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830. Bible Study: Ezekiel 8 (Idolatry in the Temple) · Faith by annm2705

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  Chapter 8 from the book of Ezekiel.
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  Dear Lord, please open our eyes to what you have to say to us.
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  We ask this in the name of Jesus.
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  Idolatry in the Temple in the sixth year.
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  In the sixth month, on the 5th day, while I was sitting in my
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  house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand
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  of the Sovereign Lord came on me.
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  There I looked and I saw a figure like that of a man.
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  From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and
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  from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.
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  He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the
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  hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between
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  earth and heaven in and in visions of God.
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  He took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate at
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  the inner court where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.
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  And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as
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  in the vision I had seen in the plain.
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  Then he said to me, Son of Man, look toward the north.
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  So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar,
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  I saw the idol of jealousy. And he said to me, Son of Man,
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  do you see what they are doing? The utterly detestable things
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  the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far
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  from my sanctuary, but you will see things that are even more
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  detestable. Then he brought me to the
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  entrance to the court. I looked and saw a hole in the
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  wall. He said to me, Son of Man, now
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  dig into the wall. So I dug into the wall and saw a
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  doorway there. And he said, go in and see the
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  wicked and detestable things they are doing here.
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  So I went in and looked and I and I saw portrayed all over the
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  walls all kinds of crawling things and unclean animals, and
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  all the idols of Israel. In front of them stood 70 elders
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  of Israel, and Jayzanaya son of Shafan was standing among them.
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  Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense
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  was rising. He said to me, son of man, have
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  you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the
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  darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol?
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  They say the Lord does not see us.
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  The Lord has forsaken the land again.
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  He said. You will see them doing things
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  that are even more detestable. Then he brought me to the
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  entrance of the Northgate of the House of the Lord, and I saw
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  women sitting there mourning the God Tammuz.
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  He said to me, Do you see this son of man?
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  You will see things that are even more detestable than this.
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  Then he brought me into the inner court of the House of the
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  Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the
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  portico and the altar, there were about 25 men with their
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  backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the
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  east. They were bowing down to the sun
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  in the east. He said to me, Have you seen
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  this, Son of Man? Is it a trivial matter for the
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  people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing
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  here? Must they also fill the land
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  with violence and continually arouse my anger?
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  Look at them, putting the branch to their nose.
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  Therefore, I will deal with them in anger.
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  I will not look on them with pity or spare them.
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  Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.
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  And that's the end of chapter 8. I will read what the study Bible
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  says, the commentary on that, and then I'll I'll go to Amir
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  Sarfati's book exploring Ezekiel and talk about that too.
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  So how did God's hand come on Ezekiel?
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  This expression describes God's Commission of Ezekiel as a
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  prophet, one who speaks for God. It may have also indicated the
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  presence of God's Spirit on Ezekiel.
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  What idol had been allowed in the temple?
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  This may have been the Ashira pole that was installed during
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  the decadent days of King Manasseh.
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  Any idol, whether in the temple or not, undermined their the
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  loyalty God's people were to have for the Lord and provoked
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  God to righteous jealousy. What detestable things were done
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  in the temple? They had placed pictures of
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  crawling things and detestable animals on the temple walls
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  along with various idols. How repugnant to allow into the
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  temple pictures of animals designated as unclean and off
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  limits to God's people. Serpent deities associated with
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  neighboring Egyptian, Canaanite, and Babylonian religions had
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  corrupted the sanctuary of the Lord.
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  Who was Jayaznaya son of Shafan? He was from a prominent
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  Jerusalem family and presided over the idolatrous worship.
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  He is not the same person as the Jayasna mentioned in Ezekiel
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  11/1. Why were the women mourning for
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  Tammuz? Tammuz was the Hebrew name for
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  the Sumerian Babylonian God of plant life.
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  Every fall, when the crops died and the trees shed their leaves,
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  women would ceremonially mourn his death.
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  Every spring, when the plants began to sprout, they would
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  celebrate his coming back to life.
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  What does putting the branch to their nose mean?
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  This obscure phrase is not found elsewhere in the Bible.
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  It could perhaps be rendered as a stench to my nose,
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  illustrating how offensive the people's idolatry was to God.
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  Or it may be a part of a Pagan ceremony involving the worship
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  of nature. That's the end of the commentary
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  for chapter 8. And now I will go to Amir's book
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  and what he says about he, he brings this like, you know,
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  sometimes it might be kind of hard for us to understand this
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  or empathize maybe with what's written in the Bible.
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  So he gives a scene for, you know, that humans can relate to
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  about how God may perhaps feel when he's showing Ezekiel these
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  things in his temple, which is the House of the Lord.
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  And here's what Amir says about the image of jealousy.
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  The location of Ezekiel's arrival was the Northgate of the
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  inner Court, One of the three gates to that part of the temple
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  grounds. The others were the South and
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  the East. There in the holy place, stood
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  an idol, what Ezekiel called quote, an image of jealousy.
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  Whose jealousy? Gods?
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  Imagine a woman bringing her boyfriend into the family room,
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  snuggling up to her bow on the couch, flipping on the
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  television, then starting a make out session, all the while her
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  husband is watching the disrespectful display from his
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  easy chair. This very act is designed to
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  affront and stoke jealousy. God's words to Ezekiel.
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  Ezekiel reflected his hurt and anger when he said, Son of Man,
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  do you see what they are doing? The great abominations from the
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  House of of Israel commits here to make me go far away from my
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  sanctuary. Now turn again.
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  You will see even greater abominations in verse 6.
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  According to God's words, the adulterous acts of the House of
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  Israel were intentionally designed to drive him away.
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  That's understandable on Israel's part.
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  It can get awkward trying to carry on an affair while your
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  husband is sitting in the room. Note the last line.
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  You will see greater abominations that will become
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  the unfortunate repeating chorus that closes each scene of this
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  tragic performance. With every succeeding act, the
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  situation will only get worse. And that's those are all that it
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  goes through and describes each one of them.
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  I would I would recommend Amir's book.
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  It's that's just an example of how he writes and it's a really
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  easy book to read and it has some insightful information in
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  it. And I'm going to flip through.
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  You know, the one thing that he talks about in this chapter 8
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  was that all these spiritual leaders needed to do was to turn
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  toward the temple, confess and make supplication before God and
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  the Lord would forgive them and take care of the problem.
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  But instead they were turning towards the sun and what he what
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  Amir also says. As for the elders who turned
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  their faces toward the sun, their timing was off.
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  The Lord promised a coming era when all will turn and worship
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  the sun. To you who fear my name, the Sun
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  of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and
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  you shall go out and grow fat like stall fed calves.
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  That's from Malachi chapter 4 verse 2.
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  Yeshua will come again and all will face him and give him glory
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  and praise. So much hope, so much promise.
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  All of it is to be found in the Lord.
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  Sadly, the Israelites of Ezekiel's day missed it all.
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  So there, there's something that I heard recently, I think it's
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  Lakewood Church. Josh, is it Joshua or I can't
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  remember the lead pastor's name? I do, I watch a lot of his
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  videos on YouTube. I think it's Lakewood church.
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  I might have gotten that wrong wrong too, but he has these
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  interesting facts in the Bible and he talked about this a
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  revelation that he got somewhere regarding.
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  I think it's this actual verse, Malachi 42, which is really
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  interesting. So I'll, you might want to
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  search for it on YouTube and but I'll tell you kind of what he he
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  came away with when he went into the Hebrew words because it does
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  say with healing in his wings. So I'm going to reread this
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  again to you who fear my name. The Sun of Righteousness shall
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  arise with healing in his wings and you shall go out and grow
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  fat like stall fed calves. This healing in his wings.
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  That's a translation but what if you look at the Hebrew word it
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  talks about like the corners are the edge, the edge of the
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  garment and what he drew a conclusion that he drew this
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  other pastor. He drew that when you, if you
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  are aware of the, the woman who I think was like bleeding for 12
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  years and Jesus had on some sort of cloak or robe or whatever.
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  And they had these, you know, on the wings, which could also mean
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  the corners of a garment. And Jesus was wearing this robe.
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  And Jesus suddenly stopped and said, who touched my robe?
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  I felt power go out from it. And it was a woman.
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  And she she did. And So what this pastor of the
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  church recently said that I thought was really interesting
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  and insightful was that this woman had known the what Malachi
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  wrote and she recognized him as the Sun of Righteousness and
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  knew that there was healing in his garment.
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  And that's why she grabbed hold of it.
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  Now, I guess that's maybe speculation, but it is really
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  interesting when you hear it and and it's, it could very well be
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  true, but it's just amazing when you get those little insights
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  like that about Scripture and when you get to the the actual
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  Hebrew words. And I just thought I would share
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  that and you might want to check it out.
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  And I, I guess today I'm just going to stop with that.
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  I don't I don't know if Amir has anything more on Chapter 8 that,
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  you know, he gets into Chapter 9 and there is let's see.
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  Yeah. I'll have more later on for
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  those chapters. But for right now, I think
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  that's that's about all that we will cover for today.
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  And then so I hope you come back and join us for Chapter 9 next
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  time. Thank you.