Jerusalem, the City of David (Walk Thru the Bible Week 14)

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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 to Walk Through the Bible.

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We are so excited to be beginning the second quarter of our study.

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Can you believe it?

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It's already time for the second quarter and we are welcoming some newcomers that have

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decided to join us and to begin reading with us from today.

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So hopefully you have downloaded your second quarter reading guide and I highly recommend

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that you get the daily Bible if at all possible.

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It's just a very, very easy to read format.

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They've done all the work for you.

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It's already in order.

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It's divided up into 365 daily readings and at the beginning of each reading is a little

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summary of what you're about to read.

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And so it really helps you to understand what you're reading and then of course our time

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together here each week I will bring out even more nuggets from your daily reading.

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So welcome to all of our newcomers.

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This week we are covering what's in the daily Bible, pages 416 through 448 or the dates of

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April the 2nd through the 8th.

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Now we have, I want to give a little review of the first quarter and then a review of last

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week.

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In the first quarter we have read an amazing story of the God, the Creator of the universe

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who decided to create man and then saw that man fall deep into sin and so he had a plan

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from all eternity of how to redeem mankind and he began that plan by choosing one man

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named Abram and he promised Abram three things.

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He said, if you'll follow me to a land that I will show you, I will make you a great nation.

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I will give you that land and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

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And we read the story of how God actually has fulfilled the first two promises.

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First he gave Abram a miracle son and from that son Isaac the lineage began.

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The family ended up in slavery in Egypt but because of his promises to Abraham God moved

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and he saved his children from slavery.

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He brought them out of Egypt in such a miraculous way the Jewish people today are still celebrating

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that miraculous exodus from Egypt.

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He met with them in the desert after he had freed them from Egypt and he began to reveal

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himself to his people and he proposed marriage and he said that if you will obey my commandments,

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if you will obey this covenant with me, you will be my treasured possession above all

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the peoples of the earth.

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You will be blessed and the people said we will.

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Now the funny thing is God knew his people would fall short.

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He knew they would fall into sin and he actually gave Moses a song about his people falling

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away from him.

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He knew it all along, he wasn't called by surprise or off guard but he knew that he

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was getting into place his redemptive plan to pay the price to redeem mankind.

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And so we now pick up the story.

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They have entered the promised land.

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They have fallen deep into apostasy and away from their God and he would raise up judges

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to help free them and finally they cried out and they said we want a king.

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Now God had been their king all along.

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He was their king and here when they called for a human king they said we want to be like

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all the other nations, we want a king.

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It actually offended God because he knew they were far better under his kingship.

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But God had a plan in place that one day he was going to give them a king.

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And so he went ahead and he initiated the plan.

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And the first king he put into place was King Saul and Saul did not have a heart after the

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Lord.

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He rebelled against God and he did not repent and come to God for forgiveness.

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So the Lord rejected Saul and he put into place David.

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And in our last week, our last session we read about how that while Saul was king he

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was being tormented by these Philistines.

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And so David who was a young man at the time and very, very adept with the sling which

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is actually used in warfare.

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It's not a child's toy, it was deadly.

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And he was very good at it.

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And so he slew Goliath and this made David famous throughout all of Israel and it made

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Saul very, very jealous.

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Even Saul's son, Jonathan, recognized God's favor that was upon David and he knew that

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he was going to be the next king.

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Jonathan would not be taking over the seat of his father but David would.

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And so Saul exhibited his jealousy and his hatred of David by crafting a plan to kill

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him.

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And that's when Jonathan realized that he needed to help David as he could.

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And so he tipped him off and David goes running into the wilderness.

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And we start this week's reading in the middle of this story.

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David is on the run.

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He's running from Saul.

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He's running for his life and he's pleading to God.

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And we have some really special Psalms that David wrote during this time.

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Now remember, David is a musician.

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He played the harp.

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He had been a shepherd as a young man and I'm sure that he sat out on the hills looking

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out over the sheep playing songs.

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And he learned how to worship the Lord.

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And so he began to write songs which we call Psalms.

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But the Psalms are songs.

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They were sung.

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We just have lost the tune.

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We don't know the tune that they were played to.

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But we have the words.

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And so in our daily Bible, one of the first Psalms that they included this week was Psalm

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56.

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This is a very special Psalm.

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I will tell you.

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It has ministered to me at times in my life.

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And it says here where he says, put my tears in your bottle.

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In God I trust and I'm not afraid.

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What can man do to me?

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And that was David saying, if God has put me in this position, what can man do to me?

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And man dislodge me from this position that God has put me in?

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And of course the answer is no.

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But then David ended up running to the Philistines because if he lived amongst the Philistines,

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he was safe there.

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Saul was not going to come after him in enemy territory.

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And so David goes to the Philistines, but they recognize him.

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He can't be anonymous, just an Israelite that has come to live with them.

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So once he realized they know who he is, he began to feign insanity.

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And he tricked them.

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It worked.

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And they said, look, this man's just crazy.

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Let's let him go.

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And here we read Psalm 34 that says, great are the afflictions of the righteous, but

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the Lord delivers them from their all.

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Have you ever read that scripture?

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I'm sure you have.

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You probably have it underlined.

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The afflictions of the righteous are many, but he delivers them from them all.

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Not one affliction, not one problem, but God can deliver you from all your problems.

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This is King David on the run.

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So he escapes and he goes to a cave.

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And I always chuckle at this part of the story because it says that he gathered 400 men around

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him.

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They're what I call David's motley crew.

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This was not the mighty and the warriors.

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No, no, no, it says it was those that were in distress, those that were in debt, and those

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that were discontented.

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These are the men that rallied around David and he became their commander.

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And at this point we have Psalm 142 and he cries out to the Lord and he says, I am all

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alone.

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And after this, then the warriors began to align themselves with David.

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But therefore a while, this was his motley crew.

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This is all he had.

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And he cries out to God from that lonely cave.

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So then David realizes, okay, it's war.

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And he's beginning to rally the warriors around him.

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They came from Gad and from Benjamin.

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And then it says that he goes to Moab and he leaves his parents in Moab for safety.

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Now isn't that interesting?

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But remember, David's, is it his great grandmother was from Moab.

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Who's that?

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Ruth.

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The story of Ruth.

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She was a Moabite woman that joined herself to Naomi and returned to Bethlehem, married

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Boaz, and she becomes in the line of King David.

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So because of family rights and because of the culture of the time, his parents were

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safe in Moab while he's fleeing around in the desert.

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And now it tells us that David was at an area of the country called Ayn Getty.

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Now Ayn Getty is one of my most favorite places in all the world.

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It is within the barren desert of what's called the Judean wilderness.

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You know, in America we think the word wilderness and we think of forest.

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But in Israel the term is used to describe a very, very barren part of the country.

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There is nothing there.

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Only if you have a live spring would you have any kind of vegetation, a few trees, a few

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animals coming there to drink.

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But by and large you're talking about hill after hill after hill of barren landscape.

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And it's dry, it is hot there, and it is so stark, but yet at the same time it is so majestic.

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And I love that area of the country and I particularly love to sit at Ayn Getty and read

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some of the Psalms of David.

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And you begin to understand some of the terminology that he uses over and over and over in the

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Psalms and even some of the other Psalm writers will use this same terminology.

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So let me describe to you Ayn Getty is an area with a waterfall, but the waterfall is

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two or three different levels.

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And so as a tourist you can walk back on kind of solid ground and you can see the lower

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waterfall.

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But if you've got a little bit of energy in you, you can climb up and see the second

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waterfall and those that are really ambitious can climb all the way up to the top and see

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the very top one.

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What's so interesting here is while you're down here in the bottom at that first layer,

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you know, you're surrounded by cliffs and on these cliffs are caves.

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You can see the holes of the caves and the side way up above you.

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And you begin to understand the terminology of David about the stronghold and about, lead

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me to the rock that is higher than I, because if your enemy is coming after you, you need

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to be at a high place.

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And he's surrounded by rocks.

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And so he described it as a rock that's higher than I.

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Lead me up to the top so I could see down on my enemies.

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A place of refuge, a place of safety, a strong tower was a place high up of stone where you

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were safe, but you could also see out to see what was happening around you.

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You can just picture this at I'm Getty.

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The other thing is that it's called, one of the scriptures we read this week, referred

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to the crags of the wild goats.

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And a crag is like a rock, a rock of the wild goats.

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And every afternoon at about four o'clock, you can sit there at I'm Getty and you can

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watch the goat herds or what we call the ibex, herds of them coming in to the water where

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they're going to get their drink of water for the day.

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It's been a long, hot day.

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And so you can sit there and just watch many of them, tens and twenty at a time.

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You know, the last time I was down at I'm Getty, one of the last times, we had the most

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amazing view and even our tour guide said they had never seen a herd as big as what

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we saw.

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There were at least a hundred of the ibex goats in this herd.

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They were crossing the road in front of our bus going into where we had just come out

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of the I'm Getty Nature Reserve.

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You know, when you read Psalm 42, it's debated whether David himself wrote Psalm 42, but

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I think it's highly likely he may have because it says, as a deer, pants for the water.

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So my soul pants for you, my God.

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Here on it says, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.

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All your waves and breakers have swept over me.

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You can picture this at I'm Getty.

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I feel certain he wrote this song when he was sitting at I'm Getty and he, like all the

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tourists today, at the end of a very long, hot day would go down and stand under that

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waterfall and the water would just break over him.

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As I said, one of the terms that David uses a lot in the Psalms is about a stronghold.

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A stronghold was a fortress, a built-up area with very, very difficult access.

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It was a safe place.

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And there are several scriptures here in 1 Samuel 22 and also in 1 Samuel 24.

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It says that David went to the stronghold.

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Now there are other times where it says David went to the strongholds of And Getty, or the

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strongholds of the region.

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But there's these couple of references that says he went to the stronghold as though it's

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a stronghold that everybody knew about.

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All you had to do was say he went to the stronghold and they knew where that was and it must have

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been quite a refuge, quite a place of safety.

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Well, it just so happens, you know, that maybe just a couple of miles down, I'd have to

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measure it to see how many miles away is the huge mountaintop fortress called Masada.

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When you go with me to Israel, and I hope you will, and in today's show notes, we've

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linked to a signup form where you can get on an interest list so that once we have our

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next tour dates, we'll notify you.

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I want you to go with me and we definitely will go to the top of Masada and you will

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understand then what is a stronghold.

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Masada is this tall mountain that's all by itself.

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It's just one mountain sticking up out of the desert, a very, very deep ravine on all

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sides of this mountain.

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And to get up there in ancient days, there you had to crawl up a snake path up the side

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of the mountain.

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It takes about 45 minutes to climb up to get to the top.

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But you and I can take the pulley car that the Israeli Ministry of Tourism has put in

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there.

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You don't have to climb today.

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But when I was there as a student, we did.

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Students love to do things like that and expend their energy.

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We climbed up the snake path.

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Now on the backside of Masada, there is still the remains of the old Roman path or rampart

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up to Masada when the Romans actually destroyed Masada in the year 70 AD.

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The last stronghold of the Roman siege after they finished Jerusalem, they came down to

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Masada.

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And very, very famous story.

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You can still see that rampart.

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So climbing up the backside is a little bit easier.

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Last time I was there, which was, I climbed up the backside with a group of young adults.

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It was just about three years ago.

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I was so proud of myself.

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I'll tell you, because it's so hot and it's so dry.

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David is quite a climb, but we believe that that might be the stronghold that David went

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to and that is referred to there in our reading.

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So now let's go back to Saul.

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While David is hiding out down here, and there's several stories where David has the opportunity

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to kill Saul twice and he doesn't.

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And both times Saul says, I'm sorry, you know, my beloved, I love you, whatever.

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But obviously, Saul had a real demonic problem that he would then bounce right back and attempt

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to kill David again.

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So it was a demonic drive.

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The Holy Spirit, God had left Saul and he had now given himself over to this evil spirit

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that brought really insanity to him.

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And so that is the story of his pursuit of David.

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It's absolutely demonic.

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And David is down in the Judean wilderness seeking God for his life and for his safety.

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So then we have, you know, Saul knows that God has left him and he's not hearing from

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God from any of the prophets or any of the standard ways.

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And so he decides to go to a medium, to a spiritus, and call up the spirit of the prophet

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Samuel who by now had died and to hear from God.

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And this is a very curious story.

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So I just want to mention it briefly here that in the story, of course, the spirit of Samuel

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comes up and the medium screams, I mean, she's so shocked by this.

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Obviously, it's not because of her that Samuel comes up.

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It's because God is using this situation to pronounce judgment over Saul, final judgment.

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And so, you know, Samuel says, why have you called me up?

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And he says, well, because I'm not hearing from God in any other way.

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And then Samuel says, well, you know, it's all over for you.

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And sure enough, the next day, Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle.

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So what's the lesson we take from this?

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Well, first of all, know that mediums and spiritists are absolutely forbidden by God.

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It's forbidden in the law.

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Saul knew that.

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And this story in no way condones this or says that it's okay to do that.

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We do not know whether this was really Samuel or it was just an imposter or it's just that

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God used this situation in order to speak to Saul.

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We don't even know that it was really God because, you know, the next day Saul dies.

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So maybe this was a curse.

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Maybe this wasn't God at all.

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We don't know.

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From reading this story, there are so many questions and there's so many possibilities.

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And if you Google it and go online, you'll read all kinds of theories, both that this

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was God, that this was not God, that this was Samuel, that this was not Samuel, that,

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you know, just all kinds of theories.

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And so the bottom line here is it was forbidden practice.

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Saul disobeyed God.

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And actually it was the icing on the cake, you might say, in a negative way for Saul.

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It was all over for Saul the next day.

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It was over for him.

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This was like the crowning blow in all of the wrong things that Saul had done and it

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brought an end to his life.

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So don't try it, okay?

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I want to say one other thing about Saul before we move on to David.

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Saul never really repented.

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He didn't go after God and repent like David did.

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Later on in our story, David's going to sin, but he's on his face in repentance before

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God.

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Saul did not do that.

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And so it's all over for Saul and now David becomes king.

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He's crowned king in Hebron.

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He's crowned king over Judah first.

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And then he begins consolidating his power.

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And one way that David consolidates his power is through his wives.

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So keep in mind, he's still married to Micah, who was the daughter of Saul.

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So that helped him to solidify the royal house of Saul.

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He was married to a woman from the south and he was married to a woman from the north.

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So this is helping him geographically and territorially to begin alliances around the

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country.

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So he's made king and he reigns in Hebron seven years.

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But then he sets his sight on the city of the Jebusites.

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And this is the story about Jerusalem.

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I've been waiting all week to get to talk to you about Jerusalem.

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This is where things really get interesting and so exciting.

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So in 2 Samuel 5 verses 6 through 8, the Jebusites inside the walled city of Jerusalem.

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Now let me describe this for you.

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Jerusalem is technically in the territory of Benjamin, but it's right at the edge and

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it had never been taken by the Vengemites.

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It was under Jebusite control.

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So in a way it was neutral territory between Benjamin and Judah in the south and the ten

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tribes up in the more north and east of the country.

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And it had never been taken by any of the tribes.

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So even though it was technically part of Benjamin, it was considered neutral.

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And David saw this as a great way to set up a capital that would serve all the twelve

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tribes.

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Secondly, the Jebusite city was a very well fortified city.

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It was on a hill and it had great walls all around it.

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And it was a very hard city to take.

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So we read the story here in 2 Samuel how the Jebusites are like taunting David from

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their walls and they said, you will not get in here.

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Even the blind and the lame can ward you off.

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They thought David cannot get in here.

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So on that day, David said, anybody who conquers the Jebusites will have to enter through the

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water shaft.

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Now picture this for me.

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You have a city up on a hill.

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This hill has a valley on three sides or really two sides because it's like a peninsula.

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But it's valley all the way around it except the northern plateau.

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So in order to enter this walled city, down in one of the valleys was their water source,

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the Gihon Springs.

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And the water was taken inside the city for the people, but it was also taken outside of

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the city for the crops that they grew here in the fertile valley.

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So the water source was like an open hole down here in the southern wall of the city

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where people could come and go and take the water out into the fields.

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And so David said that is the only way into the city.

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And so he says the, and that's why they say the blind and the lame will not enter the

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palace.

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They didn't think anybody could enter the city.

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So David says, who's going to lead for me?

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Who's going to take the city?

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And Joab said, I will.

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And so Joab goes in through the water source and he takes the city and David moves in and

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takes up residence in the palace.

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And so from there, they then build up the city and they build up terraces in the city.

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And David then makes an arrangement with Hiram of Tyre, which is in Lebanon today where they

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have beautiful cedar trees and juniper trees.

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And so, and they also were Phoenicians and they were very good at craftsmen and a building.

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And so he made an arrangement where Hiram would build his palace.

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And now we've read that story this week.

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Well, I want you to know that the skeptics in the theology world and in the biblical

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world, the archeology world for years said there was no evidence that there was this

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King David.

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Only the Bible mentions this man.

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We've never found anything that mentions King David.

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And when it comes to Jerusalem, there's no way that there was a city of Jerusalem the

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size that's described in the Bible because there was no water source.

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A city that size had to have a water source.

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There's no proof of any water source.

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None of this is true.

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And what happened is in 1867, the British sent a team to the Holy Land to survey and

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look for water for the poor people in the old city of Jerusalem.

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At that point, Jerusalem was basically what we see today as the walls around the old city.

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That's as big as it was back then.

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They were just beginning to build outside of the old city by 1865.

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So here in 1867, the British arrived and they are going to look for water source for the

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city of Jerusalem.

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Well, they also were very interested in finding artifacts from the biblical time.

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But they had one problem and that is that the place where the temple had been on the

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temple mount was ruled the Muslims would not allow them to do any digging there.

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So this engineer named Sir Warren, they said he could not dig within 40 feet of the temple

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mount.

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So he went out 41 feet and he's now outside of the city walls and he just begins to dig.

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And what does he uncover?

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The ancient city of David and the water source, the Gihon Springs that everybody said didn't

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exist.

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Years later, they have done a lot of study and they've discovered that at the time of

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Jesus, the walls of Jerusalem encompassed all that area where he was digging.

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But today in the modern Jerusalem, when the Muslims rebuilt the walls back about 600 years

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ago, they made a mistake and they didn't encompass that area.

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So nobody really realized it was a part of ancient Jerusalem.

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And here he is, he finds the heart of ancient Jerusalem right below the temple mount.

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And so we have this amazing proof that the Gihon Springs was there, that there was a

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water source, that Jerusalem was there and it could have been the size that the Bible

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said.

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And since 1967, Israel has been able to dig in that area and to do more archaeological

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00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:39,080
finds.

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00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:44,040
And I have to tell you what they have been discovering in the last 20 years there in

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00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:49,640
what's called the city of David is absolutely astounding.

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00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,920
And they were looking for David's palace, but of course they can't dig everywhere.

402
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,840
They're just digging in certain locations where there's not a building there in the

403
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,240
way.

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00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:07,280
But they uncovered a Phoenician column top.

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00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:15,120
And then they knew we are on top of David's palace because Hiram, the Phoenician, built

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00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:16,120
his palace.

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00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:23,960
So to have a column with that kind of stone top on it is exactly what the Bible says

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00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:25,640
was being built.

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00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:30,840
And so they began to dig more there and they have uncovered what they believe to be David's

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00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:32,720
palace.

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So isn't that exciting?

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And I want to tell you in our resources week I'm going to tell you about a really exciting

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00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:41,120
resource.

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00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,760
You can go and you can see all of this.

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00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:45,400
So hold on just one more minute.

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I want to just tell you one last thing before I wrap it up.

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00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:56,840
It's very, very interesting that when Jesus went to Jerusalem, although we know he healed

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00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:04,080
many people, but during his time in Jerusalem we only have two specific stories of specific

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00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,960
healings that we know about.

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00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:14,440
One was the lame man at the pool of Bethesda and the other one was the blind man who he

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00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:22,840
sent down to the pool of Siloam which is taking water from the Gihon Springs and he was healed.

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The blind and the lame had welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem, the city of David.

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Now my friends, you cannot make this stuff up.

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This is why it is so exciting that we dig down into the layers and that we take a look

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00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:47,640
at the archaeology even and what it's speaking to us.

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00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:53,600
So today in our show notes we link to two different things.

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00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:57,640
One is our tour to Israel interest list.

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00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:04,840
If you are interested in going to Israel with me one day, maybe next year, sign up so we

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00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:10,040
can let you know once we have dates and we have a package together for you.

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00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:17,760
Secondly, we are selling very, very low-cost DVD produced by our good friends who we love

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00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:22,320
so much at CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network.

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00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:26,360
It's called Written in Stone, The House of David.

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00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:28,560
It's only $9.99.

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00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:30,360
Please get this DVD.

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00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:34,480
You are going to be able to hear the story I just told you.

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00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:40,440
You're going to see some of the archaeological remains that I've talked about today and next

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00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,680
week I'm going to talk about even more.

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00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,360
So go ahead and order your DVD.

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00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:49,640
You'll want to watch it several times as we go through this study and you're going to

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00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:57,120
see the amazing archaeological finds that support our biblical narrative because the Bible

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00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:58,720
is true.

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00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:01,360
It is so accurate.

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00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:06,800
Now I also want to ask you please subscribe to this channel.

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00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,480
You're going to get weekly notices or whenever we put up a new program it will send you a

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00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:12,960
notice.

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00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,160
Make sure you're also on my email list so that every week you'll get my email where

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00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:23,040
I give just a little recap of our teaching from this week so you can read it.

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00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,120
Then you can watch it later when you have time.

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00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:31,880
But please subscribe to this channel so we want to know that you are with us and we want

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00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:37,400
to keep you informed and engaged with us throughout this quarter and the rest of our year-long

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00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:38,880
walk through the Bible.

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So until next time, God bless.