Episode Transcript
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You may be seated. Let's turn
our attention to second chronicles, Chapter Twenty
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Four. Second Chronicles Twenty four,
we read tonight the story of King Joe
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Ash. As we hear the chroniclers
account of this and his writing this down,
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this history for us, remember who
it is we've just sung of.
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Remember who Jesus is, the kind
of king he is, a kind of
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kingdom that the he has. It
will be helpful to you to be thinking
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about that as we think about these
kings who anticipated Jesus and point us in
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various ways to him. So,
Second Chronicles, chapter twenty four, Joe
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Ash was seven years old when he
began to reign, and he reigned forty
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years in Jerusalem. His mother's name
was Ziba Zibba of Beersheba, and Joe
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Ash did what was right in the
eyes of the Lord. All the days
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of joyed to the priest Johoyda,
got for him two wives and he had
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sons and daughters. After this,
Joe Ash decided to restore the house of
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the Lord and he gathered the priests
and the Levites and said to them go
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out to the cities of Judah and
gather from all Israel money to repair the
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house of your God from year to
year and see that you act quickly.
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But the Levites did not act quickly. So the king summon Johoyeda, the
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chief, and said to him,
why have you not required the Levites to
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bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the
tax levied by Moses, the Servant of
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the Lord, and the congregation of
Israel for the tent of the testimony for
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the sons of Atholiah. That wicked
woman had broken into the House of God
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and also had also used all the
dedicated things of the House of the Lord
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for the bails. So the king
commanded and they made a chest and set
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it outside the gate of the House
of the Lord and Proclamation was made throughout
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Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for
the Lord the tax that Moses, the
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Servant of God, laid on Israel
in the Wilderness. And all the princes
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and all the people rejoiced and brought
their tax and dropped it into the chest
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until they had finished. and whenever
the chest was brought to the king's officers
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by the Levites, when they saw
that there was much money in it,
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the king's secretary and the officer of
the Chief Priest would come and empty the
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chest and take it and return it
to its place. Thus they did day
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after day, and collected money in
abundance, and the king and Joyedah gave
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it to those who had charge of
the work of the House of the Lord,
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and they hired masons and carpenters to
restore the house of the Lord,
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and also workers in iron and bronze
to repair the House of the Lord.
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So those who were engaged in the
work labored and the repairing went forward in
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their hands and they restored the house
of God to its proper condition and strengthened
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it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money
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before the king and Johoyedah and with
it were made utensils for the house of
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the Lord, both for the service
and for the burnt offerings, and dishes
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for the incense and vessels of gold
and silver, and they offered burnt offerings
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in the House of the Lord regularly
all the days of Joyedah. But Johoyedah
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grew old and full of days and
died. He was a hundred and thirty
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years old at his death, and
they buried him in the city of David
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among the kings because he had done
good in Israel and toward God and his
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house. Now, after the death
of Johoyedah, the princes of Judah came
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and paid homage to the king.
Then the king listened to them and they
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abandoned the House of the Lord,
the God of their fathers, and served
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the Asherim and the idols, and
wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this
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guilt of theirs. Yet he sent
profits among them to bring them back to
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the Lord. These testified against them, but they would pay and know it,
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but they would not pay attention.
Then the spirit of Glaw God clothed
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Zechariah, the son of Johoyed to
the priest, and he stood above the
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people and said to them, thus
says God, why do you break the
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commandments of the Lord so that you
cannot prosper? Because you had forsaken the
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house of the Lord, he has
forsaken you. But they conspired against him
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and by command of the king,
they stoned him with stones in the Court
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of the House of the Lord.
Thus joash the king did not remember the
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kindness of Johoyeda, Zechariah's father,
had shown him, but killed his son.
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When he was dying, he said, may the Lord see and avenge.
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At the end of the year the
army of the Syrians came up against
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Joe Ash. They came to Judah
and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of
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the people from among the people and
send all their spoil to the King of
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Damascus. Though the army of the
Syrians had come with few men, the
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Lord delivered into their hand a very
great army, because Judah had forsaken the
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Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joe Ash.
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When they had departed from him,
leaving him severely wounded, his servants,
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his servants conspired against him because of
the blood of the son of joy
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to the priest and killed him on
his bed. So he died and they
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buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in
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the tombs of the Kings. Those
who conspired against him were Zabad, the
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son of Shimmi Ath and the ammonite, and Jehoshabad, the son of Shimrif,
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the MOABITE. Accounts of his sons, of the many oracles against him
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and of the rebuilding of the House
of God are written in the story of
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the Book of the kings and Amaziah, his son, reigned in his place.
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Well, here we have yet another
amazing account, and very dramatic account
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of God's work in Israel, of
the kings and they're obedience and their disobedience
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as well. This story of Joe
Ash is one that begins so well you
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would think that this is just going
to take off, but of course it
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doesn't. A story which ends so
well by the end and falls apart in
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all kinds of murder and war,
despair, broken promises, unfaithfulness, bad
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endings. These are the things of
life in many ways, and these are
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exactly what we see here with King
Joe Ash. I'm just to remind you
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of some of the context if you
haven't been a following along with us or
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have forgotten the reason. Joey ash
is seven years old when he begins to
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reign, as that he's been hidden
for the last six years by this priest
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Johoyda. It was joyed as son
that he would later kill. But before
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all that happened, Zechariah's father,
Johoyda, had put away, had saved
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Joe Ash, had saved Joe Ash
from this evil Queen Auf Aliah. He
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had protected this young boy and when
he was seven years old, Johoyda,
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instead of seizing power for himself,
hoisted Joe ash up, orchestrating a wonderful
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takeover the downfall of this evil queen
and established him on his throne. And
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in many ways, as I said, things and as was obvious, things
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started out so well for Joe Ash. We read in verse two that Joe
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Ash did what was eyes or what
did what was right in the eyes of
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the Lord, all the days of
joy to the priest. This, by
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the way, is just fantastic storytelling. Here. It seems sort of an
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innocuous detail. Right, all the
days of Joyah to the priest. It
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sounds like he was good, right
until we get to later on and we
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find out that that was actually a
little bit of foreshadowing and that as soon
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as the priest was gone, Joe
Ash tanks. It doesn't exactly say why
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that. God doesn't tell us why
joysh is downfall was tied so closely to
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Jooyd has life and death, but
in some ways it's not surprising. joyed
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in many ways is this great example
of what it means to live according to
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God's word, to love him,
to have faith in him, and we
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considered this last time. Jooya has
this great example of what it means to
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trust God above all things and to
and to do his will with courage and
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confidence. No matter what happens.
When we depart from people like this,
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or more particularly when we depart from
God's word, we fall away, and
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that's what happens with Joe Ash.
He begins so well. Not only does
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it say he did what was I
it right in the side of the Lord,
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but it tells us of this great
work. During the time when he
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was not king, this evil queen
ruled over Judah and over Jerusalem. She
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established all kinds of places of idolatry
and over the time, in the time
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previous to him, the temple had
been stripped. This is always a way
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of of undermining God and or at
least trying to in his presence with the
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people. It was stripped, it
was ruined, and enjoy it or I'm
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sorry. Joe Ash sees this and
he says, sort of like David did,
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it's not right, but the temple
is like this. It's not right
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that it's this way, and so
he acts with with energy to fix this
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problem, to make the temple great
again. And so we read in verse
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five that he levies this tax and
that it goes out of the way.
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He goes out of his way to
make the point that this is not some
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random thing he's establishing, but he
connects it with the fathers, he connects
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it with Moses. Did you notice
that this was the tax according to Moses?
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In those same way that when Moses
was in the Wilderness and levied attacks
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on the people so that the tabernacle
could be built, Joe ash is doing
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the same thing. He establishes in
his mind and the hearts of the people
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that he's following after the will of
God, this great Prophet of God and
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Leader of God, Mo was as
himself. And when the priests fail to
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act quickly as he commands and the
taxes aren't collected, he goes to joyed
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this elder of his in many ways, and says, what's going on here?
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Why isn't this happening? and quickly
things are fixed. They put this
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giant chest out in front and donations
are given, taxes are taken and it's
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filled again and again and again,
and eventually money is collected to repair and
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to make the temple grand again,
even strengthened, it says, back in
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verse thirteen, to its proper condition
and strengthened. Then, of course,
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the temple is no use unless there
are the things going on in the temple,
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the burnt offerings and other things.
And so they take the rest of
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the money to make utensils and various
things that were necessary. All of this
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good work is done. We read
that burnt offerings in verse fourteen were regularly
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being offered in the days of Jehoyah, Joyda. No more bail worship.
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Done with that, done with that
way of life, done with all of
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that. Now we worship Yah way
again and they're seeing prospering, they're seeing
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unity in in the country. But
then things fall apart. JEHOA johoida lives
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to this blessed old age a hundred
and thirty years, but then bad advisors
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come. Verse Seventeen the princes of
Judah came paid homage to the king and
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the king listened to them. This
is the downfall of so many kings,
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so many leaders, so many people, bad counsel, bad advice. Remember
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Daniel the the king's advisors going to
him and say, Oh, king,
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we have a good idea. Next
thing you know, he's in a bind
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and doesn't know what to do.
Think of lots of other examples of people
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flattering, tricking, seeking, seeking
evil ways, and Josh listens to them
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so quickly. Verse Eighteen. They
abandoned the House of God, the very
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house that he just built. All
of us money, all of this time,
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Nawllas, energy putting into making this
how strong, and they abandon it,
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the God of their fathers that they
and and served, the Ashuream and
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the idols. And what happens?
The same thing that happens every time.
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When God is worshiped, when God
is praised in Israel, you get a
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hundred thirty year old lives, you
get unity in the land, you get
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wealth and blessing and protection. When
you go after the ash dream in the
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bails, what happens? Things fall
apart. This is the story that's repeated
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for us over and over again throughout
the Old Testament, and we've been seeing
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that in the lives of these kings. We see the centrality of God and
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how life is tied to him,
into worshiping him, and so they fall
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away. How does God respond to
this? We read in Verse Nineteen how
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he responds. He sends profits among
them to bring them back to the Lord.
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Now that sounds very positive. Right, come back, come back.
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Right, it's a welcoming message.
But though it is a welcoming message,
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though it has this very positive goal, it may not have sounded like it
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because listen to vert the net the
rest of that verse. They's testified against
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them, but they would pay no
attention. You see, sometimes God speaks
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very strongly in order to bring us
back with his law. He points out
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our sins, he nails us in
place and says no, this is not
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my way, this is not the
rot, this is not the right thing.
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But he does this not just to
condemn us but to bring us back.
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That's why these prophets were sent.
However, they didn't listen, they
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paid no attention. So God clothes
Zachariah Verse Twenty, he lifts him up
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and he says this. We read
his words here. Thus says God,
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why do you break the commandments of
the Lord so that you cannot prosper?
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If they hadn't seen the connection themselves, if they hadn't seen it in history,
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here is Zechariah puts it out,
very plain for them, very plain
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for us. You are not prospering
because you are not obeying. You have
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forsaken God. So what do they
do? Do they go? Ah,
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we see now, repent, apologize
and get rid of the Ashream? No,
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they conspire against him by the command
of the king and stone him with
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stones. And where do they do
it? In the court of the House
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of the Lord, between the altar
and the sanctuary, in this very place,
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this very hallowed place, where this
man of God, clothed with the
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spirit of God, is speaking the
words of God to bring them back to
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God, they stone him. Conclusion, verse twenty two. Thus Joe ash
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the king did not remember the kindness
of Jooyetah, Zachariah's father, but killed
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his son, and Zechariah Calls Out, as all faithful people do, may
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the Lord see and avenge. There
is a rightful desire for justice, that
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God's righteousness would be preserved and protected, that God would and his righteousness would
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be vindicated. Zechariah wants this,
as a man of God, he wants
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justice. Sadly, things do not
end even here. Even in his dying
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words there is a warning, but
that is not heard and instead they they
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face a more problems. First War, verse twenty three, we read that
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at the end of the year the
army of the Syrians came up against Joe
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ash and a remarkable thing happens.
Notice in Verse Twenty Four, though the
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army of the Syrians had come with
a few men, the Lord delivered there,
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delivered into their hand a very great
army. This is exactly the opposite
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of what we see going on many
other times before. Throughout the Old Testament,
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we see these examples of God sending
very few people and with very limited
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resources and very difficult situations and destroying
great armies. Right you remember? You
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remember, for example, Erico,
one of these very the very first battels,
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not even fighting, just walking around
the city, in the city is
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destroyed. David and Goliath, or
Samuel and his armor bearer, crawling up
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these rocky Clark Rocky crags, two
people, one sword and the whole,
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I think it says, Philistine garrison
is destroyed when they get to the top.
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This is the story of what happens
when God is with his people and
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when his people are with God.
What happens when it's the reverse? Well,
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Verse Twenty Four, the Lord delivered
into their hand a very great army,
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with a very few men. The
Syrians come with just this small number
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of people and Judah, despite all
of its strength, despite all of its
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power, outward power, is destroyed
again, yet another reminder that it's power
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is not in its wealth and it's
strength and its alliances, but the power
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of God's people is always in God. And then, finally, after all
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of this, we read that Joe
ash his own servants conspire against him and
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they murder him in his bed.
He has buried, but not in the
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tombs of the king's. He started
so well, this amazing story of rescue,
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provision and providence. Blessings poured out
on him. It seems to be
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a real right heart and right priorities, and we see through his decisions to
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abandon God. It all tanks,
it all comes to this terrible end,
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War of judgment and death. This
is a story that very much would have
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resonated with the Israelites as they read
this. It's the story of, in
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many ways, their whole history,
the story of God coming to them,
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of doing these great and marvelous things, bringing them out of Egypt, making
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covenants with them, giving the Miracles
and glory and promises and all the rest,
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starting off well, with moments like
Jericho and then just tanking. It's
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very possible that chronicles used to be
at the end of the Old Testament instead
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of where we have it and our
bibles. I make that point because there's
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a remarkable passage and it recurs as
a occurs in a couple places, but
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I'll read one of them to you
in Luke, Chapter Eleven, Verse Fifty
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One. Here Jesus makes this point
about Israel as he's speaking to speaking to
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them, particularly to the Pharisees and
and to the scribes, and he points
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to this murder of Zechariah and he
says in Verse Fifty One of Luke Eleven,
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from the blood of Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, who perished between
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the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be
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required of this generation. Here he's
talking about all of the prophets that have
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come from the beginning to the end. This is one reason some scholars think
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the chronicles was at the end of
the book. Why point out Zecharia and
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sort of the middle of second chronic
or the end of second chronicles, of
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Seneca chronicles was at the end,
as we see in some manuscripts. Then
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that would sort of makes sense what
Jesus is saying here. From the beginning
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to the end, it happens to
be from A to Z, from able
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to Zechariah. Go back, if
you're reading along with me, to verse
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forty nine. Therefore, also,
the wisdom of God said, I will
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send them prophets and apostles, some
of whom they will kill and persecute,
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so that the blood of all the
prophets shed from the foundation of the world
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may be charged against this generation,
from the blood of Abel to the blood
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of Zechariah, who perished between the
altar and the sanctuary. Jesus is saying
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some hard things and I think will
come back to this the here in this
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passage, but just notice what he's
saying. He's saying this is a pattern.
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This is something that's being going on, been going on for a long
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time. In the same way that
Joe ash established his tax in the line
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of Moses, Jesus is establishing their
actions and his own generation with things that
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have been going on for thousands of
years. From able to Zechariah, God
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has been sending you profit after profit
after profit. I'm going to send them
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to and the blood of all of
these profits is on your hands, he
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says to the Pharisees, and in
the lawyers here in this passage, the
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subscribes in another place. The point
of all of this is that these this
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bad ending, these this good start
but pad finish, is something that is
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a common theme throughout the Bible and
the Old Testament, and of course this
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is something that we feel and experience
in our own lives as well. How
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many times, on January first have
you opened your Bible and started up new
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Bible reading plan, only to get
till about, you know, February,
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or maybe January sixteen, and gone, shoot, that's not what I wanted
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to have happened. How many times
have you made decisions, made promises,
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a committed yourself to certain things and
then ended up not where you wanted to
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be? Of course, this happens
not just with small goals but in large
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ways. Perhaps you know people,
perhaps you are one of these people that
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used to belong to a church,
used to be committed to the things of
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God. You was once raised up
and, in the God's Providence, had
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all kinds of blessings of hearing his
word and all of these things, but
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over time have fallen away and now
you serve other gods. Maybe not Asherim,
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maybe not polls, maybe not Baal's, maybe other things, maybe money,
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maybe pride, maybe particular sins.
There's all kinds of ways that we
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do this. We think about these
paths sometimes that we're on. We want
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to excuse our bad endings. We
want to excuse them and say, well,
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you know, at least I'm not
murdering people. At least I'm not
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committing idolatry, I'm not assassinating anyone. All I'm doing is I'm not following
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the Lord as much as I should. But God speak strongly against this and
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he warns us too about thinking in
the law, thinking about the law in
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this way, thinking about it in
a way that sort of treats it lightly,
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to say, well, at least
I I'm not this, or at
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least I'm not that. That's why
Jesus comes and in the sermon of the
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mount he takes his finger and he
puts it on that sore spot and he
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says, if you even have anger
in your heart, your guilty of murder.
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If you look at a woman with
lust, your guilty of adultery.
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We might not be at that exact
sin, but we're on the steps that
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are on. We're walking in the
steps that are on that path, perhaps
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listening to bad company, refusing to
listen to God, and in all the
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rest. Stories like this resonate with
us because ever since Adam fell into sin,
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we've all been in a downward spiral. When Adam fell, he didn't
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just mess up, he took the
entire human race and put us in a
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position of sin, misery, of
perverseness and a bentness to a our bentness
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away from the things of God.
Of course, with a kind of Phariseeism,
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we try to excuse all this and
we say, well, at least
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I'm not this for that. But
when we're honest, in our more honest
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moments, we look at our world
and we look at ourselves, we do
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see how bad things are. Joysh's
story doesn't seem so surprising then. In
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fact, it seems all too common. Thinking about all of this should remind
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us, though, that there are
other there is another very dominant theme in
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God's Word, not just his law
but also his grace. There is another
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story, another there is an opportunity
to turn back. Remember these prophets came
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to prosecute the case right to say
you have not been obedient, you have
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not followed after God's law. But
why? So that we could turn back,
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so that we would hear and repent
and listen. And that's why,
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why Jesus came. Amid all the
stories of brokenness in the Bible, amid
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all the stories of brokenness and bad
endings in our life, there is yet
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another story, something else that has
happened in history that promises US salvation,
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promises US grace and takes our inevitable
bad ending that we all know is coming,
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the one we read about in Matthew, about a fiery furnace and weeping
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and gnashing of teeth, hell itself, the bad ending and judgment that is
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due for our sins. And God
offers another possibility. By His grace and
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His mercy, he sends Jesus into
the world to change things. And,
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unlike Joe Ash, Jesus is a
perfect king. His character is perfect.
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He doesn't bend to the princes and
those people who are in power and authority.
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No, he speaks to them and
he tells them exactly where they're wrong.
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Jesus knows that eventually these men will
put him to death, but he
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doesn't bat an eye he speaks strongly
and courageously. Why? Because, unlike
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Joe Ash and unlike me and unlike
you, he doesn't let the fear of
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man overcome the fear of God.
One quick example of that, and I'll
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take that from this same chapter in
Luke Eleven, we read at the beginning
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of this section and in chat in
verse thirty seven, that while Jesus was
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speaking, a pharisee asked him to
dine with him. So Jesus receives a
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dinner invitation, some hospitality from the
local Pharisee. So he went in and
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reclined at table. Then Jesus decides
to do something. We read in Verse
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Thirty Eight that the Pharisee was astonished
to see that he did not first wash
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before dinner. Astonished, the Lord
said to him. Now, you pharisees,
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cleanse the outside of the cup,
out of the dish, but inside
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you're full of greed and wickedness,
you fools. Did you not DP did
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not he who made the outside to
make the inside also? But give as
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all, but give as alms those
things that are within, and behold,
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everything is clean for you. Woe
to you pharisees, for you tithe the
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mint and rue, every herb,
rus are you tithe, the tithe mint
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and rue and every herb, and
neglect justice and the love of God?
340
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These you ought to have done without
neglecting the others. Woe to you,
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pharisees, for you love the best
seat in the synagogues and greetings in the
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market places. Woe to you,
for you are like unmarked graves and people
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will walk over them without knowing it. He keeps going. I'll let you
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read it, but it's in that
same passage that he puts on them the
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blood from able to Zechariah. Can
you imagine accepting a dinner invitation choosing particularly
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not to wash up so that you
can make this speech to your hosts?
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I have trouble. I have trouble
imagining that. Of course, Jesus isn't
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just being mean spirited or difficult to
get along with or a bad guest.
349
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Jesus is speaking to them, he's
prophesying and ten is to find against them.
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He's using this thing about cleansing and
washing as a as a parable to
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point out the problem, the things
that are going on, and he speaks
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to them very strongly. This,
of course, is just one example among
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many that we could point to the
character of Jesus as being perfectly true over
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and over and over again, just
like Zachariah, Jesus wasn't afraid and he
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was so nuch not afraid that he
went to his own death. He gave
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up his life so that we could
be saved, so that this message about
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forgiveness, so the message that yes, you can't fulfill the law, yes,
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in Adam you do have a guaranteed
bad ending, but in God you
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have resurrection life. That message Jesus
came to proclaim and he came to secure,
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and we know he does it because
in everything that we see throughout his
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life, he lives perfectly and courageously. He establishes a kingdom that's not based
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on other gods, it's not based
on the will of people who, whoever
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happens to be in power, happens
to have his ear on a moment,
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but singularly and focused on what it
is that God is want, God wants.
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And what is it God wants through
the work of Jesus, the salvation
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of all whom he has chosen.
This is good news for us when we
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think about our own lives, when
we think about our own unfaithfulness. When
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we think about, though, our
own difficulties and sins and problems, when
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we get scared about becoming a Joe
Ash, we ought to remember Jesus,
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because Jesus comes to save us from
our sins. He speaks light and life
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into the world so that we might
hear and believe. He who has ears.
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Let him hear the words of the
Lord and turn in faith and believe,
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because when we do that, when
we hear the words of Jesus and
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turn to him, we find that
we belong to a king and a kingdom
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that, as we sang earlier,
will never fail. We won't end up
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like Joe ash or his subjects.
We will end up like Jesus, who
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has risen from the dead and gives
us eternal life. Praise be to God.
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Let us pray
