Ezekiel Part 31

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Okay, we are going to pray and then we're going to get back into the book of Ezekiel warning today's Text is like last week's text.

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It's um whoo It's the best way I can put it. Let's pray lord. Jesus again as we open up your word

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We ask you holy spirit to help us to rightly understand what is revealed there So that we may properly believe confess and do according to your holy word.

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We ask in jesus name. Amen okay by way of review

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Uh, we are in chapter 23 of ezekiel and this is the uh, the oracle against uh hola and a holaba and uh, it's uh

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Whoa, it's the best way I can describe it because I think in all of the chapters of scripture

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This one is the most in your face I I legitimately can't think of another text.

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That's this Wow Yeah, and and bruce burns agrees so that that means we're not going to have a discussion about it, but But uh, this this is this passage is really hard and if you remember a hola and a holaba are representative of the northern and the southern kingdoms of israel and of judah and um

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God is describing their idolatry in the most graphic Of sexual sin type details metaphor, that's the figure of speech that god is using and as a result of it

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Like I said, this is this is pretty rough and tumble stuff So let me let me back up last week.

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We ended off with me doing a little excursus on kind of the basic tenets of gnosticism and the reason we did that is because God here is addressing the root of where their idolatry had come from And and that is from the egyptian mystery religions

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Which then that that's the seedbed of what would later become the other ancient mystery religions?

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And then gnosticism itself And as i've been studying gnosticism now for four years i've come to the conclusion um

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They don't have an orthodoxy And uh, and as a result of it to say that all gnostics believe a particular thing is is a little bit of a tortured statement

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They believe similar things is the best way I can I can say there's a similar esoteric

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Metanarrative and we talked last week about that that there's kind of this core metanarrative that basically posits the idea

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That yahweh the god of scriptures Was an accident? um was uh, and and we noted last week and in one of the primary gnostic ways of looking at it, um

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Yahweh is the evil god known as yaltabaoth And uh, he was conceived by sofia through an act of self -gratification um and uh, and she tried to abort yaltabaoth and so Uh that didn't work.

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She hit him in a cloud and uh, and yaltabaoth came to the the in the

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Aberrant conclusion that he was the only god and he's the one responsible for creating order

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And so order and names and laws and And all of these things that we see in our in our universe

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You know male and female and all the the created order that to the gnostic is is anathema

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You know The goal is to free yourself from the tyranny of the material world

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And the tyranny of yaltabaoth and his and his patriarchal You know way of that that he set up matter to run in these, uh, you know with order and things like this and so that Today, it's still alive.

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It's still alive very much today In very many quarters that call themselves christians.

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Gnosticism has been the perennial enemy of christianity always lurking in the shadows

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And in the early days when it first came out the apostles wrote vehemently against it and uh

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And as a result of it, it pushed itself back into the shadows But it's always maintained

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It's uh, it its presence with us and is constantly trying to subvert and it's the gnostic worldview that is the primary worldview behind The the transgender movement and this idea that you need to be true to your authentic self your authentic self is that spark of divinity within you and Forget the fact that that evil yaltabaoth assigned a sex to you at birth or at your conception you you you you be you you do you and And and if if necessary you you poke yaltabaoth in the in the nose or in the eye

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And you let him know that you're not going to give in To this material body that that he is assigned to you and you're going to be the true thing that you are

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And so you said there you go. That just sounds nuts But that's what's behind all of this so Gnosticism is presently present with us

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And the the in the book of jeremiah right before they go into exile at the time of those kings

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Where they had turned the temple of solomon into this coexist uh, you know syncretistic temple and they had given yahweh a a

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Consort by the name of asherah and set up an asherah pole All of this is part of the gnostic stuff and then god was pointing out that this where they learn all of this nonsense

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They learned it in their time in egypt That's where this is coming from.

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And so god is speaking very strong words of judgment against them Uh, they against the israelites and so let me back up just a little bit for our context sake um and Dare I go this far back verse 22 28 is where we'll pick up from but 22 for context

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Therefore a holabah thus says the lord. Yahweh behold. I will stir up against you your lovers and these these are the uh, the those whom judah was looking to and wanting to be like Okay, and so he's describing them as her as her sexual lovers

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I will bring against you Uh, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust and I will bring them against you

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From every side the babylonians and all the chaldeans Picard and shoah and koa and all the assyrians with them

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Desirable young men governors and commanders all of them officers and men of renown all of them riding on horses

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And they shall come against you from the north from with chariots and wagons and hosts of peoples

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They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler Shield and helmet and I will commit the judgment to them

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And they shall judge you according to their judgments and I will direct my jealousy against you

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That they may deal with you in fury And he's sitting there going. Does god do that?

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Uh, yeah He does When provoked he does but you're gonna know god didn't start off this way.

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How long did israel the judah have to repent? 170 years.

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Yeah long long long time Did they no?

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No, in fact, they had more time to repent than the united states has been around as a nation

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God is slow to anger abounding in steadfast love, but he kept sending prophet after prophet after prophet

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And what's the message of the prophets repent turn from these worthless idols? Return to me.

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I will forgive you. I will pardon you abundantly god says Leave these worthless things.

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Did they no they didn't okay So god finally says, all right, fine. You don't want my mercy.

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You don't want to be forgiven There's another option you're not gonna like it and it uses words like fury and judgment and wrath, right

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They the assyrians and the chaldeans and those of koa and the babylonians. They will cut off your nose

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And your ears are going to disfigure you so you're not beautiful anymore and your survivors Fall by the sword.

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They shall seize your sons and your daughters and your survivors shall be devoured by fire They shall they shall strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels

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Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring Begun in the land of egypt so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember egypt anymore

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For that says the lord. Yahweh behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate Into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust

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And they shall deal with you in hatred And take away all the fruit of your labor

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And leave you naked and bare and the nakedness and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered

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Your lewdness in your whoring have brought this upon you because you Played the whore with the nations and defiled yourselves with their idols

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And you have gone the way of your sister. Therefore. I will give her cup into your hand

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Thus says the lord. Yahweh You shall drink your sister's cup That is deep

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And large And you shall be laughed at and held in derision For it contains much

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You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow a cup of horror and desolation

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The cup of your sister samaria you shall drink it and drain it out

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And gnaw its shards and tear your breasts for I have spoken declares the lord.

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Yahweh Now interesting that you would think of it that um god uses many times throughout the scriptures

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The idea of his wrath his fury his judgment coming to us as a cup that must be drunken

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You're drinking drinking drunk and I gotta work out the verbs on that one, right? You gotta drink it

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Okay, whether you want to or not, you're gonna you're made to drink it and you in and you know

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And sometimes god says you're gonna drink it to the dregs That's the whole point and it's this isn't a cup you want to drink

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Well, this reminds me about something that christ prayed in the uh, the garden of gethsemane Lord if it'd be possible let this cup pass from me

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Isn't it interesting that christ? Looking to the cross before he's he's crucified

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Is praying about it as if it is a cup And what was the cup that christ was made to drink?

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this one The cup of god's fury the cup of god's wrath This is what christ suffered in your place and mine

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And so when you read about god describing his fury and his wrath in terms of a cup that is required to be drunk

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Note this You know people sit there. That's just terrible god forcing you to drink from a cup of his fury and wrath

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What kind of god is this? Well, that's the cup that christ drank for you Right Yes Yeah, yeah and so, you know the cup we drink though is is the cup that's filled with his blood and his you know, and And the and we eat his body for the forgiveness of our sins.

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So the cup that we have together Is the opposite of god's wrath. It's a cup of blessing and if you remember when we did the uh

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We did our seder dinner, you know, just you know for educational purposes, you know It's the cup of blessing that that is the thing that turns in that christ turns into the eucharist so yes

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But you go to france you go to normandy or the ardennes. Um, and it's some of the most beautiful country on god's green earth um

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Because the war is over. Yeah and You know the war against our sin was won by christ on the cross the war is over now

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There's nothing left but the beauty right? Yep So you'll note then that uh, you know great point, you know about the beauty that the remains is that You know here when we read about god's wrath, it gives us pause rightly so um, and and you know, and the whole point here is that god is making an example of Ahola and aholahba, you know israel and judah

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So that we and all these millennia later can read this and go oh

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Oh god's law goes, uh This is i'm i'm learning to avoid this now think think think differently about my own choices.

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Yeah But if that were true, then I couldn't have god as the small town sheriff who winks and nudges at my

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Inconvenient little petty sins, you know and comes down really hard on the stranger, you know

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If you're passing through And then where would my comfort be? Right.

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So let's talk about this. So, uh, what was the it was the andy griffith show?

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Okay, and what in in on the andy griffith show if somebody got drunk What what what would they do with them in the times of the andy griffith show?

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Where would the the town drunk get put? They lock him up in a

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But he could walk out as soon as he was sobered up, right, okay despite the fact that uh

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Disorderly conduct and drunkenness in public is is a crime. Did they ever enforce it as a crime?

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Did you ever sit there and go what's wrong with you cops Right, if you think that god is like that like you're like don knots

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Okay, who you know just you when you break the law? He just puts you in in the in the in the jail cell just just to let you cool your heels and sober up Is that a just god?

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Well, this is the other the other face that atheists present, you know, and in their in their double standards to attack christ is they're either

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Completely incensed that cry of christ's mercy. Yeah, or they're completely incensed that the merciful god

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They're they're completely in the sense that somebody could be forgiven or they're in the sense that god punishes punishes evil, you know, right

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So, you know just to prove how how reasonable we are without the help of the holy spirit. Um Spoken tongue -in -cheek.

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Yeah. Yeah, we're so reasonable but but the truth is the things that The things that the the unbelievers are outraged

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Why doesn't god do something about that evil or that evil person?

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Yeah, you know he is more angry. He loves whoever's wronged more than you ever did including yourself

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Yeah, you know and and his wrath about it is shown in the past You know, yeah coming back to my metaphor on the on being snakebit when we had the venom of the serpent running through us

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Isn't it fascinating to you that when people sit there and go? Why doesn't god do something about the sinners in the world?

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The person saying that is not including them as part themselves as part of the problem. What if he starts with you?

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Yeah, no, that's not what I meant. I didn't mean me. I meant them, you know right

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So the problem of evil when you when you talk about it in the abstract as if somehow you're not a participant in it

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That's just delusional just absolutely delusional, you know, you want god to do something about sin

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Well, let me let me tell you he did He had he laid all of our sin upon christ

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He bled and died for every last bit of it And he calls us to repent and offers us full forgiveness when

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I read ezekiel at 12. I was like Oh those those wicked bad people Yeah, when

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I read ezekiel at 30 i'm like have mercy on me. Jesus. That's me Yes I'm glad you say that because there's kind of a rabbinic tradition within orthodox judaism that you're not supposed to read

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Ezekiel until you're in your 30s Yeah You know, that's a that's a you know, it's and which

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I think is fascinating okay, and I I used to think it was because of the the chapters like chapter 23 because of just how

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In your face this is but I have I have something more to do with what bruce kind of brought up because um, you'll note that When we're reading about what happens and when god is acting in judgment again, this is not designed to make us go.

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Yeah, you get him god This is more along the lines of How come i'm not experiencing this?

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All right because daily we we have our old sinful adam, you know around our necks and He is really active in seeking things that are the opposite of what god would have us seek so you know when god acts in judgment it's

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The the the correct response is lord. Have mercy on me a sinner That's the correct response.

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The wrong response is yeah, go get god. Yeah It's about time

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Okay, that's that's not right. Marilyn Yeah Yeah and then and then you'll note their knowing is is is based upon experience then in in in And that that knowing is not is to the is not to their benefit

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It's more more along the lines of to their anguish You know to their shame to their you know to it's to it's it's designed to inflict even more pain in god's judgment and wrath

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Let me continue reading All right. So coming back you shall drink it and drain it out

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And not shards tear your breasts for I have spoken declares the lord. Yahweh Therefore thus says the lord.

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Yahweh because you have forgotten me And cast me behind your back You yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness

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And your whoring now Look at that you yourself That that's an interesting phrase

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Okay Why is it interesting? Because you'll note that on the cross christ bears your sin in mind

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If you don't want to be forgiven You don't want to be pardoned You're going to take the one true god and cast him behind your back

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Okay Then you all by yourself get to bear the consequences of your sin

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Which to me sounds stupid Because christ has borne the consequences of your sin in mind

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So note the you yourself adds an emphasis here you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and your whoring

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Yahweh said to me son of man. Will you judge a hola and a holaba? Declare to them their abominations for they have committed adultery

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And blood is on their hands With their idols they have committed adultery and they have even offered up to them for food the children

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Whom they had born to me That's just how wicked they were, right?

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moreover This they have done to me. They have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my sabbaths

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For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols on the same day

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They came into my sanctuary to profane it and behold this is what they did in my house

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They even sent for men to come from afar to whom a messenger was sent and behold they came

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For them you bathed yourself painted your eyes and adorned yourself with ornaments

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They're going on a date right you sat on a stately couch with a table spread before it

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On which you had placed incense and my oil The sound of a carefree multitude was with her

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And when men of the common sort drunkards were brought from the wilderness And they put bracelets on the hands of the women the beautiful crowns on their heads

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Then they said of her who was worn out by her adultery Now they will continue to use her for a whore even her

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For they have gone into her as men go into a prostitute thus they went into a hola and a holaba lewd women

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But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteress And with the sentence of women who shed blood because they are adulteresses

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And blood is on their hands for thus says the lord. Yahweh bring up a vast host against them

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Make them an object of terror and a plunder And the hosts shall stone them and cut them down and they're so with their swords

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They shall kill their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land

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That all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done And they shall return your lewdness upon you and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry

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And you shall know that I am Yahweh the lord Yahweh So, you know they're gonna know

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That Yahweh that he's he's the lord Yahweh they're gonna know it But it's not the kind of knowledge that leads to eternal life

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This is a knowledge that comes having experienced god's judgment All right.

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Now this is all prophesied prior to the final fall of jerusalem so, you know, you'll note that we're

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We're well into ezekiel at this point and the the initial the initial exiles

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Who'd gone in the early part of god acting in judgment? They're still waiting for the the siege of jerusalem and its final fall that does happen

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And we're going to kind of get to it in the ninth year the tenth month

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On the tenth day of the month the word of yahweh came to me son of man write down the name of this day this very day

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The king of babylon has laid siege to jerusalem this very Day now think this out and you might think

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What's so big about that? Okay Take away your internet Take away the telephone lines take away telegraphs and satellites and stuff like that How long did it take for news to travel

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At the at the speed of smell right, you know At the camel speed or horse speed, right?

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It took a while so if you're hundreds and thousands of miles away

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It's going to take months For the news to get to you

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But you'll note that Yahweh gave ezekiel On the day that it happened the news that it had happened

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Which means that when he shared this oracle with those people who were in exile and said here's the day

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It took place. Yahweh told me guess who who turned out to be right and was vindicated Ezekiel Right.

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It's like how'd you know? God told me right so note the specificity.

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This is contrary to the The nonsensical prophecies we get from people today the lord told me that we're entering a season of suddenlies and that uh, and that this is going to be a kairos season for you and uh

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Jesus, right? It's just just nonsense All right Okay When god gives a real prophecy, he gives real details that can be legitimately confirmed

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In the ninth year 10th month on the 10th day of the month The word of the yahweh came to me said a man write down the name of this day this very day

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The king of babylon has laid siege to jerusalem this very day And utter a parable to the rebellious house and say to them thus says the lord.

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Yahweh Set on the pot Set it on pour in water also

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Put in the pieces of meat in all the good pieces the thigh and the shoulder fill it with choice bones

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Take the choicest one of the flock pile the logs under it boil it well see

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Seethe also its bones in it therefore thus says the lord yahweh woe to the bloody city

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To the pot whose corrosion is in it and whose corrosion has not gone out of it

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Take out of it piece after piece without making any choice For the blood she has shed in her midst she put it on the bare rock

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She did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust to rouse my wrath to take vengeance

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I have set on the bare rock the blood she has shed That it may not be covered

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Therefore thus says lord. Yahweh Woe to the bloody city. I also will make the pile great

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Heap on the logs kindle the fire boil the meat well Mix in the spices and let the bones be burned up Then set it empty on the coals that it may become hot and its copper may burn

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That its unclean cleanness may be melted in it is corrosion consumed

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She has wearied herself with toil Its abundant corrosion does not go out of it into the fire with its corrosion on account of your unclean lewdness

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Because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness.

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There it is again I would have cleansed you Is it's god's will that any should perish?

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Nope Everybody who ends up in hell, it's their own fault

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Every single person It's not god's will that they're there

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I would have forgiven you. I would have cleansed you but you were not cleansed from your uncleanness And you shall not be cleansed anymore till i've satisfied my fury upon you

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He's going to clean cleanse them with his fury. I am. Yahweh have spoken. It shall come to pass.

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I will do it I will not go back. I will not spare I will not relent according to your ways and your deeds.

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You will be judged declares the lord. Yahweh And we our proper response to this is lord have mercy on us little text in context

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Huh texting text without context is a pretext for a proof text Correct.

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Yes the This is the same Lord speaking to the same ezekiel

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Who earlier in 22 is speaking about if the sinner turns away, yeah, right

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So this is not a passage to be twisted that there is no there is no that satan likes to twist passages like this

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And convince us there is not enough forgiveness with the lord for our sins. It was just crazy talk Yeah, but you're right.

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That's the way the devil talks, you know, you know, oh, yeah I know there's forgiveness with with jesus, but not for you, buddy.

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Yeah, I saw what you did Did you hear what you said to that person? Oh your sin is so special And and god's mercy only goes about this far.

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You need it to go this far, but it only goes this far too bad for you So this is specifically on the condition of the impenitence

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Yeah Yeah, this is this is based upon impenitence you know And you'll note

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Always and again, I remind you that the scriptures make it clear today is the day of salvation Today is the day of god's grace.

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Today is the day of mercy. You cannot guarantee that tomorrow will be Because no one knows the day or the hour no one

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If you're sitting there thinking well, i'll sort things out with with god When i'm on my deathbed

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There's no guarantee you're going to have one of those Right. There's no guarantee Okay So today's the day of salvation keep that in mind

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So the word of yahweh came to me son of man behold i'm about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke

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Yet you shall not mourn or weep Nor shall your tears run down Sigh But not allowed

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Make no mourning for the dead Bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet

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Do not cover your lips Nor eat the bread of men so I spoke to the people in the morning and that evening my wife died

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And on the next morning I did as I was commanded That that There's nothing easy about that So god let ezekiel know his wife was going to die suddenly and the command was no mourning

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This is another one of those prophetic acts on the part of ezekiel Why on earth would he not be mourning for his wife?

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Why is he not crying? Why is he not weeping? And and you'll note that when we read in the gospels, there's culturally there's a weird thing in israel

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And that is is that there were professional mourners Okay Which is not a practice that's in our country

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It's very few nations now that still practice such a practice, but that was a common thing in the ancient world

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You know somebody dies and it was kind of a status symbol Um, if you had you know, if you if you had really a lot of money you can pay

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For a good good act and a good number of people to come and mourn your dead and um

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And and so oftentimes it was used as a status symbol and and even in our day nowadays i've

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I i've seen the websites because this is I went down this bunny trail a few years ago. I've seen the websites for For guys in haiti that offer these types of services

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Um, so, you know it these professional mourners in haiti. They this it's a nice side hustle, right?

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You know for so many for so much money that they will come and they will weep and they will cry

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Um for so much money, they'll bring even more people and they'll really you know put up, you know

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They'll really make it sound like you know The the whole world's come to an end because your loved one has died

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And for the like the grand package like the one you pay the most money for If you pay for that, then one of them will throw himself into the grave after they they've lowered the casket so It's like It's nuts

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Right, right So but here Ezekiel No mourning

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No weeping No tears And if you sigh

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You do it privately That's okay

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So again, this is one of those prophetic acts so he does it she More on the next morning.

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I did as I was commanded my so at evening my wife died the next morning I did what I was commanded to do And so all the people said to me will you not tell us what these things mean for us that you are acting thus?

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Why aren't you mourning? Why aren't you weeping? Why are you not? Why are there no tears?

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So then I said to them the word of Yahweh came to me Say to the house of Israel thus says the

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Lord Yahweh behold I will profane my sanctuary the pride of your power the delight of your eyes and the yearning of your soul and Your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword and you shall do as I have done

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You shall not cover your lips Nor eat the bread of men your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet

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You shall not mourn or weep But you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another

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Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign According to all that he has done you shall do when this comes then you will know that I am the

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Lord Yahweh Ouch So for them it was a figure pointing to God's judgment, but Ezekiel got to live it out

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He lost his wife and so his wife symbolized

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Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem and the loss of the temple in Jerusalem And so just like Ezekiel Didn't mourn they will eventually lose these things and they won't even be able to mourn

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And then that's a sign of God's judgment. Then you will know that I am I am the

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Lord Yahweh as for you son of man surely on the day that when I take from them their stronghold their joy

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Um and glory the delight of their eyes and their souls desire And also their sons and their daughters on that day a fugitive will come to you and report to you the news

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On that day your mouth will be opened to the fugitive and you shall speak and be no longer mute

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So you will be assigned to them and they will know that I am Yahweh So to make things more even more complicated and a little more painful for Ezekiel here

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Now Ezekiel is told by God. Oh, by the way, not only are you not mourning I'm gonna have you be silent you get to be mute until Until a fugitive arrives and delivers the news

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How long is it going to take for that guy to show up? months months So now

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Ezekiel not only is he not mourning he hasn't mourned his wife Now they go to Ezekiel say how's it going today

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Ezekiel? Nothing Okay and so Boy these prophetic acts on the part of Ezekiel I feel bad for the guy.

35:46

Yeah, what's interesting is kind of like what you were saying in the sermon about God attaching his word To an inanimate object.

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Yeah And the people like who are against communion or other other others of the the anti -sacramentarian

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Yeah They ignore that all through the prophets. God is constantly attaching his word to inanimate object the prophet himself.

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Yeah you know Ezekiel's very body and life are

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Living living presences of God's prophecy. Yep. Yeah These prophetic acts are they are inspired

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And they the holy spirit and God's word are attached to them and there's a message that goes along with them

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And um, and you'll note again. God's not offering words of comfort to the exiles at this point He's these all of these prophetic acts are invoking his wrath his judgment and What is

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God again? We we got to remember the context that when These this first round of exiles went into babylon.

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There were some false prophets among them And they still hadn't gotten

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Gotten rid of those yahoos They were still listening to these people. They were still hanging on to their syncretistic

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Idolatrous and gnostic notions They were holding on to them. And so god's intent for the these exiles

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Is to legitimately through his his judgments and through his word and through the prophets

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Through the prophet ezekiel to purge this stuff out of them And if you remember we read it out of order, we've already read nehemiah.

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We've already read ezra And when they come back from exile Um, there's no false prophets among them at that point

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They're actually hearing the words of god uh through the through this through ezra the scribe

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And um, they still have sinful problems that have to be dealt with and addressed like marrying foreign women and things like this

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But those things get those things get addressed. So you'll note that this very uncomfortable

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Work that god is doing there To these fugitives in exile

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It's for your benefit and mine as well as theirs Had god not purged this this idolatry out of them had not purged out of their midst the false prophets

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What would have been the implications regarding the birth of the messiah? You know

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So he's got the salvation of the whole world in mind and here having to cut out the cancer

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That is in these people And you'll note that the surgery that god is performing. He seems to be performing without any anesthesia

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You know, we're gonna cut this out oh it's gonna hurt And you and it's gonna hurt really bad and we because it's gonna be so painful

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You're gonna know that i'm yaweh, right? That's kind of the point And the surgeon is feeling the same pain. Yeah, he is

38:57

All right now In 25 and let me take a look in 25.

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We have a prophecy against ammon Moab and seir against edom against philistia

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Against tyre and this one against tyre is one of the more interesting ones but I I want you to know in this little section of of Ezekiel we're going to be looking at god speaking words of judgment and oracles of judgment

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Against people who are not israeli All right Yep, and so that's that part of this is god's vengeance and repayment for the wicked done by these different Gentile nations against god's people for sure.

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So you got prophecy against sidon And um, and and and even egypt is going to be mentioned in here

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And so this might seem out of place, but it's not And um when

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I was teaching the elythians through this portion of ezekiel one of the things I I made the

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I made the contention, especially having read it in one of the commentaries Is that god speaks similar words of judgment to all nations?

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This is just a sampling of how god speaks judgment against pagan

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Unbelieving nations and so this is not a totality of god's judgment

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But you're going to note he starts with his own house first He starts with the israelites and now he's going to speak words of judgment

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Against these other nations and so there's much that we should hang on to here

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As we listen to god's wrath against those who oppose his word Those who oppose his people those who persecute his people those who would trip up his people martyr his people and things like this

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Uh, let me remind you of what psalm 2 says in this regard And no, we will not be doing the blazing saddles bible study while doing psalm 2 today

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But psalm 2 reads thus. Why do the nations rage? Why Do the people's plot in vain in fact, it's this section of the psalms that Uh peter quotes when he's arrested for the first time

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After he healed the that that man who was lame from birth Uh who was laid at the at the the beautiful gate there on the way into the temple when he was put on trial

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And legitimately being pressured to stop preaching in the name of christ When they when they got out of jail that day

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And they gathered together as the church and they prayed Peter's prayer. He rolls these words up into his prayer

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Why do the nations rage why do the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth they set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against yahweh

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And against his messiah anointed his is the word messiah saying

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Let us burst their bonds apart Cast away their cords from us

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Is this an endeavor that will succeed Okay, no

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So god responds He who sits in the heavens laughs The lord holds them in derision

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Then he will speak to them in his wrath And he will terrify them in his fury saying as for me

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I have set my king on zion my holy hill I will tell of the decree yahweh said to me you are my son today.

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I have begotten you Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession

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You shall break them with a rod of iron dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel now therefore.

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Oh kings be wise Be warned. Oh rulers of the earth Serve yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way

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For his wrath is is quickly kindled blessed are all who take refuge in him

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So when we take a look at history Oftentimes we look at history from a secular mindset

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Don't do that As christians, we are always to look at history through the lens of good theology

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Right. So let me let me ask a provocative question At least this will be provocative for only a certain small group of weird people

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But uh, the the question is this when jesus returns in glory To judge the living and the dead and he makes all things new and establishes his kingdom on the earth will

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Will there be the star spangled banner flying above his no

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There will not be what will happen to the united states

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Yeah destroyed What is the fate of the united states? If it doesn't blow itself up in the next civil war, which will be in about five minutes, let's just stay tuned right

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What will become of the united states? Well the same thing will happen to great britain russia the ukraine china japan

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Australia All of the nations are coming to a cataclysmic end

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And so when we look at god speaking in judgment against gentile nations

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This is a foretaste Of god's judgment of all of the nations of the earth again

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Remember the the prophecy the prophetic dream that nebuchadnezzar had regarding the kingdoms of the earth

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And then the rock that was not cut by the hands of men coming and smashing them all to bits and pieces

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And then growing into a huge mountain And and the nations of the earth disappearing like dust right

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So when we read a section like what we're going to read It's important for us to recognize when god speaks this way

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He has words like this to speak for every to every nation every gentile Kingdom every empire that ever existed has words kind of stored up for them of this nature right

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So yahweh the word of yahweh came to me son of man set your face toward the amanites And I want you to prophesy against them

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Say to the amanites hear the word of yahweh the lord. Yahweh Thus says the lord yahweh because you said aha

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Over my sanctuary when it was profaned And over the land of israel when it was made desolate and over the house of judah when they went into exile therefore behold

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I am Handing you over to the people of the east for a possession and they shall set their

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Encampments among you and make your dwellings their dwellings in your midst They shall eat your fruit and they shall drink your milk

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I will make rabba a pasture for camels and aman a fold for flocks and then you will know that I am yahweh

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Oops Right, so you're gonna note here Do you remember when you were a kid and you got into got in trouble?

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You know, maybe you got in a fight with your brother or you got in a fight with your sister And and clearly your brother or sister was in the wrong

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Okay And so, you know when your parents decided that they were going to finally intervene and step in to this cacophony of chaos

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That was created as a result of this conflict that was occurring What happened?

46:41

Oh your brother or sister they got it His parents acted in justice and he's sitting there and go yeah

46:49

Right, and as soon as they were done with them, they came and said it's your turn. Wait, what what did I do?

46:56

Right, that's kind of what's going on here Okay, god has acted in wrath against judah

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For her idolatry. Oh, and by the way amman you were all you were all excited about what was going on While my sanctuary was being defiled your turn

47:12

Go get the belt Right That's that's kind of the way to think about this There's a lot of that going on here

47:21

All right. We'll just have to pick this up next week Um, oh wait next week is mother's day um

47:27

Okay, so So it is our tradition here. We normally do not have sunday school on mother's day so Huh, did we break that tradition last year or not?

47:40

No, we didn't no we didn't so we're gonna keep the tradition. Okay. All right. So next sunday being mother's day We will not have sunday school next sunday.