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808. Bible Study: Habakkuk 2 (When Jesus returns Justice will prevail- Warnings) · Faith by annm2705

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The 2nd chapter of Habakkuk. Dear Lord, please be with us as
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we read through this chapter and let the Holy Spirit give us
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wisdom and insight. We ask this in Jesus name.
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So this chapter starts with a continuation of Habakkuk's
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complaint to God. I will stand at my watch and
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station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what He will
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say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
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Then the Lord replied, Write down the revelation and make it
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plain on tablets, so that a herald may run with it, for the
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revelation awaits on appointed time.
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It speaks of the end, and will not prove false, though it
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linger. Wait for it.
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It will certainly come, and will not delay.
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So this seems to be, I mean, obviously it says it's an
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appointed time, a moed is what it is.
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And that's usually a feast or something that the Jewish people
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would celebrate an appointed time.
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And when the Lord is saying it for the revelation waits an
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appointed time. As I read through here more, I
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saw a lot more that points to the end of the age where you
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know, like in our future. And so I will point those out as
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we come. But it also talks about this in
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Isaiah chapter 26, verse 20. And I'm not really sure where I
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had that one. I'm going to just go ahead and
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look it up because I have again, a lot of open tabs on the Blue
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Letter Bible because it's just a great resource when studying the
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Bible. Because a lot of times, in fact,
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as I was studying this, I also found translation where they
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switched the words up and it doesn't have the same meaning.
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So I'll point that out too. But Isaiah 26 verse 20 says, go,
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my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you.
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Hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed
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by. The verse after that says, See
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the Lord's coming out of his dwelling to bunt to punish the
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people of the earth for their sins.
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The earth will disclose the blood shed on it.
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The earth will conceal its slain no longer.
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So this is definitely about the end time just before that verse
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20 in of Isaiah in chapter 26, it says, but your dead will
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live. Lord, their bodies will rise.
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Let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy.
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Your dew is like the dew of the morning.
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The earth will give birth to her dead.
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That's the resurrection. So Isaiah 26 there's, there's
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quite a bit here which I'm not going to read the whole thing
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because we've read that over it covered that in a chapter
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before, but it's a song of praise and it's about the return
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of Christ actually. So verse 4, getting back to
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Habakkuk chapter 2, see the enemy is puffed up, his desires
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are not upright, but the righteous person will live by
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his faithfulness or live by faith.
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And this is repeated throughout Scripture that we live by faith.
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In Romans chapter one, verse 17, it says, for in the gospel the
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righteousness of God is revealed, A righteousness that
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is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the
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righteous will live by faith. And then in Galatians chapter 3,
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verse 11, clearly no one who relies on the law is justified
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before God because the righteous will live by faith.
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And that's a reference again to this Habakkuk chapter 2, verse
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4. So we it's, it's the faith
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that's so important. And then also, well, here's
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another reference to this appointed time.
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And the in verse 3 from Habakkuk in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 37,
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it repeats it again. It says for in just a little
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while he who is coming will come and will not delay.
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So there is the same thing will not there will be no more delay.
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There's we have to wait for a little bit and it lingers, but
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wait for it. And what we understand about the
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lingering is is several different things.
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It says for the the Lord is is patient and he wants everyone to
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come to repentance. So he does.
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He has slowed down everything so that people can turn to him and
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come to repentance and be saved. He doesn't want to destroy
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people, but because he is a God of justice and righteousness,
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and because he's holy, all those things have to happen.
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If that wasn't true, if God wasn't righteous, if he wasn't
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just, then he could let everything just go anyway it it
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wanted. But also because he is holy, he
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can't be in the presence of unholiness because it says like
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His Holiness, the fire of His Holiness consumes.
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And so we'll see in the very end of the age that things get burnt
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up. And I just from reading the
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Bible, it just seems like that is just the presence of
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holiness. That's probably why God is not
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here with us on earth. He was in the beginning with
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Adam and Eve, but then when sin entered, all of a sudden we
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don't hear about God walking in the garden with them anymore.
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Then he's distant, so the same thing he was, you know, his
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presence was with the Israelites, but there was a
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certain point in time in their history where he left the
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covenant. The the Ark of Covenant is what
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I'm referring to, not the promise, but he left the Ark of
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the Covenant where his presence had been.
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He departed from the temple because of sin.
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So sin separates us from God. That's why we have to get rid of
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the sins so that we can be with God.
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I also think about when God gave the 10 commandments and he said
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that Mount Sinai was determined to be holy and not to let anyone
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touch it because they would die if they would touch it.
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It wasn't like a threat to people.
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It was a warning to, you know, to protect them.
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That's the way I saw it, was that God was protecting His
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people because of His presence being there.
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Just like the Ark of the Covenant.
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He only gave certain people permission to do it, probably
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because they had to go through a certain process of purification.
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That was by law, and those who were not supposed to touch the
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Ark of the Covenant, they actually died.
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There was one man who reached his hand out to study the Ark of
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the Covenant, but he wasn't supposed to be carrying it.
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And then he died. And so God warned people.
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He said there are certain ways that you do certain things and
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we don't always maybe understand it all, but He gives us.
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The only reason He gives us any kind of laws is for our own
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good, for our own benefit. So anyway, it's repeated several
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different times and and there is going to be justice that occurs
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when Jesus returns. So then it continues on.
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Did you Rage Against the sea when you rode your horses?
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Oh wait, I turned too many pages.
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OK, let's go back. Verse 5.
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Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at
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rest, because he is greedy as the grave, and like death is
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never satisfied. He gathers to himself all the
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nations and takes captive all the people.
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Now this is talking about the enemy.
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So the enemy is puffed off, peace, prideful.
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He doesn't have good desires like Satan seeks to kill and
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destroy. That's what his desires are.
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They're not upright, but the righteous person will live
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spiritually and in a physical body after Jesus returns by
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faith. So our faith is really important
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and our faith grows by hearing the word of God, the message of
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the gospel. That's how our faith grows.
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And so it's that's why it's so important to be in the Bible
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reading it every day now about people who the enemy and it says
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indeed, wine betrays him. So God does say he tells us not
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to get drunk and it says be of sober mind because the devil
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falls looking for his next victim.
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I think when our mind is in an altered state, and it could be
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anything that affects our mind and puts it into an altered
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state, when we are not aware as clear headed, we are more
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susceptible to doing things we wouldn't do if our mind wasn't
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cloudy. So wine is something that goes
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along. That's why I believe that's why
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God tells us not to get drunk. And because it it, it makes us
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do things that are sin related that are against God and that
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separates us from God. And then it says he, he is
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arrogant. So pride is one of the things
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that God really does not like. It says pride comes before the
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fall. That's another verse in
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Scripture. And then he's greedy as the
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grave. So, you know, we all die except
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for the way I read Scripture. When Jesus returns, there will
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be some that are still living and they, they won't even
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experience death. They will just be gathered up to
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him. So not all will actually die,
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but most of us will die. But he is greedy as the grave.
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That means, you know, like everybody dot, you know, most
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people die, the majority of people die.
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And so the enemy is greedy just like that.
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He wants people to die and like death is never satisfied, so
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it's never good enough for him. That's probably why he
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originally rebelled against God, because he wasn't happy with all
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the things God gave him and he just wanted more.
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And so he wanted to be God and that's why he rebelled against
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God. He wanted to be in place of God.
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He didn't want to be submitted to God.
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And he gathers to himself all nations.
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That makes sense because he just wants everybody to worship him
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and takes captive all the peoples so he's out to conquer.
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Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying
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woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy
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by extortion? So you see, there's stolen goods
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and extortion. You know, it's getting rich by I
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don't know dishonest ways about going about getting acquiring
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money. Money itself is not bad.
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It's how what it does with us, where we place it.
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If we place that as our priority over and above God, yes, it's
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it's bad and it'll let you know. I would just destruction will
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occur. If we place a priority on it,
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it'll it'll be gone. I mean, we don't take it with
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us. There's a verse in Scripture
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that I think about too. It's like naked I come into the
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earth and naked I will leave. So we don't take any of this
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stuff with us and, and eventually this earth is going
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to be entirely destroyed. So even if you think, well, I'm
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going to build up these, you know, great masses of wealth and
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I'm going to pass it on to my family and continue it on my
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family. That's actually kind of short
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sighted because if you look at an eternal perspective, your
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family's not going to even get it because the whole earth is
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going to be burned up. Now, who knows when exactly
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that's going to be, but it does feel like it's getting closer
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for sure. And and we just need to have our
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priorities on God. God sometimes gives people
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wealth and abundance and he does that as he chooses to do it.
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And also, he wants the people we know from Scripture what he
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wants. He wants us to use that as a
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resource, as a tool to help other people.
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It's never just for our own luxury, our own satisfaction,
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because that is, that's like selfishness.
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And God is selfless. Like he sent his one and only
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Son to die for us on the cross so that we could be in his
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Kingdom. So he was completely selfless.
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And that's what love is too. That is love is selfless and if
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we really understand the true definition of it, then we'll see
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that acquiring things for our self is not really love.
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It's not love towards others. So let's see, woe to.
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OK. So it's just about, I think
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about also about things that I've heard that I just I wonder
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about it now. Like they, you know, a lot of
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it, there's songs written about it.
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I think Charlie Daniels has a song about selling your soul to
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the devil. And so I really do wonder that
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because people have talked about that musicians have.
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And there's also people in Hollywood, people who have fame,
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who have talked about that, where they have like, you know,
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sold out for wealth. They've compromised their values
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and done things so that they could obtain wealth.
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And it's this verse makes me think about that.
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If you've extorted somebody, if you've taken advantage of
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someone to gain wealth, I think this is all what God is talking
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about. How long must this go on?
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Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
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Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
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So I wonder if this wake up is, you know, a spiritual thing or
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like the resurrection, like that is going to make somebody
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tremble when somebody wakes up, When somebody rises from the
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dead, that is really going to put some shock and awe in
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people. And that is what will happen in
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the future. Then you will become their prey
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because you have plundered many nations.
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The peoples who are left will plunder you.
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So again, this is what I think God actually was warning us
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about in Matthew Chapter 7 verse 12.
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It says so in everything do to others what you would have them
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do to you. For this sums up the law and the
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prophets. So eventually there's going to
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be justice. If we live our lives doing to
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others what we would have them do to us, then we're going to be
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OK. But if we do to others what we
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would not want to be done to us, we are going to suffer that
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because it's like whatever we do seems to come back to us.
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And I've noticed this also in the Bible was that if God, I
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don't know, if God put somebody through testing and like Job and
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took away a lot of things at the end, he doubly blessed him.
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Then there are other times like get Babylon, Mystery Babylon,
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that he's going to have like a double portion of wrath come on
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Babylon. And so a lot of times whatever
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has been done is going to come back twice as bad, you know,
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twice as bad or twice as good. So it really is important to
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have that perspective, like do to others what you would have
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them do to you because eventually that justice is going
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to happen. And then it continues and says
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for you have shed human blood, you have destroyed lands and
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cities and everyone in them. Woe to him who builds his house
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by unjust gain, setting his nest high to escape the clutches of
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Rune. I when I read that I think about
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people building bunkers too. Like really extravagant bunkers
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that the everyday person probably couldn't afford to do.
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But they're planning on having a hideout, a place of safety to
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keep them from if there's ever any major war or whatever is
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coming. Which in the Bible there is
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going to be some pretty severe things that are coming up in the
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future. And you know, people probably
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don't read the Bible who are doing these kind of creating
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these bunker things, but they're probably just looking at the
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world and that the probability of war that will happen again.
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And the Bible does say that war will continue all the way until
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the time that Jesus returns. But these bunkers in the end,
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when we read about the return of Jesus, doesn't help.
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God's going to seek them out anyway.
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They, they think they're hidden, but they won't be hidden.
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No one can escape God. And that's something that we
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need to keep in mind too. We can't think like, I'll do
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this and this and this and then I won't be able to be touched by
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it. No, you, you know, you can see
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from the history of what happened to Jerusalem during
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Jeremiah's time that everything happened to the people of
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Jerusalem. Just as he said, they went into
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exile, some of them died, some of them went into cat, they were
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captors, some of them never returned to their land.
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Some of them saw their family members killed.
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There were all sorts of things and everything that God said
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happened. So going to verse 10 from
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Habakkuk, you have plotted the ruin of many peoples.
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This is the enemy shaming your own house and forfeiting your
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life. So here's something else that
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would apply to us as well. Something that Jesus said in
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Matthew 16 verse 26. What good will it be for someone
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to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?
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Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
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Our soul is our being. The Bible tells us we are
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made-up of of three things. We have a spirit, a soul, and a
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body, three things. And so our soul is our
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personality and our body is the vessel that gets to that.
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The soul inhabits for a period of time.
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So it's like what Jesus compares to the wineskins.
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Like you put wine in a wineskin and eventually someday that you
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know, you'll need a new one and we're going to have new ones.
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When Jesus returns, we're going to have like new wineskins, but.
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That's figuratively, but so we have a body that the soul
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resides inside the body. Then the Spirit is our
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connection to God and so our spirit is dead until Jesus
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awakens our spirit or until Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit
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that resides within us. When we have the Holy Spirit,
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just like Jesus said in John chapter 3, that unless you are
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born again, born of the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of
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God. So we need the Holy Spirit.
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So essentially, I mean, maybe we have a spirit that's that's dead
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in us, but we it's not alive. And so if we just have a soul
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and a body, a soul is eternal. And the question is, where will
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we end up if we just have a soul and a soul and a body and no
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spirit, not the Holy Spirit, then we go to destruction.
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That's what happens. We have no connection to God.
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We need that connection to God. We need the Holy Spirit.
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That's how Jesus was raised from the dead, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. And Jesus gives us the Holy
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Spirit and we, that is why Jesus probably said, I am the way, the
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truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except
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through me. Because Jesus is basically the
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keeper of the Holy Spirit. He, you know, he receives the
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Spirit from the Father and gives it to whomever he wants.
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So if we deny Jesus, there's no way to get the Holy Spirit.
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God the Father is not going to give us the Holy Spirit if we
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circumvent Jesus, because God sent Jesus here to save us, to
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make it possible for us to be in the Kingdom.
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If we reject the one person that God sent to us to save us, it's,
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it's too bad, you know, then, then we don't get to go into
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God's Kingdom. And it's not just being in his
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Kingdom, but we are going to be suffering the wrath of God and
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it's eternal torment. A lot of people that are
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rebellious think that they're really cool, that they're really
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above everybody else because, you know, they, they think and
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they've been deceived that it's freedom, but it's not, it's
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actually slavery of the enemy of God.
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And God is the one who gives freedom.
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And true freedom is when we receive the Holy Spirit because
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we are not bound by the law. If we are bound by the law, that
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means if we break any of the law, we will be eternally
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separated from God and in eternal torment.
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And that's why trying to keep the law won't get us into God's
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Kingdom. We need the Holy Spirit now.
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A What happens once we have the Holy Spirit is we start becoming
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more like Christ. So we start, I guess, doing good
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things, becoming a better person.
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But it's through the Holy Spirit, through the power of God
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that begins to change us when we are willing to let the Holy
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Spirit guide our lives. So this is just really, really
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important information for everybody.
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So if, if this is new to you, please share this with other
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people that it might also be new because it's so important to get
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prepared with the Holy Spirit from Jesus.
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Anyway. So it, you know, like it says,
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what goodwill it be if you gain all this wealth, gain the whole
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world, but you forfeit your soul.
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So the stories are the stones of the wall will cry out and the
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beams of the woodwork will echo it.
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Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a
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town by injustice. Now this made me think about
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something that's going on in the world today.
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There is a religious group who wants to conquer the world,
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wants everybody to be under their same religion.
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God doesn't force a religion on anybody.
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So if anybody is doing that, that's the enemy, because the
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enemy is the slave driver, the one who enslaves people.
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But God isn't. He is the God of freedom.
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So if somebody is coming in to conquer and they do it with
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bloodshed, God is talking about them right now.
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Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed.
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So if you're going in there to and killing people who don't
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agree with you and wanting, you know, saying that our religion
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is going to rule everywhere, that's God's enemy.
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And hopefully those people will have a visitation from Jesus and
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their eyes will be opened before it's too late and before they
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are deceived when they die, that they will not be in God's
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Kingdom. They think they have some things
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waiting for them, but they're going to be really sad when they
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find out that's not true because that that whole religion is
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built upon a lie. The Bible was the final book of
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the Bible was written in 90 AD and it said within the Bible
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that if a messenger or an Angel or anyone else comes in it and
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tells you a gospel different than what we have told you, let
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them be accursed. So anyone who does that, who's
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tells a different story that doesn't include Jesus, they are
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accursed. And if Jesus is not your Savior
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then, and you are in a religion, you better get out of it before
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Jesus returns, because once he returns, that's when the wrath
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of God comes. And if you're on the wrong side,
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it's not going to go well. So verse 13, has not the Lord
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Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for
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the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory
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of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
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Well, during the Millennium, once Jesus returns, everyone
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will know who he is and that he is the Son of God, and he will
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reign. So this this will happen.
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It says then verse 15, woe to him who gives drink to his
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neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk so
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that he can gaze on their naked bodies.
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There's probably something more to this, but taking it exactly
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for what it is, kind of a warning about people like that
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does happen out in bars where people take sexual advantage of
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somebody else by getting them drunk.
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So at if nothing else, it's a warning about that.
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But I think it probably has some deeper spiritual significance
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this Well verse 215 in the study Bible, it says this verse
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describes the rape of a nation in human terms.
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Getting someone to drink too much alcohol in order to take
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advantage of them is nothing new.
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The Babylonians exploited other nations doing what they wanted
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with them, but the shame they caused others would soon be
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their own. Because a lot of times
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relational things God used metaphorically when he was
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talking about, but you know it has a literal meaning and a
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symbolic meaning at the same time.
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It says you will be filled with shame instead of glory.
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Now it is your turn. Drink and let your nakedness be
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exposed again. This is justice you know, do
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unto others. The Matthew 712 the cup from the
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Lord's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will
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cover your glory. So the cup is God's wrath, and
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again this is talking about the end of the age, the return of
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Jesus. The violence you have done to
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Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will
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terrify you, for you have shed human blood.
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You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
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This verse was a little bit confusing to me because it
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throws in Lebanon and I did look at the original Hebrew and it
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does talk about Lebanon and the way that the sentence structure
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in Hebrew is if you go to blueletterbible.org, it's still
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kind of hard to comprehend, but there's things that were added
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in the sentence that I read that are not words from the actual
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Hebrew text. And it's really, it's just
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interesting that Hamas is in this and Hamas means violence
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and, and, and Lebanon is actually in this.
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And I just just today, it just seems like that's kind of wild.
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But those two words together are connected.
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And I don't fully grasp what this is saying.
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And especially when it's talking about end times and I think
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about what's happening right now.
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And I don't know, maybe there's more to that.
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But then continuing on in verse 18 of Habakkuk, it says of what
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value is an idol carved by a Craftsman or an image that
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teaches lies? Does that sound like anything
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today, like maybe AI, like something that's not real,
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that's teaching people things, telling people things.
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But it can be programmed to whatever the programmer wants it
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to the Craftsman for the one who makes it trust in his own
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creation. He makes idols that cannot
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speak. Woe to him who says to would
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come to life or to a lifeless stone.
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Wake up. Can it give guidance?
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It is covered with gold and silver.
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There is no breath in it. The Lord is in His holy temple.
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Let all the earth be silent before him.
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Now when I read this about this image coming to life and knowing
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that this is about the end times, it relates to Revelation
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13 verse 15. The second beast which was the
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false prophet is not was the second beast was given power to
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give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image
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could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to
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be killed. I mean, that's a good
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possibility for AI. It could definitely be something
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else than that. But today, with what we know, it
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sure sounds like something that could happen with AI.
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And once there, there are these supernatural powers that are
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coming with these not literal beasts, but it's a false
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prophet. The second beast is who?
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That is it. It says, you know, it looked
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like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
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The lamb is Jesus, the dragon is Satan.
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So it looked like something holy, but it was speaking the
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words of Satan. So that's what the second beast,
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it's a false prophet. And this is what Habakkuk is
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also talking about it. It seems like it at least.
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So that is the end of chapter 2, but I'm going to read the
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questions and answers for this chapter and then wrap this one
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up. So on chapter 2, why would a
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prophet stand to watch on the ramparts?
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Watchmen stood in watchtowers around the around the clock to
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watch for messengers and to guard against a possible
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invasion. Ramparts, embankments of the
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earth beyond the city walls were the first lines of defence.
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Like a watchman, Habakkuk was waiting and ready for God's
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answer to his question. Why wait for something that will
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not be delayed? Will not delay may refer to the
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certainty of God's promise than to its immediacy.
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God's promise to punish the Babylonians wasn't fulfilled for
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nearly 80 years. This may be a lifetime to us,
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but it's not long from God's perspective.
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To believe God will act even when it seems like he's
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forgotten is an exercise of faith.
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And again, I think this is even further about the end because it
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says it speaks of the end and will not prove false.
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So I think this goes further. Babylon was the first.
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It was a foreshadowing of the future, but not the finality of
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it. The righteous person will live
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by his faithfulness. This idea of trusting God even
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when everything is going wrong is expanded in the New Testament
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to include trusting Jesus Christ for spiritual life.
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And what does it mean to be greedy as the grave?
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Since the fall of Adam and Eve, people have died, and death
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continues to take people every minute.
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The grave never has enough. Such were the Babylonians, who
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were never satisfied with what they had conquered.
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And again, I think it's even expanded beyond the Babylonians
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to the spirit behind the Babylonians and ultimately to
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Satan. So how do stones cry out and
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beams echo back? The stones cry out and the beams
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echo it in that they perpetually witness the unjust means of
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building the house. They say, in effect, here's a
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house built unjustly. How were their laborers only
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fuel for the fire? Those whose whose labor is
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fuelled by ungodly means here building a city by violence, are
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only spinning their powerful proverbial wheels.
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Despite the initial results, hard work by ungodly means will
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eventually come under the judgement of God.
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All injustices will be exposed when the knowledge of the Lord
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is revealed. When will the earth be filled
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with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord?
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When we have a new heaven and a new earth, until then God has
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given us the words of the faithful prophets so that we may
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maintain and extend the knowledge of the glory of the
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Lord. Is it OK to argue with God?
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Many people in the Bible expressed passionate, honest,
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and even angry prayers. Habakkuk wasn't the only one to
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voice his complaints. Moses, Gideon, Elijah, and Job,
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among others, also questioned and argued with God.
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God listens with a sympathetic ear when we complain about
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injustice. When jolted by life's
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unfairness, we should realize that God was bothered by such
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things long before we were. In fact, injustice would not
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upset us at all if God had not given human beings an inherent
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desire for justice. Our sense of right and wrong
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comes from Him. You can find that in Romans
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chapter one, verse 18 through 32.
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Because God knows our deepest thoughts, we might as well be
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honest with Him and ourselves and admit our feelings of
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outrage, our confusion. But watch out.
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God's answer may be as perplexing as our question.
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God's answer to our question may not be what we expect.
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As Habakkuk, Job, and others discovered, God seldom explains
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himself or His ways, and if He does, people seldom comprehend
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his explanation. Instead, they are overwhelmed
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with His power and love. In the end, though, though we
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may not know the answers to all of our questions, we come to
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know God better. Why mention animals?
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The destruction of animals? In this verse, God's great anger
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over the exploitation of his whole creation is made obvious.
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Even the exploit, the exploitative use of animals,
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gifts of God were meant to help humanity, elicits God's wrath.
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Humans are stewards, not dictators, of God's creation.
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Do people have idols today? Absolutely.
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Anything that competes with God and occupies our time,
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attention, money, and gifts to the extent that it jeopardizes
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our relationship with Him is an idol.
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Idols may change from age to age, but what does not change is
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the inclination to worship the creation of our own hands rather
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than the One who created us. What does it mean that God is in
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His holy temple? This phrase suggests that even
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though everything on earth may be in shambles, God still
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reigns. All things are under His
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sovereign control and within His power to manage.
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And that's the end of chapter 2. We will pick up with chapter 3
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next time since this podcast is already long, so please
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subscribe if you haven't and share this with others.
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Thank you.