Simon's family or something. Yes sir. Yeah. following that from 12 to 24? Yeah. So, so the what? The 16 years following that there are theories and there are apocryphal books that that are wild, crazy, you know, but as far as what what God gave us about that period of time, We have nothing from 12 to 30. So what, 16 years, or 18 years, yeah. Thank you, you're better with math than I am. Yeah, so that 18 years, we don't have any information about that 18 years. Again, we know that he grew in favor and grace with God and man during that period of time. We know that that it references that he learned obedience. From that particular. Date you know when when he was when his parents came back to him and said. You know where you've been what's going on he says wish you know that I must be about my father's business. It says that he went with them. He learned obedience. In the sense of experiential learning that's we. I think we had a Q&A at one point somebody asked how could Jesus learn anything when he knows everything. Well, you have knowledge that is known because it's known, but then you have knowledge that is known because it's experienced. Experiential knowledge versus informational knowledge. So he knew what it was like, but he didn't know what it was like. So he knew from the perspective of knowing because he knows all things, but from the perspective of knowing by experience, by actually going through it, he had to learn that. And he knew what that was like before, but he had to experience it to know it fully, to know it by experience. So it's just a concept of, you know, there are some things that we know, like, for example, you go to Bible college, you might know a lot of things about the Bible, but you may not really know them because you haven't had to have them tested in your knowledge and had to deal with them in the ministry. And so that's why experience is important as well. So, yep. All right, we're gonna close in prayer for a minute here. We are supposed to start our morning service two minutes ago. So we'll close in prayer, we'll take a break. Everybody, you can use the bathroom, whatever you gotta do, come back, and then we'll start our morning service. We're gonna do you pick on songs. And what I'm gonna do this morning is if we, I am open for also doing special music and it can be you pick also. So like you can say hey pastor I want you to sing this song or have sister Melissa sing this song or Amelia is going to play the piano or something. So brother Travis is going to play some play some music from our church radio station. And so. All right. Travis is going to read a hymn for us. Amen. All right. So I don't want to get too crazy. OK let's let's let's keep things decently in an order but but we do want to like where it's it's a Q&A service. It's somewhat of an open ish service. But I will keep the reins. tight so that we keep them decent and in order. So let's pray. Thank you, Lord, so much for your word. Thank you, Lord, for just your goodness to us. And thank you, Lord, for giving us giving us your word to be able to study and to discuss. And we just pray that you bless our time together for the rest of the day today. We thank you, Lord, for your people and the faithfulness of the saints. And we just pray uh that you'd give wisdom and that you'd give guidance and help us lord to to uh have good services today that that they would be according to your uh to your will and glorifying to you in jesus name amen all right you're dismissed for