Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Isaiah 14:24-32 - God’s Judgment Against Assyria and Philistia

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Isaiah 14:24-32 - God’s Judgment Against Assyria and Philistia · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to the Tabernacle Talk podcast.
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  I'm your host Brian Self. And today we are in Isaiah
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  chapter 14 and verses 24 through 32.
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  So last episode we looked at the downfall of Babylon and how it
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  kind of mirrors the pride and the fall of even Satan himself.
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  And then in this episode we're going to be looking at the fall
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  of Syria that is prophesied and the fall of Philistia.
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  That would be the nations tribes that would have been around
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  Israel and Judah that they never fully either drove out or
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  defeated. That they were always still a
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  thorn in the side of Israel due to the fact that they did not
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  obey the Lord's command and completely drive those groups
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  out. So we're going to look first in
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  verse #24 and then that section on Assyria and the pronunciation
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  of God's judgment against this evil nation that ends in verse
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  #27 Yahweh of heaven's armies has sworn as I have purposed.
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  So it will be as I've planned it.
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  So it will happen. I will break Assyria in my land.
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  I will tread Him down on my mountain.
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  Then His yoke will be taken from them, and His burden will be
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  removed from their shoulders. This is the plan prepared for
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  the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out against all
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  the nations Yahweh of Heaven's armies Himself has planned.
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  Therefore, who can stand in its way?
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  It is His hand that is outstretched, so who can turn it
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  back? I love hearing this first
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  section. Yes, there is a declaration of
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  judgment that takes place, but I love the why that there is a
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  reason for what God is doing. And we can find that in verse
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  #25 He says after he breaks Assyria and treads down this
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  nation that had demolished so many other people in the ancient
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  Near East, He says then His yoke will be taken from them and his
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  burden will be removed from their shoulders.
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  This is the plan prepared for the whole earth.
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  And this is the hand stretched out against all the nations.
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  That the nations of this world are by their very nature
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  oppressive, that they wield the sword of justice through either
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  physical violence or through financial deprivation or
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  blessing. That the state, the nation's,
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  use those tools in order to get people to do what they want.
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  That your freedom can be taken away, you can be physically
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  harmed, shot, or you can be fined heavily or have your
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  resources taken from you. That those are the only tools
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  that government has. And while God has government set
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  up in order for some good things to take place and in order for
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  some justice to happen, which is what we read in Romans 13 where
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  Paul basically tells the Romans, hey, don't antagonize the
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  soldiers and the Roman government because when you do
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  that, you will not win. You will not succeed.
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  You'll not have, if you will, a good time.
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  This will result in the loss of your life.
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  So therefore like like shape up, do right and the the governments
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  that God allows in their most perfect circumstances punish
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  evildoers and they use the sword and the power of finances in
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  order to stop evildoers in their best days.
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  But because nations are led by imperfect people, there will
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  always be times when the nations get it wrong.
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  There will be people that they wrongly kill or that they
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  wrongly fine. And So what God says is there is
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  coming this day first to Assyria, you know, 2627 hundred
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  years ago. And there is coming a day for
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  every nation when God breaks mankind's governments and he
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  sets up his own perfect government with Jesus at the
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  head, that there will no longer be, no longer need to be any
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  distrust of the rulers that are there.
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  Because the ruler is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
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  He is the one who himself suffered injustice at the hands
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  of multiple kinds of the local governments, whether you think
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  about Rome crucifying him or Judea as those in leadership,
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  specifically a kind of political, religious leadership
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  in the Sanhedrin as they arrested Jesus and delivered him
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  over to be crucified. So Jesus knows what it's like to
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  have a bad government. And what God says is one day I'm
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  breaking the yoke from off of you.
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  The burden is removed from your shoulders and you will be able
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  to live the good life. And even as we look back about
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  2627 hundred years, Assyria was destroyed.
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  And there was, it's kind of sad because that was great for
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  people and the Assyrians did atrocious things, some of which,
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  like, if you're queasy, don't look up the practices of the
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  Syrian Army and what they would do to different people groups.
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  Yeah, if you're queasy, don't look that stuff up.
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  If you are a history nut or you love even like true crime or
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  something, you can look that up and you'll be like, oh wow,
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  these guys were twisted and they absolutely were.
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  So that was a wonderful promise that right here when Isaiah is
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  prophesying it, that was future. And there was no guarantee of
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  that outside of the word of God. This message that the Lord was
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  giving to say the nation that is currently the most fearsome, the
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  one that is constantly harassing and invading, killing,
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  deporting, taxing all of the other nations around you, this
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  one is actually going to fall and God is ultimately
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  responsible for their fall. I want to kind of apply that
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  then to us to say whatever we're most scared of.
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  Realize that in the end, God wins.
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  And though we might not see any way for the Lord to win in our
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  difficulties, know that it will end one day, whether when He
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  comes back, maybe when we die or maybe within our life.
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  But in any circumstance, we will be ultimately fine as we have
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  placed our faith in Jesus that whether God changes the
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  circumstances in my lifetime, awesome, Praise the Lord.
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  Whether when I die, I'm with the Lord and I don't have to deal
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  with those troubles that I have here on earth anymore, praise
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  the Lord. Or when Jesus comes back and
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  makes all things right, I can rejoice in that as well.
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  So whether here, there or in the air, everything is going to be
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  all right. All right.
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  Then verses 28 through 32, that was the section against Syria.
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  And then now verses 28 through 32 is the prophecy against
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  Felicia. So verse #28 in the year that
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  King A has died, this pronouncement, King, don't
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  rejoice all of you in Felicia, because the rod of the one who
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  struck you is broken. For a Viper will come from the
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  root of a snake, and from its egg comes a flying serpent.
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  Then the first born of the poor will be well fed, and the
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  impoverished will lie down in safety.
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  But I will kill your route with hunger, and your remnant will be
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  slain. Whale you gates cry out, city
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  tremble with fear, all Felicia. For a cloud of dust is coming
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  from the north, and there was no one missing from the invaders
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  ranks. What answer will be given to the
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  messengers from that nation? Yahweh has founded Zion and his
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  oppressed people find refuge in her.
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  So this is kind of a a packed section here.
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  I want to go a little bit piece by piece through here as we have
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  kind of this closing section for today.
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  So verse 28, King Ahaz dies and from some of the other local
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  city states of Felicia, you can think of the city of Gath where
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  Goliath was from. There were a number of other
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  ones that were scattered around different parts of Israel,
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  especially more towards the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
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  You would find more of those Philistine cities and so as
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  those cities in good times for Israel or Judah, they would be
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  put in check. They would need to be paying
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  taxes or things over to Israel or Judah.
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  But now that King Ahaz was dying, there could have been
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  like a joy of like, OK, sweet, you know, who's really in charge
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  over there. They're going to start fighting
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  amongst themselves. And so we're going to have, you
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  know, just a nice easy time of it and our our, you know,
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  economy or whatever is going to be more free.
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  But what the Lord prophecies is, or what the Lord tells Isaiah to
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  prophecy is, he says, don't rejoice all of you in Felicia
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  because the rod of the one who struck you is broken.
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  That that is a has is dead says for a Viper will come from the
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  root of a snake, and from its egg comes a flying serpent.
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  So hey, if you thought a has was bad, wait for what is coming
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  next, which was a Syria and I love your from its egg comes a
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  flying serpent. Most of us don't think normally
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  about snakes flying. That would be definitely a
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  freaky thing. This would be the like seraphim
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  is the word picture here. Like I talked about in Isaiah 6,
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  the seraphs are the flaming ones that they have wings and they
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  kind of have that appearance of a snake.
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  They are shrewd, they're wise. Those are kind of the word
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  pictures that are there. So he's like, oh, OK, yes, this
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  here in verse #29 so here there's this snake is how they
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  viewed King A has, is how the Philistine cities viewed King A
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  has. They're like, cool, the snake is
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  dead. And Isaiah says, well, you don't
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  understand because from the egg, the end result of A has dying is
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  that then Judah is less strong. Assyria will feel empowered to
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  invade and so as a result, this is going to be really bad for
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  Felicia. I love in verse #30 As God
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  highlights, His ultimate goal is not some sort of like racial
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  superiority. It is the flourishing of human
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  life. That's what we read in verse 30.
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  Then the first born of the poor will be well fed that those that
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  were impoverished now experience plenty and verse the next line
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  in there and the impoverished will lie down in safety.
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  Those that do to their economic status always feel in danger.
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  They will be able to simply rest and what a joy that that would
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  be. But then God says this to those
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  that were very often engaging in, you know, some things that
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  we would call like war crimes or things like that, a barbaric
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  invasions and attacking nearby towns and cities and all of
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  that. They say God says I will kill
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  your root with hunger and your remnant will be slang.
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  So he says you think that you guys are going to be able to
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  just do a bunch more evil because Judah is not in as good
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  of a place right now. I am going to care for the poor,
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  the needy, the unsafe, and you guys that are trying to take
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  advantage and harm others. You are going to have that put
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  back on you. That's verse 31.
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  Whale you gates cry out, city tremble with fear.
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  All Felicia for a cloud of dust is coming from the north and
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  there is no one missing from the invaders ranks you have as
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  Assyria comes down because there's that giant kind of
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  desert region in between, if you will, like Israel.
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  And I'm trying to remember in my head where all of that map is
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  Actually my Bible probably has a map in the back of it.
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  I don't know why I haven't looked at this more, but that
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  would be smart, smart thing to do.
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  So in between, this is not a modern map, so I'm going to use
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  some older names for these areas, but like Lebanon and Edom
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  and Moab and Ammon as they're over to the east of Israel.
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  On the other side of Jordan, in between those nations that are
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  kind of hugging the Jordan River, there's a big desert area
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  before you get over to modern day Iran, Iraq, which is where
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  kind of the Persia, Babylon, Assyria, all of those nations
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  were kind of over on that end of things.
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  So you wouldn't go through the desert to get to Israel or here
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  to Felicia. You'd go up and down.
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  So you'd go north, then hang a West and then you'd go South
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  through modern day kind of Syria.
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  I think you might as you're going north and then W you might
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  hit some of what is currently Turkey, but like Turkey, Syria
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  and then on down to Israel and Judas.
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  So that's that cloud of dust coming from the north and
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  there's no one missing from the invaders ranks.
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  They have a full army and they are coming down and they are
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  going to attack. This would be the army that
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  would get Aram, or as we know it now, Syria, that was harassing
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  Judah back in Isaiah Chapter 7. Ditto with the northern Kingdom
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  of Israel. And so both of those would be
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  taken out by Assyria. And then you had a lot of these
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  Philistine cities and actually a lot of the cities of Judah
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  itself came under attack. Couple of them were destroyed.
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  Bunch of people booked it to Jerusalem itself, where there
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  was a siege that took place before God himself delivered
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  them. And we can read that in verse
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  #32 what answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?
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  So as Assyria sends some of its guys to try and get Judah and
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  Jerusalem in particular to surrender, here's the answer
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  that comes back. Yahweh has founded Zion, that is
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  Jerusalem, and his oppressed people find refuge in her.
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  And what a joy that we too can find refuge in God.
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  And Lord willing that we don't have to go to some physical
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  place to experience the safety and refuge that God provides for
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  us, but instead, wherever we are, the Holy Spirit is.
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  And whatever the Holy Spirit has for us, we can know that there
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  is safety found in him. There is joy that can be found
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  in him. And that's just a a wonderful,
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  wonderful promise. Thank you for tuning in today.
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  I know this is kind of a weirder portion of Scripture, even as we
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  read through it. I hope that over and over again
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  we're reminded of God's justice and His Holiness, His love for
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  people, His love for those that our world looks down on or would
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  want to take advantage of. God cares about those people,
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  and so His people should care about those people.
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  Thanks for tuning in. What I'm going to do is Monday
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  through Friday of next week, I am going to be in South Carolina
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  at a Pastors and wives couples retreat.
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  It'll be the first couples thing that Samantha and I have ever
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  gone to together, so I'm super excited for that.
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  But I'm going to record some of my favorite passages of
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  Scripture. They'll be more like Tabernacle
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  tidbits because I'm not having to do a, a bunch of the carrying
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  work of all right, and here's what we read last time and
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  here's all of these things. It's just going to be some of my
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  favorite portions of scripture. And so I'm looking forward to
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  that. Thank you for allowing me to, to
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  do some of that. I know no one's like no, listen,
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  I just really want a 30 minute episode of Tabernacle Talk.
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  If that is you and you do like longer versions of Tabernacle
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  talk, let me know. I also know I have plenty of
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  people who are like listen, if you can get, if you can do 5
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  minutes or less that's perfect. But looking forward to a few
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  shorter episodes that I'll record for next week.
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  Thank you for tuning in. God bless.