1 Samuel 15:1-14

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1 Samuel 15:32-35

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Amen.
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Open our Bibles to Samuel, 1 Samuel, chapter 15.
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If you remember when we first started this book, there was, we have a series of crises that take place that lead to the next major, if we were looking at this as a drama, the next major scene or act I should say.
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So if you remember back in chapter 1, what was the crisis that had taken place or was about to take place? What was this situation with Hannah and Penina and Elkanah? She couldn't have a baby.
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So what did she do? The crisis was she wanted a young and she couldn't have any.
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So what did she do? She prayed.
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And what did God do? He gave her a baby.
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All right.
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Which led to the setting up of this baby, which name would be Samuel, which led to the next event which we saw was a crisis which was a what? It led to the rise of Samuel.
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Failure in the leadership of the priesthood, right? Which led to him being given to as a young boy, well as a baby given to Eli to be raised.
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He saw the the things that would take place.
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He was basically ushered into the priesthood, whether it was lighting the the menorah, the wicks, whatever he was doing, he was part of the priesthood.
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Then as he got older, what did Samuel do because he was old as far as his judging capacity? He did.
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He said it to his two sons, which led to the next crisis because the people come to him and say, hey we know you're old and gray but your sons do not judge the way you do so give us a king.
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So you had a failure in the priesthood, not a failure on Samuel's part, but a failure in justice being administered by the people that he delegated, which led to the rise of a king, right? This next event that's going to take place is going to be a crisis as well, and which is going to lead to the rise of David.
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And it actually begins in its seed form back in chapter 13, the disobedience of the king.
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So we're not going to read the whole chapter.
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I'm just going to read probably a paragraph at a time and get to where we get to and then stop.
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I'll make sure I get us to a stopping point where we'll be squared up, where when we start we're not starting in the middle of a sentence.
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So chapter 15, verse 1, it said, now Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people, over Israel.
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Now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord.
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Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself up against him on the way while he was coming out of Egypt, while they were coming from Egypt.
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Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman and child and infant and ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
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So we haven't seen Samuel since chapter 13, since he rebuked Saul for his disobedience at Gilgal.
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So now we see Samuel coming to the scene and he says he's bringing a specific command from God.
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He says, the Lord sent me to anoint you as king over Israel.
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Now listen to the words.
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The word there, listen, is the word Shema.
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If anybody remembers back in Deuteronomy, that's it.
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Same word.
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And it's actually used six to eight times, depending on the variation of it, in this chapter.
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Listen, hearken, heed, listen.
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And just like we would tell our child, did you not listen to what I told you? What are we asking that child to do? Listen to me.
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What are we asking when we say that? Obey.
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That's exactly what we're doing.
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We say listen to what I'm saying.
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It doesn't just mean say, okay, dad, I heard what you said.
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No, no, no.
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It's obey my words.
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That's what Samuel's saying.
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Saul, listen to the words of the Lord.
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He says, listen to the Lord of hosts.
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I will punish Amalek.
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Anybody remember back in, if you're reading through the Exodus, what took place with Amalek in chapter 17 of Exodus? I guess it was.
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If our map is a little bigger, Sybil says, I wish I had one of the ones to see the meteorologist, where he can move everything around.
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So if, this would be, this would be the, I know this is horrible.
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This would be, this would be the the the Nile Crescent.
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This is where all the tibetans would come in here, would be the Niles, and this would be Egypt.
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And then you would have roughly something like this.
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This would be the Red Sea.
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It's bad.
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That's why we had this map.
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So, as they left here, this is not to scale, okay? This would have been Goshen.
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As they left Goshen, they would come across a, somewhere, don't somebody say, Mike, I don't think they crossed there.
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I'm just saying they crossed the Red Sea here, okay? Just for making my point.
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They crossed the Red Sea here.
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They got here.
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To get down here, this would be basically the Sinai Peninsula.
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And this is horrible too.
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But the Sinai Peninsula would be somewhere right here, okay? You would have Sinai here, which is where they got the law.
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But as they got to Raffodim, what happened? Two major events happened here.
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And don't look at my bad writing.
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It's terrible.
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What, not the bad tooth either.
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What happened at Raffodim? Two major things happened.
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People that read your Bible and remember the Exodus, what happened? Not yet.
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The law had, only the book of the covenant had been given.
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At this time, they were coming this way to get to Raffodim.
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They want to stone and kill Moses.
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You drug us out here.
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Although these guys were washing up on the seashore here where they had drowned them in the sea, right? All the Egyptians.
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You brought us out here and you're gonna let us thirst to death? It's Raffodim is where he says, all right Moses, go whack the rock.
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And when you whack that rock, there's gonna be fresh water that's gonna come out, right? Remember that? The rock.
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Immediately after that took place, this cat, Amalek, comes up from behind, as they're here, comes across this way and kills all the stragglers in the back.
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That's what happened.
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You can read that account in Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25 and part of 27.
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And what took place is when, once that took place in Exodus 17, a big war happened.
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Remember Moses had the people stick his arms up in the air and they couldn't hold him up so they propped rocks up underneath it and all that? That was, he had Aaron and Ur that held his hands up to fight Amalek.
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They won that battle, moved on.
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Once they won the battle, what he told Moses, he said, you get a scroll and you write this down and you put this part of the law.
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When you come into the land, you take that Amalek, you take that tribal nation, and you utterly wipe them off the face of the planet for what they did to me and my people.
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All right? Let me get rid of this terrible map and broken twos or whatever you said it was.
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So, depending on how long you see the judges, this would have been to where the event were taking place within about 500 years, give or take 40 to 50 years, depending on how you see the Book of Judges playing out.
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500 years later, because I'm teaching, I'm gonna say 500.
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500 years later, Saul gets the instructions, you go and you kill this dude.
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And he tells him why.
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Because of what they did when they came out of Egypt.
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He said, and when you go, you destroy them.
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I want you to understand, when he says go and destroy or strike Amalek, he doesn't just say, hey, you know, you go in there and make war.
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No, no, no.
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He gives him specific instructions on how to strike Amalek.
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And the word that's used here is we-he-haram-tem.
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That's the Hebrew word for utterly destroy.
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And it actually means to utterly destroy or devote these things to God for destruction.
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That's what it means.
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If you want to look at Leviticus chapter 27, you can go there, you can read it.
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As a matter of fact, let's turn over here real quick.
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We'll read it so you can take my word for it.
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I think it's towards the end of the chapter 27.
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It's either, it's somewhere between 26, 27, 28.
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Okay, there he is.
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Verse 27.
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Nope, 28.
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Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to God out of all that he has, man or animal or fields or his own property, shall not be redeemed.
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Anything devoted to destruction is most holy unto the Lord.
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No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed, but it shall surely be put to death.
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That's the word harim right there.
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Anything devoted to destruction to God.
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So, you know, there was other times you make a foolish vow, you make a foolish commitment.
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You could say, all right, I'm going to either pay the fee or the fine, whatever it is, for making a foolish vow.
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And you could make an offering to God for that, pay the money, whatever it is, and do that.
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Same thing for the firstborn.
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You could, well, you can go back up and read.
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There was things that were offered that could be redeemed.
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There was things that were offered to God that could not be redeemed.
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But what does it say about stuff here that's devoted to destruction? Irredeemable.
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Nothing.
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Can't be saved.
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Whatever God says to do with that thing devoted to destruction, however he says do it, that's what you got to do.
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So, now back over to 1 Samuel, that devoted to destruction.
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He says, how does that play out? What does he say do? I'm going to make a list of them.
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How does he say destroy it? Man, woman, what's that? Infant, child, ox, what else? Sheep, camel, dog, camel, ass.
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That pretty much sums up everything in there, doesn't it? Now, it's not in this part of the narrative, but when they go in and they destroy the city of Jericho, there was one thing that he did tell them they were to do with this.
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They took the metal.
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Remember, as they came in, they were supposed to do the same thing, okay? And you were supposed to take the implements of metal, gold, silver, iron, bronze, whatever.
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It would be tested with fire, burn off the impurities.
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It was to be put in the tabernacle, the treasury.
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That's the only thing that's not listed here that was listed when they went into Jericho.
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So, now, he gives them very specific instructions.
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Kill them all.
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And you get to verse 4.
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Then Saul summoned the people, and he numbered them at Teleom, 200,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 men of Judah.
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And Saul came to the city of Amalek.
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He set an ambush in the valley.
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Saul said to the Canaanites, Go, depart down from among the Amalekites, so that I do not destroy you.
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For you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
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Interesting that you're seeing a contrast between Amalek and the Canaanites.
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Anybody remember who the Canaanites were? Anybody remember who Jethro was? Anybody remember who Zipporah was? Anybody remember Moses? Zipporah was Moses' wife.
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Jethro was the father-in-law.
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And as he came out across the end, he brought him across, he gets to Jethro, and Jethro says, Check this out, dude.
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This ain't going to work.
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You're going to have to get some people to help you.
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So, he set up.
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He listened to Jethro.
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They helped him.
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Jethro's descendant was a descendant of Midian.
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The Midianites and the Canaanites were related.
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So, God says, Hey, these people were good to you when you came out.
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They were helpful to you.
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Jethro was very good to you.
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Help them.
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He says, So, because of what you did in helping the people come out, I want you to leave.
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Understand, I can't go anywhere.
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But, this is all towards Egypt down here.
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He says, I want you to get away from these people.
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So, he sends, however he does it, sends people and says, You get away from Amalek, because I'm fixing to come in here and utterly destroy, and I don't want to do it with you.
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Was that not an act of mercy on Saul's part, though? I mean, he didn't have those instructions.
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He didn't have those.
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He just said, You go in there and kill them.
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He didn't say, Make a distinction.
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But I think Saul going, You know what? I remember how these people were gracious to my people.
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So, when I come in, I don't want to kill those whom God said not kill by accident for killing those whom God said destroy.
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I think that's a very honorable act so far on Saul's part.
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See how many people he has.
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Look at that.
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200,000 foot soldiers.
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10,000 men of Judah.
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210,000 people have made a trek from somewhere near Gilgal this way.
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200,000.
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You understand, you're not just going to move those people around.
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I'm making that point as we get towards the way back.
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He says in verse 7, So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Ashur, which is east of Egypt.
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And he captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
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But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the ox and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good and were not willing to destroy them utterly.
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But everything despised and worthless that they utterly destroyed.
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First and foremost, what was he supposed to do when he went in there? Everything.
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This is probably one of the most ruthless acts in scripture.
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Jericho was pretty ruthless.
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This right here, they were supposed to go in.
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Imagine you men being a soldier and you're going to see a woman nursing her baby and God has told you, you shove that sword right through the both of them.
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And these men went in there and they did that very thing.
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But what did they save? They saved animals.
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They saved animals.
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And they captured one man, Agag.
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And I will even go so far as to even say, as they, and reason being, as you go further on in redemptive history through the Old Testament, Agag's name is going to come up again.
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And he's going to be under the name of an Agagite.
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And the Agagite actually was a man named Haman.
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You remember the story of Esther? Haman was a descendant of Agag.
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So what does that tell you also got away? Some people.
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Not only does that tell you some people got away that far, that's another 500 years from this time.
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But also, as we go on further towards, I think it's in chapter 29 or 30 of 1 Samuel, you're going to see some Amalekites attack Ziklag and haul off David's wife and his two wives and all the animals.
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So what has gotten away? People.
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People have gotten away.
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Now, I know this is my assessment of the situations.
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If you disagree with me, that's fine.
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I would imagine how those men got away is why they were too busy sorting out the sheep and the donkeys and what was good and what was bad.
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Instead of going, okay, we came here to kill all these, we were supposed to get rid of this.
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In the meantime, I'm trying to sort out what was good and bad and kill what was good and inspect what was holy for sacrificial reasons.
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Remember that when they brought a sacrifice, wouldn't it have to be without spot? So I mean, they're doing guns.
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Have you ever seen the Jewish man inspects a sheep? Dude, it's everything down to the teeth and the gum line.
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So when they go and they do it, they still do Passover over there.
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They inspect it, the faint, the little hoof thing, whatever, hooves or whatever they got.
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They look at their name, perfect.
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Skin has to be perfect.
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Wool, gum lines, teeth, all that has to be perfect.
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So imagine they're doing that through all of these.
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And we know that's what they were having to do, because it says here that they utterly destroyed what? All that was worthless, everything that was worthless.
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And they took and they spared Agag.
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Who should have been the first one? Man, they should have took him and decapitated him.
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First thing, because that's what God told them to do.
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But instead, what did they do? They spare now, that puts us somewhere way down there.
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They're going to start their trek back towards Gilgal.
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Yeah.
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Yes, ma'am.
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Ma'am.
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And I'm well, it is going to get to that because it said it.
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It wasn't off a whim.
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And when we get to Saul's response, you're going to see why if you well, we can look at part of our point back to if you look at verse nine, it says, and we're not willing to destroy all that was utterly to be destroyed.
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Do you see it? Anybody else say other than not willing? Nine.
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Yes, sir.
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It says, and we're not willing.
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And all that was good.
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They saved all that was good.
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And we're not willing to destroy them utterly.
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That's all of them.
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So they go in, they knew what their job was to do.
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But what did they decide to do? Well, we're not going to do that.
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We're going to do it our way.
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We think that we can take God's command and tweak it and make it better.
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Now, as we go towards this, we might get that today.
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As we get to it, I believe that came from the top down.
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I believe that came from Saul.
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I don't think that the people came in and coerced him.
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And I know when we get to that point, it says, well, the people did this, let me tell you something, the king don't take orders from nobody.
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And the king don't make apologies to nobody.
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His people did what he did.
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When he went in there, who do you think got Agag? He did.
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Why do you think he's dragging him? This is 120 plus miles from down here, okay, to where they get to Gilgal.
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120 miles.
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In ancient time, if you were on a good horse or a good donkey, you might go 30 miles in a day.
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Maybe.
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Imagine dragging back all these sheep.
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You're trying to herd them together.
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You're trying to keep the ox and the horses and whatever goats and all that, you're trying to keep them wrangled to keep them to head in the right direction.
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And they're going 120 miles.
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And you're fixing to see he makes a stop on the way.
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Let's go ahead and go to that.
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Let's look at...
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Before we get to the stop he makes, listen to what happens here.
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Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel.
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I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commandments.
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And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.
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Samuel then arose early in the morning to meet Saul, and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he has set up a monument to who? Who did he set it up to? Himself.
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He set it up to himself.
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What happened back in, I think it was in 14 when they had that great slaughter? Do you remember he set up a monument? Who did he set the monument up to? Even though Jonathan went and made the great? He said, no, he set it up to God.
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He set it up to Yahweh.
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It says he set up a monument to God.
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The Lord had delivered them.
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He used Jonathan to do it, so we do see now the progression that has taken place.
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He has now...
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He just went from here and stopped and made a monument.
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Say this halfway.
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He's gone halfway home and he sets up at Carmel a monument to himself.
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Why did he do that? Well, who won? He did.
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Who captured Agag? He did.
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Yes, he was.
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Yep.
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He was giving him, look what I have done.
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So he set him up a monument in Carmel for himself.
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It's interesting that all this is taking place.
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Saul has no idea that the Lord has spoken to Samuel, whether it's a vision or however he did it, and spoke to him and let him know what was going on.
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But Samuel knows.
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And back up in 10, 11, I'm sorry.
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He says, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commandments.
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Is anybody else translation where it says regret, say relent or anything? What did you say? Okay.
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What other else do we have in here? Because I think we need to address that so we understand that there's going to be two times that this is spoken of and we need to understand the character and nature of God because he is immutable.
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So when it says, anybody else say anything different? Tim, what did you say? Regret.
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Anybody say repent or relent? Here it says relent.
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All right.
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God does not change.
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Okay.
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So when we hear that it says that God repented, there's another time that this construction is used and it's back in Genesis 6.
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What talks about God repented or he relented or regretted that he made man, right? And he destroyed the whole earth with a flood because of it.
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The understanding of God because he is immutable is not that God goes, you know what? I made a mistake making all those people.
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Let me drown them.
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Okay.
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In this case, he's not saying, look, I made a mistake.
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I'm sorry I gave this to Saul.
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Let me go to plan B.
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Okay.
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That's not how we should understand that.
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This is speaking in an anthropomorphic type way for us to understand that he is relaying a emotion of God where God is grieved over the disobedience of Saul.
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Do we all agree on that or disagree? No, we do not understand.
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Okay.
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It's interesting because sometimes in other passages where you'll actually use the word grief, like they'll say grief.
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Yeah.
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Even in the New Testament that it's back and forth.
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And so it's kind of interesting that they use the word repent, you know, in those two instances.
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Sure.
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So when we think about God, does God have, forget the confession for a minute, okay? 1689, forget it for a second, all right? We can talk about that if you want, but just forget it for a second.
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Yeah.
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And impassibility and all that.
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Yeah.
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So forget that for a second.
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Does God have emotion? Yes.
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What is God passionate about? Himself.
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The glory of himself.
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Look, God cares more about his glory than he cares about saving mankind.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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How do we know that? Because he condemned some, he saved some, condemned others.
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Therefore, both of them bring glory to God.
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It was more that God's glory be put on display than the salvation of all men.
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Right? So can God, not that this is rhetorical, let me say it.
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God can make a decree that as God's decree takes place here in eternity past, okay? Then it begins to unfold through redemptive history.
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And this is going to be the consummation of the kingdom.
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Okay? As God has made his decree, as things unfold, is it not right to say that God has grieved over some of the things that he has decreed? Right? I mean, the Bible is very clear.
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Right here, Noah.
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What happened? He drowned the whole world.
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You don't think he was upset and grieved when the fall took place here? Seriously.
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Do we all agree that God has emotions and feels that way? Okay.
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But does God feel the way you feel? God ain't like you.
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Psalm 50.
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Read it.
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You together think I'm all like you? I ain't like you.
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Look, if God was like me, he would hit that, he would hit the destroy them all button like I was hitting the button on Jeopardy saying give me annihilationism for 200 Alex.
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Bam! And just blow them all up.
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Okay? That is not how God acts.
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God does not have uncontrollable emotions.
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He does not act off of a whim.
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He's not capricious.
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He's not arbitrary.
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Everything that he does has a purpose.
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Even when he decreed the fall, he decreed the drowning of all mankind except for eight souls.
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And as we know, we can continue to go on all this.
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Did he decree all the apostasy, apostates during the judges? Yeah.
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Was God not grieved in that time too? Yeah.
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And how do we know that? Because he constantly sent judges to deliver them because God loves his people.
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Why is it that we have a hard time with God? Not we, I say we, evangelicalism as a whole has a problem with God being very angry with sinners, but then it's okay for God to just love everybody.
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Why is it? Why is it? Because we think God's like us.
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That's what the wallet boils down to.
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Look, God is love.
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He loves everything.
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I'm going to say this.
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God even loves those who are in hell right now, absorbing his full wrath with the caveat of this, that they cease to experience the love and grace of God for the rest of eternity.
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Now, you can try to disagree with me on all you want.
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I'm fine with that, but you're going to have to show me at somewhere in time that God ceases to love anyone.
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They cease to experience God's love.
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They cease to experience God's grace.
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And in this case, when we get to Saul and he gets to where he's going to do his own thing, that grieved God.
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That grieved him that his disobedience was so grievous that now God was going to snatch the kingdom from him.
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What happened back in 13? Yes, so in 13, he lost dynasty.
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Remember, he said, God would have given you a, he'd have set up your throne for, remember the word Elam, for a very long time.
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Not forever.
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That's how we understand it, for an extended period of time.
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And because of your disobedience, this was gone.
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He had not yet rejected him as king though.
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Now we get to this and he is fixing to be rejected as king.
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So now we get to verse 12.
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Before I, anything, questions before I go any further? No? Yay? Disagreements? It's interesting, verse 11, how invested Samuel was in Saul.
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Like you can just, you can kind of sense the emotion in Samuel.
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Bring Samuel and cry to the Lord all night.
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What's that? That was really hard for Samuel to hear that from the Lord.
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Hey, look how in tune Samuel was with God that they both were grieving over the same thing.
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Both grieving over the same thing.
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I mean, even when the people were disobedient, what was the prayer of Samuel back when he gave him the king and he had, he installed him in Gilgal and he said, look, I will not cease to pray for you.
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Although you have rejected God as your king, I will still continue to pray for you.
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He continually interceded for God's people.
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I wish there was more written about Samuel.
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Not that I think that God made a mistake.
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I just wish there was more written about him.
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He was a very compassionate man towards the people of God.
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He was certainly a very good example of an intercessor, of one that prayed for the people of God, that loved the people of God, and did seek to judge the people of God until he got old.
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I mean, think about it.
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There's things that as you get older, you just can't do anymore.
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And as he got, yes? When you quoted that, right? That verse says, far be it from me that I would sin against God.
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Not necessarily just by feelings and emotions.
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And his office though, his office required him to do what he was doing.
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So if he failed to do that, he would fail to hold up the office by which he was dedicated to even as a baby, which was to be an intercessor.
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Hang on.
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What? He went first.
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I'm sorry.
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Okay.
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His obedience, what now? Of what Saul did and what Samuel had of Saul.
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Saul more of a, in favor of Samuel.
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I guess the two different levels have agreed this way, but God also agreed in his own way.
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I think there was a big difference the way Samuel and God would agree.
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Well, certainly because Samuel's grief is still going to be filtered through this fallenness.
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I'm not saying that, okay.
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It still has to be, we don't, when we grieve, whether it's over sin, over a loss of a loved one, over broken relationship, lost job, whatever.
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Our grief still goes through the filter of fallen humanity.
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God ain't like that.
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So when God grieves, he's grieving perfectly.
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He's grieving because, hey, look, this person that I have installed that the people wanted.
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And remember when God installed him, that was not an act of God's grace because what did he say? Remember the key thing I kept saying that he said, when he does what you don't want him to do and he takes your families, he takes your vineyards and you cry out to me, I'm not going to hear you.
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So this was an act of judgment on God to give them Saul.
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All kings weren't an act of judgment, but Saul was an act of judgment.
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Why? Because they wanted one like the nations, one that would take their stuff, tax their stuff, take their children, take their vineyards, then ultimately would do what he wanted to do.
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And what was the key thing that we put? The first thing we listed a couple of weeks ago, what was the first thing that we put up there after we did all these? And I said, this one should be here, that he was like all the other kings of the nations.
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What was it? He was unfaithful to Yahweh.
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That is the king that they wanted.
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They didn't want a king that was going to be faithful to God.
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They wanted a king that was just like the other nations, look good, sharp, big, strong, strapping dude.
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And that's exactly what Saul was, just like the other nations.
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And you're fixing to see he's going to be just like all the other nations, because as the book unfolds, he's going to do just like every other king and every other leader in all the world, even until now, when their throne or their administration or their kingdom is threatened, they're willing to kill innocent men and women in order to keep it.
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And that's what Saul's going to do.
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That's exactly what Saul's going to do.
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Saul's going to pursue a man for 15 plus years to try to kill him, because that's the one who's supposed to take the throne, and he knows it.
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Where should I stop at? Because we've only got just a couple more minutes.
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We'll do 12 real quick.
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So Samuel rose up early in the morning to meet Saul, and it was told Samuel that Saul came to Carmel.
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Remember halfway there, he set up a monument to himself and proceeded down to Gilgal.
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Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you, O Lord, I have carried out the commandment of the Lord.
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We'll stop there.
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Okay.
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He killed all this, didn't he? Most of it.
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Save one.
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Okay.
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He killed all the women.
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He killed all the infants.
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He killed all the children.
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He only killed half of this, we'll say.
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Oh, we'll give him benefit of the doubt.
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We'll say there was only a sixteenth of these that were good.
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We'll even say he carried out 99.9 percent.
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Well, wouldn't you say there's a chance he probably didn't kill all the women, did he? We know, as we're unfolding this narrative, we don't know that yet.
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We're not going to know that some of them got away until we get to chapter 30, okay? And all we know that is because they come and take David's...
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So we know by this narrative, this is the only person that got saved.
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So let me clear.
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Spared.
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Spared.
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Spared.
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Only one.
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This is Agag.
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Only one.
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So from our perspective, looking at what has just taken place, he has carried out 99.9 percent of what he was supposed to do.
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Yeah or nay? Would we agree? I know we might be highballed a little bit, but Saul says as Samuel walks up, "'Mustn't art thou of the Lord?' I have carried out the command of the Lord." You liar.
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You liar.
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Now, in Saul's eyes, did he really think that he did? I think he did.
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I think he thought he did what he was supposed to do.
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And why do I think he did that? Because he tried to take this and make it the command.
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How many of us do that in our own life? Hey man, I'll tell you what, if I ever get to preach...
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I've never preached this passage.
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I want to preach this chapter.
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I know you say it's not...
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Preaching it, much different.
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I'm telling you, there is...
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You drop the hammer with this.
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How many of us sitting in this room, I know we got to go...
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I got two minutes.
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How many of us in here do selective obedience? If anybody in here has never done selective obedience, raise your hand.
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Okay, just want to make sure we're all truthful, because I'll say because if you just raise your hand, now you're a liar.
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Every one of us.
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Every one of us.
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You know, I know nobody in this room, but having conversations with people that claim to be evangelicals, certainly on the job site, that's all into construction, that's all subjective, that they would say, yeah, I believe thou shalt not murder.
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But then they believe in the murder of an unborn child.
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That's selective obedience.
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Yeah, that's selective.
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Yeah, I agree with you.
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Yeah, that's selective obedience.
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Yeah.
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How many of them would say, this has been recent, yeah, hey, man, I, you know, I believe that someone shouldn't steal.
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Dude, you were just talking on the phone, texting on your employer's time.
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You're a thief.
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Company policy says you don't go to the portalette.
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Sorry, and, and text on the phone.
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Okay.
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Sorry.
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We don't we actually have a real toilet at our house.
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We don't have portalettes.
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Okay.
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So yeah, that's selective obedience.
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I'm going to obey God's commands, the way that I see it.
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Look, when God gave him, he didn't just say go do it.
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He gave him specific instructions on how to carry it out.
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Is God not always specific? When they, when they built the tabernacle, did he not give them specific instructions on how to build it? Dude, so specific.
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He told them the tassels, how the sockets were going to look, how, how much gold to use, where it was going to go, the actual dimensions, how it was to be carried.
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He gave them always specific instructions so that if they disobeyed it, what would happen? Yeah.
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I mean, poor Uzzah, he was just trying to keep the ark of the covenant from hitting dirt and poor fella got zapped because he thought he was holier than dirt.
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So, so when God gave these instructions, he said, you know what? I think I can make those instructions better, Lord.
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And that's where we'll pick up in verse 14 next week.
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And we might get through that in two weeks, maybe.
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We'll see.
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I'll try to finish up 15 next week.
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Mike, seeing how you're back with us, will you pray us out? Holy Father, we thank you for opening your word up to us and we pray, Lord, that we would not be hypocrites.
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We would not look at the partial obedience as being full obedience, but that we would understand that in the end it is simply disobedience.
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Turn our hearts to love you and to obey you and to be what you call us to be, holy people.
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I pray, Lord, that you would be with Brother Keith now as he brings your word, that you would bless the preaching, that it would strengthen your people and save the lost.
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Of course, in Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.