WWUTT 1994 Judah’s Alliance with Egypt (Isaiah 30:1-33)

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Some of the Jews had formed an alliance with Egypt, the very nation that they had previously been enslaved to, but thought that Egypt could save them from the

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Assyrians. Instead, God would embarrass them, but would save His faithful 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. In our study of the book of Isaiah, we are in Chapter 30 today, and I'm going to try to get through all 33 verses, so I'm going to keep my opening reading brief here, looking at verses 1 through 7.

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Now this is where the Lord condemns Judah for making an alliance with Egypt. Instead of trusting in God for deliverance, they turn to Egypt for help.

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Let me begin reading here in verse 1, and I'll go through verse 7 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

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Hear the word of the Lord. Woe to the rebellious children, declares Yahweh, who execute counsel but not mine, and make an alliance but not of my spirit, in order to add sin to sin, who go down to Egypt but did not ask me to find strength in the strong defense of Pharaoh and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.

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Therefore the strong defense of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your dishonor.

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For their princes are at Zion, and their messengers reach Hanes. Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.

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The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev, through a land of distress and anguish, from where come lioness and lion, viper and flying fiery serpent?

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They carry their wealth on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on camels' humps, to a people who cannot profit them, even

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Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore I have called her Rahab, who has ceased."

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The event that we're reading about here in chapter 30 is chronicled historically in 2

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Kings chapter 18. We've got some narrative coming up here in just a little bit.

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When we get to chapters 36 to 39, you have Sennacherib coming against Judah and Hezekiah appeals to Isaiah.

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That will conclude part one of Isaiah, which goes from chapters 1 to 39.

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Part two begins in chapter 40 and will go through chapter 66. But here in this section, this address, which extends five chapters, 30 to 35, this is an address that comes to Judah through Isaiah because Judah has aligned with Egypt.

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Now Hezekiah, who is king at this time, is not mentioned in this section, so it's unlikely that he was the one that formed this alliance with Egypt.

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Either Hezekiah's advisors did it without his knowledge, or they somehow prompted

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Hezekiah to do it, and God just doesn't hold the blame on Hezekiah for it. But for those who did form this alliance with Egypt, we have this woe, this oracle that is mentioned here.

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Let me go ahead and begin again in verse 1. See, that could lead one to recognize that it was actually

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Hezekiah's counselors who did this and not Hezekiah himself. God goes on to say,

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So, in other words, Judah doesn't trust God. They think that their deliverance from the

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Assyrians will come through the aid of the Egyptians, that very nation they were once enslaved to, and God rescued them out of.

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And here Judah willingly goes back to be enslaved by them again. Certainly not in the same sense, but they pay tribute, they give loyalty, they subject themselves to the

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Egyptians to help them out against the Assyrians, and Egypt at this time is not even a strong arm.

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They're not going to succeed against the Assyrians. In fact, the Egyptians are going to be embarrassed by the

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Assyrians as well. So what a woeful alliance for Judah to do this.

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In no way does this benefit them. Certainly not with God, as they do not trust the

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Lord. So in verse 3, the Lord says, Therefore the strong defense of Pharaoh will be your shame and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your dishonor.

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For their princes are at Zion, and their messengers reach Hades. Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.

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Egypt, still a very pagan people, Egypt still looking at their own Pharaoh as though he is a god.

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So Judah doesn't trust the Lord God, they trust a false god to try to help them and deliver them from the

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Assyrians. And so going on in verses 6 and 7, the oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev through a land of distress and anguish.

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From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying fiery serpent, which is an interesting reference.

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That's almost to say that there are flying dragons at this particular time, breathing fire and they dwell in a land of wilderness, specifically they dwell in Egypt.

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They carry their wealth on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on camel's humps to a people who cannot profit them, even

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Egypt, whose help is vain and empty, therefore I have called her

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Rahab who has ceased. Now that doesn't have anything to do with the Rahab who hid the spies of Israel when they came in to scout out

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Jericho. Rahab is a pagan name and it means arrogant. So for God to call

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Egypt Rahab who has ceased is to say they're arrogant and they're not going to do anything.

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So he goes on in verse 8, now go write it on a tablet before them and inscribe it on a scroll that it may be in the time to come as a witness forever.

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For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who are not willing to listen to the law of Yahweh.

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So it's going to be inscribed on a tablet exactly this foolishness that they have done that they may be reminded of their own idiocy so that they would no longer turn to their own ways, which apparently is not going to help them, but lead to their own destruction and that they would turn to the

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Lord. For this is a rebellious people, false sons, God says, this is those who have formed this alliance with Egypt.

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They don't trust in Yahweh. They're not willing to listen to the law of Yahweh. But they run to a corrupt people, a pagan people.

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Now, sometimes the prophets are referred to as law. So God has spoken through Isaiah.

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This is what this people are to do. So this reference here in verse 9 to the law of Yahweh is probably not a reference to the

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Torah. It's a reference to that word that had come from God through Isaiah, which the people are not listening to.

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Verse 10, who say to the seers, you must not see and to those who have visions, you must not behold visions for us of what is right.

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Speak to us pleasant words, behold visions of illusion. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, see speaking before us about the

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Holy One of Israel. Now we've seen that previously in Isaiah, where a blindness and a deafness was going to be put on the people so that they could not even understand the words that the prophets were saying to them.

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And here, the people outright reject the word of the prophet. Their hearts are so hard.

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We read previously in Isaiah, this oracle from God saying of them that they acknowledge me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

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And their fear is actually in the commandment of men. In verse 12, therefore, thus says the

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Holy One of Israel, since you have rejected this word and have put your trust in oppression and deviousness and have relied on them.

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That's Egypt. They are the oppressors, remember. This is the land

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God had rescued them out of, and they go back to their oppressors. Therefore, verse 13, this iniquity will be to you like a breach about to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant, whose breaking is like the breaking of a potter's jar, so ruthlessly shattered that a potsherd will not be found among its pieces to take fire from a hearth or to scoop water from a cistern.

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So whenever a pot broke, you could still find some usefulness out of the pot because pieces of the pot might be used for something else, to scoop fire or to draw water.

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You could still, you know, have the little bowl part in there. But this, the Lord is using this illustration to say you will be so utterly broken, there will be nothing of you left, those who have formed this alliance with Egypt.

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For thus Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel has said in repentance and rest, you will be saved in quietness and trust is your might.

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But you were not willing and you said, no, for we will flee on horses.

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Therefore, you shall flee and we will ride on swift horses. Therefore, those who pursue you shall be swift.

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One thousand will flee at the threat of one man, you will flee at the threat of five until you are left as a flag on a mountaintop and as a standard on a hill.

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So these who have formed this alliance with Egypt, their judgment is sure and it will be total and cowardice will fill their hearts and they will try to flee, but they will be struck down.

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Yet we have this spoken about to Judah, to those who were faithful, beginning in 18, a word from Yahweh who is gracious and just.

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Therefore, Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you and therefore he is on high to have compassion on you for Yahweh is a

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God of justice. How blessed are all those who wait for him. Oh, people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer.

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He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you.

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The Lord has given you bread of distress and water of oppression. He, your teacher, will no longer hide himself, but your eyes will see your teacher and your ears will hear a word behind you.

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This is the way, walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right or to the left and you will defile your graven images overlaid with your silver and your molten images plated with your gold, you will scatter them as an impure thing and say to them, be gone.

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Then he will give you rain for the seed, which you will sow in the ground and bread from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fat.

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On that day, your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. Also the oxen and the donkeys, which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

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And it will be that on every lofty mountain and on every lifted up hill, there will be streams running with water on the day of great slaughter when the towers fall and the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter like the light of seven days on the day

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Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people and heals the bruise he has inflicted.

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So though there was going to be this trial, this judgment that would come upon his people, yet Yahweh would be gracious to them.

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And so in verse 27, behold, the name of Yahweh comes from afar. Burning is his anger and heavy is his smoke.

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His lips are filled with indignation and his tongue is like a consuming fire.

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His breath is like an overflowing torrent, which reaches to the neck to shake the nations back and forth in a sieve of worthlessness and to put in the jaws of the peoples, the bridle, which staggers one to ruin.

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You will have songs as in the night when you set apart yourself as holy for the festival and gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel and Yahweh will cause his splendid voice to be heard and the descending of his arm to be seen in raging anger and in the flame of a consuming fire in cloudbursts, downpour and hailstones.

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For at the voice of Yahweh, Assyria will be dismayed when he strikes with the rod and every blow of the appointed staff, which

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Yahweh will cause to rest upon him, will be with the music of tambourines and lyres and in battles waving weapons, he will fight them.

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For Topheth has long been ready. Indeed, it has been prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large, a pyre of fire with plenty of wood.

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The breath of Yahweh, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

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Now, these words that we read here, this is immediate deliverance that Yahweh is talking about immediate judgment on those who would form this alliance with Egypt and immediate deliverance for those who have remained true to the

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Lord and have trusted in him to save them. This very judgment that was so poetically and colorfully described as the anger of God being like a fire that sweeps in and consumes.

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Yes, this is the way that God would strike down the Assyrians and save Judah. He himself would do it with this kind of wrath and fury.

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Listen to what we read in 2 Kings 19. I told you that this particular episode, the alliance with Egypt is in 2

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Kings 18. Listen to what we read in 19, what comes about on the other end of this.

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We'll get to this later on in Isaiah as well, but I'm going to go ahead and spoil the ending. Okay, so in chapter 19,

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Hezekiah comes into the temple. He prays to God. He begs that God would save them from the

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Assyrians. Here, Hezekiah is appealing to Yahweh, not to Egypt, to any other nation, to God, trusting that God will deliver them from the

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Assyrians. And to make a long story short, because we'll come to this later on, so fast forwarding through this story a little bit.

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Here's what happens. I'm reading in chapter 19, starting in verse 32. Therefore, thus says

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Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, he will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there, and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it.

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By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city, declares

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Yahweh. Indeed, I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant

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David's sake. Okay, that's through verse 34. Now, hear what happens in verse 35.

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Now, it happened that night that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185 ,000 in the camp of the

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Assyrians. And the men arose early in the morning and behold, all of them were dead bodies.

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That's it. End of the conflict in one verse, 185 ,000,

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God just strikes down that night. That's it. Hezekiah appealed to God and said, save us.

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And God said, I'll do it for my name's sake and for the sake of my servant David. And he goes into the

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Assyrian camp and strikes down 185 ,000 of them. Not just a few, 185 ,000 in one night, verse 36.

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So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, set out and went away and returned home and lived in Nineveh. Now, it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nishrach, his god,

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Adrimalek and Cherezer struck him down with the sword and they escaped into the land of Ararat.

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And Esarhaddon, his son, became king in his place. And that was the end. That was the end of the

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Assyrians attempting to make war on Judah. God came in and saved them.

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And oh, if Judah had only been appealing to God from the very beginning. Then those that had made that alliance with Egypt might be spared.

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You know, my friends, we see things like this happening in political discourse even in our world today.

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There are Christians who, instead of trusting in God, turn to ridiculous politicians, men who are sinful and wicked, who are not righteous, who themselves do not seek the

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Lord. And even those who profess to be followers of God, followers of Christ, they'll turn to these wicked politicians and say, save us and form these alliances.

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And none of these politicians ever deliver. In fact, right now in the United States of America, the

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Republican Party is pretty corrupt. And those that are called conservative are not really conservative.

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And yet many Christians will turn to them and think that the Republicans are going to be our saviors. But the condition that our nation is in right now is just going to continue to get worse as God turns this nation over to a depraved mind to be consumed by its own passions, burning in unrighteousness until the wrath of God burns against it and pours out and destroys this people.

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The only way that we can be saved is to turn to God. That's what we must be proclaiming.

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And whatever nation you live in, proclaim as Paul did at the Areopagus there in Athens in Acts chapter 17, that God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness.

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And he has shown by whom he will judge the world by raising him from the dead.

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Paul referring to Jesus Christ. Christ is returning and he will bring the wrath of God the

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Almighty with him when he comes back in his fiery angels to judge the world in righteousness.

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The only way to be saved is to turn to Jesus. And that's a message we must go out with to the world.

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Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ today and you will be saved.

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Turn not. And the judgment that comes upon you will be much, much worse than 185 ,000

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Assyrians struck down in the middle of the night. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that has been given to us in Christ.

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And may the message of the gospel, Jesus, who died on the cross, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, who reigns over all, may the message of his gospel continue to give hope to us and also be that message that we go out with to the world that people may hear of their sin and the judgment that's coming against it, turning from their sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live by the mercy and grace and love of God.

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Guide us today. May we look to the Lord to be our strength in all things, not looking for satisfaction or happiness in the world, but knowing that we are fully satisfied in Christ.

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it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen.