Daniel

[0:00] Here is a notice, apparently, that appeared on sign in Max Cash Saber Grocery. It says, Heaven has a wall, a gate, and a strict immigration policy.

[0:15] Hell has open borders. Let that sink in. That would be a good thing to keep in mind as you push your shopping cart up and down the aisles, wouldn't it?

[0:27] Where did you see this? This was in Max Cash Saber Grocery. Where was that? You know, Rod? It was in Arkansas. I do believe it was on a flyer. A flyer in the grocery store in Arkansas.

[0:40] All I can say is Max Cash Saber Grocery made their tribe increase. Well, we've got Daniel chapter 10 ahead of us today, and it's one of the most extraordinary chapters.

[0:54] But before we go there, we need to tie something to that. And it is quite remote from it, but it is directly connected.

[1:05] And that will take us to Ephesians chapter 3. So, if we may go there, first of all, then we'll be in Daniel, and we'll also stop by 2 Kings and look up something there that is rather fascinating.

[1:17] Ephesians chapter 3. And just what appears on the surface to be a relatively, well, it's the kind of verse that you just kind of gloss over, read over, and you don't think too much about.

[1:33] But it has enormous significance connected to it. And I think we'll see that as we get into it. So, I'm just going to start reading with verse 1, but our business verse is down in verse 9 or 10.

[1:46] So, let's jump into chapter 3 of Ephesians. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you.

[2:02] And I'd just like to stop there for a moment. And I think if you've got a King James, it probably says dispensation. But there is another word that I think expresses what is taking place so much better because dispensation is a word that is lost on a lot of people.

[2:21] And I would suggest replacing the word dispensation and replacing the word stewardship with another word that actually means the same thing, but in my estimation is a lot more definitive, and that is the word administration.

[2:38] Everybody knows what an administration is, whether it's a national or state. We know that when a new administration comes to power, there are a whole lot of changes made.

[2:51] There are going to be new people in office, new responsibilities, new laws passed, and all the rest of it. That's because a new administration is in place.

[3:04] But the word dispensation, although it is not incorrect, it just doesn't communicate like the word administration does. So, if you'll think in terms of that, if you have heard of the administration of God's grace, which was given to me for you.

[3:22] Now, that means Paul is acknowledging that he is an administrator. His responsibility is to administer. That by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief, and that's in chapter 1 and verse 9.

[3:43] And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.

[4:05] You see, what he's saying is contrasting then and now. He's saying there was a certain thing in the past, and there is another thing now. What I'm going to talk to you about was not known in the past, but it is now revealed.

[4:21] To be specific, that the Gentiles, which is just another way of saying the non-Jews, the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

[4:44] Fellow heirs and fellow members with whom? With Jews. This was a bombshell thing. This was unheard of. There was nothing that so characterized the Jewish people as their separation from the Gentiles.

[5:02] They worshipped a different God. In fact, they worshipped only one God. Gentiles were into all kinds of polytheism and many gods. They even had a different diet.

[5:13] They had different clothing. They had different laws. They had different everything that separated them from the Gentiles. And now Paul is saying they are fellow heirs and fellow members of the same body.

[5:28] What an incredible mix to put these two together. Let's read on. Of which, verse 7, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power.

[5:41] To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of this Jewish peasant from Nazareth called Jesus.

[5:59] Wow, this is really something. And here's the verse I want you to look at. And to bring to light, that is, to bring it out in the open so it can be seen.

[6:14] To bring to light what is the administration, and there they did use the word administration, and actually it could be dispensation there too, or stewardship.

[6:29] It could be either one. They would all fit, but administration says it better, I think. What is the administration of the mystery? And he's already talked about this mystery of Christ.

[6:45] To bring to what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God.

[6:56] That means it was never revealed to people. It was hidden in God who created all things. And here's our verse. In order that.

[7:06] This is a purpose clause in the Greek, and it means exactly what it says. In order that, or to the end that. To the end that, or in order that.

[7:18] The manifold, wisdom of God, and manifold simply means variegated. Manifold means it has a lot of aspects to it. Manifold is kind of like a number of spokes that would go out from a wheel.

[7:34] And the spokes, well, like a manifold on an automobile engine. You know, the manifold distributes from different points what the engine needs.

[7:45] And this is a manifold wisdom of God might now, as opposed to previous, when it wasn't, that it might now be made known through the church.

[8:01] That is, through this new entity comprised of Jews and Gentiles in one body. This new entity.

[8:13] To the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Well, who are they?

[8:26] Well, fellas, they are not human beings. They are angelic beings. They are supernatural beings that, as far as we can determine, were created by God in a number that is not revealed, but prior to the creation of humans in the Garden of Eden.

[8:49] They are these who are the authorities and the rulers in the heavenly places. In the heavens. Now, this doesn't mean in heaven, where God is, although it possibly could include that.

[9:02] But it's talking about the atmospheric heaven. It's talking about a sphere of existence that, to you and to me, is very real, but invisible to us.

[9:15] We cannot see it. There is another dimension. We do not know exactly how these are or where they are. But what this is saying is that this is the end game.

[9:28] And the reason that this is going to be revealed to these rulers and principalities and powers in heavenly places is because God is going to use the church composition of Jew and Gentile to provide the resolution of the angelic conflict.

[9:51] And this is the big program. This is the big program. Prior to the creation of humans, God created angels.

[10:02] There was a revolt among the angels revealed in Isaiah 14, the I wills of Lucifer.

[10:13] And also, Ezekiel, I think it's 37, where he is identified along with the king of Tyre. And he is described as having been the overarching cherub and the most beautiful and the wisest of all that God created.

[10:28] This was Lucifer. And Lucifer fell and recruited one-third of the angels to follow him in his rebellion. And this is, as far as we can determine, this is prior to the creation of human beings in the garden.

[10:43] So this revolt was in existence. And God is using humans that ultimately will be part and parcel of this thing called the church to resolve or to end or to finalize that rebellion that began back then in the angelic conflict.

[11:01] So what we are saying is, there is a cosmic conflict that is going on all around us that we are unaware of. And Satan himself is the head of it.

[11:13] He is described as the god of this age. 2 Corinthians 4. And he is a deceiver. He is a master at it. He is involved in much of the evil that has taken place.

[11:29] And no, we're not blaming everything on the devil because we know that fallen man has the capability of being quite evil himself. We don't need help from Lucifer. But Satan is the mastermind behind this whole thing.

[11:43] And he will be shown in more dynamic ways in the revelation during the 70th week of Daniel. So this is part and parcel of what God is about.

[11:55] It is resolving this cosmic conflict, this angelic conflict that has existed prior to the creation of man. In other words, what he is going to do is use us as inferior beings to the angels.

[12:11] Because we are inferior in wisdom, in power, in strength, etc. to the angels. And he is going to use a lesser quality individual to resolve the conflict that was begun by a greater power.

[12:29] In other words, we could say, God is going to use the B team to beat the A team.

[12:41] And we are members of the B team. And Satan and his minions are members of the A team. In many respects, they've got it all over us.

[12:52] In wisdom and power and everything else. Now these angelic beings are frequently described in the scriptures as men. Because they look like men.

[13:05] They apparently dress like men. And they are called men. But they are not men at all. And just for a very brief instance, recall the women at the tomb when they saw the two young men there at the tomb.

[13:21] Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here. These were angels communicating. And it was an angel that rolled away the stone. So that the women could get in. But they looked like men to them.

[13:34] And when these angels appeared with a Christophany in Genesis chapter 19 to Abraham and Sarah. There in the noonday. They were described as men.

[13:46] They were angels. They were the two destroying angels who were on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to do those cities in. And that's exactly what they ended up doing.

[13:56] And the third person there was a Christophany. It was none other than the Lord himself and a pre-incarnate revelation. So we've got an unseen conflict that we can rightly call a cosmic conflict that is going on in ways that we do not understand.

[14:15] And it is just as real as the military conflict right now that is going on in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria.

[14:26] It's just as real as those. But they are unseen. With what kind of weapons do these people fight? I do not know. But we'll be looking at that in Daniel chapter 10. And there's a lot of mystery involved with it.

[14:38] But before we go there, let's come back to... Well, let me just finish up here. Made known to the church, to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, this, this end game, this result, was in accordance with the eternal purpose, that is, that which God had in mind from the beginning, which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence access through faith in him.

[15:14] So this is looking at the really big program. In some respects, this even transcends the kingdom. Because this is something that was set in motion even before the fall took place and all of that that goes with it.

[15:30] So, if you're talking about a really, really big picture, this, in my estimation, is as big as it gets. Now, let's come back to 2 Kings chapter 6, if we may. Mark, before you move away from that for a minute, that verse 10 at the end, it's going to, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, somehow the wisdom of God is going to be given to these angels and stuff that they'll realize that they were wrong or something.

[15:58] Yeah, I would say... That seems to be what he's trying to use us to do, is to give wisdom to all these others that failed or rebelled. I wouldn't say to give wisdom, but I would say to reveal God's wisdom to them.

[16:13] It will be a lesson for them to learn. Okay, that's his end goal then, is to give that wisdom, God's wisdom to them. What is this wisdom that God's trying to give them?

[16:25] That he is the sovereign one? He is the one that everybody should be glorifying? Is that the wisdom he's trying to share? I think that is, at least in part of it, yes.

[16:37] And it perhaps ties in with our Lord having descended into Hades where he preached to the spirits in prison, and there was an announcement, I think, of his resurrection, which indicated that phase one was underway and already completed, and that Christ had died and was resurrected from the dead.

[16:55] And he went there during that interim and revealed himself and his victorious triumph to those. And this is what Peter is talking about when he says it. He preached that Christ preached to the spirits in prison.

[17:08] And these, I think, were these fallen angels who are incarcerated there in what the scriptures refer to as Tartarus. That's a place where they are reserved into the final judgment.

[17:21] So let's come back now to 2 Kings 6, if we may. I'd like to try to get this together, if we can, in one setting, because it's all vitally connected. Actually, we're moving to Daniel chapter 10, if we ever get there.

[17:36] 2 Kings 6, and let's begin with verse 8. Now, the king of Syria was warring against Israel.

[17:47] And by the way, Syria is where there's so much bloodshed going on right now with Bashar Assad that they've been trying to remove. And this is the same Syria.

[17:58] They are a neighbor to Israel. And they have had a love-hate relationship over millennia. When they are at peace, they're at peace. And when they're at war, they're at war.

[18:08] And they've been at war one with another many, many times. And it was warring against Israel. And he counseled with his servants. This is king of Syria. He counseled with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

[18:21] Now, he's talking to his aides, his top generals. And he's saying, Such and such a place is where we're going to set up camp. And the man of God, this is Elisha, the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.

[18:48] Now, what this means simply is this. The king of Syria had announced to his close associates, his generals, etc., where the camp was going to be.

[18:59] Then the next verse tells us that Elisha sent word to the king of Israel, saying, Don't go there. Don't go there. There's going to be an ambush.

[19:11] Stay away from that place. And he gave them warning. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, so that he guarded himself there more than once or twice.

[19:28] He avoided that place because they were lying in wait for ambush. Now the heart of the king of Syria was enraged over this thing. And he called his servants and said to them, Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?

[19:45] What he's saying is, We've got a spy among us. Somebody is selling us out. Who is it? And he looked sternly at each of those who were gathered around him there.

[19:56] And he's saying, Somebody is a traitor. We need to find out who this is. Somebody is selling us out and tipped off the king of Israel. Otherwise, we would have done them in by now.

[20:08] And they've managed to avoid our ambush both times. More than once or twice. Now, in verse 12 we read, And one of his servants said, No, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

[20:33] Now, he's not saying they've got the place bugged. He's not saying that at all. What he's saying is, this prophet Elisha has some kind of a connection with a supernatural God who informs him of these things that he could otherwise never know.

[20:57] And he said, verse 13, the king said, Alright, go and see where he is, Elisha, that I may send and take him.

[21:15] We will send in a raiding party and grab him. Find out where he is. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he's in Dothan.

[21:28] We know where he is. He's in Dothan. And he, that is the king of Syria, sent horses and chariots and a great army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city.

[21:42] This kind of reminds me of crashing into what's-his-name house in the middle of the night. Stone, Roger Stone, with all of the armed men where they had tanks and all kinds of stuff, you know.

[21:58] There's one guy who wasn't even armed and surrounded the place, broke down the door and standing there with their rifles ready and everything. It's just amazing. They came by night and surrounded the city.

[22:10] So, here it is dark and they've got this huge troop coming in and their horses and their footmen and they surround the whole city because they want to make sure that Elisha is not going to escape and probably they're waiting for daylight and they're going to swoop in and kidnap Elisha, that source of information, and make off with him.

[22:31] And when the attendant of the man of God, that is, Elisha's attendant, had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city.

[22:48] Hey, it got us surrounded. And his servant said, Alas, my master, what shall we do? How are we going to get out of this? Look at them.

[22:59] What? There must be a hundred chariots, horsemen, everyone, armed, bowmen, all surrounded. I mean, this is just an overwhelming force. And Elisha prayed and he answered and said, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

[23:19] And I'm sure this servant probably said, Yeah, well, where are they? Where are they? I don't see anybody. There's nobody here but us. And look at them out there. How many there are.

[23:29] We're no match for them. And Elisha prayed and said, O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw.

[23:44] This is seeing with a seeing that transcends 20-20 vision. This is seeing in a supernatural way that he wouldn't otherwise be able to see.

[23:58] And the Lord opened his eyes and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

[24:11] By the way, you've probably all seen or heard of the movie Chariots of Fire. This is where it was taken from. Chariots of Fire. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people with blindness, I pray.

[24:30] Now he's talking about the Assyrian army that has surrounded the city. And he's praying and asking God, Strike them with blindness. So he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

[24:49] And then Elisha said to them, that is, those who have been spitten with blindness, Elisha goes out to talk to them and he says to them, This is not the way nor is this the city.

[25:06] Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he brought them to Samaria. Well, what choice did they have?

[25:17] They were blind as a bat. They couldn't see. And Elisha is giving them an invitation and says, You guys have got the wrong place. In other words, you're breaking down the doors of the wrong house.

[25:31] You've got the wrong place. If you will follow me, I'll take you to where you need to be. Well, where is he going to take them? He's going to take them to the stronghold, to the capital of Israel.

[25:46] That's Samaria. And it came about when they had come into Samaria. This is the stronghold of Israel. That Elisha said, Oh Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see.

[26:01] These are the Syrians who've been blinded. So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

[26:12] Oh, good grief. What are we doing here? This is terrible. They're right in the very bosom of the enemy. And this is as bad as it can be.

[26:25] And it looks like it's going to be a slaughter. Because these people are just sitting ducks. And the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha, he obviously recognized Elisha's connection with the Lord, and he says, My father, shall I kill them?

[26:44] Shall I kill them? In other words, we could easily do away with the whole army right here, right now. And shouldn't we attack them? Should we attack them?

[26:55] And that seems like the logical thing to do militarily. And Elisha answered and said, You shall not kill them.

[27:07] Would you kill those you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? And the implication is, No. You wouldn't execute them. You would take them as prisoners.

[27:17] But you'd let them live, wouldn't you? set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

[27:33] What? Give them food and water and turn them loose so they can go back to Syria, to their master? And Elisha said, Yes.

[27:46] What a stroke of humanity. And by the way, this, today, would not be all that atypical of the way Israel treats their enemies.

[28:01] I wonder how many of you know that in Gaza, the Gaza Strip, which is PLO territory, the place from which they lob rockets over into Israel, I wonder if any of you know that the Gaza people get all of their electricity from Israel.

[28:25] I wonder if you know that if an Arab is admitted to a Jewish hospital, and by the way, there are a lot of Arabs, I mean Muslim Arabs, living in Israel, and there are many that are citizens of Israel, and there are Arabs, Muslims, who are on the Knesset and hold a seat on the Knesset because Israel is in many ways very accommodating to the PLO, while the PLO want to do nothing but completely destroy Israel.

[29:03] Israel. So, verse 23, it wasn't bread and water, he prepared a great feast for them, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master, that is, back to Syria, and the marauding bands of Syria did not come again into the land of Israel.

[29:30] Now, the point I want to make here is, who were all of these that were surrounding, that this young man was able to see when God opened his eyes and he could see all of those chariots and all of the angelic beings surrounding them that were otherwise invisible, but they were there.

[29:57] And that is part and parcel of this unseen world, of this angelic thing that we're talking about. Now, let's come to the text we really want to deal with, and that's in Daniel chapter 10. Daniel chapter 10, we'll get as far as we can.

[30:15] The third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now, I wanted to give you a little historical setting. Israel had been carried away into Babylonian captivity. They'd been there for 70 years, and while they were there in Babylonian captivity, the Medes and the Persians attacked Babylon.

[30:34] And this is where the writing on the wall appeared, and Artaxerxes was the king, and they defeated the Babylonians, and that meant that they freed then, they freed the Jews, because the Jews had been captives and prisoners of the Babylonians, but now the Babylonians have been defeated, and one of the things that the Medes and the Persians did was to set at liberty those whom the Babylonians had captured.

[31:02] So, we read that in the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, and this Persia, by the way, is modern day Iran. Bear in mind that the Iranians, with whom we've had a lot of contention and still have an ongoing conflict with, the Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persians, and that's entirely different, but they have Islam as their theology.

[31:31] It was revealed to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, and the message was true and one of great conflict, great conflict, but he understood the message, and he had an understanding of the vision.

[31:43] In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. Daniel is in crisis. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all, until the entire three weeks were completed.

[32:01] And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is, the river Tigris, I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold, there was a certain man, and again, he's identified as a man, dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Euphaz, his body also was like barrel, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like the flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.

[32:35] And yet, he still looked like a man. Now, I, Daniel, alone, saw the vision. I was the only one that saw it.

[32:46] While the men who were with me, did not see the vision, nevertheless, a great dread fell on them and they ran away to hide themselves.

[32:57] They knew something spooky, something eerie was going on here. Didn't know what it was, but it scared them witless. And they took off. They headed for the high grass. So I was left alone and saw this great vision, yet no strength was left in me.

[33:13] Well, of course not. If he'd been on this kind of a rigid diet for three weeks, no strength was left in him. For my natural color turned to a deathly pallor and I retained no strength. But I heard the sound of his words and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground.

[33:31] Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees and said to me, O Daniel, man of high esteem.

[33:48] Understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright. For I have now been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling, shaking in his boots.

[34:04] This was a pretty scary situation. And he said to me, Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this, and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.

[34:27] But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. That's interesting, for the same three weeks that Daniel was fasting.

[34:41] And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

[34:53] Now, these kings of Persia and these chief princes are not humans. They're angelic beings. And the text says that he had been prevented from coming or hindered from coming even though he wanted to come to Daniel, he had been opposed.

[35:21] And when he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And behold, one who resembled, there's a good description, who resembled a human being was touching my lips.

[35:35] Then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me. Oh, my Lord. Now, he's not talking to deity. He's talking to one he obviously recognizes as a superior, but he's not confusing him with God.

[35:49] And you see the word Lord is not capitalized. Oh, my Lord, as a result of the vision, anguish has come upon me and I have retained no strength. For how can such a servant of my Lord talk with such as my Lord?

[36:05] As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me. Then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me and said, O man of high esteem, do not be afraid.

[36:20] Peace be with you. Take courage and be courageous. Now, as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, May my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. Then he said, Do you understand why I came to you?

[36:35] I'm sure Daniel doesn't have a clue. But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia, so I am going forth and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.

[36:56] Now, what's going on here? The Medes and the Persians are in power, but now Greece is beginning to figure into the picture, and who will that be?

[37:07] Alexander the Great, and he will bring his army against the Medes and the Persians, and even though Alexander and his army will be outnumbered six to one, they are going to completely decimate the Persian army.

[37:28] This angel of Greece, referred to as the prince of Greece, and the one that is referred to as the prince of Persia, neither of these are human beings.

[37:43] These are angelic beings, and they have some kind of responsibility, possibly, and I'm not saying this for sure because I don't know, but possibly under direction of the ultimate enemy, Satan himself, whereby these two have been assigned to these areas to wreak havoc and influence and confusion and everything, which is what Satan always does, and he always sends his minions to do.

[38:11] So, this mix is going to be involved, and what is going to take place here, among other things, eventually is going to be a huge, huge loss of life.

[38:22] And fellas, I want you to get this picture fixed in your mind so you won't be able to forget it. And that is, Satan, Satan loves nothing more than a really high body count.

[38:43] He is a master of death and deception, and as surely as God is the creator, Satan is the destroyer. That's one of his names.

[38:54] He's given the name in Revelation of Apollyon, and the word literally means the destroying one. And the carnage that is going to take place when these armies meet is going to be absolutely astounding.

[39:10] The blood that is going to flow, and let me tell you something, I have absolutely no doubt, I have no doubt at all, that no one other than Satan himself was behind the civil war in which the United States fought the north against the south.

[39:26] We know the generals and Grant and Lincoln and all the rest, but what I'm saying is there are unseen forces at work in the affairs of men, and Satan is the arch manipulator, and he influences, and he plants ideas, and he deceives, and he lies, and he uses people to lie to people to work his way.

[39:51] And all of these things, all of this carnage, all of this loss of life, and you may be sure that Satan was really behind the Holocaust too.

[40:02] Oh, we know Hitler was, and Eichmann was, but I'm saying that Satan uses them. Joe? You talk about the Civil War? Here's how he used them.

[40:13] The south had these plantations, slaves, and he deceived them to say, if you lost the slaves, you would lose your standard of living. You know, he used their sinful natures against them because they were thinking of, we'll lose our standard of living, our richness, if we lose our slaves.

[40:30] He deceived them. They didn't believe in that slaves shouldn't be more free than the northerners did. Southern people didn't have any more social or morals than we did up north.

[40:42] You're right. They both felt that it was wrong what they were doing. The Civil War had a whole lot more to do with economics than what people think. That's right.

[40:52] As the old saying goes, follow the money. Follow the money. And that was going to absolutely decimate the south if they had to lose that labor force.

[41:04] And, fellas, you've got the same thing that goes all the way back to the book of Exodus and why the king, why the pharaoh of Egypt was so unwilling to let the children of Israel go because that was his whole labor force.

[41:20] And they were cheap labor. I mean, it was slave labor. And to take those people out of the mix was going to ruin the Egyptian economy for sure. And that's one reason why he didn't want to let them go.

[41:31] And you know the rest of the story there. And by the way, when they came out of Egypt, they came out with a huge amount of gold and silver and all other kinds of things that the Egyptians freely gave to them.

[41:45] And I've often referred to that as back peg for all the years that they worked there in slave labor. And they came out having been handsomely rewarded. So I just want you to get a picture of the dynamic that is involved here that transcends the human.

[42:04] This is really big stuff. In fact, this is bigger than humanity, but it involves humanity, and we are key players in it. Okay.