Latest / 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast / From Sinai to Zion | Freedom by Faith, Not Law (Sept 18)

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From Sinai to Zion | Freedom by Faith, Not Law (Sept 18) · 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast

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Are you trying to find favor with God by what you do or don't
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do on certain days or months or seasons or years?
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Are you a child of the slave woman Hagar,
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obligated to the law, or are you a child of the
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free woman Sarah, acceptable to God
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because of your faith? Are you standing at Mount
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Sinai with Moses as your head and
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your leader that you follow in trying to obey the Law?
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Or are you standing at Mount Zion with Jesus as
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your head and your leader, walking in faith in
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the power of the Holy Spirit? These are the questions we're going to look
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at today from our reading of Galatians 3 and 4. Listen in.
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Welcome to the Daily Audio Torah. Today is September 18th.
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Now let's continue our journey reading through the entire Bible in
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1 year. This week we are reading from the New Living Translation
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for the Old Testament and for the New Testament.
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Deuteronomy 28:42-68.
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Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops. The foreigners
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living among you will become stronger and stronger while you become weaker
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and weaker. They will lend money to you, but you will
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not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will
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be the tail. If you refuse to listen to
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the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you,
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all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you
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are destroyed. These horrors will serve
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as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.
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If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and
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enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve
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your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will
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be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything.
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The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck,
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oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.
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The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the
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earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture.
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It is a nation whose language you do not understand,
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a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for
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the old and no pity for the young.
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Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you
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will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain,
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new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to
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death. They will attack your cities until all the
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fortified walls in your land, the walls you trusted to protect you,
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are knocked down. They will attack all the
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towns in the land the Lord your God has given you. The siege
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and terrible distress of the enemy's attack will be so severe
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that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom
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the Lord your God has given you.
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The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for
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his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children.
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He will refuse to share with them the flesh he
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is devouring, the flesh of one of his own children,
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because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible
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distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
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The most tender and delicate woman among you, so delicate she
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would not so much as touch the ground with her foot,
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will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son
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or daughter.
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She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby
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she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat
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them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege
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and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on
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all your towns. If you refuse to obey
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all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if
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you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of
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the Lord your God, Then the Lord will overwhelm you
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and your children with indescribable plagues.
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These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable
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and unbearably sick. He will afflict you with
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all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much,
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and you will have no relief. The Lord will afflict you
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with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned
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in this book of instruction until you are destroyed.
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Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of
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you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.
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Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to
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prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying
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you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and
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occupy. For the Lord will scatter you among
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all the nations from one end of the earth to the other.
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There you will worship foreign gods that neither you
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nor your ancestors have known, gods made of
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wood and stone. There among those nations you
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will find no peace or place to rest,
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and the Lord will cause your heart to tremble. Your eyesight to
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fail, and your soul to despair. Your life
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will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night
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and day in fear, unsure if you will survive.
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In the morning you will say, if only it were night!
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And in the evening you will say, if only it were morning!
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For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see
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around you. Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships,
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to a destination I promised you would never see again.
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There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies
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as slaves, but no one will buy you.
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Isaiah 28:14-30,
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11. Therefore listen to this message
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from the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem.
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You boast that you have struck a bargain to avoid death
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and have made a deal to dodge the grave. You say,
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the Assyrians can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge
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made of lies and deception. Therefore, this is what the
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Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am placing a foundation stone
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in Jerusalem. It is firm, a tested
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and precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.
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Whoever believes need never run away again.
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I will take the measuring line of justice and the plumb line
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of righteousness to check the foundation wall you have built.
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Your refuge looks strong, but since it is made of lies,
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a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception,
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the enemy will come like a flood to sweep it away. I will
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cancel the bargain you have made to avoid death, and I will
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overturn your deal to dodge the grave. When the terrible enemy
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floods in, you will be trampled into the ground.
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Again and again that flood will come, morning after morning,
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day and night, until you are carried away. This message
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will bring terror to your people, for you have no place
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of refuge. The bed you have made is too short to lie on.
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The blankets are too narrow to cover you. The Lord will come
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suddenly and in anger, as he did
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against the Philistines at Mount Perazim and against the Amorites at Gibeon.
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He will come to do a strange and unusual
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thing. He will destroy his own people. So scoff no
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more, or your punishment will be even greater. For the Lord,
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the Lord Almighty, has plainly told me that he is determined
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to crush you. Listen to me, listen as I
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plead. Does a farmer always plow and never sow?
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Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting it?
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Does he not finally plant his seeds for dill,
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cumin, wheat, barley, and spelt, each in its
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own section of his land? The farmer knows just
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what to do, for God has given him understanding. He doesn't
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thresh all his crops the same way. A heavy sledge is never
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used on dill; rather, it is beaten with a light stick.
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A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin; instead,
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it is beaten softly with a flail.
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Red grain is easily crushed, so he doesn't keep on pounding it.
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He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn't pulverize
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it. The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher, and he gives
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the farmer great wisdom.
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Destruction is certain for Ariel, the City of David.
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Year after year you offer your many
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sacrifices, yet I will bring disaster upon
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you And there will be weeping and sorrow,
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for Jerusalem will become as her name Ariel means,
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an altar covered with blood. I will be your enemy,
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surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will
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build siege towers around it and will destroy it. Your voice
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will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you will lie buried,
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but suddenly Your ruthless enemies will be driven away like
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chaff before the wind. In an instant,
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I, the Lord Almighty, will come against them with thunder and earthquake
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and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
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All the nations fighting against Jerusalem will vanish like a
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dream. Those who are attacking her walls will vanish
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like a vision in the night. A hungry person dreams
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of eating but is still hungry. A thirsty person dreams of drinking
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but is still faint from thirst when morning comes. In the
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same way, your enemies will dream of a victorious conquest
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over Jerusalem, but all to no avail.
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Are you amazed and incredulous? Do you not believe
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it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must.
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You are stupid, but not from wine. You stagger,
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but not from beer, for the Lord has poured out on you a
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spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your
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prophets and visionaries. All these future events are a sealed
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book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say,
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we can't read it because it is sealed. When you
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give it to those who cannot read, they will say, sorry, we don't know how
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to read. And so the Lord says, these people say
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they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their
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hearts are far away. And their worship
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of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned
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by rote. Because of
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this, I will do wonders among these hypocrites.
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I will show that human wisdom is foolish, and even the most
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brilliant people lack understanding.
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Destruction is certain for those who try to hide their plans from
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the Lord, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do.
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The Lord can't see us, you say to yourselves. He doesn't know
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what is going on. How stupid can you be? He is
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the potter, and he is certainly greater than you.
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You are only the jars he makes. Should the thing that was
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created say to the one who made it, he didn't make us?
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Does a jar ever say, the potter who made me is stupid?
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Soon, and it will not be very long, the wilderness
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of Lebanon will be a fertile field once again,
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and the fertile fields will become a lush and fertile forest.
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In that day, deaf people will hear words read from a book,
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and blind people will see through the gloom and darkness.
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The humble will be filled with fresh joy from
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the Lord. Those who are poor will rejoice
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in the Holy One of Israel. Those who
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intimidate and harass will be gone, and all those
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who plot evil will be killed. Those who make the innocent
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guilty by their false testimony will disappear, and those
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who use trickery to pervert justice and tell lies to tear
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down the innocent will be no more. That is why
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the Lord who redeemed Abraham says to the people of Israel,
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my people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed.
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For when they see their many children and material blessings,
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they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel.
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They will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those in
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error will then believe the truth, and those who constantly complain
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will accept instruction.
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Destruction is certain for my rebellious children, says the Lord.
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You make plans that are contrary to my will.
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You weave a web of plans that are not from my Spirit,
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thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me,
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you have gone down to Egypt to find help. You have put your
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trust in Pharaoh for his protection. But in trusting Pharaoh,
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you will be humiliated and disgraced. For though his power
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extends to Zoan and Hanes, it will all turn out to your shame.
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He will not help you even one little bit.
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Look at the animals moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt—
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donkeys and camels loaded with treasure to pay for Egypt's aid.
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On through the wilderness they go, where lions and poisonous snakes live.
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All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return.
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Egypt's promises are worthless. I call her
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the harmless dragon. Now go and write down
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these words concerning Egypt. They will then stand
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until the end of time as a witness to Israel's unbelief.
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For these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to
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pay any attention to the Lord's instructions.
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They tell the prophets, shut up! We don't want any more
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of your reports. They say, don't tell us the truth.
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Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom.
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We have heard more than enough about your Holy One of Israel. We are
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tired of listening to what he has to say.
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Galatians 3:23-4:31.
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Until faith in Christ was shown to us as the way of becoming
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right with God, we were guarded by
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the Law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak,
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until we could put our faith in the coming Savior.
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Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian
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and teacher to lead us until Christ
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came. So now, through faith in Christ,
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we are made right with God. But now that
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faith in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as
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our guardian. So you are all children
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of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and all who have been
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united with Christ in baptism have been made like him.
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There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free,
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male or female, for you are all Christians.
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You are one in Christ Jesus. And now that
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you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham.
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You are his heirs, and now all the promises
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God gave to him belong to you.
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Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves great wealth
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for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves
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until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father
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had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever
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age their father set. And that's the way it was with
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us before Christ came. We were slaves to the spiritual
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powers of this world. But when the right time came,
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God sent his Son, born of a woman,
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subject to the law. God sent him to
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buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law,
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so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
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And because you Gentiles have become his children,
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God has sent the Spirit of his Son into
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your hearts. And now you can call God your dear Father.
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Now you are no longer a slave, but God's
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own child. And since you are his child,
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everything he has belongs to you. Before you
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Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods
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that do not even exist. And now that you have found God—
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or should I say, now that God has found you— Why do
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you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and
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useless spiritual powers of this world? You are trying to find
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favor with God by what you do or don't do on
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certain days or months or seasons or
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years. I fear for you.
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I am afraid that all my hard work for you
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was worth Nothing.
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Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do,
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in freedom from these things. For I have become
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like you Gentiles were, free from the Law.
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You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you.
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Surely you remember that I was sick when I first
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brought you the good news of Christ. But even though my sickness
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was revolting to you, You did not reject me
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and turn me away. No,
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you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel
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from God or even Christ Jesus himself. Where is that
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joyful spirit we felt together then? In those days, I know
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you would gladly have taken out your own eyes and given them to me
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if it had been possible. Have I now become your enemy because I am
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telling you the truth? Those false teachers
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who are so anxious to win your favor are not
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doing it for your good. They are trying to shut you off from Me
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so that you will pay more attention to them. Now,
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it's wonderful if you are eager to do good, and especially
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when I am not with you. But oh, my dear children,
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I feel as if I am going through labor pains for you again,
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and they will continue until Christ is fully developed
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in your lives. How I wish I were there with you right
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now so that I could be more gentle with you, but at this
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distance I frankly don't know what else to do.
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Listen to me, you who want to live under the Law.
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Do you know what the Law really says?
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The Scriptures say that Abraham had 2 sons,
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one from his slave wife, and one from his freeborn
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wife. The son of the slave wife was born
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in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of
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God's promise. But the son of
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the freeborn wife was born as
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God's own fulfillment of His promise.
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Now, these 2 women serve as an illustration
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of God's 2 covenants. Hagar, the slave wife,
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represents Mount Sinai, where people first
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became enslaved to the law.
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And now Jerusalem is just like Mount
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Sinai in Arabia because she and her children live in
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slavery. But Sarah, the free woman, represents the
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heavenly Jerusalem, and she is our
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mother. This is what Isaiah meant when he prophesied,
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rejoice, O childless woman, break forth
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into loud and joyful song, even though you never
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gave birth to a child, for the woman who could bear no children now has
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more than all the other women.
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And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the
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promise, just like Isaac. And we who are
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born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted
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by those who want us to keep the law.
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Just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted
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by Ishmael, the son of the slave wife. But what
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do the Scriptures say about that? Get rid of the slave and her son,
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for the son of the slave woman will not share the family
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inheritance with the free woman's son.
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So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of
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the slave woman obligated the law. We are
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children of the free woman,
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acceptable to God because of our faith.
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Psalm 62:1-12.
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I wait quietly before God, for my salvation comes
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from him. He alone is my rock and my
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salvation. My fortress where I will never be
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shaken. So many enemies against one man, all of them trying
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to kill me. To them, I'm just a broken-down wall
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or a tottering fence. They plan to topple me from my
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high position. They delight in telling lies
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about me. They are friendly to my face, but they curse
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me in their hearts. I wait quietly before
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God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and
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my salvation, my fortress where I will not
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be shaken. My salvation and my honor come from God alone.
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He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
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O my people, trust in him at all times.
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Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.
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From the greatest to the lowliest,
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all are nothing in his sight. If you weigh them on the scales,
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they are lighter than a puff of air. Don't try to get rich by extortion
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or robbery, and if your wealth increases, don't make
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it the center of your life. God has spoken plainly, and I
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have heard it many times: Power, O God,
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belongs to you; unfailing love, O Lord,
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is yours. Surely you judge all people according to what
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they have done.
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Proverbs 23:19-21.
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My child, listen and be wise. Keep your heart
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on the right course. Do not carouse with drunkards
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and gluttons, for they are on their way to poverty. Too much
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sleep clothes a person with rags.
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I want to speak to you again from Galatians chapter 3
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and 4, and Paul is continuing his case
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with the Galatians about if they're going to walk under
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the law or if they're going to walk in faith by trusting in Jesus Christ.
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You can hear his passion in verse 9 of
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chapter 4. He says, and now that you have
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found God, or should I say now that God has found you,
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why do you want to go back again and become slaves once
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more to the weak and useless spiritual powers of this world?
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He goes on to say this charge: you are
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trying to find favor with God by what you do or don't
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do on certain days or months or seasons or
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years.
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That verse really, really packs a powerful punch,
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especially I speak to the people who are in
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the Hebrew Roots Messianic movement,
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those who keep the Sabbath, who keep the feasts, you know, the Passover
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and First Fruits and Shavuot and Sukkot
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and Feast of Tabernacles. Um,
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those are all wonderful, wonderful feasts, and they're— and they
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are beautiful shadow pictures that point us
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to Christ. But we're not to
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be worshiping the shadow. We're not to be looking only to the
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picture. We're to look to Christ himself. We're to
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stay connected to Jesus himself.
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And I think that this is really an issue and
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a problem in the Hebrew Roots world is that there
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are many, not necessarily all, but many in
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that movement who are trying to find favor with God by
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keeping the feasts, by keeping the Sabbath on certain
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days, the holy days, the Day of Atonement, the day of Yom Kippur,
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the Day of Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles.
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They're trying to earn favor and find favor
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with God by, by keeping these feasts on certain
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days or months or years. And Paul goes on
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to say, I fear for you. I'm afraid that all my hard work for you
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was worth nothing. I plead with you
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to live as I do, in freedom from these things, for I
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have become like you Gentiles were, free from
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the law. Now later on, he does a beautiful
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illustration, and he makes a comparison. He compares Hagar
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and Sarah. These are 2 wives that Abraham
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had, and God made a promise to Abraham
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and Sarah that they would one day have a son of their
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own. But many, many, many years went by, and the
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promise didn't seem to look
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like it was going to be fulfilled. So Sarah took matters in her own hand
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And she says to Abraham, honey, I want you to take my handmaiden
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Hagar. Take her and
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make a baby with her. And,
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you know, God doesn't seem like he's gonna fulfill this
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promise, so let's just make this happen.
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And so he lays with Hagar, and they have a son, and they call him
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Ishmael. But this was The son
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of the slave wife was born in a human attempt
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to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise.
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But the son of the freeborn wife,
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Sarah, giving birth to Isaac,
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the miracle child, was born as a result of God's own
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fulfillment of His promise.
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These 2 women serve as an illustration of God's
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2 covenants. Hagar, the slave wife,
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represents Mount Sinai where the people became
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enslaved to the law.
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We are not to stand at Mount Sinai.
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Moses is not our head. We are to
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stand at Mount Zion. Jesus Christ is our
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head, and that comes by walking in
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faith, in believing in Jesus, as the Son of
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God, as our Savior, as our Messiah. She,
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Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem, is our mother. And so
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we are to walk by faith. We begin
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in faith and we continue in faith from day by day,
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hour by hour, moment by moment. We walk in faith,
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not in our own efforts, our own flesh, our own performance,
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our own keeping of the law, but it's all walking
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in faith. And so may we all stand
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at Mount Zion under the headship and
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the rulership and the kingship of Jesus Christ.
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May we not drift away from our connection and
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our relationship to Jesus and wander away and go to Mount
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Sinai and put all this emphasis and focus on
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Moses and the law and the commands and the Sabbath and the feasts and all
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of that. No. No, those are all
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shadow pictures. We don't worship the shadow picture. We worship the
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one who makes the shadow, and that is Jesus Christ
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himself. We are to walk in relationship
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with him and with him alone. Have a
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blessed day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Shalom.
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Adonai,
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we wish America.
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Yeah, yeah,
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Adonai,
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anavilka.
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We connect.
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The Aaronic Blessing from Numbers chapter 6,
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24 to 26.
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Adonai bless you and keep you.
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Adonai make his face to shine upon you and
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be gracious to you. Adonai lift up his countenance
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upon you and give you peace.