Episode Transcript
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You may be seated, and let's
turn our attention to God's word in the
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book of Ezekiel, and will begin
in chapter twelve. So Ezekiel, Chapter
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Twelve, Verse Twenty One, and
then I will read also chapter thirteen.
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Here in this passage, the Lord
speaks to us about false prophets, about
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and and points the way forward to
Jesus as the True Prophet, Speaker of
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truth, bringer of wisdom and salvation. So let's give our attention to God's
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word now. And Ezekiel, Chapter
Twelve, beginning verse twenty one. And
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the word of the Lord came to
me, son of man. What is
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this proverb that you have heard about
the land of Israel, saying the days
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grow long and every vision comes to
nothing? Tell them, therefore, thus
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says the Lord God. I will
put an end to this proverb and they
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shall new no more use it as
a proverb in Israel, but say to
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them the days are near and the
fulfillment of every vision, for there shall
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be no more any false vision or
flattering divination within the House of Israel.
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For I am the Lord. I
will speak the word that I will speak
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and it will be performed. I
will no longer be delayed, but in
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your days, oh rebellious house,
I will speak the word and perform it,
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declares the Lord God. And the
word of the Lord came to me,
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son of man. Behold, they
of the House of Israel say,
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the vision that he sees is for
many days from now, and he prophesies
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of times far off. Therefore say
to them, thus says the Lord God.
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None of my words will be delayed
any longer, but the word that
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I speak will be performed, declares
the Lord God. The word of the
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Lord came to me, son of
man. Prophesy against the false prophets of
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Israel who are prophesying, and say
to those who prophesy from their own hearts,
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here the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God. Woe
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to the foolish prophets who follow their
own spirit and have seen nothing. Your
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prophets have been like jackals among ruins, Oh Israel, you have not gone
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you have not gone up into the
breaches or built up a wall for the
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House of Israel that it might stand
in battle in the day of the Lord.
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They have seen false visions and lying
divinations, they say, declares the
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Lord, when the Lord has not
sent them, and yet they expect him
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to fulfill their word. Have you
not seen a false vision and uttered a
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lying divination whenever you have said,
declares the Lord although I have not spoken?
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Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have uttered falsehood and
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seen lying visions. Therefore, behold, I am against you, declares the
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Lord God. My hand will be
against the prophets who see false visions and
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who give lying divinations. They shall
not be in the counsel of my people,
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nor be enrolled in the register of
the House of Israel, nor shall
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they enter the land of Israel,
and you shall know that I am the
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Lord God, precisely because they have
misled my people, saying peace when there
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is no peace, and because,
when the people build a wall, these
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prophets, smeared with whitewash, say
to those who smear it with whitewash that
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it shall fall, there will be
a deluge of rain and you, Oh,
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great hailstones will fall and a stormy
wind break out. And when the
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wall falls, will it not be
said to you, where is the coding
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with which you smeared it? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I
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will make a stormy wind to break
out in my wrath and there shall be
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a deluge of rain in my anger
and great hailstones and wrath to make a
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full end, and I will break
down the wall that you have smeared with
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whitewash and bring it down to the
ground so that its foundations, or so
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that its foundation will be laid bare
when it falls, you shall perish in
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the midst of it and you shall
know that I am the Lord. Thus
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will I spend my wrath upon the
wall and upon those who have smeared it
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with whitewash, and I will say
to you the wall is no more,
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nor those who smeared it, the
prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and
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saw visions of peace for her when
there was no peace, declares the Lord
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God. and You, son of
man, set your face against the daughters
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of your people, who prophesy out
of their own hearts. Prophesy against them
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and say, thus says the Lord
God, woe to the women who so
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magic bands upon all wrists and make
veils for the heads and persons of every
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stature. In the hunt for soul
souls. Will you hunt down souls belonging
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to my people and keep your own
souls alive. You have profaned me among
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my people for handfuls of Barley,
for pieces of bread, putting to death
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souls who should not die, in
keeping alive, souls who should not live,
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by your lying to my people.
WHO LISTENS TO LIES? Therefore,
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thus, as the Lord, God
behold, I am against your magic bands
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with which you hunt the souls like
birds, and I will tear them from
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your arms and I will let the
souls whom you hunt go free, the
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souls, like birds, your veils
also, I will tear off and deliver
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my people out of your hand,
and they shall no more be in your
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hand as pray, and you shall
know that I am the Lord, because
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you have disheartened the righteous falsely,
although I have not grieved him, and
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you have encouraged the wicked that he
should not turn from his evil way to
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save his life. Therefore, you
shall no more cease false, false divisions,
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nor practiced divination. I will deliver
my people out of your hand and
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you shall know that I am the
Lord. May God bless his true word
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to us. Well, the problem
that is Ekiel is facing and that the
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Lord declares to this son of man
is twofold, but the FROLKATE. Focus
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is on the second part. You
can get the sense of it in Verse
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Nineteen, where he says by your
lying to my people who listen to lies.
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So there is a people, the
body as reel, who listens to
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lies. There are foolish people and, as we've seen in many ways,
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an unrighteous people and ungodly people,
people who, because of their unrighteousness,
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are going to be sent out of
the land, the Holy Land. But
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this passage focus is not particularly on
those who listen to lies, but on
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those who make the lies, prophets
and prophetesses, men and women, women
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who say thus says the Lord,
when the Lord has not thus said.
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Ezekiel another words speaks, these powerful
messages, these he tells us, these
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visions. He he does these signs
in a midst of many other prophets.
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At the same time there are some
other true prophets of the Lord, but
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as we learn here from Ezekiel Thirteen
and twelve, there are also many false
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prophets. Like today, is he
like there are? There are people in
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e Ekiel's time, including himself,
who speak truly the word of God and
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many others who speak falsely. This
generates all kinds of questions for us when
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we think about the truth and and
potential falseness of a word that is said
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to come from the Lord. Questions
like how do you know what's true?
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Or will there be justice for the
liars? Or what if I do the
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wrong thing? What if I head
the wrong way by listening to the wrong
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person? It also reminds us that
there are many people among us who are
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constantly speaking on behalf of God,
just as happened in the time of Israel.
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Who Don't speak on behalf of God. There are those who will talk
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from morning tonight about things, about
the morality of God, about the divinity
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of God, about his plans for
the world, about what is what isn't.
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All these voices, and many of
them don't know what they're talking about,
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many of them are confused and some
lie as well, and the people
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of Israel were facing similar problems.
You can imagine the frustration of Ezekiel being
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called to declare these things in the
midst of all these other prophets who are
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declaring other things. Ezekiel says,
thus says the Lord as he digs through
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the wall, and meanwhile there's somebody
down the street saying thus says the Lord,
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Everything's fine. You can imagine how
frustrating that was be perhaps you felt
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that very same frustration and having conversations
with friends or family or neighbors, saying
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here's what the Bible says, here's
what the Lord says, and to have
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voices come in all around you saying, Oh, don't worry about that.
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There's lots of different interpretations. I
read this great book I picked up at
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the airport. It's awesome and on
and on. Well, good news for
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us is that God speaks into that
kind of situation, both for us and
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during Ezekiel's time. Now, of
course, God speaks in Ezekiel's time at
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a pre very particular moment in history
where he's bringing the Covenant Curses upon his
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people for their breaking of it,
as we spoke about last time. But
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I'd like to focus on the things
that Ezekiel brings our tension to. I'm
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first the confusion, just thinking a
little more carefully about that, and then
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these two classes of people, the
Prophets, the false prophets and the false
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prophetesses. And as we think about
these things, what we want to do
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is contrast them with our Lord,
who is a true prophet, the True
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Prophet who speaks the word of the
Lord, who is the word of the
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Lord, and we can learn more
about him by seeing what he is not.
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So we see the terrible situation in
which the people found themselves, can
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be reminded of the very excellent situation
in which we find ourselves as having the
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word of God to us in Christ. So let's focus on the confusion first,
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that is EEKIEL and the people of
Israel. We're facing in verses twenty
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one through the end of chapter twelve. Accidentally, so to speak, Ezekiel
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does a similar thing that Paul did
this morning, right where he takes these
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proverbs and then critiques them. This
was not planned, but an interesting and
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and happy providence of the Lord for
us to remember this and think about this.
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The first one comes in verse twenty
two. Ezekiels, the Lord says
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to is Ekiel, son of man, what is this proverb that you have
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about the land of Israel, saying
the day grows long and every vision comes
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to nothing? There's a hopelessness in
this proverb, right, a sort of
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meaninglessness, a sense of like I've
heard it a million times right, everybody
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saying this thing and that thing and
this vision and that vision. But what
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does it come to? This is
the time, this is how bad things
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got in Israel that the people in
the land of Israel had a proverb for
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how bad the prophets were. That's
how bad things were that they're like,
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oh, yeah, right, we
all know. Right, the days grow
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along and every vision comes to nothing. What's God's answer to this proverb?
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The answer is in Verse Twenty Three. He says. Tell them, therefore,
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thus says the Lord God, I
will put an end to this proverb
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and they shall no more use it
as a proverb in Israel. Okay,
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that's a big statement, right,
to go from a place where this whole
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time and all these events can be
characterized by a proverb that we all just
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know, to a point where God
says, nobody's going to say that anymore.
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What's going to be the difference?
He tells us. He tells us
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in the the next verse, he
says, but say to them the days
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are near and the fulfillment of every
vision, for there shall no more be
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any false vision or flattering divination within
the House of Israel. For I am
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the Lord. I will speak the
word that I will speak and it will
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be performed. That's a great verse, by the way. To remember,
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I am the Lord, I will
speak the word that I will speak and
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it will be performed. This is
our God. Now, why? where?
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Are these things going to be coming
to an end? Why we're all
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these false visions and lying prophets?
Are Lying prophecies going to be coming to
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an end? Because, as he
tells us, he's going to bring an
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end to those who speak them.
This whole exercise and culture and practice of
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false prophecy was going to end because
God was going to put them to death.
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God is not messing around, God
is not winking at these false things.
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He is done. The measure of
wrath has been built up. It
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is about to be poured out,
oh rebellious house, he says it is
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coming. This tells us both of
the power of God and the wisdom of
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God. It reminds us that he
does not wink at lying falsehoods, especially
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those which are said to be in
his name. The second proverb comes to
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us in Verse Twenty Seven. The
word of the Lord came to me.
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That is is Equel, and and
then that's twenty six, and then twenty
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seven. We have the words,
son of man, behold, they of
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the house of Israel Say the vision
that he sees is for many days from
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now and he prophesies of times far
off. If the first one expressed a
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kind of hopelessness, well, you
can't know anything. Everything comes to nothing.
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The second one has a sense of
belief in it. Right. You
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can almost hear them hearing the words
of his Equel, but instead of a
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disbelief about what he says, it's
it's sort of distraction and pushing it off
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to a future date. They don't
hear the words as he says, this
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is coming, it's happening right now, in your time, and respond instead,
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their response to his word is maybe
later. Well, at least hopefully
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later. At least I won't have
to feel the pain. Maybe it'll be
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my kids. It's that's sorry kids. It's not a very nice thought of
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parents to think, but sometimes we
think this right. We push things off.
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We think, well, maybe I
won't have to deal with that a
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coming generation in times far off.
Sure the Lord will come, sure judgment
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will come, but I don't really
have to worry about that, will I.
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Well, here and is equel.
God tells his people time is up.
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And he says in Verse Twenty Eight, the response to this pushing off
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proverb, this saying that they would
say. Therefore say to them. Thus,
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says the Lord God. None of
my words will be delayed any longer,
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but the word that I speak will
be performed, declares the Lord.
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Now, notice the Lord still doesn't
tell them the exact minute that things are
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going to happen, even though they
are going to be performed, and performed
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soon. They are still required to
trust him at his word. And that's
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always the case, isn't it?
God doesn't tell us every detail, every
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aspect of his plans. He tells
us what he tells us, and he
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expects us to listen, to believe
and to trust, to not say,
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well, there's a bunch of other
voices out there, I don't I who
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can really know, or to say
well, I suppose that's true, but
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that's for another day. No,
we are to remember that the word that
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he speaks is the word that will
be done. So it's in the midst
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of this confusion, then, from
the midst of these proverbs and these things
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happening, that God now speaks about
and to these two, these prophets,
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male and female, he speaks to
these prophets and he explains to them what
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is coming to them in judgment,
and he helps us and his people then
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to understand a little bit more about
the nature of false prophecy, what exactly
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it looks like, what it feels
like, how we ought to understand it,
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and this is important for us,
that we might not play Nice with
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false prophecy, that we might sort
of shrug our soldiers and think, well,
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you know, it's not a big
deal. It is a big deal,
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especially when the false prophets have a
place among the people of God.
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So First Azekiel deals with the prophets, the male prophets. He says to
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Ezekiel, son of Man, and
this is chapter thirteen, verse to now
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prophesy against the Prophets of Israel who
are prophesying, and say to those who
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prophesy from their own hearts, hear
the word of Yahweh. That's where Lord
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is in those little capital letters there
that you I mean. They are speaking
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of God, they're speaking the God
of Abraham, Isaac Jacob. They are
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saying, here is what God has
said. But remember the difference here between
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what is Zekiel experienced and what these
people are experiencing. When a Zekiel spoke
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the word of the Lord, he
was caught up into the heavens. He
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stood before the Lord himself, who
commanded him and said speak these words.
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What does the Lord say about the
Prophets, these false prophets? They are
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those who speak from their own hearts, their own imaginations. They simply say
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thus as the Lord, when God
has not said Verse Seven. Have you
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not seen a false vision and uttered
a lying divination whenever you have said Dick
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said, declares the Lord, although
I have not spoken? This reminds us
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of the third commandment, shall not
take the Lord's name in vain. This
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doesn't mean simply mean or only mean. Our are sort of casual use of
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the name of God, but it
also includes these various greet these very grievous
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sins, in which, then God
is said to have said something when he
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has not. In my home,
if if I want something to be done
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and I want one child to commute
it to the other child, I will
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say, as I'm suspect many parents
here also do, Say Tell Your sister
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that Dad said right and that gives
a little extra oomph, a little extra
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oomph to what one sister says,
the other one brother says whatever, right,
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because dad said it. They're communicating
this message. Thus say if dad
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right now, if the one child
here's that message and does not listen right,
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big trouble. They've not listened to
what dad is said, even though
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it has come not directly through dad
but through his Messenger. But it's also
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true that if one of my kids
goes to my other kids and says thus
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says Dad, when Dad Hath Not
said, also a big trouble. And
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that's what these prophets were doing.
They were going to the people of Israel
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with the Lord Seal, with the
Lord Stamp, with the that they the
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the authority of God and declaring things
that he had not said, what a
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terrible thing was going on there.
He calls them foolish prophets, a little
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play on words where he calls them
Nibble noblem. It's a fun little thing
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with the words, these foolish prophets. They're just making stuff up. Verse
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Six. They have seen the false
vision, a visions and lying divinations,
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and then Ezekiel describes them. These
are images which I want you to hold
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in your mind. The first image
that he gives us of these lying prophets
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is that of jackals. Notice how
he he talks about this. He says
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they are like those who who scavenge. Right they they come and they this
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is verse. For your profits have
been like jackals among the ruins of Israel.
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What did JACKALS DO? Or maybe
foxes? They're scavengers right there.
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They're here like roaming around and the
ruins, sort of picking up, eating,
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taking whatever they can get. Is
that what profits are supposed to to
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be? Our prophet supposed to be
those who are eating and devouring the last
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few resources among the ruins of God's
people? Or they supposed to be declaring
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the word of the Lord to build
up the people, to strengthen the people,
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to enlighten the people, to warn
the people? These jackals, which
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is what false prophets are, they're
about themselves. They come with all this
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authority and power, they come with
maybe fancy clothes, they come with all
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this and all that, and that
they're just in it for themselves. We
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see that with the prophetesses as well. It says that they do these magic
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things for a bit of bread and
a handful of barley. They're just after
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money resources. They're not serving God's
people. They're not serving God, they
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are serving themselves. They are not
to be trusted and not to be depended
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upon. In Verse Five, he
describes them as deserters. In a military,
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military imagery, you have not gone
up into the breaches or built a
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wall for the House of Israel that
it might stand in battle on the day
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of the Lord. As I understand
it, when one battle, when army
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would attack a city like Jerusalem or
some other place, they would build these
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works up against the wall and you'd
get to the high point of the wall
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to because it was less strong there, right is. It goes up less
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strong there, and so you the
goal would be to kind of tear it
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down from the top and then eventually, you know, breach the wall and
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get into the city. Well,
the defense of measure for this was to
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build works on the other side of
the wall and attack right so as the
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enemy is trying to come in through
the holes and make more holes through that
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wall. Your job, if you
are A in charge of protecting the people,
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is to go stand in the breach, to go stand in the gap,
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to fight those who are trying to
come in and be that wall,
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to be strong, to be courageous, to and in this case that the
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prophets is to speak the truth.
They have not done that. The people
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the Prophets of God are, are
like are like mighty warriors are they ought
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to be empowering and strengthening the people
with the word of God, and instead
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of that they're out one or in
the city collecting people's money. They're leaving
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the people defenseless. Their cowards,
their pretenders, and that pretending language comes
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up in this image, this last
image of the false prophets. We have
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jackals and we have deserters and then
we have these pretenders or whitewashers. The
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Wall needs to be built. This
image of protest action around the city.
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When the people build the wall,
we read in Verse Heaven, the Prophets
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Smear it with whitewash. This would
be the equivalent of sort of realizing that
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you had termites and mold right in
your walls really bad, and then you
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say let's paint it, I will
just will paint it all up right,
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and when the wood is rotten,
there's bugs everywhere and the things about to
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fall apart and you say, Oh, let's just let's just cover it up
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and we'll say it's good. That
we're doing good. That's what these prophets
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doing. They they had gone to
the place of protection, the though the
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wall, and they were saying you're
safe, we're safe, nothing can happen
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to us. And these equels hinted
at some of the things they've said in
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other places, like we've got the
temple right, remember, the temple that's
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filled with their idols. We've got
the temple. What could happen to us?
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We've got the Lord right there calling
on Yall way. What could happen
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to us? And on and on
and on. God's justice, whatever it'll
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come down the road. This is
all whitewashing. It's whitewashing the wall.
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What does God say will happen?
I'm going to destroy the wall hail stones
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and water. It's going to crush
the prop very prophets who have whitewashed it.
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And then you'll know the truth of
out the wall and you'll know the
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truth about the prophets. And not
only will you know the truth, but
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I will take care of the lies
and there will be no more false visions.
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An amazing moment of God's justice will
come upon Israel, in which the
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truth is made known, justice is
served. It is a similar thing with
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the female prophets, the Prophet tests, or however we might call them.
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We read that they also were pretending. We're imagining things, we're speaking from
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their own heart, and they were
doing it in a slightly different way,
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as Echiel points out, using some
sort of magical practice. Here in the
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ESV, it's translated like arm bands
or UN veils on these words are really
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difficult to translate and it's difficult to
know exactly what's going on here. We
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can't say with certainty exactly what the
practices were, but we can say with
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certainty what God says here, and
that's they were using these things to,
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as one commentator puts it, upset
the moral and spiritual order. So they
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were cursing and causing souls to die. Then we're not doing anything wrong.
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There were living righteous lie, and
then they were taking those who were unrighteous
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and not putting them to death for
causing them to live. Somehow this magic
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was being practice. It reminds us
of the truth that sometimes in some places,
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people seem to be able to access
and use spiritual powers. Remember that
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the profits of or Pharaoh's magicians,
it's translated various ways, were able to
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do some of the miracles of Moses, the first three, I think,
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if I remember right, they were
able to turn the Nile into blood.
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Right, these were not tricks.
They did these things. And then it's
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that the scriptures say that God took
it away from them. He took away
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their ability to do these things in
such a way that those magicians said,
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this comes from the hand of the
Lord. Right, we're done, there's
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nothing else that we can do.
They end up giving a confession to God.
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Now, how all this works exactly, I can't say, but what
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we do see here is that powers, magical spiritual powers, are being used
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by these people, but no longer. God will will remove these magic bands.
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He says it in this way,
in verse twenty. I will tear
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them from your arms and I will
let the souls you hunt go for now.
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Why this inequity? Why were some
people getting this treatment and others not?
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Well, it seems much like the
false prophet on Balim who's hired to
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curse God's people. On these these
magicians, these false prophets, the they
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were using this magic for money.
They had a power. I had access
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to the power, and they were
using it to make a profit. For
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Bread Barley. Well, not only
is that despicable and terrible thing, not
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just the money aspect of it,
but the abuse of the power that they
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had. We also see explicitly we
are given another image and how we are
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to understand them. These women,
these daughters of your people, verse seventeen.
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They are like hunters, laying snares
for the souls of cuts people.
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Are The prophets of the Lord supposed
to be hunting the souls of the people?
355
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Know, the profits of the Lord
are called to protect, to build
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up, to strengthen, to bring
light, to bring life, not moo
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going around setting snares and traps for
the people like like birds. Verse Twenty
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One. God will have no more
of it. Your veils, I will
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00:31:07.450 --> 00:31:11.970
tear off and deliver my people out
of your hand and they shall no more
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be in your hand as pray,
and you shall know that I am the
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Lord. You've encouraged the wicked that
he should not turn away from his evil
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way to save his life. Therefore, you shall know more see false visions
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or practice divination. I will deliver
my people out of your hand and you
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shall know that I am the Lord. This phrase that keeps coming up both
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in the last passage that we read. In this one as well, you
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shall know that I'm the Lord reminds
us of sort of the goal of all
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of these things. One way that
we express it in our confessions is to
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say that our chief end is to
glorify God and enjoy him forever. Another
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way to put it is to know
the Lord. When we know the Lord,
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that's when we know him as we
are called to. We glorify him.
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Now those who come under his wrath
and judgment do bend the knee.
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Jesus says this of himself. Every
need will bow and confess his Lordship,
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his kingship. Every tongue will speak
of this truth. But will we enjoy
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it or will we not? That's
a little bit of a different matter.
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That Joel Boy. That comes to
us as a joy of protection, a
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joy of being kept the joy of
knowing that the evil in our hearts,
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be lying in our hearts, the
are our proclivity to being deceived, that
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these things have been forgiven by the
Lord and that we know him not just
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as judge but his deliverer, as
redeem or, is the one who has
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taken us out of the snare,
out of the tomb through the truth of
381
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the word of God. In the
beginning was the word, and the word
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was with God and the word was
God. That's how John Begins His Gospel.
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And speaking about our Lord Jesus,
he was a light that shone shine
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in the darkness and the darkness darkness
did not overcome it. He was light
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to the world, he was a
light to men. He did everything that
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these false prophets did not do.
He was the opposite of them. And
387
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in seeing that contrast and seeing the
despicable, horrible things which these supposed servants
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of the Lord are doing, in
some ways they magnify, by the wisdom
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00:33:46.259 --> 00:33:52.900
of God, the glory and the
greatness of his son. When Jesus came
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into the world, did he speak
from his own heart, his own imaginations,
391
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lying divinations and false visions, or
did he, as he said several
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00:34:05.890 --> 00:34:10.800
times, I only say what has
been given to me. I only speak
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00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:15.480
what the father has said, I
only do what he has said, I
394
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:19.719
only stay at do what he was
calling you to do. This work of
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00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:23.000
the Messiah, this work of this
Prophet Greater Than Moses, is true work
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because he, when he declares thus, Saith the Lord. We know it's
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true. Not only this, not
only did he speak from the very word
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of God, but he didn't do
it for his own self, ingrandizement,
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his own self feeding, or his
own self interest. Why did Jesus come
400
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into the world? Why did Jesus
speak this, this word to us?
401
00:34:53.369 --> 00:35:01.090
Why did Jesus die for us?
He didn't to feed himself. He did
402
00:35:01.170 --> 00:35:06.610
it to feed us, to be
that bread of Heaven, to be the
403
00:35:07.090 --> 00:35:12.119
manner that comes from above. He
came not at the end, when the
404
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:15.639
ruins were all there and judgment had
been had, was just going to go
405
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:19.400
brown and pick up the pieces and
see what he could grab? He did
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it to save us from judgment,
to save us from Ruin Ge. Jesus
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00:35:25.949 --> 00:35:30.230
wasn't a jackal. He wasn't a
deserter either. When the going got tough,
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00:35:30.389 --> 00:35:34.750
when things got hard, when Jesus
was out in the desert with the
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00:35:34.909 --> 00:35:38.699
devil for forty days, being tempted
by the devil himself, to Jesus say
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00:35:39.860 --> 00:35:45.059
that's enough. The salvation thing for
my people. It was a good idea
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00:35:45.099 --> 00:35:49.500
when it started, but I got
you know, I gotta protect my own
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00:35:49.539 --> 00:35:53.210
interest. No, of course not. He stood up against the lies of
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00:35:53.250 --> 00:35:58.809
the evil one. He spoke the
truth of the word of God. When
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00:35:59.010 --> 00:36:02.289
those in power said we're going to
kill you, we're going to come after
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00:36:02.369 --> 00:36:06.480
you, we're going to come after
your people, did he blink and eye?
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00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:12.599
Did he say? Did he stand
down when they threatened to crucify him?
417
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:16.960
Did he back off? Did he
take the easy way out? The
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00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:23.269
scriptures say that he went like a
lamb to the slaughter and he did it
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00:36:23.429 --> 00:36:29.829
knowingly, he did it willingly,
he did it on purpose, Jesus say,
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00:36:30.110 --> 00:36:35.059
Jesus gave up his own life for
us, to stand in that gap,
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00:36:36.059 --> 00:36:38.940
to stand against the devil and his
evil ones, to stand against the
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00:36:39.099 --> 00:36:44.900
wrath of God that was coming against
us, with all of the legal demands
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00:36:45.219 --> 00:36:52.130
the God righteously was going to fulfill
and did fulfill. Jesus stood in the
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00:36:52.210 --> 00:36:59.130
gap and took on that wrath of
God to protect us. He is our
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00:36:59.250 --> 00:37:07.719
rock, he is our wall,
he keeps US safe and he calls it
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00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:15.989
like it is. Jesus doesn't whitewash
the situation. Jesus says things like I
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00:37:15.230 --> 00:37:19.190
am the way, the truth and
the life, and no one comes to
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00:37:19.230 --> 00:37:23.630
the father except through me, man
and a man verily, verily, I
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00:37:23.750 --> 00:37:29.949
say under you the Kingdom of God
is like. He says these things with
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00:37:30.179 --> 00:37:34.980
boldness, when people around him are
going, I don't know, that doesn't
431
00:37:35.019 --> 00:37:37.059
sound very good. How could you
say that sort of thing? How can
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00:37:37.099 --> 00:37:42.420
you eat with tax collectors and prostitutes? How can you call people like this
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00:37:42.940 --> 00:37:47.369
into your kingdom? Jesus doesn't blink
and eye. Jesus is not a people
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00:37:47.449 --> 00:37:53.650
pleaser. He's not out to gain
the attention of the world in the kind
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00:37:53.690 --> 00:37:59.960
of way that people often do.
No, Jesus call sin for what it
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00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:06.440
is, calls glory for what it
is, he calls grace for what it
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00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:14.630
is, and in all these things, he brings us into a situation that
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00:38:14.909 --> 00:38:17.869
is the exact opposite of what these
prophets brought the people of Israel into.
439
00:38:20.550 --> 00:38:23.469
He brings us not into a city
of desolation, with the wall broken down
440
00:38:23.590 --> 00:38:30.860
and the judgment of God rolling in
on his people. He brings us into
441
00:38:30.980 --> 00:38:36.260
a new city, that the new
Jerusalem it's called, with a temple built
442
00:38:36.300 --> 00:38:40.449
with living stones, of which the
Scripture says we are of a place that
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00:38:40.610 --> 00:38:45.730
is eternal and secure, a place
where he does not roam around as a
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00:38:45.849 --> 00:38:52.050
jackal, but he he fills with
his light so that there isn't any in
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00:38:52.090 --> 00:38:57.400
any need of a son. He
is our life, he is our treasure,
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00:38:57.599 --> 00:39:06.639
he is our joy, not our
destroyer. Jesus doesn't break down the
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00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:13.510
order of all things, he builds
it up and instead of taking advantage of
448
00:39:13.630 --> 00:39:19.389
those who are weak and who are
poor, he strengthens them, he protects
449
00:39:19.469 --> 00:39:25.739
them. And so, when we
think, are about ourselves, a different
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00:39:25.780 --> 00:39:30.139
situation in his than Israel in many
ways, but similar also in many ways.
451
00:39:32.539 --> 00:39:37.380
You must look to the true word
of God, to Jesus Christ.
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00:39:38.570 --> 00:39:45.289
He is who he says he is. He has brought all the prophecies and
453
00:39:45.449 --> 00:39:51.690
all the truths that come to us
through God's word to pass. Jesus and
454
00:39:51.849 --> 00:39:54.440
the things that he says were not
some empty promises, and we know that
455
00:39:55.119 --> 00:40:00.800
for all kinds of reasons. One
of the greatest is that he rose again
456
00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:06.280
on the third day, exactly like
he said he would. He was put
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00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:08.590
to death on a cross, he
died for our sins, exactly like he
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00:40:08.670 --> 00:40:13.909
said he would, and then he
rose again from the dead and ascended into
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00:40:13.949 --> 00:40:19.429
heaven. So when he says he's
coming again, you can guarantee it and
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00:40:19.630 --> 00:40:22.260
you can look forward to that day
because when he comes in judgment on the
461
00:40:22.340 --> 00:40:27.699
world, you can know that judgment
for you is already passed, that your
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00:40:27.739 --> 00:40:30.780
sins have already been forgiven, that
you belong to him through his cross,
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00:40:30.820 --> 00:40:35.769
and you look and look forward to
that day when the Lord, who is
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00:40:35.849 --> 00:40:39.369
righteous, will set everything right.
But if you do not know the Lord,
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00:40:40.010 --> 00:40:45.409
if you are one who gives yourself
over to lying tongues and deceitful things,
466
00:40:46.130 --> 00:40:50.559
who understands the word of the Lord
and Bends it and twists it and
467
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:54.159
listens to false prophets, or if
you are one who says those things,
468
00:40:54.679 --> 00:41:00.039
who declares false things, who says
things that God has not said, beware,
469
00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:06.429
do not push off these things and
say well, some other day,
470
00:41:07.269 --> 00:41:13.510
some other time. The time to
repent is now. The Kingdom is at
471
00:41:13.590 --> 00:41:19.059
hand. So let's pray our heavenly
father, we ask that you would protect
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00:41:19.099 --> 00:41:19.619
us. Indeed,
