The Story of the Bible (3D Bible Part 3)

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Welcome to Out of Zion with Susan Michael, an exploration of the Bible and the land of

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Israel.

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From ancient biblical sites to the story behind the stories, join Susan on a journey through

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the most exciting book on the planet.

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Hit the subscribe button for future episodes, which will deepen your faith and bring the

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Bible to life.

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And now, here's our host, Susan Michael.

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Well, hey there.

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Welcome to the 3D Bible Part 3.

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Today we're going to talk about the story of the Bible.

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Now I've been so looking forward to our time together today so that we can talk about this.

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It is so important and our understanding of the Bible is understanding that story.

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You know, last week we talked about the reading of the Bible chronologically and I had recommended

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to you a resource.

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But you know, even reading through the Bible chronologically, there are so many stories.

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We can go down so many rabbit trails.

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We can get caught up in so many details that even when we're reading through it chronologically,

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we can still lose track of the story.

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So today what I want to do is back up and give us the big picture.

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You know, I'm one of those people that I can't see the forest for the trees.

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I get caught up in the details.

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So I've taught myself in life how helpful it is to back up and look at the big picture.

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Then I understand so much more and things that relate to my individual tree.

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So that's what we're going to do today.

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We're going to look at the big picture and then in future episodes, we'll talk a little

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bit more about some of the details.

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So before I tell you the story though, I want to say, you know, a lot of times we hear that

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the story of the Bible is the story of God's love for the world.

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And totally accurate, I agree with that totally, but that's not the story.

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That's what the story is about or that's what drives the story.

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Now if I were to ask you, tell me what's the story of the Bible, most of you will at least

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tell me this.

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You'll say, well, it starts with God creates the world and then man falls into sin so God

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sins Jesus to die for our sins so that we will go to heaven and then one day Jesus will come

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back.

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So the problem is an oversimplified story.

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I mean the story is absolutely accurate.

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What you just said is absolutely true.

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That is highlights from the story.

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But the problem is that when we're oversimplifying the story like that, we come to this conclusion

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that because the Old Testament is about the creation and then the fall of man and sin,

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and the New Testament is about when Jesus comes to die on the cross for us, that why

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worry about the Old Testament?

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It's all the negative.

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Let's deal with the positive.

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Let's talk about Jesus.

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Let's concentrate there.

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And that's fine, but we come away with this feeling that plan A was God created the earth

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and he created man, but plan A failed because man fell into sin.

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So plan B is sin Jesus have him die for the world and now God will have a people.

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Well, the problem with that is that we think that plan A has been replaced by plan B. Why

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worry about plan A?

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It failed.

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So let's just go with plan B. But my question is, what kind of God has a plan A that fails?

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I mean stop and think about that.

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The God of the universe had a plan that failed.

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Now some of you might be saying, okay, she wants more detail.

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So let's go a little bit more into detail about this.

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And so you might tell the story this way.

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God created the heaven and the earth and man.

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Man fell into sin.

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So God chose Abraham to create a people that would be his people and that he would work

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through.

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But then they fell into sin.

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And when Jesus came to die on the cross for us, they rejected him even.

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So God created a new people, the church, which is now his people.

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So in this scenario, which I hear this from a lot of people, this is their understanding

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of the story.

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So the facts might be right, but what are the implications of this?

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That the people that were plan A, which was the Jewish people, failed God.

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So he went to plan B, which is the church.

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And today he works through the church.

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Well, once again, what kind of God has a plan A that fails?

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So let's take a closer look at this.

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The first thing I want you to know is that plan A didn't start with the Bible.

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Plan A was from eternity.

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And we learned this from Ephesians 1.

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So I want to read to you Ephesians 1 verses 4 and 5.

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It says here that before the foundations of the earth were laid, that he chose us in him

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to be blameless in his sight, and he predestined us to be adopted into the family, into sonship,

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through Jesus Christ.

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I didn't quote it exactly.

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But it says it before the foundations of the earth were laid, that we were predestined

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to be adopted into the family through Christ Jesus.

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Now how are we adopted into the family?

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Through Jesus' birth?

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No.

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Through his ministry?

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No.

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Through his teachings?

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No.

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Only through his death on the cross.

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So that means that plan A, which from eternity before heaven and earth were even created,

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that plan A was always Jesus' death on the tree.

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So plan A did not fail.

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And there is no plan B.

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So now that we've got that out of the way, what is the story?

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So let's start.

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Now the story is the story of plan A. Keep that in your mind.

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But the story, the story of the Bible, well okay, it begins in eternity.

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But let's look at this now.

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Before the foundations of the earth were laid, you know in Revelation 13 it says that Jesus

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was the Lamb slain before the foundations of the earth.

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So Jesus' death was always for us.

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And the lesson is here that God's plan was not dependent on man.

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God wasn't called by surprise when Adam and Eve sinned, and He wasn't called by surprise

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when the Israelites sinned.

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He's not surprised when you and I sinned today.

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He knew all of this from beginning.

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So this is a part of the beautiful plan A, that it's all dependent on God.

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It's not dependent on man, but God uses man.

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So then in the Bible we pick up the story, Genesis 1-1, with when God decides to create

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the earth.

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And He creates man.

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He puts Adam and Eve in the garden.

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We all know Eve decided to eat of the forbidden tree.

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Man falls into sin, and from Genesis 1 to Genesis 11, it's a very sad story of the

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decline of mankind.

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They keep falling into sin.

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Even after the flood, and God's promise to Noah, He'll never do a flood again.

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Man just becomes wicked again.

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They fall into idolatry.

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So man is destined for hell.

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There's no hope for mankind.

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And then in Genesis 12, everything changes.

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Genesis 12 is like the watershed moment of the entire Bible.

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It is from here that the rest of the story just takes place.

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It takes off.

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So I want to take a few minutes just to talk about a couple of key principles here in Genesis,

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and then we're going to quickly skim through the entire story of the Bible.

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So what we have happening here in Genesis 12 is that God speaks to a man named Abram.

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Now Abram was a Gentile living in Ur the Chaldees.

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Tradition has it that his family were idol makers, and the God of the universe speaks

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to him.

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And this is what he says.

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I want to read to you verses 1 through 3.

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Get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house to a land that

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I will show you.

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I will make you a great nation.

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I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and in you all

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the families of the earth will be blessed.

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Now this is an amazing announcement.

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God is telling this man Abram that he is announcing his plan to redeem the world.

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You know the apostle Paul says that this verse that in you all the families of the earth

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would be blessed is the first preaching of the gospel because it is referring to Christ.

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So God is telling this man Abram, get up now, leave and follow me to a land I am going to

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show you.

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And I am going to make you a great nation.

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And I am going to bless you and I am going to bless those that bless you and through

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you in this nation.

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I am going to bless all the families of the earth with this amazing plan of redemption.

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Now I want you to note that the one thing that Abraham was called to do, he couldn't

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do.

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I mean if you are going to birth the nation you have to start with one.

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He couldn't even birth one descendant because Sarah was barren.

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Interesting.

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Just like the nation that he was going to create out of Abram also wouldn't be able to

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fulfill the calling on them as well.

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It was all up to God.

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It's not up to man.

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So now the calling on the Jewish people then that we have here, God is going to use Abram

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to birth this people, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel.

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And through this people he is going to carry out this amazing plan.

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So you could say their calling was to be the carriers or the vehicle of this plan of world

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redemption.

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But we could also say that their calling is to be, it's a birthing call.

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So just as Abraham was called to birth a nation, the nation was called to birth this plan of

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redemption into the earth.

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Now I know that may sound a little strange but the apostle Paul tells about all of the

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redemptive products that the Jewish people gave us that actually God gave the Jewish

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people so that they would then give to us.

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I want to read to you from Romans 9 verses 4 to 5.

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The apostle Paul talking about the Jewish people said theirs is the adoption of sonship, theirs

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is the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

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Theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah who

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is God over all forever praised.

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So the apostle Paul is saying all these things God did through them, it's theirs but we are

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enjoying the benefits of it.

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You know in Romans 3 he refers to them as the custodians of the word of God.

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They were the guardians of the word.

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God spoke the word to them, they guarded it, they carried for it and they carried it through

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history so that we have the Bible today thanks to the Jewish people.

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Jesus said in John 4 verse 22 he said salvation is of the Jews.

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Think about it.

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It was the Jewish Messiah sent to the house of Israel that died on the cross.

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We are able to tap into that and benefit from it but salvation is actually first and foremost

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to the Jews.

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You know in Revelation 12 the people of Israel are described as pictured as a pregnant woman.

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It's interesting.

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It depicts that birthing call to bring all of this and first and foremost the Messiah

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to earth to die on the cross for us.

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Now they would suffer greatly because of this call and yes sometimes they suffered because

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of their own sin or rebellion but when you look at the history you have to admit that

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there was a spiritual pursuit of this people because of this special calling that they

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had on them.

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Now we are going to talk more in a future episode about the Jewish people so I am going

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to move on now but I want you to understand from Genesis the calling on Abraham and the

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calling on the Jewish people.

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Now also God told Abraham follow me to a land I am going to show you and a couple of chapters

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later God reveals it's the land of Canaan and in Genesis 17 there is a very interesting

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verse here where God says that the land of Canaan would be their everlasting possession

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because it's part of an everlasting covenant.

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The land is so key to this covenant that God made with Abraham.

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Now why is that?

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Well we are going to talk about it a lot more in a future episode but I will say this today.

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I see the land as a stage.

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You could call it an entry point.

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Let me say it this way.

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If God was going to send the Messiah on earth where would he go to?

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God needed a place where he was going to carry out this great story of redemption.

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He needed a people and he also needed a place.

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So I always see the land as like a stage.

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God would get the stage all set and then he would do his most amazing works.

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First of all he takes the people of Israel into the land and he makes them into a nation

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and he makes wonderful promises to them but they do fall into sin and they are in exile,

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they come back and then he sets the stage again for the birth and life and death of

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the Messiah.

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But then they go into exile and then he brings them back and he sets the stage again.

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So we are going to talk more about that in the future but that's the way I see the land

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and until God's plan is completely finished for the earth, he still needs that land.

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Now you know a lot of times we tend to act like everything was finished on the cross.

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Jesus said it is finished but what was he talking about?

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He was talking about the price had been paid for our sin but not everything is finished

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and that's what we are going to see today is that that story that began in eternity

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and we begin reading about in Genesis is still going on today.

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So the land is very critical.

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God needs a place but he tells them that it is as though he needed a holy people for a

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holy land.

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It was his land, it was to be holy and they were to live holy righteous lives.

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They were to live in fellowship with God if they were going to stay on this land and

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he told them in Deuteronomy 29 and Deuteronomy 30.

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We read where he says, if you fall into sin, if you don't obey me, if you don't walk in

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righteousness with me because I'm a righteous God, I can only have fellowship with you if

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you're righteous, then you're going to be kicked out of the land.

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But one day I will bring you back.

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That's what you read in Deuteronomy 29 and 30.

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So it's very clear that if they fell into sin there would be exile but it's also very

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clear that he promised to bring them back.

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So now these are the key principles that are put into place in God's covenant with Abraham

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and then the covenant with Moses.

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So now I want to fast forward through the story of the Bible now that you have these

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key concepts in mind.

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So God makes these amazing promises to Abraham and Abraham says, how do I know this is going

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to happen?

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And that's a covenant with him and he basically says, you have my word.

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It's not up to Abraham to fulfill this.

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It's up to God himself.

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But he tells them, before your descendants inherit the land, they're going to go into

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slavery in a foreign land.

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And sure enough they did.

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They went to Egypt.

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They ended up in slavery there for 400 years.

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And we read about that in the book of Exodus and throughout Leviticus and Numbers and

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Deuteronomy.

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And then it's time.

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They're ready now to enter the holy land and to take possession of it.

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We read about that in the book of Joshua.

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And once they go in and they take the land, each tribe had its area of the land.

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And so it was a government of what we would call a tribal federation or confederacy.

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So there were judges that ruled over the various tribal lands.

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And the people began to cry out and they said, we want a king.

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All the nations around us have a king.

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We want a king.

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And so God gave them King Saul.

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And after Saul, we have King David.

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You read about this history.

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There's three historical books, the book First and Second Samuel, First and Second Chronicles,

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First and Second Kings.

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So you read about this early history in First and Second Samuel and First Chronicles.

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Now they have King David.

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And this is considered the highlight of Israel's history.

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They have a king who has a heart after the Lord.

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They have a kingdom that is prosperous, that is at peace with its neighbors.

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It's the biggest it ever got.

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It's the highlight of Israel's history.

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King David brings the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem and worships

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before the Lord.

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And God tells him that he's going to make his throne an everlasting throne.

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And this is known as the Davidic Covenant.

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Once again, God doesn't say David has to do anything.

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God makes that promise.

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Now we do see with David that he establishes Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom.

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And God takes all the credit for that.

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He says, this is the place that I have chosen.

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Now after King David, his son Solomon takes over.

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Solomon allows sin to come in even though he's the one that builds the first temple.

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And it's really magnificent.

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But sin begins to creep in.

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And after him and his son, we have the split of the kingdom.

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We now have the kingdom of the north, which is called Israel, and the kingdom of the south,

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which includes Jerusalem, and that's called Judah.

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You know, division is always a sign of sin.

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And this is a really sad decline in the history of Israel.

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And we have the prophets like Hosea and Amos and Isaiah, and they begin to prophesy to

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the kingdom of the north.

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If you do not return to your God, because they had set up alternate worship, they had

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idolatrous worship, they said, turn back to the Lord or else judgment is coming.

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Judgment is coming.

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Now how did the prophets know judgment was coming?

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Because in the law, in Deuteronomy, it had been very clear that if they fell into sin,

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judgment would come and they would be exiled from the land.

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So the prophets, since it was coming, they saw it was coming.

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And they began to warn the kingdom of Israel and they didn't listen.

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And sure enough, the Assyrian army came in, took over the kingdom of the north, and took

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the people into exile into Assyria.

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This was in 722 BC.

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Then the prophets began prophesying to the southern kingdom of Judah.

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They kept some limited sovereignty, but they said, if you don't return to the Lord, judgment

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is coming.

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And Jeremiah prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah.

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Sure enough, this time it's in the form of the Babylonian army who has taken over the

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Assyrian empire.

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They come in, they take the southern kingdom and Jerusalem and take the people into exile.

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This is known as the end of the first exile.

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Now this first exile lasted for 70 years, just as the prophet Jeremiah prophesied that it

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would.

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And here we have the story of Daniel, who's in Babylon, and he reads this in the book

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of Jeremiah and begins to pray for the return to the exiles.

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And then we have the Persian empire takes over the Babylonian empire, and it's the Persian

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king Cyrus that says he's going to allow all of the subjects of the kingdom to return

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to their homelands and to rebuild their temples.

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And so he allows the return of the Jewish exiles.

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And we read about this in the book of Nehemiah and in Ezra, and it's a time of revival.

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Back in the land they rebuild their temple, they rebuild the walls around Jerusalem.

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And this begins to set the stage now, the Jewish people are returning to their homeland.

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There's a lot of history here that I will skip over, but to say that the stage is set,

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and then we have the beginning of the New Testament, and we have the birth, and the life,

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and the ministry of Jesus.

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And of course, his death on the cross, our redemption has been won.

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And right before Jesus ascends to heaven, he says in a few days, go back to Jerusalem,

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I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, because Jesus had to return to the throne of heaven

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in order to send the Holy Spirit.

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And once he did, the church is born, and we read about this in the book of Acts.

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And then the gospel begins to be spread by the apostles into the surrounding region and

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surrounding nations.

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We read about this in the book of Acts and also in the epistles.

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The last epistle has been written by the time a major event takes place.

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It's assumed that the apostle Paul died around 67 AD, and in 67 AD the Roman Empire begins

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a siege of Jerusalem.

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And by 70, they completely take over the city.

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They destroy Jerusalem.

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They destroy the temple.

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The people of Israel have either been killed or they're fleeing for their lives.

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They go into exile, and this is known as the second exile.

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Now you might be asking, well, what prophet warned about the second exile?

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And it was Jesus.

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Jesus prophesied that the temple would be destroyed.

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He prophesied this would happen.

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He said, when it happens, run into the hills.

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And the Jewish believers in Jesus did that, and they skipped.

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They missed out on the siege of Jerusalem because they ran, as he had warned them to

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do.

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But we have this exile begins, and the last book of the Bible is written.

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The book of Revelation is written by the apostle John while on the Isle of Patmos.

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It was written around 80, 85 AD.

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So this finishes the Bible, but the story is not over yet.

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And this is what I want you to walk away with today.

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The story that began in eternity ends in eternity.

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It didn't end with Jesus, and it didn't end with the book of Revelation.

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The Bible foretold of events that would happen in the future, and two of those events are

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happening in our day.

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I want you to know, first and foremost, the return of Israel to their land, and Isaiah

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1111 said that one day God would raise His hand a second time and to regather the outcast

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of Israel.

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So we see this happening, and Jesus prophesied it.

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He said that Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles

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was fulfilled.

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So one day Jerusalem would be back under Jewish sovereignty.

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We see this happening in our day.

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Now right before Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples asked Him, they said, So are

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you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

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And He didn't say to them, You're wrong.

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He didn't disagree with them.

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He just answered their question.

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He said, The timing is not for you to know.

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So in other words, the timing of the restoration of Israel is not for you to know.

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We today are privileged to be living in this time.

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Of course, the second prophesied event, which has not happened yet, is the return of Jesus

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to the planet.

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So we can talk more about that also in a future episode, but I want to summarize what we've

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heard so far.

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So the story of God's love for a fallen world is the story of His choice of a people through

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whom He gave these amazing redemptive products such as the law and the promises and the covenants

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and our very Bible and the birth of the Messiah, even the death of the Messiah.

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The Jewish people made up the early church.

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They were the early church, the early apostles.

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They wrote most, if not all, of the New Testament.

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It's all, we are so spiritually indebted to the Jewish people because they have fulfilled

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the calling of God on them to bring this plan of world redemption to the earth.

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And you know, Jesus may have paid the price on the cross and said it's finished, but

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it's not all finished until He returns to the earth.

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Only then will all of these promises be fulfilled and will it be over.

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So the story that began in eternity is going to end in eternity.

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But for eternity to come to this world when the old earth gives way to the new heaven,

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the new earth, then old Jerusalem gives way to the new Jerusalem, the eternal Jerusalem

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that will come down from heaven, that requires Jesus to return and establish His kingdom to

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sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem.

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You know, Jesus' final words to us in Revelation 22 at the very, very end of the whole book,

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the whole Bible, the very end Jesus says, Behold, I am coming quickly.

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And then He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the

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last.

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I am the root and offspring of David.

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He is returning to sit on the throne of the eternal kingdom of David that God promised

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David, what, 3,500 years ago?

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So this means God's promises to Abraham are still being fulfilled in our day.

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And God's promises to David will be fulfilled.

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These covenants are still in place.

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The calling on the Jewish people to mediate them for us is still in place.

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We, you and me, Gentiles through the grace of God and through the blood of Jesus are

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able to tap into this rich heritage and to become a part of it.

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We are adopted into the family through Christ Jesus.

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The Apostle Paul said, We're like wild olive branches that have been grafted into this

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tree.

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We become a part of it and we are able to grow and be sustained by the sustenance of the

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root of this tree.

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Wow.

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Is this not an amazing story?

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Did I not say this is the most exciting book on the planet?

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Now I know I may not be the best storyteller, but I do hope that you call it just a glimpse

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of the awe in this story that I feel as I share it with you.

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So that wraps up today, but I want to share with you a few resources because I know I

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just covered, what, four, five thousand years of history and I covered the entire Bible.

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I actually went from eternity to eternity.

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It's a lot.

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So let me tell you the resources that we have that might help you go just a review, a nice

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00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,120
review of this.

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First is we have a little booklet called The Bases for Christian Support of Israel and

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00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,720
what it does is it's a little simple to read booklet.

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You can read it in one hour by Reverend Malcolm Heading and it will talk about this Abrahamic

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covenant and it's going to review a lot of what I shared with you out of the book of

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Genesis.

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Now for those of you, and let me tell you, beginners in advance both love that booklet.

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For those of you that want to understand a little bit more about the return of Jesus

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and how that fulfills all of this and the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant

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00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:56,160
and the Davidic covenant, I recommend the book called It Must Be Finished, Making Sense

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of the Return of Jesus.

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So I give you links to both of those resources in today's show notes.

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Once again, I want to highly recommend that everyone get a copy of the Daily Bible, which

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is the chronological Bible that I recommend.

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And when you're feel ready to start reading through it, do.

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But for now, as we're laying the groundwork here, you might just want to read through

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the Daily Summaries at the beginning of each chapter.

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But I explained that last week.

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I just want to remind you to get your copy of the Daily Bible.

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Now I think that takes care of everything today.

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And I know it's a little bit much, but it's necessary to lay out that big picture.

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Next week, we're going to talk about just the Old Testament and how should we as Christians

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relate to the Old Testament?

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Should we read it?

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How should we interpret it and understand it?

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Is it even important for us to read?

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So until then, I pray the Lord bless you and keep you and be with you.

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And I look forward to being back with you again next time so we can talk about the Old Testament.

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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.