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Ezra 2 - The List of Exiled Families · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, friends and faithful listeners. Thank you for tuning into
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  Speaker 2: the Bible Explained Podcasts on this beautiful Wednesday morning. So
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  Speaker 2: I was reading through the Book of Ezra today and
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  Speaker 2: I'm not looking forward to reading this for you guys.
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  Speaker 2: It is literally just seventy verses of names, and you
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  Speaker 2: know me, with names, I cannot pronounce anything correctly. I
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  Speaker 2: can't even pronounce English words correctly, let alone Babylonian and
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  Speaker 2: ancient Israelite to names. So I am going to mess
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  Speaker 2: this up. I know I am, and I apologize for
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  Speaker 2: that ahead of time. But before we get into all
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  Speaker 2: of these daunting names, please take a listen to one
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  Speaker 2: of our sponsors. All right, hopefully you have your Bible,
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  Speaker 2: and as I usually don't, I am going to be
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  Speaker 2: reading from the NIV version today because it's going to
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  Speaker 2: help me a little bit with this chapter. The Web
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  Speaker 2: is wonderful. I love the WEB, which is the version
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  Speaker 2: I usually read from. However, it is older English a
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  Speaker 2: little bit and the NIV is newer English, and so
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to do everything I can to help me
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  Speaker 2: read through all of these names. Now. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to be reading this chapter all the way through.
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  Speaker 2: I will probably jump through it a little bit just
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  Speaker 2: to keep you guys aware of that. But I encourage
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  Speaker 2: you guys to read through this chapter on your own
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  Speaker 2: and don't just take my word for it. Read it
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  Speaker 2: for yourself and make sure that the Bible says what
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  Speaker 2: I'm saying that it says. Let's go ahead and read
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  Speaker 2: Ezra chapter two one through the entire chapter, verse seventy.
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  Speaker 2: Let's jump right in with our cups of coffee and
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  Speaker 2: give reverence to God's word together. Now, these are the
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  Speaker 2: people of the province who came up from the captivity
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  Speaker 2: of the exiles whom Nebekinezer, King of Babylon, had taken
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  Speaker 2: captive to Babylon. And they returned to Jerusalem and Judah,
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  Speaker 2: each to their own town in company with Zerubabyl, Joshua, Neemaya, Sayah, Roleah, Mordecai, Bilshin,
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  Speaker 2: mis par big Vi, Rehum, and Bana. The list of
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  Speaker 2: the men of the people of Israel, the descendants of
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  Speaker 2: Parash twenty one seventy two, of Shafadia three seventy two,
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  Speaker 2: of Ara seven seventy five. And then I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: skip down to verse twenty one, where it says the
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  Speaker 2: men of Bethlehem one twenty three, of Natofah fifty six,
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  Speaker 2: of Anathoth one twenty eight, and then again i will
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  Speaker 2: skip down to verse thirty six, where it says the
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  Speaker 2: priests the descendants of Judea through the family of Jeshua
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  Speaker 2: nine seventy three, of Emer ten fifty two, of Peshor
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  Speaker 2: twelve forty seven, and of Harim ten seventeen. The leevites,
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  Speaker 2: the descendants of Jeshua and Cadmil of the line of
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  Speaker 2: Hodava seventy four, the musicians, the descendants of Asaf one
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight, the gate keepers of the temple, the descendants
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  Speaker 2: of shaloum Ader, Talman, Akub, had Tita and Shobai one
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  Speaker 2: thirty nine. The temple servants the descendants of Ziha, Hassufa, Tabith, Keras, Saya, Paddin,
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  Speaker 2: And then I'll skip down to verse fifty five the
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  Speaker 2: descendants of the servants of Solomon, the descendants of Sotai, Hasseporith, Peruda, Jala, Darken, Gidel,
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  Speaker 2: and then I'll skip to verse fifty eight the temple
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  Speaker 2: servants and the descendants of the servants of Solomon three
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  Speaker 2: ninety two. The following came from the towns of Tel Mala,
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  Speaker 2: Tel Hersha, karub Aiden, and Emer, but they could not
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  Speaker 2: show that their families were descended from Israel, the descendants
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  Speaker 2: of Dalaya, Tobai and Nakota six fifty two, and from
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  Speaker 2: among the priests the descendants of Hobai had Caused and Brasilia,
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  Speaker 2: a man who had married the daughter of Brasilia the
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  Speaker 2: Gileadite and was called by that name. These searched for
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  Speaker 2: their family records, but they could not find them, and
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  Speaker 2: so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The
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  Speaker 2: governor ordered them not to eat any of the most
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  Speaker 2: sacred food until there was a priests ministering with the
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  Speaker 2: Urim and Thummim. The whole company numbered forty two thousand,
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  Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty beside their three hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 2: seven male and female slaves, and they also had two
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  Speaker 2: hundred male and female singers. They had seven hundred and
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  Speaker 2: thirty six horses, two hundred and forty five mules, four
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  Speaker 2: hundred and thirty five camels, and six thousand, seven hundred
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  Speaker 2: and twenty donkeys. When they arrived at the House of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the
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  Speaker 2: families gave free will offerings toward the rebuilding of the
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  Speaker 2: House of God on its site according to their ability.
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  Speaker 2: They gave to the treasury for this work sixty one
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  Speaker 2: thousand derrecks of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and
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  Speaker 2: one hundred priestly garments. The priests, the levites, the musicians,
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  Speaker 2: the gatekeepers, and the temple servants settled in their own
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  Speaker 2: towns along with some of the other people, and the
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  Speaker 2: rest of the Israelites settled in their towns. So, as
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  Speaker 2: we discussed a couple days ago, we talked about Ezra
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  Speaker 2: chapter one, and how the Israelites are finally able to
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  Speaker 2: go back home because now that Cyrus, King of Persia,
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  Speaker 2: has basically dismantled Babylon, he had a real respect for Yahweh,
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  Speaker 2: and because of this fear of Yahweh, he decided to
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  Speaker 2: send all of the Israelites back home, and not just
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  Speaker 2: to send them home, but he actually gave them a
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  Speaker 2: grant as well and his blessing for them to rebuild
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  Speaker 2: the temple. Because even though the people are able to
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  Speaker 2: settle in Israel once again, it was still considered a province.
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  Speaker 2: It was not a independent state. Israel was still under
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  Speaker 2: control of Persia at this time, so they needed the
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  Speaker 2: king's blessing in order to begin preparations for rebuilding the
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  Speaker 2: Temple to God. And thankfully Cyrus was a king who
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  Speaker 2: actually had this on his heart. So only a small
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  Speaker 2: portion of all of the Israelites that lived in Babylon
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  Speaker 2: or Persia at this time ended up going back home.
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  Speaker 2: The majority stayed behind and lived in Persia because they
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  Speaker 2: became comfortable, you know, the two generations had passed. Most
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  Speaker 2: of them had grown up living in Babylon. They didn't
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  Speaker 2: want to leave their homes. They likely intermarried with the
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  Speaker 2: Babylonian men and women, they had families in Babylon, so
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  Speaker 2: it wasn't easy for the majority of them to pack
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  Speaker 2: everything up and make this long trek back home, which
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  Speaker 2: would have been a very uncertain trek as well, because
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  Speaker 2: even though they had the king's blessing to begin the
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  Speaker 2: building of the temple, there was still so many unknowns,
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  Speaker 2: so many bordering nations that hated Israel and didn't want
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  Speaker 2: them to rebuild this temple. We'll talk about that at
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  Speaker 2: a later time, but starting in Ezra chapter two, verse one,
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  Speaker 2: here's what it says here. These are the people of
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  Speaker 2: the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go. Israel is a province at this
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  Speaker 2: point in time. It's not its own entity, it's not
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  Speaker 2: its own nation. It's considered a province. So everything that
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  Speaker 2: the Israelites do, even if they travel back home, has
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  Speaker 2: to be in line with what the king wants. It
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  Speaker 2: says these people came back whom Nebekinezer, king of Babylon,
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  Speaker 2: had taken captive to Babylon. It says they returned to
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  Speaker 2: Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town. So finally
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  Speaker 2: Israel is being repopulated once again. But remember there weren't
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  Speaker 2: very many people that actually came from Babylon to travel
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  Speaker 2: to Israel. Only a small minority actually got up and left. However,
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  Speaker 2: that was enough people to actually resettle all the towns
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  Speaker 2: once again, because the one thing that the Babylonians did
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  Speaker 2: very different from the Assyrians was they did not pull
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  Speaker 2: people out to bring new people in. That was something
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  Speaker 2: that the Assyrians had really perfected during their days. Remember
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  Speaker 2: when the Assyrian army captured Israel, like northern Israel about
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  Speaker 2: one hundred years before Babylon came in and destroyed Judah.
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  Speaker 2: The Assyrians went in and exiled the Israelites and brought
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  Speaker 2: brand new people in to Israel. So basically they did
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  Speaker 2: a great replacement, and that was something that the Assyrians
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  Speaker 2: really perfected. And they did this to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: everybody understood that Assyria was in control. Nobody had their
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  Speaker 2: own land anymore. They weren't their own people groups. If
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  Speaker 2: Assyria said pack up and leave, then you had to
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  Speaker 2: pack up and leave. You owned nothing. That land belonged
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  Speaker 2: to Assyria and no one else, basically, and the Assyrians
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  Speaker 2: did this to really crush the culture and uniqueness of
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  Speaker 2: the individual. But interestingly enough, the Babylonians did not do
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  Speaker 2: that to Judah. They may have done it to other nations.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what exile looked different for other nations.
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  Speaker 2: It could have, but for the Judites. Nebeconezer, the Babylonian king,
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  Speaker 2: he never brought new people in. Instead, he actually left
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  Speaker 2: all the very poor people in Judah. Those are the
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  Speaker 2: only people left. Anybody that had any money or wealth,
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  Speaker 2: or status or wisdom. Those people were exiled to Babylon.
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  Speaker 2: So the poorest people were left to tend the fields
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  Speaker 2: of Judah. Now, God did this for a reason this
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  Speaker 2: was all providential. The Israelites had sinned and did not
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  Speaker 2: deserve the blessings from God any longer. That's talked about
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  Speaker 2: in both Second Chronicles thirty six and also Leviticus twenty
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  Speaker 2: six thirty two through thirty five. And I'll read the
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  Speaker 2: Leviticus passage for you. It says, I will bring the
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  Speaker 2: land into desolation, and your enemies, who dwell in it
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  Speaker 2: will be astonished at it. I will scatter you among
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  Speaker 2: the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you.
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  Speaker 2: Your land will be in desolation, and your cities shall
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  Speaker 2: be a waste. Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths
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  Speaker 2: as long as it lies desolate, and you are in
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  Speaker 2: your enemy's land. Even then, the land will rest and
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  Speaker 2: enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate. It
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  Speaker 2: shall have rest, even the rest which it didn't have
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  Speaker 2: in your sabbaths when you lived on it. The exile
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  Speaker 2: to Babylon was actually a way for God to protect
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  Speaker 2: the actual land itself. The land was getting no Sabbath rests.
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  Speaker 2: It was being completely destroyed by the people through bad
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  Speaker 2: farming practices, through the amount of violence that was caused
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  Speaker 2: on the land. There are some verses in the Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament that talk about how when somebody is murdered, the
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  Speaker 2: land itself like cries out. We also see in the
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  Speaker 2: New Testament that the land is in mourning, it is
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  Speaker 2: groaning with pain because of the sin that we caused it.
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  Speaker 2: So somehow the land feels our sin. And I don't
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  Speaker 2: quite understand what that means exactly, but the land feels
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  Speaker 2: the sin, and it gets corrupted by the sin in
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  Speaker 2: some way. So when the people are out of the
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  Speaker 2: land and they're no longer sinning, the land is able
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  Speaker 2: to have its Sabbath rests.
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  Speaker 1: This is God.
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  Speaker 2: Conserving his creation. The land is virtually empty, and the
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  Speaker 2: people are allowed to go back to their ancestral land
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  Speaker 2: and to the places that their grandparents owned and resettle
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  Speaker 2: these places. It was a scary new adventure that a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people just weren't up for. But that's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: God said, only a remnant of the Israelites are going
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  Speaker 2: to come back into this land. So then it talks
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  Speaker 2: about the remnant that is brought back in the land.
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  Speaker 2: In verse two, it says these people came in company
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  Speaker 2: with Zerubabyl, Joshua, Nehemiah and a handful of all of
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  Speaker 2: these other names. The two names I want to focus
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  Speaker 2: on here are Zerubabyl and Joshua. It is possible that
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  Speaker 2: this guy Zerubabyle is the same man talked about in
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  Speaker 2: Ezra one. At the very end in verse eleven, it
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  Speaker 2: says this guy named Shesh Bizar brought all these along
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  Speaker 2: with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of people believe that Zerubrabyl and Shesh Bizar
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  Speaker 2: are the same person because they essentially have the same job.
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  Speaker 2: In Ezra one, Shesh Bizar is mentioned as the prince
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  Speaker 2: of Judah, and that is essentially what Zerubrabyl was as well.
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  Speaker 2: He was appointed governor of the exiled Israelites, so in
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  Speaker 2: a way he would have been a prince and a leader.
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  Speaker 2: Zerubabyl is also mentioned in the book of Zechariah Zechariah four,
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  Speaker 2: verses six through ten. This is Zechariah the Prophet speaking.
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  Speaker 2: He answered and spoke to me saying, this is Yahwai's
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  Speaker 2: word to Zerubabyl, saying, not by might nor by power,
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  Speaker 2: but by my spirit, says Yahweh of armies, who are
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  Speaker 2: you great mountain before Zerubabyl, you are a plane, and
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  Speaker 2: he will bring out the capstone with shouts of grace
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  Speaker 2: grace to it. Moreover, Yawai's word came to me, saying,
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  Speaker 2: the hands of Zerubabyl have laid the foundation of this house.
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  Speaker 2: His hands shall also finish it. And you will know
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  Speaker 2: that Yahweh of armies has sent me to you. Indeed,
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  Speaker 2: who despises the day of small things, for these seven
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  Speaker 2: shall rejoice and shall see the plumb line in the
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  Speaker 2: hand of Zerubabyl. These are Yahweh's eyes, which run back
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  Speaker 2: and forth throughout the whole earth. So that is God
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  Speaker 2: talking to Zechariah words of encouragement for Zerubabyl, and he
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  Speaker 2: basically says, Zerubabyl, it is not by your own might
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  Speaker 2: or by your power that you are able to do
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  Speaker 2: these things, but by my spirit, and mountains will be
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  Speaker 2: leveled before you. Essentially, they're going to look to you
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  Speaker 2: like an itty bitty little plane. With my spirits, you
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  Speaker 2: are going to accomplish great things. And then he also
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  Speaker 2: says in verse ten, which is one of my favorite
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  Speaker 2: Bible verses. Actually, in fact, if you read this verse
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  Speaker 2: in the NLT version, which is one of my favorite
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  Speaker 2: versions of scripture. It says, do not despise these small beginnings,
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  Speaker 2: for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to
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  Speaker 2: see the plumb line in Zerubabyl's hand. I just love that.
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  Speaker 2: I think that is such a nice verse. Don't despise
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  Speaker 2: small beginnings because God loves to see the work begin.
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  Speaker 2: Small beginnings might seem really frustrating to us because we
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  Speaker 2: live in the age where we have instant gratification for everything,
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  Speaker 2: and so we don't want to build up to anything.
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  Speaker 2: But this was a verse that was very encouraging for
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  Speaker 2: me when i was about three years into my ministry
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  Speaker 2: because I'm like, man, you know, it seems like I
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  Speaker 2: should be much further along than I am. But this
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  Speaker 2: verse brought me a lot of comfort during that time.
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  Speaker 2: Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices
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  Speaker 2: to see the work begin, to see the plumb line
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  Speaker 2: in Zerubabyl's hand. So God does not look at these
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  Speaker 2: small beginnings as insignificant. He actually looks at them as
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  Speaker 2: something great. He loves to see those small beginnings. And
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  Speaker 2: maybe that's a word of encouragement for anybody that is
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  Speaker 2: going through a career change or starting something new, don't
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  Speaker 2: give up. God loves to see those small beginnings. But
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  Speaker 2: going back to the original point of all of this,
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  Speaker 2: Zerubrabyl was to lay the foundation of the temple. That
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  Speaker 2: is what God is saying right here. He loves to
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  Speaker 2: see the plumb line in Zerubebyl's hand. So Zerubrabyl gets
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  Speaker 2: the credit for laying the foundation of the temple. And
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  Speaker 2: in Ezra five, verse sixteen, he actually says that guy
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  Speaker 2: shsh Bizar that we just talked about, who could be
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  Speaker 2: the same person as Zerubrabyl came and laid the foundations
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  Speaker 2: of God's House which is in Jerusalem. That's what it
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  Speaker 2: says in verse sixteen of Ezra five. So that's another
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  Speaker 2: reason why Shesh Bizarre and Zerubrabyl could be the same person,
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  Speaker 2: because they both have a similar title, and they also
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  Speaker 2: are both given credit for laying the foundations of the temple.
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  Speaker 2: So that's why many people think Zerubrabyl and Shesh Bizar
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  Speaker 2: are the same person. Now, the second guy that I
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  Speaker 2: want to focus on in our passage for today is
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  Speaker 2: named Joshua or depending on your version, Jeshua, which is
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  Speaker 2: the Greek form of Joshua. Joshua is also the same
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  Speaker 2: name as Jesus, but Joshua here in Ezra too, he
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  Speaker 2: is the appointed high priest at this moment in time.
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  Speaker 2: The prophet Zechariah also talks about Joshua a really interesting
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  Speaker 2: story here. He gets a prophecy about Joshua in Zechariah three,
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  Speaker 2: starting in verse one, he showed me Joshua, the high priest,
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  Speaker 2: standing before Yahweh's Angel, and Satan's standing at his right hand,
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  Speaker 2: to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, Yahweh rebuke you. Satan, Yes, Yahweh,
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  Speaker 2: who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. Isn't this a burning
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  Speaker 2: stick plucked out of the fire. Now Joshua was clothed
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  Speaker 2: with filthy garments, and he was standing before the angel.
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  Speaker 2: He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying,
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  Speaker 2: take the filthy garments off of him. To him, he said, behold,
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  Speaker 2: I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and
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  Speaker 2: I will clothe you with rich clothing. I said, let
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  Speaker 2: them set a clean turban on his head. So they
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  Speaker 2: set a clean turban on his head and clothed him,
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  Speaker 2: and Yahwai's angel was standing by yahways Angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying,
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  Speaker 2: Yahweh of Armies says, if you will walk in my ways,
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  Speaker 2: and if you will follow my instructions, then you shall
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  Speaker 2: also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts.
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  Speaker 2: And I will give you a place of access among
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  Speaker 2: these who stand by here now, Joshua the High Priest,
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  Speaker 2: you and your fellows who sit before you, For they
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  Speaker 2: are men who are a sign. For behold, I will
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  Speaker 2: bring out my servant to the branch. For behold the
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  Speaker 2: stone that I have set before Joshua. On one stone
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  Speaker 2: are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription, says
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  Speaker 2: Yahweh of Armies, and I will remove the iniquity of
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  Speaker 2: that land in one day. In that day, says Yahweh
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  Speaker 2: of Armies, you will invite every man his neighbor under
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  Speaker 2: the vine and under the fig tree. So that's a
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  Speaker 2: really amazing prophecy about Joshua the High Priest. Zechariah receives
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  Speaker 2: this vision of Joshua standing there in these filthy clothes,
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  Speaker 2: and Satan is standing next to him accusing this man.
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  Speaker 2: And God looked at Satan and he says, Yahweh, rebuke you, Satan,
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  Speaker 2: Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. And then he
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  Speaker 2: clothes Joshua with these beautiful garments, these clean kingly garments,
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  Speaker 2: and he sets a brand new turban on his head.
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  Speaker 2: And that's to show that he is purified, this man
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  Speaker 2: Joshua from his sins. He has forgiven him from his sins.
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  Speaker 2: Satan was standing there accusing Joshua before God, and God said, no,
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  Speaker 2: I will not listen to these accusations. So that is
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  Speaker 2: the same Joshua mentioned here in Ezra chapter two, This
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  Speaker 2: man Joshua, who went back to Israel with all of
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  Speaker 2: these people. And after this it lists out all of
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: these different people that traveled with them. In verses three
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: through twenty, it talks about several thousand men of different
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: households that went back with this caravan. And then in
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: verses twenty one through thirty five, it lists this series
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: of villages and towns, likely men who knew where their
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: hometowns were. Maybe is what I'm guessing. I couldn't find
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a really good answer for why they list out the
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: specific households in verses three through twenty and then list
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: out the villages in verses twenty through thirty five. It
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: could be that these men didn't belong to any particular
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: household maybe or maybe these were the only families that
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: knew specifically where their land was, or maybe had records
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: and proof of ownership of this land that their grandfathers
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: owned it, or something like that. And then verses thirty
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: six through thirty nine, it mentions the priests, and there's
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: only four households of priests listed here, which is extremely
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: small considering the fact that there is supposed to be
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: twenty four households of priests. So that actually shows how
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: many people stayed behind in Persia. The majority of people
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: stayed behind in Persia, because only four of the twenty
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: four households of priests actually traveled back to Israel. And
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: then talks about the Levites. Here, the descendants of Jeshua
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: and Cadmil of the line of Hodavia. There's only seventy
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: four Levites that were turned. That is a shockingly small
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: number considering that the Levites were an entire tribe, and yes,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: priests were obviously Levites, but not every Levite could become
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: a priest, so the priest made up a small minority
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: of the Levite tribe. So the fact that so few
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Levites came, you know, is kind of shocking considering that
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: the Levites were supposed to outnumber the priests by quite
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: a lot. Then it mentions some musicians that returned. The
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: descendants of Asaf were one hundred and twenty eight, and
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: it also mentioned some gatekeepers of the temple that returned
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty nine, as well as some temple
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: servants and the descendants of servants of Solomon, who made
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: up together three hundred and ninety two people. And then
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: after that it mentions six hundred and fifty two people
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: who were descendants from the Israelites but could not prove
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: that they were descendants. These would have been probably priests
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: and Levites that couldn't prove that they were Levites, essentially
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: possibly because the records got destroyed because they were kept
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: in the temple, and when King Nebukenzer went in and
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: fully destroyed the temple, he probably destroyed all the records
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: that were kept in the temple as well. So these
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: men could not prove that they were descendants from the Levites.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: So it says right here they searched for their family records,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: but they could not find them, and so they were
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: excluded from the priesthood as unclean, which was the right
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: thing to do, because according to the Old Testament law,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: only Levites could be priests. So if these men couldn't
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: prove that they were from the tribe of Levi, then
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: they should not be considered one of the priests until
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: a record was found, or until some digging was done,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: or consulting from God or something. The people had to
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: be very sure that the Levites were in fact Levites.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It says in verse sixty three the governor ordered them
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: not to eat any of the most sacred food until
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Now the Urim and Thummim, I've talked about those two
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: things before. Those were the little stones. One was considered
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: to be black and the other one was white, and
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: that was how the priests would communicate with God. They
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: would essentially ask God a question and they would reach
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: inside their pocket, not knowing which stone they were going
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: to bring out, and depending on which one they brought out,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: it meant either yes or no from God. And that
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: is how the priests would communicate with God. Now the
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: urremine Thumim have been lost to history. We do not
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: know where they are, but they must have existed at
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: this point in time, because the governor orders that all
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: of these men that don't have records of the priesthood
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: not to eat of any of the holy things. So
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: they could not partake in the things of the priests
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: until it was proven that they were in fact priests
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: by either finding their family records or by ministering with
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: the Urim and Thummim. So now it says right here
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: the whole company numbered forty two thousand, three hundred and
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: sixty besides their seven thousand, three hundred and thirty seven
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: male and female slaves, and they also had two hundred
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: male and female singers.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: So the grand total of these people.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Would have been about fifty thousand after crunching all of
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the numbers, very very small amount of people. It says
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: in verse sixty eight. When they arrived at the House
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: the families gave free will offerings toward the rebuilding of
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: the House of God on its site. According to their ability.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: They gave to the treasury for this work sixty one
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: thousand derycks of gold, which a derek would have been
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: about one thousand, one hundred pounds of gold, or for
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: those of you who live in the metric system, about
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: five hundred kilograms of gold, five thousand demeanas of silver,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: which would have been about three tons or two point
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: eight metric tons, and one hundred priestly garments. Verse seventy.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: The priests, the levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers, and the
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: temple servants settled into their own towns along with some
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: settled in their towns. So now the Israelites are coming
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: back home. It is very sparsely populated, but they are home.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: And God odds promise to them, came to fruition. He
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: told them, I Am going to send you back home
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: after seventy years in exile. The land will have its
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: sabbath rests until you come back home, but I will
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: send you back home. And that is what he did.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And you can tell the people are very, very excited
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: to start building the temple to God once again. They
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: are excited to be back in their homes after seventy
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: years of not seeing them, seventy years of exile. They
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: are finally back home. But now there's a lot of
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: work cut out for them, so we will talk about
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: all of that next week on Monday. So, friends and
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: faithful listeners, before I end today's episode, please take a
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  Speaker 2: this episode, and if you email me, I will in
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  Speaker 2: fact read it. I try to get to all of
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  Speaker 2: my emails. Sometimes I do accidentally miss one or two,
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  Speaker 2: and I apologize if that has been you in the past.
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  Speaker 2: But if you have a prayer quest, just know that
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  Speaker 2: I do in fact read those and I will write
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• 26:44
  Speaker 2: for you for it this week, faithful listeners, have a
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I hope to
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: see all of you guys tomorrow as we discuss another
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: concept from the Book of Hebrews Hebrews Chapter eight to
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: be specific. So I'll see you guys tomorrow six am
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: or whenever you choose to wake up and listen.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Happy listening, and God bless.
• 27:09
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