Jeremiah's Lonely Call as Prophet (Walk Thru the Bible Week 30)

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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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Hey there, and welcome back.

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This is Walk Through the Bible Week Number 30.

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We're talking today about our reading this week, which is for In the Daily Bible, the

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dates of July 23rd through the 29th, or pages 934 to 963.

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I just want to say, first of all, if some of you have fallen behind, it's okay.

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We all fall behind at times.

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I've been known to do a whole month's reading on one Saturday.

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So don't worry.

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Life happens.

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These things just, it just happens.

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So you have a choice.

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Just continue listening to the weekly podcast and following that way until you can start

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reading again.

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Or of course, you can go back and read at a time and listen later.

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It's up to you.

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But I'd really encourage you just to keep listening each week and let that take the place of your

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reading until you can start reading again.

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So let's review where we were last week.

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Last week we had Manasseh, who was the most evil king in Judah's history.

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And as a result, God allowed him to be hauled off to Babylon, where the Assyrians showed

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him how strong they were.

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And he was humbled.

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He repented.

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He called out to the Lord and he was miraculously allowed to come back to Judah.

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Of course, now he's a puppet king to Assyria.

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But nevertheless, he was allowed to continue his life and he got right with the Lord.

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It's a wonderful turnaround story and it's a great story of God's forgiveness for those

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who repent no matter how bad they were, no matter how bad their sins were.

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We also read last week about the prophet Nahum, who prophesied that Assyria was going to fall.

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Now just imagine Assyria is 300 years old.

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And to have a prophecy like that, that the almighty Assyrian empire that's 300 years

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old is going to fall.

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But sure enough, we're going to hear about that later, I think next week, when we talk

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about Assyria.

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So this week, now we're going to continue the story of Manasseh, the great king that

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turns around his life, dies.

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And his son, Ammon becomes king and his son is so evil that they killed him right away.

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And so the next son of Manasseh, Josiah, becomes king as a eight-year-old child.

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Now 2 Kings 23 verses 25 through 26, sort of wrap it up about Josiah.

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So let me read it for you.

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Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as

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he did with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength in accordance

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with all the law of Moses.

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Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger which burned

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against Judah because of all that that Manasseh had done.

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So Josiah, even at eight years old, he is obviously influenced by the preaching of Zephaniah

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as well as Jeremiah and it produces a very godly king once he is old enough to actually

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begin making decisions for himself.

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So let's look now at the prophet Zephaniah and what he was preaching at this time.

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You know, King Josiah is a child.

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So it seems like God raises up another descendant of King Hezekiah to preach spiritually to

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the nation knowing that Josiah the child king wasn't able to do that.

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And he warns of coming judgment, of course, against the immorality and the injustice and

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the pagan idolatry.

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And central to the theme of Zephaniah is about the quote, the day of the Lord.

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Now the day of the Lord is an interesting concept here because it has a very immediate

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concept that the day of the Lord is coming for Judah and it's going to come soon, where

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Judah is going to suffer judgment for her sins.

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But secondly, that there's a coming day of the Lord for the nations after that where

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they will be judged because of their treatment of his people.

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And then thirdly, there is a future day of the Lord in which all of the wicked will be

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judged.

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Each time that the prophet describes these days of the Lord, he also says that God will

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save his faithful remnant.

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So what is the day of the Lord?

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Well first of all, Zephaniah kind of defines it you could say in chapter 2.

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The day of the Lord, it's here and it's a day of wrath.

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In chapter 2 verse 3 he says this, seek the Lord, are you humble in the land, you who

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do what he commands, seek righteousness, seek humility, because you will be sheltered

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on the day of the Lord's anger.

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Now speaking to you and me today in the 21st century, if you struggle with God's anger

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against idolatry and their rejection of him, know that first he told them how to avoid

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it and that his grace and his mercy were always there for those who would repent as Zephaniah

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here says, seek the Lord, you humble, seek righteousness and seek humility and perhaps

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you'll be sheltered in the day of the Lord's anger.

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Now moving on in chapter 3 Zephaniah then begins to list Judas sends.

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She's an oppressor, she's rebellious and she's defiled.

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Here in 3 7 it says, O Jerusalem, I thought surely you will fear me and accept correction.

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Then her place of refuge would not be destroyed, nor all my punishments come upon her, but

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they were still eager to act correctly in all that they did.

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So the Lord here is saying, Jerusalem, I thought better of you.

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I thought that you would want to obey me and escape this, but you didn't.

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And then Zephaniah ends here with hope and once again the plans of God to one day restore

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his people.

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So in chapter 3 verses 18 through 20 it says that God will remove the bad influencers and

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he's going to deal with their oppressors and then he's going to rescue them and gather

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them back home.

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And in verse 17 it says, the Lord your God is with you, he will take great delight in

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you.

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In his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

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That's the prophet saying this is what's going to happen, this is what God is going

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to do.

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He will rejoice over you with singing.

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And then the Lord himself gets in the last word here in verse 20 and he says, I will

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gather you, I will bring you home when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes.

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So that is the book of Zephaniah, one of judgment and warning of the day of the Lord, but ends

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with those beautiful verses of hope.

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Now let's get back to our story of Josiah.

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Josiah now is getting older and I think he's probably heard some of the preaching of Zephaniah.

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He's learned about the sins of the past and so he begins to purge Judah and Jerusalem

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of the idolatry.

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And at the age of 18 I believe he begins cleaning the temple and destroying paganism.

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We're going to talk more about that next week where we get into more detail about Josiah's

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reforms, but they began here at this point in our story.

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And now I want to talk about the prophet Jeremiah.

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You know, Zephaniah may have actually mentored Jeremiah and Hulta, the prophetess that we

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hear about later, was a relative of Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah was a priest in Jerusalem and his prophecies are actually referred to in the

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books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel.

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Jeremiah was a really amazing prophet and his ministry spanned almost 50 years throughout

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the reigns of five kings of Judah.

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And this is why we're going to be talking about Jeremiah over the next five weeks because

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there's so much history that he witnessed and that he spoke into and that he is a part

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of.

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Now the book of Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible if you look at the number of

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words in that book.

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33,000 words in the book of Jeremiah.

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It's longer than Isaiah.

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It is longer than the book of Psalms.

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It's a magnificent book.

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During his preaching of 50 years, the Assyrian Empire is weakening and Babylon is rising.

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And the book of Jeremiah, I just want to be clear, it's not all prophecies, although

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I would say it is all prophetic, but it's made up of oracles and addresses and also

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prayers of Jeremiah.

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We're going to hear Jeremiah as he prays to the Lord and speaks to the Lord and we're

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going to get to know his personality a bit more than we have and will of other of the

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prophets.

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The book of Jeremiah is not arranged in any order either topically or chronologically.

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And so for this reason, I'm so grateful for the daily Bible and for our reading guide

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that's going to help us walk through Jeremiah chronologically looking at the story.

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Now the book of Jeremiah begins with his call, which took place around 626 BC.

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He was a young man, but we don't know his age.

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But I want to make a note here.

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He was called to be a prophet, as was Isaiah.

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You're not trained up to be a prophet.

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You are called of God to be a prophet.

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And that's why often they were reluctant.

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They felt inadequate.

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We saw that in Isaiah and we're going to definitely see that here in Jeremiah.

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I want to quote to you from the editorial in the daily Bible.

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I thought it just really described it so well.

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It's as in fairness to Jeremiah, he may have had good reason to be reluctant.

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At the time of his call, he still a youth, though his exact age is not known.

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And had he known exactly how much opposition, persecution, and personal rejection he would

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face over the next 50 years, he probably would have tried to escape his calling just as Jonah

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did.

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Jeremiah was called to prophesy for almost 50 years and never was he really received.

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He had no following.

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He had few friends.

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He had a secretary named Baruch that wrote down what he said, but he was paid.

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It was a very lonely life.

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God told Jeremiah not to marry, not to have children, not to go to feast, not even to

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go mourn the dead.

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It was a very, very hard and lonely calling that Jeremiah had.

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So today I want to talk about two things that we're reading about this week in Jeremiah

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as I think we're reading through Jeremiah 1 through 9.

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First is his calling that we read about in Jeremiah 1.

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And then we're going to talk about what's known as his temple sermon.

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But let's start with his calling.

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So chapter 1 tells us the year that he was called into his ministry and that his ministry

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lasted until Judah went into exile.

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And his ministry actually lasted a few years beyond that.

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So it was about 47 years of his ministry.

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So verses 4 through 5.

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The word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

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Before you were born, I set you apart.

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I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

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And then we read Jeremiah's response in the next verse.

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Alas, sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak.

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I am too young.

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And so the Lord responds in the next verse, But the Lord said to me, Do not say I am too

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young.

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You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.

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Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord.

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Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, I have put my words

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in your mouth.

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See today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow,

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to build and to plant.

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Then the Lord gives Jeremiah two visions.

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So the word of the Lord came to me, What do you see Jeremiah?

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I see the branch of an almond tree, I replied.

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The Lord said to me, You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.

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This vision was a play on words, because the word for almond is shakad, which comes from

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the root shakad, which is the word for watching.

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So the Lord was doing a play on words here, but also it's quite profound because the almond

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tree is the first tree to blossom very, very early in the spring.

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And so it's a harbinger that the spring is coming.

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So you would watch the almond tree to see when does it blossom, because when it blossoms

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that means that the spring is coming, that a new season is here.

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So the Lord says, I am watching, I am watching to fulfill my word.

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So the timing is critical here.

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Now continuing on then in verse 13, the word of the Lord came to me again.

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What do you see?

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I see a pot that is boiling, I answered.

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It is tilting toward us from the north.

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The Lord said to me, From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the

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land.

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I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms, declares the Lord.

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Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem.

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They will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah.

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I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me,

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in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands had made.

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Now the meaning of this vision was very simple, that Jeremiah, the judgment is coming from

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the north.

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That meant Assyria and her coalition or alliance of nations.

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Now in the end it is Babylon that comes, but Babylon is taken over Assyria and comes from

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the north.

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So Jeremiah knew that at least it was not going to come from Egypt in the south.

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It was going to come from the north.

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And as he watched Assyria fall and Babylon become the main empire of the north, this

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was definitely carried out.

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So God's final word to Jeremiah in this calling starts with verse 17.

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Get yourself ready, stand up and say to them, Whatever I command you, do not be terrified

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by them, or I will terrify you before them.

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Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against

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the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people

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of the land.

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They will fight against you, but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue

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you, declares the Lord.

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Wow!

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What an encouraging word.

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Here to stand up against the whole land.

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They're all going to fight against you.

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That is the calling of Jeremiah.

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And I wanted you to have it in mind as you begin now to go through the book of Jeremiah.

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He is speaking in opposition to everyone around him.

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It's a very hard calling, but God has told him, I will rescue you.

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Now in Jeremiah 2, the Lord lists here that my people have committed two sins.

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One they have forsaken me the spring of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns,

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cisterns that are broken and will not even hold water.

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So the Lord uses such picture words here through Jeremiah and to Jeremiah and in Jeremiah.

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So profound.

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I am the spring of living water who they've rejected and they've gone and worked, worked,

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worked to build cisterns that are broken.

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They're not going to hold any water whatsoever.

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In Jeremiah 3, verses 19, it says, How gladly would I treat you like my children and give

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you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.

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I thought you would call me father and not turn away from following me.

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But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you Israel have been unfaithful to me,

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declares the Lord, Return faithless people, and I will cure you of your backsliding.

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This is God's heart for his people.

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You have rejected me as an unfaithful wife.

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Please return, please return, and I will cure you.

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I will heal you.

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This is the Lord's heart for his people.

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Now I also want to talk about Jeremiah's temple sermons.

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So one of the very hard things that God told Jeremiah to do was to go stand at the entrance

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of the temple and to prophesy, of course, against them.

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So why the temple?

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Well, they were using the temple almost as a lucky charm.

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Now think about this for a minute.

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The people of Judah had seen the kingdom of Israel in the north fall to the Assyrians.

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But yet they had had this amazing miraculous deliverance under King Hezekiah.

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The angel of the Lord had gone out and smote the Assyrians.

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And Judah, Jerusalem had been saved.

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So they're thinking to themselves, well, it's because of the temple and because of

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the God that we worship in the temple.

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But at the same time, they were out worshiping the idols and the pagan gods.

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And they were going on to the hilltops and down in the valley.

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And they were doing all these detestable things.

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But then they'd go to the temple to worship the God of Israel.

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And it was kind of like a lucky charm.

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This was going to keep us safe.

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And as long as the temples here were safe, we can do whatever we want to.

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And so Jeremiah goes and stands in front of the temple and says, don't say to me the temple,

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the temple, the temple, because it's not going to protect you in the end.

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And it's very interesting in here in Jeremiah 7.

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He says to them, you have made this house of mine a den of robbers.

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Does that sound familiar?

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Jesus uses that term later on when he himself stands in front of the temple.

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And he calls it a den of robbers.

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And here Jeremiah tells them the temple will be destroyed.

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In verse 32, there's something very interesting I want to point out here.

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It mentions how that they were going to the high places of Topheth in the valley of Ben

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Hinnom, or Ben Hinnom in Hebrew, to burn their sons and daughters.

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And the Lord tells them it will be called the valley of slaughter, for they're going

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to bury their dead there.

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And God was cursing that evil place, the valley of Ben Hinnom.

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And I want to talk about this.

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The valley of Hinnom is where, do you know, I've talked to you about the key-drone valley.

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Well, the key-drone valley goes north and south on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

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And it separates the Mount of Olives from the Temple Mount and where the city of David

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was.

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So that's the key-drone valley.

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It goes all along there.

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Well, when it gets to the end of the city of David, it meets another valley that goes

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off to the northwest.

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And that's the Hinnom Valley.

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Well, here in the scripture, it's called, or in the Old Testament, it was called the

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valley of Ben Hinnom, which means the valley of the children of Hinnom.

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But then it became shortened to the valley of Hinnom.

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And in Hebrew, that was guy Hinnom.

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And so guy meant valley.

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It meant sort of a narrow valley, not a big, long, broad, huge valley, but a more narrow

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valley.

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And then Hinnom was the name of the valley.

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This became then in the New Testament, where you have the influence of Aramaic and then,

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of course, Greek.

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Guy Hinnom became gehenna.

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So in Jesus always referred to gehenna as a place of burning, a place where evil was

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and where evil would go.

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Well, in the valley of Hinnom, they went there to worship at Topheth, which they think means

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like an oven.

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And that's where they worshiped the god, Moloch, and they actually conducted child sacrifice

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in the ovens there.

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So it was a place of burning.

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It was a place of evil.

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And it was a place of idolatry of worshiping this detestable god, Moloch.

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So by the New Testament times, that's over.

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There's no worship of Moloch there, but it had become a place of refuse.

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It was the garbage dump.

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And so things were thrown out there.

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There was still burning there.

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It was an awful, horrible place.

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And so gehenna was this place of burning, an evil, dirty place that you wouldn't want

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to go to.

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It's very, very interesting in the New Testament when Judas went to hang himself.

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The field of blood is thought to have been right there near the valley of Hinnom.

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And so his place would have been the place of evil, where evil was paid for.

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And where God had told them it's going to be a valley of slaughter and that the birds

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would be there for the Caucasus.

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And more than likely, the birds were there for Judas' carcass because it said that his

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carcass was spread out all over.

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So interesting little piece of history there.

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So hey, I think that that's enough for today.

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You're going to be reading through Jeremiah 9 this week.

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So you're going to see some of these themes repeated throughout there.

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And so I'm going to sign off for this week and wish you God's blessings as you read through

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His Word, the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zephaniah.

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And until next week.

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I pray the Lord bless you and the reading of His Word.

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See you back here next week.

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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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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.