Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn our attention now to God's
word in the Old Testament, second chronicles,
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Chapter Twenty Five. Second Chronicles Twenty
Five, tonight we hear about the
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life and death of Amaziah and how
he points us to Jesus. Amaziah was
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twenty five years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned twenty nine
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years in Jerusalem. His mother's name
was Johoy Don of Jerusalem, and he
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did what was, I right in
the eyes of the Lord, yet not
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with a whole heart. And as
soon as the royal power was firmly his,
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he killed his servants who had struck
down the king, his father,
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but he did not put their children
to death, according to what is written
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in the law, in the book
of Moses, where the Lord commanded fathers
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shall not die because of their children, nor children die because of their fathers,
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but each one shall die for his
own sin. Then amaziah assembled the
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men of Judah and set them by
father's houses, under commanders of thousands and
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of hundreds. For All Judah and
Benjamin, he mustered those twenty years old
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and upward and found that they were
three hundred thousand choice men, fit for
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war, able to handle spear and
shield. He hired also a hundred thousand
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mighty men of val or from Israel
for a hundred hundred talents of silver.
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But a man of God came to
him and said, O King, do
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not let the army of Israel go
with you, for the Lord is not
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with Israel, with all these ephramites. But go act, be strong for
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the battle. Why should you suppose
that God will cast you down before the
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enemy? For God has power to
help or to cast down. And Amaziah
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said to the man of God,
but what shall we do about the hundred
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talents that I have given to the
Army of Israel? The man of God
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answered him, the Lord is able
to give you much more than this.
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Then Amaziah discharged the army that had
come to him from Ephraim to go home
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again, and they became very angry
with Judah and returned home in fierce anger.
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But amaziah took courage and led his
people, let out his people and
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went to the Valley of salt and
struck down tenzero men of seer. The
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men of Judah captured another tenzero alive
and took them to the top of a
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rock and threw them down from the
top of the Rock and they were all
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dashed to pieces. But the man
of the army whom Amaziah sent back,
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not letting them go with him to
battle, raided the cities of Judah,
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from Samaria to Beth harn and struck
down three thou people in them and took
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much spoil. After Amasaiah came from
striking down the Edomites, he brought the
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gods of the men of seer and
set them up as his gods and worshiped
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them, making offerings to them.
Therefore, the Lord was angry with Amaziah
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and sent to him a prophet who
said to him, why have you sought
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the gods of a people who did
not deliver their own people from your hand?
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But as he was speaking, the
king said to him, have we
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made you a royal counselor stop?
Why should you be struck down? So
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the prophet stopped, but said I
know that God has determined to destroy you
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because you have done this and have
not listened to my counsel. Then Amaziah,
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King of Judah, took counsel and
sent to Joe Ash, the son
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of Jehoiah has son of Jehu,
King of Israel, saying come, let
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us look one another in the face
and Joe Ash, the King of Israel,
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send word to Amaziah, King of
Judah. A thistle on Lebanon sent
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to a Cedar on Lebanon saying give
your daughter to my son for a wife.
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And a while beast of Lebanon passed
by and trampled down the thistle.
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You say, see, I have
struck down Edom and your heart has lifted
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you up in boastfulness, but now
stay at home. Why should you provoke
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trouble so that you fall, you
and Judah with you? But AMASAI would
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not listen, for it was of
God in order that he mightn't give them
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into the hand of their enemies because
they had sought the gods of Edom.
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So Joe Ash, King of Israel, went up and he said he and
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Almasiah, King of Judah, faced
one another in battle at Beth Shemesh,
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which belongs to Judah, and Judah
was defeated by Israel and every man fled
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to his home. and Joe Ash, King of Israel, captured Amasiah King
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of Judah, the son of Joe
Ash, the son of a Hasaiah,
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at Beth Shemesh and brought him to
Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem
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for four hundred cubits, from the
Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, and
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he seized all the gold and silver
and all the vessels that were found in
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the House of God in the care
of Obd Edem. He seized also the
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treasuries of the king's house, also
hostages, and he returned to Samaria.
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Amasai, the king of Joe Ash, King of Judah, lived fifteen years
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after the death of Joe Ash,
the son of Jehoahaz, King of Israel.
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Now the rest of the deeds of
Amasiah, from first to last,
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are they not written in the book
of the Kings of Judah and Israel?
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From the time when he turned away
from the Lord, they made a conspiracy
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against him in Jerusalem and he fled
to Lakish, but they sent after him
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to lackish and put him to death
there, and they brought him upon horses
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and he was buried with his fathers
in the city of David. God has
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the power, this prophet says.
God has the power to cast down and
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he has the power to help.
This is verse eight, for God has
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power to help or to cast down. It's an important verse to remember.
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It's a way of remembering the story
as a whole and indeed many things that
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we read in second chronicles, many
things that we experience in our own lives.
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There's a reminder here that the Lord
is, as we read earlier in
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the Psalms, King above all kings. He is Lord of everything and everyone.
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This is something that amasaiah understood,
or at least seemed to understand in
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a way, at the beginning of
the chapter. But he didn't serve God
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with his whole heart and eventually whatever
was there seems to have disovered, whatever
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was good that was there seems to
have disappeared and he turned away from the
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Lord. The Prophet who speaks to
Amasai and says in verse, for God
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has power to help or to cast
down. He speaks to him in a
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way of encouragement. He seems to
speak to him as a way to tell
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him, Hey, you don't have
to worry because you are going out to
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battle in the Lord, who is
strong in both of these ways, but
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to a man whose heart is wavering, man who is still making a decision
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about who he will serve, whether
he will serve Yah way that with his
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whole heart, or go after other
gods. Perhaps it also wrung and his
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conscience is a bit of a warning
and if, of course, it rings
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that way to all of us who
read this passage in retrospect. It's a
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history, right, it's the chronicles, and as people go back and read
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their histories, is the Jews read, and as we read as well,
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it is a reminder to us.
It's a call to us to pay attention
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and remember who God is. I
want to review the story with you,
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this history here of Amasiah, and
then think about just a few of the
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things that God teaches us here.
The first thing to note, as I've
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mentioned already, is that almasia is
not serving the Lord with a whole heart.
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That comes in verse to sort of
a summary of his life. It
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says that he did what was right
in the eyes of the Lord, yet
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not with his whole heart. Two
examples are given of Amasia doing what was
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right. The first is that when
he prosecutes on those who did this evil
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in the among the king's household,
these servants who struck down his father,
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he is just and that he did
not put to death their children. The
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chronicler makes explicit that this is right, in line with the law. The
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book of Moses. This is important
because throughout the chronicles, each king is
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being evaluated again and again and again. Are they in line with God's will?
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Are they doing as God had commanded? The over and over we are
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reminded that the kings are not powerful
in and of themselves. They are reminded
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of that fact. The people are
reminded of that fact. They are rule
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on God's behalf. They stand on
his covenant and on his law, and
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when they're doing well well, it's
because they're following God's law. They're they're
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following after him. The next scene
that we read of is when Amaziah decides
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to go out to battle. It's
not clear why he does this, but
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it is, I'm clear, that
the Lord is with him. The initial
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plan, however, is not a
good one. He musters three hundred thousand
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men from Judah, but then decides
that's not enough. He thinks it's necessary
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to go and conscript men from Israel, and he does this. He pays
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money, I believe it said a
hundred talents, a hundred talents of silver,
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for this, and he hires a
hundred, yes, a hundred talents
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of silver. In verse six,
he hires a hundred thousand mighty men of
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Valor. So now he adds another
hundred thousand to his army to go and
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fight this battle. This, however, is against God's desires and I believe,
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if you, if we've been reading
chronicles in context, that Amaziah should
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have known this ahead of time.
Why? Well, I won't go through
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all the details, but if you
go back and read even some of the
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most recent chapters, but many of
them will, you will see that ever
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since Judah and Israel Split, Israel
has been a problem. Israel has been
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serving false God, setting up false
prophets, doing everything it can to destroy
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God and as people, even though
technically they are tribes that belong to God,
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Israel is Judah's enemy. They are
acting as people of the world,
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they are acting as those that are
outside of of the covenant, and so
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anytime we see Judah making alliances with
his reel, marriages with Israel, going
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to war with Israel, it's always
a problem, it's always dangerous us and
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God's always saying no. And every
time a king goes into an alliance,
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creates some kind of treaty with them, it all falls apart. This is,
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of course, the advantage of history
right we go and we read so
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we don't make the same mistakes over
and over and over again. But of
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course you all know that we do. We do. So we can't stand
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over Almaziah too much and be too
proud. He makes the same mistakes we
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do. He doesn't remember these lessons
and he decides to conscript these men from
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Israel. Praise be to God,
though, God sends a man verse seven
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to come to him and he warns
him. He says, don't do this,
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I don't do this. The Lord
is not with Israel. He explicitly
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tells him this. So even if, let's say, he didn't know or
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there was some reason he wouldn't have
been expected to know, now he knows.
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Be On a shadow of a doubt, a man of God, a
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prophet, has come to him and
is spoken God's word and he encourages him
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with this. He says, I'm
not telling you not to go go,
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just not with these men. Why
should you suppose that God will cast you
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down before the enemy? For God
has power to help or to cast down
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throughout the history of God's people.
This is a reoccurring motif you know,
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to use literally term a reoccurring event, to use a term of history.
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People think that they need resources outside
of what God has given them to accomplish
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God's will, constantly clamoring for other
kinds of things, something extra, a
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bonus, a plus. But God
is always telling them that he is perfectly
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capable of doing what he needs to
do without all of their added stuff.
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Over and over again he makes this
point, and he makes it here as
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well. You don't need Israel because
God is with you. Oh King of
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Judah, Alma's eyes concerned. What
about the money? He says, I've
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already spent this hundred thousand or hundred, sorry, hundred talents of silver.
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How am I going to get it
back? What do I do? He
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says, don't worry about it.
God can more than pay you back.
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You don't need to worry about the
money. In these these details, you
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get the sense of what I'm where
Alma's eyes heart is at. He's worried
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about his safety. He's worried about
his security. Thinks money and power is
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what is going to keep him safe. But he does hear God's word,
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he listens to it. Doesn't say
why it's possible that it was because of
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the money. He's afterwealth. Verse
Nine says, the Lord is able to
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give you much more than this.
Perhaps it was a kind of ungodly calculus
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that he's doing here, rather than
trust in the Lord, but whether his
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motivation was holy or not, he
does the right thing. He discharges the
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army that had come from him and
he sends them home. Verse Ten tells
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us that they were not happy about
this, these conscripts, these mercenaries.
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They became very angry with Judah and
returned home in fierce anger. Later on
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in the chapter it tells us what
they did further on, later on down
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the road, they it seems that
they go home and then they make an
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extra special trip to come back.
There's a little detail in the geography that
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indicates this, that they came back
about ten miles to plunder Judah. They
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killed a bunch of men, took
a bunch of things. They and and
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and and and harm the very people
that had initially hired them. You won't
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let us to go to war with
you, fine, we'll take your stuff.
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Having a hundred thou or why do
I keep saying that having a hundred
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talents of silver for free and being
able to go home wasn't enough? These
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men were filled with blood lust.
They wanted to fight, they wanted war.
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You sense their heart of Israel in
these actions. Now, this,
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of course, was a tragic thing
for these families that lost their and people
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that lost their lives, communities that
were ravaged and tellaged, but in a
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way it was also a blessing,
at least in the form of a reminder
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to Amasiah. He wanted to bring
these men who would do this thing to
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him with battle to battle, these
very men who are willing to plunder him,
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even after receiving a wage that they
didn't even work for. These are
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the men that he wanted to unite
with, to join with, to go
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into battle with in a holy exercise. You can see why God said No.
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I wonder if you've been in situations
like this where you've been tempted to
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conscript certain other things, to trust
things other than God's will, and then
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found yourself later really glad that you
didn't. I dodge a bullet, you
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might say, I didn't realize how
bad that decision was going to be.
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And then you, when the certain
things happen, you go oh, now
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I see. It's one of the
ways in which God reminds us of his
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power, of his authority, of
his care for us, of his wisdom,
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even when we don't understand why the
an additional hundred thousand men won't help.
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You'd think, of course that would
help. God knows what is best.
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That's one of the messages we have, one of the lessons that we
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learn throughout these histories. Well,
he goes to battle and he is successful,
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very successful, just as he just
as God promised. They win the
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victory and they come home. But
what happens next? Well, we read
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in verse fourteen of turn for the
worse. After striking down the Edomites,
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he, that is Amaziah, brought
the gods of the men of seer and
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set them up, as he is
God's, and worshiped them, making offerings
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to them. Now, the ancient
Nereus, this was a rather common thing,
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or at least it happened occasionally.
There's various possible reasons why this is
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one possible reason is that the ideas
that you could weaken the enemies by taking
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their gods. Right, if the
gods are what's supplying the power to the
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winning side. Well, you just
like you might take their chariots or horses
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or kill their men, you take
their gods right and weaken them. That's
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one possibility for why he he took
them. Another possibility that seems to be
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the case in these nations surrounding is
sometimes in victories, people would take the
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opposed using sides God's as a way
to kind of placate those gods for the
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defeat, a sort of I'm sorry, I did this bad thing to your
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people, so I'm going to worship
you so you don't harm me now.
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Both of these things. One other
possibility. It could be a kind of
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thanks for the help, you know, the sort of thank you for letting
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me win, so now I will
take you and bring you into my life
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and and worship you now. All
of these things seem reasonable enough. If,
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if the gods are real gods,
if these gods are actually powerful,
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if these gods actually do supply support
and help to either one side of the
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other, well then these actions makes
sense. But of course they don't make
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sense. He worships them and and
this prophet makes this stunning argument. He
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says in Verse Fifteen, why have
you sought the gods of a people who
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did not deliver their own people from
your hand? He says, why are
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you going in worshiping something that was
incapable of saving it, saving the people
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even from you. You are worshiping
something in a way that's even lesser than
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yourself. You remember the former prophets
words. It is God who saves,
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God who casts down. This people
was cast down by the very promise of
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God. Does it make any sense
to then go and take the idols of
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that other country and begin to worship
them? Of course it doesn't, but
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this is, of course, the
sin of idolatry, the deception of it,
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the always hoping for something else,
whether it's in a stone or a
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tree or a dollar bill or talent. Why have you sought the gods of
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a people who did not deliver their
own people from your hand? ALMASIAH SHUTS
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HIM UP. Have we made you
a royal counselor stop? Why should you
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be struck down? It's a threat
right, he's threatening him. You better
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shut up or I'm going to take
you out. Get Out of my presence.
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Be Gone. I don't want to
listen to you. And this,
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whereas before he heard the word of
God and he found success, here he
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hears the word of God and he
or he doesn't listen, he doesn't heed
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it and he falls. He makes
the same mistake again in verse seventeen.
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He goes the king of Judah,
Almasiah goes to the King of Israel in
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the north and he says, Hey, let's have a meet up, let's
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look one another in the face.
I want a face to face meeting.
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Is what he says. Joe Ash, the King of Israel, says,
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I don't think so, and he
tells this interesting he puts it in this
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very interesting way. A thistle of
Lebanon sent to a Cedar of Lebanon.
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Right, so he's already sort of
making himself much more important the king of
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Israel. He says a thistle of
Lebanon sent to a Cedar of Lebanon saying
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give your daughter to my son for
a wife. And then a wild beast,
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this kind of random act of Lebanon, passed by and trampled down the
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thistle. The King Men Israel says
to Judah. He says to Amaziah,
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you say, see, I've struck
down Edom and your heart has lifted you
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up in boastfulness. Stay at home. Why should you provoke trouble so that
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you fall? You and Judah with
you? Lots of interesting things in with
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this king says one is that he
even, as this Pagan King, essentially
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recognize as am as. I is
boastfulness, and he's like, I don't
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want to have anything to do with
that. He amas I want some kind
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of treaty. It seems perhaps some
marriage is involved here, and Israel,
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the Israelite King Says No, you're
all proud because you took down Edom,
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but your boastfulness is going to end
up hurting me along with you. So
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I will not join you, I
will not be with you. Of course,
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while recognizing this lack and this failure
in Amaziah, he he does not
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see all of this is coming from
the Lord. He characterizes the actions that
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have happened and will happened as a
wild beast of Lebanon, this kind of
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random act, this thing that's happening
in their midst and in their relationship,
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when the truth is is that God
is at work and both of these kings
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should be submitting to God, who
is powerful in all of this verse.
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Twenty almaziah would not listen. Why? Well, his sin, obviously,
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but also a judgment for sin.
We read that it was of God,
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in order that he might give them
into the hands of their enemies because they
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had sought the gods of Edom.
Again, another pattern we see throughout the
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history, the history of the world. When you reject God, he rejects
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you. And to be rejected by
God, as not to be left to
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sort of independently establish yourself as a
king or queen somewhere, to be rejected
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by God is to come under his
wrath, to come under his curse.
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We like to think that we're equal
with God and that somehow we can establish
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our own little ruler monarchies independent of
him. Let's just something not the case.
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We are not equal with him.
So when we don't listen to him,
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when we reject him, we don't
find ourselves as just another parallel king
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or kingdom, we find ourselves under
his wrath. And so God judges Almaziah
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and he judges them through this northern
Kingdom of Israel. They come, they
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fight and they destroy. They defeat
Joe, they defeat almaziah. They come
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even all the way into Jerusalem,
the capital city. They destroy the wall
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for four hundred cubits, something not
a huge breach, but a symbolic one,
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to reach the city, to destroy
the wall, and then they take
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gold and silver and with no respect
at all for Yahway all the va vessels
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that were in the House of God, he seized also the treasures in the
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king's house hostages and returned to Samaria. And then the story concludes with Amaziah's
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death. So what do we learn
from this as we reflect on the history
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of this king, especially in the
context of these other kings? What do
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we see now? Many, many
things, and some of them I've pointed
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out already, but I want to
focus just on two things as we conclude.
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The first is that we see this
point being drilled home over and over
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and over again, and that is
that we must live in and by the
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power of God. We can't play
around with this fact. Know some things
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might come in and out of your
life. You decide to use social media,
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you decide not to use social media, you decide to go you like
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hamburgers at a certain restaurant, but
then you decide you like them somewhere else.
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It is not the end of the
world. We move from thing to
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thing, from place to place.
We move cities, we you know,
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and all kinds of things, but
when it comes to God, we can't
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involve him in our lives in that
kind of way, the one who made
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us, the one whose law is
written on our hearts, the one who
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is the authority over all the world
and promise is to judge the world,
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as we see him doing over and
over and over again throughout history, and
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promises to do so in a final
way on the Latin the last days,
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as we read in in Matthew earlier. Matthew Thirteen Jesus talks about the angels
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coming, making separations and casting some
into fire, eternal fire, weeping and
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gnashing of teeth. We can't play
around with God and that sort of we
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can have him or not have him, belong to him or not belong to
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him. All of life, it
should and must be lived in accordance with
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who he is. We must know
him, we must serve him. Everything
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in life must be evaluated according to
his will, and there is this rather
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simple formula that we see happening over
and over and over again. Those who
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live according to his will are blessed
and those who don't are cursed. But
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the accumulation of these stories are also
teaching us something else important, and that's
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that our reliance are a God.
Our faith on him does not come by
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the strength of our own will.
Humanity seems to be entirely incapable of doing
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the very thing that it needs to
do in order to be blessed. No
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matter how clear it is who God
is, no matter how clear the prophet
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speak, no matter how terrible the
consequences are or great the blessings are,
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mankind is bent on doing the wrong
thing again and again and again. If
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it happens with the sons of David, who have the Law of Moses and
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have prophets coming and speaking to them
directly and powerfully, makes sense that it
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happens to everyone else too, even
pagans and gentiles. The Bible is teaching
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us, God is teaching us in
this history, how desperately we are in
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need of God to work something graciously
in our lives, to change us and
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to lift up a king not like
Almasiah. We are in desperate need of
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a king that does not Willy Nilly
follow after the word of God. We
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need a king who is strong,
who is established, who hears the will
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of the Lord and obeys every time. We don't want a king over us
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who sometimes leads us out into battle
and we all die and other times leads
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us out into battle and it's great, who sometimes follows after the will of
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God and other times follows after other
gods and dooms us all the destruction.
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Now we need a king who is
solid, who's strong and every single thing,
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and this is exactly what God provides
for us in King Jesus, the
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son of David, who comes and
for bills this long line of failure and
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perfects it and does exactly what the
prophets have been promising, what we had
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been longing for and what we all
really need. Almasiah in Israel. All
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of this is teaching us of our
great need for God's power, in His
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grace, and it was exercised.
This powerful grace was exercised when he sent
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Jesus into the world, and this
king that I've described, this king that
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we need, is exactly who Jesus
is. Jesus wholeheartedly served after his father.
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Over and over again he says,
I came not to do my will
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but the will of the father who
sent me. Over and over again he
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establishes this fact that he comes because
he was sent, that he is a
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king who is going to rule righteously, and he does this in a way
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that earns blessing for US earns,
safety for us, protection for us,
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victory over all of our and God's
enemies. This is what it means to
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be united to Christ. It means
that we're not united to someone like Almas
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Ziah, someone frail and weak and
idolatrous and sinful like us. We are
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united to God, God himself as
he comes to us in the incarnation.
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Now many people doubt all of this. They look at Jesus and they say,
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well, sure, mighty works,
Yada, Yada, Yada, but
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really these married son. We all
know this. Or, as we read
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in Matthew Thirteen, he's a carpenter's
kid. We we know who Jesus is.
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Well, I don't know where all
these mighty works come from, but
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whatever they think he's, he's nothing. And if they think he's nothing,
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even after all the mighty works and
even after all the mighty teachings, what
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do you think they thought of him
after the Cross? But we know his
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own disciples deserted him. They laughed
him, they scattered. They said this
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is weakness, this is dying,
this is not succeeding. But of course
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they were all shown that that wasn't
the case and he did succeed and we
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all know that he did, because
he rose again from the dead, proving
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his victory over death, over sin, over Satan. But this reminder about
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God's working and weakness, his get
rid of the hundred thousand troops and do
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it the way I said to do
it. This God wanting to display him's
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power in weakness, is the message
of the Cross. I'm going to read
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just a few verses from First Corinthians
and Second Corinthians. First, First Corinthians,
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one hundred and twenty five, for
the foolishness of God is wiser than
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men and the weakness of God is
stronger than men. And then Second Corinthians,
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chapter twelve versus nine and ten.
But he said to me, my
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grace is sufficient for you. My
power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore,
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Paul says, I will boast all
the more gladly for my weakness so
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that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. For the sake of Christ,
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then I am content with weakness.
Insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.
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Bring it on, Paul says,
because I am content with my weakness,
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I am strong in Christ, for
when I am weak, he says,
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then I am strong. And one
more. Second Corinthians Thirteen Four,
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for he was crucified in weakness,
but lives by the power of God.
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For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we
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live by we live with him,
by the power of God. This is
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Paul's testimony of what it means to
live under the kingship of Christ. It
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means to suffer, it means to
be weak, it means to have the
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enemy attack us and raiding parties.
In these kinds of things, not all
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goes well all the time in this
world. But ultimately it means that we
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are secure in him and that Christ's
power and authority and glory is being manifested
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in our weakness. So I call
you tonight to hear about the God of
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this world. Know that he indeed
is powerful to cast down, but he's
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also powerful to save, and he
does it in Jesus. So worship him,
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come to him, live to him, live in him, because there
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you will find a rock of salvation, security and everlasting hope, because he's
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not like you and me. He's
righteous, he's holy, he's completely devoted
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to God, he is God.
Maybe worship him and him alone. Let
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us pray
