Published: November 24, 2024 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 1 - Part 10 | Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1
Transcript
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all right last time we were talking about the the ministry of the Holy Spirit uh particularly to the prophets but also to
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others um others um in his actions um communicating the revelation of God and I I when I stood
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back and looked at the board I realized how crooked I write so I'm not going to try to write up that High um anymore but as we look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit we we looked at
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Revelation in in terms of what we see in the scripture of um how that communication takes place and I had uh five or six things
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and I didn't get to the last one so we're going to start there uh and then we're going to we're going to shift um somewhat to um looking at
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um what I think is a a manifestation uh that's not always equated um as the Holy Spirit but but
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I'd like I'd like to begin a um a discussion I guess on what do you think so we'll finish this ver and then
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we'll move to that um in in voices men hearing the word I heard the Lord say to me for example um we see things like
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that he communicated in dreams and visions and we said
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um it can possibly be physical sight or um what um I I think this is Owen's phrase spiritual
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um looked at this idea of symbolic actions where we saw that the spirit would communicate you're going to wear sackcloth with a belt or
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these types of things and then gives the meaning of those so there's a representation a physical representation of um a spiritual concept
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or a or a revelation that that was given and then um I'm not sure how I titled this but
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um this is all I can think of that and Abigail brought this up from Ezekiel eight but um and it's graphic of this is what the the
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spirit did this is what um Ezekiel um felt this is from Ezekiel 8 he came about in the sixth year on the
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fifth day of the sixth month as I was sitting in my house with the Elders of Judah sitting before me the hand of the Lord fell on me there then I looked and
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behold a light likess as the appearance of a man from his loin and downward there was the appearance of fire and from his loins and upward the appearance of brightness like the appearance of
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glowing metal he stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head and the spirit lifted me up between Earth and Heaven ouch and brought me in
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the visions of God to Jerusalem to the entrance of the north gate of the inner Court where where the seat of the idol of jealousy which provokes to jealousy was located and behold the glory of of
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isra of the god of Israel was there like the appearance which I saw in the plain then he said to me son of man raise your eyes now toward the north so I raised my
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eyes toward the North and behold to the north of the altar gate was this Idol of jealousy at the entrance and he said to me son of man do you see what they are doing the great Abominations which which
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the house of Israel are committing here so that I would be far from My Sanctuary but yet you will see still greater Abominations um there's a combination of
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several of these things the the the Lord speaking the speaking the um appearance of of the hand being being
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carried and lifted up um seeing a vision a symbol of this um Idol of jealousy um
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and then representing the Abominations of the House of Israel so we see a lot of um things coming together
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11 he he says the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city and the spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of
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God to the Exiles in Cala so the vision that I had seen left me then I told the Exiles all the things that the Lord had
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shown me so we we see this being lifted up carrying um physically or um he it's in a vision he sees a
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vision Vision but he's also feeling that he's physically being being carried by the spirit um and one of the things that I see here in Ezekiel
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particularly um is this reference um to the spirit of the Lord but quite often um the phrase
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that we see and not just in Ezekiel but it seems to be um proliferated there um is this
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Lord and I don't see this um and I guess this is um with some trepidation I couldn't find in any of the books that I have and um doing a little bit of search um with caution on
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the internet but I don't see specifically um what you might call a proof text that the hand of the Lord
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is the spirit of the Lord and yet when I read descriptions from the scriptures but also how the the concept of the hand of
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the Lord the Lord uh in in context where it's used um the phrasing that people use um is very similar to what we've already seen
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described uh by um the scriptures in the Holy Spirit the the action the the um Authority the power um and the presence
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of the Lord in the context where this this phrase is used um the hand of the Lord the hand of God I think is used like 160 times in the
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scriptures um and um as I began to look at this and uh Abigail um talked to me after one of the classes um a couple
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weeks ago and it's just been one of these things on my mind that is the hand of the of the Lord more than just a metaphor for God's
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dream direction God's power and God's influence is the hand of the Lord another way of expressing the
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um the the spirit the ruach Elohim the the spirit of of Jehovah um I'm going
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to start by looking at one verse in Ezekiel um section that you you should probably be very familiar with the the dry
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um we'll look at it's it's a verse that's that's pretty packed um Ezekiel um Ezekiel 371 the hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the spirit of the
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Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley and it was full of Bones now we know about the bones the dry
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bones and God causing him to to see this but if you look at this verse we we see the the hand of the
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Lord for
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these three phrases um if we were to um to look at their the background the Hebrew um there's there's a lot of
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meaning here um the phrase again everywhere that I see it there there is the idea of of power there's
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the idea of authority um and we're going to look at hopefully some instance instances where it's it's
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[Music] um but there it seems to symbolize that there is there is a strength there's an action that's happening here
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[Music] um so
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and we see here here he's saying he he um brought me out and and set me down um there's action obviously associated in this one verse with that
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um ezekiel's under as we've seen before under influence under Direction guidance uh of
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God and it's always associated with uh this type of of thing um it
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um it symbolizes the the Lord's dealing with people and as we'll see with his people Israel and and Judah um with his
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servants like Ezra but also it's a associated with power and strength and Authority in relation to God's enemies and to Israel's enemies and so it's not
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limited just to the people of God um we'll we'll see it in in uh in a number of different contexts um but again in in
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terms of the enemies of God but when we come to this phrase the hand of the Lord was upon me there's there's something
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there's something personal here there's something um that is is more than just uh an abstract uh notion
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um there if we combine these again this is uh sin I think Sinclair Ferguson's but um phrase here for the
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Holy Spirit but you see these two things combined in in two phrases here the hand of the Lord was upon me
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um again if um ezekiel's not acting on his own initiative here something is being done to him um it it it's personal um
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what it means is it can mean a resting upon or um setting upon I need to check
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my translation here but um it can also mean and again here here's where I get this um it can also
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mean abiding presence um that sounds a lot like what we've been talking about over the past
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few weeks for the Holy Spirit to me yeah seems like this
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Lord Spirit yeah of the Lord Spirit of the typical Hebrew poetry they would be parallel yeah they would be synonyms right um
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right um yes um that's what I see I just again I had hoped to see something in the literature that um because you always
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wonder am I coming up with something original and after what you know 10,000 years of of creation um I can't be the only one um don't see that in the
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comment I I didn't find it no not directly I mean I I read um quite a bit of Owen I went back to the original Owen not the um a bridged version that I
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looked at and uh found some very interesting things that I wish I had had read out of um on other things but um
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didn't see that and it's not to say that it's not there um it's just uh I didn't I didn't see that um
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know yeah yes that yeah it's kind of a familiar things sometimes lose their significance so we we kind of because we
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we we say oh Lord or you know whatever and we don't think about who um who it is um when I read and and this is
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um yeah um one of the things I looked up was uh an explanation that was um it it referenced the the Berean Study Bible or something like that and um one of the
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things uh that I was reading in here um and I can't I didn't mark it in red which I should have done so I would read it again um but it has the idea that um
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this is a metaphor that that we we think in terms of physical life so we have to anthropomorphize God and so we come up
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with these ideas of God having a hand and things like that but it it's so when I did my search on the on the
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Internet it's always what is and I'm thinking no it's not what is it's who is the hand of the Lord I I that's what I'm asking yes
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that's it's an anop doesn't that doesn't make it aaph yeah metaphor spech right right and
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it conve reality yeah yeah to USS can right
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can right yeah yeah well a that's where AI got wrong I mean that's the AI response was a metaphor and I'm thinking okay I think we can
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show that it's not it this is a who not a what okay now um the next phrase and he brought me out
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um that's that's the action it doesn't say he caught him by the lock of the hair okay but it it conveys the idea of
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Deliverance and and of bringing forth
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Spirit he's in action he's showing him something revealing to him it's a
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reflection I think this this idea of of bringing out and maybe it's stretching a little bit little bit further but one of the things that we
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see the phrase the hand of the Lord is is in The Exodus the bringing out the delivering of his people and so we we kind of see all in in one verse to me a
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lot of the things uh that the hand of the Lord uh means and what we see is there there's a communion here that's that's it's the
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presence of the god of God to him but it's it's more than just doing something or saying something
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there's there's a communion here um and a and a personal thing yes a
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well and um don't know that I let me let me look it up um I think we see that in
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Luke um it's um Zachariah Elizabeth's husband of Zechariah right um and they they made
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signs to the father as to what he wanted to call Jesus and he asked for a tablet and he wrote his name uh uh uh John sorry and they were astonished and at
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once his mouth was open and his tongue loose and he began to speak in Praise of God and fear came all of th on those living around them and all the matters being talked about in all the Hill
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Country of Judea and all who heard them kept them in mind saying what then will this child turn out to be for the hand of the Lord certainly was with him um my
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mind went to acts two um and I'll read acts two uh first four verses but and you know what acts two is this is what it says and when the day
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of Pentecost had fully come they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from Heaven A noise with like a violent rushing wind
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and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues as of fire Distributing themselves and they rested on each one
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of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit was giving them utterance to me this is
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the this is the ruok Elohim this is the breath this is the wind but also but notice that it's resting on them it's
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the idea of sat upon them or Came Upon them um those are the ones I put together um and here we see you
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know the the spirit has come and it's I guess you could go back to this is a symbolic action showing them that the Holy Spirit
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has come but now on all his people not just to just to individuals as God was revealing himself
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but now it's the Holy Spirit has fully come um he has he has come to be dwelling with his people um
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the spirit of God on his on the Believers um that's where my mind went but yes I I think we see it in other places um in fact um when we look at
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where this is used uh we'll see that some of the um early preachers um people noticed that you know they would say the hand of of the Lord is upon these men as
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they as they preach um in Acts I think it's chapter 11 yes
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yeah huh yeah um that's interesting I hadn't thought of this uh that way but um yeah let me think about that some more but that's an interesting idea um
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because yes certainly preparation for what they're about to hear and who they're about to hear it from um would is necessary yeah um I saw this as an
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outline somebody's uh sermon outline and I thought hm is this is this right um so I went through verses and
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uh I'm going to use the outline that I found just because it was easier for me
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to have a place to start but I'm going to use this phrase um this is what I see in the scripture where this is um uh pun intended here fleshed out um the hand of the Lord is um let me
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do it this way the hand of the Lord is Lord is mighty um I I don't know that we we need a proof text for these things but we see
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it actually spelled out in Joshua chapter 4 for the Lord your God dried up the Waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed just as the Lord your
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God had done to the Red Sea which he drive up before us until we had crossed that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty
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so that you may fear the lord your God forever and then in job he's job he's um saying don't don't you understand
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this says but now ask the beasts and let them teach you and the birds of heaven and let them tell you or speak to the Earth and let it teach you you and let
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the fish of the sea declare to you who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this in whose
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hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind um again I think the connections our our minds at
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least are going to go to Genesis 1 when you read something like this do you not not know the fish know the birds know ask the Earth it'll declare it to you
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the hand of the Lord has done this
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yeah um it the hand of the Lord is mighty the the hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind um
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that's that's a heavy
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heavy 1 Samuel 5 um when the ashdot asites arose early the next morning behold Deon has fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark
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of the Lord so they took deeon and set him in his place again but when when they arose early the next morning behold deeon had fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord and
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the head of Deon and the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold only the trunk of deeon was left to him therefore neither the priests of deeon
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nor all who enter deon's house tread on the threshold of deeon the ashod to this day now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the on the aites and he ravaged them and smoted
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them with tumors both ashdod and its
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others but specifically here we we see that he ravaged them he smot them um because they were enemies of his
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Joshua 4 and uh job
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this is when uh art xeres king uh the scripture calls him King of Kings to Ezra the priest The Scribe of the law God of God of heaven and he sent a letter allowing him to do his work with the
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temple and Ezra responds blessed be the Lord the god of our fathers who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart to Adorn the house of the Lord which is
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in Jerusalem and it has extended loving kindness to me before the king and his counselors before all the king's Mighty princes thus I was strengthen according
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to the hand of the Lord my God upon me and I gathered Leading Men from is Israel to go up with me I mean there there's two concepts in there um one is
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this idea blessed be the Lord um who put such a thing in the king's heart well you remember the phrasing um we sometimes quote that um just before an
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election um all right if I can find it Proverbs 211 the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord he turns
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it wherever he Wills um we see that Ezra saw that but he also said the hand of the Lord strengthens me uh to do the work yes in
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light of the comment you made
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thinkes proted I will protect you huh that Vision okay you can't see me and live therefore I'm going to cover you I think I think the communication of
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the Lord is so Inc dangerous yeah that's I
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the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them so that they could no longer stand before their enemies
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wherever they went the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them so that they were severely
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distressed then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them um it's kind of an incredible you know if I just
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stopped at stopped at 15 we see this hand of of distress and severity but then in 16 the verse 16 he says the
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Lord raised up judges who delivered them there's the sovereignty of God in in all of this um but we see it this
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idea of the hand of the plunderers the hand of the Lord was on them through the hand of the plunderers but then he rescued them from their hands uh quite a quite a thing to
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meditate on that that idea um and by the way I I didn't see a picture um because I didn't go into the images stuff on the computer um but um
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apparently the Jewish rabbis still they they have a symbol instead of the dove they have a hand and I don't call it the Holy Spirit but the hand of the Lord is
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still a symbol in Jewish I think in 21st century um Jewish synagogues uh I didn't like I said I didn't see the symbol
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uh the one that I did see was somebody doing the Mr Spock thing and I I'll keep my hand down here because I can't do it I can't I can't I
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just can't my fingers do not move that way um because I'm not a klling on or
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okay um the one I picked out for this one Psalm 118 uh there are other Psalms but the Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation the sound of
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Joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous the right hand of the Lord does valiantly the right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of
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the Lord does valiantly um just um just um the help that is there
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constantly um the Lord is my strength and song but he um visualized that as the right hand of the Lord doing
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valiantly and then um the question
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um sometimes brought up but I'm I'm going to put it as a positive
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acts 11 so then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Steven made their way to Phoenicia Cyprus and Antioch speaking the word to
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no one except the Jews alone but there were some of them men of Cyprus and sirene who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also preaching the Lord Jesus and the Hand of the Lord
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was with them and a large number who believed turned to the Lord the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch the hand of the
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Lord was with them even after the appearing of the Holy Spirit and because of the appearing of the Holy Spirit
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these men knowing the Lord Believers were now preaching and the Hand of the Lord was with them Peter um in First Peter 5 um
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exhorts us uh in in his exhortation along with uh all sorts of uh delineations of people in the church but he's speaking in chapter five of the the
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of the elders and of himself and their responsibilities and then he says this you younger men likewise be subject to your elders and all of you clothe
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yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud of gives grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the
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proper time casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you this is our Holy Spirit comforting us guiding us
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helping us this is uh the hand the mighty hand of the Lord let us pray Our Father um sometimes
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these things are seem Beyond us and yet you have revealed yourself in scriptures that we might know you that we might know who you are and what you've done
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for us the the matters of your heart to our heart the matters of of the things that you've created for us to enjoy but
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also that we would understand that they come from your hand and so we ask father that as we study your word as we meditate upon it as we hear it
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preached and and taught and we we read we ask father that you would guide us into all the truth that we may have a heart of not just wisdom and understanding but we may
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worship you a right and that we may worship you as you have revealed yourself to be and we ask that you would continue to communicate these things to
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us that we would keep searching but we would keep walking by faith we ask in Christ's nameen am