Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Ezra 1 - The Israelites Return to Israel

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Ezra 1 - The Israelites Return to Israel · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Welcome to season eleven of the Bible Explain podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Friends and faithful listeners, Thank you so much for tuning
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  Speaker 1: in this morning to share a delicious cup of coffee
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  Speaker 1: with me as we start the Book of Ezra. Man.
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  Speaker 1: I am very excited to delve into the Book of
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  Speaker 1: Ezra with you guys, because it's a really interesting book
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  Speaker 1: of history of how the Israelites come back from their
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  Speaker 1: captivity in Babylon after seventy years and they finally start
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  Speaker 1: rebuilding the Temple to God. But just because they're back
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  Speaker 1: in their homeland doesn't mean they're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: without problems. In fact, there's a lot of problems on
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  Speaker 1: the horizon for the Israelites that are back in the land.
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  Speaker 1: And then Ezra himself actually does something that I believe
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  Speaker 1: is very against scripture. So it's a really fantastic book,
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  Speaker 1: and I hope you guys are excited to get into
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  Speaker 1: it as much as I am. But before we start
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  Speaker 1: reading today, grab your cup of coffee and cozy up
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  Speaker 1: and listen to the sponsor before we begin. So I
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  Speaker 1: the link in the description that says koffee. So, let's
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and read Ezra chapter one. The entire thing
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  Speaker 1: a bereading is usual from the web or the World
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  Speaker 1: English Bible. Grab your version of the Bible that you
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  Speaker 1: prefer and also your hot beverage. Let's go ahead and
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  Speaker 1: read this together. Now, in the first year of Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: King of Persia, that Yahwai's word by Jeremiah's mouth might
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  Speaker 1: be accomplished. Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King
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  Speaker 1: of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all
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  Speaker 1: his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: King of Persia, says, Yahweh, the God of Heaven, has
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  Speaker 1: given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he
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  Speaker 1: has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you, of
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  Speaker 1: all of his people, may his God be with him,
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  Speaker 1: and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,
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  Speaker 1: and build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: He is God, which is in Jerusalem. Whoever is left
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  Speaker 1: in any place where he lives, let the men of
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  Speaker 1: his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods,
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  Speaker 1: and with animals, in addition to the free will offering
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  Speaker 1: for God's house which is in Jerusalem. Then the heads
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  Speaker 1: of the fathers, households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests,
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  Speaker 1: and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to
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  Speaker 1: go up, rose up to build Yahwai's house, which is
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  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. All those who are around them strengthened their
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  Speaker 1: hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods with
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  Speaker 1: animals and with precious things. In addition to all that
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  Speaker 1: was willingly offered, Also Cyrus the King brought out vessels
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  Speaker 1: of Yahway's house, which Nebekinezer had brought out of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and had put in the house of his gods. Even
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  Speaker 1: those Cyrus, King of Persia, brought out by the hand
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  Speaker 1: of Mithradath the Treasurer, and counted them out to Shesh Bizar,
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  Speaker 1: the Prince of Judah. This is the number of them,
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  Speaker 1: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine knives, thirty bowls of gold, four hundred and ten
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  Speaker 1: silver bowls of a second kind, and one thousand other vessels.
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  Speaker 1: All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred. Shesh Bizar brought all these up when the
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  Speaker 1: captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. Last week,
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  Speaker 1: when we finished season ten, we talked about the final
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  Speaker 1: portion of Second Chronicles where it actually alludes to this
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  Speaker 1: next story that we're talking about in Ezra, where Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: the King of Persia ends up freeing all of the
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  Speaker 1: captives of Israel and sending them back to Jerusalem, and
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  Speaker 1: the reason he did this. It says in verse one
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  Speaker 1: of Ezra one. Now, in the first year Cyrus King
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  Speaker 1: of Persia, that Yahwai's word by Jeremiah's mouth might be accomplished.
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  Speaker 1: Yahwei stirred the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so
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  Speaker 1: that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and
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  Speaker 1: put it into writing. So that is the reason why Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: the King of Persia ended up sending the Israelites back,
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  Speaker 1: because his spirit was stirred up by Yahweh. Now, in
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  Speaker 1: preparation for discussing the Book of Ezra, I actually read
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  Speaker 1: a lot of Josephus's writings on the Book of Ezra
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  Speaker 1: and what happened after the Israelites came back from captivity.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things that Josephus said was that
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus was stirred up because of the Book of Isaiah.
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  Speaker 1: I found this really interesting because Isaiah, the great prophet
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  Speaker 1: who lived one hundred and what is it, fifty years
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  Speaker 1: before Judah even fell, actually mentioned Cyrus, king of Persia
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  Speaker 1: by name and wrote about him. That's found in Isaiah
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  Speaker 1: forty four, verse twenty eight. Here's what it says, who
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  Speaker 1: says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform
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  Speaker 1: for my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem she will be built,
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  Speaker 1: and of the temple your foundation will be laid. And
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  Speaker 1: then if you move to the very next chapter Isaiah
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  Speaker 1: forty five, it continues to talk about Cyrus. It says
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
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  Speaker 1: I have held to subdue the nations before him, and
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  Speaker 1: strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him,
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  Speaker 1: and the gates shall not be shut. I will go
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  Speaker 1: before you, and I will make rough places smooth. I
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  Speaker 1: will break the doors of bronze in pieces, and cut
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  Speaker 1: apart the bars of iron. I will give you the
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  Speaker 1: treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that
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  Speaker 1: you may know that it is I Yahweh who calls
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  Speaker 1: you by your name, even the God of Israel, for Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: my servant's sake, and Israel, my chosen. I have called
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  Speaker 1: you by your name, and I have given you a title,
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  Speaker 1: though you have not known me. That's God speaking directly
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  Speaker 1: to Cyrus around two hundred years before Cyrus even took
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  Speaker 1: the throne. I mean, this is crazy if you think
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  Speaker 1: about it, that Isaiah was prophesying about King Cyrus of Persia.
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  Speaker 1: Before Cyrus was even born, God was telling Isaiah about Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: and Josephus, the historian I was reading, was saying that
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  Speaker 1: the reason Cyrus's spirit was being stirred up by Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: was because he had actually read the prophet Isaiah and
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  Speaker 1: the prophet Jeremiah, who as well spoke on what would
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  Speaker 1: happen to the Israelites after their captivity, which is talked
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  Speaker 1: about in Jeremiah twenty nine, starting in verse ten. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what Jeremiah says for Yahweh says, after seventy years are
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  Speaker 1: accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my
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  Speaker 1: good work towards you in causing you to return to
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  Speaker 1: this place. For I know the thoughts that I think
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  Speaker 1: towards you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace and not of evil,
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  Speaker 1: to give you a hope and a future. You shall
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  Speaker 1: call on me, and you shall go and pray to me,
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  Speaker 1: and I will listen to you. You shall seek me
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  Speaker 1: and find me when you search for you with all
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  Speaker 1: your heart. I will be found by you, says Yahweh.
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  Speaker 1: And I will turn again your captivity, and I will
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  Speaker 1: gather you from all the nations from all the places
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  Speaker 1: where I have driven you, says Yahweh, and I will
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  Speaker 1: bring you again to the place from where I have
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  Speaker 1: caused you to be carried away captive. So that's another
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  Speaker 1: prophecy about what was going to happen when King Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: took the throne. Now Cyrus is not mentioned by name here,
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  Speaker 1: but it was in fact seventy years after the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: went into captivity that Cyrus became the king. So this
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  Speaker 1: prophecy is in a way also about King Cyrus. So
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  Speaker 1: it could be that Cyrus was paying attention to these prophecies.
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  Speaker 1: It could be that he was hearing them from the
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  Speaker 1: prophet Daniel, who is one of the king's close advisers
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  Speaker 1: for a very long time. Daniel could have been telling
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  Speaker 1: King Cyrus about all these different prophecies, being like, hey, Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: take a look at what Isaiah wrote about you two
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  Speaker 1: hundred years ago. And so here's what Cyrus puts into writing.
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  Speaker 1: In verse two of Ezra one, Cyrus, king of Persia,
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  Speaker 1: says this, Yahweh, the God of Heaven, has given me
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  Speaker 1: all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has commanded
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  Speaker 1: me to build him a house in Jerusalem. Which is
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  Speaker 1: in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all of
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  Speaker 1: his people, may his God be with him, and let
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  Speaker 1: him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and
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  Speaker 1: build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He
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  Speaker 1: is God, which is in Jerusalem. Whoever is left in
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  Speaker 1: any place where he lives, let the men of his
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  Speaker 1: place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and
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  Speaker 1: with animals, in addition to the free will offerings for
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  Speaker 1: God's House which is in Jerusalem. So Cyrus makes this decree.
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  Speaker 1: He says, all right, Israelites, your time of captivity is over.
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  Speaker 1: You can go back to Israel. Now. Another thing that
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  Speaker 1: is important to note here is that the Babylonian rule
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  Speaker 1: at this point in time was over. Cyrus, the King
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  Speaker 1: of Persia, pretty much destroyed the Babylonians and Babylonia became
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  Speaker 1: Persia essentially. Actually, Babylonia for the most part, kind of
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  Speaker 1: started to die right after King Nebukinezer died. That was
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  Speaker 1: like the beginning of the end for Babylonia. There was
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  Speaker 1: only a handful of kings before Cyrus and Persia came
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  Speaker 1: in and overtook babylon for themselves. So the Persians don't
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  Speaker 1: care as much if the Israelites are back in their
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  Speaker 1: home country or exiled somewhere, they don't care as much,
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  Speaker 1: at least not in this moment of time. So that's
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  Speaker 1: why Cyrus ends up sending all the Israelites back. Because
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  Speaker 1: he has these prophecies, his goals were not the same
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  Speaker 1: as the Babylonian goals. And there is some history to
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  Speaker 1: show as well that Cyrus had a almost like a
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  Speaker 1: superstitious kind of fear of the gods of the region.
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  Speaker 1: Now this is not in scripture. We know in scripture
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus did in fact fear God, because that's what he
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  Speaker 1: says here in his decree. He says, Yahweh, the God
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  Speaker 1: of Heaven, has given me the kingdoms, and he also
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  Speaker 1: says Yahweh, the God of Israel in verse three he
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  Speaker 1: is God. So he definitely feared Yahweh. But it is
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  Speaker 1: possible that he feared other gods in his lifetime as well,
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  Speaker 1: because there's some history to show that he actually sent
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  Speaker 1: home a lot of different people, not just the Israelites,
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  Speaker 1: possibly out of fear for their gods. Now, scripture does
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  Speaker 1: say that Cyrus was not initially a Yahweh follower. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: once again. Isaiah forty five, verse four, it says this
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  Speaker 1: about Cyrus, for Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my chosen.
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  Speaker 1: I have called you, or Cyrus by your name. I
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  Speaker 1: have given you a title, though you have not known me.
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  Speaker 1: So that's pretty clear that Cyrus started off pagan. Even
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  Speaker 1: if he ended his life as a Yahweh worshiper or
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  Speaker 1: a partial Yahweh worshiper, he did not know God until
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  Speaker 1: God called him into this role. However, going back to
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  Speaker 1: Ezra chapter one, it says in verse five that the
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  Speaker 1: heads of the Father's households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests,
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  Speaker 1: and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to
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  Speaker 1: go up, rose up to build Yahwei's house, which is
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  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. So that makes it pretty clear right here
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  Speaker 1: that there were only a handful of exiled Israelites that
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  Speaker 1: really wanted to go back to Jerusalem. In fact, historically
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  Speaker 1: most of the Israelites actually stayed in Babylon or Persia
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  Speaker 1: at this point in time. Only I think it's forty
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  Speaker 1: two thousand returned to Israel to help rebuild it. Forty
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  Speaker 1: two thousand people, that's it. And notice here the only
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  Speaker 1: people that returned were the ones whose spirit God had
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  Speaker 1: stirred to go up. So they felt this call from
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  Speaker 1: God to go back to their homeland. In spite of
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  Speaker 1: how scary in my be, It's very likely that they
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  Speaker 1: felt this tug from the Holy Spirit to go back
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  Speaker 1: home and they listened to the call. Now, this proves
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  Speaker 1: that God was only sending a remnant back to Israel.
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  Speaker 1: We've talked about that word remnant before. A remnant is
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  Speaker 1: just a little piece of something, right, not the whole cloth,
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  Speaker 1: but only a piece of it. Right, That's what I
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  Speaker 1: think of when I hear the word remnant. God told
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  Speaker 1: his people through the prophets that only a remnant of
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  Speaker 1: Israel would come back into the land, and that ended
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  Speaker 1: up happening. Only a remnant of the people actually returned
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  Speaker 1: to build the House to God. And you might be like, well,
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  Speaker 1: why didn't more Israelites return? Didn't they want to go
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  Speaker 1: back to their homeland. Well, don't forget that seventy years
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  Speaker 1: had passed. That's like a lifetime essentially. So there were
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  Speaker 1: a ton of Israelites that were born and raised in Babylon,
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  Speaker 1: so they didn't have much of a desire to return
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  Speaker 1: to Israel, especially if they had been raised in a
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  Speaker 1: completely different culture and different country. Now that doesn't mean
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  Speaker 1: that they weren't happy that their people were turning back home,
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  Speaker 1: but they just didn't want to make the trip themselves
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  Speaker 1: because it was a dangerous mission to go back to Israel.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the travel itself was dangerous. Not to mention,
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  Speaker 1: the other nations did not look favorably on Israel. They
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  Speaker 1: hated Israel. I mean, we talked a little bit about
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  Speaker 1: some of the responses of the other nations. When the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites were exiled, people were rejoicing over it. They were
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  Speaker 1: so excited. The Edomites specifically, were like going into Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and helping the Babylonians slaughter people, and like looking for
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  Speaker 1: people around every corner to make sure that they were
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  Speaker 1: exiled into Babylon. Like the Edomites did really, really nasty
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  Speaker 1: things to the Israelites, and that was just a foreign
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  Speaker 1: bordering nation. The people of Gaza hated the Israelites. The
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  Speaker 1: Samaritans up north hated the Israelites and didn't want them
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  Speaker 1: to return. There were so many people against them. So
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  Speaker 1: for somebody that was born and raised in Babylon knew
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  Speaker 1: the culture, knew the language. It was safer for them
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  Speaker 1: to remain where they were, and probably most of them
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  Speaker 1: remained in Babylon or Persia at this point out of complacency.
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  Speaker 1: Now that isn't the case for everybody. We know that
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  Speaker 1: Daniel never made the trip back to Israel. But I
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  Speaker 1: doubt it was due to complacency in the case of Daniel,
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  Speaker 1: but the fact that God truly didn't call him back
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  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem. Daniel was needed exactly where he was, beside
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  Speaker 1: the Kings, so that Daniel could actually help the Kings
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  Speaker 1: make informed decisions that would benefit the people of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: But I would guess in most cases everybody wanted to
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  Speaker 1: remain complacent and didn't want to make the scary trip
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  Speaker 1: back to Israel. But some did. Forty two thousand of
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  Speaker 1: them did it, says in verse six. All those who
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  Speaker 1: are around them strengthen their hands with vessels of silver,
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  Speaker 1: with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things
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  Speaker 1: in addition to all of that that was willingly offered.
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  Speaker 1: So there you go. Just because some people didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to go back to Israel doesn't mean they weren't excited
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  Speaker 1: to see their fellow countrymen return to Israel. It says
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  Speaker 1: that the people who remained actually donated to this cause.
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  Speaker 1: It says they gave them silver and gold, and goods
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  Speaker 1: and animals and precious things and offerings as well. So
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  Speaker 1: there were plenty of donations that came in to support
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites in their trek back to Jerusalem. And also
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  Speaker 1: King Cyrus gave them a grant as well. That's talked
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  Speaker 1: about in Ezra chapter three. Actually it says in verse seven,
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  Speaker 1: they gave money to the Masons, to the carpenters, they
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  Speaker 1: gave food, drink oil to the people Asidon and Tire
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  Speaker 1: to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa,
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  Speaker 1: according to the grant that they had from Cyrus, King
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  Speaker 1: of Persia. So even Cyrus himself donated to this cause.
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  Speaker 1: He believed very deeply in it. Going back to Ezra
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  Speaker 1: one verse seven. Also Cyrus the King brought the vessels
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  Speaker 1: of Yahwei's house, which Nebukinezer had brought out of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and had put in the house of his gods. Even
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  Speaker 1: those Cyrus King of Persia, brought out by the hand
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  Speaker 1: of Mithradath the Treasurer, and counted them out to sheesh Bizar,
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  Speaker 1: the Prince of Judah. But what scripture is saying here
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  Speaker 1: is that Cyrus not only donated money to the cause,
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  Speaker 1: but he actually gave back all of the implements that
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  Speaker 1: were found in God's house that Nebukinezer had taken from
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  Speaker 1: God's house and put in the house of his own gods.
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus brought all of those things out and gave them
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  Speaker 1: to the people of Judas that they could take them
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  Speaker 1: back home and put them back in the temple where
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  Speaker 1: they belonged. So here's all the things that were given
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  Speaker 1: back to the Judai people. It says thirty platters of gold,
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  Speaker 1: one thousand platters of silver, twenty nine knives, thirty bowls
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  Speaker 1: of gold, four hundred and ten silver bowls of a
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  Speaker 1: second kind, and one thousand other vessels. All the vessels
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  Speaker 1: of gold and silver were five thousand to four one
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  Speaker 1: hundred Shesh bizarre brought all these up when the captives
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  Speaker 1: were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. So yes, it
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  Speaker 1: sounds like they went in a caravan almost and brought
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  Speaker 1: all of these vessels that were originally found in God's
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  Speaker 1: house back to Jerusalem. And this is kind of an
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  Speaker 1: exciting moment because the things that belonged to the Judite
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  Speaker 1: people are now going back home. However, you may have noticed, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: that not everything found in the temple was brought back
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  Speaker 1: to the temple. This is all that's left of God's temple.
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  Speaker 1: Some bowls and knives and platters. That's about it. The
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  Speaker 1: lamp stands were gone, the altars were gone, the incense
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  Speaker 1: burners and the snuffers and spoons. The tables were gone,
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  Speaker 1: the statues were gone, the pillars were gone. Everything was gone.
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  Speaker 1: And so was the ark of the Covenant. The ark
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: of the Covenent was gone. And now this is one
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of the reasons actually why I believe the Ark of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the Covenant was destroyed and not hidden somewhere by the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Babylonians is because pretty much everything else in the temple
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: was destroyed. And God doesn't often work the way that
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: we expect him to work. He will often uproot what
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: he has planted. Even if something starts out very good,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: like the arc of the Covenants, for example, if it
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: becomes corrupted over time because of the sinfulness of man,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: he will dismantle it and uproot it. And this is
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: for anything that becomes corrupted over time. This could be
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a church, an organization, a political party, a country. God
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: will uproot what he plants if it becomes too corrupt
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: over time. And unfortunately, you know, the Arc of the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Covenant was good, right, it was a good thing, but
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the people began to idolize it. And so this is why,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in my personal opinion, the arca the Covenant was destroyed,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: because if it weren't destroyed, then I think Cyrus would
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: have given it back personally, because he gave back everything else,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: So why wouldn't he have given back the Ark of
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the Covenant Unless God himself like took the Ark of
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the Covenant and hid it in some unknown location that
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: we do not know about. I mean, I guess that
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: could happen. God can do whatever he wants to do,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So it could be that God himself like hid the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant and nobody knows where it's at,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and it still is on this earth somewhere to this day.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: But I don't know. I have no clue about where
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the location of the Ark of the Covenant is. My
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: guess is that it was destroyed. But this chapter ends
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: talking about all of the people and all of the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: vessels that are going back to Jerusalem. And you would
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: think with such a powerful introduction to the rebuilding of
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the temple after the Babylonian exile, that everything would go
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: super smoothly for the Israelites, Right, That's what you'd think anyway,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: But that is just not the case, and that is
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: sometimes how God works. Sometimes things don't go smoothly, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that God isn't on your side. It
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: means that Satan is doing work against you and against
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: God's plans for you. But that is a story for
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a different day. We'll talk about Ezra again on Wednesday,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: so I hope you guys tune in next time. But
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners do me a solid and listen to this
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: sponsored ad before I end today's episode. And I just
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: want to say, in my personal reading, I just finished
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the Book of Lamentations, which ties so perfectly in to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: everything we talked about in Second Chronicles. And after I
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: finished Lamentations, I was like, you know what, I'm going
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to read one of the minor prophets. So I picked
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the Book of Zechariah, and man, it is a fantastic
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: book and it lines up absolutely perfectly with Ezra. And
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't even plan that, so it's really cool when
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: God speaks to me like that. I just love stuff
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: like that. So we're going to get into the Book
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of Zechariah while talking about Ezra as well, because Zechariah
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: has a lot to do with the rebuilding of the Temple. Actually,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: he's one of the prophets that helped the Israelites rebuild everything.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: But faithful listeners, I just appreciate the fact that you
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: guys tuned in to start your week out nice and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: strong by reading the Bible with me. I hope you
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: enjoy Season eleven as much as I enjoy talking about it.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: But faithful listeners, don't forget that if you want to
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: hear the ad free version of the Bible Explained, go
• 21:33
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• 21:36
  Speaker 1: member or a Coffee Tier member. Coffee members will gain
• 21:39
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• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Explained on Fridays, So if you're interested in that, check
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: out the link in the description that says KOFE. All right,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Monday,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.