The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Max Lucado & Skip Moen ｜ 10⧸5⧸23

00:00:00.000 Today is an amazing show. I learned a ton today. This is the first in the next 40 days

00:00:08.840 that we are preparing for the covenant. If you don't know what that is, it is something

00:00:13.100 right out of American history and the Bible as well. But our pilgrims made a covenant with God,

00:00:20.080 George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and we are dangerously close to, well, cutting our hair.

00:00:27.720 You will understand that if you listen to today's podcast. You'll learn things. I mean,

00:00:32.160 I was blown away and I thought I knew things with the guests that were coming on the show.

00:00:38.000 It is fantastic. Don't miss a second of it. Brought to you by Relief Factor. When somebody

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00:01:48.720 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:01:55.980 You and I are an awful lot alike. We both worry about a future when we all feel like we have

00:02:01.380 nothing to rely on. We don't know where to turn because nothing is real. Nothing is solid.

00:02:08.460 Hey, where are you going? What are you doing with your money? You know, I saw the stock markets going

00:02:12.120 down. Bitcoin's going down. Where are you putting your money? I don't know. You know, gold's a pretty

00:02:16.940 good idea. Yeah, really? Is it? Because I think I read some places, the deeper you bury it, the more

00:02:22.740 it'll slip through your fingers. I mean, I have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring. Everything

00:02:27.980 that I thought was solid is now liquid. When our money, our food, our government, our culture

00:02:33.340 has let us all down, what then? The only reason that I'm not in a ditch somewhere or in total despair

00:02:42.800 is because of two things. My wife, who taught me about God. And I know that God isn't going to let

00:02:51.400 me down. And I need that. And it's not that he, it's not like, you know, Glenn, now, you know,

00:02:57.000 you'd say you're a Christian. So now everything's going to be good. It's not like that at all. 0.96

00:03:01.820 I need to know that God is there. But when things go poorly and I'm like, hey, I'm doing

00:03:09.080 everything I'm supposed to do. And everything is like all of a sudden, like a black abyss.

00:03:13.760 You're like, wait a minute. I'm a Christian. Remember, I'm a Christian. That doesn't work

00:03:18.720 that way. When you really become mature in your faith, you know, when things go poorly, it's

00:03:25.420 not that just this too will pass. I shut up with that. I hurt. But what gives you hope

00:03:32.280 is that, you know, even the worst stuff that you've done or experienced is going to be used

00:03:39.220 in miraculous ways. You just got to get out of the way because Glennon ain't all about you.

00:03:45.800 And I hate that. It's about eternal truths. A guy who has been up and down and down at his

00:03:55.260 highest point. Max Lucado is with us. Hello, Max. How are you, man? I just, you can keep

00:04:03.340 talking all day, Glenn. I wanted to shout amen a few times, but I didn't know if I would

00:04:09.900 interrupt you. You're right on target, my friend. Thank you.

00:04:14.540 How do we convince people who have not experienced, because I know you have, Max, you've experienced

00:04:23.280 the reassurance, the knowingness that God's got you either way. And no matter what happens,

00:04:32.360 it's like I can look at death and somebody dying and go, not that, you know, the normal,

00:04:39.880 oh, well, they're in a better place. I know that. But actually having faith, I'm going to see him

00:04:45.620 again. It's all going to be good. How do you teach that? Yeah. And it needs to be taught because

00:04:54.140 we're living in a day of despair. Did you know the suicide rate in America has increased 24%

00:05:01.700 since 1999? You know, if a disease saw a 24% spike, we would call it an epidemic.

00:05:10.760 Yes, we would. So how do we explain the increase? I mean, we've never been more educated.

00:05:16.380 We have tools of technology our parents would only dream of. We're saturated with entertainment and

00:05:23.040 recreation. And yet more people are orchestrating their own deaths than ever. And I think the answer

00:05:30.620 is people are dying for lack of hope. You know, secularism just sucks the hope out of the heart.

00:05:37.720 But the idea that there is no God or if there is a God, he's distant. That secularistic viewpoint or

00:05:45.700 worldview reduces the world to just a few decades on earth, just that dash between the dates on the

00:05:53.300 gravestone. And people believe that this world is as good as it gets. And let's face it, it's not that

00:05:59.160 good. But people of the promise, people who begin to build their lives on the promises of God,

00:06:07.200 have a huge advantage. And that is when problems surface, they can be heard telling themselves,

00:06:14.580 but I read something in the scripture, or but God told me, or but I know that God got me through this

00:06:22.080 before. They make a deliberate choice to build their lives on the promises of God, not the circumstances

00:06:32.160 of life. And as a result, they have a leg up, they have they have a they they have an advantage,

00:06:40.240 they have an inside track, because they lift up their eyes, and they get hope, find hope outside

00:06:47.920 of this world. So I'm all over what you're saying. And thank you so much for saying.

00:06:53.680 So, you know, I just remembered Ben Sherwood is a friend of mine, he used to be a producer at ABC.

00:07:00.200 And that's what I got to know him. And then he eventually ended up being the head of ABC for a

00:07:04.440 while or ABC Disney, I think. And he wrote a book called The Survivors Club. And what it what he found

00:07:11.520 in this, and he wasn't taking it from a, you know, spiritual point of view when he started the book,

00:07:17.200 he wasn't looking for something he wanted to know, what do all survivors have in common? And he found

00:07:22.320 survivors have hope in God. And if they have that hope, no matter how bad it gets, they survive when

00:07:32.560 most don't. Absolutely. That narrows it down right there. And one of the great discoveries that people

00:07:44.420 who attempt to find faith discover is that we have a God who makes promises and who keeps promises.

00:07:54.800 And understanding how our God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God is just such a source of

00:08:05.240 strength. I read one person who spent a year and a half attempting to tally up the number of promises

00:08:13.380 that God made to humanity. His list, 7,487 promises. Promises about fear, promises about sin,

00:08:24.440 promises about death, promises about provision, just every single area of life. God has spoken a promise.

00:08:33.620 He's spoken a promise. So give us some examples of promises that he has kept.

00:08:40.320 Yes, sir. Absolutely. When he created the earth, he said, and God said, Genesis chapter one says,

00:08:51.300 and God said, and God said, and God said, and every time God said something, something happened.

00:08:57.900 So when God speaks, that is a decree. It's not a desire. It's a decree. And because our God keeps his

00:09:08.340 promises, the fact of the matter is, his promises are irrevocable, because he's unchanging. He's not

00:09:16.420 victimized by moods or weather. He's faithful. He's strong. He never over promises and under delivers.

00:09:24.580 Romans 4, 21 says God is able to do whatever he promises. Hebrews 6, 18 says it's impossible for God to

00:09:33.020 lie. Doesn't say it's unlikely that God will lie or improbable, but it is impossible. He cannot lie.

00:09:41.240 A rock cannot swim. A hippo cannot fly. A butterfly cannot eat a bowl of spaghetti. Well, I can't sleep

00:09:47.680 on the cloud and God cannot lie. So, so he never exaggerates. He never manipulates. He never flatters.

00:09:53.780 He just doesn't break promises. And we're seeing, I know you, you gave a speech for one,

00:10:02.000 one for Israel ministries, and you said, promises God made to Israel thousands of years ago are being

00:10:08.180 fulfilled in our generation. Most people are not, that's not making news. Can you give us example of

00:10:14.500 the promises there that are coming true? Exactly. Well, God promised Abraham seed and

00:10:23.520 soil. He said, through your seed or through your lineage, the entire world would be blessed.

00:10:30.640 And boy, is that not a promise that's been kept? Yes. I mean, look, we have the, we have the Bible.

00:10:37.420 We have the, we have the church. We have Jesus Christ. I think we have much reason from the Jews 0.99

00:10:44.580 as well, the way they study and debate and wrestle. And I think that's, stands out. And look at all the

00:10:51.380 Nobel Prize winners that are Jewish. Yeah. It's just the most extraordinary nation in history. And

00:10:58.200 they're the only nation who has had their land taken from them and then returned to them. And that's the

00:11:04.500 second part of that promise. And that is soil. God promised Abraham a region, a territory. And in 1948,

00:11:13.080 when they were reinstated or when they were regathered to their homeland, I think we saw one of the greatest

00:11:20.460 miracles in all of history. And for centuries, theologians would read those promises and say, well, God can't

00:11:27.560 keep that one. In fact, I think one of the reasons that anti-Semitism got so much fuel in the fire is because

00:11:37.360 people thought, well, God made a promise to the Jews and he's not going to keep it. But then in 1948,

00:11:43.180 he kept it. It's just extraordinary. It's a super sign that God keeps, keeps his promises and he'll

00:11:51.500 continue to keep those promises. So I'm starting today a 40-day devotional series that will teach

00:11:57.020 biblical covenants that I, I think it's the only way to combat total despair and also to restore our

00:12:06.260 nation. We have to, we have to turn towards, uh, towards that. Um, any thought on explaining a

00:12:16.140 covenant and, uh, and how it can be uniquely used to hold our country together? Well, God makes

00:12:24.300 unilateral and bilateral covenants. Uh, he made a unilateral covenant with Abraham, the one that we just

00:12:31.660 spoke, uh, he made a bilateral, uh, covenant with Adam and Eve and they broke it. You know, he said

00:12:38.860 there, you can have all of this creation, all of this paradise, just don't eat from that one tree.

00:12:43.940 And that was an agreement. They, you know, their lives and all of human history would have been

00:12:49.800 different had they honored that covenant. And so it is with us today. Uh, God makes covenants with us.

00:12:56.700 He talks to us about the value of life, about respecting one another. And these are conditional

00:13:02.900 covenants. And if we break those covenants, if we violate, then there's consequences, not that he

00:13:09.600 doesn't love us, but he is a good father. And the good father says, here's where, here's the path you

00:13:16.120 should walk. And if you get off of it, it's not going to be pleasant. Right. Not, not as a punishment,

00:13:21.660 but as a, a natural consequence. Yes. Natural consequence. Yeah. And what you're urging us to

00:13:27.520 do is go back to these basic covenants. And, uh, and, and when we do, and if we do, if we repent and

00:13:35.920 turn and turn back to God, then we can expect blessings. But if we continue to isolate God or

00:13:43.140 shove God out, uh, there will be burdens. It's, it's really just that simple.

00:13:47.760 Max, my friend, I, I would be remiss if I didn't say hello from my sister. She is,

00:13:54.100 you are just a giant in her, in her spiritual life and, and, uh, mine as well. And I just love

00:13:59.780 you so much. Thank you, Max. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it. And go get them. You're doing the

00:14:05.020 right thing. Uh, Max Lucado. He is, uh, got a new book out. God never gives up on you. Uh, and he also

00:14:12.600 has his free online Bible study starting October 23rd. You can find everything at max lucado.com.

00:14:18.720 That's max lucado.com. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. America has always

00:14:26.280 fought itself. Are we from Jamestown? Are we the pilgrims? Are we from those people that came here

00:14:34.820 from religious persecution or those who came and persecuted people, uh, by taking them from Africa 0.53

00:14:41.620 or persecuting people here? That has been the great debate. I choose to follow the pilgrims path.

00:14:49.260 Let me take you back to 1630. It's a group of families. They just finished making a compact or

00:14:56.240 covenant. They're aboard the ship named the Arabella. This is the future Massachusetts Bay Colony.

00:15:03.760 It's right in the distance. And John Winthrop delivers a speech that everybody used to know.

00:15:12.820 He said, thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into a covenant with him for this

00:15:22.080 work. We've taken out a commission. The Lord has given us leave to draw our own articles, to make our

00:15:31.520 own promises, to make our own laws. Now, if the Lord shall please to hear us and bring us in peace to

00:15:41.040 the place we desire, then he has ratified this covenant and sealed our commission. Now think of

00:15:49.300 that. The survival rate of people coming to the Americas was very, very low. He's saying,

00:15:56.360 we're making this covenant. And if the Lord will hear us and bring us peace so we can just live,

00:16:05.420 then he's ratified his side of the bargain. And he will expect a strict performance of the articles

00:16:13.260 and promises contained in it. But if we shall neglect the observation of these articles and promises,

00:16:21.380 and we dissemble with our God, fall into embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal

00:16:31.240 intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in

00:16:38.380 wrath against us and be revenged of such people and make us know the price of the breach of such a 0.99

00:16:47.700 covenant. The price of the breach of such a covenant. I know you didn't make a covenant,

00:16:59.740 didn't maybe didn't know, but this is a covenant land and we are deep in the breach.

00:17:07.360 I have Bill cloud with me and Bill, uh, is a Bible scholar. He is a teacher and author. Take me to

00:17:22.660 Samson, uh, and the covenant with Samson and why that's important to us.

00:17:30.820 Well, before he was born, and this is kind of addressing a point that you just made before he

00:17:40.480 was born, his mother was visited by an angel. The Lord said, you're going to have a child and here's

00:17:46.100 his purpose. He's going to begin to deliver Israel from the oppression of their enemies. And, and so

00:17:54.860 the very reason for Samson's existence was to bring relief to oppression. And he was to be born a

00:18:02.780 Nazirite, um, which is a very, uh, there's some very specific, uh, components of that vow that

00:18:11.800 was a Nazirite would make. But the point here at the beginning is his reason for existence was to,

00:18:18.520 to deliver the people, to bring relief from oppression. And he was born into it. He didn't

00:18:24.840 ask to be a Nazirite. He didn't ask for that. It was something that was decided for him. 0.81

00:18:30.220 What is it? What is a Nazirite? What did you have to, how did you have to live? You are going 1.00

00:18:33.740 to be a Nazirite. Yeah. Well, if you're a Nazirite, you're consecrated, you're set apart. You're kind 0.92

00:18:38.980 of above and beyond the rest and in terms of your relationship with God and what he requires of you.

00:18:45.460 And you couldn't, for instance, you couldn't drink wine. You couldn't, uh, partake of anything

00:18:50.480 pertaining to the grave. You couldn't touch, touch a dead body, a corpse. You'd be rendered

00:18:54.380 unclean. And of course, a Nazirite also could not cut their hair. And that's what probably 1.00

00:19:00.520 most people associate with Samson is his strength and the story of Delilah and the hair and everything.

00:19:06.460 But he was expected to live up to the vows of a Nazirite. Of course, there's a lot of examples 1.00

00:19:12.940 in the Bible where he wasn't always that good at it. He consorted, he consorted with all these

00:19:17.540 strange women. Uh, he's touching dead lions and all these kinds of things. And yet God's spirit would 0.98

00:19:23.780 come upon him, use him to bring deliverance. However, you know, there was a point where

00:19:29.060 he crossed a line and that's, that's when he allowed Delilah to cut his hair. And how does

00:19:36.080 that relate to us? The hair of a Nazirite was considered sacred. In fact, if, if in a normal 0.93

00:19:43.920 circumstance, if a Nazirite completed a vow, he would cut his hair and that hair would be burned 0.99

00:19:49.320 on the altar. It couldn't be used for anything common because it was considered holy. The word

00:19:54.520 in Hebrew that describes his hair is the same word that describes the crown of the high priest

00:20:01.560 of Israel, the crown that said holy unto the Lord, same word. So imagine a scenario where the high

00:20:08.120 priest of Israel used to be the mediator between God and his people. And he's to represent what is set

00:20:14.180 apart in the holy. If he were to take that crown and then throw it before pagans and idolaters and

00:20:19.780 let them desecrate it and trample it under feet. In essence, that's what Samson did when he allowed 0.52

00:20:27.080 Delilah to cut his hair. So my point would be this, where Samson's concerned relating it to America.

00:20:35.460 There's no doubt in my mind that God raised this nation up for a reason, for a purpose. And I believe

00:20:40.880 it was to bring relief from oppression. You know, those people you were just talking about came

00:20:46.600 to this nation to be delivered, to be free from that oppression, and to found a nation that would

00:20:53.920 represent that relief from oppression. And Winthrop said, if God does this and he allows us to do that,

00:21:02.420 then we will take that as evidence that he's ratified this covenant. But he has expectations.

00:21:07.000 And we have not always lived up to those expectations. We have failed many times.

00:21:12.720 And yet, we still stand reasonably strong. But here is where I believe we are at. We're at the risk

00:21:21.460 of taking what is sacred, desecrating it, saying it is, you know, of no regard to us,

00:21:28.160 and casting it down, so to speak, to be trampled underfoot by people who have no regard for

00:21:32.800 God and the covenant and these kinds of things. And if we ever get to that place,

00:21:37.840 if we cross that line, then what? When Samson woke up, he thought he would just go out like he'd

00:21:43.220 always done. But he didn't realize that the Spirit of God had departed from him. And then he was turned

00:21:49.420 over to his enemies.

00:21:51.020 So hang on just a second. So Bill, he had, because he had violated many things, and he still kept going.

00:21:56.920 And that's kind of like us. We violated many things. We just kept going. But then that last

00:22:02.940 straw, the sacredness of who he was, that representation, when he discarded it, cut it and

00:22:11.060 discarded it, that's when it wasn't all of a sudden. He just didn't notice it. It wasn't because of one

00:22:17.480 thing. It was many. But this was the last straw. So if I understand your parallel correctly, at least

00:22:25.000 this is the way I'm interpreting it. So I don't know. But I feel like what is sacred is our

00:22:31.200 declaration of independence, our constitution, and our place in the world. And I don't mean that,

00:22:40.620 you know, we're supposed to dominate everybody. We're supposed to be a place of refuge and law and

00:22:48.940 order based on the Judeo-Christian principles that we were founded on.

00:22:56.060 Absolutely.

00:22:56.800 Right? So as we are saying, this country is nothing but garbage. We are cutting our hair.

00:23:05.080 I would agree. I mean, those documents you mentioned, they were based on those principles

00:23:10.560 that we find in the Bible. I mean, Winthrop went on to say, in that model of Christian charity,

00:23:17.220 that if we don't keep our end of the bargain, to paraphrase, that we will become a byword

00:23:22.800 and a parable. And he's quoting Moses, who was saying to Israel, if you don't uphold your

00:23:28.900 end of the bargain in this covenant with God, here's what's going to happen. You're going

00:23:31.960 to be turned over to your enemies because you considered what was sacred to be less than.

00:23:39.420 You desired other things. You desired your flesh and your whims and whatever it is you wanted.

00:23:45.060 You turned to those things and you cast what was sacred to the ground. So, yes, I believe that if

00:23:51.560 we're not already doing it, our head is going down into Delilah's lap, so to speak. 0.98

00:23:58.480 Okay. Hang on just a sec, Bill. I want to do one more segment with you as we talk about the meaning

00:24:06.300 of the covenant. And, you know, I know there'll be people that don't agree with this. This is not

00:24:13.160 this is not religion. It is scriptural, but it's not anybody's faith per se. It's not doctrinal.

00:24:22.900 It is universal and eternal. And we're supposed to take the scriptures and learn from them and see

00:24:30.240 the patterns. And I think that was a pretty eye-opening pattern, at least for me, that now

00:24:38.060 is the time we are running out of time. And if you want to save our country, then we need to change

00:24:47.840 our ways immediately and do not know. We need to stand for those things that are sacred, not just

00:25:01.620 fight against those things that are evil, but stand for those things that are sacred. This has got to be

00:25:10.840 about action. It has to be about how you live your life and what are you willing to say? What are you

00:25:20.000 willing? Are you willing to stand up for these things? Because if we don't, we cut our hair.

00:25:25.140 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Skip Moen is here. Hi, Skip.

00:25:31.760 How are you, Glenn? It's a great honor to be on your program. I was quite surprised that anyone would

00:25:38.460 even ask, but thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. No, you're, I mean, you're, you're teaching just on the

00:25:45.000 mistranslation of the Beatitudes is some of the best stuff I've ever seen. So thank you so much.

00:25:52.860 You're welcome. So let's go there. Okay. So the Beatitudes, they're blessings. You know, if we do these

00:26:04.500 spiritual things, we're going to be blessed and get some reward. Blessed are the poor for the kingdom

00:26:10.400 of heaven is theirs. You say, uh-uh. Yes. No, no. The problem is, of course, that our idea of Beatitudes

00:26:19.800 comes from the Latin translation, which makes it sound like a blessing. But in both Greek and in Hebrew,

00:26:26.780 the more proper translation would be lucky. And of course, the Christian world, Christian publishers

00:26:34.560 don't like, you know, the idea of luck in a religion. Right. So they don't use that. But both

00:26:41.340 makarioi, which is the Greek term, and ashray, which is the Hebrew term, are all about how lucky you are

00:26:48.100 when these things happen to you. It has nothing to do with you getting something. It's just a description

00:26:53.460 of what it is like when you live these kinds of experiences. And of course, every one of us

00:26:59.420 can identify with some of this experience, because it's all, as I say in my book, sacred paradoxes,

00:27:05.220 things that are upside down, that seem like the exact opposite of what they should be. And God uses

00:27:10.480 all of those to, you know, move us in his direction. So tell me about the word lucky here. I just want to

00:27:16.060 dwell on this for a second. Okay. You know, because I used to say, oh, I'm so lucky. And I believe we,

00:27:23.180 I was in a conversation with this with a bunch of people just the other day, you know, how lucky

00:27:27.480 we are to live at these times, because we get to see who we really can be, because our back is up

00:27:32.740 against the wall. So we're lucky to live at this time. That's different than I'm blessed. And I now say

00:27:41.640 I'm blessed, or I'm lucky, and I mean two different things. Tell me, is there a difference

00:27:49.540 like that in these translations from Hebrew? Or... Yes. Go ahead.

00:27:57.340 Yes. Actually, you know, Hebrew is a very tactile, earthy kind of language. It's about the land,

00:28:05.780 it's about the people, it's about the dirt, it's about all the things that come into life and

00:28:10.380 ordinary living. So luck plays a big part of that, because good things happen, and you think,

00:28:17.100 oh my gosh, how lucky, how blessed I am to be, you know, alive during this time. When the rain comes,

00:28:23.600 it's a blessing. It's also lucky, by the way, because it means that I'll have crops, okay? So in

00:28:29.440 that sense, luck and blessing are pretty much the same. But that's not what happened when the

00:28:37.000 translation started changing the concept of this Greek and Hebrew idea. By the time you get to the

00:28:44.540 Vulgate, the Latin translation, you move in the direction of a blessing given by someone else.

00:28:51.080 So for, as I suggest in my book, there might be an ecclesiastical reason for this, because

00:28:55.420 in those, in ancient times, you had to go to the priest to get a blessing. And the idea is that he

00:29:01.220 would bless you for some spiritual, you know, exercise or some attitude that you had, and you

00:29:06.980 would be rewarded for that. So now you become dependent upon the religious aristocracy to give you the

00:29:13.880 blessing that you need in order to survive. But that's not what the biblical text is all about.

00:29:19.080 The biblical text is about how lucky you are when these really terrible things happen to you.

00:29:25.260 Okay, so wait, let me just take one. Blessed are the poor, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

00:29:33.080 There's no priest there that is blessing you there, the poor. And what is the real, what's the real

00:29:42.980 translation is that?

00:29:45.460 Okay, so the Greek term starts with this predicate adjective, makarios, which we've translated as

00:29:53.420 blessed, as though it's a verb, but it's not a verb. It's just a description of the character of a

00:30:00.100 person who is, in this case, poor before God. Now, the interesting thing about that word is that

00:30:06.580 there are multiple definitions for, or multiple terms in Greek and Hebrew for what poor means. And

00:30:13.160 in this case, it means destitute. So it's not the day laborer, it's not the guy who lives from paycheck

00:30:20.040 to paycheck. The idea is that the poor here is someone who's so, he's the beggar, he's the one who's 0.98

00:30:26.660 laying in the street. He's so, so destitute that unless somebody comes and helps him, he's going to

00:30:32.780 die, right? So now, now what Jesus is saying is, how lucky you are to be completely destitute,

00:30:41.600 which seems completely backwards. But then he goes on to say, the paradox is, that when you're that

00:30:48.560 desperate for God, God shows up, the kingdom of God arrives, right? He basically says, the reason that

00:30:56.440 the kingdom of God even shows up in life is because people are desperate for God. If you're not

00:31:02.260 desperate, you're not going to see the kingdom. So your comment about the world is on fire is the

00:31:08.060 perfect time for us to say, wait a minute, everything is falling apart. We're in desperate

00:31:13.480 situations, desperate straits. Now is the time when we should be looking for the kingdom, because that's

00:31:19.440 when God arrives, when people are desperate for him. When we don't need God, you know, it's like

00:31:24.020 Heschel says, we put him in exile, and then we think, oh, we can survive without him. But in fact,

00:31:30.040 what actually happens is that the world starts to collapse as it is, and it's done many times before,

00:31:36.460 and that's when desperation takes over, and that's when God starts looking to our hearts to see,

00:31:42.960 you know, what to do next. So the attitude is all about that kind of thing.

00:31:48.720 So you're lucky, and I speak as a recovering alcoholic. I look at all of the tragedies in my

00:31:57.220 life, and I look at them and say, and it took me a while to get here, but I look at them and go,

00:32:04.380 you know, if that wouldn't have happened, then I wouldn't have been here, and I wouldn't have been

00:32:07.720 here, and I wouldn't have learned that, and I wouldn't have done that. And you can look at all

00:32:13.520 of the horrible things in your life, and if you view them as a blessing, or lucky would be a better

00:32:21.140 word in that case, you're looking at the things that you fail, and where you have really gone down

00:32:28.180 to the bottom, you are lucky if you view it that way. And you're, and you're, because your heart is

00:32:38.360 open now. It's not like God comes, and he's like, well, I'm waiting for you to be humble, and I'm not

00:32:43.260 going to show, I've got some other thing. I've got to, I've got to play some pool at three this

00:32:46.460 afternoon. He's, what he's, he's always trying to get you, but you won't listen. So you're lucky

00:32:53.600 because God's there, right? The kingdom of heaven is, isn't that the full translation? The kingdom of

00:33:00.180 heaven is, so he's there, but now you're open to him. Yeah, now you see it. I mean, look, I often say

00:33:09.380 it this way, the best resume you can have is your failure resume, because God can't work with your

00:33:14.760 success resume. You did that. He's working with your failure resume, the things that you collapsed

00:33:20.340 over, the things that drove you to the ground, the things that put you on your knees, those are the

00:33:25.800 times when, you know, God becomes the only solution to your life, and that's when he, when he really

00:33:33.620 shows up. So I, I write two resumes when, when people ask for my stuff. I, you know, I send them

00:33:40.420 the, you know, the five degrees and all the books and everything, and then I say, okay, wait a minute,

00:33:44.260 there's another resume that you need to know about, and that's the one of all of my failures. All the

00:33:48.700 things that I, that I couldn't do became the part of me that, that makes me who I am.

00:33:55.800 So, give me, so let me just go back to this one, and then can you, can you show us the different

00:34:02.440 Beatitudes and what they really say? Lucky are those who are desperate, because, because of them,

00:34:09.640 the kingdom of heaven is. That's the actual translation?

00:34:13.880 Exactly. Yeah, actually, there is a word, and it means because of them. No scholar will tell you

00:34:20.620 that it should be translated for theirs is, because then it makes it sound like we get a piece

00:34:25.700 of the real estate of heaven. Correct. That's not what happens at all, right? What happens is,

00:34:30.980 because I'm desperate, the kingdom of God arrives. I mean, look what Jesus says. The kingdom is at

00:34:37.440 hand, and what he means is, he's dealing with people who are finally desperate enough to see

00:34:42.440 that God is ready to answer them, that he's going to show up, right? And it's because of their

00:34:47.860 desperation that God shows up, and you can see that in the history of Israel. I mean, think about the

00:34:52.680 number of times that the prophets excoriate Israel over being too fat, too happy, too comfortable,

00:35:00.440 that they ignore their social responsibility, they ignore the poor, and what happens? They collapse,

00:35:06.540 and then when they collapse, they plead God, you know, forgive us, bring us back, and then he,

00:35:12.460 you know, he shows up, right? That's the kind of thing that goes on in this Beatitude.

00:35:18.180 All right, so let's go through these. Okay. Go ahead. So the first one, of course,

00:35:27.320 we've now talked about, but, you know, the lucky ones are the destitute, because the kingdom of God

00:35:32.840 shows up. The second one we read as, I'll read it from the New American Standard Bible,

00:35:40.180 blessed are those who mourn, for they should be comforted. But think about that. The term that's

00:35:45.620 used there is the term for a person who's at a funeral. So why are people at funerals lucky?

00:35:52.520 You would think that's the last place on earth that you would ever say, oh, I'm so lucky I'm at

00:35:57.600 this funeral. Because you're alive. The point, yeah, yeah. Well, but the point is that once you are at,

00:36:04.180 when you're at a funeral, you experience the fragility of life. Yes. For the first time you come

00:36:10.280 into contact with the fact that you're not in charge, right? That you can't make your life go

00:36:16.260 on by yourself. You can't just decide I'm going to live longer. You don't have any control over

00:36:21.980 that issue of life and death. And when you're at a funeral, it smacks you in the face. The point there

00:36:28.500 is, I'm really lucky because now I get to confront the fact that I'm not in control.

00:36:35.240 It is the same feeling that we had on 9-11, if you're old enough to remember. It was the worst

00:36:44.300 day. But it was the first day in my life where I went, oh my gosh, this is so fragile. This could

00:36:51.640 come down overnight. And I had never felt that before. And we're feeling that, I think, as a society,

00:36:59.660 we're feeling that again. Yes. I'm not quite sure how it's working yet. We know that there's

00:37:05.220 something really wrong, but we haven't been able to put our finger on it like an attack on the Twin

00:37:10.640 Towers. But we know that something is happening that's destroying things, and it's making us feel

00:37:16.800 out of control. All you have to do is look at the craziness of the politics that's going on in

00:37:22.600 Washington. Those people are out of control. And that makes me feel very vulnerable. And that's the

00:37:28.680 time, because of this language that says, when you confront death, especially death of a loved

00:37:37.100 one, you realize how absolutely dependent you are on God. And that feeling of dependence goes right

00:37:47.220 along with my desperateness for God. So the two Beatitudes work together. The third one is even

00:37:53.080 better. Because the third one, you know, just run back up for a second. Jesus doesn't deliver these

00:37:59.240 in Greek. He delivers them in Hebrew. So in order for me to really understand what's happening, I can't

00:38:03.680 just read the Greek. I have to say, okay, well, what would happen if he was speaking this in Hebrew?

00:38:08.080 And the word that he uses in Hebrew is anah, which we translate sometimes as gentle, but it really means

00:38:13.920 humble. But it means more than that, because that word is about people who are oppressed. In fact,

00:38:20.580 it's used for women who have been raped. Okay? So look at the third Beatitude. Lesson are those who 0.61

00:38:27.260 are oppressed, but they shall inherit the earth. I mean, the whole point is, no one would think that

00:38:32.740 they're lucky because they were oppressed. No woman thinks she's lucky to be raped. No country thinks

00:38:38.720 it's lucky to be bombarded and overrun. But what Yeshua is saying is, no, wait, there's a paradox here.

00:38:44.840 When you come to the point where your life is not only not in your control, but where everything is

00:38:52.460 happening that seems destructive, that's when something happens with God and you recognize

00:38:59.580 that there's a hope, a future, something that's going to happen afterwards. And you can build on

00:39:06.080 that because God's promises are always true, right? So even if I'm in the worst possible condition,

00:39:15.700 as David is often in the Psalms, he will say, but you, Lord, are my rescue. In other words,

00:39:21.760 yeah, life is short, but it's not going to continue like that because I trust God will redeem,

00:39:32.260 God will rescue. So the beatitude takes this horrible situation and turns it upside down.

00:39:38.620 Skip Moen, he's an international Bible teacher. You can find him at skipmoen.com. Thank you so much,

00:39:43.240 Skip. We'll talk again.

The Glenn Beck Program - October 05, 2023

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Max Lucado & Skip Moen ｜ 10⧸5⧸23

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