Is a Red Line Still a Red Line?

Will Donald Trump intervene? Will he address the fact that his own stipulated redline has been flagrantly crossed? Or will he not? The stakes are high. In twenty twelve, as the Syrian Civil War was just getting underway, Barack Obama announced that if chemical weapons were to be utilized in the context of the war, namely by the former despot there the Russia and Iran backed Ala Whites, Bashar al Assade, Barack Obama said that would be a red line for US,

mean the United States. That was in August twenty twelve. About one year later, in August twenty thirteen, that red line was flagrantly crossed Sarngas was used by Bashar al Asade to kill at least hundred, as possibly thousands of innocent Syrians. Frankly, that was just a rounding err in the total number of Syrians who were killed roughly a half million or so. That number at the time, though of the sarranghess attag included women's children, horrific. In response,

the Aboministration initially uttered some tough words. Subsequently, though, they changed their tune. They deployed people like John Kerry at the State Department and Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon. They deployed them to Congress to testify and to assures that action was coming, but it would be a very narrow

targeted pinprick strike. And then sure enough Obama negotiated a diplomatic off ramp with Vlamir pun in Russia, whereby Russia, which was a leading patron of Syria at the time, would allegedly find a way to get the chemical weapons inside Syria and to collect them ultimately then giving them hand them off to the proverbial international community for subsequent destruction. It was an embarrassing failure to enforce a red line.

It was a moment from which Barack Obama's presidency never recovered. Is Donald Trump going to do the same thing. We're not big fans of breadlines here on this show. We discussed this earlier this week. I prefer my foreign policy to be that Alvalxander Hamilton in the Federals Number seventy in the Federal seventy, one of the great Federals papers drafted by Alexander Hamilton, arguing on behalf of the unitary executive structure, as to say, the singular president embodied an

article to the Constitution. Hamilton famously argues that unity in the executive is important because decision activity, secrecy, and dispatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number. Like Hamilton, I believe in secrecy in the executive, Like Teddy Roosevelt many years later, I believe in the maxim of speaking softly and carrying a big stick. But that

is not relevant to what we now face. Donald Trump has issued for weeks now a recurring red line when it comes to whether or not the Ronnie regime is going to massacre their own civilians. On January second, so two weeks ago now, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, the United States America will come to the rescue. We are locked

and loaded and ready to go. Around that time, on January second, roughly five hundred to six hundred Undians were estimates who have been killed in the then nascent uprising, which had started the week prior, just before the new year. That number today has skyrocketed from five hundred to six hundred to now an estimated. Very hard to say. There's essentially ipossible to say. There's no reliable numbers here, but we think we think somewhere between twelve and twenty thousand,

if not more than that. What's more, Earlier this week, Trump doubled down on shrut Social. He said, Iranian patriots keep protesting, take over your institutions, save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. Stop help is on the way. It is impossible to

avoid the obvious implications of these statements. Trump said that if the Islamist regime in Tehran continues the slaughter of its own citizens, the United States will indeed take some unspecified but nonetheless clearly major action to staunch the bleeding. That seems to have changed just over the past thirty

six hours, give or take. Beginning on Wednesday, you had some reports that some of the Arab countries Saudi Arabia, Katar, Oman, perhaps Egypt as well, allegedly tried to persuade Donald Trump that there will be serious consequences to the US taking action, because around the same time that the US was already preemptively removing military personnel from the largest US military base in the region, all you Dd Air Base in Qatar, as well as other assets in places like Iraq, Syria,

and so forth. But the fear of repercussions from the Irani regime did not stop Donald Trump from sending the B two bombers last June, did it, So that doesn't quite add up either. Even more peculiar, there was a report from The New York Times yesterday on Thursday showing that Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly, if you believe the reporting, allegedly asked Donald Trump to postpone any planned attack on Iran,

which is wholly illogical taken at face value. The Iran threat has taken up large swaths of Netniahu's career, he and Trump seemed to be entirely simpot to go on

the same page. Let's not forget that in twenty twenty four, around the time that he was being re elected to a second term, the DOJ actually formally indicted numerous individuals, charging them charging them with planned assassinations of Donald Trump on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the militant wing of the Islamus Claricy, the theocracy there in Iran.

So when the world is actually going on here now, my best guess, my best guest continues to be that we are looking at some very high profile k fabe, which is a fans way of saying WWE style wrestling. If I were replaced in my bets, I still think that there is going to be some sort of action beyond the increased tariffs, beyond the increased sanctions that we've seen over the past two days from the United States. The alternative is that perhaps the New York Times has

it right. Perhaps there is a chance that Netsan Yaku does not want Trump to take action, which case we could conclude one of two things. On the one hand, perhaps Israel genuinely does fear reprisal from Iran. Maybe they genuinely do not have the missile defense in place. I find that very difficult to believe. The alternative is that perhaps perhaps the Israelis got word or they at least suspected that if Trump were to do anything, that it would be a carry Hagel Obama style pinprick strike. It's

very difficult to know what to make of this. Again, the notion that can do a pink prick strike now flies in the face, flies in the face of these spectacular B two bombing runs that we saw over four down Natons and the other facilities in Iran last June. But making a mistake about it, a red line has been breached, has been violated, has been trampled over. I would not have advice that that red line being made, But now that it has been made, it has been

crossed repeatedly. It's actually even worse than that. Just earlier today, Just earlier today, one of the leading advisors to the Iyatola Kammeyeni in Iran apparently said in an address. He said in an address that the Runan people heard that he was recommending to the Mudels and to Kamyenni himself

that they start executing more of the protesters. So when Donald Trump said a couple days ago that the killing has stopped and there are no more executions, it's far from obvious that that continues that that looks like it will be the case moving forward. For what it's worth, Mike Walltz, the US Ambassadors to the Nations, was doubling down on all options still being on the table just on Thursday. Go ahead and watch this from Mike Wallace, the current used Ambassador to the United Nations.

wrote a book more on these themes. But Donald Trump needs to do at this point what is best for Donald Trump, United States, whether this is very high profile try to throw off the enemy head fake cafe between Trump and anti Yahoo, which I think it probably is.

But in the alternative, if there actually is a combination of pushback both within the Trump administration from the more isolation as actors within the administration on the one hand, combined with potentially not just Arab allies the Middle East, but also Israel, So on the one hand, this could be high profile cafe of this head fake. On the other hand, there could be a real pushback. The relevant point is this that it is Donald Trump's reputation now

that is on the line. It is his reputation that he has to uphold. He chose to make those posts, He chose to issue those those threats, those very clear statements on his own social media site, through social He didn't have to do that, but he chose to do it. Perhaps it was advisable, Perhaps it was inadvisable. It does not matter. At this point. You cannot let this regime get away with trampling on your red line. Trump didn't

allow them to do it. Last June. He didn't allow Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela to escape after making lots of threats against him. He didn't allow the various Islamist factions in Nigeria to escape after making lots of threats to them to stop slaughtering Christians. They learned that the hard way on Christmas Day, symbolically of all days, and now it is incumbent upon the president to make sure that the Molas do not escape neatly. This time, Trump faces

a fork in the road. On the one hand, he could go down God forbid the path of Barack Obama as a president, to let his foreign policy dwindle by not enforcing a clear red line. On the other hand, Donald Trump has a unique opportunity to be even more of a man of history, a great man of history, that is, than he already is. I hope he does the right thing for what it's worth. I think he will stay with us through the break. I'm Josh Hammer.

We'll be right back. Welcome back. Well, there's all this talk, of course about the US tend to taking military action in Iran, but most of the conversation otherwise continues to focus on immigration, ice and what the heck is happening in Minneapolis. Again. I don't pretend to know what exactly is happening there in the Twin Cities either something in

the tap water. Why in the world is Minneapolis, this frigid coal city with this longstanding Democrat farmer Labor party tradition, I mean, why are they at the epicenter of all of us? Really? I mean George Floyd in twenty and twenty to the Somali fraud scandal that continues to be just an exploding national story. I'm hoping to see many more indictments, prosecutions and in that story for what it's worth.

And now to the Renee Good shooting from Jonathan Ross, the ICE agents and the protests that are are now threatening to spread over the country. I don't know what the heck is going on in Minnesota, but I know that it is not good. And one of the things that are not good is the adle brains Governor Tim Wallas, who really ought to resign in disgrace if he had any modicum of shame or self awareness about him whatsoever.

Tim Walls is an utter and complete disgrace to his job, to his position, to a state, to his people, to his countrymen. He is an appalling, absolute disgrace. A couple of nights ago, he took to YouTube to call on Minnesota as his own citizens to take their cameras and be citizen activists and start to film, to film the ICE agents, film their atrocities, he said, for purposes of future lawsuits by who by the ACLU. What are you doing, dude? What is your goal?

confrontation with Jonathan Ross. The ICE Agent is an organization that tries to train leftist citizen activists to stop ICE immigration forrest in in order to engage in d arresting operations, Which is a very fancy way of saying that you tried then to go to the federal agents while he is arresting and legal alien and stop the arrest. You know, A better word for d arrest is anarchy or maybe insurrection, as well, you know his case may be Stephan Miller,

the top domestic policy deputy staff at the White House. Two. Miller has some thoughts on anarchy and insurrection in Innesota. Go ahead and watch this from Stephen Miller.

potentially paying many of these protests as well. That climate change organization has gotten funding from all the usual suspects, whether it's the Ties Foundation, George Sorosis opens its foundation, all the usual left wing suspects are in on the action here in Minnesota. So ice Watch, that other far left group that Renee a Good, the now deceased leftist activist who was killed by Jonathan Rosth, the ICE agent

in an act cel defense. Ice Watch, the group that she belonged to, has now come out with a new statement to Stephen Miller's point. Ice Watch now saying that quote, the time is ripe to embrace militancy, militancy, and they're saying that you have to escalate your demands against ICE officers by any means necessary. That is code word for violence is appropriate. Force is appropriate by any means necessary.

Is the exact same language you hear from the Kafiah clad Hamas freaks, the from the River to the Sea people when they support Hamas and they support Gihab and they support murder, rate, pillaging violence, they say by any means necessary. That's what ice Watch is saying here in a domestic about ICE agents in Minneapolis. By the way, just corroborating this, So ice Watch saying there is nothing

left to do but escalate. Disgusting and Tim Walts and Governor totally corroborating this by saying hours after this ice Watch team was put out, Tim Waltz, saying that he also encouraged residents to resist Ice, and he accused Ice of carrying out quote a campaign of organized brutality. Organize brutality. Just unbelievable stuff. I absolutely unbelievable. You know, once upon a time the Democrats were not totally totally crazy on

the issue of immigration. Earlier this week, we were discussing this portion of Bill Clinton's nine to ninety five State of the Union dress talking about the threat of legal immigration. Turns out it actually was not just Bill Clinton, actually even include people like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Go ahead and watch this montage compiled by Fox Business.

Look right now, you have one of the two major political parties in America that cannot squarely answer the question, as Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, deeply struggled to do earlier this week in a Fox's interview with Griff Jenkins. You have a lot of Democrats who are struggling mightily to answer the very basic question as to whether or not ICE should be abolished. And in that context, ICE is not just an agency, it is a proxy for immigration law. You see, this is the globalist dream. They

don't believe in borders. They don't believe in such thing as immigration law. If you actually take the John Lennon imagine the globalism utopia, no nations, no religion, no borders, no war. You take that to its laws of conclusion. They don't believe in immigration law. And that is why Stephen Miller is fundamentally correct that this is an insurrection, is an insurrection in his domestic anarchy, very similar as we've been arguing for weeks now to the Neo Confederate

insurrection and anarchy that Abraham Lincoln put down. Abraham Lincoln, by the way, knew a thing or two about the Insurrection Act of eighteen oh seven. In fact, Abraham Lincoln actually invoked the Insurrection Act on April fifteenth, eighteen sixty one, just days after the first shots of Civil War were

fired at Fort Sumter. The Insurrection Act, which Donald Trump is now threatening to invoke, has been invoked all throughout American history, beginning with Jefferson in eighteen oh eight, most recently with President George H. W. Bush in ninet ninety two, in the context of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, is a statue that allows the domestic use of the

military to restore order amidst insurrection and anarchy. Well, if so called sanctuary cities really are the bastions of neo Confederate sentiments that I believe that they that they are, If they really believe that the fellow government is immortal and evil, and the states have an obligation to defy, to nullify federal law, then wouldn't stand to reason that the remedy is the same remedy that Lincoln invoked. That's the Insurrection Act of eighteen oh seven. For days, President

tran has been threatening to invoke this statute. I'm not sure as a president what you're waiting for. You should act on this law. Order must be restored. And yes, as they say, by any means necessary, stay with us with the break. I'm Josh Hammer will be right back. Welcome back. Jordan Peterson one of the most famous persons in the entire not just right of center speaking commenting space, really this one one of the most well known academics,

just individuals really in North America. Jordan Peterson became famous, among other things, for saying over and over, over and over over again, to make your bed in the morning. He was really reaching out, above all to disaffected young men. He was saying. His message was that if you begin your day by, among other things, making your bed, by taking care of the small things, you are setting yourself

up for success and a good day. That order and structure are important, and that order and s ructure begin with the small things. Think of it as Rudy Giuliani's style broken windows policing, and then turn that into day

to day living in ethics. So broken windows policing is the theory that if you begin enforcing crimes against broken windows, petty crime, petty larseny, things like that, then that will then send a message that the bigger crimes, the rape, the homicide, grand theft, auto, et cetera, then that will definitely be enforced. And it was remarkably successful for whatever it's worth as a matter of urban policing, from the JULII minstration through the Bloomberger mistration before build a blasio

through out the window. Well, so too is Jordan Peterson's style make your bed a very successful basic guideline for how to live your life. This is one of the big big divides as well, between Charlie Kirk and his lifelong arch foe, an archfoe who not the last people like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly continue to to laud and promote that being Nick Flentes, Charlie Kirk makes memory of be a blessing very much took the Jordan Peterson approach.

If you look at the massive archive of Charlie's talks and lecturers and his back and forth with questioners at his myriad events, all of that digital archive on YouTuber elsewhere, you will see him repeatedly say two young men, teenagers, twenty somethings, his core audience for his tragically truncated life. He said, over and over and over again, take your life into your own hands. If you look in the mirror and you don't like the way you look, go

to the gym, start working out. If you're tired of eating dinner by yourself and your one bedroom apartment, you're tired of going to sleep by yourself a night you're lonely, find that girl and ask her out on a date. Maybe you'll even ask her hand in marriage, God willing, you'll have children. You don't like your current job, your occupation, work harter, develop a new skill set, if you go back to school, learn a new technical trade. Whatever the

case it be. You control because we are human beings, we have free will and we have human agency. It's a core Peterson Kirk concept. On the other hand, you have the Nick Flente style of victimology, a victimology that is shared by both the flent Day's quote unquote rights to extend that it's on the rights, which not really it really isn't, and that victimology that that victim mentality is shared by the left. In kind of a bizarre

horseshoe effect. You have this victimology between parts of the so called right and the large bulk of the left, best embodied and encapsulated by the DEI mentality. The entire premise of DEI diversity, equity of and inclusion is a victim mentality. If you are a black person, a Hispanic person, if you are a sexual minority, whatever the case may be, then you're oppressed and it's not your fault. You see the DII. People say, because you were born into that repression,

you're white Christian and also Asian and Jewish overlords. They have systematically been impressing you since before you were born. You didn't even know it. This is basically Nick finds his message as well when he calls for people to so aggressively rage against the machine as he does. He doesn't believe in human agency. He believes that his followers

of the groupers are victims. Well, ironically, I didn't necessarily see this coming, but Oprah Winfrey, of all people, had some very interesting and i'm very troubling comments when it comes to weight loss. Oprah is one of the largest stakeholders of weight Watchers. She very famously has been back and forth when it comes to her own weight over the years, She's spoken about this at great length, and she had comments on this that really brought me back

to this whole broader debate between agency versus victimology. Go ahead and watch Oprah Winfrey talking on the view. Yes, you know why.

I thought that moment had proven that I have the willpower because I went four months and I didn't eat a morsel of food.

some ulterior motives going on here. In fact, I was looking around and Jillian Michaels, actually the well known fitness girls, actually on Jillian's own show just a Called weeks ago

to discuss the Maduro operation of Venezuela. So about two years ago, Jillian Michaels actually claimed that Oprah Winfrey has a quote financial incentive with ozempic after Oprah admitted to using various weight loss medication and losing forty pounds, and apparently, according to Jillian Michaels, Oprah has this financial incentive to ozempic and maybe perhaps a big farm and more generally through her stake at weight Watchers. WeightWatchers is now in

the ozempic business. If you have not been paying attention to their particular bismodel, your miles may vary as to what to make of that for what it's worth. Shortly after Jullie Michaels made these comments January twenty twenty four, Oprah Winfrey actually resigned from the board of Weight Watchers, but to my knowledgy has not financially divested, so the

financial complications may well still be there. But even more troubling than whatever ulterior motive there may or may not be when it comes to Oprah Winfree talking about how will power is not enough, Even more troubling, indeed profoundly more troubling than that is the actual message itself. Oprah is someone who has led a very inspiring story, coming up from the poor background she did and now being a billionaire, one of the wealthiest black people in America,

and frankly the world. She has looked up to as a hero by countless, countless Americans, mostly on the left, because she's very publicly of the left, speaking as she did at the Democrat National Committee in Chicago in August twenty twenty four. But still she is still lionized by

many of both a political and an apolitical variety. So it should really disturb us that Oprah Winfrey is questioning and calling into calling into a deep question, really undermining the entire notion that human beings can take their own lives into their hands. I could not disagree with this more. I have countless friends. I've never been obese. My weights fluctuate a little bit like any adults. But I have

numerous friends who were actually obese. I'm not talking like weigh you know, three hundred plus weiy pounds who lost a ton of weight. I have one friend who lost like one hundred and eighty pounds by doing nothing more than walking insane amounts over the course of the day and giving up alcohol. That's it. I have another friends who lost a similar amounts, easily over one hundred pounds. Not sure of one hundred and eighty, but one three whatever.

Same thing, just walks around all day in New York City, eats a little healthier and gave up, gave up the booze, Oprah, Why is that not good enough? You know, shouldn't we be encouraging young people to do it on natural to do it the natural way. This definitely is the Charlie Kirk Jordan Pier's mentality called the Josh hammerd mentality too. If you have a chronic medical condition, by all means,

takes some medication. I take some prescription drugs as well for various conditions, nothing severe, but a couple of smaller things. But this is not that it's a weight loss. If you are so undisciplined that you can't get yourself to eat better, go to the gym, do things to lose weight, then you're never gonna have the discipline that's necessary for life itself. And that is the real problem with Oprah's terrible comments. Frankly, she should be a shame of herself. Awful,

awful stuff from Oprah Winfrey. I'm Josh Hammer. Stay with us, We'll be right back after this break. I'm Josh Hammer, and welcome back. Before the break, we were speaking about Oprah Winfrey and human agency. Does she believe in it? Or does she not believe in it? Frankly, you might be confused based on her astounding recent comments about human willpower,

ozeenpic and weight loss. I think now about the foreign stage, there is one particular population across the world who Western powers, for decades have said, don't really have human agency to overcome their own circumstances. Think for a second about what that could be. I'll give you a second. Really got it? Okay? Yeah,

it's the Palestinian Arabs. How many times over the past fifty sixty seven years have we heard Western lawmakers from Brussels to Turtle Bay, the Nine Nations to everywhere everywhere, all the cours of power, the UN, the Democratic National Committee, the the Baraco bombinistration, they always say the Palestinians are victims of their own circumstances. You can't expect them to stop subsidizing jihad, the pay for slave scheme. How can you convince them or how can you expect them to

do that? They're the victims of their own circumstances. Don't you see Palestinianism as an identity? Is this dei Twente style of victimology transported to the world stage. The Palestinians, the so called Palestinians, are now back in the news yet again this week. Steve Wikoff, who is the US Special Envoy not just for the Middle East but for Rush Ukraine, and he's kind of just Donald Trump's right hand man when it comes to international diplomacy, for better

or for worse, as the case may be. So on Wednesday earlier this week, Steve Wikoff announcing the launch of what is known as Phase two of Donald Trump's twenty point plan for finally winding down the war in Gaza. And the big news specifically this week is that Phase two commences with the establishments of a new quasi government of sorts in the Gaza strip is a technocratic Palestinian administration.

It's known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. Allegedly, these folks who are ruling this some folks from the PA, the Palatine Authority Mahmunda Bass's group, not particularly moderate, to be honest with you, but allegedly, allegedly the individuals in charge have been vetted by the United States and by israel I. Keep on saying, allegedly and heading my language, because I'm frankly not unteally sure how much vetting was

done here. So the leader of this committee, of this new technocratic interim phase to committee to try to rule Gaza outside of Hamas. The leader is the former Deputy Transportation Minister of the Palatine Authority, a man by the name of doctor Ali shaff. He doesn't necessarily seem to be a moderate figure. So, for instance, when it comes to Palestine, Arab sovereignty over broader parts of the broader

land of Israel, the Holy Land. He said at one point, quote, we need a new vision as Palestine people, to transfer the destruction of the war to a resilient environment that will lead to liberty, liberty from the Israeli occupation and to Palestinian sovereignty on Palestinian lands in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. Ah Jerusalem. He wants to conquer Jerusalem. Great. So this is the so called moderate now in charge of this technocratic government in stage two. Crazy hoot, how

about on the use of jihad. So the same guy who's the head of the technocracy now kind of sort of may be ruling Gaza, doctor Ali shot. When it comes to Jiha says quoted, international law gives the right to any people that live under the occupation to resist that occupation. Here we go again, folks. Earlier in the contents of Ice, I was talking about by any means necessary, that's this. By any means necessary, that's what he's saying. There some moderate Look, we'll see where it goes. Obviously,

everyone wants the bloodshed to wind down. The fundamental problem with this whole ritualistic song and dance, this twenty point plan, all of this, I wish nothing with the best. The fundamental problem is that you are dealing with profoundly ideological actors. These are not rational, calculating figures. They're not the Cold War era atheist Soviets whose moves you can basically map out using game theory or wargame exercises. You can't predict

this because they are idiologues. Hamas exists to subjugate all infidels, and they define as Jews, Christians and non true supremacist Muslims. Good luck in terms of trying to get them to

bow out of power. By the way, even at this point, the stipulated terms for so called Phase two have not actually really been many yet, having specifically, the final body of a slain Israeli has not actually been returned from the Gaza stro This is a Master's sergeant who was killed on Ntober sent by the name of Ron Gavilli. So the latest is that US intelligence believes that it's not Hamas but Palestini Islamic jihad that is currently holding

his body. Wikaugh saying basically that we don't want to allow this to prevent us going to Phase two Gaza. We'll see where it goes. The big thing to me is one, be on the lookout for these Jihattis, these wolfs in sheep's clothing who are leading this so called moderate technocratic committee. That's one major pause we're concerned right now. The other is make sure that pro Islamist, pro Muslim Brotherhood,

pro Hamas actors don't have a presence in Gaza. There's don't a lot to talk about Turkey rest of type Ertawa, and the leader of Turkey is a fanatical Islamist. Along with Katar. Turkey is one of the largest supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, that is the spiritual head of Hamas. Why would we give Turkey power in Gaza. Yes, they're part of NATO. I don't see why that matters. There's absolutely no reason for Turkey to be part of situation

in Gaza. Absolutely absolutely not. It makes no sense whatsoever, God willing things stabilize there in Gaza, God willing the notion of Palestinianism, as this Oprah Winfrey style of victimology ends. And much as young men these days, a new woman can lose weight without ozembic, so too can the Arabs build themselves a better life if they are so inclined. Thus far, Leaves and Gaza, they have shown very little interest in doing that. Before we go for the day,

I want to briefly touch on this week's tour portions. So, as Jews, we read a portion of the five Books of Moses Genesis through Deuteronomy every week, and we're getting kind of to a really fun part. I mean, objectively, it's all holy, it's all amazing, of course, but this is a particularly fun part of the tour of the

five Books Moses. So we are now just in the second partia of the second tour portion of the Book of Exodus, what we refer to as Parsha Vaira, and this is where Moses and his brother Aaron go to Pharaoh and they start saying, as you probably heard, let my people go. And they say it over and over and over again, and Pharaoh just repeatedly says no, repeatedly says no. And eventually the staff, the physical staff like the walking stick of Aaron most brother, then swallows the

magic sticks of the Egyptian sorcerers. And this is supposed to convince Pharaoh to say, oh, my God, the God of the Hebrew people is real, etcetera, etcetera. He still doesn't listen, and at that point we get the first of the seven of the Ten plagues, the famous ten plagues. So the last three will be in next week's tour a portion, but the first seven. So, the Nile River turns to blood. Swarms of frogs overrun the entire land

of Egypt. Lice infest all men and beasts, Hordes of wild animals invade the cities, A pestilence kills domestic animals, Boils afflict the Egyptians. And then for the seventh flake, fire and ice continued to descend from the skies in the form of a devastating hail. Nonetheless, Pharaoh's heart was hardened and it took these three more plagues, including the ultimate tenth play, the killing of the first Born, in order to convince him to actually let the Israelites go.

The question that I want to raise and briefly answer here in our final moments is this why God, God is almighty. Jews and Christians like believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient. He is almighty, all powerful. So if the goal here of God's goal in the beginning of Exodus is to free his chosen people out of bond digit enslavements and to bring them back to the chosen land and the land that he promised to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the question is, why couldn't he just do it in

one fell swoop. Why this painful, painful process, with all these ten different plagues. What's the point? The answer, I believe is as follows, God is not doing this for the Egyptians. He was doing it for the Israelites. It was all a bit of an extended act in order to increase their faith, their physical awareness that God controls everything, that he is almighty. It was an act to increase what in Hebrew we've described as Emunah which is faith,

and vitagne, which is knowledge. In God's omnipotence and omniscients, you two can better yourself in life and get away from this victimology mentality if you believe with all of your emunampta clone your faith and knowledge, that God is real, He exists, He loves you, and he cares about you, and he wants to make your life better. I'm Josh Hammer. Have a great weekend, folks. We'll be right back on Monday.