Coming up on DTNS Yelp and Grubhub pull a fast one on phone numbers cyber attacks increase against manufacturing and Google's promise to use recycled materials This is the Daily Tech news for Tuesday, August 6 2019 in Los Angeles on Tom Merritt and from studio feline I'm Sarah Lane and from studio sailor snubs. I'm Shannon Morse and I'm Roger Chang the shows producer We just finished figuring out how to solve all condensation on mugs And cups in the pre-show you can listen to that and more We have extended conversations about all kinds of things at good day internet patreon.com slash DTNS gets you access to that Let's start this here round up with a few tech things you should know Google is shutting down its trips app and adding the functionality into its maps app and search features Notes and saved places from trips will still be available in search as long as the user is signed into their Google account Google updated its travel site back in September of last year and users will soon be able to add and edit notes from Google trips in its travel section to access things like save attractions flights and hotels for upcoming and past trips and Two or three of you are very excited that Apple's new credit card is now in preview rollout The rest of you will get excited when general availability comes to all iPhone owners in the US later this month Apple says it randomly invited some people who signed up to be notified about the Apple card to sign up early sign-up process Requires you to have iOS 12.4 a physical address birthday income level and last four digits of the social security number But then you get real-time approval apparently if approved the card just shows up in your Apple wallet And then eventually you get that free titanium version as well Let's talk a little more about what's going on with the help and grub hub Shannon Vice reports that when customers tap on a phone number listed in Yelp to call a restaurant a Different number is dialed that forwards to the restaurant The hidden number is a grub hub number used to track marketing calls grub hub can bill Restaurants a commission of up to 30% for that referral according to the verge in June new food Economy found that grub hub referral numbers were also listed on dummy websites about restaurants grub hub told the verge that its Contracts with restaurants allow for that behavior and the practice is similar to referral links to websites, but for phone numbers Yeah, so if you're you're trying to figure out what this means you'll see the number<PHONE_NUMBER> you'll tap it and it'll dial 314 6 6 8 2020 and you'll be like wait that's not the number that I tap but it will still ring the restaurant because it's referring through this number that grub hub can track and And and that allows them to charge the restaurant now the restaurants know this is going on They know they're paying for these referral numbers, but they may not know that Yelp is Doing it which may mean they're losing a lot more money in referral commissions than they might have expected Now grub hub does have a partnership with Yelp. So as you said, this is totally legal They're completely allowed to do it But unfortunately it feels so shady just for the fact that this is allowing them to take up to 30% Which is a very very high fee Especially if you're considering smaller restaurants like mom-and-pop type restaurants You have such a very minimal scale with which you can be a profitable business at that point It's that's a big fee Yeah, the vice in the vice article that Where the reporter explained how this is happening the the person who was at the restaurant on the other line when you said Well, what was that kind of like middleman message that I got about the call being recorded? She was like, I don't even know what you're talking about So I think that you know the biggest problem I have with this is yeah 30% commission fee is huge some restaurants might be like well still worth it in the end if we get more business this way But I would guess that most restaurants have no idea that this is going on and so that's why it seems so shady Yeah, my guess and again I'm just guessing here is that the restaurants sign up for this and they say look It's gonna be a 30% commission on referred phone numbers, but that's coming out of grubhub's own marketing And so it'll be worth it because we'll refer a customer to you by phone and then they're more likely to eat in They'll eat there more, you know more often and that's why we have this higher percentage because a referral to the grubhub Delivery app is only 3% right? However, if grubhub is going and populating a bunch of fake websites, which they do and they're populating Yelp Which they do suddenly that restaurant's gonna get a lot more phone calls Then they would have thought because when I'm a restaurateur agreeing to this I think oh so they're gonna go find some people that I wouldn't normally reach well Yelp reviews are a place Where you normally reach people and so this I don't know if you could make a legal case But it's definitely Changing the premise under which you made the original agreement Grubhub definitely argues that it is because of their marketing efforts that a lot of these companies have seen an increase in Sales and perhaps that is true But I'm kind of in the same boat where I have always used Yelp and now I use Google Maps Like I have never even gone to any of the grubhub platforms So if I didn't know that this was happening and I found out that restaurants were being charged a fee because of grubhub Then I would feel bad as a customer and I would do more due diligence to call them directly as opposed to using some kind of marketing number Not to mention they're recorded to Part of this is that when you're looking at Yelp you assume. Oh, that's their phone number because that's what you see And you assume when you tap that number it'll dial that number not some other number I think that's where this really breaks down and it's really creepy too that in in the article They explained that grubhub does record these phone calls and they do censor personal information However, they have had a slip-up according to one of the restaurantiers in the article that we read And this allows for restaurants to dispute the charges Grubhub did change that they changed it from up to 60 days that you can dispute it to up to 120 days So for restaurant C's that somebody called and they didn't actually make an order But they were still charged by grubhub for that phone call then they can dispute that charge, which is good Yeah, what a hassle and how How are they gonna have the time to do that? I mean if you're working at a restaurant Especially as an owner you don't have time to sit down and go through every single charge. It's way too much work Yeah, I mean it's a hassle for the restaurants It's a hassle for us to be like wait if I tap this number on yelp Is it really gonna dial that number or am I gonna go through some recording thing and they're they're they're letting you know right up front That the call is being recorded. They're not doing that on the sly But you might not have expected that when you tap that number and you're also not going to have the real number in your call Log now it's it's bad UI. It may not be illegal, but it's bad UI. Yeah, that's that's well It's probably gonna be more to the story soon enough. Good on you grubhub IBM's X-Force iris incident response team that published research showing cyber attacks designed to cause Industrial damage have doubled in the past six months with 50% of the attacks targeting Manufacturing majority of cases take place in Europe the Middle East and the US the attacks may include locking systems crashing PCs rendering services inoperable and deleting files infection vectors include fishing emails and credential theft and Watering whole accidents and third-party compromises recovery time for enterprises can range from one to two months in a related report Microsoft's threat intelligence center said that a Russian group called strontium also known as a PT 28 or Fancy bear is targeting IOT devices in order to breach corporate networks as well more coming from Microsoft on that at Black Hat later this week Yeah, if you're wondering what a watering hole attack is that's where The the attacker figures out like oh all the people at Ray the on Go and visit this pub website because it's near their their Workplace and they all go there for happy hour and they want to see what the drink specials are And so you go and you attack the pub website and infect it and then that gets the malware on the people at Ray the on Computers because they're all visiting that that's it's that kind of thing But yeah, this is and we hear all the time about credential attacks Rather information attacks where they're trying to get information But we're seeing a huge rise in these more serious attacks These are like Stuxnet where the malware isn't trying to steal information the malware is trying to get on to Machine software and make the machine's malfunction in a way that damages them could be computers The simplest version is locking up the computers that you no longer can use it because it's it's encrypted and there's it's not even ransomware The you know it becomes hard to use because it's been locked up But but it could be in scota systems. It could be in all kinds of things and this isn't even just like locking up computers Which is definitely a physical damaging attack Especially if it ends up like burning out components or something but it can also cause a life-threatening issues with these Industrial systems and businesses because if you're working there and for example if a some kind of safety Infrastructure is taken down by this machinery or by this malware then something else might occur that ends up You know causing a fire or something like that in an industry So it's really really scary and I have seen this trend not personally but just working with threat wire stories I have been seeing a trend of hearing about these stories almost every single day And it's very very tough to read them because it is dangerous and it affects everybody Not just the people that work there But like if you go through if you have stoplights on your way to work like that could be something that causes Infrastructure failure for you like it it it affects everyone. Yeah, we're in a hospital Certainly has the potential to yeah, and yeah, I these are targeting targeting manufacturing because they tend to be advanced persistent threats They they tend to be state sponsored So it's a question of trying to damage an opponent in a negotiation whether that's a country Whether it's corporate espionage or something like that, but we're not talking about script kiddies We're certainly not even talking about organized crime That that's trying to get credentials that they can go and use to to run up credit card bills Uh, these these are much more serious and much more sophisticated types of attacks. Yeah the US department of justice Has accused a 34 year old Pakistani man named Muhammad Fahd with paying more than one million dollars in bribes between April 2012 and september 2017 to several AT&T employees in order to illegally unlock AT&T phones So not each of them got a million dollars. It was a million dollars total in bribes spread out Over the five years spread out over many employees at first AT&T employees were given lists of ime i numbers Uh to unlock But then eventually those employees either left or got fired And after all but one of the bribed contacts were fired Fahd got a contact to install malware at the Bethel Washington call center That let him unlock phones remotely himself Fahd also got employees to install rogue wireless access points in the call center when the malware started to become hard to control Fahd used the unlocking scheme to charge customers who wanted to unlock their phones and leave AT&T before the contract allowed Or if the phone was not allowed to be unlocked So they would go around and sell these unlocking services to to folks who wanted to leave AT&T Three AT&T insiders have pleaded guilty to taking the money Fahd himself has been arrested in hong kong in february of 2018 And was extradited to the united states just a few days ago on august 2nd Well, I've wanted to get out of an AT&T contract in the past so I kind of get what's going on here and My first reaction was like wow one million dollars. That's a lot of money But but if he's getting incremental money from however many customers really are actually looking for the service and figuring out who can be bribed over at AT&T then Then it's not really that much money that Make a million dollar million dollars in bribes worth it, right? So it must be pretty lucrative Also the fact that the AT&T employees were apparently contacted either by phone Um got their phone number or facebook messages I just think I cannot imagine anyone calling me and being like all right.  Can I bribe you you'd be like what bye? What's going on here? It's it's uh, it must have been a very convincing operation Yeah, it must have been i'm sure you didn't didn't start by saying hey, can I bribe you? But yeah You know what I mean Yeah, getting cold cold. We're something like that when when you're working at a call center for AT&T Is uh, is it is an interesting one but but Shannon you were gonna say Uh as somebody who's a big fan of like fixing everything yourself and having the ability to you know Just do at home fixes and jailbreaking and stuff. I feel like we need to make jailbreaking a lot more accessible So people aren't paying Somebody randomly so that they can get out of their contracts. They can do it themselves This is yeah, it is. I mean there there is no doubt that this man broke the law and uh, and and I'm not Excuseing what he did But it does show the lengths that people were willing to go In order to control the device that they bought Right, I mean, uh, and and in some cases maybe they hadn't fully paid it off Maybe there's some fraud involved where they they like Stole the phone from AT&T before they had finished paying off their contract Especially in the days when you didn't buy the phone you got the phone free as long as you were on the contract for two years I'm sure that was part of this but probably not all of it Wonder I would if you have to unlock iMEI codes one by one because that sounds like painstaking work Yeah, I think the amount of phone you can just run a script That was the whole point of the malware is that he was able to just punch him in and do him really fast sure Well, moving on uber and lyft released a joint analysis of the effect of TNCs or transportation network companies on urban traffic Transportation consultancy fair and peers led the study in boston chicago la san francisco seattle and Washington dc uber and lyft account for 1 to 3 percent of vehicle miles traveled in the wider metropolitan regions But in san francisco county uber and lyft make up for 13.4 percent What was found in a 2016 study by the county in central boston 8 percent in washington dc was 7.2 percent la seattle and chicago were all lower than that also of note on average in all six cities 54 to 62 percent of miles were done with a passenger and by the way they didn't make any mention of whether The non-tnc traffic had declined which i assume uber and lyft would have been touting that quite a bit So it is it is certainly reasonable to assume that all of this extra traffic, especially in the city centers is increasing congestion and therefore The promise of uber and lyft that like you won't even need to own a car and the roads will be more navigable because of us Is not working that way, especially when almost half of the traffic isn't even carrying a passenger It's just drivers riding around waiting for the next Rider although we're still in the first decade of all of this, right? So this is something that you know, maybe I won't have a car in another five years I still feel like I need it now because I I haven't it hasn't really been proven to me that it's going to work with My lifestyle, but I think that people are becoming more comfortable with that concept than they were When when when uber launched there's an ideal version of this system where all the cars are autonomous And they just sit in a parked spot when they're not being used And an algorithm is is reallocating them to places where they anticipate high demands So the wait times are short where few people own cars And therefore it could reduce congestion There's a lot of what ifs and and when when they happens in what I just said and that's just not the way it is right now Even with places with public transit like san francisco, for example with the bay area rapid transit the bart I find myself personally if I have the option between bart or uber and lift I'm going to take uber or lift because one it feels safer and two I feel like I'll get there much faster without less as many delays That's funny because here in los angeles. I often take a lift to the train station Because the train station is going to be much faster than being in a car because our roads are just already that much more congested rush hour is a different different story Forbes reports that at black hat apple will announce an invite only bug bounty program for mac os Along with a plan to give security researchers in its ios bug bounty program special iphone The research phones may be less locked down than a consumer version But not as open as an apple employee version in order to let researchers better inspect the os or specific components Such as memory to find vulnerabilities This is interesting Because I was telling shannon before the show there there have been some studies showing that private invite only bug bounty programs are sometimes found to be a little more effective Because the company doesn't have to spend as much time chasing down bug reports that don't go anywhere When when it's open for everyone You do end up Valid you're validating a smaller percentage of the bug reports as actual bugs, right? Because people will report a duplicate bug or or they think they found a bug and it's not or something that's already being fixed Whereas the invite only programs tend to have a higher level of researchers involved in them And therefore each each bug report is more valuable on its own It is good to hear that apple might be Starting a bug bounty program for mac os even if it is invite only shannon What do you make of this idea of giving the researchers because it's invite only giving them a less locked down version of the iphone? Uh, I think it's actually kind of cool I think it's a really nice way to get people interested in being in the invite only bug bounty program And i'm sure over time they'll probably release how many researchers are allowed to be a part of that program as well And I also found it it was very interesting to know that it was invite only I didn't know about the public versus invite only Differences that you would see with bug bounty programs as you know given that i'm very much an advocate for open source I'm afraid of like the bug crowd people who who basically like give you a huge list of Companies that do public bug bounty programs I've always been very much attuned to the idea of community efforts to find these bugs But if you're just one researcher off on your own and you're trying to find something It totally makes sense that they would have duplicates getting entered and things like that that would in turn Uh, give them a lot more labor that they would have to put into a program like this So I think it's exciting. I'm glad that they are incentivizing people by giving them the free phones That's a really really smart idea. Uh, and it's cool overall Yeah, I mean at the downside of course is like you say, uh, there are people who might find a legitimate bug And not be able to report it because they haven't been invited in because they're they're a newer system So you you lose that open advantage there, uh, when you don't do it that way, but um, yeah I'll be interesting to see what what's going on with these actual iPhones once they're announced Uh, and and and we start to see some researchers talking about if they can talk about, uh What's different about them Folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes Be sure to subscribe to daily tech headlines.com Google is promising to include recycled materials in all hardware by 2022 Now that doesn't mean all of their hardware will be made of recycled material 100 by 2022 But in the next couple of years, google wants to make sure that every piece of hardware they make at least has some Recycled material and they promise to maximize that as much as possible. Although that's left a little nebulous That includes pixel phones pixel books google home speakers nest Phone cases charging stands all that kind of stuff google does already use recycled plastic in the chromecast And there's a lot of details about them Going to a length great lengths to use plastic bottles to help create some of the fabric that's on your google home Or in some of the cases Google also announced they want to be 100 carbon neutral in shipping by 2020 That could involve uh purchasing credits, but it could also involve shipping to cargo instead of air air carriers where possible And this is google just announcing this today samsung has already pledged to use sustainable material in its product packaging Apple has an initiative to use recycled material in its product. So google is not the only company doing this But it's the most recent one to announce something Yay, good job google. Although I do have a lot of questions when it comes to this story For example, they say that you know by 2022 all the made by google products will include recycled materials But they don't say how much of those products will increase One percent of the product exactly you can sort of say that without doing a whole lot We maximized it and he maximized it at 1% I have seen a lot of stories about businesses Especially this past couple of years that are working towards getting more sustainable Which is wonderful and I praise the companies for doing so much work to do that But I see so many companies also coming out and saying oh, but we can only use you know 10 percent Recycled products in this in this in this uh new device that we are coming out with or whatever it might be So knowing that number is very important to me Now it does make sense from a business mindset why you can't replace the entire product with recycled materials You have to test the durability you have to test the safety There's there's a whole list of specifications that they have to go through for the manufacturing process in order to make sure that it is You know That's even something that they could feasibly do and if it's something that they could actually afford because it will end up being More expensive in the long term for those recycled materials But from a consumer standpoint personally I would love to see it. I would love to see more companies doing this kind of thing But I feel like it's just going to take a long time And potentially the the more companies that do it The the more scale you reach in recycling and that could bring some of the cost of those parts down I would also like to see companies committing to more like like samsung did with their product packaging more sustainable Creation of products so products that don't use as much Of material recycled or not From the beginning so that so that they are they're more efficiently produced this This is that's all good for all of us because it reduces the use of materials in the first place and it reduces the cost of making them Google's been on the sustainable kick for for a few years now. Um it back in 2016 It sort of touted that six of its data centers Had diverted 100% of waste from landfills and you say well, I mean, okay 100% really of of waste from a data center A lot of it has to do with reusing Certain components of what's inside a data center in certain ways more power efficiency They they noted in this blog post about About this that at one of the data centers these kind of high tech trash compactors had, you know um Lessened the need for as much genitorial work and made it easier for the people who are picking up the trash to Come at the right times and the exact weight management and a lot of stuff that I hadn't really thought about before So, you know, you can kind of say well, it's a big company. Some of this is lip service And that might be true, but a lot of this does point to google really carrying and moving in the right direction Yeah, I think you're right. I mean I I don't want to dam with faint praise. Uh, it's it's a good move First of all, it's it's more efficient to use recycled products Then then it is to to always be having to scavenge new products in as a principle anyway Sometimes that's not true in practice, but but generally speaking It's it's better to reuse and recycle things than it is to have to go out and acquire new things, especially Uh situations like rare earth minerals, which may or may not be what we're talking about here But you know, those are those are harder to acquire and if we could come up with a better way to reuse and recycle those then That would be a great help. So I I appreciate the step towards this. I appreciate the rhetoric toward this I I don't I don't want to come off as unappreciative, but like say Shannon. There's lots of questions there I have so many questions It's it's all in the it's all in the how you do it and what those percentages end up being and I Actually do believe that google will be fairly transparent about that and there's plenty of people to audit what they say and see if they really are doing that Yeah, I also think that you know, would people go like, wow recycle plastic And you think of like a garbage bin filled with plastic bottles How's that going to be part of a cool speaker that I want to buy you'd be surprised how how that how the stuff can can look Very much not like an old plastic bottle on the other side. Look at the google home cloth There's Make shoes out of recycled plastic The onus the onus is definitely on the consumers as well Not as much as it is on businesses to change their the the way that they manufacture the products, but um as consumers We definitely need to consider Recycled products may not be as beautiful as something that is completely not recycled But it's definitely a lot better for the environment. So it's something that we should Definitely purchase if that option is available and apply pressure on companies to follow through absolutely and change your standard of beauty Yeah Recycled people are pretty too Thanks to everybody who participates in our sub reddit if you're recycled or not We love y'all submit stories and vote on them at daily tech news show reddit.com join our facebook group as well facebook.com Slash groups slash daily tech news show All right, let's check in with the amateur traveler chris christensen who's got some potential good news For those people, you know who you are who don't like sitting in the middle seat on a plane This is chris christensen from amateur traveler with another tech in travel minute I don't know if you have done a long flight stuck in the middle seat I have had that experience on more than one occasion There is a new design to try and make a middle seat a better place to be and this is an interesting use of Design and what they're doing is they're making the middle seat a little further back and a little further down Little lower than the seats on either side And they're also changing the armrest to have sort of two levels So that you can have part of your elbows on one armrest and yet the person to either side of you Has a different portion of the same armrest Will it make the middle seat a great place to sit probably not Can good design make it a better experience? I think maybe it can I'm chris christensen from amateur traveler Yeah, I'm I'm I'm very skeptical about this one. I've I've I watched this are this get covered when it rolled out and I I wonder what the unintended consequences of it are right because yeah, uh reclining seats sounded great Probably the first time they decided until everybody's sitting behind the person reclining started complaining about how this person is reclining right into their face So I wonder if there's something with this new middle seat design like that, but I don't know it sounds sounds cool Anything's better than the middle seat as it is now. So I welcome some innovation All right, let's check out the mailbag. Let's do it and wrote in and hosts a knitting podcast And we happened to talk about knitting on the show yesterday and's podcast is called I thought I knew how which is a great name and she's waning on on our story yesterday about inverse knit and cad knit Ann says it is true that you can't copyright the procedure involved in making a knitted item The copyright on a pattern only applies to the actual pattern Meaning you can't email it to a friend or a photocopy it Ann goes on to say some companies have been doing this for years though And then she says my concern overall is that if people can take a pattern from a photo and have a machine then make it for them Then it'll dissuade new designers for me even bothering to try to get into the business And our overall variety of patterns and the richness of the designs will diminish overall And also notes that as long as the inverse knit can only work in acrylic with acrylic Yarn it will really only produce items at the fast fashion clothing level Wool cotton and linen all have special properties and qualities that people are willing to pay for to match their preference for needs Yeah, and they they are working on doing wool and cotton and other other fabrics But but even even then I think Ann's right that sometimes just having something that's hand knit Uh, even if even if there's eventually no other difference people are going to like that idea Uh, and I think hand knit will will always have a certain place for some people just just like, you know Locally grown artisan cheeses and stuff like that Uh as to the the copyright thing though, Ann you're you're reflecting what the music industry says Which is if we don't protect these these copyrights. No one will make music I tend to think that fear is overblown and I think it's probably would be overblown and knitting A lot of people create knitting patterns because they want to uh because it's fun And not because they expect to get rich on it. So I I think Yes at a certain point if it's too easy to to copy it it might reduce the overall pattern But maybe not as much as we fear, uh, I think we underestimate how much people do things Because they enjoy doing it and how in this world where we can all share more than ever How how rich that can be but that doesn't undermine Ann's concern It's it's still a fair concern of like, but are we going to get to a point where it becomes too easy to copy? Well, thanks for listening Ann and we will check out your podcast as well Also, thanks to Shannon Morse for being with us a couple weeks in a row now three even Thanks for being here and let folks know how they can keep up with the rest of your work Thank you. It's super exciting as usual patreon.com slash threat wire That's what i'm going to ping everybody to today If you sign up I have a special offer happening right now for the next five days You will get a personalized video sent to you at any tier level. So just sign up over at my patreon page And btdubs if you are going to duff con this weekend. I'm having a meet up It's happening in las vegas at beer park, which is right in front of the paris casino august 9th 9 p.m Really easy to memorize.  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This study found that there was a higher prevalence of both mood disorders and obesity in urban areas compared to rural areas. This suggests that there may be a higher risk of mental illness and obesity in urban areas than in rural areas. Additionally, this study also showed that the observed effect of rural-urban disparities in mood disorders and obesity was not affected by socio-economic status or health care utilization. This article was authored by Christy A. Patton, Young J. Joon, Yu Jung Riu, and others.


Right, welcome back. So we saw the test, the call to give all. So Abraham did his part of fulfilling the covenant. And let's look at this, a deeper revelation of God saying Jehovah Jairah, Genesis chapter 22, 13, and 14, then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and there behind him was a ram caught in the ticket by its horns. So Abraham went, took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place. The Lord will provide Jehovah Jairah. And it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. You saw that sequence of covenants that God is giving Abraham. And he says, okay, Abraham, you're fulfilling yours. Look at me, what I'm going to do now.  And in that Jehovah Jairah, the same way I will provide later on for another ram who will take away the sins of the world. And by myself, I have sworn God backs up his covenant with himself. And he's not saying, okay, 24 elders, you're in heaven with me or two angels, important angels. They are signing the agreement saying, okay, they are backing up the covenant for me. No, God says, hey, I've established. I will back it up and I will fulfill it. So God gave the promise, but he also signed off on the promise as a guarantor. So did we understand this covenant with Abraham? Yes, and how he established the blood covenant there. Let's look at the blood covenant with Moses and Israel. First one, Passover, which is a type of redemption. God ransomed his people out for himself who would continue to be in covenant. Remember to Abraham, what did God tell Abraham? People will go into affliction for 400 years, but they will come out and they will continue to be in covenant with me. God gave Moses the law and established it as a blood covenant. Let's read Exodus chapter 24, 1 through 8. Let me read that for the sake of this online students. Exodus 24, 1 through 8. Now he said to Moses, come to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship from afar. And Moses alone shall come up near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people go up with him. So Moses came and told the people of all the words the Lord and all the judgments. All the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said, we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. So he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered, burned sacrifices and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. Look at verse 6 and Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and reading in the hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all the words. Look at these wonderful, right? The law of Moses, God tells Moses, okay, Moses, this is what you do. You come to the mountain now. And when you come to the mountain, you bring your brother and bring 72 elders as well. And you'll all stand at the foot of the mountain.  I need to talk to him.  Sorry, Moses didn't say you'll all sit here. Just relax, find a shade. Now God, so Moses said, here's what you do.  Half the blood he takes it to sprinkle on the lamb. And then he says, you know, Moses reads the law to them, right? Basically it's the commandments that God had given him. And here he's saying he sprinkled the blood on the people, right? So probably he took his hand and just sprinkled it. I don't know. He may have used some, you know, a small cup or whatever. But the point is he sprinkled it on the people and he said, this is the blood covenant that God has made. But what's interesting is the people responded. I like the response of the people, right? They said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. Now, if you read a couple of chapters later, all that the Lord has said they don't do, right? And now if you think of it, why is God so strict? Why is he doing this? Why is he always saying judgment, judgment? Why? Because you agreed to be in the covenant. I gave my part of the covenant, I brought you out of Egypt 400 years. I didn't say, I didn't change my mind and say, okay, 800 years now. You came out and you saw the miracles that happened, right? And I've established the blood covenant. I've told Moses to tell you everything, right?  So you're part of the covenant now. Then you're saying, no, I'll go back. I don't want to be here and you know, you're rebelling against God. So you're offending the covenant.  So God is saying, okay, if you're going away, then I'm still there. But you're allowing the enemy to come and do whatever he wants to do to you because you're not part of the covenant. You're running away from the covenant.  You run away, curses will fall. Now don't blame me for that. Why the curse is coming? Because you're out of the covenant. You're letting the enemy come and do things to you and your family. As long as you're in covenant with me, nothing's going to happen to you. Remember what happens after this? Moses is dead. What does he tell Joshua? Joshua, stand up. It's time to go to the promised land. Just like I was with Moses. I'm going to be with you and I will fulfill my promise to Abraham. I will fulfill the covenant and they go. They go into the promised land. They defeat, you know, the walls of Jericho come down. How does God do all those wonderful miracles because of the covenant? You see, God was merciful all the while. When we look and we read all these things from the Old Testament, oh man, why is God saying do this, do this and bring punishment and Jeremiah is coming, Isaiah is coming and all these prophets. Why?  Basically, that's what the Israelites were doing. They're sitting on the fence, especially during the time of Jeremiah, they're sitting on the fence. Some of them say, okay, nothing is happening. No, no, nothing wrong. Okay, I'll do what I have to do here. Then Jeremiah will prophesy something.  They're sitting on the fence. Now, what is God saying? Don't do that. Don't sit on the fence. You're either in the covenant or you're not in the covenant. You choose. Joshua 24-15 is wonderful. Joshua gathered all the people and he says to them, okay, we're going into the promised land now, but choose this day whom you're going to serve. Are you going to serve the God of the Amorites, the God of the Canaanites, all those other gods? Are you going to serve them or you're going to serve the God of Israel? Now, you choose this day before you get into the promised land. Don't come there and change your mind. Why is Joshua saying that? Because they already changed their mind before. So, Joshua is basically trying to say, hey, you're in covenant with God. Now, you choose if you want to be in covenant. Read Joshua 24-15. Choose this day whom you are going to serve. But as for me and my house and my household and the people of my clan will serve the Lord. So, me and my house, I will serve the Lord. But you choose. Joshua is putting the choice. Saying, you want to be in covenant? You don't want to be in covenant. If you're not in covenant, it's your choice, not me. Because we are going into the promised land now. So, someone will say, oh, yes, we will serve only the Lord our God. And many of them were obedient to that. They followed God. They obeyed God. But many of them turned astray. Many, many of them turned astray. Why? Because it's very easy to forget things. It's very easy to break a commitment. We know that God is not going to break, but we can easily break. And now these commitments, you know, I remember one of the commitments that I made was, and I was very young at that time.  That was my New Year resolution. Four hours. Two hours prayer, two hours read the Word. Not when one hour I spent. I think maybe 15 days I followed that. After 15 days, I was busy doing everything else other than praying and reading. I said, commitment broken. I said, from February, I'll start. I'll restart from February. February, three days or four days, I would have done it. Oh, okay. Two months, no. Another 10 months there from March, I will start. So March onwards, it's 10 months. 10 is better than 12. 10 months. By the time March came, I lost hope in starting. Why? Because I've broken the, I mean, it's not like I've broken the covenant. I've broken my commitment. I've said something. God, I want to do it. And I'm not doing it, but God didn't say, you said, no, four hours. Now you take sickness, you take disease, you take, I will not be there for you. I will not protect you. Did God do that? No. God said, hey, you are not keeping the covenant. Doesn't mean I won't do it. I will do it. I know you're my son. You're my daughter. I will do it. But it would have been nice if you had kept your covenant for who's sake, not for your sake. When you keep the covenant, I am going to bless you. I'm going to anoint you. I'm going to use you for my glory.  No, there's something that is going to happen. You are going to be changed into the image of, into my image. So it's not about me. I have many angels, many people here to worship. It's about you. It's about what you want to do. So then I realized, hey, let me not disappoint God. Let me make realistic commitments. I don't want to be like the Israelites. Oh, I'll do, I'll do. You know, the next generation itself didn't do. And the generations after that became worse. The Deuteronomy had to be written. Okay, listen, people of Israel, when Moses was there, the word Deuto means second time. Right. So if you read Deuteronomy, it's a reminder of what all happened. Right. Just go through the book of Deuteronomy. Remember, y'all were in bondage. Remember that you were like that in slaves. Remember how with God's mighty hand, I brought you out. Remember the miracles. Remember that manna came up from heaven. Remember the water that just followed you everywhere. Remember that the pillar of fire, everything is remembered because the new generation doesn't know anything. Why are we here? I don't know. We are in the desert because we are here. I thought this is my house. No. They don't know what's happening. They thought, okay, we are living in the desert. We are desert nomads. But God is telling them, y'all are not nomads. You are going into a proper promised land, which I have for you. Right. But the problem is, y'all have forgotten. The commitment to a broken. You know, it's very interesting to read the book of Exodus. And sometimes it's so funny to read it because all that they're doing is circling that mountain. God is making them go in circles. Can you believe that? Millions of people just going in circles. They come back to the same place. Hey, I was here before. No. No. Why? Because the mountain itself is so big, they're going in circles.   We're going to go into the promised land. All they did was from the circles that they were doing, from Mount Seer, they were doing circles there for about 40 years. God told Joshua, they just went straight and they reached the promised land. Probably in five or six days. But they were in circles. They broke the covenant. God didn't say, but still God said, okay, Joshua, take them. They're only going in circles. There's no Google Maps for them to find out. So sometimes our delays, our things that happen in our life is because of our wrongdoings of us breaking commitments. So we need to repair that. Go back to God. Look at things in your life if you feel, why is it not going right? See if you can do it a different way. Ask God for guidance. Don't be going in circles. Don't be doing the same thing. See how God can minister to you in different ways. So that was the mosaic covenant and how God established the blood covenant there. Okay. Let's look at the sacrifices and the feasts. I'm sure you're learning a lot of this in the Old Testament survey. But let's just briefly look at this. The sacrifices and feasts invoking or proclaiming or signifying the covenant. During Moses' time, God gave them the mosaic law, the tabernacle, the mosaic priesthood. And we also see seven main feasts instituted. Now, God has brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. It's not like God is saying, okay, go straight, take left, take right. I'm here only. Even as they were waiting in the desert, God instituted things. He said, okay. Now Abraham, I could not use to do all this. So Moses, I'm going to use you. What you do is you make one tabernacle. You call it tabernacle. And that tabernacle is something where since wherever you're going, you carry it in the center of the entire, you know, 12 tribes or carry it. That is a sign that I am with you. The tabernacle. So you carry that. Then he said, okay, Moses, there's something else you have to do. Now, since we have the tabernacle and there's going to be a place of worship, we need priests. Now, Moses may have wondered what is priests. So, you know, God would have explained to him, okay, so the priests will do this. They will go and offer the sacrifices on behalf of the people of Israel, right? Now, these priests must be people who, you know, are obedient and all of that. There would have been rules. And so this must be priests, right? And the third thing, what the priests must do is they must facilitate the seven feasts that I'm going to tell you about, right? And so there was a feast of the Passover speaking of Christ as our redeemer. Remember? God said to Moses in the last play, cut the lamb, take the blood, put it on the lamb pose, and death will pass over. Remember that? Yes? Yes or no? Yes, right? So if you cut the lamb, take the blood, put it on the door pose, blood will pass over. So that is the Passover feast. They remember.  The Passover feast. And so what the Israelites do in the Passover is very important feast. They cut the lamb. They cut the lamb. They sacrificed it to God. God, you saved us. Death passed over. It didn't touch us. That's the feast of the Passover. And talking about Christ, what he would do. The feast of the unleavened bread, speaking of cleansing and removing of sin. Right? So God gave a list of things to do.  And that's the whole process. Right? So it's like separating sin from your life. So what they would do is finally they would take that bread and offer it as a burnt offering to God. Right? Then the feast of the first fruits, speaking of our new life in Christ and offering ourselves up to Him. Remember the Pentecost? During the Pentecost, it was a feast of the first fruits. Right? Acts chapter 2. Feast of the first fruits. 50 days later is the Pentecost. Right? So in the feast of the first fruits, for us right now, it is speaking of our new life in Christ offering ourselves. Then the feast of the Pentecost, speaking of the power of the Spirit, the feast of the trumpets, speaking of victory and triumph and the day of atonement, speaking of Christ atoning work on the cross. Now this is all translated to us now. Right? So each, the feast of the first fruits was what they would do is they would take the first fruits. If you are a gardener, if you have a land, if you would take the first fruits, offer it to God. If you have vegetables, if you have whatever, fruits or whatever your first harvest is, you'll offer it to God. That's the feast of the first fruits. The feast of the Pentecost was a festival to commemorate what God can do in each of them's life. Right? And day of atonement, it was that one day where the high priest would go and make atonement for the sins of the people once a year. Right? But now when you translate all those feasts to us now, it all points to Christ and what he did for us. Right? Through the blood covenant. Now the feast of the tabernacles, speaking of our pilgrimage and our journey through the desert and our rest in God and Christ coming again, the salt of the covenant to be offered with all offerings and the covenant of salt again has many, many procedures involved. Now, we're not going too deep into all of it. Right? I'm not sure if in the Old Testament survey you already did a detailed study, but one of the things that you can do, I remember doing this when I was a student. So what I did was I, in the Old Covenant, I wrote on all the feasts. Right? All the sacrifices and the feasts. And probably you can just get a chart or you can write it in your paper or now you can use Excel or Word, whatever. I wrote on all the feasts and under that feast, what is that feast about? Right? So the practical things like, okay, you have to do this. See, there are some feasts that God says, don't put the blood. Some feasts, he says, don't put the offerings. He says, don't put the fat. Right? So in some places he says, put the blood also. So there are many things involved. Right? So if you want to learn more, you can, you know, just make a chart, write down what are those sacrifices and then in the end, you can write also in each column how those sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Right? And this will help you. Right? It's just something that helped me understand. Right? And in the New Testament, something that I did was, I did the missionary journeys. One, two, three, four, where did Paul go? What are the places he visited? What are the churches that were planted? And so every time you look at it, you'll know, okay, okay, the blood covenant, the guilt offering, this is what is done. The feast of the tabernacles, this is what is done. The feast of the guilt offering, the sin offering, this is what is done. So you get a better picture. Right? And then even when you write down what it signifies in Christ, it'll really make your whole understanding very strong. Right? So you can think of doing that in your free time. All right. Everyone with me? Yeah. Okay. Let's get into people of the covenant. Now, when we look at the old covenant and how it affected the daily life of people, we know that everywhere, right in the old covenant, from the time of Abraham, those covenants affected the people's lives. It either did good or it caused, you know, it caused them to go, when it caused them to go away, there was, again, it affected their lives. So you and I, how can we be in covenant with God and how does it affect our life? Right? Now, we'll also look at how did it affect the people's lives. But remember, even as we study this, remember that the covenant that you and I are in, the blood covenant, and we partake in the Lord's table and we talk about the cross and the blood as well. What is it? How does it affect our daily life? It does affect our life. Right? It does change the situations and seasons in our life. The way we look at challenges, the way we look at problems changes. Right? Let's look at, in the Old Testament, how did these covenants change their life? Let's look at a few insights and bring it related to our lives as well. The people of Israel were very aware that God had established a blood covenant with Abraham. They recognized the blood covenant with Moses and they knew the instructions that God had given them regarding the blood covenant. There were people of the covenant and God had promised to work with them and through them in a special way. So now, over time, the people of Israel understood, okay, God spoke to Abraham, made a blood covenant, God spoke through Moses, he gave Moses the law, he made a blood covenant. So now I'm in covenant. Abraham didn't know it. But now they understood it. Okay, there's something called, as a covenant, I have to follow these rules and when I follow these rules, obey these rules, God blesses me. When I turn away from these rules, God, you know, there are curses. So they understood it. The people of Israel understood it. Look at Exodus 19-5. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my commandment or my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine. Exodus 34-10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant with you. For all your people, I will do marvels such as have not been done in all earth, nor in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Right? Now look at the New Testament. Acts 3-25. You are sons of the prophets and the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham and in your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Wonderful verse. In your seed, God is saying in this seed, in the seed through Abraham and in this seed, your seed, all the families of the earth talking about Jesus will be blessed and the seed will crush the serpent's head, destroy the works of the enemy and now it's not going to be a covenant that is just we are doing it there, just a blood covenant that happened in the Old Testament and no more of these sacrifices. But now it is going to be a real covenant. Right? Can you picture this? After the book of Acts, when Jesus died, he resurrected and the book of Acts, remember the disciples and all of them? Why were they not giving any offerings and going to temples and doing all those offerings and all? I'm sure what would have happened was there would have been a realization. Right? There would have been a realization. All these sacrifices that our forefathers have been doing, the covenant to Abraham and then Moses and all these covenants and sacrifices and feasts, everything relate to Jesus. Right? And I can picture these apostles and the disciples, the 12 disciples just thinking, Man, all of that, all of those covenants, God passing through the flesh, that blood covenant, they all would have studied it. Right? In the New Covenant, they all know it. That is why it was offensive for the Jews. When Jesus said, If you only eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you will partake in the covenant.  Blood is talking about a covenant. Right? Even if they...  God made a covenant with me. Right? The first thing that would have come to their mind. So, God draws a distinction here. Exodus 8, 21 to 23.  The houses of the Egyptian shall be full of swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand. And in that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. In order that you may know, I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this is, this sign shall be. Now, this is during the plagues. You look at this, the father or the mother heart of God here. Listen, Pharaoh, if you don't let my people go, I'm going to bring my people out of Egypt. Right? And when they come out of Egypt, I will send swarms of insects to your land, but none of them will come upon my people, the people of Israel. Why? Because they are my children and this will be a sign that you are separated from my covenant people. You know, as you read this, one of the pictures that can come to our mind is that of an eagle. Right? An eagle, when it gives birth to eagles, is very, very careful about who messes around with their nest. It is extremely dangerous.  They can really, you know, cause a problem. Right? Because eagles are very, very caring for their eagles. Right? So, if you see, they cover them with their wings and they sit. So, they make sure that, you know, all the eagles are there, all the eagles are there and they are covered there. The wings are there. You can't see the eagles.  Right? First of all, we don't even think about it. Right? Remember, Isaiah, what God says? Like an eagle that covers his eagles the same way, I will overshadow you. When you are tired, when you're weary, when you fall down, I will lift you up. I will raise you up with wings like eagles. God identifies with these animals. Why? Because they have certain attributes. Right? And God is telling, hey, Pharaoh, the swarm of insects are going to come, but like an eagle, how it covers the eagles' nest the same way, not when one insect will come on my people. They won't even come that side. I've directed them all towards you. Can you picture that? I can imagine the people of Israel, if I was there, I would say, oh, my, I'll be fully confident, knowing that you can see the insects and the bees and whatever those, those tormenting the people, but you're standing there. I think it's going to happen to me. God's made a covenant. God has told Moses that they're not coming this side. Now, what if one comes this side? No, they will not. Because it's a covenant. Right? He's made a distinction. This is my people. This is people out of the covenant. Exodus 9, 4, and the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.  Now, I can imagine, can you imagine the Pharaoh saying, all the animals are dying? Why are they dying? I don't know, they're just dying. But how come the Israelites, nothing is happening to them? Oh, God is saying that's because they are in covenant. Can you picture that? You see how God works? He's making a difference. He's making people know that there is a difference. He's making the Egyptians the Pharaoh know that when you are under my covenant, nothing can come near you. No harm can be done to my people. Right? Exodus 9, 26, only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. Exodus 10, 22 and 23. So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Can you picture this? You got all the Israelites, maybe from here, they're at this side. That side is all the Egyptians. The sun has risen. But there's no light that's in. For three days, it's completely dark. They couldn't see anything. You know, those days, there were no lanterns, there was no candles and all. They probably used lamps, but there was darkness the whole day. And I can imagine Pharaoh coming out in his balcony and watching, hey, there's light there. How come that light is not here? The sun has risen, but there's no light here. Why? Because I've separated you. I'm proving to you, when you are in covenant, I will do things that you will not understand. I will protect my people. I will be there for them. Now, here's the interesting thing. It's not like all the people of Israel were like, oh, God, you are the best. No, they were also some of their living and sin. But because of his covenant, he says, no, they're my people. I'll look after them. So you see the mother, father, the parent heart of God there. As a parent, if your child does something wrong, you will correct them and discipline them. If I don't, and the child grows up to be somebody who's just obeyed the things of God or disobedient, it is nobody's fault, but my fault. Nowadays, there are people who, families who say, speak to my son or speak to my daughter. They use bad words while speaking at home. They use bad words to us as two parents. Now, I go back. The first thing I asked them was, what happened when they were small? They began to share what happened. They were not there, probably. Or probably, they said, it's okay. Once they grow up, they will not use these words. There was no correction made. And the book of Proverbs is full of correction.  Don't just leave them to be astray. Train them up. So God does that for us as well. This last was Exodus 11, 5 through 7. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. Again, the Passover. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the animal and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt. Such was not like it before, nor shall it be again. But none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue against man or beast that you may know the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Now with all these examples, we establish that God makes a difference with people who are in covenant and people who are not in covenant. How much more in the new covenant can God make this difference? He's given us the Holy Spirit. He's saying, walk just as I have walked in life. Do the things which I have done in life. Right? And He separates us. Saying, you are my child. You are the light of the world. So being the light of the world, when you go into darkness, you will bring light. Right? So God is a God who separates those in covenant and those who are not in covenant. But by His grace and mercy, right now, anyone who's far away and not even in the covenant can enter this covenant and enjoy all the blessings of the covenant that is available. Right? God is not saying, okay, you know, you have not been in covenant for me for so long or for 10 years so I will give you half the blessings. No. Once you're in the covenant, everything is available for you. Right? You may be, the person may be a criminal of a person who is, you know, a murderer. Yesterday we talked about it. You can be a murderer, but if he's come and he believes in Jesus, immediately he's in the covenant. Right? He's in the covenant. So God is saying, okay, everything is yours. He may have to go through the consequences of His actions, but now he's in covenant. You're getting what I'm saying. Right? Nowhere does God say, no, I will not give you. Right? Look at what happened in the book of Acts. Cornelius, he's a Gentile. Right? Peter, go and pray. Peter goes, prays, what happens? The Holy Spirit falls upon Cornelius and he and his family began to speak in tongues. What does Peter say? Hey, now they are also part of the covenant because the same way we spoke in tongues in Pentecost. In the Pentecost, we all spoke in tongues. They are speaking in tongues. So they're part of the covenant. Nowhere does Peter say, okay, you can have 50% of the covenant or these are few things of the covenant you can have. No, everything is yours. You are part of the covenant. All the blessings of Abraham, all the blessings of the cross, you are part of it because you're part of the covenant. Right? We are overtaken with blessings, blessings and prosperity and victory over our enemies. Right? So these are plenty of verses. You can read it. All the blessings that we have, we have victory. We have, we know that God is with us. He will stand for us. He will fight for us. And we are covenant people in community, meaning living together. They were giving instructions on how to live together in community, taking care of each other, welcoming the stranger, caring for the poor, orphaned and widowed. And when we look at this, going on even in the Israelites, they were given certain rules. Right? In terms of, you know, it's very interesting when you look at, when you read the book of Exodus, it tells the 12 tribes, how they should walk, which ways they should walk and the order of the 12 tribes. Right? And how to pitch your tents. It's not like, okay, we're going to stop here for the night. Everybody pitch your tents. No. Okay. This tribe will be here.  This, this tribe will be there. This tribe will be here this time. So there was allocated places for each tribes. Why? Because they're all living in community. Right? All of them living in community. And they all probably, you know, being of different tribes, they probably spoke about the covenants of what God did. God did this, God did that for us. Right? It's not like if they were not living together, things would have been different. It's just that we talked about it, right?  That's things in our order. Right? And that's how he works. Right? So even in the smallest things, we see that Joshua 23, 9 and 10 for the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.  What a covenant.   Joshua, I brought you, sorry, Moses, I was with Moses. I brought him out. And now, Joshua, I will fight your battles. You, one person is enough for you. You just go and I'm there. It's like thousand of us, thousand people can come against you. You alone can go. He's not telling Joshua, okay, one person go against thousand, but he's putting a picture.  Now, who understood this very well? Remember David? What did David say? Hey, you Israelites, you're hiding here in the camp.  I'll know how to use the swords and fight battles. You'll have won many battles. Why are you scared of this Philistine first of all? Secondly, he's not in the covenant. So David didn't look at the natural, right? If you look at the national, oh, man, he's huge. My brothers are scared. I stand no chance. But David didn't look at that. All he said is, hey, I'm in covenant with God. I know that God will fight my battles. Probably David has, you know, heard of stories or read about stories of Moses and all those things. I'm in covenant with God. So this Philistine may be bigger, stronger, better. But he's not in covenant. I am smaller, weaker. I may have killed the bear and the lion, which nobody knows. But compared to this Philistine, he's bigger.  But I have news. He's telling his brothers, I'm part of the covenant. I'm part of the covenant of Israel. The Lord God has made a covenant. All he did was went standing on that covenant. It was, you know, sometimes when you read it, it looks like overconfidence, no? David, this is not overconfidence. Not at all. God prepared him by killing the lion and the bear. But that was his second option. It was the second point. The first point was, I am in covenant with God. That's one. So King, firstly, I'm in covenant. Two, I have killed the lion and the bear. It's not like I've not fought anyone before. So I have some practical experience. But that is second. First, I am in covenant with God. I took a few pebbles through it. It hit his head. We know the story. Right? Our covenant. The shepherd who killed a warrior. Samuel 1726 and 36. Then David spoke to the men who was, who stood by him saying, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Can you picture Goliath there? Did you call who? Who are you little boy to talk about me that way?  Who are you to defy me? You're looking at me. I may be four foot five inches. You know, this small boy with one sling. But you're forgetting who's there behind me. The covenant God is with me. Look at this. But who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Not only the physical army, but the spiritual army also is putting that right.  And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them seeing he had defied the armies of the living God. So David is not only saying, you know, God is with me but he's also telling the result. What's going to be the result, King? I can always picture David saying, even you're King, you are also in covenant. But I don't know what happened to you. Anyways, I am in covenant. I've killed the bear, I've killed the lion and that Philistine, that's going to be the result. His result is going to be that. So don't worry about me. Verse 45, then David said to the Philistines, you come to me with sword, with spear and with the javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from you and this day I will give you the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth and all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. You see that confidence? You see that confidence? What a confidence. You're saying, hey, you come to me with sword and javelins and all that you're wearing but I come to you in the name of the Lord with a couple of pebbles. But here's the result. I will give the carcasses of the camp of Philistines to the birds in the air and the wild beasts of the earth. I can imagine his brothers and the king saying, okay, you said you want to fight. No, just go fight quietly and come. Why you want to talk so much? Go, do what you have to do. Come back. If you win, you win. If you're dead, you're dead. You can't help it. Why you want to talk so much? Right? Quietly go, finish it. And the brothers are getting scared here. This is the last time I'm seeing my youngest brother. They'll be wondering, oh man, what am I going to tell him? He came to give food. I should have taken the food and sent him away but he's saying he'll fight. What am I going to tell my parents? Finish fast and just come off. You're alive, good. He says, no, no, no, wait. Let me tell you what is the result of this fight. Since I'm in Covenant, the carcasses of the Philistines will be like food for the birds of the air. One person is dead, but he's talking out of this covenant. Now picture this. The enemy comes and he says, I'm going to do this, this, this to you.  I will never let you minister to people. You will always be a failure. You know, tell me what you're going to do. And you're going to say, oh yeah. Didn't have a failure anyways. No, no, no. David stood on the covenant. You and I can stand on a greater covenant. So the devil comes. Hey devil, I don't have time for you. Hey, but you're failing in everything.  Look at you. Your health is not good.  Tomorrow if I ask you the verse, you won't remember. I'm in Covenant with God. I'm in Covenant with the Lord Jesus. I don't have to explain anything to you. Your result, you already know it. The Bible says in Colossians 2, he defeated the devil and he made a public spectacle of his victory. Will the temptations come? Will the challenges come? Yes, but you and I can stand on the covenant. Say God is what the enemy is saying, but I'm going to stand in your covenant. Greater is he who's in me than he that is in the world. No weapon fashioned against me shall prosper, for I am the righteousness of God. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against it. Every morning I teach my children, my children about 10 verses. All the 10 verses he should say and he says it, it becomes so real for him. Especially he says, I like this verse data and the enemy comes in like a flood. The spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against it. The flood is coming, there's a wall there. I think it can come near you. Let's stop here. We'll pick up from next class. We've covered quite a lot. Take some time to go back and read everything that we have studied. Thank you so much online students. Have a great week ahead. See you next week. God bless.


The International Alert, IA in collaboration with Global Peace Development GDP, has trained 50 community facilitators on conflict prevention and management in Kaduna State. The two days training is aimed at engaging communities prone to violence, religious leaders and all the relevant stakeholders in pursuance to lasting peace as panacea to sustainable growth and development in the state and nation at large. The country director of International Alert, Dr. Paul Unyulaku says the training will enhance local dispute resolution processes and strengthen conflict prevention, management with gender sensitivity advocacy for the residents. Key stakeholders and resource persons from Sexual Assault Referral Center, Kafenchen, says 3,108 women, girls and children are assaulted with life injury in society, noting that networking and zero tolerance to any forms of abuse and conflict will be reduced to the barest minimum. It is training the capacity of the data facilitators on conflict prevention, management, conflict and gender sensitivity and analysis and advocacy. Managing conflict to participating in early warning but it is also very important as community stakeholders to follow on using advocacy medium to persons, key decision makers that are in position to make changes that will further sustain the peace that we have in our communities. Mostly women and children are most vulnerable in our societies, not as if men are not been assaulted. I think we have 10% of men that have been assaulted against 19% women and children being assaulted. We've recorded a lot of cases of assault. I think in my center we recorded 3,108 cases as at July, July 2023 from inception 2019. We all fight it together because it's everybody's business, it's not one man's business and so we need to strengthen the synergy. Our experience shows that there's leakages in one place or the other. Sometimes yes, the son of social, the son of somebody commit the offense and before you know because the survival is vulnerable and the case passes under the water and that is giving us a consign. And one thing about the sexual and gender based violence, it could be anybody, anywhere, anytime. It has no respect for age, it has no respect for religion and it has no equal respect for gender. So we have recorded men that were also assaulted. Chosen to manage conflict and also gather skills for conflict, management and prevention. In addition, in their communities they would also have dialogues. People who are part of these workshops are people who come from communities where have been greatly impacted by conflict. So the essence of this workshop is actually to build their capacity in conflict prevention, conflict management, also including gender, gender sensitivity in all of these, like considering the impact of conflict for instance and how it affects women, men, youth, children, boys and girls.