WWUTT 664 Two Men and a Wicked Lady?

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There are seasons in which things get really dire and they look real hopeless and people just look as evil as they can possibly be, but God uses even these seasons to do a righteous thing when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the book of 2

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Chronicles today, covering chapters 21 and 22, where we will read about three rulers in Judah, two kings and a queen,

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Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah. And all three of these rulers were wicked.

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The last couple of kings that we looked at were righteous kings, Asa and Jehoshaphat.

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But then Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, assumes the throne and that begins a pattern of wickedness in Judah that looks a lot more like Israel, the idol worship that was going on in the northern kingdom.

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Remember that though Jehoshaphat was a righteous king, he tried to form an alliance with Israel.

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He thought, hey, we're fellow kinsmen here, Judah and Israel. We shouldn't be fighting one another. We should be working together.

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Though his intentions were good, this was an alliance that was ill -advised.

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Israel did not worship God. They did not fear the Lord. They worshiped false gods and golden calves.

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And Ahab, who was king at the time in Israel that Jehoshaphat reigned in Judah, he attempted to use

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Judah for his own nefarious purposes. This would eventually be Jehoshaphat's downfall.

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Worse than that, the influence of Israel would affect, or rather I should say would infect

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Judah and they would start looking a lot more like Israel for a time.

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Now just to give you an idea of how far we've come in our study of 2 Chronicles, or rather how far we have yet to go, though we're up to chapter 21, there were 20 kings in Judah and Jehoram is only the fifth.

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So we're just a little bit more than halfway through. A couple of these kings pick up a little bit more and we don't read them in quite as much detail, but we still have a long way to go in our study of the book of 2

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Chronicles. So let's get to our reading today. Chapter 21 begins with the death of Jehoshaphat, who slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

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And Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place. He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, and we have their names mentioned there.

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All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. Their father gave them great gifts of silver, gold and valuable possessions together with fortified cities in Judah.

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But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he killed all his brothers with the sword and also some of the princes of Israel.

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Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

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And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.

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And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever, which we know was a prophecy concerning the coming of Christ.

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Now, back to this alliance that Jehoshaphat attempted to form with Israel, part of that alliance meant that Jehoshaphat gave his son to the daughter of Ahab.

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And so it was an arranged marriage that they hoped, or at least Jehoshaphat hoped, would bring peace between the two kingdoms.

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Clearly, that didn't work out that way. You have the influence of a false, wicked nation upon a nation that was attempting to be righteous.

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And remember what we read in the Proverbs, that bad company corrupts good character, as Paul also repeated to the

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Corinthians. So that's exactly what happened in Judah. All the reforms that Jehoshaphat had brought were undone, and worse, when

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Jehoram murdered all of his own brothers. It just kind of shows you the insecurity of this man.

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He thought he was securing his throne in this way instead of fearing God, believing that he had the power to do this, and likewise killed a few of the princes of Israel, thinking, yeah, hey, you want to form peace between two nations?

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I'll give you peace. Look at the kind of power that I have. But of course, in order to bring about this peace, he had to kill some people, which is not any peace at all.

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And though he walked in the ways of Israel and worshipped false gods and was a murderous wretch, the

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Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David, as it says in verse 7, because of the covenant that he had made with David.

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This coming week, we begin a study in 2 Timothy. On Monday, we'll do our introduction to the book of 2

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Timothy, and it's in 2 Timothy chapter 2, starting in verse 8, that we read the following.

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Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which

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I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.

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Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

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If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

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If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

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And that is the picture that we see here in 2 Chronicles 21. Even though Judah became faithless,

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God remained faithful to his own promise to David and to his throne, for he cannot deny himself.

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And praise God for being God, that he was faithful to that covenant promise because that was for our benefit.

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We have come to know Christ and have received the salvation in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord, that was effected for us at the cross and his resurrection for the grave.

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The gospel message of Jesus Christ was preached to you and you believed it. And this salvation has come about because of God's faithfulness to himself.

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To his own covenant, though we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

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And that is just as true today as it was in Judah a thousand years before Christ.

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What we're reading about here in 2 Chronicles chapter 21. But all of this was according to the sovereign plan and foreknowledge of God.

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Nothing here is happening outside of God's will. He is still in control to be able to take even the wickedness that was happening in Judah here and use it to bring about the the salvation of mankind through his son,

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Jesus Christ, who is prophesied once again in verse seven. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David.

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And since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever, that lamp, that light of the world, as John talks about in John chapter one, is

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Jesus Christ. Verse eight. In his days, in the days of Jehoram, Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own.

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Then Jehoram passed over with his commanders and all his chariots, and he rose by night and struck the

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Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders. So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day.

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At that time, Libna also revolted from his rule because he had forsaken the Lord, the

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God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom and made

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Judah go astray. And a letter came to him from Elijah, the prophet. Remember him?

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He's still around. We read more about him in First Kings, but here he has a mention in Second Chronicles as well.

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Elijah wrote a letter saying, Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat, your father, or in the ways of Asa, king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have enticed

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Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom as the house of Ahab led

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Israel into whoredom. And also you have killed your brothers of your father's house who were better than you.

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Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives and all your possessions, and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels until your bowels come out because of the disease day by day.

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That's pretty gross. Like you're talking about the wickedness that Jehoram brought against Judah, against his own household, against his family, most especially against God, is so serious that God is going to afflict

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Jehoram with what is the equivalent of a slow disembowelment. Now, that might be enough, that threat might be enough for you to go,

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OK, OK, OK, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and immediately repent. That's not the way that Jehoram responds.

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So we're in verse 16 now. And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the anger of the

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Philistines and of the Arabians who are near the Ethiopians. And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions that they found that belonged to the king's house and also his sons and his wives so that no son was left to him except Jehoaz, his youngest son.

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And after all this, the Lord struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease.

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In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease and he died in great agony.

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That's putting it mildly. Two years he was afflicted with this until his bowels came out of his body.

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His people made no fire in his honor like the fires made for his father's. He was 32 years old when he began to reign and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem and he departed with no one's regret.

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They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

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Very clearly, Jehoram did not have many fans. And that last statement, not in the tombs of the kings, indicates that no one really considered

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Jehoram to be an heir of David. He was more along the lines of those kings in Israel than he was the kings of Judah, which is why he was not buried with the other kings.

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So it's kind of like the final insult, even after he died. And when he died, it was a very gruesome way to go.

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It's like judges level kind of a judgment. That's kind of grossness that we saw going on in the book of Judges.

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When everybody was evil, there was no king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And that's kind of what

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Jehoram did. He did what he thought was right, had no fear of God, and God afflicted him greatly.

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There were people in Judah who did wicked things just like Jehoram did, but they were not afflicted like Jehoram was.

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And that is because Jehoram was a king who influenced the rest of Judah and sat upon the throne of David, which was supposed to be a position of righteousness, leading the nation in righteousness.

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But instead, since he led that nation in wickedness, the Lord struck him more severely than he would have stricken anyone else.

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And this goes along with something that James says in James 3 .1. Not all of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers, for you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

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Now, a teacher is not a king, but a teacher is certainly somebody who is influential over others who hear his words and his teachings.

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This is why it is so important that a teacher cling to the righteous words of God rather than unsound doctrine and things that deviate from the words of God, leading a person to depravity or a depraved mind because they're deprived of the truth.

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As we read about earlier this week in First Timothy, chapter six, I think likewise, the

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Lord is going to judge rulers of nations more severely than he's going to judge the peoples of those nations.

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And that's certainly what we see going on here in the reign or at the conclusion of the reign of Jehoram.

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So let's get to chapter 22 here. Ahaziah becomes the king in Jehoram's place,

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Ahaziah being the youngest son of Jehoram. Now, a moment ago, we read in chapter 21, verse 17, that only his youngest son

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Jehoaz was left to him. And here we have his youngest son listed as Ahaziah.

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Well, Ahaziah is just a Hebrew variant of Jehoaz. I'm not really sure why, but it is.

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It's still the same person, two different names mentioned in the two chapters, but same guy. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made

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Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men that came with the

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Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned.

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Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.

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Very short reign we're reading about here. His mother's name was Athaliah, and we're going to read about her in just a moment, the granddaughter of Omri.

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He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly.

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He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done. For after the death of his father, they were his counselors to his undoing.

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He even followed their counsel and went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, to make war against Hazael, king of Syria at Ramath Gilead.

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And the Syrians wounded Jehoram, and he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that he had received in Ramath when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria.

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And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel because he was wounded.

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But it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit

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Joram. For when he came there, he went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu, the son of Nimshi, whom the

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Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. And when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he met the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers who attended

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Ahaziah, and he killed them. He searched for Ahaziah, and he was captured while hiding in Samaria, and he was brought to Jehu and put to death.

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They buried him, for they said, he is the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart.

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And the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom.

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So then what's going to happen is Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, is going to reign.

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And that's what we're going to read about here in verse 10. So notice that it mentioned earlier that Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri, was a counselor to Ahaziah.

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That's not unusual. We've seen that before, that sometimes these kings would have their mother as kind of a counselor.

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She would be a ruler in her own right, but she would be a counselor to the king. Even all the way back to Solomon, his mother

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Bathsheba was a counselor to him. In this case, Athaliah was a wicked woman, and she led

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Ahaziah astray. So likewise, she is going to rule wickedly over Judah.

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That's what we get to here in verse 10. Now, when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family of the house of Judah.

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But Jehoshabiath, the daughter of the king, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were about to be put to death.

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And she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus, Jehoshabiath, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of Jehoiada the priest, because she was a sister of Ahaziah, hid him from Athaliah so that she did not put him to death.

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And he remained with them for six years, hidden in the house of God, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

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You have kind of a contrast there between the two women. You have one woman who is God -fearing and seeks shelter in the temple, while the other woman has nothing to do with God and therefore does not find the son that was being hidden in the temple, but instead went her own way and continued in wickedness and worshiped false gods.

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So likewise, and not to put too fine a point on it, but we find safety in the house of the

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Lord, though the world seeks to do us harm, though Satan is always scheming and attempting to pull us away from God and trying to diminish the joy of the

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Lord, which is our strength. We find hope and encouragement and endurance with the people of God.

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And so do not neglect that fellowship that you have with the church, for it is a safety and an encouragement and grows us in strength and in hope of the living

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God. Though things around us might seem dire and people go from bad to worse and rulers are wicked and teachers are wicked and business owners are wicked, and we wonder where God could be in the midst of all of this wickedness.

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Know that God is still on his throne and he is still working all things together for our good and for his glory.

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Let us conclude with prayer. Our Lord God, we pray that we would seek the righteous things of our

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Lord Christ, that we would shun the evilness of this world and continue to realize that nothing of the stuff of this world can ever satisfy us, for it is constantly trying to devour us.

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It shows us something that looks alluring, but inside what's hidden is sickness and death.

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So let us not chase after those things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the stuff that we need.

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You will bless us with, for we are your children if we have been adopted into the family of God through Christ Jesus.

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We know you are a benevolent heavenly father who takes care of your children and disciplines us as sons and daughters to make us more in the image of Christ, preparing us for that day in glory.

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Help us to seek you in all things and give you praise for all good things that we have been given, especially the salvation that we have in Christ, in whose name we pray.

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Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.