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Nehemiah 9:24-38 - The Israelites Rededicate Themselves to God · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. How do you faith listeners, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible explained on this lovely, lovely Wednesday morning. I
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  Speaker 1: almost forgot what day it is. That's how my week
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  Speaker 1: is going so far. I hope you all have had
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  Speaker 1: a great start to your week, actually, and I'd love
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  Speaker 1: to hear from all of you. And if you ever
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  Speaker 1: have a prayer request, please don't hesitate to reach out.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to find my contact information listed in the
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  Speaker 1: description of this episode. And I do read all of
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  Speaker 1: my emails, so if you send me a prayer request,
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  Speaker 1: I will read it. I will write you down in
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  Speaker 1: my prayer journal, and I will pray for you for
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  Speaker 1: the week. But for today, we're going to be reading
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  Speaker 1: Niamiah chapter nine and finishing out this beautiful chapter, specifically
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  Speaker 1: the second half of this prayer that we discussed on Monday. However,
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  Speaker 1: before we get into this episode, please listen to this
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  Speaker 1: quick sponsored ad. Thank you everyone for listening to that
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  Speaker 1: sponsored ad. And now let's go ahead and read Namiah
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  Speaker 1: nine together and finish out this chapter. We'll be reading
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  Speaker 1: verses twenty four through thirty eight together. I'll be reading
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  Speaker 1: as usual from the web. So the children went in
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  Speaker 1: and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the
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  Speaker 1: inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into
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  Speaker 1: their hands with their kings and the peoples of the land,
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  Speaker 1: that they might do with them as they pleased. They
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  Speaker 1: took fortified cities in a rich land, and possessed houses
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  Speaker 1: full of all good things, cisterns, dugout vineyards, olive groves,
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  Speaker 1: and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate were filled,
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  Speaker 1: became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law
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  Speaker 1: behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them,
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  Speaker 1: to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries,
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  Speaker 1: who distressed them in the time of their trouble. When
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  Speaker 1: they cried to you, you heard from heaven, and according
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  Speaker 1: to your manifold mercies, you gave them saviors, who saved
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  Speaker 1: them out of the hand of their adversaries. But after
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  Speaker 1: they had rest, they did evil again before you. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: you left them in the hands of their enemies, so
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  Speaker 1: that they had the dominion over them. Yet when they
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  Speaker 1: returned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and
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  Speaker 1: many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and
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  Speaker 1: testified against them, that you might bring them again to
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  Speaker 1: your law. Yet they were arrogant and didn't listen to
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  Speaker 1: your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, which if any
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  Speaker 1: man does, he shall live in them turned their backs,
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  Speaker 1: stiffen their neck, and would not hear. Yet many years
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  Speaker 1: you put up with them and testified against them by
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  Speaker 1: your spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not listen.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples
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  Speaker 1: of the lands. Nevertheless, in your manifold mercies, you didn't
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  Speaker 1: make a full end of them, nor forsake them. For
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  Speaker 1: you are a gracious and a merciful God. Now, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: our God, the Great and the Mighty and the awesome God,
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  Speaker 1: who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don't let all the
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  Speaker 1: travail seem little before you, that is on us, on
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  Speaker 1: our kings, on our princes, on our priests, and on
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  Speaker 1: our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people,
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  Speaker 1: since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day. However,
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  Speaker 1: you are just in all that has come on us,
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  Speaker 1: For you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly. Also,
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  Speaker 1: our kings and our princes, our priests, and our fathers
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  Speaker 1: have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments
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  Speaker 1: and your testimonies with which you testified against them. For
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  Speaker 1: they have not served you in their kingdom and in
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  Speaker 1: your great goodness that you gave them, and in the
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  Speaker 1: large and rich land which you gave before them, they
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  Speaker 1: didn't turn from their wicked works. Behold, we are servants today.
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  Speaker 1: And as for the land that you gave to our
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  Speaker 1: fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we
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  Speaker 1: are servants in it. It yields much increase to the
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  Speaker 1: kings whom you have set over us because of our sins.
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  Speaker 1: Also they have power over our bodies and over our
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  Speaker 1: livestock at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
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  Speaker 1: Yet for all this we make a sure covenant and
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  Speaker 1: write it, and our princes, our levites, and our priests
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  Speaker 1: seal it. So this is the end of the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: prayer that all the Levites are saying to the assembly
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  Speaker 1: of the Israelites. And it's basically a prayer of repentance,
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  Speaker 1: a prayer of remembrance of the history of Israel and
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  Speaker 1: a prayer of reorientation of the heart, because you know,
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  Speaker 1: God is so good and the people have not been
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  Speaker 1: good to God. They've done everything they can essentially to
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  Speaker 1: sin against God. And so in the first half of
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  Speaker 1: this prayer it talks about the creation of the universe,
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  Speaker 1: how good God is, and how he is the creator,
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  Speaker 1: all the way to the beginning of the history of
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites, when they were taken out of Egypt by
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  Speaker 1: God's mighty hands, you know, by sending all those plagues
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  Speaker 1: on the Egyptians, and then we're commanded to go into
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land and take it from themselves. But the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites were too afraid to go into the Promised Land,
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  Speaker 1: and they rebelled and fought against God in like the
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  Speaker 1: worst possible way that they could, by try to stone
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  Speaker 1: Moses and Aaron and make a leader for themselves that
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  Speaker 1: would take them back to Egypt to become slaves all
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  Speaker 1: over again. But yet even throughout all of that, through
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  Speaker 1: the rebellion of the people, God sustained them in the wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: He told them, Okay, you don't want to go into
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land, then fine, you're going to die in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness because that's what you told me you wanted.
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  Speaker 1: And in forty years, I will let your kids go
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  Speaker 1: in and take the Promised Land. But still God sustained
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  Speaker 1: them in the wilderness for that entire time. It actually
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  Speaker 1: says in this prayer that the Israelites still had food
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  Speaker 1: and water supplied by God. In fact, the entire time
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  Speaker 1: they were in the wilderness, every single day that manna
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  Speaker 1: was on the ground, and they also had their clothes
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  Speaker 1: like in pristine condition. God took care of their clothes
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  Speaker 1: on their back and the shoes on their feet. He
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  Speaker 1: was sustaining them in everything in spite of their rebellion.
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  Speaker 1: And so now in verse twenty four, where we left
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  Speaker 1: off on Monday, we talk about the children finally going
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  Speaker 1: into the Promised Land and taking it for themselves. So
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  Speaker 1: the children went in and possessed the land. And you
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  Speaker 1: subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,
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  Speaker 1: and gave them into their hands with their kings and
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  Speaker 1: the peoples of the land, that they might do with
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  Speaker 1: them as they pleased. Now, I'm not gonna lie. When
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  Speaker 1: I first read that, I was really stuck on that
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  Speaker 1: last statement, which says that God would let them do
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  Speaker 1: whatever they pleased to the people of the land, because
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  Speaker 1: I was like, wait a second, God didn't say they
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  Speaker 1: could do whatever they pleased. Because if you read through Deuteronomy,
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  Speaker 1: I believe it's twenty and twenty one that's the rules
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  Speaker 1: for war and how the Israelites are to treat the
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  Speaker 1: Canaanites essentially, And here's what God says in Deuteronomy twenty
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  Speaker 1: starting in verse sixteen, and this is from the NIV version. However,
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  Speaker 1: in the cities of the nations that the Lorger God
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  Speaker 1: is giving to you as an inheritance, do not leave
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  Speaker 1: alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them, the Hittites, the Amorites,
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  Speaker 1: the Canaanites, the Parizites, Hibites, and Jebusites, as the Lorger
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  Speaker 1: God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to
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  Speaker 1: follow all the detestable things that they do in worshiping
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  Speaker 1: their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
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  Speaker 1: So God actually commanded the Israelites to completely wipe out
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  Speaker 1: the Hittites, Amrites, Canaanites, and all of these other people.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of critics of the Bible get really
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  Speaker 1: upset about that because they consider it a genocide. But
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  Speaker 1: there's a few things I want you to remember. First
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  Speaker 1: that all of these people groups were incredibly evil, and
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  Speaker 1: you can read about some of the evils that they did.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the ways that God judges the nations
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  Speaker 1: is by having other nations come in and either dispossess
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  Speaker 1: the people or kill them. I mean, he did it
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  Speaker 1: even to the Israelites. He is not afraid to show
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  Speaker 1: his judgment on the nations. And these people were engaging
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  Speaker 1: in all sorts of corrupt practices, specifically child sacrifice in
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  Speaker 1: mass not to mention the way that they treated the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites when they were in the wilderness. They would kill
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  Speaker 1: the stragglers outside of the camp, who happened to be
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  Speaker 1: the elderly and the sick, and the women and the children. Says,
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  Speaker 1: they open the bellies of the pregnant women. This is
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  Speaker 1: how they are treating the Israelite people because they had
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  Speaker 1: no care for human life. So that's the first thing
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  Speaker 1: you got to remember with all of this is that
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  Speaker 1: God does not just judge people who are doing good things.
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  Speaker 1: These people were not doing good things, which is why
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  Speaker 1: he wanted the Israelites to go in there and completely
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  Speaker 1: take the land from these people. But the other thing
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  Speaker 1: you have to remember is that God actually said that
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  Speaker 1: he was going to drive these people out of the
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  Speaker 1: land before the Israelites even went in, and then whoever
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  Speaker 1: was left in that land who didn't listen to the
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  Speaker 1: call of God were to be killed. They were in
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  Speaker 1: direct disobedience of God. God was already fighting against these
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  Speaker 1: people to get them out of the land. It actually
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  Speaker 1: said God was going to drive them out. So not
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  Speaker 1: all of these people were going to get killed, but
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  Speaker 1: the ones who were in direct disobedience and judgment of
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  Speaker 1: God essentially. But going back to my original point, in
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  Speaker 1: Nehemiah nine twenty four, the person who is praying this
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  Speaker 1: prayer mentions that the Israelites could do with the Canaanites
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  Speaker 1: as they pleased. But again in Deuteronomy twenty and twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: it talks about the rules for war, and God did
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  Speaker 1: not say that the Israelites could do whatever they pleased
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  Speaker 1: to the people. And I was kind of stuck on
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  Speaker 1: this until I realized that I think it's worded a
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  Speaker 1: little bit funny. I don't think that the author is
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  Speaker 1: saying that the Israelites could do whatever they wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do without any care of God's laws, because don't forget
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  Speaker 1: you know, these people had just read through the entire
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  Speaker 1: law of God. Instead, I think that the person who
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  Speaker 1: is praying this prayer is saying that the Israelites were
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  Speaker 1: pleased to be able to go into the Promised Land
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  Speaker 1: and take it for themselves, because you do see that
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  Speaker 1: actually the second generation, not the first, but the second
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  Speaker 1: generation of Israelites from the wilderness, were very excited to
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  Speaker 1: go into that land, and they were gung ho about
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  Speaker 1: it and followed Joshua into war very happily. So they
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  Speaker 1: were pleased to take these people's lands and to take
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  Speaker 1: the people's homes, and to fulfill the judgment of God
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  Speaker 1: on these people, because now the Israelites finally have a
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  Speaker 1: home for themselves. They were traveling nomads. None of them
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  Speaker 1: actually had a permanent home. They were traveling around a wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: And that is what the second generation of Israelites grew
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  Speaker 1: up on, was that no mad type life. So they
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  Speaker 1: were pleased to go into that land and to enact
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  Speaker 1: the judgment of God and to possess all of these
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  Speaker 1: cities and the houses and everything else. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: it mentions. Next in verse twenty five, the Israelites took
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  Speaker 1: the fortified cities and the rich land, and possessed houses
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  Speaker 1: full of all good things. Cisterns dugout, vineyards, olive groves,
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  Speaker 1: and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate were filled,
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  Speaker 1: became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness. So
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  Speaker 1: basically God just handed them entire homes on silver platters. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites didn't have to do a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: because the Canaanites did the work beforehand. So all of
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  Speaker 1: the wells were dug, the fruit trees were already planted,
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  Speaker 1: the vineyards were full of grapes. In fact, that was
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  Speaker 1: one of the things that the spies brought into the
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  Speaker 1: wilderness to show all of the Israelites that the promised
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  Speaker 1: land was excellent. They brought these big bunches of grapes.
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  Speaker 1: These bunches were so big that it was too heavy
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  Speaker 1: for one man to carry, and that's what they were
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  Speaker 1: bringing back to the Israelites in the wilderness. But unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: that was the first generation and they were too afraid
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  Speaker 1: to take that land, though they saw all the good
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  Speaker 1: things that they could have if they possessed that land.
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  Speaker 1: But again the second generation goes in and they take
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  Speaker 1: all that stuff for themselves, and they became fat on
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  Speaker 1: the goodness of the land, and they delighted themselves in
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  Speaker 1: God's abundant mercy and kindness toward them. Nevertheless, verse twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law
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  Speaker 1: behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them,
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  Speaker 1: to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their advises,
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  Speaker 1: who distressed them. And in the time of their trouble,
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  Speaker 1: when they cried to you, you heard from heaven, and
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  Speaker 1: according to your manifold mercies, you gave them saviors who
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  Speaker 1: saved them out of the hands of their adversaries. So
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  Speaker 1: this is talking about just the repeated history of the Israelites.
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  Speaker 1: When things went well for the Israelites, they became complacent.
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  Speaker 1: They started forgetting about God, They started worshiping whatever idol
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to worship. They started making peace treaties with
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  Speaker 1: all of the nations, intermarrying with pagan families, worshiping the bales,
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  Speaker 1: worshiping the asheraphole, and I've talked about before on the
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  Speaker 1: podcast how crazy some of these cults were. They were
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  Speaker 1: sex cults, they were child sacrifice cults. The bail cult
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  Speaker 1: specifically was a poop cult. Okay, Like, these were really
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  Speaker 1: weird things that the people were worshiping, and they abandoned
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  Speaker 1: God during the good times in their lives for something
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  Speaker 1: that they felt was better. Because idolatry, you can make
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  Speaker 1: up whatever God you want, but Yahweh, you gotta fall
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  Speaker 1: his rules. Idolatry probably seemed easier and more fun for
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  Speaker 1: the people because they could do whatever they wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do instead of believing in God. Therefore, God delivered them
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  Speaker 1: into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. But
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  Speaker 1: in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you,
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  Speaker 1: you heard from heaven, and according to your manifold mercies,
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  Speaker 1: you gave them saviors who saved them out of the
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  Speaker 1: hand of their adversaries Verse twenty eight. But after they
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  Speaker 1: had rest, they did evil again before you. Therefore you
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  Speaker 1: left them in the hands of their enemies, so that
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  Speaker 1: they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and
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  Speaker 1: cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times
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  Speaker 1: you delivered them according to your mercies, and testified against
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  Speaker 1: them that you might bring them again to your law.
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  Speaker 1: All of that is mentioned in the Book of Judges,
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  Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite books in the entire
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  Speaker 1: Bible to this day. I love the Book of Judges
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  Speaker 1: because it shows the wonderful mercies of God. You know,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people think that the Book of Judges
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  Speaker 1: is really depressing, and it is. It's one of the
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  Speaker 1: most graphic books in the entire Bible. But it's really
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  Speaker 1: amazing to see God's manifold old mercy. As the person
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  Speaker 1: who's praying this prayer says, the manifold mercy of God
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  Speaker 1: constantly coming down on the Israelites when they were always
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  Speaker 1: in rebellion against God. In fact, here's what Judges ten
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  Speaker 1: eleven through sixteen says. It says, Yahweh said to the
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  Speaker 1: children of Israel, didn't I save you from the Egyptians
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  Speaker 1: and from the Amorites, from the children of Amen, and
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  Speaker 1: from the Philistines. The Sedonians also, and the Amalekites and
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  Speaker 1: the Mayonites oppressed you, and you cried to me, and
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  Speaker 1: I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have
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  Speaker 1: forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will save
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  Speaker 1: you no more. Go and cry to the gods which
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  Speaker 1: you have chosen, let them save you. In the time
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  Speaker 1: of your distress. The children of Israel said to Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: we have sinned due to us. Whatever seems good to you,
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  Speaker 1: only deliver us please today. And they put away the
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  Speaker 1: foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh. And his
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  Speaker 1: soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason that portion cracks me up is because, you know,
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  Speaker 1: again the Israelites sinned against God, and they're like, God,
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  Speaker 1: you know, please help us this time too. And God's like, no,
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  Speaker 1: the gods that you chose, have them help you. And
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  Speaker 1: the people are like, no, God, no, We're gonna not
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  Speaker 1: worship these gods anymore. And so they get rid of
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  Speaker 1: all of the gods. And God, in his manifold mercy,
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  Speaker 1: was grieved for the misery of Israel, and he ends
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  Speaker 1: up saving them once again. And that is what the
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  Speaker 1: author of this prayer, and Neemiah says as well. It
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  Speaker 1: says God did this so that he might bring them
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  Speaker 1: again to your law. Yet they were arrogant and didn't
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  Speaker 1: listen to your commandments, but sind against your ordinances, which
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  Speaker 1: if a man does, he shall live in them turned
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  Speaker 1: their backs, stiffen their necks, and would not hear. Yet
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  Speaker 1: many years you put up with them and testified against
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  Speaker 1: them by your spirit through your prophets. Yet they would
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  Speaker 1: not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of
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  Speaker 1: the peoples of the lands. So God kept sending the
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  Speaker 1: prophets over and over and over again to the people, saying,
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  Speaker 1: stop what you're doing, turn back to me, and I
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  Speaker 1: will bless you once again. But the people would not listen.
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  Speaker 1: And actually says that the people killed the prophets right
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  Speaker 1: here in verse twenty six. They killed your prophets that
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  Speaker 1: testified against them to turn them again to you, and
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  Speaker 1: they committed awful blasphemies. So God finally after centuries, delivered
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  Speaker 1: them over to the Babylonians, where they remained for seventy years.
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  Speaker 1: And now this is right after that. The people are
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  Speaker 1: finally back in the Promised Land. And that is what's
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  Speaker 1: mentioned right here in verse thirty one. Nevertheless, in your
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  Speaker 1: manifold mercies, you didn't make a full end of them,
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  Speaker 1: nor forsake them, for you are a gracious and a
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  Speaker 1: merciful God. And now the author of this prayer brings
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  Speaker 1: it all home. He says, Now, therefore, our God, the Great,
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  Speaker 1: the Mighty, the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness,
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  Speaker 1: don't let all the travail seem little before you that
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  Speaker 1: has come on us, on our kings, on our princes,
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  Speaker 1: on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: on all your people since the time of the Kings
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: of Assyria to this day. So he asks again for
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: God's mercy. Remember why the people are gathering here with
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: all of this. They are gathering because they realized, after
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: reading the law front to back, that they weren't following it.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: They needed forgiveness. They understood now that the Israelites, their ancestors,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: had not followed the laws of God, and that's why
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: they kept getting into trouble over and over again. And
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: now this group of people doesn't want to repeat those
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: same mistakes, at least not in this moment of time.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: They don't want to repeat them, which is why they
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: had this service to come to a moment of forgiveness
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and repentance before God and to again make a vow
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to keep God's covenant with themselves and with their family members.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And now in verse thirty three, it says, however, you
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: are just in all that has come on us, for
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly. So
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: they say we have deserved all of the punishment for
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the sins that we have committed. Also, our kings verse
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: thirty four, Our princes, our priests, and our fathers have
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: your testimonies with which you testified against them. For they
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: have not served you in their kingdom and in your
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: great goodness that you gave them, and in the large
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and rich land which you gave before them, they didn't
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: turn from their wicked works. So they're saying, our fathers,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: our kings, our priests, all of the people that came
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: before us took for granted everything you gave them and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: did not listen to you. Yahweh. So now we want
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to come together and we want to actually listen to you.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Verse thirty six. Behold, we are servants today and for
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the land that you gave to our fathers to eat
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: its fruit and it's good. Behold, we are servants in it.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: So they are humbling themselves before God. They're not even
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: saying that they deserve the land. They're saying, God, you
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: gave it to our ancestors, who took it for granted,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: who destroyed it in many ways, and now you've brought
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: us back into it. But we are not going to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: take any credit for that. We are servants in this land.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And actually technically they were servants in the land because
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: they were under the reign of the Persian king. Israel
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: was not its own entity at this point, and unfortunately
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the Israelites are recognizing that they did that to themselves.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It says, this land yields much increase to the kings,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: whom you have set over us because of our sins.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: So the Persian kings also they have power over our
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure, and we
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: are in great distress. And they were because you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I'm sure the Persian kings were not very nice to them,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: first and foremost. Secondly, all the nations around them, as
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about, hated that the Israelites were back
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: in the land, and we're trying to do everything they
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: could to kill them and get them back out of
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the land. I mean, the Israelites at this moment in
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: time were in deep distress. They can't even take the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: yield of the land to give it to their own family,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: because it all has to go back to the king.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: But they recognize that this is their own fault. They
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: have made themselves the servants, and in verse thirty eight
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it says, yet for all of this, we make a
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: sure covenant, and we write it, and our princes, our levites,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and our priests seal it. So they decide that they
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: are going to make a covenant with Yahweh once again.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: They are going to follow the Old Testament laws, and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they are going to write it, and they are going
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to seal it with their own hands. So basically, they're
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: making a promise to dedicate their lives to God once again,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: similarly to how their ancestors did both in the Wilderness
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and also with Joshua. At the end of the Book
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: of Joshua, they made promises to God that they would
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: keep his laws and statutes forever. But unfortunately the Israelites,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: though they make these promises, never really do end up
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: keeping them. But this was the end of Me and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Maiah chapter nine. And I hope you guys enjoyed this
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: prayer that we covered smack dab in the middle of Nehemiah,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: and it really is, in a lot of ways a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: very beautiful prayer because it's a humble prayer talking about
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: their sins and how they need forgiveness from God. Faithful listeners,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for staying with me to the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: end of the episode. Before I say happy listening and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: God bless to all of you guys, please listen to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: this last quick message from a sponsor. So tomorrow's episode
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: is going to be really spicy and I'm very much
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: looking forward to it. It is James Chapter three, and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how the church is not
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: doing what they're supposed to be doing. Like any church really,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: none of them are really following the principles laid out
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in scripture for churches. We're going to talk about that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about jealousy and selfish ambition that
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: we find in all churches across the entire world, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: how that causes so much trouble. And I think it's
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: going to be a really interesting episode to all of
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: you guys, and probably something that many of you can
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: relate to. But we're not just going to complain about
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the churches we're also going to talk about how we
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: can fix this, starting with ourselves, the self reflection that
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: we need to bring on a change in the church.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: So I hope that you guys tune in tomorrow for
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: that episode, and also check out all of the links
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: in the description of this episode for the other things
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that I do with the Bible Explain podcast and P
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: forty Ministries and everything else. So take a look at
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: all of that, And if you guys want updates about
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the podcast, then please go to my website which is
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: www dot pfortyministries dot com and scroll down to the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: very bottom and you're gonna find a thing where you
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: can subscribe to my email list and just put your
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: email address in that, and anytime there's an updates about
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the podcast or anything else, I will send you all
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: an email. Faith listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: of your day until tomorrow, happy listening, and God bless.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I just want to take a second to thank the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens of other faith
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.