Episode Transcript
First Kings chapter 11.
00:00 --> 00:02
All right, so we're going to cover quite a bit of history this morning.
00:02 --> 00:10
We're actually going to finish out the Old Testament this morning.
00:10 --> 00:16
And Lord willing start the New Testament next Sunday morning.
00:16 --> 00:21
So last week.
00:21 --> 00:25
We came to the period of the Kings.
00:28 --> 00:30
And we saw that
00:30 --> 00:33
David was one of the most prominent Kings him and Solomon that David.
00:33 --> 00:42
He
00:42 --> 00:44
hoarded up
00:44 --> 00:45
prepared the materials for the building of the temple,
00:45 --> 00:49
which basically was the tabernacle going from a temporary mobile structure to a permanent
00:49 --> 00:57
brick and mortar structure and then Solomon his son.
00:57 --> 01:00
He came in and actually built
01:00 --> 01:03
the temple.
01:03 --> 01:04
All right, and this was around 1000 years before the promised Savior came.
01:04 --> 01:11
Let me turn this down.
01:11 --> 01:15
I've got a little
01:15 --> 01:16
some sound left there on my yeah, a little echo there.
01:16 --> 01:21
Turn that down.
01:21 --> 01:22
All right, so
01:22 --> 01:25
all in all, here's what happened.
01:25 --> 01:30
Solomon was a very good King.
01:30 --> 01:33
He was the wisest man on earth.
01:33 --> 01:35
The problem is Solomon was just a man.
01:35 --> 01:38
And so Solomon
01:38 --> 01:42
did something that he should have never done.
01:42 --> 01:45
Solomon had a
01:45 --> 01:48
this is still echoing here and I'm sorry for that.
01:48 --> 01:53
It never happens, but for some reason this morning.
01:54 --> 01:56
It is but hopefully that'll fix it.
01:56 --> 02:01
But the Bible specifically commanded
02:01 --> 02:05
that Kings should not
02:05 --> 02:08
multiply wives into themselves.
02:08 --> 02:12
All right, and so what happened was unfortunately, Solomon broke that command.
02:12 --> 02:20
He married 700 wives
02:21 --> 02:24
and had 300 concubine which are all the same as wives.
02:24 --> 02:30
So basically had a thousand women
02:30 --> 02:33
and man.
02:33 --> 02:36
So
02:36 --> 02:37
it really really hurt Solomon
02:37 --> 02:41
because he began marrying women
02:41 --> 02:46
who were bringing them into his harem if you would.
02:46 --> 02:51
Who were not from Israel.
02:52 --> 02:54
They were from other countries who worshipped other gods.
02:54 --> 02:59
And he thought a variety would be very nice.
02:59 --> 03:02
And what happened was those women turned Solomon's heart
03:02 --> 03:05
away from God.
03:05 --> 03:09
Not that Solomon ever quit trusting in God and loving God and those things.
03:09 --> 03:13
He never did
03:13 --> 03:15
quit doing that, but
03:15 --> 03:18
Solomon catered to his wives and began building
03:19 --> 03:23
worship centers for them to worship their false gods so they could continue their
03:23 --> 03:29
cultural religions.
03:29 --> 03:32
And he brought that junk into Israel by doing that and Solomon was very wrong.
03:32 --> 03:38
And so
03:38 --> 03:41
what God did
03:41 --> 03:42
God took one of Solomon's leaders, one of his under governors if you would,
03:44 --> 03:50
and he split the kingdom
03:50 --> 03:54
after Solomon died.
03:54 --> 03:57
And he gave
03:57 --> 04:00
10
04:00 --> 04:03
tribes, 10 of the 12 tribes, to Solomon's under leader and then he gave two
04:03 --> 04:11
of the tribes
04:11 --> 04:13
to
04:13 --> 04:14
Solomon's son.
04:14 --> 04:17
So the kingdom of Israel split in two.
04:17 --> 04:19
All right, let's go ahead and look here now in 1 Kings 11.
04:19 --> 04:23
Verse 1, "But King Solomon loved many strange women
04:23 --> 04:28
together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
04:28 --> 04:34
Zidonians, and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel,
04:34 --> 04:40
Ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come
04:40 --> 04:45
in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.
04:45 --> 04:51
Solomon claved unto these in love and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines,
04:51 --> 04:58
and his wives turned away his heart.
04:58 --> 05:00
For it came to pass when Solomon was old
05:00 --> 05:03
that his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect,
05:03 --> 05:10
for the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father."
05:10 --> 05:14
That when it says his heart wasn't perfect, it means it wasn't whole. He compromised some areas of his life.
05:14 --> 05:21
Okay, he still trusted the Lord. He still believed in his God.
05:21 --> 05:25
He knew the truth.
05:25 --> 05:26
But when it was when he was old, you know, when you get old people can manipulate you.
05:26 --> 05:32
And he should have never put himself in the position of being manipulated. I had a pastor call me yesterday
05:32 --> 05:40
and he has his mother-in-law, a local lady here, who
05:40 --> 05:47
had a young woman who was her caretaker and
05:47 --> 05:51
the woman's 95 years old, well they found out she's been getting money from her, you know, and
05:51 --> 05:58
acts like they love, you know, the caretaker acts like she loves the elderly woman. The elderly woman gives her money.
05:58 --> 06:06
Well that wouldn't happen if the woman was 40, 50 years old.
06:06 --> 06:10
But when you get older you put yourself in that position and the women manipulated Solomon
06:10 --> 06:16
and he built those temples and all for them.
06:16 --> 06:20
So verse 5, "For Solomon went after Astor at the goddess of the Zydonians and after Milchum,
06:20 --> 06:27
the abomination of the Ammonites, and Solomon did evil on the side of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord,
06:27 --> 06:34
as did David his father. Then did Solomon build in high place
06:34 --> 06:38
for Chamos, the abomination of Moab and the hill that is before Jerusalem,
06:38 --> 06:44
and for Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
06:44 --> 06:47
And likewise did he for all his strange wives which burnt incense and sacrificed under their gods.
06:47 --> 06:54
And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned
06:54 --> 06:58
from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared unto him twice
06:58 --> 07:02
and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods,
07:02 --> 07:07
but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.
07:07 --> 07:10
Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, "For as much as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statute,
07:10 --> 07:18
which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend or rip apart the kingdom from thee
07:18 --> 07:25
and will give it to thy servant.
07:25 --> 07:27
Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son."
07:28 --> 07:36
Alright, so here's what happened.
07:36 --> 07:38
God takes ten of the twelve tribes and rips it away from Solomon,
07:38 --> 07:46
gives it unto another man who was Solomon's servant, he became king over those ten tribes.
07:46 --> 07:53
Now at this point in time, if you look up here on the map,
07:53 --> 07:57
we have Israel, that's the northern kingdom, that's the ten tribes that God took away from Solomon's son.
07:57 --> 08:07
And that left two tribes down here for Judah, the southern kingdom.
08:07 --> 08:13
Okay, so Israel, once it split, before the split, Israel was all twelve tribes.
08:13 --> 08:20
After the split, Israel was the ten tribes and Judah was the line of David still ruling and they only had two tribes.
08:20 --> 08:31
Just like in America, the northern kingdom was more liberal than the southern kingdom.
08:31 --> 08:40
They were both wrong.
08:40 --> 08:42
Just like in America, the south is wrong as well. We've got all kinds of abominations down here in the south,
08:43 --> 08:50
but we're not as far down the road and crazy as the north, generally speaking.
08:50 --> 08:57
It was the same there. The north was more liberal than the south, and the south tended to follow God more than the north.
08:57 --> 09:07
So now we go in the period of the kings to Judah and Israel.
09:08 --> 09:15
Judah had twenty kings, some of them were righteous kings, some of them were unrighteous kings.
09:15 --> 09:24
Israel had twenty kings and they were all unrighteous.
09:24 --> 09:31
So which nation do you think is going to fall first?
09:31 --> 09:35
Israel's going to fall first, that's right.
09:35 --> 09:38
God was more patient with Judah because they did have some righteous kings who did try to get Israel back following God again
09:38 --> 09:47
and they would go after and destroy the high places and try to do what was right.
09:47 --> 09:51
High places meaning the other places where they worship their false gods.
09:51 --> 09:55
So this is what happened. This is the period of the kings.
09:55 --> 10:01
Now, if you'll notice here below the period of the kings, you have this almost interlapping period of the prophets.
10:02 --> 10:10
You see that? So if you're in your Bible, like we just read from first kings,
10:10 --> 10:15
and that gives us the chronicles of the kings, and first and second chronicles give us the chronicles of the kings.
10:15 --> 10:23
And so right here, not completely with the kings, but right after, going a little bit past the kings here,
10:26 --> 10:35
after Solomon began going away from God, we get introduced to the period of these prophets here.
10:35 --> 10:46
And the prophets prophesied to Israel and Judah during the time of these kings and basically warned them and said,
10:47 --> 10:58
"Hey, look, if you don't follow God, if you don't repent and start following God,
10:58 --> 11:08
you're just like the nations around you. And remember what God said to Moses before y'all ever came to the Promised Land?"
11:08 --> 11:16
He said, "If y'all did wrong, you were going to be just like the other nations. He was going to get rid of you and drive you out."
11:17 --> 11:22
And they would be warning these people, "Hey, Babylon is going to come get you. Syria is going to come get you."
11:22 --> 11:30
This is what God says. They would warn these people and these kings.
11:30 --> 11:37
So if you'll notice here with the prophets, they're divided up into two groups.
11:37 --> 11:42
You have major prophets and you have minor prophets. Y'all ever heard of that division before? A couple of y'all have.
11:43 --> 11:53
So the major prophets doesn't mean they were more important. It means that they had more content.
11:53 --> 12:00
The major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, their writings are more prolific.
12:00 --> 12:10
There are just more words. The minor prophets, they're small prophecies.
12:10 --> 12:16
You could read through their prophecies in an hour or so. It doesn't take long to go through their prophecies.
12:16 --> 12:24
But they're just as important. So God would send Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel,
12:24 --> 12:32
and he would prophesy these people, warn them before they fell, and then send prophets to them after they fell,
12:32 --> 12:42
and try to get these people back on track.
12:42 --> 12:47
Well, it didn't work because they refused to listen to the prophets.
12:47 --> 12:54
And so Israel fell in 722 B.C.
12:54 --> 13:03
God had warned Israel that this would happen.
13:03 --> 13:11
And God said, if you look up here on this map, you have all these major empires.
13:11 --> 13:18
You've got Rome, Greece, Persia, Assyria, and Babylon. They're all major empires.
13:18 --> 13:24
Assyria came and conquered Israel. Israel fell to Assyria.
13:24 --> 13:32
A lot of things that we're reading about in the book of Hosea, we're studying the book of Hosea,
13:32 --> 13:36
it has to do with Israel and Assyria.
13:36 --> 13:40
And God warning Israel what's going to happen with Assyria.
13:40 --> 13:44
And so that gives you an idea of what's going on.
13:44 --> 13:48
Because Assyria did conquer Israel in 722 B.C., they fell.
13:49 --> 13:54
And they were no--yes, sir?
13:54 --> 13:57
Is Assyria now Syria?
13:57 --> 14:00
No. That's a good question, though.
14:00 --> 14:04
Some of the things sound the same, but no, they fell.
14:04 --> 14:08
So Assyria is no more.
14:08 --> 14:12
There's Assyria that's actually a capital of one city as well.
14:13 --> 14:20
And you'll see that in the Bible, and sometimes it's easy to get them confused.
14:20 --> 14:23
There's also some area, and sometimes they sound the same.
14:23 --> 14:26
You can get them confused. That's a very good question, though.
14:26 --> 14:29
So Assyria conquers Israel.
14:29 --> 14:32
Let's go ahead and look here, if you would, in 2 Kings, chapter 17.
14:32 --> 14:38
2 Kings, chapter 17.
14:39 --> 14:48
So we're in 1 Kings. Just turn to your right.
14:48 --> 14:51
You'll run into 2 Kings and then go to the 17th chapter.
14:51 --> 14:55
2 Kings, chapter 17.
14:55 --> 14:58
You have one time to turn there.
14:58 --> 15:01
And once you get to chapter 17, look with me in verse 6.
15:01 --> 15:06
"In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria."
15:07 --> 15:22
Samaria was the capital of Israel.
15:22 --> 15:25
And they carried Israel away into Assyria.
15:25 --> 15:28
So Israel gets conquered, then they get captured, then they get taken away.
15:28 --> 15:35
So now they're no longer in their nation.
15:36 --> 15:38
You have to think, during the time of Hitler, which is closer to our time period.
15:38 --> 15:47
He's killing all these Jews and he's putting them in the ovens and things like that.
15:47 --> 15:51
That didn't happen in Israel. That was happening in Europe.
15:51 --> 15:58
What were these Jews doing in Europe in the first place?
15:58 --> 16:03
It's because they didn't listen to their prophets.
16:04 --> 16:08
These nations conquered them and they got carried away.
16:08 --> 16:13
So they get dispersed all over the world and then they get persecuted all over the world.
16:13 --> 16:20
And God said, "If you'll ever seek my face, I'll bring you back."
16:20 --> 16:26
And so that eventually will happen in its fullness.
16:27 --> 16:35
Right now we do have Israel, we do have a small sliver of Jews over there,
16:35 --> 16:40
but in the end they're going to come back.
16:40 --> 16:43
Let's go ahead and look here now, if you would, in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 8.
16:43 --> 16:50
Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 8.
16:50 --> 16:53
Israel fell in 722 BC and Judah fell in 586 BC.
16:54 --> 17:02
Over 100 years later.
17:02 --> 17:06
So they fell, it just took them a few generations to get there.
17:06 --> 17:11
But God held Judah to a little higher standard because he said,
17:11 --> 17:19
"You saw what I did to Israel, your sister.
17:20 --> 17:25
You heard the warnings of the prophets.
17:25 --> 17:27
You saw how I took them captive and conquered them through Assyria.
17:27 --> 17:32
You should have learned your lesson by watching what I did to your sister."
17:32 --> 17:37
Basically is what he calls them.
17:37 --> 17:39
But because you didn't, Babylon is going to come get you.
17:39 --> 17:44
Okay, let's go ahead and look here now. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 8.
17:45 --> 17:50
"And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery,"
17:50 --> 17:56
that means they were unfaithful to God, God said, "I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce."
17:56 --> 18:03
So God is speaking of Israel as if he divorced her, you know.
18:03 --> 18:08
It's just an illustration, a way of explaining.
18:08 --> 18:12
Okay, this was my wife and she fragmented and then I divorced Israel.
18:13 --> 18:19
And so look what he says here now.
18:19 --> 18:21
"Yet her treacherous sister Judah," he says, "feared not but went and played the harlot also."
18:21 --> 18:31
He said, "So here I'm married to Israel and Judah, my Jewish people.
18:31 --> 18:37
Israel was unfaithful to me.
18:37 --> 18:39
She committed adultery on me with other gods.
18:40 --> 18:42
Judah saw what I did to them when I gave her divorcement and sent to Syria to come get her.
18:42 --> 18:49
And Judah saw what I did and yet for all that Judah did the same thing."
18:49 --> 18:56
Did the same thing.
18:56 --> 18:59
Now let's go to Jeremiah.
18:59 --> 19:02
Now Jeremiah again is one of these major prophets here, prophesying and warning these people.
19:02 --> 19:08
Jeremiah, chapter 21, Jeremiah, chapter 21, and let's look in verse 7.
19:09 --> 19:22
Jeremiah 21 and verse 7.
19:22 --> 19:31
Jeremiah is continuing to prophesy against Judah, the southern kingdom.
19:33 --> 19:39
Verse 7, "And afterward saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah, king of Judah, in his servants and the people,
19:39 --> 19:49
and such as are left in the city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon."
19:49 --> 20:00
Okay?
20:01 --> 20:02
"And into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those that seek their life, and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword,
20:02 --> 20:09
he shall not spare them neither have pity nor have mercy."
20:09 --> 20:14
Yeah, so that happened and they fell in 586 BC.
20:14 --> 20:20
So by 586 BC you've got Jews scattered all over the place.
20:20 --> 20:27
All right? And you have no more leadership by Jews here.
20:28 --> 20:36
This is governed by, you have Assyria, they get Israel.
20:36 --> 20:41
Babylon gets Judah.
20:41 --> 20:43
Babylon eventually conquered Syria.
20:43 --> 20:47
Assyria. So when Babylon conquers Assyria, well they have all of it.
20:47 --> 20:52
Well then what happens? Then a Persia comes along and Persia conquers Babylon.
20:53 --> 20:58
Now Persia is all over all of it, you see.
20:58 --> 21:02
And then, huh?
21:02 --> 21:04
Not yet, big boy. Not yet.
21:04 --> 21:09
So after Persia conquers Babylon, then Greece comes along and they conquer Persia.
21:09 --> 21:16
Well, you can look all this up in Cyclopedia, you know.
21:16 --> 21:20
Well, it is crazy, but I mean...
21:21 --> 21:23
Constant war.
21:23 --> 21:24
Yeah, it is constant war.
21:24 --> 21:26
I mean, you look at us though.
21:26 --> 21:28
We had war with Mexico to become Texas, and then America had war with Mexico.
21:28 --> 21:33
Mexico had war with Spain, Spain, I mean, six flags over Texas.
21:33 --> 21:37
We've had all kinds of leadership over Texas here.
21:37 --> 21:41
So thank God in our lifetime we haven't seen much at home here, but it's probably coming.
21:41 --> 21:48
But Greece ends up conquering Persia.
21:49 --> 21:52
When Greece conquers Persia, Greece was a very civilized nation.
21:52 --> 21:58
Of course, all these other places were too, but Greece, when they conquered Persia...
21:58 --> 22:03
And of course, you see how far away Greece is from Jerusalem.
22:03 --> 22:07
This is a big territory now that Greece has, okay?
22:07 --> 22:11
And the Greek language became very... well, like English.
22:12 --> 22:19
You know, you had England, Great Britain, America...
22:19 --> 22:28
But because of the British Empire, English got spread all over the world.
22:28 --> 22:33
When my parents were growing up, there used to be a saying, "The sun never sets on the British Empire."
22:33 --> 22:40
In other words, the British Empire had territory all over the world.
22:41 --> 22:47
There was somewhere where the sun was shining in the British Empire at all times.
22:47 --> 22:51
And because of Britain's influence, English got spread around.
22:51 --> 22:57
I was talking to a pastor in Zambia this morning in English,
22:57 --> 23:03
and then Brother Wisdom, who I speak to in Nigeria, it's also in English.
23:04 --> 23:13
And the reason that English is so profound is not because everybody loves English.
23:13 --> 23:19
It's because of the British Empire that conquered the majority of the world at one time, not too long ago.
23:19 --> 23:27
Well, it's the same thing happened here.
23:27 --> 23:29
When Greece becomes a world empire, the Greek language ended up being the dominant language,
23:30 --> 23:38
just like America is the trade language here.
23:38 --> 23:41
I mean, like English is the trade language here, so Greek was the trade language there.
23:41 --> 23:46
Because of that, when we get to the New Testament...
23:46 --> 23:53
Excuse me, you'll notice when I am teaching in the New Testament in the regular church service,
23:54 --> 24:03
that I will say, "Well, now, this word that we just read in the Greek means this."
24:03 --> 24:10
Okay? Well, the reason I'm having to say this is what it means in the Greek is because
24:10 --> 24:15
all the New Testament was written in the Greek language.
24:15 --> 24:18
Written by Jews, mostly, one Gentile, Luke, but it was written by Jews.
24:19 --> 24:26
But at that time, Greek was the main language, so they used it because more people read Greek, so why not write in Greek?
24:26 --> 24:35
And so the word of God was written in Greek here.
24:35 --> 24:39
By the time the promised Savior comes in the New Testament,
24:39 --> 24:46
all of the Old Testament scriptures, which were written in Hebrew and Aramaic,
24:47 --> 24:53
but they were written primarily in Hebrew, the Jews' language,
24:53 --> 24:57
by the time Jesus comes, all of the Old Testament had also been translated into Greek.
24:57 --> 25:05
Okay? And so a lot of times when you read in the New Testament,
25:05 --> 25:09
they are quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
25:09 --> 25:14
And so, which is called the Septuagint. Okay?
25:15 --> 25:20
But anyway, Greece conquers, and that's why the New Testament was written in Greek.
25:20 --> 25:29
Eventually, Rome conquers Greece, and that gave rise to the huge Roman Empire.
25:29 --> 25:42
I mean, it was big. Now, when you read the prophets here,
25:43 --> 25:48
God said exactly what was going to happen before it happened.
25:48 --> 25:52
You go back and you read these Old Testament prophets,
25:52 --> 25:55
He explained how one would conquer the other,
25:55 --> 26:00
how this nation would conquer that nation would conquer that nation would conquer that nation,
26:00 --> 26:05
and this nation would end up conquering them in the end.
26:05 --> 26:08
All that was said before it ever happened.
26:08 --> 26:10
It's absolutely amazing. They're represented by animals and by metals, particular metals.
26:11 --> 26:18
Babylon was the beginning, and it was the head.
26:18 --> 26:24
And eventually, it keeps getting lower and lower and lower until it gets down to Rome,
26:24 --> 26:29
which was iron, and then it turns into iron and clay,
26:29 --> 26:33
and it was prophesying of these two legs that come down at the end of this figure,
26:33 --> 26:37
and God was prophesying how the Roman Empire would split into two as well.
26:38 --> 26:43
That's absolutely fascinating. When you read those prophecies,
26:43 --> 26:46
there's no way man could have known all those things and prophesied of them.
26:46 --> 26:51
But that's what happened. That's why, when the Savior, Jesus, is born,
26:51 --> 27:02
that's why it's Roman soldiers. In Roman governors,
27:03 --> 27:09
crucifixion was a Roman form of capital punishment.
27:09 --> 27:15
In America, if it had been Americans, it would have been a hanging, right?
27:15 --> 27:20
If it was in France, it would have been the guillotine, you know?
27:20 --> 27:24
But it was Rome who was in charge of Israel at this time.
27:24 --> 27:30
They were the Roman Empire, and so it was crucifixion.
27:31 --> 27:35
That's how Jesus died. Okay?
27:35 --> 27:38
And so this explains, understanding the political history,
27:38 --> 27:42
explains the situation.
27:42 --> 27:45
Why, you still had a temple, you still had priests,
27:45 --> 27:48
you still had the Sanhedrin court, which was the Jewish court,
27:48 --> 27:52
but they didn't have the authority to put anyone to death,
27:52 --> 27:55
because they weren't the ruling power.
27:55 --> 27:58
So Rome let them get away with some of their religious shenanigans,
27:59 --> 28:02
but when it come to putting people to death, no.
28:02 --> 28:05
That had to be done in the Roman courts.
28:05 --> 28:07
That's why they tried Jesus in a Roman court,
28:07 --> 28:11
and they was asking for Pilate to crucify him.
28:11 --> 28:17
So that explains things. Alright? Now let's go ahead and look here, if you would,
28:17 --> 28:23
in the book of Malachi. Malachi is the last Old Testament book.
28:24 --> 28:29
The last Old Testament book. Malachi?
28:29 --> 28:33
Yeah. Chapter 3? Malachi chapter 3?
28:33 --> 28:46
Malachi was a minor prophet, and he was the last of the minor prophets
28:46 --> 28:52
in the order of our book here.
28:53 --> 28:56
And so, if you'll look now in Malachi 3 verse 1,
28:56 --> 29:02
"Behold," this is God speaking, "I will send my messenger,
29:02 --> 29:06
and he shall prepare the way before me.
29:06 --> 29:09
And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.
29:09 --> 29:13
Even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in,
29:13 --> 29:16
behold, he shall come, say the Lord of hosts."
29:16 --> 29:19
Alright? So, God, before he comes, because we're looking for the promised Savior,
29:20 --> 29:27
and before the promised Savior comes, he's going to send a special messenger,
29:27 --> 29:35
and what's that messenger's job going to be?
29:35 --> 29:39
To prepare the way?
29:39 --> 29:43
To prepare the way.
29:43 --> 29:46
In other words, to get people ready. Hey, the promised Savior's coming.
29:47 --> 29:50
Get ready. He's coming.
29:50 --> 29:53
Get your heart right. Get your heart prepared. He's on his way.
29:53 --> 29:57
That's the special messenger's job.
29:57 --> 30:00
So, at the close of the Old Testament,
30:00 --> 30:04
the people were not expecting the Savior to come at any time.
30:04 --> 30:09
They were expecting a special messenger to come first.
30:09 --> 30:14
Okay? And when that special messenger came,
30:15 --> 30:18
he would then prepare the way for the coming Savior.
30:18 --> 30:21
So, by the time the Old Testament ends,
30:21 --> 30:26
that's what they're waiting for is a special messenger to come.
30:26 --> 30:31
After the Old Testament closes, you have 400 silent years.
30:31 --> 30:38
Everything's periods of 400, isn't it? Isn't that neat?
30:38 --> 30:41
You have about 400 years of captivity in Egypt,
30:42 --> 30:45
400 years of the Judges, 400 years of the Kings.
30:45 --> 30:49
You had 70 years of exile. They eventually returned back and rebuilt the temple.
30:49 --> 30:54
The temple did get destroyed.
30:54 --> 30:56
The temple got rebuilt, however not to its former glory.
30:56 --> 31:00
It wasn't near the temple. It was originally.
31:00 --> 31:02
And the rebuilt temple is what Jesus went into whenever he came.
31:02 --> 31:06
And then, after all this takes place, they eventually fall anyway.
31:06 --> 31:11
And then you have 400 silent years.
31:11 --> 31:15
That means no prophets for 400 years.
31:15 --> 31:18
It's just silent.
31:18 --> 31:21
And just like we have today, so to speak.
31:21 --> 31:26
We have the Bible, but we don't have any new Scripture.
31:26 --> 31:29
We don't have any new prophets.
31:29 --> 31:31
Everything's closed, and what we're waiting on now is the Savior to come back the second time.
31:31 --> 31:39
We're waiting on that. We're waiting on certain things to take place before the Savior comes.
31:39 --> 31:45
Then the Savior comes, and we'll have prophets again during that time.
31:45 --> 31:52
It's going to be a fascinating time.
31:52 --> 31:54
But anyway, right now, they have 400 silent years, and everybody is waiting on the special messenger.
31:54 --> 32:01
Who is this special messenger going to be?
32:01 --> 32:04
It's going to be John the Baptist.
32:04 --> 32:07
Yeah, it's going to be John the Baptist, and he's going to prepare the way for the promised Savior.
32:07 --> 32:14
All right. So, God willing, next week we will get into the ministry of John the Baptist.
32:14 --> 32:22
We will get into the New Testament. We'll get into what baptism means.
32:22 --> 32:26
I mean, John the Baptist baptized, right?
32:26 --> 32:29
So we'll get into understanding all those things and be introduced to the New Testament.
32:29 --> 32:34
All right. Covered a lot of history, and with that we'll go ahead and stop.
32:34 --> 32:38
Lord willing, see you all next door. See you all online at the morning service.
32:38 --> 32:44
