Episode Transcript
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Our heavenly father. We do thank
you that you and keep your promises to
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us and that your steadfast love is
steadfast, that you bring us into a
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salvation according to your promise, and
in that salvation we find great strength,
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we find your love for us,
we find your word in our mouths,
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mind's change, hearts changed, a
hope on that is according to your word.
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And as we meditate on these things
and as we consider the things that
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you say in are in your word, we come to buy your grace,
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a better a better understanding and trust
in you. We asked that you would
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do that for us this evening,
as we come to your word and Ezekiel,
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help us to remember your strength and
your supremacy in all things, the
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salvation that we have in King Jesus. We pray this in his name.
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Amen. But if you're able to
remain standing, please do and let's turn
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our attention to Ezekiel, chapter twenty
nine. Ezekiel Chapter Twenty Nine, beginning
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of verse one, and I'll read
through thirty verse nineteen. So, Ezekiel
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Chapter Twenty Nine, verse one through
Thirty Nineteen. The Lord has has been
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giving oracles against through his equal against
various neighbors of Israel. He comes now
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to Egypt, which completes this cycle
on this last one is actually comprised of
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seven different sections. I'm we're going
to cover the first three of those tonight.
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You'll find similarities, perhaps, if
you're looking for them, between this
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and the Oracle against tire that we
considered a little bit a go. Let's
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hear God's Word Now, Ezekiel,
twenty nine, in the tenth year and
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the ten month, on the twelve
day of the month, the word of
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the Lord came to me, son
of man, set your face against Pharaoh,
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King of Egypt, and prophesy against
him and against all Egypt. Speak
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and say, thus says the Lord, God behold, I am against you,
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Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the
Great Dragon that lies in the midst
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of his streams. That says,
my Nile is my own, I made
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it for myself. I will put
hooks in your jaws and make the fish
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of your streams stick to your scales, and I will draw you up out
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of the midst of your streams with
all the fish of your streams that stick
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to your scales, and I will
cast you out into the Wilderness, you
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and all the fish of your streams
and you shall fall on the open field
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and not be brought together or gathered
to the beasts of the earth and the
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birds of the heavens. I give
you as food. Then all the inhabitants
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of Egypt shall know that I am
the Lord, because you have been a
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staff of excuse me, because you
have been a staff of read to the
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House of Israel. When they grasped
you with the hand, you broken tore
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all their shoulders, and when they
leaned on you, you broke and made
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all their loins to shake. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold,
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I will bring a sword upon you
and will cut off from you man
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and beast, and the land of
Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste.
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Then they will know that I am
the Lord, because you said the
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Nile is mine and I made it. Therefore, behold, I am against
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you and against your streams, and
I will make the land of Egypt and
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utter waste and desolation. From migdol
to Syene, as far as the border
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of Cush, no foot of man
shall pass through it and no foot of
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beast shall pass through it. It
shall be uninhabited forty years, and I
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will make the land of Egypt desolation
in the midst of a desolated countries,
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of desolated countries, and her cities
shall be a desolation. Forty years,
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among cities that are laid waste.
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations
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and disperse them through the countries,
for thus says the Lord God. At
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the end of forty years, I
will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among
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whom they were scattered and I will
restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them
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back to the land of Pathros,
the land of their origin, and there
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they shall be a lowly kingdom.
It shall be the most lowly of the
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Kingdoms and never again exalt itself above
the nations. And I will make them
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so small that they will never again
rule over the nations, and it shall
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never again be the reliance of the
House of Israel recalling their iniquity when they
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would return to them for aid.
Then they will know that I am the
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Lord God. In the twenty seventh
year and the first month, on the
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first day of the month, the
word of the Lord came to me,
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son of Man Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon made his army labor hard against tire.
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Every head was made bald and every
shoulder rub is rubbed bare. Yet
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neither he nor his army got anything
from tire to pay for the Labor that
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he had performed against her. Therefore, thus, as the Lord God behold,
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I will give the land of Egypt
and Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon,
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and he shall carry off its wealth
and despoil it and plunder it, and
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it shall be the wages for his
army. I have given him the land
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of Egypt as his payment, for
which he labored, because they worked for
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me, declares the Lord God.
On that day, I will cause a
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horn to spring up for the House
of Israel and I will open your lips
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among them. Then they will know
that I am the Lord. The word
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of the Lord came to me,
son of man, prophesy and say.
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Thus says the Lord God. Wail
Alas, for the day. The day
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is near, the day of the
Lord is near. It will be a
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day of clouds, a time of
doom for the nation's a sword shall come
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upon Egypt and anguish shall be in
cush when the slain fall in Egypt,
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and her wealth is carried away and
her foundations are torn down. Cush and
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put and blood and all Arabia and
Libya and the people of the land that
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is in League shall fall with them
by the sword, thus says the Lord
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those who support Egypt shall fall,
and her proud might shall come down from
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migdols to Siyheene. They shall fall
within her by the sword, declares the
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Lord God. They shall be desolated
in the midst of the desolated countries,
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and their cities shall be in the
midst of the cities that are laid bare.
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Then they will know that I am
the Lord when I have set fire
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to Egypt and all her helpers are
broken. On that day, messengers shall
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go out from me in ships to
terrify the unsuspecting be people of Cush and
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anguish shall come upon them on the
day of Egypt's doom, for behold it
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comes. Thus says the Lord God, I will put an end to the
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wealth of Egypt by the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. He and
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his people with him, the most
ruthless of nations, shall be brought in
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to destroy the land, and they
shall daw draw their swords against Egypt and
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fill the land with the slain.
And I will dry up the Nile and
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I will sell the land into the
hand of evildoers. I will bring desolation
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upon the land and everything in it
by the hand of foreigners. I am
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the Lord. I Have Spoken,
thus says the Lord God. I will
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destroy the idols, I will put
an end to the images in Memphis.
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There shall no longer be a prince
from the land of Egypt. So I
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will put fear in the land of
Egypt. I will make pathross a desolation.
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I will set fire to zoon and
will execute judgments on Thebes. I
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will pour out my wrath on Pellucium, the stronghold of Egypt. I will
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cut off the multitude of theves and
I will set fire to Egypt. PELLUCIUM
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shall be in great agony, themes
shall be repro or shall be breached and
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Memphis shall face enemies by day.
The young men of on and of Pie
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beshef shall fall by the sword and
the women shall go into captivity at Tea
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Paus the the day shall be dark
when I break there. The yoke bars
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of Egypt and her proud might shall
come to an end. In her,
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she shall be covered by a cloud
and her daughter shall go into captivity.
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Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt. Then they will know that I am
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the Lord, maybe seated well.
This passage we see several sections. We
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came to three of them. The
first is in twenty nine one through sixteen,
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the second is seventeen through twenty one, and the third is thirty one
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through nineteen. There are four more
after these for a complete seven, a
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number often signifying completion in the scriptures. These seven oracles hold together and bring
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Pharaoh and the people of Egypt under
the wrath of God. And in this
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prophecy we see the strength of our
Lord. We see his supremacy in all
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creation, his supremacy in Providence,
his authority over every kingdom, over every
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power and over every false god.
It's a judgment in which Egypt is prophesied
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against and a reminder to Israel and
to us to trust only in the Lord,
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to trust only in the Lord,
to not trust ourselves, to not
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trust others, but all and always
look to God, our King, who
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has, of course, in these
last times, revealed himself through his son,
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this Messiah, this anointed one,
who is promised from the very beginning,
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one who has promised to conquer,
to crush the head of the serpent
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and to be the true image bear
of God. This king, are King
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Jesus, has crushed the Great Dragon, the Great Monster. He has crushed
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Satan himself. He has brought all
of Satan's pride and boasting to nothing,
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and one day all the nations and
all the peoples of the world will give
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Jesus the praise that is due his
name and a Zeke. He'll prophesies of
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these things, both against Egypt now
and in the things to come. We
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hear are the strength of the Lord
God as he subdues Egypt and also,
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hopefully, our own hearts. So
let's begin with a short exposition of these
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three oracles. Well, I'm just
a quick explanation and reminder of what we
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just heard. So First, God
speaks to us and versus one through sixteen.
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You remember when the prophecy came against
tire and against her king, that
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city was compared to a boat.
You might remember I mentioned the titanic as
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a possible close analogy, this great
boat, which symbolize their her power on
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her wealth, her influence and her
pride. is she goes and sails out
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onto the waters, undefeatable, unsinkable, and then, of course, sunk.
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Tire was brought low. And in
a similar way, I'm God speaks
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to Egypt. I'm in her king
in particular, the King of Egypt,
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like the king of tire, was
trusting in his wealth, his power,
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and he styles himself even as the
king of tire did and as Nebuchadnezzar does
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and as many great kings do,
after God himself. Verse Twenty Nine,
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verse two, or rather three,
says God says, behold, I am
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against you, Pharaoh, King of
Egypt, the Great Dragon that lies in
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the midst of his streams, this
dragon that says, my Nile is my
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own, I made it for myself. But who made the Nile? Not
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Pharaoh. Pharaoh is no God to
Pharaoh is not able to control the waters,
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he's not able to give the land
it's prosperity. Only God. Yeah,
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way, King of Israel does these
things. This, of course,
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was made very plain on all kinds
of ways, but we remember particularly when
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God set his people free out of
Egypt on a long time ago. Pharaoh
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said he would not obey the Lord, he would not let God's people go,
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and God came against him and came
against him hard, proving himself victorious
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over Pharaoh and over all the false
gods that were there. Bringing plague after
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plague upon Egypt. God showed that
he alone was creator of Heaven and earth
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and not the false gods, most
of all Pharaoh himself, taking Pharaoh's own
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son, bringing death into Pharaoh's own
household and eventually pharaoh's life as well.
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As he and is supposedly great army
is drowned in the sea. Is God
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rescued his people? Here Pharaoh is
again another Pharaoh, having seemingly learn learned
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nothing of God of Yahwey. Pharaoh
here is described as a great dragon,
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or perhaps a crocodile, a monster
living in the Nile, this great creature,
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he that sees it itself as the
true ruler of this land. The
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Nile, of course, kind of
like the waters and the sea. Trade
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for tie or the Nile was Egypt
prosperity right during the Roman Empire and in
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other times and places, Egypt was
this breadbasket of the world. They produced
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all kinds of resources, I'm not
only for themselves but for other places as
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well. The Nile is it flooded
and provided a very fertile land. It's
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been for a very long time the
wealth and and and hope of Egypt,
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and so that's why the Nile here
is seen as the strength of Pharaoh.
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He says it is my own,
I made it for myself. Well,
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this boast of being God and creator
of the source of prosperity for this land
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is a false boast, because God
alone is, of course the creator.
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And so he says, I will
put hooks in your jaws and make the
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fish of your streams, referring to
other nations that put their hope in Egypt.
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I'll make the fish of your stream
stick to your scales. I'll draw
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out this huge beast out of the
Nile and I'll put you out in the
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wasteland and the desert and the Wilderness, where the birds and the beasts will
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feed upon you. No burial,
no great mummification, no placement in the
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the treasuries and in the holy places
in Egypt. No, just exposed an
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open, ashamed and dishonored as the
beasts of the earth and the birds of
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the heaven just eat her up as
food. God will simply pull out the
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great monster the Great Dragon out of
the Nile and will bring her, bring
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him and this country to an end. Why? What is the reasoning behind
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this? God says in verses six
and seven. Why he compares Egypt to
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a failed staff. I've had the
unfortunate opportunity of sitting in a broken chair
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a few times in my life or
seeing somebody said in a broken share or
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lean on something that proved not to
be reliable, and it's it's quite a
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dramatic scene, right. It's often
scary and sometimes brings injury. If you
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if you sit down into a chair
where the leg is broken, their back
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or it's the ground isn't stable and
you just fall backwards right in, your
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heart rate goes up and everything goes
goes wrong. It's it's kind of a
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similar image here. Each is compared
to a staff, a staff of read,
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not a strong staff, not a
powerful staff, not a staff that
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rules and a staff that is trustworthy
can be depended upon, but a read
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that breaks. Israel trusts in Egypt. Israel looks at Egypt and her wealth
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and her chariots and her power and
says, Oh, we can trust Israel,
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she can be our salvation, that
king will save us from Nebuchadnezzar or
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whomever. It depends different times and
different places. And instead of trusting in
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the Lord, she trusts Israel,
trusts in Egypt. But Egypt is a
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daff of read. And what happens? It breaks. You broke, God
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says, to Egypt, and tore
their shoulders, break and make their loins
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to shake. Egypt was not dependable. Egypt, and all her boasting says,
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rely on us, depend on us, give tribute to us, be
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our vassal, and Israel obliged,
and Israel fell into ruin because of it.
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Egypt was, in some ways a
false God for Israel herself. And
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therefore, Verse Eight, thus says
the Lord, God, behold, I
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will bring sword upon you and I
will cut you off, cut off from
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you, man and beast. The
land of Egypt shall be a desolation and
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waste. Then they will know that
I am the Lord, because you said
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the Nihil is mine and I made
it so. God will bring them low.
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He does talk later about bringing them
back, and there's language there that,
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if you've been going through this book
with with me, you go ah,
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I know this language about scattering out
and bringing them back. That sounds
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very familiar things that God has promised
to Israel, but it ends up twisting
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and being different than we've heard before. Instead of bringing back the people into
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a country and re establishing them and
securing them in gun under God's grace,
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it says I will bring them back
into the land of their origin, and
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then in verse fourteen, it says
and they shall be a lowly kingdom.
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The contrast is to help us to
see God's continued favor on Israel, help
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us to see a God that God
and his covenant promises for them. Are
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Sure God's not going to bring back
Israel so that she can rise again and
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you once again rule the nations?
Know he will bring them back so that
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they will never again exalt themselves above
the nation's never again will they rule like
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they had in the next expisode or
in the next oracle and versus seventeen through
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twenty one. God. Then he
speaks particularly of why this is happening.
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Another reason, I guess, he
gives for why this is happening, and
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the reason he gives that as Nebuchadnezzar, as God prophets, as God spoke
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through his equal in this prophecy,
nebuchadnezzar was to come against tire. You
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remember, that was going to stripper
bear down to the Rock, so there
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was absolutely nothing left. Well,
this is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did. Thirteen
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years and from five hundred and eighty
six to five hundred and seventy three BC,
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nebuchadnezzar raged against tire and was successful. However, God says that the
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work didn't produce much results for Nebuchadnezzar
and for the people of Babylon. All
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of that work, all of that
war, all of that conquering was relatively
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fruitless. And God, and so
God says that the land of Egypt will
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be given to Nebuchadnezzar, will be
given to Babylon, and he will carry
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off this is verse nineteen its wealth, to spoil it and plunder it,
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and it shall be the wages for
his army. There's all kinds of really
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important lessons in this. One is, of course, the supremacy of God
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over nation's God. Nebuchadnezzar seems,
and he will think in due time,
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that he is the one who is
in control, that he is the one
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who is powerful, but know he
is simply a worker on behalf of the
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Lord. This is what wages imply
right. God gives him his wages because
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God is his employer. God is
the sovereign one here, not Nebuchadnezzar,
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as strong as he may be,
conquering this kingdom and that kingdom. Ultimately,
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it is God who pays him and
does so according to his work.
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It is a reminder to Egypt,
it is a reminder to Babylon, it
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is a remindered Israel and a reminder
to us that God alone is king.
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And then we come, finally,
to the third Oracle, Chapter Thirty,
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verses one through nineteen, and in
some ways it's a repetition of the first
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oracle, but it comes in the
form of a of a lament, and
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some more specificity is given as well. So, for example, the fish
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of the streams are named, in
verse five, Cush and put Lud and
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all of Arabia and Libya and the
people of the land that is in league.
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They shall fall with them by the
sword, these fish that have a
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trusted in the Nile, that have
trusted in the one who styled himself as
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God. They will all fall with
him. Egypt, her rulers and her
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gods as well. M He will
put God, the True God, will
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put an end to Egypt and,
as he says in verse thirteen, I
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will destroy the idols and put an
end to the images in Memphis. There
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shall no longer be a prince from
the land of Egypt. So I will
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put fear into the land of Egypt. God removes the King and puts in
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fear, fear of him, so
that they might see that he alone is
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the one true God, he alone
is king, and not only so that
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is our Egypt would see these things, but so that Israel would as well.
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So what do we learn from these
passages? What is Jesus? What
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does King Jesus want us to know
as we live our lives out in him?
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One thing is that no power in
the world should be depended upon or
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feared more than him. None.
God speaks to us in his strength,
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doesn't he? He speaks to you
and his power. He speaks to you
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in his supreme ability to move armies, remove kings, set up, take
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down, do whatever he wants to
do, according to his wisdom, according
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to his justice. Despite Egypt's apparent
it power, wealth boasting abundance and security.
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None of it will save them,
none of it will save the king,
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and we must take this and apply
this to our own lives. What
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do you place your trust in?
What do you place your strengthen and your
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identity, and that's other than King
Jesus? Do you find your safety in
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your security, in your obedience,
in your family history? You find it
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in your marriage or your kids?
Do you look for strength and security in
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your knowledge or your work, or
maybe your ability to hide and deceive and
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keep things from people? Where do
you find your safety and where do you
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find your strengthen know that if it
is anything other than in the Lord Jesus,
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it will fall, it will fail. The Lord can tear up,
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remove and pull out with hooks all
that he desires and he sees everything.
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He sees on can move great armies, he can move nations to accomplish his
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will. Though someone see though,
someone can say that he is a God,
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and it would seem that he may
be given all his strength, he
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is nothing compared to the Lord.
Nothing. We have to always, always
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keep this in mind, that God
alone is King, God alone is strong,
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he alone is supreme. Why does
Jesus want us to know these things
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so that we can put all of
our faith and hope and in so that
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we would let go of our idols, so that we could let go of
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our false pretenses, so that we
can let go of our hiding and simply
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trust ourselves to him. When we
read passages like this, it forces us
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is ask this question. Who are
you going to trust? Are you going
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to trust the one who is strong, the one who is supreme, the
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one who from does all that he
says he will do, the one who
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has promised to be steadfast in his
love for Israel, or will you trust
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the things of this world? We
can't trust the things of this world.
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They fall apart. It's like building
our house on sand. It just falls
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right through. It's like trusting a
staff that just breaks on us. It
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all might, you could cover it
and gold and fancy pictures and all kinds
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of things, but when it breaks, breaks and it can ruin us.
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But would we hear the Lord and
his strength, when we hear his going
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out before his people and for his
people to show us and to show the
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world that he alone is God in
the stories and the songs and the laments
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and the prophecies and all that is
here, God is saying these things to
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you to impress it on your heart
who he is, so that you can
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look out at this world and fear
nothing. Poverty, HAH, death,
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no problem, sickness, loneliness,
despair, things that get into our minds
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and our hearts that bring us much
trouble, troubles and our bodies, troubles
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and our societies. It doesn't matter
when we compare it to the strength of
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our king. Jesus wants us to
know who he is so that we would
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trust him, so that we would
trust him above all things. The Lord
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brought all these things to pass and
more. The Lord eventually did come,
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that Great Messiah King, and he
proved himself to be a king worth following.
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The Lord Jesus and his defeat over
death itself, when he rose victorious
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out of the Tomb and then a
rose into the heavenly places to sit enthroned
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at the right hand of God.
Visions which we have given to us in
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revelation, of the Lord Jesus ruling
and reigning and the whole host of Heavens,
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of the heavens, millions upon millions
of angels calling out his name and
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saying worthy is the lamb who is
slain. That's your King, king who
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loves you, a King Who protects
you, a king who knows your difficulties,
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in your struggles, who knows when
you are afflicted, and promises that
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he is working in the midst of
those every single day, every single moment,
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and will one day bring all of
those troubles to an end, one
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day bring all suffering to an end, one day bring complete defeat on all
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of his and our enemies, so
that we can reign with him forever and
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ever, without fear, without worry. The powers of this world are always
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puffing themselves up, always pretending to
be something more than they really are.
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We do this in our own lives
as well. We puff ourselves up,
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we build these false pretenses and little
many kingdoms, but there's only one true
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king and his kingdom is forever.
The question is, will you follow him?
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Will you trust? Will you put
your faith in yourself or in the
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Egypts or in the babylons of this
world, or will you put your trust
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in Jesus and the kingdom, the
unshakable Kingdom of God? Let's pray,
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Oh Lord, God Almighty, we
bow ourselves before you at the revelation of
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your strength and your power. What
King, what person, what idol,
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what building, what river, what
creation or cultural institution of man can stand
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against you? Nothing. Nothing,
nothing, indeed, Satan himself, that
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great enemy, that Great Dragon,
that murderer and the liar, who has
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deceived US and brought all kinds of
wickedness into the world and even now desires
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to devour us and prey upon us. Even he could not withstand the strength
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of your arm undone, so quickly
chained and bound even now, is the
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gospel of Jesus. Christ goes out
into the world his victory over Satan,
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his victory over the world, his
victory over death and over sin. Lord,
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as we see your great length and
how puny and weak we are before
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you, we asked that you would
strip us bare of all of our all
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of our pretenses, all of the
lies and which we prop ourselves up,
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all of our false gods, the
false reads that we lean upon, strip
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US bear and expose us and expose
our hearts, so that we might no
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longer trust and false things, so
that we would no longer trust and stabs
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of read and foundations of sand,
the fleeting things of this world, but
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so that we can clearly see you
and trust in you alone, in your
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great strength and might, in your
salvation that is revealed to us, promises
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kept from long ago and brought into
fulfillment in the Messiah, Great Son.
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Lord, in these things we we
desire to bring you praise, to worship
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you and bless you are most powerful
and awesome name. Indeed, you have
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spoken and we have heard. Let
us put our faith in you and in
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you alone. We desire no other
king, we desire no other hope,
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we want only you and your kingdom
that is forever. Help us to receive
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these things through faith alone, in
Christ alone. As we receive them,
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Lord, we ask that you would
strengthen our hearts. This world is a
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hard place. Our hearts are so
often a deceitful and trick us. The
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world and its lies are so tempting
beguiling. GIVE US CLARITY OF MIND,
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give US clarity of heart, give
us a faith that rests in you alone.
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Whatever our situations are, Lord,
whatever our struggles are, whatever the
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things that we are in need of, help us to turn to you as
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our king, as our father,
as our Savior, as our shepherd that
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leads us by your staff, even
through the darkest of places and brings us
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to still waters and a table set
before our enemies. Lord, strengthen us
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in these things we pray, and
we pray them in Jesus name an
