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Nehemiah 10 - Overcompensating is Not the Answer · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hid you and good morning faith listeners, and
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  Speaker 1: welcome to the Bible Explain podcast on this lovely Monday morning,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for being here to start out your
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  Speaker 1: week nice and strong by reading some Bible with me.
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  Speaker 1: Hopefully you have your delicious cup of coffee ready, because
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about me Amiah chapter ten
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  Speaker 1: and discussing the whole thing where the people start to
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  Speaker 1: dedicate their lives to Yahweh once again, and the good
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  Speaker 1: things associated with this chapter. But we're also going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about some of the potential problems we see as well,
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  Speaker 1: because it almost seems like the people begin to overcompensate
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  Speaker 1: in the wrong way because of the idolatry of their ancestors.
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  Speaker 1: So we will get into both the positives and negatives
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  Speaker 1: in Nimia ten. But first, please listen to this message
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  Speaker 1: from one of my sponsors. Okay, so let's go ahead
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  Speaker 1: and read and I ten. Even though I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: be talking about the entire chapter, I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: read verses one through twenty seven. Instead, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: start on verse twenty eight and read to the end
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  Speaker 1: of the chapter, mainly for the benefit of myself and
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  Speaker 1: your ears. So that I don't have to struggle through
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  Speaker 1: all of these names that are being discussed in the
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  Speaker 1: first twenty seven verses. So let's go ahead and grab
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  Speaker 1: our bibles and share a cup of coffee together as
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  Speaker 1: we read Niamiah ten twenty eight through thirty nine. The
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  Speaker 1: rest of the people, the priests, the levites, the gatekeepers,
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  Speaker 1: the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had
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  Speaker 1: separated themselves from the people of the lands to the
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  Speaker 1: law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone who had knowledge and understanding joined with their brothers
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  Speaker 1: their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an
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  Speaker 1: oath to walk in God's law which was given by Moses,
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  Speaker 1: the servant of God, and to observe and do all
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  Speaker 1: the commands of Yahweh, our Lord, and his ordinances and
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  Speaker 1: his statutes. And that we would not give our daughters
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  Speaker 1: to the people of the land, nor take their for
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  Speaker 1: our sons. And if the peoples of the land bring
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  Speaker 1: whares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell,
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  Speaker 1: that we would not buy from them on the Sabbath
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  Speaker 1: or on a holy day. And that we would forego
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  Speaker 1: the seven year crops and the exaction of every debt.
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  Speaker 1: Also we made ordinances for ourselves to charge ourselves yearly
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  Speaker 1: with the third part of a shekel, for the service
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  Speaker 1: of the House of our God, for the showbread, for
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  Speaker 1: the continual meal offering, for the continual burnt offering, for
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts,
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  Speaker 1: for the holy things, for the sin offerings, to make
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  Speaker 1: atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the
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  Speaker 1: House of our God. We the priests, the Levites, and
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  Speaker 1: the people cast lots for the wood offering, to bring
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  Speaker 1: it into the House of our God according to our
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  Speaker 1: father's houses, at times appointed year by year, to burn
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  Speaker 1: on Yahweh, our God's altar, as it is written in
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  Speaker 1: the Law, And to bring first fruits of our ground,
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  Speaker 1: and first fruits of all the fruit of all kinds
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  Speaker 1: of trees, year by year to Yahweh's house. Also the
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  Speaker 1: first born of our sons and of our livestock, as
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  Speaker 1: it is written in the Law, and the first born
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  Speaker 1: of our herds, of our flocks, to bring it to
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  Speaker 1: the House of our God, to the priests who minister
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  Speaker 1: in the House of our God. And that we should
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  Speaker 1: bring the first fruits of our dough our wave offerings
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  Speaker 1: the fruit of all kinds of trees, and the new
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  Speaker 1: wine and the oil to the priests, to the rooms
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  Speaker 1: of the House of our God, and the tithes of
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  Speaker 1: our ground to the Levites, for they the Levites take
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  Speaker 1: tithes in all our farming villages. The priest, the descendant
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  Speaker 1: of Erin, shall be with the Levites. When the Levites
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  Speaker 1: take tithes. The Levites shall bring up the tithe of
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  Speaker 1: the tithes to the House of our God, to the
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  Speaker 1: rooms into the treasure house for the children of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: and the children of Levi shall bring the wave offering
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  Speaker 1: of the grain, of the new wine and of the
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  Speaker 1: oil to the rooms where the vessels of the sanctuary are,
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  Speaker 1: and the priests who minister with the gate keepers and
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  Speaker 1: the singers. We will not forsake the House of our God.
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  Speaker 1: You can see that there's a lot of really good
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  Speaker 1: things happening in this chapter, mainly that the Israelites are
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  Speaker 1: all unified over the fact that they want to start
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  Speaker 1: following the Old Testament laws once again. In previously to this,
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  Speaker 1: we've been talking about how they had started hearing the
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  Speaker 1: law read to them essentially for the first time, and
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  Speaker 1: they realized that they were not following any of the
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  Speaker 1: commands laid out for them in the Old Testament, so
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  Speaker 1: they kind of became afraid. A couple chapters ago, they
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  Speaker 1: were crying over the fact that they hadn't been following
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  Speaker 1: any of the Old Testament laws. They were doing essentially
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  Speaker 1: everything that their ancestors had been doing, which of course
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  Speaker 1: caused them to lose the land of Israel in the
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  Speaker 1: first place. So they don't want to make that same mistake,
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  Speaker 1: and so now they are rededicating their lives to God
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  Speaker 1: in this chapter. In fact, in order to really understand
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  Speaker 1: what's going on, you got to read the very last
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  Speaker 1: verse of Nehemiah nine, the previous chapter, which says this,
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  Speaker 1: Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and
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  Speaker 1: we write it, and our princes, our levites, and our
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  Speaker 1: priests seal it. So this means that the people are
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  Speaker 1: making a promise. They write out this promise, and all
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  Speaker 1: of the head haun show in Israel are going to
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  Speaker 1: seal this promise with their personal seal. You know, they
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  Speaker 1: didn't have ballpoint pens back in these days. They had
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  Speaker 1: seals that they would dip in wax, and then you know,
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  Speaker 1: their personal mark would be on that papyrus for all
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  Speaker 1: the people to see that they made a promise with
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  Speaker 1: their personal seal, and the promise was that they were
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  Speaker 1: going to start following Yahweh and start following the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament laws. So in verses one through twenty seven it
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  Speaker 1: mentions all of these men that put their seal on
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  Speaker 1: this promise, this dedication to God. And now in verse
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight it mentions the rest of the people. It
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  Speaker 1: says the rest of the people, the priests, the levites,
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  Speaker 1: the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those
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  Speaker 1: who had separated themselves from the peoples of the land
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  Speaker 1: to the law of God. Their wives, their sons, and
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  Speaker 1: their daughters. Everyone who had knowledge and understanding joined with
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  Speaker 1: their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse and
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  Speaker 1: into an oath to walk in God's law which was
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  Speaker 1: given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe
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  Speaker 1: and do all the commandments of Yahweh, our Lord, and
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  Speaker 1: his ordinances and his statutes. So they're making a promise.
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  Speaker 1: They are all unified in this. They're saying, if we
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  Speaker 1: don't follow the laws of God, then let the curses
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  Speaker 1: of Yahweh come down on us essentially, and all of
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  Speaker 1: that is found by the way in I believe it's
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  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy twenty eight that talks about the blessings of following
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  Speaker 1: God's law and the curses if you don't follow it.
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  Speaker 1: And they say that they are going to enter into
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  Speaker 1: a curse of following God's law. So if they don't
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  Speaker 1: follow it, let the curses come down on them essentially,
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  Speaker 1: and it will be their own faults. So here are
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  Speaker 1: the things that they decided that they are going to do. Specifically,
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  Speaker 1: it starts in verse thirty that we would not give
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  Speaker 1: our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take
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  Speaker 1: their daughters for our sons. Now this is biblical. This
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  Speaker 1: is essentially saying we are not going to be unequally yoked.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Exodus thirty four eleven through sixteen, here's what
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  Speaker 1: God says, serve that which I commanded you today. Behold,
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  Speaker 1: I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanites,
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  Speaker 1: the Hittite, the Parizites, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Be
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  Speaker 1: careful lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of
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  Speaker 1: the land where you are going, lest it be for
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  Speaker 1: a snare among you, but you shall break down their
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  Speaker 1: altars and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall
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  Speaker 1: cut down their asher poles, for you shall worship no
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  Speaker 1: other god. For Yahweh, whose name is jealous, is a
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  Speaker 1: jealous God. Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of
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  Speaker 1: the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods,
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  Speaker 1: and sacrifice to their gods. And one call you, and
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  Speaker 1: you eat of his sacrifice. And don't take the daughters
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  Speaker 1: to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after
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  Speaker 1: their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after
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  Speaker 1: their gods. So God is basically telling his people don't
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  Speaker 1: be unequally yoked. In other words, if you're a Yahweh follower,
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  Speaker 1: do not be married to somebody that is not a
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh follower. This is actually even a New Testament commandment
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  Speaker 1: as well, where people who worship Jesus should not be
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  Speaker 1: marrying men or women who don't worship Jesus because it's
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  Speaker 1: just going to cause a lot of conflict in your marriage.
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  Speaker 1: It starts your marriage out on the wrong foot, and
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  Speaker 1: it can also lead your heart away from Jesus. You
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  Speaker 1: want to find somebody who is also a Christian, also
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  Speaker 1: a believer in God, and God has been consistent about
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  Speaker 1: this from the very beginning. So in Niami, chapter ten,
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  Speaker 1: that's what the people promise to do. That they're not
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  Speaker 1: going to give their daughters in marriage to foreign households
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  Speaker 1: that worship other gods. And they're also not going to
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  Speaker 1: take their daughters for their own sons either. They are
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  Speaker 1: going to avoid marriage with pagan people. So that's the
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  Speaker 1: first thing they say that they're going to do. And
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  Speaker 1: the second thing in verse thirty one is if the
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  Speaker 1: peoples of the land bring whares or any grain on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy
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  Speaker 1: from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day,
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  Speaker 1: and that we would forego the seventh year crops and
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  Speaker 1: the exaction of every debt. Now what's interesting about this
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  Speaker 1: is there's no direct law against buying and selling on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath day. Some people might say that it's not
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  Speaker 1: keeping the Sabbath day holy, which is one of the
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  Speaker 1: ten commandments. You are to keep the Sabbath day holy.
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  Speaker 1: But there's nothing that says you can't buy or sell
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  Speaker 1: on the Sabbath day. And what's also interesting about this
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  Speaker 1: is It says specifically, if the peoples of the land,
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  Speaker 1: in other words, the foreigners try to bring wares or
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  Speaker 1: any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we
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  Speaker 1: would not buy from them on the Sabbath or on
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  Speaker 1: a holy day. But they don't say that they're not
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  Speaker 1: going to buy and sell from their own people, from
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites on the Sabbath day. So I find that
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  Speaker 1: kind of interesting, unless, if I'm giving the benefit of
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  Speaker 1: the doubt, it could be that the Israelites just didn't
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  Speaker 1: buy and sell on the Sabbath day, so they didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to like really qualify that, because the only people
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  Speaker 1: that didn't hold to the Sabbath day would have been
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  Speaker 1: the foreigners anyway. But yeah, it's kind of interesting that
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  Speaker 1: this is the first time we really see that. Now.
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  Speaker 1: It is mentioned again in the Book of Amos, chapter eight,
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  Speaker 1: about buying and selling on the Sabbath day, except it's
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  Speaker 1: actually in a negative connotation. Here here I'll explain what
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  Speaker 1: I mean. Here's what Amos eight four through eight says.
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  Speaker 1: And this is God speaking. Hear this, you who desire
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  Speaker 1: to swallow up the needy and cause the poor of
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  Speaker 1: the land to fail, saying When will the new moon
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  Speaker 1: be gone? That we may sell grain and the sabbath,
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  Speaker 1: that we may market wheat, making the epha small and
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  Speaker 1: the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit,
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  Speaker 1: that we may buy the poor for silver and the
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  Speaker 1: needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings
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  Speaker 1: with the wheat. Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: Surely I will never forget any of their works. Won't
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  Speaker 1: the land tremble for this? And everyone mourn who dwells
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  Speaker 1: in it? So that's a negative connotation where, you know,
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  Speaker 1: even though the people weren't necessarily buying and selling on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath day, they wished that they were. They were like, oh, man,
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  Speaker 1: when's the Sabbath gonna be over? So that tomorrow we
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  Speaker 1: can go and do whatever we want to do and
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  Speaker 1: get back to, you know, eating up the poor and
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  Speaker 1: selling them for a shekel and you know, inflating everything
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  Speaker 1: and ripping people off. When can we get back to
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  Speaker 1: all of this? And God's like, yeah, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: punish you for that kind of behavior. But God is
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  Speaker 1: actually angry at them because their hearts are so far
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  Speaker 1: from him that even though they're doing technically what they're
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be doing. I suppose by not buying and
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  Speaker 1: selling on the Sabbath day. That doesn't really matter, because
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  Speaker 1: their hearts are so corrupt and evil that they're just
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  Speaker 1: going to start again tomorrow by just treacherously dealing with
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  Speaker 1: the people and ripping off the poor. Even more so,
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  Speaker 1: God is not happy with any of this. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's no direct commandment against buying and selling on the
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  Speaker 1: Sabbath day, probably because it might have been necessary, honestly
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  Speaker 1: to buy and sell on the Sabbath day if somebody
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  Speaker 1: was like in dire straits. In fact, even Jesus said
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  Speaker 1: in the New Testament that it's not wrong to do
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  Speaker 1: good deeds on the Sabbath day, and that even the
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  Speaker 1: Levites work on the Sabbath day by doing the necessary
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  Speaker 1: jobs in the temple. So it was certain types of
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  Speaker 1: work actually that was prohibited on the Sabbath day, but
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  Speaker 1: doing good works for other people that was always part
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  Speaker 1: of the commandment of God. You could always do good
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  Speaker 1: works on the Sabbath day. And so if somebody needed
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  Speaker 1: to buy something on the Sabbath because their family was
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  Speaker 1: in dire straits, then absolutely they should be allowed to
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  Speaker 1: buy and sell on the Sabbath. But even so, going
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  Speaker 1: back to Niemia ten, the people here probably have good
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  Speaker 1: intentions to start, but you can see how this could
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  Speaker 1: very much fall into legalism. For example, in the days
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, the Pharisees were crazy about the Sabbath day.
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  Speaker 1: They would get like mad if somebody was walking too
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  Speaker 1: many steps on the Sabbath, or carrying something that was
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  Speaker 1: supposedly too heavy, or doing anything that they deemed unworthy
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  Speaker 1: on the Sabbath day, or too much work. They were
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  Speaker 1: putting these burdens on the backs of the people. That's
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  Speaker 1: what Jesus said. He said, these Pharisees put the burdens
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  Speaker 1: on the back of the people and do nothing to
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  Speaker 1: ease the burden themselves. And I think in the Book
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  Speaker 1: of Nehemiah this is where some of this legalism begins. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: you know that old adage goes the road to Hell
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  Speaker 1: is paved with good intentions, and it's kind of true
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  Speaker 1: actually in a lot of ways, because I think the
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  Speaker 1: people were beginning potentially to overcompensate for the idolatry that
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  Speaker 1: their ancestors had done. But going back to verse thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: here it says that they wouldn't give their daughters in
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  Speaker 1: marriage or take daughters for their sons from families that
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  Speaker 1: were pagan. They also wouldn't buy or sell on the
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  Speaker 1: Sabbath day, specifically from foreigners, and also that they would
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  Speaker 1: forego the seven year crops and the exaction of every debt. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this was an Old Testament law where every seven years
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  Speaker 1: debts would be canceled, slaves would become free, and the
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  Speaker 1: land would rest, and people would plant anything and that
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  Speaker 1: would be healthy for the soil. So they promised that
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  Speaker 1: they would do that, which all of that is very good. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in verse thirty two, it mentions that they made ordinances
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  Speaker 1: for themselves to charge themselves yearly with the third part
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  Speaker 1: of the shekel for the service of the House of
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  Speaker 1: our God, so the temple tax. And this would be
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  Speaker 1: for the showbread, the continual meal offering, for the continual
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  Speaker 1: burnt offering, for the Sabbas, for the new moons, the
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  Speaker 1: set feats, the holy things, et cetera, et cetera, basically
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  Speaker 1: to take care of the temple. In fact, in verses
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  Speaker 1: thirty two all the way through thirty nine, that is
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  Speaker 1: mostly what all of this is talking about is just
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  Speaker 1: various offerings that they would offer to God, like the
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  Speaker 1: first fruit offerings, the first born offerings that was talked about,
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  Speaker 1: I believe in Exodus chapter twelve, where God required the
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  Speaker 1: firstborn of every animal when the people came out of Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: and he also had his people dedicate the first born
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  Speaker 1: male human male of every household to him. Now, of
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  Speaker 1: course that wasn't a human sacrifice by any means. More so,
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  Speaker 1: it was just a dedication ceremony where every first born
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  Speaker 1: male in Israel, you know, the birthright holders, would be
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  Speaker 1: promised to Yahweh that they would grow up to worship
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh and continue their family lines in the worship of Yahweh. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: so they dedicated themselves to all of these things, is
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  Speaker 1: what Niamiah ten says, and it mentions right here at
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  Speaker 1: the very end that they would not forsake the house
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  Speaker 1: of their God. Now that's the end of Niamiah ten.
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  Speaker 1: But I really want to talk about the elephants in
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  Speaker 1: the room because I think I have time to address
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  Speaker 1: it today. And also it's sort of a glaring problem
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  Speaker 1: that we can really see flourish. I suppose in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament between the Jews and the gentiles. You can
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  Speaker 1: certainly see a sort of elitism starting here in the
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  Speaker 1: books of Ezra and Nehemiah, specifically in Ezra where Ezra
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  Speaker 1: actually forced all of the Jewish men to divorce their
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  Speaker 1: foreign wives. Now granted, the foreign wives, I'm sure we're pagans,
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  Speaker 1: and they were worshiping idols that they shouldn't have been worshiping.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, the men weren't standing up and saying like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: we're not going to be worshiping these idols anymore. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to worship Yahweh because he's the true God and
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  Speaker 1: being a light to their families. Instead as had them
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  Speaker 1: divorce their wives and even kick out their children from
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  Speaker 1: these wives. It was really a horrible and terrible story,
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  Speaker 1: quite honestly, and you can see a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: same stuff happening in the book of Nehemiah, unfortunately. For example,
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  Speaker 1: in the previous chapter Niamiah nine, verses one and two,
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  Speaker 1: here's what it says. Now, in the twenty fourth day
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  Speaker 1: of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting,
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  Speaker 1: with sacloth and with dirt on them, and the offspring
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  Speaker 1: of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and
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  Speaker 1: confessed to their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't really address this verse when I talked about
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: it last week, so I'd like to address it now.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: It's kind of crazy to me that the Israelites separated
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: themselves from the foreigners to make this oath to God
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: that they would start worshiping Yahweh because Israel was supposed
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to be a light to all the other nations. That's
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: what God continually said, that the other nations would be
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: blessed through Israel, and so Israel was supposed to essentially
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: evangelize Yahweh to the rest of the world. So it's
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: kind of crazy to me that the Israelites were separating
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: themselves from the foreigners, basically being like, no, you foreigners
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: can't come to this meeting that we are about to
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: have where we're going to dedicate ourselves to God. You
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: would think that they would want the foreigners to be
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: there and to hear this and to hear the truths
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: about Yahweh and to worship Yahweh with them, But unfortunately
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: that is not what they did. It's kind of more
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: of the same. We're just going to banish the foreigner
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: banish the foreign wife, banish anybody that doesn't believe in God,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: instead of truly shining the light of God and doing
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the work that needs to be done. Right here and
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: in the passage we read today, they're making these promises
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that they're not going to buy and sell from foreigners
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, and they're not going to ter Mary,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: which generally speaking could have been a good thing. But
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you can certainly see how problems could form right here
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: where the Israelites might begin to believe that they are
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the only people that God could ever possibly love. But
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: you can actually see in the Old Testament laws how
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: much God loves the foreigner, how much God loves the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: other nations. Actually, So let's read this passage from Exodus twelve,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: forty eight and forty nine. It says, when a stranger
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: lives as a foreigner with you and would like to
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and then let him come near and keep it. He
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: shall be as one who is born in the land,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One laws
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: shall be to him who is born at home into
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you. So essentially,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the foreigner was to be treated exactly like in Israelite
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: if he was circumcised, and if he wanted to follow Yahweh.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Now here's Leviticus nineteen thirty three through thirty seven. It says,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: if a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you as a native born among you, and you shall
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: love him as yourself, for you lived as foreigners in
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your God. Now
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in Deuteronomy ten seventeen through nineteen, here's what this says.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: For Yahweh is your god. He is the God of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: gods and the lord of lords, the great God, the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: mighty and the awesome, who doesn't respect persons or take bribes.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing. Therefore,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of Egypt. And then in Deuteronomy twenty seven, verse nineteen,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it says, cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Fatherless and widows, and all the people shall say Amen,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and then to read one more. In Leviticus twenty three
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: twenty two, it says, when you reap the harvest of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of your field. You must not gather the gleanings of
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: for the foreigner. I am Yahweh, your God. So there
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: are plenty of verses in the Old Testament that talk
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: about God's love for the foreigner and even the laws
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that he puts in place to protect the foreigners. He
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: even tells the Israelites to love the foreigners. And why
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: is that Well, because the Israelites again were to be
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a light to the nation. And if the Israelites were
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: excluding the foreigners and treating them just like dirt, then
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: that means that they weren't going to experience the light
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of Yahweh the way that they could if the Israelites
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: were actually being loving. But unfortunately, that's not what the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Israelites end up doing. We can see that because of
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: what happens in the days of Jesus. In Acts chapter
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: ten twenty five through twenty nine, Peter the apostle Peter
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: had to get kind of reprimanded in a way by
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: God because of Peter's dislike of the Romans. He really
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: disliked the Romans, and so God sends Peter to the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: home of a Roman man. So here's what happens in Acts,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, verses twenty five through twenty nine. When Peter
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: entered Cornelius, the Roman guy met him, fell down at
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: his feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: stand up. I myself am also a man. And as
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: he talked with him, he went in and found many
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: gathered together. He said to them, you yourselves know how
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: it is an unlawful thing for a man who is
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a Jew to join himself or come to one of
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: another nation. But God has shown me that I shouldn't
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: call any man unholy or unclean. Therefore I also came
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: without complaint when I was sent for. I ask, therefore,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: why did you send for me? And then Peter ends
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: up seeing like witnessing Cornelius's household. This Roman household get
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit because God is not a respector of persons.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: And Peter himself, who believed deeply that it was actually
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: unlawful for a Jewish man to enter into the home
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of a Roman man. Got to witness that. But there's
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: nothing in scripture. There's nothing in the Old Testament that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: says that a Jewish person can't enter into the home
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of a non Jewish person. That was something that probably
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: started around the days of Nehemiah, with the belief that
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the Jews were somehow more special than any other person
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of God's creation. Now, in saying all of this, you
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: have to remember that this doesn't mean that we allow
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: foreigners to walk all over us. Because again, what did
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: God say to his people in Leviticus chapter twenty twenty
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: two through twenty six. You shall therefore keep all my
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: statutes and my ordinances, and do them that the land
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you out. You shall not walk in the customs of
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the nations which I am casting out before you, For
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: they did all these things, and therefore I abhord them.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: But I have said to you, you shall inherit their land,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and I will give it to you to possess it,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: or God who has separated you from the peoples. So
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: God loves the foreigner, but he does not like idolatry.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who does it, it doesn't matter where
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: it's at. God hates idolatry. So that doesn't mean that
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: we just allow any foreigner to walk all over us
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: or to take over our laws or our rules in
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: any country that we live in. That's not what this
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: is saying. What this is saying is that we treat
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the individual foreigner with respect because they are a child
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of God. And God loves every single person that he made.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So there's a balance that we need to find showing
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: love but also not tolerating anything that could pull us
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: away from God. You know, the older I get, the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: more I realize how fine of a line there is
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: with everything, where if you cross over too much in
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: one direction, you start crossing over into sin, and same
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: goes if you cross into the other direction. There's like
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a fine line you have to find with like everything
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you do in life. And I am certainly not an
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: expert at that. I fail all the time. But hopefully
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: these discussions that we have together in the Bible can
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: help us find that fine line a little bit better.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: With some of these topics. Before I let you guys
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: go with a happy listening in God Bless, please listen
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to this one last sponsored ad for today. Okay, so
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: tomorrow is going to be a fantastic episode from the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Book of James. We are going to be finishing the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: discussion of Satan coming into the churches essentially and trying
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to cause a divide, and how this divide can cause
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: schisms and more church denominations and just all sorts of problems,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and so we have to be really on guard against
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the tactics of Satan coming into the church. So I'm
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: excited for that topic tomorrow, and I hope that you
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: guys are as well. Until then, I hope you all
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Monday, happy
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: listening and God Bless. I just want to take a
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: second to thank the team at Life Audio for their
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.