Episode Transcript
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It's people. First, in this
twopart brook chronicles one and chronicles too,
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we heard of soul and David,
than his son Solomon, then Raya Boem,
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his son, who continued the Kingdom
of Solomon and Judah, and Jerobalm,
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who sinfully King, established his own
kingdom in Israel. Rayabalm died and
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had a son who we hear of
now, Abijah, and we consider God's
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word about Abijah's reign and God's reign
over him and through him in second chronicles
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thirteen. So this is God's word. Let's give our attention to it.
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In the Eighteenth Year of King Jerobom
came to reign over Judah. He reigned
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for three years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was Makaiah, the daughter of
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Uriel of GIBEA. Now there was
war between Abijah and JEROBOM. Abijah went
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out to battle having an army of
valiant men of war, four hundred thousand
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chosen men, and Jerobom drew up
his line of battle against him with eight
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hundred thousand chosen mighty warriors. Then
Abis just stood up on the mount as
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Zemmerre Zmr Rien, that is in
the hill country of Ephraim and said hear
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me, Oh, Jerobalm and Israel. Ought you not to know that the
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Lord, God of Israel, gave
the kingship over Israel forever to David and
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his sons. Jerobald, son of
Niebot, a servant of PALOM and the
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son of David, rose and rebelled
against his Lord, and certain worthless scoundrels
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gathered around him and defied Reeobalm,
the son of Solomon, when Yobalm was
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young, and Israel irres irresolute,
and could not withstand them. And now
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you think to withstand the Kingdom of
the Lord in the hands of the sons
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of David, because you are a
great multitude and you have with you the
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golden calves that Jeribalm made you.
For God's have you not driven out the
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priests of the Lord, the sons
of Aaron and the Levites, and made
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priests for yourselves? Like the peoples
of other lands, whoever comes for ordination
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with a young bull or seven rams
becomes a priest of what are no gods.
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But as for us, the Lord
is our God and we have not
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forsaken him. We have priests ministering
to the Lord who are sons of Aaron,
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and Levites for their service. They
offer to the Lord every morning and
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every evening, burnt offers and incense
of sweet, sweet spices, set out
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the showbread on the table of pure
gold, and care for the golden lambstand
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that that it's lamps may burn every
evening, for we keep the charge of
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the Lord, our God, but
you have forsaken him. Behold, God
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is with us at our head,
and his priests with their battle trumpets to
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sound the call to battle against you, Oh sons of Israel, do not
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fight against the Lord, the God
of Your father's for you cannot succeed.
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JEREBOAM had sent an ambush around to
come upon them from behind. Thus his
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troops were in front of Judah and
the ambush was behind them. And when
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Judah looked, behold, the battle
was in front, it was in front
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of and behind them, and they
cried out to the Lord and the priests
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blew the trumpets. Then the men
of Judah raised the battle shout, and
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when the men of Judah shouted,
God defeated Jereboam and all Israel. Before
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Abijah and Judah, the men of
Israel fled before Judah and God gave them
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into their hand Aubjah and his people
struck them with great force. So there
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fell slain in it of Israel five
hundred thousand shows and men. Thus the
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men of Israel were subdued at that
time and the men of Judah prevailed,
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because the relied on the Lord,
the God of their fathers. And ABIJAH
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pursued jerebalm and took cities from him, Bethel with its villages, and Jeshana
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with its villages and fron with its
villages. JEREBOAM did not recover his power
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in the days of Abijah, and
the Lord struck him down and he died.
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But ABIJAH grew mighty and he took
fourteen wives and had twenty two sons
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and sixteen daughters. The rest of
the acts of Abija, his ways and
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his sayings are written in the story
of the Prophet Edo. Since the reading
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of God's word, may He bless
it to us, so is the chronicler
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takes us through these various kings.
We come now to the Kingdom of Abijah.
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As I said, Abijah is the
son of Raya Balm, the son
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of Psalomon, the son of David. He continues the Line of Faithful Kings,
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or least kings who are supposed to
be faithful under Solomon Jereboam, his
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uncle, is the one who rebelled, rebelled against the Lord, who established
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his own kingdom, and and Abijah
points this out. He tells them,
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he warns him not to fight him. Do not fight me, do not
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fight your brothers here in the southern
tribe of Judah, because you will not
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succeed. God is not with you, he tells him, and he explains
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why. Jared Jeroboam has rejected the
Lord. He has made his own gods,
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he's established his own priests, he
no longer does as the Lord has
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called Israel to do. And we
will consider more about Abijah. But really,
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throughout this story, obvious though he
is the primary human character here,
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he really has, excuse me,
playing second to to God. You remember
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that God has set up the kingdom
in such a way that he is the
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Lord, he is the King,
and all the kings who rule under him
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do so is sort of vassal kings
or under kings. Yes, they rule
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over their people, but they do
so only carrying out the authority of the
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Lord. This story is not about
Abijah's great strength, it is about the
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strength of the Lord. This is
Abijah's own point when he says to Jereboam,
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you shall not succeed. Pay attention
to this point. You cannot win,
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despite the fact that he was much
stronger, humanly speaking, in several
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ways. Days this crought the Chronicler
here tells us this story because he wants
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us to understand who the Lord is
and he wants us to understand and and
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follow Abijah's example and what it means
to rely on the Lord. So let
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me show you what I mean when
I say that this is the Lord's battle.
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Of course, Abijah was the one
who fought it. We read in
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verse seventeen that Abijah and his people
struck them with great force. So ABIJAH
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had a part in it. The
each and every soldier had a part to
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play out, a sword to wheel, had a battle to fight, and
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they did and it. We read
that they struck them with great force and
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many of their enemies, sadly their
others, were slain. But ultimately,
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though, Abijou and his people had
to fight and fight hard. This was
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the Lord's battle. Look at Verse
Fifteen. We read that when the men
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of Judas shouted, God defeated Jerobalm
or Verse Sixteen, when we read that
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the men of Israel fled before Judah, it was because God gave them into
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their hand. We also read in
verse eighteen that all this happened because they
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relied on the Lord, the God
of their fathers. The men of Israel
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were subdued at that time and the
men of Judah prevailed because they relied on
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the Lord, the God of their
fathers. Over and over and over again,
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where the point is emphasized that yes, Abbys, young is men won
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this victory, but it was because
the Lord did the work. And that
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point is not only stated multiple times, it's evidence in the victory itself.
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Only God could have won this victory. It was a spiritual victory. First
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of all, remember the abby or
that Jereboam was fighting with false gods.
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He had JEREB obvious says to Jerebom, you think you're going to win because
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you brought out these golden calves that
you have made. You think that these
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gods will save you. They will
not. They are false gods. There
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are false gods in this world.
People will try to point you to them,
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they will try to get you to
depend on them, but they are
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unreliable. There is only one true
God, as abbies that points out,
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and as we cease from his success. It's true he prevails over these false
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gods and over these false priests,
these self adorned ordained priests. I feel
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like there's sarcasm in Aubija's voice when
he talks about the priests who come and
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are ordained just for bringing whatever they
bring. And it's in verse eleven.
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Whoever comes for ordination with a young
bull and seven rams becomes a priest.
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Doesn't matter who you are, doesn't
matter what your family history is, doesn't
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matter that you follow the Commands of
the Lord, that you belong to,
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Aaron or whoever. Just as long
as you bring the payment, you can
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become a priest in Jeroboam's kingdom.
The victory, then, that God wins,
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is very much a spiritual victory over
these supposed strengths that Jerebom has,
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but he doesn't. But even more
obviously, is this physical and military victory.
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There's some question about what these numbers
exactly represent. They are very large
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numbers in terms of numbers of men, and there's some question about what they
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mean and how we're to count them. But no matter what they are.
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We the ratios are what's really important
here. Jarrobom brings an army that is
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at least twice as strong, at
least in terms of manpower. Jerebalm,
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we read in verse are verse three, had eight hundred chosen mighty warriors and
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Abijah brings four hundred thousand showsen men. Sort of interesting to me the way
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that they puts it there. Four
hundred thousand chosen men, eight hundred thousand
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chosen mighty warriors. It's start of
an emphasis on the strength of of JEROBOAM.
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Not only twice as many men but
also a very skilled mighty warriors.
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It's not just in manpower that that
Jerobalum is strong, but there's a strategy
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which seems certain to succeed. He
sets men before him, the smaller army,
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and then he sends another group around
behind him. They are inclosed,
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they're being cut off, they're being
squashed. I'm known military strategist, but
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the point seems to be in the
text that Abbijo was doomed. He has
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he's outnumbered, he's been out strategized
and these people are a committed and yet
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by the end of the story obvious
just stands victorious and and Judah's are.
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I'm sorry, JEROBOAM's army has not
only been cut down, it's been cut
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down to a size even smaller than
what Abisha began with. The point is
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very simple. This is a victory
that only God could have won. Abby's
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just says this. It's the point
of the text, is the way that
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the history reads and it's what God
wants us to understand as we read this.
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We're not here to look at Aubij
and say wow, those preacher blew
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those trumpets. Well, guess they
did something Speck tacular to win this battle.
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Now it's all about what the Lord
has done. God's love for Avisha,
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because of David's promise, would be
part of this great foundation of his
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victory. Now this teaches us a
lot of wonderful lessons the strength of the
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Lord and it. But before we
get to there, we have to point
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out that this victory is only anticipating
the greater victory that God would have in
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an even greater king and in a
greater son of David. I'm of course,
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speaking of Jesus, the son of
David, the son of God,
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who came into the world in weakness. He came to fight the powers of
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evil, to destroy the evil one
and his servants, to win victory over
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sin death. I'm in these kinds
of things to heal that was was broken,
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to come for sinners and despised people. But he did this not in
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the strength of a Jeroboam but in
the weakness of an Avisha. He was
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out gunned, he was outnumbered,
he was he was eventually killed, murdered,
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crucified on a cross. Jesus,
when he came into the world,
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was in many ways much, much
weaker than Abbish, at least humanly speaking.
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Physically speaking, he had a band
of twelve disciples, one of whom
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was a traitor to him, the
others of whom fled when Jesus was captured,
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even denied him. He was left
all alone in the world. Even
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his own family many times were rejecting
him. But nevertheless, as Davidson and
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as Godson, he brought about this
great victory for the Kingdom of God.
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Through this divine human king, God, the same Lord and and Covenant Keeper
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that we read about in second chronicles, established another king, a son of
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David, a son of Solomon,
to rise up victorious over evil, over
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idolatry over false gods. No one
thought victory was possible. Even his own
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disciples, who, he said I
will rise in three days after they kill
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me, didn't believe it. They
were scared and didn't know what would happen.
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But that victory, the victory even
over our own sins, victory over
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death so that we might live forever, was made possible because of God.
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The father's will, the son's obedience, the spirits power, all of this
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came to us in Jesus Christ.
It was a victory over the forces of
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evil, over the forces of this
world. And though there are some aspects
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of it that were very glorious,
like the resurrection, the ascension, the
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pouring out of the spirit, in
many ways this victory of Jesus is hidden.
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When abbies slaid all of these men, it was obvious blood all over
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the battlefield, people who had died. Work that had to be had to
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be made. There were cities that
were taken over, new laws that were
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implemented, and on and on and
on. But in many ways, the
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Kingdom of God, as it comes
through Jesus, though, it's much more
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powerful that the victory is much greater. In many ways it is hidden.
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We are told that we who have
died to sin and and live to righteousness
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in Jesus. We don't see that
old body. There's no Christopher that you
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can point to, sort of dead
on the ground. It's a spiritual thing.
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The resurrection hasn't happened yet. One
day these things will be made obvious.
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It will be obvious to all the
world, but for now these things
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in many ways remain hidden. Take, for example, the cities that Abijah
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took back for the Kingdom of God. Jesus has done the same thing.
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Over all the world. There are
believers in his name, but they live
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in cities as pilgrims and as resident
aliens. And sometimes they don't live in
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the cities at all. They live
in hidden places, they live in jails
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and prisons and camps, kept away
from their loved ones. In many ways,
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the Kingdom of God, even as
Jesus came in weakness, remains in
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weakness, at least outwardly speaking,
and that's why this history of God's kingdom,
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in these early expressions of it in
chronicles, is so helpful to us,
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because it assures us that the things
that in many ways are hidden and
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veiled, the Glorious Victory that Christ
is obtained that is hard to see sometimes.
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Is Really there it? When we
read of abbys's victory, it brings
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us assurance that God has, does
and will reign, even if we don't
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always see it, even if we
don't always find it in the ways that
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we expect. In other words,
if God could reign victorious through even a
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sinful man like Abbiesia, certainly he
could do it, and all the more
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through the perfect and divine man and
son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.
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These two historical victories of Abiesia and
of Jesus, one local, the second
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global, leave each of us a
choice, as long as the day of
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judgments has not yet come, and
it has not. We have a choice.
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These events, this declaration of God's
power and victory through his kings,
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call us to choose sides to act
accordingly. Either we side with Jereboam and
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his man made Gods and his pride
and his self appointed priests and is made
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up religion and is mighty army and
is strength and boasts, we side with
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what is seemingly strong and seemingly going
to win, or we sighe with Abbieshot
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and his king, the only the
the only true God maker of the world.
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The one side leads to certain death, though seemingly strong. The other
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side leads to certain victory, though
seemingly weak. God's victory here on this
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battlefield, and is the greater victory
on the cross, calls us to make
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a choice. Do not choose what
only appears strong. That's the message of
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this text. Don't choose the thing
that appears strong, that seems strong.
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Choose the one who is strong.
God has made his covenants, he's established
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his promises, he's made commitments to
certain things and to certain people. Know
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what those are. Follow in those
steps, belong in that way in all
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your life. Don't choose what only
seems to be strong, that which is
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powerful or wealthy or famous, but
choose the one who is strong. Choose
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the God of David, the father
of Jesus, the ruler of Israel,
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the King of the world. What
does that look like? And all in
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with this, what is that?
When with this question? What does it
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look like to choose that and to
rely on Yah, way, to rely
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on the God of Israel? Let
abbyse just show you what that looks like.
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As he stands on this mountain and
calls out to Jerebaum and warns him
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and implores him. He shows us
what it means to rely on the Lord.
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In Verse Five, we see that
it starts with God's covenants and commitments.
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In verse five he says, ought
you not to know that the Lord,
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God of Israel, gave the kingship
over it is over, is over
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Israel forever to David and his sons
by a covenant of Salt. He speaks
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of this covenant and he says to
them this is the foundation of things.
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I stand here on this mountain not
because I'm so great. Clearly I'm half
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your size. I stand here because
of what God has done. Relying on
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the Lord, in other word,
starts with an understanding of God's Covenance,
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of God's commitments. Second, it
stands with and in God's kingdom, even
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when it's hidden. So this is
Abbi'Shas correct perspective. In Verse Eight,
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and now you think to withstand the
Kingdom of the Lord in the hands of
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the sons of David, because you
have a great multitude and you have with
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you the golden calves the Geribo made
you for God's you see, Abby just
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perspective. He stands on the Covenant
Commitments of God and in that he stands
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and understands himself to be within God's
kingdom. We are the same who belong
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to Jesus. God has made his
covenant promises to David, has fulfilled them.
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In Christ he has made covenant commitments. The father has made covenant commitments
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with the Son and the spirit,
and he stands on those. Jesus brought
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about a kingdom to which we belong
and, even though it's hidden and veiled
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in many ways, he's with we
want to rely in the Lord, we
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have to understand ourselves to be a
part of that. We belong to the
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Kingdom of God. We are citizens
of Heaven, though we are here on
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earth because of God's covenants. We
stand in God's kingdom. The third thing
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obviously does is he discerns, on
the basis of these things, what is
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true and what is false. He's
not deceived by the priests, he's not
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deceived by the idols. Reliance on
the Lord depends on the same. We
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must know him, we must know
our God who keeps us and protects us,
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and be able to distinguish him from
a man made calf. Sounds easy,
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enough. But how many of us
have fallen for that? How many
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of us have gone after a gods
of gold and silver, gods of our
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own making, and if rejected the
God who stands strong and who is a
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victorious in all his battles? Fourth, obviisiaz is obedient. And spiritual matters,
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he and the priests kept the charge. In other words, these things
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aren't just head knowledge for him.
He doesn't just know about God's covenant with
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his father, and is his grandfather
there, great grandfather. Now he doesn't
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just think of him self as belonging
to God's kingdom. He doesn't just discern
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truth from error, but he also
is obedient. He acts in this way,
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first in spiritual matters, the priests
doing their duties, a continuing on
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worshiping the Lord, and then finally, in other matters as well. And
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that's number five. Forward Five.
They're kind of the same thing. We
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Act, we act based on faith. We don't just hear these things,
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but we move. And he moves, he stands up, he gets on
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that mouth and he defies the armies
of Jerebom and he says you are done,
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for you don't stand a chance.
Takes a lot of courage when your
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half is strong and you're about to
be ambushed from behind. But he has
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that courage not because he's just really
gutsy guy, but because he knows y'all
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wear, he knows his God and
he knows that God keeps his promises,
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and so he acts. He acts
in his words, he acts in the
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blowing of the trumpets as they cry
out to the Lord, and he acts
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again when they go into battle and
start swinging. We do the same thing.
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We don't have a political kingdom we
are trying to defend, but when
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it comes to the Kingdom of God, we do swing our swords, swords
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of the spirit. We preach the
word, we communicate grace, we call
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people to repentance and forgiveness. We
trust that as God's word goes out,
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it will accomplish the things it goes
out to do. It will put to
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death that which is in sinful in
Ess but not just in judgment. It'll
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bring to life that which is righteous
and good in Jesus. I'll leave it
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to you to think about various areas
of your life where you need to think
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more in accord with who God is
in his strength. I'll leave it to
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you to think about the ways in
which you are overly worried or fearful about
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wealth or power or notoriety, depending
on those things instead of depending on the
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Lord, knowing that the worst thing
that can happen you, happen to you
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is you could die and then rise
again from the dead, and the strength
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of the Lord Jesus Christ and his
resurrection. Our Lord is victorious, our
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King is mighty in battle. Trust
in him in all your ways. He
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will be faithful to you. Let's
pray
