God Hears Hezekiah's Prayers (Walk Thru the Bible Week 28)

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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12 month journey through the most exciting

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book on the planet.

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It will transform your life one page at a time.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible

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to life.

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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.

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Well, hey there and welcome back.

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I want to start today with another orchid update.

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I'm afraid this is probably the last one we're going to have.

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Yes, I've now lost three blossoms from the orchid, but I wanted to show it so that everyone

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can say goodbye to it.

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This will be the last week.

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I think by next week it will be pretty scrawny, but they are gorgeous plants and their blossoms

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last so long.

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What a blessing they are.

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So with that, let's get started.

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I want to welcome you to this week's Walk Through the Bible.

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We are now in week 28 and we're reading this week in the Daily Bible, pages 863 to 898

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or the dates of July 9th through the 15th in the Daily Bible.

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So let's review.

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We have been reading the story of the divided kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel and

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the southern kingdom of Judah.

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And we have been reading about God's mercy over 200 years in the northern kingdom of

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Israel and even longer in the southern, where he first sent prophets to preach to the people,

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to invite them to repent and turn back to him and to point out to them their wayward

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ways.

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When that didn't work, then he allowed their enemy to begin to defeat them and little by

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little they lost territory.

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And when that didn't wake them up, then finally it was over and it was time for the fall.

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So last week we ended with the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel.

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It was a very sad day.

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But now we continue on with the southern kingdom of Judah.

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And we're focused now.

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Have talked about, I want to review four different kings.

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Last week we talked about King Uzziah who reigned for I think 52 years, very stable

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reign and a good king.

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And then he was followed by his son Jotham.

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And Jotham did okay, not so great, but then his son Ahaz was really the most evil king

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of the southern kingdom.

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He led the kingdom into a very serious idolatry and paganism.

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And then he was followed by a wonderful king Hezekiah.

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And Hezekiah brought complete religious reform to the southern kingdom of Judah.

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He got rid of all the pagan places.

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He reestablished worship in the temple.

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And as we heard last week, he actually had a two week long celebration of the Passover.

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It was so glorious that they stayed for an entire second week.

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Now this period of these kings, I wanted to point out just some archaeological evidence

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that we have to kind of corroborate our story.

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And in 2015 in the city of Jerusalem, in the ancient city of David, that part of Jerusalem,

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there was found an ancient what's called a Bula.

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And this Bula is where it was originally made out of clay.

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And it contained the seal for either the king or for the leader that the seal was for.

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And it would have their name and the name of their father.

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And it was used then to stamp into wax or clay for a seal over a document.

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And these Bula, when the cities were destroyed and there was fire, what the fire actually

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preserved these Bula, made them stronger.

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And a lot of them have survived.

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And so in 2015, they found one of these ancient seals and it said on it, belonging to Hezekiah,

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son of Ahaz, king of Judah.

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What an exciting moment that was.

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It was the first ever find of an impression of an Israelite king that was found in archaeological,

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a scientific archaeological dig.

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Now there was another seal that had been found before this.

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And it actually said on it, belonging to Ahaz, son of Jotham, king of Judah.

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The only thing is that this one wasn't found during a fully documented scientific archaeological

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dig.

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But yet the scholars all agree that it is probably absolutely authentic.

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It was found in the south of Israel, but not during a dig where they document everything.

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But so we have these two seals from the kings of this period.

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Another very interesting find in 2018, the same archaeologist in the ancient city of

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Jerusalem that found Hezekiah's, or documented the finding of Hezekiah's seal, found another

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seal that it was partially broken.

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And so it's not 100% certain, but she believed that it was actually the seal that would have

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read belonging to Isaiah, the prophet.

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Now some argue they say there's just not enough of it remaining to actually prove that, but

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that's pretty exciting too.

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Okay, so let's get to today's story.

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We're talking about King Hezekiah.

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We've got a couple of really interesting stories about King Hezekiah, and particularly his

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confrontations with Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

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Now the chronology here is difficult in these passages about Sennacherib.

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And there's several campaigns of the Assyrians into the area.

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We know that, we know that part of the biblical story is actually documented in the Assyrian

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kings, their annals, and their reliefs where they decorated their palaces.

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And so I'll get into that in a minute.

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But the Bible alludes to two different stories with Sennacherib.

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And sometimes the way it's written, you're not really clear.

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Is this a second time, or is this just more of the same story?

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And so there's a lot of debate about this.

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So let me start with what we do know from archaeology and from what they have found

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in ancient Assyria.

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So we do know that in 722 the northern kingdom of Israel fell when the city of Samaria ended

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a three-year siege and fell.

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And that was under Sargon, was king of Assyria.

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We do know that about 10, 12 years later, somewhere around 712 BC, that there was a

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revolt in the coastal area in Ashkelon.

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And so under Sargon the Assyrians came back into the area.

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Well, if you can imagine, any time an army is coming into an area.

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They don't just deal with the one disturbance.

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They make sure that they're occupying along the way.

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And there's a lot of ramifications of a military campaign like that.

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But we do know that there was one around 712.

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And then we know that around 701 BC that Sennacherib came into the area.

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And he has fully documented this in his reliefs and back in Assyria, that he came to defeat

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Phoenicia.

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And at the same time, the little states of Ammon and Moab and Edom, they all capitulated

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and restated their alliances with Assyria.

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And then Assyria came into the coastal area and came on down.

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And it's no doubt that he would have confronted Hezekiah at the time of this campaign.

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And more than likely this is when, then, that Hezekiah decides to capitulate himself and

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he pays tribute to Sennacherib and Sennacherib then withdraws.

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The Assyrian annals brag, number one, about the fall of the city of Lachish.

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And they brag greatly about the large amount of tribute that Hezekiah paid.

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And the reason that they brag about this is because they wanted to justify why they didn't

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conquer the city of Jerusalem.

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This tribute justifies.

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So it's not a defeat.

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They won by the exacting of this huge tribute that they received from Hezekiah.

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The big question here is, did Sennacherib come back to the area later when we have this

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larger confrontation that we read about?

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And when did Lachish actually fall?

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Was it in 701?

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Or was it on a later campaign?

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Did all this happen in one campaign?

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It doesn't make a lot of sense if you read it as one.

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Why would Hezekiah pay tribute?

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And then later, why would God have to defeat the Assyrian army?

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So it does lend itself to that there were two different campaigns.

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And that makes perfect sense.

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Why?

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Because in II Kings it does allude to the fact that Sennacherib had to kind of pull back

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and because of the Egyptian forces at that time which were under an Ethiopian king.

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And so that Ethiopian king didn't rule earlier at 701 BC but was ruling about 15 years later.

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So it really does look like there may have been two different incidents here just as

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the Bible says.

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And so in the first one, Hezekiah gives in, he pays tribute and Sennacherib leaves.

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But the second time around now, we have this whole confrontation where Sennacherib sends

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his leaders up to Jerusalem and they're yelling over the wall and they're threatening and

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they're saying, don't listen to Hezekiah.

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Don't listen to this talk about your God.

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None of the other gods have been able to withstand us.

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We've defeated them all and we're going to defeat you.

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And at that point, Hezekiah's assistant says, don't talk in Hebrew.

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Talk in Aramaic, please.

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And that's very interesting.

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Aramaic was the language of the Assyrian empire.

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And so it was becoming a strong language throughout the region.

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And so Hezekiah's men and his people, they knew how to speak Aramaic.

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But this Aramaic leader also knew Hebrew.

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And so in Fluent Hebrew, he then lets them know because he wants the whole city to know.

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He wants them all to get fearful.

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Now speaking of fear, the city of Lekesh, the reason it is so important is it's down

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along that international trade highway.

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But it guards the road up into the hills to Jerusalem.

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So when Lekesh fell, it really made Jerusalem very, very vulnerable.

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And so knowing that Lekesh had fallen produced a lot of fear in Jerusalem.

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Now as I say, we don't know if Lekesh fell 10 years earlier or this second time around,

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but it would have produced a lot of fear.

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It made Jerusalem very, very vulnerable.

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And I want you to know that the fall of Lekesh was a very big deal for Sennacherib.

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And he went back to Assyria.

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And he built a large palace in Nineveh.

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He moved his capital to Nineveh.

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He built a huge palace.

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And in that palace, he built a room called the Lekesh Room.

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And all around the walls in that room, he depicted the siege of Lekesh and the fall

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of Lekesh.

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And he showed the Assyrians coming and building a battery ram.

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And actually, archaeologically, at Lekesh, they have found the remains.

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They found the remains of a battery ram.

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They found a lot of arrows in that area where the Assyrian army would have come over.

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And they also found a mass grave of about 1500 people.

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So there's a lot of archaeological evidence to support the fact that Lekesh did fall to

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the Assyrians.

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So Hezekiah is up in Jerusalem.

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And what is he doing?

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He is reinforcing Jerusalem.

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And one of the things that he knew was a vulnerability was the Gihan Springs.

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We keep talking about the Gihan Springs.

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That's how David took the city of Jerusalem to start with.

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And Hezekiah knew it was a point of vulnerability because Jerusalem's up on the hill.

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It's got walls all around it.

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But down below is this water source.

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And so he went down and they diverted the waters so that they ran into inside the city

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walls of Jerusalem.

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And today, when you go with me to Jerusalem, you can walk through what's called Hezekiah's

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tunnel.

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And it is where his workmen began in two different locations, one inside the city and one outside

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the walls.

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And they chiseled and they chiseled and they chiseled until they met.

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And they marched the place in the wall where they met.

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You can see all of that.

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And to this day, there is still water flowing through Hezekiah's tunnel.

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So get ready for that.

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We also know that Hezekiah built up the walls.

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And he actually built walls, reinforced walls around the northern hill, northwestern hill

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of Jerusalem.

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And why is that significant?

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Well, Jerusalem was on this long peninsula hill.

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The city of David was there.

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And it had been expanded a little bit.

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But now there had been so many refugees fleeing from the Assyrians when the north fell.

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And they were now down in Judah and in Jerusalem.

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And Jerusalem's numbers were swollen.

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And there were a lot of people living on this northwestern hill of Jerusalem.

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And they were not inside city walls.

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So Hezekiah extended and built a city wall there.

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And you can see part of it today when we go to the old city of Jerusalem.

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And you're going to look down and you're going to see this broad wall from the time

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of Hezekiah.

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So Hezekiah was building, was busy reinforcing Jerusalem in order to keep Sennacherib out.

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So all of this is really very corroborated by what we know archaeologically.

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Now so we have this story where they're threatening and they're actually blaspheming the God of

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Israel because they're saying, your God can't stop us.

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It's like nobody else's God could stop us.

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So don't listen to this Hezekiah.

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And Sennacherib then has to kind of get busy fighting with other skirmishes in the area.

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So they send a letter to Hezekiah.

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We've all read this story.

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We love it.

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Hezekiah goes straight to the temple.

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He lays this letter out before the Lord.

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And he says, oh Lord God Almighty who sits above the earth, the Creator of heaven and

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earth, you see these words of Sennacherib.

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You see his threats.

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And you know that none of those gods have been able to withstand him, of course.

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And then Hezekiah adds, of course they were not real gods.

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They're just made of wood and stone.

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And so they've all been destroyed.

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But you, oh God, you vindicate your word.

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And so he pleas to God.

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And God speaks then not to Hezekiah but to Isaiah.

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And this is the word that God speaks to Isaiah.

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And he says, it's a long section here, but the very end of it, speaking of Sennacherib,

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he says, by the way that he came, that he's going to go back, sorry.

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He's going to go back by the way that he came, by the same shall he return.

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And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city to save

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it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

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And what happens is during the night it says that the angels struck the Assyrian camp and

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that morning they woke up to find corpses all over the place that 185,000 of them had

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died.

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And as a result, Sennacherib pulled back and left, went back home to Assyria.

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Now this is an astounding story.

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The mighty Assyrian Empire, the mighty army of the Assyrian Empire, does not withdraw

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from this little Jerusalem and go home in defeat.

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So what happened here?

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Well, there is a later Greek historian, wrote about 200 years later.

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His name is Herodotus.

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Herodotus is a little bit of a controversial historian.

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He likes to include legends in what he writes.

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But a lot of what he's written has actually been proven through archaeology.

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And he has a section in his writings that it's a little hard to understand and follow,

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but he seems to allude that there was a plague that hit the Assyrian forces at some point

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when they were near the Egyptian forces and that they had to retreat.

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And he said it was a plague brought by mice, which means it might have been the bubonic

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plague.

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So can we say that for sure?

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No, we can't say for sure, but it sure seems to be that this story about a plague, about

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something that struck down thousands of the Assyrian soldiers resulting in them returning

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to Assyria, there seems to be something there beyond our biblical story.

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So now back to Hezekiah.

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Hezekiah is kind of a funny fellow.

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So we have this story where he falls ill.

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And so God says to him, I love this story, because God says to him through the prophet

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Isaiah, Hezekiah, get ready to die because you're going to die.

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And Hezekiah says he turns over, faces the wall, and he weeps.

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He cries out to the Lord about this and weeps.

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So then God speaks to Isaiah and says, OK, go tell him I've seen your tears and I'm

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going to heal you and I'm going to give you 15 more years.

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I love that story because with God, our repentance and our calling out to him really does move

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mountains and sometimes it moves God himself and there may be certain things in play, but

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God hears our heart and it touches his heart and he changes it.

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So what an encouragement that is.

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No matter what you're facing, run to him.

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Even if it means weeping and crying out before him, he wants to hear your heart.

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So then it says Hezekiah goes and gets prideful.

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Can you imagine it?

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And so the Lord's wrath was on him and it doesn't give us any detail, but then it says,

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So Hezekiah repents and what happens?

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The Lord repents and it removes his anger from Hezekiah.

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So I love these examples of our repentance moving the Lord.

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And then we have this story about these envoys that come from Babylon.

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You know, this is not a far-fetched story at all because there was a lot of rivalry

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already taking place at this point in history between Babylon and Assyria.

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Now, Assyria is the big mighty empire, but even Babylon kind of rebelled in the for about

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10, 15 years.

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They had their independence.

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It was a time when Assyria was weak.

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And then when Sennacherib came in, he's strong and so he begins to retake this area.

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But there were always a little bit of play between Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and

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then these smaller little kingdoms in between and who's going to form an alliance with each

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other and then maybe they could actually stand up against the big almighty Assyrians.

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So the fact that the Babylonians came to Hezekiah, probably they were talking about a possible

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alliance.

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But we know the story, Hezekiah gets all caught up in the moment, shows them all of his riches,

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all of his goods, and Isaiah says, you fool.

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You need to know that one day Babylon is coming in and they're going to take your descendants

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on the throne.

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They're going to take your children and they're going to cart all of this off to Babylon.

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And what does Hezekiah say?

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Can you believe it?

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He says, well, at least there'll be peace in my reign.

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So he's like, so what?

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This is going to happen with my children.

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At least we're going to have good times while I'm here.

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That's how Hezekiah, he seemed to be a godly king, a king with this understanding of the

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need to reform the worship of God.

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But at the same time, he just seemed to be kind of shallow in moments.

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But Hezekiah, even though he's given 15 years, eventually he knows his time is running out.

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And so he actually begins to co-raine with his son and Manasseh.

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Now this is a very interesting story because when Hezekiah dies 15 years later, his son

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Manasseh is only 12 years old.

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So what does that tell you?

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He was born during Hezekiah's extended life of 15 years.

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Hezekiah knows his days are running out.

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He knows Manasseh is going to follow him on the throne.

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He even begins to co-raine with him, but somehow he doesn't instill in Manasseh the understanding

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of the worship of the God of Israel, of the history here.

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He doesn't prepare him to reign in the right way, and what happens?

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Well, Manasseh, who ends up the longest reigning king of Judah, 55 years he's king.

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He's known as the blackest history in the kingdom of Judah.

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He's worse than he has.

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First of all, he says no more of this standing up to Sennacherib.

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He just pays tribute.

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He becomes a vassal state to the Assyrians.

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And then he just lets all of their gods come in.

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He is paganism everywhere, child sacrifice everywhere.

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They said it was such a bloody time for the people of Judah.

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This is Hezekiah's son Manasseh.

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If only Hezekiah had prepared him better to reign.

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Now, before we go on with the story of Manasseh, I want to talk now about the prophet Isaiah.

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Because we are, this week, we are reading a whole section of Isaiah from chapters 40

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to 48.

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So I want to make a few comments here.

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First of all, we also read, before we get into Isaiah 40 to 48, we also read out of

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Isaiah 19, where Isaiah is prophesying against Egypt.

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And there's going to be certain disasters that are going to come to Egypt.

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And it's really bad.

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It's a really bad time.

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And at the end of Isaiah 19 is this beautiful prophecy of this future time, when there's

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going to be this peace, this highway of peace between Egypt and Israel and Assyria.

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And it says that they will go back and forth on this highway and that Assyria, the work

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of my hands and Israel, my inheritance and Egypt, my people will all be one.

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And so this is a prophetic vision, really, of the Messianic era.

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But do you know that today, throughout that whole region, there are Christians in Egypt

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and in Israel and in Lebanon and in Syria and in Iraq and in all these areas praying for

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the fulfillment of that prophecy in Isaiah 19, praying for each other.

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It's a highway already that's being built today in the Holy Spirit and in prayer.

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And one day we're going to see a beautiful time of peace in this region.

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And that's what Isaiah begins to move into then that are compiled in chapters 40 through

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the rest of the book, actually 66.

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Some of your scholars, some of your critical scholars are going to tell you that Isaiah,

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the book of Isaiah is made up of two sections that they think are probably written by two

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different people or more.

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Why? Because the first half of Isaiah, chapters 1 through 39, is really full of judgment and

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these woes and the prophecies against the nations and the judgment that is coming.

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And then starting with chapter 40 through the end of the book, it's like it focuses

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more on restoration and redemption and these future regathering of the exiles back home

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and this amazing thing that God is going to do.

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But that doesn't mean it's written by two people.

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As we know, these are different oracles and we see parts of vision and hopefulness in

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the early chapters of Isaiah.

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But it seems to be the theme.

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And so maybe these oracles were just put together in this way in the book.

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I mean, there's many different explanations for this, but it is true that in our week,

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in our reading this week, we begin a famous chapter, Isaiah 40, and it introduces a whole

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new attitude and a whole new focus in Isaiah's prophecies.

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And it begins with this, comfort, my people, says the Lord.

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Speak comfort or speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended,

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that her iniquity is pardoned for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

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What a beautiful verse.

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And it's announcing a whole new era, comfort, my people.

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And the word here, speak comfort to Jerusalem.

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See in Hebrews, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.

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Let her know her warfare is over and she's paid double for her sin.

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And then verse three, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord,

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make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

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Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low.

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The crooked places will be made straight and the rough places smooth.

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That's saying, announce it.

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The King is coming.

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And so go ahead of the King and make the highway straight.

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And they literally did that.

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Kings would have forerunners that would go out.

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See, they didn't have paved highways.

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And they would go and they would prepare the road for the King to enter on.

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They'd make sure the stones were removed.

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They'd try to make sure it didn't go too much up the hill or too far in the valley.

389
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You wanted it even so it was easy on the King and easy on the horses carrying the chariot.

390
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So this is saying, comfort my people, cry out.

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Be as one in the desert crying out and let them know the King is coming.

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In verse six, the voice is cry out and he says, what shall I cry?

393
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Because all flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

394
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

395
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This is a favorite verse.

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Life comes and goes.

397
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We human beings, our life is very short on this earth.

398
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We're like the grass that springs up and then it's gone.

399
00:32:25,780 --> 00:32:31,060
But the word of the Lord stands forever.

400
00:32:31,060 --> 00:32:33,220
And it's because of God's promises.

401
00:32:33,220 --> 00:32:39,700
It's because of his word that his people can know what is coming and that one day the

402
00:32:39,700 --> 00:32:42,460
King will come.

403
00:32:42,460 --> 00:32:50,460
Verse 10, behold, the Lord shall come with a strong hand and his arms shall rule for

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00:32:50,460 --> 00:32:51,460
him.

405
00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:55,500
Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him.

406
00:32:55,500 --> 00:32:58,660
He will feed his flock like a shepherd.

407
00:32:58,660 --> 00:33:05,060
He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those

408
00:33:05,060 --> 00:33:07,100
who are with young.

409
00:33:07,100 --> 00:33:13,420
I want you to catch here at saying that the Lord's going to come with a mighty, strong

410
00:33:13,420 --> 00:33:16,180
right hand and ruling like a king.

411
00:33:16,180 --> 00:33:20,620
And then it describes his tender, shepherding heart.

412
00:33:20,620 --> 00:33:25,180
And this is the juxtaposition of who is this God?

413
00:33:25,180 --> 00:33:28,700
Who is this King that's going to come?

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00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:34,380
And we're going to get into this more next week about the servant, the suffering servant

415
00:33:34,380 --> 00:33:36,180
versus the ruling king.

416
00:33:36,180 --> 00:33:41,020
And here you just have both of them, both descriptions in one section.

417
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But we're going to talk about that a lot more next week.

418
00:33:44,300 --> 00:33:50,300
And then it goes on, behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as just

419
00:33:50,300 --> 00:33:55,340
small dust on the scales before this king.

420
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Verse 17, all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted by him less than nothing.

421
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To whom then will you liken God?

422
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Or what likeness will you compare to him?

423
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This is the greatness of God that these nations are as nothing before him.

424
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These nations that have tormented his people are as nothing before God.

425
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God is so much greater than even the Assyrian Empire.

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These are some of the themes I just want to point out that you're going to be reading

427
00:34:32,740 --> 00:34:38,740
from chapters 40 all the way to the end of Isaiah for the next two weeks.

428
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These are recurring themes.

429
00:34:40,500 --> 00:34:43,460
You're going to read them over and over.

430
00:34:43,460 --> 00:34:49,820
There's a special verse here in chapter 41, verse 8, I want to point out.

431
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But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham,

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my friend.

433
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We're back to Abraham.

434
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Remember, all of this is because God promised to Abraham, I'm going to make you a great

435
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nation and through you I'm going to bless all the families of the earth.

436
00:35:14,940 --> 00:35:22,340
Those promises have not totally been fulfilled yet and Isaiah is saying, God is saying through

437
00:35:22,340 --> 00:35:28,300
Isaiah, it's because you're the descendants of my friend Abraham.

438
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And verse 9, I have chosen you and have not cast you away.

439
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Remember this is being written in the middle of exile and God is saying, I have not cast

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you away.

441
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Fear not for I am with you.

442
00:35:45,860 --> 00:35:48,940
Be not dismayed for I am your God.

443
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I will strengthen you.

444
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Yes, I will help you.

445
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I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

446
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And behold, all those who were incensed against you will be ashamed and disgraced.

447
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They shall be as nothing.

448
00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:12,700
And those who were against you shall be as nothing.

449
00:36:12,700 --> 00:36:19,260
As a non-existent thing, God is saying, all these kingdoms that have come against you

450
00:36:19,260 --> 00:36:22,020
will be as nothing.

451
00:36:22,020 --> 00:36:28,620
My friends, today, where is that mighty Assyrian empire?

452
00:36:28,620 --> 00:36:33,580
Where is the mighty Egyptian empire that enslaved the Jews to start with?

453
00:36:33,580 --> 00:36:35,140
And then Assyria.

454
00:36:35,140 --> 00:36:38,220
Where is that Babylonian empire?

455
00:36:38,220 --> 00:36:40,580
Where is that Greek empire?

456
00:36:40,580 --> 00:36:42,940
And then the Roman empire.

457
00:36:42,940 --> 00:36:45,460
Where are these people?

458
00:36:45,460 --> 00:36:47,900
These empires are gone.

459
00:36:47,900 --> 00:36:51,740
But the Jewish people, they're still here.

460
00:36:51,740 --> 00:36:54,620
They are still here, his people.

461
00:36:54,620 --> 00:36:57,020
God is faithful to his word.

462
00:36:57,020 --> 00:37:02,860
And then we have in Isaiah 42 a section about the servant of the Lord.

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Once more, we're going to read a lot more about the servant of the Lord next week.

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But he says here, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights.

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Verse 6, I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the

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Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in

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darkness from the prison.

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I am the Lord, that is my name.

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And then in the next chapter, we talk about the Redeemer of Israel.

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And these are just reoccurring things over and over.

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It says, Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

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I have called you by your name.

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You are mine.

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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

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And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

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When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch

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you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel.

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So many things I could read for you next this week.

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But I just want to skip down to the end here in this week's reading, Isaiah 48.

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God says this in verse 11, For my own sake, for my own sake I will do it, for how should

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my name be profaned, for I will not give my glory to another.

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And this is my closing remark.

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One of the things that shows that the book of Isaiah was all written by one person is

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throughout the book he refers to God as the Holy One of Israel.

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And I want you to think about this for a minute.

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God says here that for his own name's sake, for his own sake, that he's going to do this.

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Because by letting his children go into exile, if he were to abandon them and to abandon

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his promises to them and his promises to Abraham and his promises to David, it's a profanity

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against him.

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It makes him look bad, not just his children.

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And so he's saying here, For my sake, I'm going to do this.

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He is the Holy One of Israel.

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He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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That's who he is.

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He will vindicate his name by fulfilling his promises to them.

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That's why we know that God's word is yea and amen.

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It is, as Isaiah said, forever.

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It is true forever.

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And that's why Isaiah could see his people going into exile.

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But he watched it with a ray of hope in his heart that one day God would bring them back,

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and he would vindicate his name throughout the nations when he did.

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So stay tuned.

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We'll be back here next week for more.

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Enjoy your reading of Isaiah.

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Let it soak into you.

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See these repeated themes over and over.

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Let it be an encouragement to your heart and your life.

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As we bring today to a close, I am so excited to announce that this week we will be putting

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up a going deeper interview with world-renowned Bible teacher Kay Arthur.

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Kay and I had a conversation about the meaning and the message of Isaiah to us today.

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This was something that was really heavy on her heart, and she wanted to share with you

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how this message can impact your life.

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So please be sure and come back in just a couple of days.

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We'll be putting up our going deeper interview with Kay Arthur.

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I also wanted to just ask you to do me a personal favor.

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Do you mind just going down below on the platform that you're listening to and press

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00:41:23,100 --> 00:41:26,220
like or subscribe to this channel?

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00:41:26,220 --> 00:41:29,900
It just helps us to reach a wider audience.

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00:41:29,900 --> 00:41:34,260
If you are liking these programs and subscribing to the channel.

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00:41:34,260 --> 00:41:36,780
So I just want to say thank you.

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And one last reminder, if you have not yet downloaded your third quarter reading guide

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00:41:42,780 --> 00:41:50,340
so that you can read through with us for the next few months, please do so at outofzionshow.com.

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Look for the tab that says, Walk Through the Bible, and there you'll find the link to download

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00:41:55,500 --> 00:41:57,180
the reading guide.

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00:41:57,180 --> 00:42:03,260
We will also put a direct link in today's show notes right down below.

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So I love to hear from you.

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If you have questions or comments, please let me know what the Lord's doing in your life

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as we are walking through the Bible this year.

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So that's it for this week.

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And until next week, God bless.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael.

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Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, cpnshows.com, YouTube, or

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00:42:31,860 --> 00:42:34,100
wherever you like to listen and learn.

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Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA All Rights Reserved.