Today on InGrace,
we're in Saudi Arabia, climbing the real Mount Sinai. The story of Exodus is huge. Millions of people
freed by mega miracles. And then the
granddaddy of all miracles, the Red Sea Parts,
and Israel is saved, born as a nation. Then God leads them to
a series of encampments, bringing them closer and
closer to the promised land. Before the promised land, God wants to bring
them to a special place, his mountain in the desert. There, they'll receive the
law and set up the tabernacle. Today, we're going to search
for and hopefully ascend what is possibly
the real Mount Sinai. Before that, we're gonna
explore a massive split rock, the possible location
of another great miracle. We will start today in the
town where Jethro lived and find more evidence that
this land in modern Saudi Arabia, is, in fact, ancient Midian. Now we're at Jethro's tomb. Yes. Or tombs, tombs of Jethro. Yeah. So this is Islamic
tradition again in this area. They call the tombs of
Jethro, so Jethro and his family. What's interesting, though, is that
you have Josephus, the Jewish historian, talking about the
Midianites living in caves. Oh, and so this hillside,
which overlooks the oasis, is dotted with caves. It's possible that the
Midianites lived in these caves if Josephus had
correct information. And later, the
Nabataeans came along and created their tombs. Amazing. After all these years,
this has survived. It is amazing. All right, so we're actually
in one of these tombs. A little eerie, a little spooky. Hopefully they've excavated this
properly and there's no one still in here. Yeah, I don't think there is. I mean, you can see looking
around the sarcophagus ditches, and it's like a two-room tomb with a smaller room in the
back for maybe the patriarch. And then as you
stand here looking out, you can see the oasis. That's an amazing view. You see the green oasis against
the harsh desert in the background? You see him outside? In the Jebel Al-Lawz range? Yeah, so from the tomb
called the Tombs of Jethro, you see the oasis,
which is, it's called Midian, the town of Midian,
the area of Midian, and the Well of Moses, still called the
Well of Moses, on their signage today. It's just so many
connection points. It's amazing. Amazing, you can imagine
the Midianites living here. And every night when the Israelites
were encamped at Mount Sinai, the fire of God's
on that mountain. From this side of the mountain
range, you can see Mount Sinai on fire. No kidding. That must have been spectacular. Or frightening. Yeah. I was gonna call it frightening, because that was like
thunderings, shakings, lightnings, you know,
it was, and certainly, they would have still been experiencing
that noise from way over here. Earlier, Moses had
experienced God here in Midian at a bush that was burning,
but was not consumed. So a big story in Moses' life before the Exodus
was a burning bush. Yeah. So what would that have
been like as he was walking, and he'd probably seen
a lot of these, you know. A lot of brush out here, yeah. So the story, he's
with Jethro's sheep. So we're on the West Side of the mountain
range, near the traditional home of Jethro. How far from where we're
standing to where Jethro lived? Less than 20 miles. Yeah. So we're very close,
like a day's journey. Certainly would have
been where a grazing area. Oh, in fact, we've met Shepherds
out here with their goats and sheep. Interesting. And so he saw the burning bush, and it says that was his first
encounter with God on the mountain. They called it the
mountain of God. That's how he
identified Mount Sinai. He saw the burning bush on it. And so that's the first reference
we've had to Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, the mountain of
God there in Exodus. And he sees a bush
on fire, not consumed. He takes off his shoes
because he's on holy ground, and he has this conversation. He learns, God
says, I am that I am. Statement of
preexistence and eternity. There's so much to unpack there. But what I think we should
do here at this burning bush is see if we can
recreate the miracle. We'll try. Yeah, let's try it. So you have a lighter. Let's see if we can
set this thing on fire. Now, if it burns and
is not consumed. But take your shoes off. Yeah, I will be
taking my shoes off. So let's see what
we can do here. Let's see, okay. Now, we had some kindling here, but it's kind of windy today. Let's see. I see you were a Boy Scout. Trained in the
wilderness of Midian. Well, we got smoke. We have some fire. It's catching the
kindling on fire. Okay, folks, we have a
burning bush here in the desert. It's being consumed,
so it's not a miracle. But check this out. Now, hopefully we won't
burn down the whole desert. On this holy ground, God told Moses that
he would free his people. Now, Moses is leading the
people back to his holy ground to meet the Lord himself. But here at Rephidim, the last campsite
before Mount Sinai, the people again
begin to complain. Andrew, this is a
really awesome sight. You can see behind us this
magnificent massive rock, and it's split. And Psalms does talk about
the rock that Moses struck was cleaved or split, and
water coming out of the rock. So give us all the
details about this. Well, so this is the area
where it would be Rephidim. And that was the
last camping site before the Israelites camped
in front of Mount Sinai. And so if you look at
the geography of Midian, this is on the western side
of the Mount Sinai range, the Jebel Al-Lawz
range, which is behind us. And on the eastern side is the
big campground with the big plain, the Cave of Elijah, the mountain that
had the fire on it. And so we're just north of that, but
we're still part of these mountain peaks. And so it was in this area that
they complained of lack of water. And as you can
see, it's very dry. There's no oasis here. And they come here
and they tell Moses, like, why have you brought us
out into the wilderness to die again? And so they keep
complaining about that. And when they get
here, God tells Moses, stand by the rock of Horeb. He said, to strike the rock. And so when you think about
it, there are rocks all over here. Yeah, there's rocks. And there's a lot of them that are
kind of somewhat prominent and big. Yeah, there's big ones too. But he says the rock. And so everyone would have known because of the way
this one just sticks up. It's on a hill. Yeah, it sticks out
from a faraway distance. You can see this
clave rock stick, almost like a hand
sticking up there. And there's a whole area
around here, it's a flat plain. And so you have plenty of
space for Israelites to encamp. You have plenty of space
outside of the encampment for the battle with
the Amalekites. Yeah, so perfect picture,
of course, of Jesus, because he's the
rock and he was struck and he brings life, water, living
water to anyone who will take it freely. Now you mentioned
the Amalekites. So that was another episode
that happened here as well. And it was maybe because of the
water that they came against Israel. That's possible because that
happened after the split rock, Moses struck and the water
came out, the rivers of water. So they're probably wondering where's
this water coming from into the desert? They follow it into this white encampment
and they were marauders, they were bandits, and they started attacking
the Israelites in the rear, it says, and then those who are
the slower ones in the back. And that's where we
hear the story of Moses standing with his arms raised. And whenever his arms were
raised, Israel was winning, but he was getting tired. And you can only hold
up your arms so long. I used to coach a basketball team and
I'd make them run around with the arms up. And it doesn't sound
like that's hard, but it is. So then he had Aaron and her
come alongside and hold his arms up. Beautiful pictures of how
we can support people of faith, people of God. God works in interesting ways. Why were they winning
when his arms were raised? It's curious, but all
happened right here. Yeah. It's amazing to
be at these spots. And again, you have this
massive rock that's split. You have a mountain that they
could have encamped to the east. All of it fits scripture
here in Midian and here in Saudi Arabia. After they left here, they went
to the front side of this mountain? Yeah, the front side, east side. So what would that
route have been? So there is a big wadi, which
we were actually driving through. A wadi is a dry
river bed, a valley. And this goes all the way around
the mountain range to the east side. How long would that
take to walk around? It's tough to know. There are some little shortcuts. Definitely, you know,
in the biblical account, they had about 30 days
from the wilderness of sin, which was a 30-day
Mark after they left Egypt. So they either had 15 more days or
another 30 days to get to the front side, and that included
camping at Rephidim. So it does fit the path that
they could have walked. It does fit the chronology. Well, I'd say let's
go there next. Let's go to the front side of
Mount Sinai and maybe climb it. I don't know. Do you think I can
climb the mountain? Yeah, it's a tough
climb, but let's go do it. I didn't ask you
if we should do it. I said, do you
think I should do it? I think you could do it. You think so? Yeah. Okay. And so with Andrew's
resounding vote of confidence, we headed to our final
destination in this epic adventure. Driving to what is possibly
the holy mountain of God, I was reminded of Exodus 19:18, and Mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke because the Lord
descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended
as the smoke of a furnace, The whole mount quaked greatly. With great reverence, we
approached this awesome place. All right, Andrew, we're
at the base of Mount Sinai. Yes. And there are some interesting
things here at the base that, again, tie in to the
story of Exodus. You have the golden
calf altar not far from here, just over this hill, and
there's other stuff, right? Yeah, if you look at the very
top of this peak in front of us here, there is actually a cave, the only cave on the mountain. And we know from
1 Kings chapter 19 that Elijah fled here and
said he'd dwell in this cave. He dwelt in a cave
one night in Horeb. And so there is a cave up there. Okay. And then you do, again, have the
stream bed that comes out of the mountain. Deuteronomy talks about a stream that flowed down
from the mountain. It said Moses ground the golden calf
and sprinkled the powder into the stream and made the
Israelites drink it. So it had to have been enough water
for one to two million people to drink. And they were in this
area for 11 months? Yeah. Yeah. So they had to have a water source,
and if they weren't complaining, they must have had water. and he mentioned the stream,
so there was definitely a natural. Everything's right
here at the base. And then I want to
get up on this mountain and see what else is up there
and see if it all fits the criteria, because it looked like there was a
plateau or a bench area where the 70 elders and some others would have
been as Moses went higher. So from my understanding,
this mountain has it all. It does, and so I don't know why
someone would just reject it outright. I think they need to look
at the evidence more. For those who are interested, come out here to Saudi
Arabia and check it out. And it's cool that it has
the look of a burnt top. Yeah, and that's where the name comes from,
Jabal Maqla, mountain of burnt or burning. Before climbing Jabal Maqla, I wanted Andrew to show me
some of the other things nearby that all fit with the second
half of the book of Exodus. The people camped
here for about a year. In this massive expanse, I could just envision
several million people receiving the law,
building the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant
and becoming God's people. Some have wondered
why God chose them. It certainly was not because
they would never complain and they were always obedient. In Exodus 32, while Moses was still on
the mountain getting the 10 commandments, a surprising and sad event
happens at the mountain space. So this is another site
right next to Jabal Maqla, which is Mount Sinai. And the significance of this? Well, this site is covered
in cow petroglyphs. Now, when the Saudis were
showing this site in 1985, they said these look like
Egyptian style cow drawings. And of course, this we believe is associated with
the possible golden calf altar site. Wow. The children of Israel built an
altar and made a cow out of gold. Wow. And they danced in front
of it, in front of Mount Sinai. Huh, and it's almost like
just this natural platform here. Yeah, it's a natural
rock outcrop. And you do see all
these cows around. Like up there, you do see
some rare painted cows. Just in the overhang
there, there's two there. Oh yeah. And then around the corner,
you'll see some carved ones. It's quite interesting. Oh yeah. Look at that. You see this carved
onto the black, the natural patina of this rock, are these ancient cow drawings. And the petroglyphs
are carved into the rock, etched into the rock. And then are there
other animals? There are, you have ibex here. And you see some of them are
lighter color, like they're different ages. Sure. People use this as a billboard. So who studied this and
what have they concluded? They actually haven't
really studied it. So beside that
initial declaration, and then they put a fence around it,
they haven't really done any other work. No kidding. Again, they're just all over
the face of these rocks. See some right there. You see a nice one right here. So in ancient Egypt, there were a number of
cow gods, pagan gods. One was the Apis bull god. And the other one was
the Hathor goddess. And she was, it's interesting
about that goddess, she was the goddess
of music and dance and basically
partying and artisans. So those who would
make a golden calf. So the biblical story, Moses is up on Mount
Sinai, the mountain of God, and he's up there a while. 40 days. And they're starting to say, well,
he must have died or whatever. He's not coming back. Aaron, make us a golden calf. I mean, what a weird thing. Do you think that there
were just some people that were into idolatry
that came out of Egypt that were already kind of
already into the worship of a cow? Possible. I mean, if you think about it, they were
slaves for hundreds of years in Egypt. So they knew about
the pagan system. And so, but the strange
thing is they're doing this in front of God's presence, the fire on the
mountains there still. Yeah, and he comes down
with the first commandment. They heard the 10 commandments. This is after God spoke it. Thou shalt not make
any other gods before me. I know it just saddens me. And I know that I'm not gonna be too
hard on them because we do things too, but to hear from God, and they just came through
the Red Sea not that long ago. That was a mega miracle, like probably the biggest
on scale miracle ever. And here they are just
quickly worshiping false deities. And it's just a sad thing. And then people
died as a result of this. Moses came down and literally
threw down the tablets and broke. We broke the law. Obviously we need a redeemer. And that's the whole
point of the law. The whole point of
the commandments, they're right, they're good,
but we cannot save ourselves. We cannot keep them. And therefore we had to have
one come that could keep the law. It was a school master that
brought us, brings us to Christ, right? Exactly. Points out our sins, but
can't save us from the sins. That's right. Yeah. Wow, this is poignant. Incredible. All right, Andrew, here we
are at the base of Jebel Maqla, which is in the
Jebel Al-Lawz range. Yes, it is. And you're telling me
we're gonna hike to that? We will try. I think we'll make it up there. Well, who's carrying
me is the question. I think we hired some donkeys. I could probably make it an eighth
of the way without any trouble. Well, you know Moses, it says in
the Bible, he went up twice in one day, but we don't know
how far he got. He might've went halfway
and God spoke from above. We're talking about a guy
in his eighties, right? Yeah. So I think we could do it. So I'm in my early fifties, you're in your late
forties, mid forties. All right, well, I know you can do it
because you've done this how many times? Seven times to this summit and
then a couple to the other one. Okay, let's go. Let's go. Okay, so Andrew, we've
gone quite a ways now. Yeah. Let me show the viewers. Okay, so we've climbed 39 feet. So we're almost there, right? Yeah, another five feet. Good thing I'm not
out of breath either. That's cool. So where are we going? We're gonna go up
to that black peak. Oh no. What in the world, Andrew? Well, our last tour group
didn't make it too far. Wow. So we just
abandoned our vehicle. I was gonna say, if this is what you're
using for your tours, you're probably not gonna
get a whole lot of people. Yeah, we'll have to upgrade
our vehicles next time. Well, I'll tell you this, the vehicles
that you're using for this trip, they're top-notch,
they're beautiful. You like the refrigerator? It has a refrigerator, come on. Cold drinks in the
desert, that's the key. Yeah. Near the beginning of our hike, Andrew wanted to show
us an interesting ruin. This enclosure is ancient and some think fit the biblical
description of Exodus 20 and 24, where the Bible says
that Moses set up an altar at the foot of the mountain after writing down God's laws
in the book of the covenant. The altar was constructed
along with 12 pillars representing the
12 tribes of Israel. And here is evidence of what
looks like an animal enclosure and marble pillars. At the very bottom
of this mountain, you find this
animal-shaped corral. that has these stones all
lined up in an L-shaped pattern where the animals could
come in and not get scared and keep going around the corner,
so it's kind of a boomerang shape. They don't see that they're blocked in, they
have to turn a corner, so they'll enter. And you say, once one goes
in- They all follow. They all follow. And in fact, an animal corral
design expert in America, she looked at this and said, this is
how she would design an animal corral, the whole same layout. And there was
archeology done here? Yes, in the late 1990s,
the Saudis excavated. And what's interesting, they had found layers
of ash on that one end, on that one end, the northern end of this altar. And so you have evidence
of things being burnt there. Now, sadly, the report was
very vague and not complete, and so we don't know exactly what type of
animals were burnt or what all was found. It'd be great to re-examine, like if you could find out that these
are kosher animals, that would be huge. All right, so it looks like there's
some drawings here on this rock. Yeah, these are
ancient petroglyphs. You have people
with their hands up, kind of dancing around. You do see some
ibex or animal figures. So we're not exactly
sure who carved it, but it's at the base
of the mountain. We do know there was an orgy during the 10 Commandments
that came down the Golden Calf. It's curious, isn't it? Okay, so you said we're-. We're gonna
zigzag up this thing. Yeah, we're gonna go up. There's an animal trail
kind of partway up here. And we follow
these piles of rocks. So these little piles you see, that's kind of marking
the animal trail. The Shepherds, even some of
us, we start piling up the rocks, so it kind of marks the trail. You look for animal hoof
prints and their dongs. So you follow the dong trail. Okay, whatever works. You know, usually you're
following breadcrumbs, but yeah. You follow the
donkey and the sheep, or goats probably go up here. Okay, so we have
climbed up higher. You know you're higher because
I can't see the air anymore. The view is spectacular. I am tired, but I don't know. This is still worth
it, you know? And I know we're not even,
what, halfway to the halfway, but you got the
adventure, the exertion. If you want to do
something worthwhile, you got to work for it. So that's what we're doing. Okay, so a little
progress report. Yeah. We've been going about
an hour, a little under an hour. You're saying we're going there. Yeah, we're going on the other side, but
we're going to take this route to the left. Okay. Slowly making our way up
the side of this face of Sinai. It's been not horrible
to come up this far. Is it going to get
steeper as we go? There's a certain part
that will be steeper. Oh, sure. A little slower. This is very special, though,
to be attempting this climb. Appreciate you guiding us. I always say, why am I
doing this when I'm climbing? It's such a long climb, but I love being,
when you're up here, you feel so peaceful. And just imagining God's presence and
fire being up there and what happened here. All right, so we made it
to, you call this the plateau? Yeah, it's this basin area,
like halfway up this midpoint where there's this flat spot. Mount Sinai, you read
through the scriptures and you're reading through Exodus and
Numbers and even in the New Testament, Paul mentions
Mount Sinai in Arabia. Yeah, Galatians 4:25. Yeah, in Galatians 1, he
says he came to Arabia, probably just like Elijah came to Mount
Horeb to come and learn from God himself. He had grown up as a Pharisee
and he's a Jew of the Jews. He missed like the main
thing in the Old Testament and that's the picture of
Messiah as we know as Jesus. So here at this place,
you think back to Moses and you think back to the thunderings
and the lightnings and the ground shaking. The sound of the trumpets. I get a sense of that right now. Like we're at the place that- You can imagine
that happening here. And then it says the fire
that went to the very heaven. It says in Exodus 19. I mean, what a sight. And everything seems to fit. And then also the Bible
talks about 70 elders, Moses, Aaron, and-
Hur and Joshua. Joshua, they were all probably, they would have
come to this spot because this is a
great spot to kind of- It's like we did. We
just had a lunch here. Said they ate with God
in Exodus 24, I believe. Man. Okay, so it's all fitting. Even the top is blackened. We're not saying that it was blackened
by the presence of God, but it is curious. that the top of this mountain and these mountains right here
are basalt or it looks like it's volcanic, but- Even though the
Arabic name for the mountain, Jebel Maqla means
burning or burnt. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, there's so
many things that fit here, but we're standing
on this mountain. that is probably Mount Sinai, also called Horeb, Mount Horeb. And it's called the
mountain of God. Those are the three biblical names,
but we also know it as Jebel Maqla. The modern Arabic name for it. And then also Jebel Al-Lawz,
which is kind of the range. And Al-Lawz means the-
Mountain of almonds. So why would that be
the name of this range? Do you know? You know, there are groves of wild almond
trees growing on this mountain range. And what's really interesting is the
staff of Aaron was made from almonds, an almond branch. Yeah. Remember the rebelling again? And so Moses said, okay, we'll see
who is, should be the chosen or the leader. And Aaron's rod budded
and almond blossoms. So it was from an almond tree. And also in the
sanctuary service, you have the almond
motifs in like the menorah. Yep. The seven branch candlestick, you have almond buds and
blossoms used in the gold candlestick. So that stuff comes
from the mountain. Unbelievable. So this is really amazing. As you've been doing tours and as
you come here, maybe for the first time, what did it feel like to you? There's a peace here. Usually like you climb in a mountain,
you're just all about the climb. Here you get there, get to like this place
where, mainly the summit, you just feel like, wow. Imagine that God's presence
was here at the very top. I could almost feel it. The same thing that
Moses being here felt. Yeah. To be able to climb it,
it's physically exerting. But to think Moses
was 80 at least, he climbed it a bunch of times. Yeah. And then the elders
were old, right? Yeah, 70 elderly. We never would have found
anything, you know, in these areas, but having a guide
like you has been great. So you're saying
we're going up there. Is that what you're
trying to say? That's our plan. You know, it's
a little afternoon. Our goal is to get
up there by two. Okay. Gives us an hour, hour and
a half to explore the summit. All right. And then come on down by three. All right. Nice. Wow, look at the mountain. What? There is the peak. Oh, that is so cool. Look at that. The blackened
peak of Mount Sinai. That is so unusual. It just goes all the way over. See it? Three peaks have it. Okay. And that's the peak
that we're going up today. Yeah. Wow, we've actually made it. Andrew, you said just another. Almost there. Almost there, another 500. Just over the next peak. Here it is. Here we go. Made it to the top, at
least the south peak. Yeah, we're here at Jabal Maqla. And this was one of the most physically
challenging things I've done for a long time. Tough climb. Yeah, you know,
but hey, we made it. It's worth it. Absolutely worth it. Because we're standing in the
place where God's presence was. And the glory of God, the fire
of God, right? Was right here. So it was like a fire
ascending to the very heavens. And so as you think that would be an
amazing sight if you're camped out here, like the Israelites or the
Midianites to the west. In Al-Bad' you could
see this mountain on fire. And certainly, you
know, the shaking, the thundering, the lightning. You know, it must've been quite a
sight and also unsettling a little bit, especially for people who
have no idea what's going on. Yeah, I'm remembering
the first where they say, Moses, you speak to us. Do not let God talk
to us or we will die. And so then they
ran back to their tents. It must've been an awesome
display of power up here. You don't feel like Moses
would have come up to the peak. He would have come
up into the cloud. What do you feel about that? Where would he have
received the 10 commandments? You know, the Bible's unclear. It just says God
called him further up. And so it doesn't
say the summit. We don't know how far down
the cloud covered the mountain, but he was close enough that it said in
the Hebrews that he feared for his life. God instructed them
to build a tabernacle. And the tabernacle later
would become the temple. And it had certain parts of that that
was very, very holy at the very center. So how does that
apply to this mountain? Yeah, well, it's very interesting if
you look at the layout of this mountain to where the
encampment would be. So here we are on this
southern Ridge of Jebel Maqla. If you start here, if you
go eastward, west to east, just like the tabernacle layout, you have this most
holy site on the very top where only Moses was
allowed to go up and talk to God. And in the tabernacle,
you had a most holy room, the square room where only the
high priest would go in once a year. And then from there,
moving eastward, you'd go to the holy place
where the priests were allowed. And same thing here,
you have going eastward, you have a plateau where
they had the 70 elders, Aaron, Joshua, Hur. They came up and ate with God. You had the table of showbread
there in the tabernacle. Then moving further out, you come to the courtyard where
they had the sacrificial system, where they had the altar
burnt offering and the laver. At the base of this mountain,
you have the stream bed going out. And past that, you have an altar
site, we believe is the altar of Moses. And then you go further
out is the encampment, just like you have in the
layout of the sanctuary service. So it's a perfect match. You think of the layout of the
mountain to the tabernacle itself. And the direction, you know, it's,
again, it's another piece of the puzzle. Everything seems to fit right
here to this being the place. You know, even
the direction of it, you know, the top of the mountain all
the way down and having that bench, that plateau where, you know,
multiple people could sit and observe. And then you have lots of room in
the plain for several million people. So again, all of the
puzzle pieces fit together, but this being the very
center of God's holiness. And I still feel like when
we're standing on Mount Sinai, you know, you sense God's
holiness, His reverence, His wrath too against
sin, it all culminates here because Moses is taking
down these two tablets. that God wrote. I mean, a lot of the
Bible, all of the Bible, God breathed through men and
moved them along in what to write. But God wrote here and
on the wall in Babylon. You know, it's a rare
thing when God writes. And so these tablets of the commandments
of God, and those are the basic laws. And then they had a lot of other laws
for, you know, for the nation of Israel. But these are still things
that are important for us today. You know, these are basic things
that almost every society observes. You don't steal, you don't
lie, you know, you don't kill. And this is where
the law comes from. It was given here,
the voice of God. First, He verbally gave it,
then He wrote it on stone. So how permanent it is. Yeah. This has been one of the big privileges
of my life, Andrew, to stand here. And I would never have
come here if it weren't for you. Thank you so much. I'm glad to help you guys out. This has been
quite an adventure. We've seen evidence
of Israel in Egypt, a logical route to a
dead end on a beach that could hold several
million freed slaves, a deep body of water with
a natural walkable slope, several oases in Saudi Arabia that fit the
biblical descriptions of Israel's camps, archeological evidence
for Jethro and the Midians, a split rock, altars, a large plain, and a mountain that
fits all the Bible's criteria. While I'm not absolutely positive
that we're at the real Mount Sinai, everything seems to fit. But I am positive
about something. God is real. He's powerful and He's holy.
