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Sept. 28, 2021
God Will Vindicate His Name (Walk Thru the Bible Week 35)
The Lord gives King Zedekiah one last chance to save Jerusalem from destruction, but he refuses. So, the Babylonians conquer Judah and burn all of Jerusalem including the temple, and a remnant flees to Egypt taking Jeremiah with them. Back in Babylon the prophet Ezekiel begins to prophesy coming events during which God will vindicate His great name. There is hope after all.
This episode complements the daily readings from our Walk Thru the Bible reading plan for September 27-October 3, covering Jeremiah 37-40; Lamentations 1-5; Ezekiel 33-39.
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Transcript
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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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This is week 35 of our year-long Walk Through the Bible.
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We're getting closer and closer to week 52 when we will have accomplished our year-long
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reading through the Bible.
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So I just want to congratulate you.
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You're doing a great job.
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You're hanging in there with me.
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And at the end of the year, you are going to feel so proud of yourself for having made
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it through the Bible.
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I know that there's a lot of history and we're sort of deep into the prophetic books and
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it seems like our story is moving a little slow.
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But please stick with me and I'm going to bring out some interesting things this week
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that might not be evident from your reading.
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You know, our purpose in this Walk Through the Bible is number one, we want you to understand
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the story that's being told behind all the little stories so that as you may get detracted
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by a lot of detail, a lot of little incidents that we keep reminding you of that big story.
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And then secondly is to also bring out things that just highlight how true and how accurate
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the Bible is and how faithful our God is to the Bible.
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It is His Word and He is faithful to it and committed to it.
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So with that in mind, let's talk about what we read last week and as a review before we
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began this week.
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So last week we began the siege of Jerusalem and this week, I'm sorry to say, but it's
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all over for Jerusalem and Judah.
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Now the Lord gives a word to Jeremiah for the king Zedekiah and he tells him the Babylonians
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are going to take over Jerusalem, but that he would be saved and in this passage, Jeremiah
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mentions or two other cities that are still free and have not yet fallen to the Babylonians.
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So I want to read this to you and it is found in Jeremiah 34 verses 6 through 7.
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Then Jeremiah the prophet told all of this to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem.
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While the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of
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Judah that were still holding out, Lachish and Ezekiah, these were the only fortified
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cities left in Judah.
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Now why do I bring this out?
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Because of the archaeological evidence found in the city of Lachish that really substantiates
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our story and that the city fell in the same year that the city of Jerusalem fell.
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So it was one of two cities still holding out and at Lachish they found in the city gates
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a pod shirt with a letter written on it.
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Now you know letters were not written on paper or papyrus, but they were written on pieces
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of clay and these letters were, they weren't very private because it was written on a piece
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of clay.
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It's not like a piece of paper you could fold up and stick in your pocket and it would
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be private.
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But they found letters at Lachish and they call these letters Ostrichah and because the
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Ostrichah means a piece of clay, a pod shirt that has a letter written on it.
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And in one of the Ostrichah found in the gate of Lachish it says this, We are watching the
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signals, meaning fire signals, of Lachish according to the code which my Lord gave us,
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for we cannot see Ezekiah.
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So here a letter from somewhere is being sent to Lachish and it's saying we see your signals,
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but we no longer see signals from Ezekiah.
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And of course in the scripture in Jeremiah they were the two last remaining cities.
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So it could be this letter was written right after that when Ezekiah had already fallen.
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And in Jeremiah 38 we have another interesting story here where it names several officials
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and how that they had Jeremiah arrested and that they lowered him down into a pit that
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was used to hold water and now it just had mud and it said that he was lowered down into
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and sunk into the mud at the bottom of this pit.
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Well in the first verse of chapter 38 it lists these officials and it lists their names.
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It is Shafetia son of Matan, Gatelliah son of Pasur, Yehukal son of Shlamia and Pasur
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son of Melchizedek.
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Now I'm sure that I didn't pronounce those correctly, but it's four officials and it
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says that they are each the son of a certain name.
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So the four officials Shafetia, Gatelliah, Yehukal and Shlamia.
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Now what is so interesting is that just in the last ten years in the old ancient city
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of Jerusalem they have found the seals of two out of four of these officials listed
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in Jeremiah 38 verse one and they have found seals for Gatelliah, the son of Pasur and
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Yehukal son of Shlamia or Shlamia.
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Now remember these seals are called Abullah and the Abullah is inscribed on clay.
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Usually these were clay seals, but it can also be inscribed on some kind of metal orwax
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and there was a way of putting a person's name on a commercial or legal document of
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some form, some form of authentication.
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This is their official seal and these seals have survived because the fire in the destruction
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of cities would actually harden the clay that many of them were written on.
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So they found these two seals.
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They found one, I think it was in, I hate to name the years, but they were two years
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apart.
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They found the two seals within meters of each other, but it took two years before they
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found the second one and here they were, not only two amazing seals and not only found
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very close to each other, but of two men whose names appeared back to back in Jeremiah 38
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verse one.
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I just think that stuff is exciting and it really shows how that we can trust our Bible
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account is telling us very real stories about very real people.
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Now in Jeremiah 38 it goes on to tell the story of how the king Zedekiah was given the
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last chance to save Jerusalem.
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And I wanted to point this out because I want you to know God's will was not to destroy
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Jerusalem or the temple, it wasn't to take his people into exile.
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That's not what he wanted at all and that's why he warned them over and over and he pled
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with them.
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And here at the very last minute he gives King Zedekiah one last chance to save Jerusalem.
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The prophet Jeremiah, actually the king summons Jeremiah in secret, he doesn't want anyone
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to know that he's turned to Jeremiah to know what the Lord is saying.
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And so in here Jeremiah tells him to surrender and Jerusalem will be spared.
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But if you don't surrender Jerusalem will burn and you will be captured.
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Now God had promised Zedekiah that he wouldn't die but it's very clear here he will be captured.
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So he will be taken into captivity.
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And Zedekiah is afraid and then he threatens Jeremiah not to tell anyone that he had summoned
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Jeremiah or what Jeremiah had told him lest he have Jeremiah killed.
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So that was the last chance he did not heed the warning and so right after this we read
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about the Babylonians break through the walls of Jerusalem, it is all over.
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They set fire to the temple, they set fire to the palace and they set fire to houses
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all throughout the city of Jerusalem.
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They also carry away the treasures out of the temple and out of the palace and they
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take many of the leaders and the men off and the ones that they leave behind it specifically
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says the poor people and they're left behind.
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And these exiles they're taking captivity and they are going to serve Babylon until
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Babylon is no more and Persia takes over.
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So until the end of the 70 years that Jeremiah had already prophesied and had already predicted
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would be the length of the exile, would be the length of the destruction of Jerusalem.
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Now there is lots of archaeological evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
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There is a lot of charcoal within the archaeological findings there in Jerusalem.
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They know when the city was burned there's just a lot of evidence to this happening and
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when it took place.
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Now the Babylonians put Getaliah as governor over Jerusalem.
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Of course he's a puppet governor.
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He is controlled by them, he is loyal to them, but nevertheless he is put over the affairs
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of Jerusalem.
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And Jeremiah who was already bound by chains with the rest of the exiles, he was about
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to be taken away by the Babylonians.
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When the king said that he was to not be taken, he was to be allowed to be free and so they
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turned him over to Getaliah.
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Now the scripture didn't really explain why, but I think it's pretty clear.
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They know that it was Jeremiah that was warning the king to surrender.
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They saw him as someone maybe on their side, of course Jeremiah was never on the Babylonian
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side, but they knew that of his message, they knew what he had tried to do.
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And so they allowed him to live.
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So here's Jeremiah, our very lonely prophet who has been preaching now for how many years,
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mourning them of this day.
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And he's sitting there in the ashes of Jerusalem, mourning the loss of the city.
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And so Jeremiah writes what we call today the Book of Lamentations.
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The prophet Jeremiah, you may have read this somewhere, that he's known as by theologians
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and Bible teachers.
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He's known as the weeping prophet.
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And that's because in his book, in Jeremiah 13-17, he talks about his tears of mourning.
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And he describes God's tears in chapter 9.
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So then when he writes the Book of Lamentations, I mean what a moving set of poems.
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Lamentations is actually a set of five poems.
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Each chapter is a separate poem.
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And it is lamenting and mourning the loss of Jerusalem, the loss of the temple, the loss
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of their freedom and their independence, the loss of the presence of God.
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And in chapter 1, verse 16, the prophet Jeremiah, who we believe is the writer of this book,
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says, This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
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And in chapter 2, verse 7, he says that the Lord has abandoned his sanctuary.
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Remember last week I talked about how that Ezekiel saw by vision the spirit of God, the
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presence of God, abandoned the temple and abandoned the city of Jerusalem.
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And he left, which of course left it open for destruction.
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And Jeremiah here laments that God has abandoned his sanctuary.
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And then in chapter 2, 11, he says, My eyes fail from weeping.
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But by chapter 3, he breaks into an acknowledgement of God's faithfulness.
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And it's a beautiful turn in such a sad book of lamentations.
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And in chapter 3, 22, he says, Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed.
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For his compassion never fail.
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They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness.
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How many times have we sung that verse or have repeated that verse?
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Great is that faithfulness.
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Oh Lord, your mercies are new every morning.
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Your compassion they fail not.
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Now that you hear it within its context, this is Jeremiah sitting in the midst of a destroyed
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city, probably covered with the ashes of the city.
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And yet he says, Because of your goodness, God, we are not consumed.
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Jeremiah still lives.
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There is still a remnant in the holy city.
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And he says, For your compassion never fail.
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They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness.
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Just three verses later, verse 25.
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The Lord is good to those who hope in him.
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To the one who seeks him.
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It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
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Maybe just picture the prophet sitting there in the ruins saying these, The Lord is good
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to those who hope in him.
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And this is what Jeremiah had pled with the leaders for how many years.
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Just hope in the Lord.
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Turn to the Lord and be saved from this.
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But they wouldn't do it.
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But Jeremiah knows, even in the midst of the ruins, that God is faithful and that those
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who do hope in him or would have hoped in him would have been saved.
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In verse 31, For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
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Though he brings grief, he will show compassion.
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So great is his unfailing love, for he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on
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anyone.
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And I want to put an exclamation point here.
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It's important that we know this.
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God does not willingly bring affliction or grief on anyone.
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It is our sin.
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It is our actions.
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It is our refusal to trust in him, to hope in him, to walk with him, to obey him.
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That's what brings the affliction and the grief into our lives.
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Moving on into Lamentations 4, chapter 4, verse 13, after the prophet describes the
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enemies actually entering, it's like who would have thought that the enemies could
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have entered Jerusalem.
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And he says this, But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities
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of her priests who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
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So Jeremiah knows who's to blame for this destruction.
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He doesn't blame God.
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He blames the sin of the people.
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Now moving on with our story and going to Jeremiah 40 through 44, it tells about during
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this time, of course, even amongst the remnant left in Judah, there's rebellion.
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And there is one of the people that rise up against Getteliah and they have him assassinated
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and they kill 70 of the leaders.
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That's a lot of leaders for just a remnant.
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It probably killed over half of the leaders.
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I mean, this is a devastating blow to the people left there in Jerusalem and in Judah.
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But they are killed.
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And so God tells those who are left when they turn to the Lord, he says, Stay.
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And that he would build them up.
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He said, If you go to Egypt, sword and famine will follow you.
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So what do they do?
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They still have not learned their lesson.
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They still have not learned how to obey the Lord.
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And what do they do?
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They go off to Egypt.
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And what did they do?
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They took Jeremiah with them against his wishes.
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He was the one that had told them, Don't go.
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The Lord will build us up here.
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But no, they take him to Egypt.
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And here in, I believe it's chapter 40, it talks about the Jews that are there throughout
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Egypt and it mentions locations in both Upper Egypt and in Lower Egypt.
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Well, I just point out something interesting.
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You know, we think here as Americans, we think Upper would be North and Lower would be South,
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right?
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Upper Egypt would actually be the North of Egypt, which is along the Mediterranean coast.
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And as you go down the Nile River to the South, to the bottom of Egypt on the map, you would
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think that is Lower Egypt, but actually it is the opposite.
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And the Nile River flows from the South to the North and empties into the Mediterranean.
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And so the South of Egypt is known as Upper Egypt.
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And the North of Egypt is Lower Egypt.
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Not that that matters at all to our story, but just a little interesting piece of information.
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And so Jeremiah begins to prophesy to the Israelites, to the Jews that are in Egypt,
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because he sees that they are very influenced by the paganism of Egypt.
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And he has very strong oracles against Egypt.
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And he predicts the fall of Egypt, and he has oracles against the Jews there and their
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worship of the Queen of Heaven.
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But it says that they continue to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven.
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And I just can't imagine the prophet Jeremiah after all that he's been through, he ends
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his life in Egypt in a foreign land taken there against his will, surrounded once again
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by what?
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Paganism.
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And he's once again called to speak warnings of coming destruction.
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After all these years, wouldn't you think that maybe he'd have a little bit of respite,
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be able to go to his property that he purchased there outside of Jerusalem, and at least
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have his own little vine and his own little vineyard do something to end his life in peace,
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even in the midst of destruction, but no, no, he ends up in Egypt.
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And this is the way his ministry eventually comes to an end.
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We don't know exactly when Jeremiah dies, but most assume that he died in Egypt.
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So then this takes us to our second great prophet of the week, and this is Ezekiel.
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So Ezekiel, who is out in Babylon and is ministering to the exiles there and saw the
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spirit of God leave Jerusalem in a vision.
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Now he begins to move into a series of visions that are about the future and are about restoration.
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And so we read three of them this week.
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So we're reading in Ezekiel chapters 33 through 39.
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And I want to focus on one of them, which is out of Ezekiel 36, because this is a really
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key portion of our prophecies this week that repeats some themes we've talked about in
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previous weeks that I want to bring out to you.
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So looking at Ezekiel 36, I'm not going to read all of it, but from verses 16 actually
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to 32.
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So I'm not going to read all of the verses, but starting here with verse 17, Son of Man,
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when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct
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and their actions.
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And their conduct was like a woman's monthly uncleanness in my sight.
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So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they
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had defiled it with their many idols.
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So I want to point out here, there was a defilement of God's land through both the shedding of
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blood and of idolatry.
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So he says so in verse 19, I dispersed them among the nations and I scattered them through
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the countries and I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.
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And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned my holy name, for it was said
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of them, these are the Lord's people and yet they had to leave his land.
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I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations
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where they had gone.
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Okay, I am going to continue reading every verse.
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So verse 22, it's just so rich.
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Verse 22, therefore say to the Israelites, this is what the sovereign Lord says.
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It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I'm going to do these things.
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But for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you
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have gone, I will show the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the
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nations, the name you have profaned among them.
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Then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the sovereign Lord when I am proved
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holy through you before their eyes.
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Now let's take a break here.
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How is God going to vindicate his name?
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How is he going to prove himself holy?
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How is he going to show the holiness of his great name?
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What is it he is about to do?
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Well we read it in the next verse where he says, because I am going to take you out of
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the nations and I am going to gather you back to your land.
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Let's read it.
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Verse 24, For I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and
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bring you back into your land.
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I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
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I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
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I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
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my laws.
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Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors.
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You will be my people and I will be your God.
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Whoa, let's back up.
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What did we just read?
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We just read three steps that God is going to do that is going to show his holiness to
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the nations.
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It's going to be a vindication of his name.
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And what is that?
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Number one, I am going to take you out of the nations and I am going to gather you from
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all the countries and bring you back to your land.
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That's point number one.
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He's just going to bring them back.
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Then point number two, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
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And he describes here a spiritual cleansing of the people.
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And then he uses that new covenant language.
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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
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He says, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
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my laws.
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Remember we talked last week about this new covenant and that the difference in this new
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covenant is that we would be made clean so that he could place his holy spirit within
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us.
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And that spirit would actually write on our hearts the law.
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It says here we would actually be moved by the holy spirit to be in obedience to his
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law.
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That's the new covenant my friends.
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And then step three here with verse 28, then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors.
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You will be my people and I will be your God.
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So this spiritual restoration through the new covenant is absolutely necessary for the
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people of Israel to be able to remain and live in the land without future exile.
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And so when we look at the modern day return of the Jewish people to their land, I believe
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we are in the days of the fulfillment of this scripture.
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Yes there was an earlier return from Babylon but it was a very limited return.
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Compared to what we have seen in the last 150 years, we have seen a return from over
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150 nations around the world.
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That is phenomenal.
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And we are seeing this physical return of the Jewish people to the land.
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And we know though that there is a next step and that is when the Lord draws his people
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unto himself.
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And there is a day of spiritual restoration and an outpouring of the holy spirit upon
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the nation where they will be now obedient, they will be filled by his holy spirit and
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walking in fellowship with him and therefore they will be a holy people able to remain
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on this holy land.
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These are the days I believe that we are living in.
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We are just still between part one and part two of this verse.
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But there are glorious days ahead for Israel and a day of spiritual renewal.
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That is Ezekiel 36.
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Then we have to mention before we close today Ezekiel 37, this amazing vision that the
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prophet has of the valley of dry bones.
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This I will just let you read it.
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I am not going to read it for you.
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But read it and you are going to see a miraculous restoration of the Jewish people almost like
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life from the dead.
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And not just from the dead, but from being so dead that they are like dried up bones.
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There is nothing left but bones and yet the Lord resurrects them.
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He breathes his spirit into them.
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He brings life, they are covered by flesh and he breathes his life into his people.
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And it says they are like a mighty army.
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And then he says, and no longer are they two nations.
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No more is there Israel and Judah, but they have been twined together as one nation in
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complete unity.
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And then in chapter 37 verses 24 through 28 he describes here that he will then make a
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covenant of peace with them and it will be an everlasting covenant.
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That again my friends is what we just talked about in Ezekiel 36, what we talked about
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last week with that new covenant.
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He is going to bring them back from the land even if it is like raising dead bones up and
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bringing life to them and bringing them back to their land.
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And then he is going to make this covenant of peace with them and it is an everlasting
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covenant.
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They will never be exiled again.
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They will now be his people and he will be their God.
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Now as we close I have to mention of course you are also going to be reading about the
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famous battle of Gog and Magog.
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And I know that you have probably heard different teachings about it.
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You may have major questions.
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What is this all about?
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And I will say that this depiction of a great battle has a lot of symbolism in it.
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No one can say for sure who is Gog and where is Magog and what are these other places and
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how do they relate to today's map.
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I am sorry there are lots of theories but nobody can really know for sure.
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But what we have to do is in situations like this take a step back and look at the overall
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story.
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What are we being told here?
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We are told about a battle by which evil is destroyed forever.
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And yes it is a great battle with great destruction but it is a destruction of evil and it is
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an eternal destruction of evil.
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So that does our reading for this week.
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I hope you enjoy reading through these amazing visions that were given to Ezekiel.
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Take in Ezekiel 36.
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Read it over.
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Mark it in your Bible.
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I think it really describes the days that we are in and what we can be looking forward
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to in the future.
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So I will see you back here next week and until then, 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 wherever
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you like to listen and learn.
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Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJUSA, All Rights Reserved.
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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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00:00:15,140 --> 00:00:16,140
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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This is week 35 of our year-long Walk Through the Bible.
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We're getting closer and closer to week 52 when we will have accomplished our year-long
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reading through the Bible.
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So I just want to congratulate you.
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You're doing a great job.
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You're hanging in there with me.
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And at the end of the year, you are going to feel so proud of yourself for having made
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it through the Bible.
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I know that there's a lot of history and we're sort of deep into the prophetic books and
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it seems like our story is moving a little slow.
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But please stick with me and I'm going to bring out some interesting things this week
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that might not be evident from your reading.
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You know, our purpose in this Walk Through the Bible is number one, we want you to understand
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the story that's being told behind all the little stories so that as you may get detracted
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by a lot of detail, a lot of little incidents that we keep reminding you of that big story.
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And then secondly is to also bring out things that just highlight how true and how accurate
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the Bible is and how faithful our God is to the Bible.
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It is His Word and He is faithful to it and committed to it.
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So with that in mind, let's talk about what we read last week and as a review before we
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began this week.
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So last week we began the siege of Jerusalem and this week, I'm sorry to say, but it's
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all over for Jerusalem and Judah.
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Now the Lord gives a word to Jeremiah for the king Zedekiah and he tells him the Babylonians
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are going to take over Jerusalem, but that he would be saved and in this passage, Jeremiah
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mentions or two other cities that are still free and have not yet fallen to the Babylonians.
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So I want to read this to you and it is found in Jeremiah 34 verses 6 through 7.
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Then Jeremiah the prophet told all of this to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem.
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While the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of
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Judah that were still holding out, Lachish and Ezekiah, these were the only fortified
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cities left in Judah.
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Now why do I bring this out?
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Because of the archaeological evidence found in the city of Lachish that really substantiates
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our story and that the city fell in the same year that the city of Jerusalem fell.
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So it was one of two cities still holding out and at Lachish they found in the city gates
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a pod shirt with a letter written on it.
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Now you know letters were not written on paper or papyrus, but they were written on pieces
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of clay and these letters were, they weren't very private because it was written on a piece
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of clay.
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It's not like a piece of paper you could fold up and stick in your pocket and it would
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be private.
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But they found letters at Lachish and they call these letters Ostrichah and because the
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Ostrichah means a piece of clay, a pod shirt that has a letter written on it.
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And in one of the Ostrichah found in the gate of Lachish it says this, We are watching the
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signals, meaning fire signals, of Lachish according to the code which my Lord gave us,
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for we cannot see Ezekiah.
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So here a letter from somewhere is being sent to Lachish and it's saying we see your signals,
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but we no longer see signals from Ezekiah.
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And of course in the scripture in Jeremiah they were the two last remaining cities.
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So it could be this letter was written right after that when Ezekiah had already fallen.
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And in Jeremiah 38 we have another interesting story here where it names several officials
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and how that they had Jeremiah arrested and that they lowered him down into a pit that
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was used to hold water and now it just had mud and it said that he was lowered down into
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and sunk into the mud at the bottom of this pit.
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Well in the first verse of chapter 38 it lists these officials and it lists their names.
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It is Shafetia son of Matan, Gatelliah son of Pasur, Yehukal son of Shlamia and Pasur
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son of Melchizedek.
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Now I'm sure that I didn't pronounce those correctly, but it's four officials and it
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says that they are each the son of a certain name.
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So the four officials Shafetia, Gatelliah, Yehukal and Shlamia.
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Now what is so interesting is that just in the last ten years in the old ancient city
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of Jerusalem they have found the seals of two out of four of these officials listed
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in Jeremiah 38 verse one and they have found seals for Gatelliah, the son of Pasur and
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Yehukal son of Shlamia or Shlamia.
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Now remember these seals are called Abullah and the Abullah is inscribed on clay.
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Usually these were clay seals, but it can also be inscribed on some kind of metal orwax
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and there was a way of putting a person's name on a commercial or legal document of
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some form, some form of authentication.
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This is their official seal and these seals have survived because the fire in the destruction
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of cities would actually harden the clay that many of them were written on.
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So they found these two seals.
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They found one, I think it was in, I hate to name the years, but they were two years
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apart.
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They found the two seals within meters of each other, but it took two years before they
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found the second one and here they were, not only two amazing seals and not only found
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very close to each other, but of two men whose names appeared back to back in Jeremiah 38
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verse one.
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I just think that stuff is exciting and it really shows how that we can trust our Bible
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account is telling us very real stories about very real people.
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Now in Jeremiah 38 it goes on to tell the story of how the king Zedekiah was given the
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last chance to save Jerusalem.
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And I wanted to point this out because I want you to know God's will was not to destroy
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Jerusalem or the temple, it wasn't to take his people into exile.
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That's not what he wanted at all and that's why he warned them over and over and he pled
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with them.
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And here at the very last minute he gives King Zedekiah one last chance to save Jerusalem.
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The prophet Jeremiah, actually the king summons Jeremiah in secret, he doesn't want anyone
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to know that he's turned to Jeremiah to know what the Lord is saying.
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And so in here Jeremiah tells him to surrender and Jerusalem will be spared.
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But if you don't surrender Jerusalem will burn and you will be captured.
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Now God had promised Zedekiah that he wouldn't die but it's very clear here he will be captured.
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So he will be taken into captivity.
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And Zedekiah is afraid and then he threatens Jeremiah not to tell anyone that he had summoned
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Jeremiah or what Jeremiah had told him lest he have Jeremiah killed.
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So that was the last chance he did not heed the warning and so right after this we read
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about the Babylonians break through the walls of Jerusalem, it is all over.
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They set fire to the temple, they set fire to the palace and they set fire to houses
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all throughout the city of Jerusalem.
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They also carry away the treasures out of the temple and out of the palace and they
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take many of the leaders and the men off and the ones that they leave behind it specifically
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says the poor people and they're left behind.
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And these exiles they're taking captivity and they are going to serve Babylon until
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Babylon is no more and Persia takes over.
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So until the end of the 70 years that Jeremiah had already prophesied and had already predicted
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would be the length of the exile, would be the length of the destruction of Jerusalem.
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Now there is lots of archaeological evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
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There is a lot of charcoal within the archaeological findings there in Jerusalem.
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They know when the city was burned there's just a lot of evidence to this happening and
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when it took place.
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Now the Babylonians put Getaliah as governor over Jerusalem.
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Of course he's a puppet governor.
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He is controlled by them, he is loyal to them, but nevertheless he is put over the affairs
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of Jerusalem.
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And Jeremiah who was already bound by chains with the rest of the exiles, he was about
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to be taken away by the Babylonians.
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When the king said that he was to not be taken, he was to be allowed to be free and so they
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turned him over to Getaliah.
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Now the scripture didn't really explain why, but I think it's pretty clear.
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They know that it was Jeremiah that was warning the king to surrender.
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They saw him as someone maybe on their side, of course Jeremiah was never on the Babylonian
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side, but they knew that of his message, they knew what he had tried to do.
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And so they allowed him to live.
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So here's Jeremiah, our very lonely prophet who has been preaching now for how many years,
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mourning them of this day.
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And he's sitting there in the ashes of Jerusalem, mourning the loss of the city.
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And so Jeremiah writes what we call today the Book of Lamentations.
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The prophet Jeremiah, you may have read this somewhere, that he's known as by theologians
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and Bible teachers.
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He's known as the weeping prophet.
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And that's because in his book, in Jeremiah 13-17, he talks about his tears of mourning.
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And he describes God's tears in chapter 9.
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So then when he writes the Book of Lamentations, I mean what a moving set of poems.
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Lamentations is actually a set of five poems.
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Each chapter is a separate poem.
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And it is lamenting and mourning the loss of Jerusalem, the loss of the temple, the loss
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of their freedom and their independence, the loss of the presence of God.
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And in chapter 1, verse 16, the prophet Jeremiah, who we believe is the writer of this book,
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says, This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
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And in chapter 2, verse 7, he says that the Lord has abandoned his sanctuary.
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Remember last week I talked about how that Ezekiel saw by vision the spirit of God, the
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presence of God, abandoned the temple and abandoned the city of Jerusalem.
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And he left, which of course left it open for destruction.
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And Jeremiah here laments that God has abandoned his sanctuary.
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And then in chapter 2, 11, he says, My eyes fail from weeping.
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But by chapter 3, he breaks into an acknowledgement of God's faithfulness.
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And it's a beautiful turn in such a sad book of lamentations.
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And in chapter 3, 22, he says, Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed.
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For his compassion never fail.
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They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness.
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How many times have we sung that verse or have repeated that verse?
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Great is that faithfulness.
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Oh Lord, your mercies are new every morning.
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Your compassion they fail not.
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Now that you hear it within its context, this is Jeremiah sitting in the midst of a destroyed
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city, probably covered with the ashes of the city.
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And yet he says, Because of your goodness, God, we are not consumed.
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Jeremiah still lives.
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There is still a remnant in the holy city.
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And he says, For your compassion never fail.
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They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness.
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Just three verses later, verse 25.
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The Lord is good to those who hope in him.
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To the one who seeks him.
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It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
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Maybe just picture the prophet sitting there in the ruins saying these, The Lord is good
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to those who hope in him.
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And this is what Jeremiah had pled with the leaders for how many years.
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Just hope in the Lord.
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Turn to the Lord and be saved from this.
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But they wouldn't do it.
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But Jeremiah knows, even in the midst of the ruins, that God is faithful and that those
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who do hope in him or would have hoped in him would have been saved.
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In verse 31, For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
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Though he brings grief, he will show compassion.
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So great is his unfailing love, for he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on
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anyone.
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And I want to put an exclamation point here.
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It's important that we know this.
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God does not willingly bring affliction or grief on anyone.
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It is our sin.
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It is our actions.
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It is our refusal to trust in him, to hope in him, to walk with him, to obey him.
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That's what brings the affliction and the grief into our lives.
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Moving on into Lamentations 4, chapter 4, verse 13, after the prophet describes the
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enemies actually entering, it's like who would have thought that the enemies could
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have entered Jerusalem.
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And he says this, But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities
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of her priests who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
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So Jeremiah knows who's to blame for this destruction.
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He doesn't blame God.
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He blames the sin of the people.
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Now moving on with our story and going to Jeremiah 40 through 44, it tells about during
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this time, of course, even amongst the remnant left in Judah, there's rebellion.
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And there is one of the people that rise up against Getteliah and they have him assassinated
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and they kill 70 of the leaders.
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That's a lot of leaders for just a remnant.
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It probably killed over half of the leaders.
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I mean, this is a devastating blow to the people left there in Jerusalem and in Judah.
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But they are killed.
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And so God tells those who are left when they turn to the Lord, he says, Stay.
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And that he would build them up.
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He said, If you go to Egypt, sword and famine will follow you.
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So what do they do?
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They still have not learned their lesson.
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They still have not learned how to obey the Lord.
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And what do they do?
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They go off to Egypt.
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And what did they do?
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They took Jeremiah with them against his wishes.
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He was the one that had told them, Don't go.
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The Lord will build us up here.
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But no, they take him to Egypt.
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And here in, I believe it's chapter 40, it talks about the Jews that are there throughout
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Egypt and it mentions locations in both Upper Egypt and in Lower Egypt.
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Well, I just point out something interesting.
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You know, we think here as Americans, we think Upper would be North and Lower would be South,
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right?
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Upper Egypt would actually be the North of Egypt, which is along the Mediterranean coast.
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And as you go down the Nile River to the South, to the bottom of Egypt on the map, you would
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think that is Lower Egypt, but actually it is the opposite.
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And the Nile River flows from the South to the North and empties into the Mediterranean.
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And so the South of Egypt is known as Upper Egypt.
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And the North of Egypt is Lower Egypt.
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Not that that matters at all to our story, but just a little interesting piece of information.
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And so Jeremiah begins to prophesy to the Israelites, to the Jews that are in Egypt,
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because he sees that they are very influenced by the paganism of Egypt.
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And he has very strong oracles against Egypt.
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And he predicts the fall of Egypt, and he has oracles against the Jews there and their
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worship of the Queen of Heaven.
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But it says that they continue to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven.
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And I just can't imagine the prophet Jeremiah after all that he's been through, he ends
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his life in Egypt in a foreign land taken there against his will, surrounded once again
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by what?
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Paganism.
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And he's once again called to speak warnings of coming destruction.
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After all these years, wouldn't you think that maybe he'd have a little bit of respite,
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be able to go to his property that he purchased there outside of Jerusalem, and at least
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have his own little vine and his own little vineyard do something to end his life in peace,
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even in the midst of destruction, but no, no, he ends up in Egypt.
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And this is the way his ministry eventually comes to an end.
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We don't know exactly when Jeremiah dies, but most assume that he died in Egypt.
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So then this takes us to our second great prophet of the week, and this is Ezekiel.
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So Ezekiel, who is out in Babylon and is ministering to the exiles there and saw the
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spirit of God leave Jerusalem in a vision.
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Now he begins to move into a series of visions that are about the future and are about restoration.
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And so we read three of them this week.
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So we're reading in Ezekiel chapters 33 through 39.
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And I want to focus on one of them, which is out of Ezekiel 36, because this is a really
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key portion of our prophecies this week that repeats some themes we've talked about in
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previous weeks that I want to bring out to you.
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So looking at Ezekiel 36, I'm not going to read all of it, but from verses 16 actually
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to 32.
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So I'm not going to read all of the verses, but starting here with verse 17, Son of Man,
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when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct
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and their actions.
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And their conduct was like a woman's monthly uncleanness in my sight.
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So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they
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had defiled it with their many idols.
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So I want to point out here, there was a defilement of God's land through both the shedding of
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blood and of idolatry.
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So he says so in verse 19, I dispersed them among the nations and I scattered them through
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the countries and I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.
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And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned my holy name, for it was said
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of them, these are the Lord's people and yet they had to leave his land.
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I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations
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where they had gone.
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Okay, I am going to continue reading every verse.
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So verse 22, it's just so rich.
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Verse 22, therefore say to the Israelites, this is what the sovereign Lord says.
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It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I'm going to do these things.
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But for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you
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have gone, I will show the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the
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nations, the name you have profaned among them.
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Then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the sovereign Lord when I am proved
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holy through you before their eyes.
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Now let's take a break here.
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How is God going to vindicate his name?
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How is he going to prove himself holy?
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How is he going to show the holiness of his great name?
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What is it he is about to do?
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Well we read it in the next verse where he says, because I am going to take you out of
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the nations and I am going to gather you back to your land.
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Let's read it.
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Verse 24, For I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and
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bring you back into your land.
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I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
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I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
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I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
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my laws.
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Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors.
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You will be my people and I will be your God.
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Whoa, let's back up.
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What did we just read?
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We just read three steps that God is going to do that is going to show his holiness to
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the nations.
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It's going to be a vindication of his name.
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And what is that?
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Number one, I am going to take you out of the nations and I am going to gather you from
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all the countries and bring you back to your land.
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That's point number one.
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He's just going to bring them back.
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Then point number two, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
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And he describes here a spiritual cleansing of the people.
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And then he uses that new covenant language.
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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
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He says, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
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my laws.
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Remember we talked last week about this new covenant and that the difference in this new
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covenant is that we would be made clean so that he could place his holy spirit within
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us.
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And that spirit would actually write on our hearts the law.
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It says here we would actually be moved by the holy spirit to be in obedience to his
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law.
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That's the new covenant my friends.
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And then step three here with verse 28, then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors.
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You will be my people and I will be your God.
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So this spiritual restoration through the new covenant is absolutely necessary for the
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people of Israel to be able to remain and live in the land without future exile.
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And so when we look at the modern day return of the Jewish people to their land, I believe
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we are in the days of the fulfillment of this scripture.
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Yes there was an earlier return from Babylon but it was a very limited return.
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Compared to what we have seen in the last 150 years, we have seen a return from over
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150 nations around the world.
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That is phenomenal.
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And we are seeing this physical return of the Jewish people to the land.
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And we know though that there is a next step and that is when the Lord draws his people
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unto himself.
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And there is a day of spiritual restoration and an outpouring of the holy spirit upon
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the nation where they will be now obedient, they will be filled by his holy spirit and
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walking in fellowship with him and therefore they will be a holy people able to remain
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on this holy land.
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These are the days I believe that we are living in.
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We are just still between part one and part two of this verse.
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But there are glorious days ahead for Israel and a day of spiritual renewal.
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That is Ezekiel 36.
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Then we have to mention before we close today Ezekiel 37, this amazing vision that the
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prophet has of the valley of dry bones.
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This I will just let you read it.
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I am not going to read it for you.
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But read it and you are going to see a miraculous restoration of the Jewish people almost like
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life from the dead.
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And not just from the dead, but from being so dead that they are like dried up bones.
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There is nothing left but bones and yet the Lord resurrects them.
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He breathes his spirit into them.
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He brings life, they are covered by flesh and he breathes his life into his people.
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And it says they are like a mighty army.
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And then he says, and no longer are they two nations.
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No more is there Israel and Judah, but they have been twined together as one nation in
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complete unity.
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And then in chapter 37 verses 24 through 28 he describes here that he will then make a
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covenant of peace with them and it will be an everlasting covenant.
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That again my friends is what we just talked about in Ezekiel 36, what we talked about
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last week with that new covenant.
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He is going to bring them back from the land even if it is like raising dead bones up and
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bringing life to them and bringing them back to their land.
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And then he is going to make this covenant of peace with them and it is an everlasting
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covenant.
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They will never be exiled again.
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They will now be his people and he will be their God.
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Now as we close I have to mention of course you are also going to be reading about the
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famous battle of Gog and Magog.
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And I know that you have probably heard different teachings about it.
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You may have major questions.
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What is this all about?
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And I will say that this depiction of a great battle has a lot of symbolism in it.
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No one can say for sure who is Gog and where is Magog and what are these other places and
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how do they relate to today's map.
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I am sorry there are lots of theories but nobody can really know for sure.
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But what we have to do is in situations like this take a step back and look at the overall
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story.
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What are we being told here?
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We are told about a battle by which evil is destroyed forever.
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And yes it is a great battle with great destruction but it is a destruction of evil and it is
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an eternal destruction of evil.
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So that does our reading for this week.
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I hope you enjoy reading through these amazing visions that were given to Ezekiel.
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Take in Ezekiel 36.
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Read it over.
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Mark it in your Bible.
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I think it really describes the days that we are in and what we can be looking forward
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to in the future.
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So I will see you back here next week and until then, 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 wherever
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you like to listen and learn.
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Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJUSA, All Rights Reserved.
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