MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
School Discipline Executive Order and the Mixed Multitude
Politics By Faith, April 24, 2025
April 24, 2025

Trump signed an Executive Order ending the reign of Desperate Outcome theory. We've been talking about this for 11 years since Obama forced this on schools, but it will take time to unwind. In the meantime, perhaps understanding the Mixed Multitude in the Bible help us figure out what should replace this old system.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I have a news story and I think we can make a biblical connection to this in this one particular way. Let's talk about an executive order that Trump signed yesterday reinstating common sense school discipline policies. So Barack Obama instituted this idea called disparate outcome and

the claim was that if there is a school discipline policy that results in a disparate outcome of races, then the policy itself is racist. So the example we always use because I've been talking about this for 11 years is if there's a policy that says a student can't punch a teacher in the face and more black students punch their teachers in the face,

that policy is racist. See the problems with this. So this executive order ends that threat because the threat was that if you continue to have these policies where more black or Hispanic kids are punished, disciplined in any way,

any punishment all the way to expelled, if more black kids or Hispanic kids are expelled than white kids, then you risk losing your federal funding. So as Obama back in 2014, it's called one of his dear colleague letters from the Department of Justice,

excuse me, Department of, well, Department of Justice and Education Civil Rights Division. So that's gone now. Now this also has an implication in the workforce as well. Same idea, disparate outcome.

Any disparate outcome in any aspect of a business and there's threats of lawsuits. This is one of the reasons why all these businesses spend all this money on all this DEI training, all these DEI courses and training, because they're like, we're not racist.

So they can have a policy and there's a disparate impact to it. But if they have enough DEI training courses that they require everyone to do all the time, then they can prove in court, look, we're not actually racist. That's what that is. So hopefully now with that threat of disparate

outcome theory gone, we can stop with all the DEI stuff and businesses and we can also get back to real actual discipline in our schools. So talked about that today on the radio. It's a wonderful thing that Trump did. The survey from the American Federation of Teachers, 88% of teachers said poor student discipline and a lack of support for dealing with disruptive students is a very serious problem.

I can't even begin to describe the violence that occurs inside of so many of our schools. It's crazy, like insane, insane stuff. Just yesterday, this pops up on my Twitter all the time and I hate it, but one just popped up yesterday of a 15 or 16 year old fighting, and then the kid who was on the ground,

I don't know who started it, who knows the backstory, but the one who was on the ground gets up and takes out a knife and stabs the other guy a bunch of times, right in the hallway. And kids are like part of this all the time. It's crazy the insane amounts of violence that happens. And you can't discipline anyone. It's not allowed.

And you have those extreme examples, but then you also just have a general state of chaos. Kids wandering the hallways, busting in the classrooms, beating people up, leaving. No one's paying attention. Someone's on drugs.

It's just crazy what goes on and no one's allowed to discipline. It's awful. Now, a little sidebar, but I think it's related. We were talking about education a couple weeks ago and someone called in and said, our schools are too big.

And I think there's something really to that. We used to have one room school houses,, where the schools were not too big. They were very small, all grades, one teacher. A very decentralized system. And now we have a very centralized system. And the reason we talked about this a couple weeks ago is because Rand Paul had the idea

of having one teacher for 10 million students. You have the best chemistry teacher, and this chemistry teacher teaches all the chemistry students. You have the best chemistry teacher and this chemistry teacher teaches all the chemistry students. And I guess I don't even know how that would work. Like you have just like advisors in the school that, that what great papers help keep the kids in line. I don't know. I remember in school when they wheeled in the TV, it wasn't like time to pay attention now. We're really going to enjoy this. So that's just not going to work. Didn't we live through COVID and how learning on the computer,

it's not it. That's not the answer. So I don't think we need more centralization, which is the way we're moving. I think we've got to get back more to the one room schoolhouse idea where we were decentralized as much as possible. And part of that was smaller. In 1920, the average size of a public school was 80 kids. In 1940, the average size was 217. Today, the average high school is 800. Some high schools have three, four, 5,000 kids in it.

That's insane. And the reason we keep that, well, the reason the government likes that is because it's easier to control 100 large districts than it is 10,000 smaller schools, obviously. But I think one reason why we also go along with it

is because the bigger the school, the better the football team, the better the sports. Like, oh, we gotta keep it. 1% of schools educate 20% of our kids. So 20% of our kids are funneled through these massive, enormous factories that are spitting out a not good product when it comes to the education. Just education, knowledge, let alone cultivating virtue.

So we're talking about discipline this morning and we had some teachers call in one in particular who does this in California, they call it restorative justice. So instead of discipline, you have restorative justice. And this person was one of those people. And she talked about how awful these kids' home lives are and what's a school to do?

And I kind of agree with that. We're kind of left in a hopeless place. But then finally a gentleman called in who works at a school that is small and where discipline is the culture. And these are black kids, broken families, many of them kicked out of school. So this isn't the best of the best, the cream of the crop, or of course it's going to work

where parents are super involved. That's not what this school is. But it's a Christian school, it's the first thing. But then also discipline is the culture. Because we started talking about discipline, oh, you're not allowed to discipline kids,

and oh, what do you wanna beat them? Like not that long ago they paddled kids, but no, that's not what I'm talking about. about is a culture of discipline, a culture of expectations, a culture of standards. This is who we are. This is what we expect out of everyone. And you have to fall in line with this.

This is the culture we do here. A smaller school, it's easier to do that. A bigger school, I mean, the kids are going to set the culture, right? All right, let's pivot. So that's the news story. Hopefully we see a lot of fruit of that in our public schools, although our public schools

are still run by people who hate Trump and will probably still institute all these restorative justice programs and still not disciplined properly, even though the threat of the lawsuits are gone. The damage is already done.

It's gonna be hard to unwind. So let's turn to the Bible. We talked to a rabbi the other day on our TV special. We did a special on biblical leadership. And at the end, just cause we just read, my family and I, we just read Moses, Mount Sinai,

Israelites, golden calf, that whole scene. So I was like, I'm talking to a rabbi, I ask him about it. Because it's crazy. It's crazy to think that everything the Israelites went through, that they would build a calf, a cow, a golden cow and worship it.

This is the God that let us out of Egypt. What are you talking about? And after two seconds of being shocked by these people, I think, oh, I'm the same way. Just as sinful, just as absurdly comically blind as to what God has done for me and who he's calling me to be and what he's calling me to do.

And I just go on with my own life, worshiping my own cows all over the place. So I asked him about this and how this could have happened. And he brought up this term called the mixed multitude. And I've heard this word before, the mixed multi, I've heard these words, but I've never thought about it. I've never stopped and sat and pondered

and studied the mixed multitude. What is, who are the mixed multitude? So we're in Egypt. We had all these plagues. And we mentioned this the other day that most of them did not affect the Israelites at all.

So it's pitch black for everyone except the Israelites. That's crazy. All the animals died except for the Israelites animals. So after the 10th plague killing of the firstborn, here's Exodus 12. Pharaoh rose in the night, he all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry

in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Horrific. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, rise go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. Go serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds as you have said and be gone. And bless me also." Threw a little, what's in it for me there too.

So then they got all the gold and the silver and all the clothes and everything from the Egyptians and they're out of here. Exodus 12, 37. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramseed to Sukkoth, about 600,000 men on foot beside the children. So they're thinking two million people. Could you imagine two million people

marching out of a city? What, like two million? Look up a population here. I don't know, the first city that came to mind was Boston. What's the population of Boston? Computer's super slow right now.

Everything's taking like five seconds. And the population of Boston is 650,000. All right, so we got, we're bigger than Boston. Maybe the Boston metro area. Let's see what the Boston metro area is. It's gotta be over 2 million, right?

5 million, all right. So that's Boston, Cambridge, Newton. So imagine like half of the whole Boston area or whatever city you want to be. Half of them all packing up, shipping out, hiking out of the city. Crazy scene, incredible scene, unimaginable scene. Now check this out.

A mixed multitude went up with them also and flocks and herds a great deal of livestock. Oh man, it's so easy just to skip right by that. A mixed multitude. Who are these people? The mixed multitude are non-Israelites.

So these could be people of other nations. Maybe some Egyptians. mercenaries, maybe the children of some Israelites and Egyptian parents, all different types of people, not Israelites. That's the point. Joining the Israelites, people who said, I'm out of here. And I don't know if it was, it probably wasn't.

I believe in God, I believe in their God. It was probably more, this place is crazy, I'm getting out of here, I can't take the frogs anymore. And who knows what's next? So we're going with these people. I don't care where they're going, I'm out of here. So what are we to think of these people? Let me quote John

MacArthur. He said, you'll find the expression mixed multitude three times in the King James Version of the Bible and each time it is a disparaging expression used to describe the backslidden, spiritually eclectic, morally compromised during the time of Israel's worst apostasies. For example, Numbers 11 verse 4, and the mixed multitude, multitude that were among them fell to lusting. So these people were a problem. Let me quote here Charles Spurgeon. It's

hard to quote Charles Spurgeon's sermons because I don't know when to stop. He says, and now beloved we must finish up in a very solemn manner by reminding you of the companions that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, there were certain persons in Egypt dissatisfied with the king, very likely culprits, condemned persons, debtors, bankrupts, and such like persons who were tired of their country and who, as is wittily said, of those who are transported left their country for their country's good. But

through these people, excuse me, but though these people went with the children of Israel, mark you, they were not of them. Hmm. They escaped, but the door was not opened to let them out. It was only open to let out the children of Israel. It is said that the mixed multitude fell a lusting. It was the mixed multitude that taught them to worship the golden calf. It was the mixed multitude that always led them astray." Interesting. The mixed multitude, they

were the ones who grumbled and said, let us go back because they weren't slaves like the Israelites were. And maybe for them it was better to go back to Egypt. And Spurgeon's point is similarly today, people don't understand the depth of what Jesus has done for them because they never understood the depth of sin that they were for them because they never understood the depth of sin that they were living in. So it doesn't mean anything to them that

they're the mixed multitude of today, the hanger-on-ers, the people who aren't really committed. Spurgeon said the Egyptians never had any real bondage and therefore they could not rejoice as the true Israelite did when they were set free from the yoke of Pharaoh. He said, O ye mixed multitude, you are the ruin of the churches. You set us a lusting. The pure Israelites blood is tainted by union with you. You sit as God's people

sit and yet you are not his people. You sit as God's people sit, and yet you are not his people. You hear as God's people hear, and yet you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. You take the sacrament as sweetly as others, while you are eating and drinking damnation to yourself. You come to the church meeting, you sit in the private assembly of the saints, but even when you are there you are nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing, entering the flock when you ought not to be there.

Wow. My dear hearers, do try yourselves to see whether you are real Israelites. Oh, could Christ say to you, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile? Have you the blood on your doorpost? Have you eaten of Jesus? Do you live on him?

Do you have fellowship with him? Has God, the Holy Ghost, brought you out of Egypt? Or have you come out yourself? Have you found refuge in his dear cross and wounded side? If you have, rejoice, for Pharaoh himself cannot bring you back again. But if you have not,

I pray my master to dash your peace into atoms, fair and lovely as it may be. I beseech him to send the winds of conviction and the floods of his wrath, that your house may fall now rather than it should stand to your death." I love that idea. If you're not a preacher, church I used to go to that said this a lot, this idea that if you're not a Christian, I hope things go really badly for you. I hope you hit a rock bottom fast now before you die so you can turn to Jesus.

And this came up during our most recent special here that we've had churches for a long time that their number one goal is to increase in numbers no matter who they let in. And I've lost sight of the fact that the church is for the saints, the church is for the church. Like Sunday morning is for the church. James Orr, it's in the early 1900s, he said, "'Nominal adherents are no source of strength, but a great weakness to the church.

It may be the church's duty to bear with them, but she can never derive benefit from them. She may benefit them, and that hope should treat them tenderly, but they will never benefit her. Oh man, how much in these last just like a couple of years,

COVID and Black Lives Matter, all this trans stuff, whatever, has the church thought that if we just be more like the world, if we let more of the world in, then we can be more like it, and we'll be better.

No, no, no, no, no. You can benefit the world, but they will never benefit the church. They will they will be a drag upon her activity in proportion to their number. Will they exert a chilling and detrimental influence? They will stand in the way of good schemes. They will fall a lusting and provoke discontent.

The morale of a church can scarcely avoid being lowered by them. What then put them out? Not so we shall work in vain to separate tares and wheat. And we are forbidden to act on this principle, but let us do what we can to keep down their number. Interesting. I also found this analogy here of the remora type of fish, and it always hangs around the bottom of

a shark so you'll see a shark swimming around there'll be a couple of these these fish and then maybe a shark will get pulled out of the water and this this fish will just swim around the bottom of the of the ship just picking off whatever it can and the analogy is these hangers on resemble our social ones in the following particulars. They like traveling about. They do not care what they attach themselves to so long as it suits their

purpose for the time. They will not get along by their own exertions if they can find others to carry them. They are sharp in their own interests. It's very interesting, a new concept that the rabbi brought to my attention, the mixed multitude. We can bring it back around

to the political topic I mentioned. It doesn't take a lot of people to ruin it for the rest of us. It doesn't take a lot of people to ruin it for the rest of us. It doesn't take a lot of people in a school to really screw it all up. So how long must we accommodate

the people who are not playing along? Do we need a separate school system for these kids who just will not behave and will not participate and I know that sounds not nice Because we're supposed to accommodate the one But that one disruptive student destroys the education for the other 30 that are in the classroom And that's being kind that's not even referring to the violence and how much destruction is

caused, how much time is wasted for everyone else. And I don't want to accommodate the one anymore when we're letting down 30 more. I'm sure it's even worse than that. I don't know what that looks like practically. I have no solutions right here. Although I love the school that the gentleman brought up earlier. Again, with the culture of discipline and order,

that's obviously what we need, big picture, but we have to be careful of a mixed multitude that just destroys. Now, these are kids we're talking about, right? I'm not suggesting we throw these kids in prison and just be done with them forever. They're ruined. There's compassion and mercy and grace, of course, and it's all done out of love. Everything we have to do moving forward is love.

And I don't want these kids to end up in prison. That's the point. We're trying to avoid sending these kids into prison and continuing the cycle of poverty and impregnating women and more poverty and abuse and drugs and gangs. Like we want to stop all that. But what we're doing now isn't working for them and it's not working for the other kids

who want to learn either. Remember there's a study done a while back where they took a disruptive student and put them in a group of kids that were unified to see what would happen if the one bad apple spoils the bunch theory was true.

And then they also took some kids that were disruptive and they put like one good apple in there and it didn't work. It was, it was, it was, and the one, the good apple didn't work on the other kids and the one bad apple was able to tear down everything else.

Like that principle is true. A mixed multitude can cause a lot of trouble. Let's identify this, prioritize appropriately, and see how we can solve this major problem in our country. Mike Slater.locals.com is my website. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater. locals dot com is my website. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

 

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Abraham Davenport was a member of the founding generation. When everyone around him thought Jesus was coming back, and I mean thought he was coming back that second, Davenport didn't change a thing. We should have a similar posture.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I read 1 Peter 4 this morning, underlined a bunch. I was going to go over a bunch of different things here, but I can't really make it past this one sentence. 1 Peter 4, 7, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. 

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The herds retire to their stalls, the fowls to their roosts, and the birds sing their evening songs at noonday. clips there was, it was crazy. All the crickets came out. Science at loss to account for the mysterious phenomenon. One of nature's marvels. Redness of the sun and moon. 

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Davenport and all his wisdom and grace. "'Twas on the May day of the far old year 1780 that there fell over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, a horror of great darkness, like the night and day of which the Norrland sagas tell, the twilight of the gods." It's " It's a reference to Norse mythology, end of the world. It was bad out there. The low -hung sky was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs the crater sides from the red hell below, like a volcano. Birds ceased to sing and all the barnyard fowls roosted. The cattle at the pasture bars lowed and looked homeward. 

Bats on leathern wings flitted abroad. The sounds of labor died. So everyone stopped working. Men prayed. Women wept. All ears grew. 

Think about the state of people. where it goes dark for a while and everyone freaks out and starts praying and thinks it's the end of the world and that it's not the end of the world, second coming. I wanted to say like there's something like this that happened if people would think it was aliens or people's instinct would be like a nuclear attack or war or something like that. I wonder how many people would think second coming. That's what happened in 1780. Men prayed, women wept, all ears grew sharp to hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter the black sky. 

That trumpet would be 1 Corinthians 15 -52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. So people were waiting to hear that doom blast, that the dreadful face of Christ might look down from the rent clouds, not as he looked, a little guest at Bethany, but stern as justice and an exorable law. Meanwhile, in the old state house, dim as ghosts, sat the lawgivers of Connecticut, trembling beneath their legislative robes. The state reps are freaking out. 

They're dim as ghosts, right? It is the Lord's great day. Let us adjourn. It's second coming. We're done. 

Bang the gavel. 

Let's get out of here. Some said, And then, as if with one accord, all eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport. He rose, slow, cleaving with a steady voice the intolerable hush. Here's what he said. This well may be the day of judgment which the world awaits, but be it so or not, I only know my present duty and my Lord's command to occupy till he come. So at the post where he has set me in his providence, I choose for one. 

to meet him face to face. No faithless servant frightened from my task, but ready when the Lord of the harvest calls. And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, let God do his work and we will see to ours. Bring in the candles. And they brought them in. Then by the flaring lights, the speaker read, albeit with husky voice and shaking hands, an act to amend, an act to regulate the shad and all why fisheries. 

So just take a dumb bill about fish. Whereupon wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport straight to the question. With no figures of speech, save the ten Arab signals, yet not without the shrewd dry humor now. to the man. So it's just like logical, no -nonsense, right to the point, but also witty and thoughtful. His awestruck colleagues listening while, by the way, the world's coming to an end. 

His awestruck colleagues listening all the while between the pauses of his argument to hear the thunder of the wrath of God break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud. And there he stands in memory to this day, erect, self -poised, a rugged face, half seen against the background of unnatural dark, a witness to the ages as they pass that simple duty hath no place to fear. JFK would sometimes use this story, this poem, as in his campaigns. He would say, I hope in a dark and uncertain period of our own country that we too may bring candles to help light our country's way and not hide, not be afraid. But I love his argument. He says, God put me here to do this work. 

I'm going to keep doing it. When he's, if he's coming down, this is, I want him to see me doing this, what he put me here to do, which of course means if you're not doing what God is calling you to do, we better get doing it. The end of things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers and everything else. The sound judgment of first Peter four, seven, sound judgment, sober spirit, sound judgment is really interesting word. It means the Greek word here. 

It means saved mind. This word is used six times in the new Testament. Mark 5 15, I'll just give a couple. Mark 5 15, and they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon possessed, sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind. There it is. Luke 8 35, and the people went out to see what had happened. 

And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out. sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. If you're in your right mind, you would be at the feet of Jesus. Romans 12, for though the grace given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Sober judgment, a saved mind. It means you're sane, you're clear thinking, you have self -control. 

A self -control against earthly passions, earthly pleasures. William Barclay made a whole list of how Greeks, like ancient Greeks, used this word in a secular way. So Plato defined this word as the mastery over pleasure and desire. Aristotle said it's the power by which the pleasure of the body are used as law commands. Pythagoras said it is the foundation on which the soul rests. Euripides said that it is the fairest gift of God. 

This other Greek philosopher said it is the safeguard of the most excellent habits of life. So the idea is that someone with a sane mind is someone who knows and loves Jesus and therefore has serious prayers. You are serious about your prayers. You're watchful in your prayers. You have sound judgment and a sober spirit for the purpose of prayer and in doing what you're supposed to be doing all the time. And so Confident in that, that even when it looks like the world around you is coming to an end, when everyone else around you thinks the world is coming to an end, at this very moment, like it's pitch black outside in the middle of the day, the world's coming to an end, this is the second coming, even then, you'll say, well, I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. 

Let's be sane minded, save my life. Let's be doing what God would want us to be doing when he does come, because it's going to happen in a flash. Matthew 25, 27, as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. To drive it home one last time, if you're doing right now what you're not supposed to be doing, you better stop. The second coming could be right now. The end of all things is at hand. 

Mike Slater . locals . com for the transcript and commercial free. Mike Slater .

 

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Boasting Serves You Right
Politics By Faith, December 1, 2025

A sailor on the Mayflower, not one of the Pilgrims, boasted about his health and mocked the sickly Pilgrims. Then, he got what was coming to him. We must learn the lesson his fellow sailors learned: to thank God for all things.


Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I have one final Thanksgiving message and then after that we'll move on to our one month long analysis of the movie It's a Wonderful Life, which we saw on Thanksgiving night. Last year was the first time we watched It's a Wonderful Life from start to finish. And if you asked me two years ago if I've ever seen It's a Wonderful Life, I'd be like, oh yeah, definitely. 

I've seen it because I've just seen bits and pieces my entire life. But that doesn't cut it. That's not the whole thing. Seeing bits and pieces of It's a Wonderful Life is not the same as seeing the movie It's a Wonderful Life. And it's my favorite movie, and it's incredible, and I want to encourage you to watch it now and not wait until Christmas. Because if you watch it on Christmas Eve, you kind of miss, you miss a whole month of opportunity to really reflect on it throughout all of Christmas. 

So go watch It's a Wonderful Life right now with the whole family. It's amazing, and we will do more It's a Wonderful Life analysis. I wasn't kidding, by the way. Not a month, of course, but I'll sprinkle it in now. But I have one final Thanksgiving message just about the pilgrims. We can talk about all the time, but what's going on here is some people sent some stuff from the old world to the new world and it didn't make it. 

So William Pierce wrote a letter back to the people who sent it and they said, we lost all your stuff. I don't know if we lost it or you lost it. It just got lost. Just the way it goes. So here's what he said. Dear friends, you may know that all your beaver and your books of your accounts are swallowed up in the sea. 

Your letters remain with me, and shall be delivered, if God bring me home. But what should I more say? Have we lost our outward estates? Yet a happy loss, if our souls may gain. There is yet more in the Lord Jehovah than ever we had yet in the world. Oh, that our foolish hearts could yet be waned from these thoughts. 

here below, which are vanity and vexation of spirit. And yet we foolishly catch after shadows that fly away and are gone in a moment. Would you have had that mentality if you were traveling to a new world with nothing but an ax and a Bible? God, well, all the stuff you sent over, it's gone. But anyway, it's great. It's a happy loss if our souls may gain. 

And if God has ever decided to bless you with any good things, which are all the things you have, you better not be boastful. William Bradford wrote this. He said, I may not omit here a special work of God's providence. There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seamen. So remember there were 102 guys on the boat, but 61 of them were not Puritans or the separatists. They were the crew, 61, most of them. 

So one of the young men of a lusty, able body, which made him the more haughty. He would always be contempting the poor people in their sickness and cursing them daily with grievous execrations. It's an execration. Making fun of an angry denouncement or curse. Just making fun of the old sick people and did not let to tell them that he hoped to help to cast half of them overboard before they came to their journey's end. So he'd mock them for being sick and say, I can't wait to throw you overboard when you finally die. 

You're not going to make it. You're so weak. And to make merry with what they had. Stop complaining. Be strong like me. And if he were by any gently reproved, knock it off, he would curse and swear most of the time. 

But, okay, so you're with me on the scene here, right? You got 41 of these Puritans, these pilgrim separatists having a tough time, 66 days over the ocean and six more months off the coast, dying. This guy's making fun of them. But if it pleased God before they came half seas over to smite this young man with a grievous disease of which he died in a desperate manner, and he was himself the first to be thrown overboard, Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows, for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him. " So it's all the all the other not Puritans were like, oh, they're not be like that guy. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why they ultimately signed the Mayflower Compact. 

I'm like, well, these guys seem to have something special helping them out along the way. So I hope you brought the pilgrims into your Thanksgiving celebration. They're wonderful people. And this is who we came from. And we can't forget it. And I was reading Deuteronomy 8 the other day, and I thought of this story from William Bradford that we just shared. 

Deuteronomy 8 says, every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know what manna is. not that man shall not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that proceeded from the mouth of the lord your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swell these 40 years you know incredible that is 40 years of walking your sandals never wore out your feet never your knees never hurt Clothes didn't wear out. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Man shall not live by bread alone. 

There it is, Deuteronomy 8. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of your Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. Do we fear the Lord? For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates. I don't love pomegranates, but I guess if you were back then, pomegranate would be pretty special. A land of olive oil and honey. 

A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity. See Harry, here's how boastful I am. God's like, I will bring you to a land of pomegranates. I'm like, I don't really love. That's the kind of cuties. 

I love cuties. 

Cuties are good. 

I have cuties instead of pomegranates, the averils or whatever those things are. They're kind of like you chew them and you don't really get a lot of burst of flavor. And then it's kind of like, it's like a seed inside of it. It's not that impressive, but hey, whatever God, whatever you want to give me. A land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing. A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 

When you've eaten and are full, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. " That's what's true for us today. When you are eaten and you are full, every time that God provides and everything you have is God providing, then you should bless the Lord your God for everything that he has given us. We should break down every line of Deuteronomy 8, but the point is everything comes from God. God will protect you, provide for you with manna. Everything you have is manna. 

What's manna? Manna is everything you have and everything you earned is because God gave you manna to earn it with. He gave you the ability to... earn it. This radio show I have, this is not from me. Well, I'm very good at the radio. 

If I ever do anything good, it's only because God gave me the ability to do a thing. But even if I do good, if no one listens to it, then that's, and that's not up to me. I can't decide if anyone, if you decide to listen to this right now, that's all God. Everything, it's entirely 100 % in every way, all God. And then if you lose it all, will you still praise God? That's the story of Job, and that was the story that I first shared here with the pilgrims. When they're like, ah, we lost our stuff. 

Yet it's a happy loss if our souls may gain. One last part of Deuteronomy 8 verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, his statutes, which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and you have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied. Gosh, this is today. Did you eat a big Thanksgiving meal? Do you have a nice house that's safe? 

Do you have things, herds and flocks, nice TV, whatever, nice car, your silver and your gold are multiplied, your stock market's doing well, and all that you have is multiplied. When your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who brought you from the life of sin you were living in, from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do good in the end. Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. It is wonderful to have wealth and flocks and health like the sailor on the maple leaf. 

had. 

But we better not boast that God had nothing to do with it, because he had everything. MikeSlater . Locals . com. For the transcript and commercial, free website, MikeSlater . Locals .com

 

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Thanksgiving Eve: Dust and Ashes
Politics By Faith, November 26, 2025

John Adams Thanksgiving Proclamation reads, "I HAVE therefore thought fit to recommend that Wednesday the Ninth Day of May next be observed throughout the United States, as a day of Solemn Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer". Humiliation? What is humiliation and why is this a part of Thanksgiving? 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. 

Morning. 

Just woke up, I'm still sleeping. Thanksgiving Eve morning. Billion things to do. Took like so much food, but it's great. Hope you have a nice Thanksgiving week. Want to share what I was just reading this morning. 

Luke 1 46. This is Mary after Gabriel told her that you're going to have a kid. Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. 

And holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Would this be a good, would this be good to read at the Thanksgiving table? Reading the prayer of this girl praising God. This might be right. Uh, where did I leave off? 

Let's go here. 

And holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. And he's put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. 

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. So I'm going to relate this to our pilgrims because it's Thanksgiving Eve, but also to us because we're pilgrims. 

We're pilgrims. 

I live in Nashville, but Nashville is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. I think of that all the time. Just a passing through. I think about that a lot. 

The angels backing me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. This is not our home. So we're all pilgrims and our pilgrims from the old world to the new. They deeply understood that as well. My soul magnifies the Lord. Magnify is a great word, but it's an interesting word, magnify. 

Other translations have exalt. The Greek here means to deem or declare great. to esteem highly, to extol, laud, celebrate. " It wasn't about her, it was about God. God, my soul exalts you, esteem celebrates, declares great you. My spirit has rejoiced in God, my savior. 

She knew she needed a savior. Holy is his name. His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown great strength with his arm, scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Our pilgrims so deeply understood being humbled and humility. Our founding fathers and generations after, they would call Thanksgiving a day of fasting and prayer, but also of humiliation. 

I know we've talked about this word in the past in this podcast a couple of times. A day of humiliation. It's like, well, what do you want me to do? Like go do embarrassing things? No, it's a day to really, truly, deeply recognize how nothing you are compared to the glory and power of God. and how you're capable of nothing, nothing on your own. 

To begin to understand how deeply our pilgrims knew this, let me quote from Jonathan Edwards. He was after the pilgrims. of course, but he was the leader of the Great Awakening in our country. He said, "...humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness." Meanness means like lowly state. You're in the lowest state. 

You're comparative meanness in his sight. This is a sermon he gave called The Spirit of Charity and Humble Spirit. "...humility may be Doth primarily and chiefly consist in a sense of our meanness as compared with God, or a sense of the infinite distance there is between God and ourselves. We are little, despicable creatures, even worms of the dust, and we should feel that we are as nothing and less than nothing, in comparison with the majesty of heaven and earth. Such a sense of his nothingness Abraham expressed when he said in Genesis 18 27, Behold, now I've taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. When I read that, I can feel within me, and perhaps you feel the same, like, oh, that's so dramatic. 

Dust and ashes. Abraham said it. It's in the Bible. But even now, it's like, no, I'm great and mighty. It's like, no, you're nothing. Without God, Jonathan Edwards said, there's no true humility without somewhat of this spirit. 

For however sensible we may be of our meanness as compared with some of our fellow creatures, we are not truly humble unless we have a sense of our nothingness as compared with God. Our pilgrims, when they traveled to the new world, They traveled there with complete humility, knowing that they were capable of nothing on their own. Therefore, why is this important? Therefore, all the glory goes to God. If you think you're great and something, if you think you're something and then good things happen, you're like, ah, God, thanks for the assist or man, I did a lot. I did a lot of good. 

work there. I'm really pretty great. And you see how that goes down the road. You need total, complete humility. Again, as our founders would say, humiliation, a day of humiliation, recognizing how lowly we are and how incredible God is. This is William Bradford. 

Well, yesterday we talked about Ezra 821, their total reliance upon God. The pilgrims, that's their pastor, talked about Ezra as they were embarking on the ship to head off. William Bradford, thus out of small beginnings, greater things have been produced by his hand that made all things out of nothing. Right? So God, he's so incredible. He can make something out of nothing and look at the great things he did with us all by his hand and, and gives being to all things that are, and as one small candle may light a thousand. 

So the light here kindled has shown unto many, yea, in some sort to our whole nation. Let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise. A psalm that our pilgrims do intimately. Praise the Lord. Psalm 112, 1. Praise the Lord. 

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Let's get back to Mary here. The ending. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. 

As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever, God keeps his promises. God doesn't forget. God's mercy isn't because we're great. It's not our merit. We don't deserve it. Hence it being called grace. 

It only speaks to God's character, not ours. Only God made his covenant with Abraham. He put Abraham to sleep. This should give us incredible hope. Even Mary, Mary, when this happened, is like, oh, yes. 

First of all, she knew God's promises, and she praised God, trusted God. This should give us incredible hope as well. Trust Him. God loves you. I think of God protecting the pilgrims who made it here, and God saving me, and also protecting my marriage, my children. Whatever you're grateful for today and every day, thank God for it. 

It's only because of Him. Our souls magnify the Lord. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript, commercial fee on the website. MikeSlater .

 

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