Isaiah Lesson 65

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Isaiah: Prophet of the Suffering Servant Lesson 65: Isaiah 49:14-26 Pastors Jeff Kliewer and John Lasken

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We've got a lot of conversations going on, do I dare ask my wife to join us?
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I'm trying to call this meeting, what time does this 12 o 'clock meeting start?
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12 o 'clock, it's 1220 for Sandy, wow, wow.
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Has anybody ever had the feeling of being abandoned by God, to be honest, has anybody ever had that feeling of being abandoned by God?
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I got at least one person, I think before we abandoned him, yeah you're actually teaching the lesson and that's well said, but to be real honest there are those times that it may be a fleeting moment that you capture and you bring under control but that thought comes from one place and it comes from one place only and that would be
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Satan, if he can find a way to make you feel that God is not there, you shouldn't be depending on him, you could call it all kinds of things, he will put those fleeting thoughts in your head, how could
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God do this to me, how could God allow this to happen, all those are questions that they do come up and if we're honest they do come up now, it's what we do with them that's important, that's really what this section is going to be about.
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So as we get ready let's go to prayer, Father God we come to you desiring a closer relationship with you in all things so that when those attacks, when those doubts come, we are so confident in you that we recognize that you never abandon us, you never forsake us, we recognize the faithfulness of who you are,
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I pray that these words in Isaiah 49 would speak to us, encourage us I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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The nation of Israel became actually a nation of Israel while they were in captivity, the account of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and ending up down in Egypt, it was just him at the time and he was there for a period of time that we know of while he was in Pharaoh's court and then with Hodeker's wife and then he's in prison for some period of time and then he's able to proclaim truth and then he comes up and is brought into Pharaoh's court and we know that there's at least seven years because that was the seven years of plenty where he guided the nation of Egypt to accumulate so that they would be prepared for the seven years of famine and then the famine hits and we don't know how long he was there before that seven years started,
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I'm going to presume at least a period of years and we don't know how long after the seven years of plenty and into the famine before his family recognizes the need but we could be talking say ten years,
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I don't know, but it's just him there. Then his family comes down and it's a clan that comes down and then they start to increase in numbers to the point where the
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Egyptians are starting to feel threatened because they're increasing in numbers so tremendously and so they're put into slavery for a period of time and then
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Moses has that horrible time when he sees the Egyptians abusing some of the
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Jews, he murders the Egyptians, he goes off into the wilderness, God calls him to the burning bush and the people are eventually set free by God's providence from slavery, they were set free from having no privileges of their own, they were set free.
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And they leave and they're heading out and then Pharaoh changes his mind and goes after them and so now they're scared stiff because they're confronted by the
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Red Sea and here comes Pharaoh's armies and so they've forgotten about the fact that God's already delivered them once, well he delivers them a second time through the waters.
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And now they're in the wilderness heading towards Mount Sinai and they start grumbling, we should just die here, at least in Egypt we had onions and stuff like that to eat, how much better was life back in Egypt and how quickly they forgot.
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And so they complain again and then they get to Mount Sinai and God provides the
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Ten Commandments and he provides a lot of instruction and then we get to Ezekiel 32,
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Chris I'm going to ask if you would get Ezekiel 32 verses 7 to 9 and it starts out in Ezekiel 32, the people are grumbling again, it's like he's been gone an awful long time, how long do we wait,
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Ezekiel 32, 1, now, oh not
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Genesis, Ezekiel, not Ezekiel, I'm going to try again, Exodus, thank you, that would have been a really strange verse there, especially with the story
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I've been just telling, it's like Ezekiel, seriously? Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, come, make us a
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God who will go before us, ask for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him, they're feeling abandoned.
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Now, how much are they recognizing the reality of God, God's sovereignty, God's care, but they are feeling abandoned again, so they're going to go on their own, give me, it's
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Exodus 32, 7 to 9 please, Exodus 32, 7, and the
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Lord said to Moses, go down before your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrected themselves, they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them, they have made for themselves a golden calf, and have worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, these are your gods,
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O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stick -necked people.
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The feeling of being abandoned, and Rick, you said it quite well, it's more of a realization that we have abandoned our
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God, because when these feelings of being abandoned occur,
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God has never left you, it's that you've lost account, you've lost connection with God.
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So we get into the second half of Isaiah 49, and I really spent some time on this, and it wasn't until this morning that I felt like I understood what
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God was trying to teach us through this chapter, so I kind of rewrote my whole lesson this morning, so we'll see how that goes.
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Rick, I'm going to ask if you would read us verses 14 through 16 in Isaiah 49,
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God's faithful love. As I am said, the Lord has forsaken me, my
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Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
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Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved on you on the palms of my hands.
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Your walls are continually before me. But Zion said, the
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Lord has forsaken me. Now this comes right on the heels of the beginning of 49.
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Now, this isn't all necessarily chronologically, a recording of chronological events, but verse 13, right before this, sing for joy,
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O heavens, and exalt, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the
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Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
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Those are the words written right before what Rick said, but Zion said, the
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Lord has forsaken me. What led, what leads the people?
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What led the people to feeling forsaken? I think it's a combination of things.
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They're used to the tangible gods, gods they can see and feel. Okay. And I don't think,
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Jehovah, of course, is not one of them. Okay. All right. I, you know what, I see that.
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I definitely see that. Any other thoughts? They forgot their own actions.
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Okay, now that's a big part of it, Chris. That's really cool. Again, putting this into place where it belongs, at the time that Isaiah is prophesying, the nation of Israel is gone, all right?
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The nation of Judah is still there, and the Shekinah glory is still in the temple, and God is, has been for 48 chapters, has been calling his people, calling his people, and Chris, as you said, they have lost their way.
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We know from the beginning, even if you pray, I'm not going to listen because your heart's not in your prayer.
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That's, I think, one of the big keys. Your heart's not in your prayer, and so there will be a feeling of emptiness, even when they try to talk, even when they try to relate with God.
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God is a spirit, and those who worship him must do it in spirit and in truth, and they are not spiritually attuned at all at this point.
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And because of that, what's happening to them? They feel that God has disconnected them, but again, it's the other way around.
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Yeah, so if the nation, and if we read the early chapters of Isaiah, the nation has been doing the prescribed things.
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He says, I grow tired of your, of your, of your sacrifices, your burnt offerings. He's, they're doing things, but not necessarily getting reflection back from God, and so because of that, they feel, they feel forsaken.
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Genesis 6, leading up to the time of Noah, it says that God saw the wickedness, but yet he, he still has a reality of wanting his people, and then in Genesis 8, 1, it says
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God remembered Noah, and he's going to give him away, and then, and then eventually he says he promises never to destroy the earth again by flood, all right?
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He puts the rainbow in the sky. Psalm 103, Karen, I'm going to ask you if you would go to Psalm 103, and when you get there,
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I want verse 10 first, Psalm 103, verse 10.
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He has not dealt with us after our sins, but rewarded us according to our iniquities.
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There's a reality that our sins and our iniquities do have consequences, they, they have consequences, and at the end of the day, we know that at the end of the day, if you have not surrendered to, accepted the blood of Christ, there are eternal consequences to be felt, but here and now, it feels like there are consequences for sin are being held back.
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Well, God is holding judgment out of his mercy and out of his patience that all might come in repentance to him.
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He could deal with us right now according to our sins, and he could repay us right now according to our iniquities, but at now, he's not, and the response for us not being dealt with should be one of worship and adulation.
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Now give me verses two through six, two through five, please. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth life from destruction, who crowneth that with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth him out with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
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It starts out in here that the Zion says, the Lord has forsaken me, the
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Lord has forgotten me, and again, as Rick pointed out quite clearly, it's completely ignoring the truth.
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I've ignored God, so, and if he's gonna be dealing with me, I don't feel it because I've ignored him,
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I'm out of tune with him. He goes back to this analogy of a nursing woman, he's used that before, and he says, almost a rhetorical question, can a nursing woman forget her child?
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And it's almost a question that doesn't have to be answered, because it's clear, no, a nursing woman won't forget her, and she'll always have compassion on the son of her womb.
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This is the relationship that's understood by all mankind, and he says, now even if these will forget, which is ridiculous, because they can't, but even if these would forget,
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I will never forget you. The promise that even if the ridiculous is possible, so much more impossible is it for me to forget you.
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1 Corinthians 1 .9, hey, Louise, I asked if you would get 1 Corinthians 1 .9 in Romans 5 .8,
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Carol, if you want to get that for me, please. Our promise of God, who is always, always, always there, so that having gotten out of this fog, this
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Satan -induced fog of ignoring God as we leave, God is there, we get to see it.
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1 Corinthians 1 .9, God is faithful by whom we were called unto the fellowship of his son,
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Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is faithful in calling us. Now, Zion felt abandoned, but yet the call remains.
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Romans 5 .8? But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
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And this is the reality, is that we are separated from God by sin, by ignoring him, but his call is always going to be there.
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Even if a nursing mother could, which she can't, I will never abandon you.
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Now, this promise in context here is actually given to the nation of Israel.
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We do expand these promises to all humanity, rightfully so in the
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New Testament, the mystery that salvation has come even to the Gentiles.
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This promise is actually given to the nation of Israel. He says, I'm not going to forget you.
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And then he gives an amazing comment, behold,
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I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.
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What is he talking about when he says, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands?
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Well, my mind goes directly to the cross. That's the first place I go. That's absolutely the first place it would go.
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If we go to John 20 in verse 27, the followers of Jesus have been in a room and they've been distressed and almost fearful because their
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Messiah has died and he's been buried. Now, he's heard the accounts from Mary and he's heard
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Peter and John and everything else, but there still is this angst. What do we do now?
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And Jesus appears and he encourages them, but Thomas isn't there.
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And so then the next time it's recorded, Thomas is there. And he says, unless I get to put my fingers in his hands and my hand in his side,
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I'm not going to believe. And Jesus comes and he says, reach out your finger, reach out your finger.
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See my hands, put your fingers there. My side, put your hand there.
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The marks that are on Jesus are there today.
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Now, the hypostatic union occurred at an instant in history when the
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Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she conceived and that union of the
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Holy Spirit with her egg was fully God, fully man at that point in time.
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The hypostatic union does not stop. And so today, and then through the rest of history,
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Jesus retains in some way, he retains his fleshly body and as he sits at the right hand of the
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Father and Satan, the great accuser, is saying, that guy John Laskin, he's just wrong, he's wrong, he shouldn't be.
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And Jesus, it's almost like, I paid the price. I did,
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I paid the price. I paid the price. And that will be for all of eternity.
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Now, there is a second interpretation, which isn't bad either. I do believe the first one is actually more scripturally provable.
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But they would, you've heard of tying a string around your finger so that you don't forget to get eggs on the way home from work, right?
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Similar to that, they would make markings on their hands so they wouldn't forget something that they didn't want to forget.
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And if that's even true, that's almost a precursor to what actually happens to Jesus' hands.
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That the nails, the marks that they do. Now, okay, technically, I think that the nails were actually here, not here.
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And the reason is, if they were here, the weight of the body would just rip right through, but here, it's captured.
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It's actually here, and that's okay. But that's what he sees. And because he sees that, and because those are there for all of eternity, now, perhaps back in the time of Isaiah, they were written things on the hands, which were a foreshadowing of the nails in the hands.
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So, I'm not going to forget you. Even if a nursing mother forgets you, I'm not going to forget you because you are written on my hands.
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Now, this reference to your walls are continually before me is actually a reference to, in Isaiah 62, it talks about the walls of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem making a praise to God.
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God has established Jerusalem as his city, as his possession for his people.
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And although those walls got knocked down to be rebuilt again, and all of that temple got knocked down and knocked down again, those walls are in God's mind, and they are his promise of residence to him.
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So, this reality that not only is what he's done for us forever in his presence, but this city that he's established will also always be before him.
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Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and forgotten me. No, he hasn't.
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And that's the beginning promise of this. Barb, if you would read, please, 17 to 21.
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We're in Isaiah 49 for us, please. Your sons hasten back, and those who lay in your ways depart from you.
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Lift up your eyes and look around. All your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live, declares the
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Lord, you will wear them all as ornaments. You will put them on like a bride.
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Though you were ruined and made desolate, your land laid waste. Now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
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All the way to 21, please. Okay. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, this place is too small for us.
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Give us more space to live in. Then you will say in your heart, who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren.
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I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left alone, but these, where have they come from?
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What we have in this section is a promise of God for the return of Israel.
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We will see that as we go into it. Putting it again into the ears and the hearing of the people, their northern brethren are gone.
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They're gone, and now in the south, they really haven't started to be, the
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Assyrians haven't started their attack on them yet. Eventually the Babylonians, that hasn't happened yet.
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The 70 years of captivity, that hasn't happened yet. They're still dwelling in the land in a certain level of security and peace within the land.
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That still is there. Now they go through periods of time where the kings are wicked.
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They get judged, and they get attacked, but then there are judges.
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They come and proclaim, and there's a time of restoration. A king that seeks God, and there's a time of restoration.
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The cycle continues. But at this point in time, there really isn't a direct need for them to be encouraged.
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I'm going to restore you. From what? We're still here. So God is starting to give them an advanced picture of things to come up.
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Now in verses 17 and 18, the pictures, the imagery here is to be understood.
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First of all, we have within here your destroyers. At the end of 17, your destroyers, those who laid you waste, they will go out from you.
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There is a realization that they're going to be taken over. And so the first picture are those that are going to destroy them.
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Now Assyria was all powerful, all powerful. They couldn't do it. How many
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Assyrian soldiers died in one night in the hand of one angel? 185 ,000.
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185 ,000 in one night. And so try as they could, they were not going to defeat.
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Now the Shekinah glory is still there. Okay, eventually Babylon, who was, if we read in Habakkuk, just a horrific nation.
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They're the ones that are going to take them captive, and it doesn't look good for them. I mean, it looks so bad for them that the people are brought into captivity.
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And how does Babylon treat their captives? What is one of their practices?
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Give them Babylonian names. Give them Babylonian names. Okay, and why do they do that?
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To try to brainwash them, to try to change their identities. That's it, try to change their identities.
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And to keep control out of hordes and hordes of people, what they do is they tend to get them to compromise and to become almost adapted to where they are.
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I've been sent out an email, a link to a YouTube video, which
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I found really fascinating. It talks about how would you define a good
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Christian witness? Now if you watch the video, you're not allowed to answer. How would you define a good
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Christian witness? Their walk has to match their talk.
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Okay, walk matches their talk, great answer. How else would you define a good Christian witness?
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I was going to say their character wouldn't discredit God in any way, which basically is the same thing.
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Okay, the character holds up. How about their truth is there? What they've got to say is true.
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I mean, what is a witness? A witness is somebody who is in court, but what is the witness in court supposed to proclaim?
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What they know to be true, not what they've heard to be true, what they know to be true.
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So a good witness can speak to things that they know. How does this guy define a good Christian witness?
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And it's tongue -in -cheek, it's almost sarcasm, but how does he define a good Christian witness?
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To be soft or neutral, not to offend, not to state truth, but kind of have some empathy for the cultural relevance of something.
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It doesn't, it's meaningless, it doesn't mean anything. And the emphasis behind that is in today's environment, unfortunately, within the evangelical community, the emphasis is to reach people, not to offend people, but to reach people and do it in a way that you are accepted by them.
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And because of that, you compromise truth, you compromise truth. That makes you a quote -unquote good
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Christian witness. That's not a good Christian witness. A good Christian witness is somebody of character, somebody who walks their talk, somebody that has the message.
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So the nation of Israel is going to be brought into captivity and the intent is to get them to become like their captors, okay?
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So now they're going to be captors. It says here in verse 17, that eventually your destroyers, these are the people that now who have destroyed their identity, not just destroyed the walls, the temple, these are the people that have attempted to destroy their identity, they're going to be gone.
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And this is an amazing process, because for 70 years, they're going to be in captivity, but the promises here, and there are other promises, you're going to go for, you will be in captivity for only seven years.
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Was it Daniel that was reading in the book and he goes, oh my, it's been 70 years, I guess I'd better pray.
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And God's timing and His sovereignty, it happens. The builders are going to go away, the destroyers, rather.
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The beginning of 17 is a rather strange phrase, and it actually depends on which version of the
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Bible you're reading. It either says your builders make haste, or it says your sons make haste.
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It says sons. The sons. Builders. Builders. Gar, I believe, is the word. It can be either.
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It actually can be either. What we are talking about here is after your captors no longer have you captive, and you are allowed to restore, you are going to be so excited about it, and you go back that your builders, your sons, are going to be building as much as they can, as fast as they can, so that they can return to your identity.
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That's the picture that's in here. If we read in Ezra 1 .3, we know the proclamation that comes out.
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If we read, we know that there are going to be individuals returning at the time of Ezra, and eventually,
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I think it's in chapter 264, it actually numbers them, 42 ,300. That's only a portion of the nation.
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It's not the whole nation. And so, who's coming back is a subset of the nation, and that group of people would by no means tax the land's capacity to take care of them.
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I want you to hold on to that thought for a minute. That comes into play as we go into this.
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The first time that the nation comes out of captivity, they're allowed to come back, but only a portion, and of those that come back, it's a limited number.
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They're going to have opposition and discourage them, and eventually, Nehemiah is going to hear about the conditions of the walls.
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He's going to cry and wail, and with courage, he's going to go into the king because he's the king's cupbearer, and he's going to have the courage to go in with a sad countenance on his face.
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That's usually bad news for the bearer of the sad countenance, but he's firing what
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I like to call Nehemiah darts. They're prayers on the way. And as he goes in, the king says, what's the problem?
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And he says, oh, king, if only, and the king allows. And he goes back with more, but it's still a remnant.
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There are still, the entire northern 10 tribes are gone, and there are still people who haven't come back.
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There is no real taxing of the land. They're coming back to rebuild the walls, rebuild the temple, and then rebuild the walls.
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Verse 18, lift up your eyes and see. They all gather, they come to you.
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This is all of a sudden a change of perspective. Follow the pronouns. Who do you think you in that beginning is?
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Lift up your eyes around and see. They all gather, they come to you. Who do you think you is?
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It's the land. He's now personifying the land. The promised land.
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And he's saying, for 490 years, your people were disobedient.
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They did not give the year of rest to the land, and so for every time they didn't do it, they're going to be in captivity for a year so the land recovers it.
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And then I, in my providence, am going to work in the heart of Cyrus, and who is the king for Nehemiah?
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For Nehemiah, I don't remember. I'm going to work in their hearts, and the people are going to come back, and their sons are going to start to build.
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Lift up your eyes, O land. Look around and see, O land, because you are my promised land, and your people are coming back, and they all are coming back, and they gather together, and they come to you.
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What a picture that God is promising to the people. And he says, as I live, now this is I, the
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Lord. As I live, declares the Lord, you, the land. Put them on as an ornament.
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You shall buy them as a bride does. The picture is here of adorning and celebration and just rejoicing in the beauty of what's just happened, because the land that has lost the people is now regaining the people.
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And look at them. They are the ornament on you. You are a promised land, but the people are my promised people.
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They are the people of my heart. And so as they come back, put them on as an ornament, O land.
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Let them come. Let them come, and buy them as a bride does. Barb, give me 19 to 21 again, please.
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Though you were ruined and made desolate, and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
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The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, this place is too small for us.
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Give us more space to live in. And 21. Then you will say in your heart, who bore me these?
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I was bereaved and barren. I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up?
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I was left all alone. But these, where have they come from? Something significant has changed between 17 and 18, and 19 to 21.
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The land's not big enough all of a sudden. The people are too many all of a sudden.
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Now this is not, this is not a description of what God is going to accomplish in a time of Ezra and in a time of Leah.
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It's not. And so you've got to ask the question, surely now you'll be too narrow for your inhabitants.
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You can't hold them all anymore. Surely those, the children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears, this place is too small for us.
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When's he talking about? And what's he talking about? One aspect of it is really a continuing fulfillment of the
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Abrahamic covenant. That what he promised to Abraham, that you're looking at the stars, you will see your people be as populous as it was.
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And that's my promise to you. So no matter what, you will have that happen. Even though they suffered through the various different stages, he keeps his promise in his covenant to Abraham.
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You're right. Now he's, he's opening up an aperture. And this is, this is some of the interesting things that Isaiah does so often is that he's got the here and now,
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I'm speaking to you as the prophet 800 years before Christ, 700, whatever. And then
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I'm speaking to you about the, after the, after the captivity, all right?
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And then eventually sometimes he talks about the Messiah. This time he's talking about the end of times.
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This time he's talking about the return of all his children, which is now beyond Israel.
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And to your point, it's the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that all nations will be blessed through you.
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And when they come in, that land, that promised land, it can't hold everybody. It's like,
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I don't know what to do. It's, I'm not big enough for everybody. It's almost exciting.
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We have a cottage that we have reserved for the end of June, beginning of July.
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It's a huge cottage. And we're expecting our children to come.
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But what if more people came than we thought could come? It's like, this would be distressful because we wouldn't have enough room.
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There, there is a reality that the land says, oh wow,
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I never thought there would be this many people. Where am I going to put them all? But this is a good thing.
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Who brought all of these up? It says at the end of verse 21. That's a rhetorical question.
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God brought them all up. The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof.
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Absolutely. All right, so let's put a couple of sequences together.
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We're in what we call a couple of things. Some call it the parentheses between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.
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Some people call it the church age. But we're in this point in time now where the
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Holy Spirit is working through the church. Not ignoring Israel because Israel is called now to be part of the church.
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We call the Messianic Jews perhaps. As we get into the time of Revelation, we believe, here at Cornerstone and with the
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EDFCA, we believe that the nation of Israel returns. Not symbolically, but the nation of Israel returns.
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When you go into Revelation 7, something amazing happens in Revelation 7, verses one to eight.
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God is calling some people. Who does he call? Keep going.
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This is good. Keep going. Yes, that's true. Who are those 144 ,000?
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12 ,000 who? I thought the 10 are gone. This is the beauty of it.
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When we come out of the captivity and the time of captivity, the 70 years, and they return to the land and their sons are excited to be building.
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That's true. There was only Judah and Benjamin, the half -tribes of Manasseh, that's coming out of captivity.
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The northern 10 tribes are gone. They're not coming back out of that captivity. When we get to the end of times, 12 ,000 out of all 12 tribes come back.
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Who brought these up? Behold, I was left alone, but from where have these come?
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Even today, since 1947, was it 48?
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1948, when the nation of Israel was restored. It's not restored to its complete size, but it is a restored nation.
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But even now, that land has the Dome of the Rock, where the temple should be.
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And even now, it's a huge Muslim pop. Even now, even now. The Muslims control it.
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They control it. And even now, maybe Yahweh's not even, it's a wasteland.
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In a lot of ways, even today, it's a wasteland. And how much more, when we get into the seven years of the tribulation, does that become even more of a wasteland?
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Who brought these up? I was bereaved and bare in exile and put away. That I is the land.
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I was bereaved and bare in exile and put away.
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The land lost their connection with Yahweh and with God's people. Who brought all these people up?
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We're going to get into the millennial reign in chapter 20 of Revelation, how God sets it up and he calls, and he identifies those he's going to come, and he's going to sit there and reign over.
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I was left alone, from where have all these come? This, to me, there's an excitement that says, as bad as things are and as abandoned as the land may feel, there are going to be a restoration as his people come up.
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Sandy, would you read for me verses 22 to 26, please? Thus says the
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Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and set up my standard to the peoples.
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And they will bring your sons in their bosom and your daughters will be carried on your shoulders.
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Kings will be your guardians and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lift the dust of your feet and you will know that I am the
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Lord. Those who hopefully wait for me will not be put to shame. Stop there for now.
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Restoration. The proper order of things is promised to be restored.
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Thus says the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God. When you see that in here, pay attention to what he's got to say.
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Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I will lift up my hand. This is God. And by the way, in his hand, what's in the hand?
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The nail scars. The nail scars that sin has been paid for, that Satan has been defeated, okay?
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He's going to bite my heel but I'm going to crush his head. Behold, I will lift my hand to the nations and raise my signal to the people.
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This is not the nation of Israel. This is the nations of the world. I am going to set myself back up as the sovereign king of all creation, of all mankind.
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I will lift up my hand to the nations and signal to the peoples. And what are they going to do? They are going to respond by ushering in God's people.
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Back to the land. They're going to carry them in their arms.
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The bosom, I think, was the way yours read it, Sandy. They're going to hold them on their shoulders. And even the kings and even the queens, they're going to bow down.
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They're going to bow down because they'll know that he is. Then you will know that I am the
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Lord. And those who wait on me shall not be put to shame. We're going to get to a point in time, it's coming, it's prophesied even here, when the proper order of things is going to get set right, and the
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Lord God is going to come. The idea of relying on kings has been a folly since the beginning.
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We go into 1 Samuel 8, the nation grumbled.
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We want a king so we can be like all other nations. And Samuel was distraught.
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God told him in verses 10 to 17, or verses 7, that they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me.
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By accepting a king, they are actually rejecting me. Verses 10 to 17, you learn how kings are going to behave.
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They're going to put your children in service. They're going to take your taxes. They're going to do all this stuff.
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What are they doing today? They're going to say, you cannot preach. You can't have your doors open. All of this stuff.
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That's what a king is going to happen in 1 Samuel 8, 18, but then you will cry out.
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And what's going to happen at the end is God is going to set himself back up. Those who wait on me shall not be put to shame.
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Then you will know I am the Lord. And thus says the Lord, when I speak to the nations, when
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I show them my hands, they're even going to usher my people into the land.
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And the kings and queens who thought they were all that, even them, even they will bow down before me.
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Sandy, give me 24 to 26, please. Can the prey be taken from the mighty man, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
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Surely, this says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued.
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For I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your sons.
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I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, and they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
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And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your savior, and your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.
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We have some pictures here about the captives are going to be rescued.
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They're going to be drawn out by the mighty hand of God. And at the end of time, it's all who are under the threat of whatever authority that there is, including
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Satan, that all mankind is going to be rescued.
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And the captors, man, some of the imagery here of what's going to happen to the captors is pretty nasty.
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The captors of the mighty shall be taken, the prey of the tyrant rescued. I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
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I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as wine.
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There is a time when God is going to set the proper order. It's going to be restored.
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The captors will be rescued. The captives will be rescued. The captors judge, and then all flesh will know.
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We're going to close with Ezekiel 36. Bob, I'm going to ask you, this time I actually mean
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Ezekiel, not Exodus. 36, I'm going to have you read a couple of passages, starting out in 24 to 28.
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Ezekiel 36. Yes. Okay, 24. For I will take you out of the nations.
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I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I need to stop you there for a second.
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When they go into captivity, they go into a nation. Now, the 12, 10 tribes are lost.
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We don't hear from them. He says, I'm going to gather you from all the nations. I've got to me an end times prophecy.
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Here, go ahead. Start over and continue. Sure. I'll take you out of the nations. I'll gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
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I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I'll put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
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You will live in the land I gave your forefathers. You will be my people and I will be your
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God. What a beautiful picture. The despair that you've got. Let's go back to the beginning of this.
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Zion said the Lord has forgotten me. He has forsaken me. And maybe they felt that, but God has not forgotten and he has not forsaken.
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And with the reality of the Abrahamic promise that I have brought up, this is a promise for us too.
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This is a promise for all God's people. I will gather you. I will cleanse you and I will be your
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God. 33 to 35, please. Yeah, let me go on.
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Okay. This is what the Sovereign Lord says. On the day I cleanse you from all your sins,
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I will resettle your towns and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it.
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They will say, this land that was laid waste has become like the Garden of Eden. The cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.
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35. Come on, go 36. I'll get 36 in a minute. Okay. And I even like the throwback imagery to the
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Garden of Eden, where man just existed in perfection as created by God.
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He's going to restore the land. He's going to put everything back and now give you verse 36. Then the nations around you that remain will know that I, the
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Lord, have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I, the
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Lord, have spoken and I will do it. Everything that's going on today, everything that went on then, everything that's going on today,
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God is sovereign. He's going to restore it and everybody will know. Talking about the restoration of all things in the second coming of Jesus Christ, this is from Acts chapter 3, verse 21.
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Jesus Christ whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which
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God has spoken of by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. Absolutely.
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If you like reading mystery novels and you want to read the end before the beginning, spoiler alert,
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God wins. Let's pray. God, Father, we do thank you for these encouraging words that in the midst of things that are going on in the world, in the midst of even the world thinking they're in control, you are
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God. You will know that I am Lord, that those who wait for me will not be put to shame, that all flesh will know that I am the
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Lord, your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Thank you for these encouraging words.