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Ezra 4:1-10 - The Start of the Samaritan/Jewish Conflict · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, and good morning, friends and favor listeners.
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  Speaker 1: You've tuned in to the Bible Explain podcast. So today
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  Speaker 1: starts Ezra chapter four and a lot of the conflict
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  Speaker 1: that the Israelites have when they are beginning to build
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  Speaker 1: the Temple to God, specifically from the Samaritans. And we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna delve into the history of the conflict between the
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  Speaker 1: Samaritans and the Israelites in today's episode and actually talk
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  Speaker 1: about why things were so heated during the days of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus between these two people groups. We'll get into that
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  Speaker 1: in just a second, right after this sponsored ad break. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and grab your Bible, and let's turn to
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  Speaker 1: Ezra chapter four. And you know what, I made a
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  Speaker 1: big mistake on the podcast the other day when I
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  Speaker 1: was talking about Ezra chapter three, I said I was
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  Speaker 1: trying to make fun of you tea drinkers, and I
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  Speaker 1: I ended up making fun of coffee drinkers instead. Without
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  Speaker 1: purposely doing that. I said, for those of you who
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  Speaker 1: like coffee for some reason more than tea, no flip
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  Speaker 1: that for those of you who like tea for some
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  Speaker 1: reason more than coffee. It was a misspeak. I will
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  Speaker 1: never admit that tea is better than coffee. I just
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  Speaker 1: I won't. I'm sorry, so I just had to correct
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  Speaker 1: that on the podcast today and just say no, I
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  Speaker 1: am a coffee drinker through and through, and you tea drinkers.
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  Speaker 1: I don't get you. I don't get it. But go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and grab your cup of tea or your cup
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  Speaker 1: of coffee to share with me this morning. And while
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  Speaker 1: you share that with me, let's read Ezra four one
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  Speaker 1: through ten. Now. When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin
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  Speaker 1: heard that the children of the Captivity were building a
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  Speaker 1: temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel, they came near
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  Speaker 1: to Zerubabyl into the heads of the Father's households, and
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  Speaker 1: said to them, let us build with you, for we
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  Speaker 1: seek your God as you do, and we have been
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  Speaker 1: sacrificing to him since the days of Eser Hayden, king
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  Speaker 1: of Assyria, who brought us up here. But Zerubabyl, Jeshua
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of the heads of the father's households
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  Speaker 1: of Israel said to them, you have nothing to do
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  Speaker 1: with us in building a house to our God. But
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  Speaker 1: we ourselves together will build to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: As king Cyrus, the King of Persia, has commanded us.
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  Speaker 1: Then the people of the land weakened the hands of
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  Speaker 1: the people of Judah and troubled them in building. They
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  Speaker 1: hired counselors against them to frustrate the purpose all the
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  Speaker 1: days of Cyrus, King of Persia, even until the reign
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  Speaker 1: of Darius, King of Persia, in the reign of Ahaseras
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  Speaker 1: in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation
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  Speaker 1: against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. In the days
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  Speaker 1: of art Exerxes, Bishlam Mithradath, Tabiel and the rest of
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  Speaker 1: his companions wrote to art Exerxes, King of Persia, and
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  Speaker 1: the writing of the letter was written in Syrian and
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  Speaker 1: delivered in the Syrian language. Rae whom the Chancellor and
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  Speaker 1: Shimsheh the Scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to art
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  Speaker 1: Exerxes the King, as follows then Rae whom the Chancellor,
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  Speaker 1: Shimshai the Scribe, and the rest of their companions, the Dainites,
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  Speaker 1: the Afrithashchites and the Tarpalites, the Aphrisites, the Archevites, the Babylonia,
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  Speaker 1: the shusha Kites, the d Heights, and the Alamites, and
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the nations whom the great and noble
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  Speaker 1: Aspar brought over and settled into the city of Samaria,
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  Speaker 1: and in the rest of the country beyond the river,
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  Speaker 1: and so forth, wrote Hopefully, you remember on Monday we
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  Speaker 1: discussed how just because God calls you to do something
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's going to be easy. And this is
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  Speaker 1: shown even more so in Ezra chapter four. It says
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  Speaker 1: in verse one, now the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin
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  Speaker 1: heard that the children of the captivity were building a
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  Speaker 1: temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel. So here we go.
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  Speaker 1: The adversaries of Israel are back, and it says they
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  Speaker 1: came near to Zerubabyl and to the heads of the
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  Speaker 1: father's households, and said to them, let us build with you,
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  Speaker 1: for we seek your God as you do, and we
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  Speaker 1: have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esser Hayden,
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  Speaker 1: king of Assyria, who brought us up here. So these
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  Speaker 1: people meet with a Jeshua, the high priest, and also Zerubabyl,
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  Speaker 1: who was the governor of the exiles, and they're like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we really appreciate this project you're doing. You know,
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  Speaker 1: heard that you're building a temple to Yahweh, and that
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  Speaker 1: is such a great thing, So hey, let us help
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  Speaker 1: you build it. You know, I'm sure you can use
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  Speaker 1: all the help that you can get. I'm sure you
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  Speaker 1: could use extra hands. And you know, we have a
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  Speaker 1: part in this too, because we live nearby. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you don't know the history of what's going on here,
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  Speaker 1: it might sound like these people were trying to be
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  Speaker 1: really nice. But notice that Ezra the author, says that
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  Speaker 1: these were adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, and they didn't
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  Speaker 1: like what they were hearing. They did not like the
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  Speaker 1: fact that Israel was being rebuilt, specifically the temple to Yahweh.
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  Speaker 1: So you might be like, well, why at the get
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  Speaker 1: go then did they offer to help build it if
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  Speaker 1: they don't like the temple to Yahweh. Well, it's probably
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  Speaker 1: more so that they didn't like the fact that the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites were coming back into the land and building a
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  Speaker 1: temple to Yahweh. Because we do know that these people
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  Speaker 1: who happened to be Samaritans, they actually did worship Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. They also worshiped a pantheon of every
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  Speaker 1: other god on the planet, but they worshiped Yahweh. So
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  Speaker 1: it probably wasn't exactly the temple they were against. It
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  Speaker 1: could have been part of that, but they were more
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  Speaker 1: so against the fact that the Israelites were building this
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  Speaker 1: temple and back in the land, and they just did
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  Speaker 1: not like that. They hated the Israelites. They hated how
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites worshiped Yahweh. They probably didn't like the fact
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  Speaker 1: that there was so many regulations and rules regarding the
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  Speaker 1: worship of Yahweh, and they wanted to worship God however,
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to worship him. So the reason they came
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  Speaker 1: to offer to build this temple is not because they
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  Speaker 1: really wanted to see the work of this temple complete,
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  Speaker 1: but they wanted to like stick their fingers in it.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted to have a hand in it so that
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  Speaker 1: they could either manipulate what was going on or encourage
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites not to follow God's laws the way that
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  Speaker 1: God said to do it, because those are stuffy and
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  Speaker 1: those are mean and cruel and whatever else. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's the same exact story that people say about Christians nowadays.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Christians are stuffy and they're mean, and they're
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  Speaker 1: unloving and they're not kind because they actually follow what
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  Speaker 1: the Bible has to say. So even looking at this
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  Speaker 1: from a modern lens, you can kind of see what's
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  Speaker 1: going on here. You know, people aren't really upset over
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  Speaker 1: the fact that churches exist. They're upset over how Christians worship.
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  Speaker 1: They are upset that Christians are going to those churches.
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  Speaker 1: So I think that's the same thing happening here with
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  Speaker 1: the Samaritans in Ezra. For they're not upset exactly over
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  Speaker 1: the temple being built, but the fact that the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: who worship God, who are back in the land doing
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  Speaker 1: everything that God requires them to do already, that they
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  Speaker 1: are the ones building the temple, that they're going to
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  Speaker 1: bring back all of their stuffy rules. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: people don't like the things of God is because they
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  Speaker 1: feel conviction when they hear that they're living in sin
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  Speaker 1: or that they need to change their ways or not
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  Speaker 1: keep doing something that they are initially doing. They get
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  Speaker 1: really defensive over that because those things are their idols.
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  Speaker 1: Their sins are their idols, and they don't want to
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  Speaker 1: give up their idols. And same thing goes with these Samaritans,
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  Speaker 1: who worship all all sorts of different other gods. They
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  Speaker 1: did not want to give up those gods to worship
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh alone. They did not want to be monotheistic. They
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  Speaker 1: wanted to worship whoever and whatever they wanted to worship.
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  Speaker 1: So let's go back and read a little bit about
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  Speaker 1: these Samaritans when they first came into the land. So
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  Speaker 1: this is the start of the conflict between the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: and the Samaritans, because don't forget the Samaritans were hated
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  Speaker 1: in the days of Jesus. In fact, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit in a second as well.
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  Speaker 1: But let's go back to Second King seventeen first and
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  Speaker 1: read verses twenty through forty one. Here's what it says
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  Speaker 1: from the web. Yahweh rejected all the offspring of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of the raiders,
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  Speaker 1: until he had cast them out of his sight. For
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  Speaker 1: he tore Israel from David's house, and they made Jereboam,
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  Speaker 1: the son of Nebat's king. And Jereboam drove Israel from
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  Speaker 1: following Yahweh and made them sin a great sin. The
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  Speaker 1: children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jereboam,
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  Speaker 1: which he did, and they didn't depart from them until
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he said
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  Speaker 1: by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried
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  Speaker 1: away out of their own land to Assyria. To this day,
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  Speaker 1: the King of Assyria brought the people from Babylon and
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  Speaker 1: from Hamath and Sepharviam and placed them in the cities
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  Speaker 1: of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they
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  Speaker 1: possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. So it was
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning of their dwelling there that they didn't
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  Speaker 1: fear Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed
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  Speaker 1: some of them. Therefore, they spoke to the King of Assyria, saying,
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  Speaker 1: the nations that you have carried away and placed in
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  Speaker 1: the cities of Samaria don't know the law of the
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  Speaker 1: God of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them,
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  Speaker 1: and behold, they kill them because they don't know the
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  Speaker 1: law of the God of the land. Then the King
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  Speaker 1: of Assyria commanded, saying, carry there one of the priests
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  Speaker 1: whom you brought from there, and let him go and
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  Speaker 1: dwell there, and let him teach them the law of
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  Speaker 1: the God of the land. So one of the priests
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  Speaker 1: whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived
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  Speaker 1: in Bethel and taught them how they should fear Yahweh. However,
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  Speaker 1: every nation made gods of their own and put them
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  Speaker 1: in the houses of the high place, which the Samaritans
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  Speaker 1: had made. Every nation in their cities in which they lived.
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  Speaker 1: The men of Babylon made the Koth Beneth, the men
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  Speaker 1: of Kuth made Nrgul, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
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  Speaker 1: and the Avites made Nibis and Tartak. And the Savarviites
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  Speaker 1: burned their children in the fire to Adramlek and Anemelek,
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  Speaker 1: the gods of Savharvim. So they feared Yahweh, and also
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  Speaker 1: made from themselves priests of the high places for themselves,
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  Speaker 1: who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
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  Speaker 1: They feared Yahweh, and they also served their own gods
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  Speaker 1: after the ways of the nations from among whom they
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  Speaker 1: had been carried away. To this day they do what
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  Speaker 1: they did before. They don't fear Yahweh, and they do
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  Speaker 1: not follow the statutes or the ordinances, or the law
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  Speaker 1: or the commandment which Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: whom he named Israel, with whom Yahweh made a covenant
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  Speaker 1: and commanded them, saying, you shall not fear the other gods,
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  Speaker 1: nor bow yourselves down to them, nor serve them, nor
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice to them. But you shall fear Yahweh, who brought
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  Speaker 1: you up out of the land of Egypt with great
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  Speaker 1: power and with an outstretched arm. And you shall bow
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  Speaker 1: yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him. The
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  Speaker 1: statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment
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  Speaker 1: which he wrote for you. You shall observe to do
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  Speaker 1: forever more. You shall not fear other gods. You shall
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  Speaker 1: not forget the covenant that I made with you. You shall
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  Speaker 1: not fear other gods, but you shall fear Yahweh, your God,
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  Speaker 1: and he will deliver you out of the hand of
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  Speaker 1: all your enemies. However, they didn't listen, but they did
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  Speaker 1: what they did before. So these nations feared Yahweh, and
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  Speaker 1: they also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise,
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  Speaker 1: and so did their children's children. They do as their
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  Speaker 1: fathers did to this day. And that is the story
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  Speaker 1: of how the Samaritans came to me. So, as you
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  Speaker 1: guys remember from reading through the Kings and the chronicles.
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  Speaker 1: Israel experienced this big split right after Solomon died, and
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  Speaker 1: they actually had a kind of a civil war where
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  Speaker 1: they split off into two nations. So it was Northern
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  Speaker 1: Israel and their capital city became Samaria, and then Southern
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  Speaker 1: Israel or Judah and their capital city became Jerusalem. So
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  Speaker 1: Assyria came in and completely plundered and destroyed Israel for
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  Speaker 1: the most part, took out millions of Israelite people and
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  Speaker 1: placed their own people from all these other nations into Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And this was something that the Assyrians really perfected during
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  Speaker 1: the height of their power. They were really good at
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  Speaker 1: displacing people and bringing new people into lands, and this
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  Speaker 1: was a way to completely remove unique identity from an
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  Speaker 1: individual and show that Assyria was one hundred percent in control.
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  Speaker 1: So that's what happened to Northern Israel. The capital city
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  Speaker 1: of Samaria had all of these brand new people brought
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  Speaker 1: in from all of these different nations, and naturally all
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  Speaker 1: these new people are going to take their gods with them.
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  Speaker 1: So Yahweh actually sent lions among them, is what it says,
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  Speaker 1: so that they would understand that he was to be feared.
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  Speaker 1: So what ended up happening was the King of Assyria
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  Speaker 1: heard about all of these lions and heard that the
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  Speaker 1: god of the land was sending all of these lions
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  Speaker 1: to the exiled peoples. So the King of Assyria actually
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  Speaker 1: sends one of the priests of Samaria back to Samaria
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  Speaker 1: to teach the people how to fear Yahweh. But that
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  Speaker 1: priest apparently did a terrible job because he didn't really
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  Speaker 1: teach anybody how to fear Yahweh the proper way, because
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  Speaker 1: all the people ended up doing was sacrificing to Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: and then also their pantheon of other gods. It says, yes,
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  Speaker 1: they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped Bail and Knibis
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  Speaker 1: and Tartak and Irgol and all these other crazy gods.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, some of the people were still performing child
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  Speaker 1: human sacrifices in Samaria as well. So all of this
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  Speaker 1: is going on, and meanwhile, as the years pass on,
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  Speaker 1: the brand Knew people that are in Samaria begin to
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  Speaker 1: intermarry with some of the Jews that were left in
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  Speaker 1: the land, and that is where the Samaritans came from.
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  Speaker 1: Their ancestry was partially Jewish but also partially all these
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  Speaker 1: other nations as well, and they believed in their own
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  Speaker 1: way that they worshiped Yahweh. So going back to asrafore,
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  Speaker 1: these Samaritans, who were partially Jewish, hear that the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: are back and that they're building a temple to God
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  Speaker 1: once again, and they are not happy about this because
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  Speaker 1: they probably think that that land belongs to them, because
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  Speaker 1: these Samaritans have been in this land for approximately two
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  Speaker 1: hundred years at this point, and just due to the
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  Speaker 1: nature of things, they moved out of Samaria over time
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  Speaker 1: and started developing other areas of Israel and living in
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  Speaker 1: even southern Israel while the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity.
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  Speaker 1: So the Samaritans probably considered this land their own. They've
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  Speaker 1: been there for two hundred years, and they don't like
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the Israelites are back coming in and
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  Speaker 1: changing things up. They are very unhappy about this, so
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  Speaker 1: they decide they're going to go and firstly try to
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  Speaker 1: make a peace treaty almost with these Israelites and get
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  Speaker 1: them to do things their way, which is why they
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  Speaker 1: offered to help build that temple. But here's how Zerubabyl
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  Speaker 1: and Jeshua end up responding to these Samaritans, it says
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  Speaker 1: in verse three, but Zerubrabyl Jeshua and the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the heads of the father's households of Israel said to them,
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  Speaker 1: you have nothing to do with us in building a
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  Speaker 1: house to our god. But we ourselves together will build
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  Speaker 1: to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the
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  Speaker 1: King of Persia, has commanded us. So they're smelling what
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  Speaker 1: the Samaritans are laying. They're like, no, we don't want
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  Speaker 1: you guys being in any part of this. We are
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  Speaker 1: going to do this ourselves. King Cyrus of Persia commanded
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  Speaker 1: us to do this. Actually, so you are interfering with
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  Speaker 1: our work. And that might sound like a really harsh response,
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  Speaker 1: and you might be like, well, why did the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: respond this way to the Samaritans. That doesn't seem very fair. Well,
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  Speaker 1: don't forget why the Israelites got exiled out of Israel
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  Speaker 1: to begin with. It was because they did not worship
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh the right way. It was because they were doing
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  Speaker 1: like how the Samaritans were doing. They were worshiping so
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  Speaker 1: many other gods gods while also worshiping Yahweh, and that
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  Speaker 1: was what ended up making them get exiled out of
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  Speaker 1: the land in the first place. And this new crop
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  Speaker 1: of Israelite that is back in the land, their heart
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  Speaker 1: is different. You can see this already from the first
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  Speaker 1: three chapters of Ezra. They are trying to do things
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  Speaker 1: the right way. They're going to do anything they can
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  Speaker 1: to avoid what happened to them in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: And the first thing they need to avoid is bringing
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  Speaker 1: in other people that worship false gods. So they say,
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  Speaker 1: because you worship false gods, you cannot be a part
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  Speaker 1: of building this temple. And they did the right thing here.
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  Speaker 1: And notice that Zerubabyl Jeshua and all the heads of
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites were on board with this one thing. They
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  Speaker 1: were unified in this, and they said, no, you Samaritans
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  Speaker 1: cannot be a part of this. So the Samaritans don't
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  Speaker 1: like that. They are very, very upset that they don't
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  Speaker 1: have any control over this situation. So it says that
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  Speaker 1: they go back home and they do everything they can
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  Speaker 1: in verse four to weaken the hands of the people
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  Speaker 1: of Judah and trouble them in the building. It says
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  Speaker 1: they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All
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  Speaker 1: the days of Cyrus, King of Persia until the reign
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  Speaker 1: of Darius, King of Persia, so that is many decades
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  Speaker 1: that they were doing this. They were hiring counselors, so
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I would guess like lawyers, people who could potentially stop
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this operation. They were doing everything they could to make
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: sure that the Israelites had the most difficult process ever
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: in building this temple to God. And they did all
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of this until Darius, the King of Persia ended up
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: reigning on the throne, and we'll talk about him in
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a later time. So for nine years, these Samaritans are
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: doing their best, even while Cyrus is still alive to
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: frustrate the plans, so doing everything they can to stop
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: what is going on. But before I end today's episode,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about John chapter four with you guys,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: because this shed's even more light how much the Israelites
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and the Samaritans disliked each other. John chapter four, These
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: are the days of Jesus, when Jesus was walking the earth,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: he goes into the region of Samaria. So let's read
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: this verses one through twenty six. It says, therefore, when
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: himself didn't baptize, but his disciples did. He left to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Judea and departed into Galilee. He needed to pass through Samaria,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: so he came to the city of Samaria, called a Psycher,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being tired
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: from his journey, sat down by the well. It was
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: draw the water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: for his disciples had gone away into the city to
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, how
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews had no
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the gift of God and who it is who says
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to you give me a drink, you would have asked
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: him and he would have given you living water. The
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and this well is deep, So where do you get
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that living water. Are you greater than our father Jacob,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: who gave us the well and drink from it himself,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: as did his children and his livestock. So there you go.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: You can see that the Samaritan woman is going back
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to her roots, because the Samaritans really did consider themselves
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Jewish people because they partially were. In fact, the pure
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: blooded Jewish will call them, consider the Samaritan people to
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: actually be half breeds, and that was one of the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: reasons why they hated them so much, probably both racially
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and also spiritually, because the Samaritans over time adopted Judaism
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: kind of. It was like a rogue form of Judaism.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So she says, she's like, Jacob is our father too.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: He made us as well. Do you think that you're
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: greater than Jacob our father? And Jesus answered her, everyone
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: who drinks of the water will thirst again, But whoever
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: drinks of the water that I give him will never
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: thirst again. But the water that I give him will
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: become in him a well of water springing up to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: this water so that I don't get thirsty. Neither have
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to come all the way here to draw water. So
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Jesus said to her, go and call your husband and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: come here. And the woman answered, I have no husband.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Jesus said to her, you said, well, I have no husband,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: for you have had five husbands, and he whom you
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: The woman said him, Sir, I perceive you're a prophet.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Our father's worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: So again, because she was losing the argument, the Samaritan
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: woman brings it back to religion once again. First she
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: brought it to her roots, saying that Jesus, being a Jew,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: couldn't possibly be greater than Jacob the Forefather. Then when
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: she loses the argument, she brings it back to religion.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: She's like, you know, you Jews, you think that you
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: have all the answers. You think that you have to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: go worship in Jerusalem. But our forefathers worship on this mountain,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So what's the right way to do it. You can
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: see how much here the Samaritans hated the Jews and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: vice versa. But of course Jesus did not hate the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Samaritan people, because he's Jesus and he loves everybody. So
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Jesus says to her, women, believe me, the hour is
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: you worship the Father. You worship that which you don't know.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: We worship that which we do know. For salvation is
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: from the Jews. But the hour comes and now is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and truth. For the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in spirit and truth. Now at the end there that,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: of course, is Jesus talking about the time to come
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: right after he dies, that all people, it doesn't matter
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: where you worship at all people will worship God in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: spirit and in truth. There's going to be a new
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: relationship with God's Father. And Jesus prophesies to the Samaritan woman.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: But the point of me reading that story was to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: show how treacherous things had gotten between the Samaritans and
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the Jews. They lived so close to each other, yet
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: they hated each other even though they were related very closely.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: But the start of the conflict between the Jews and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the Samaritans started kind of in the Book of Ezra,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: probably before that, quite honestly, but definitely came to a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: head in the Book of Ezra. So that is the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: history of the start of the conflict between the Samaritans
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and the Jewish people. We're going to get into this
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: letter that the Samaritans wrote about the Jews next week
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: on Monday. But before I end today's episode with a
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: happy listening and God bless, please take a second to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: listen to the sponsored ad. So I'd like to thank
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: all of my listeners over on audible for the kind reviews.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I don't usually go to audible to see what reviews
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I have there, but I noticed just recently that I
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: do have quite a few reviews, and so I want
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to thank Melissa, Gabby, Jason, Jolie, Samantha, Debbie, and Anonymous
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: for all of these very nice reviews that you wrote
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: over on Audible. I appreciate them a lot. In fact,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I will read one. This is from Samantha. It says
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I listen every day to keep God in my everyday thoughts.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I like her perspective and vulnerability. She makes books like
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Leviticus fun for me to learn about and The reason
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I chose to read that one is because the Book
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of Leviticus is actually a really fun book. So many
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: times people are like, oh, man, the Book of Leviticus
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: is so difficult to get through, but honestly, it talks
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: about the heart of God, and you can really see
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: when you go through the Book of Leviticus how bad
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: we really are, how we can't achieve righteousness. As much
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: as we would try to do all of the things
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: listed out in the Book of Leviticus, we just couldn't
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: do it. So thank you so much for that very
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: kind review. I do appreciate that a lot, so faithful listeners,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: if you like the podcast, then please leave a review
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen on, whether it's Audible or Apple podcasts.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think Spotify you can leave reviews, but you
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: can leave comments, and I do read my comments on
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Spotify as well, and I will respond to them if
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I happen to see one. So wherever you're listening from,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: please leave a nice little review because reviews also help
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the Bible explain podcasts get found by more people as well.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Faithful listeners have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I will see all of you guys tomorrow six am
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: or wherever you choose to wake up for an episode
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: from Hebrews, Happy Listening, and God bless. I just want
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
• 23:44
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• 23:47
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll
• 23:50
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• 23:53
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