Feb. 9, 2025

The Gods of Babylon Pt 2

The Gods of Babylon Pt 2

We discuss the religion, idolatry, and religious practices of ancient Babylon

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We discuss the religion, idolatry, and religious practices of ancient Babylon

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All right, for the second hour, we're back in Isaiah

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chapter forty. I'm going to do a quick recap, not

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going to be able to go through everything we covered

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in the first hour always you know, well, it'll be uploaded,

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you know, soon after I get home, it'll be available.

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But Isaiah chapter forty, as we have talked about over

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and over and over, for some weird reason, after listening

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to one hundred sermons, sermon after sermon after sermon, wants

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to insert us into Isaiah forty when it's not about us.

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It's about Judah and Babylonia captivity. We've talked about that Isaiah.

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We have covered verse by verse Isaiah forty one through eleven.

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We've covered that there's words of comfort offered here to Judah,

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helping them understand that basically their time in captivity is

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coming to an end. We've talked about all of this,

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and then starting in verse twelve to seventeen, there's this

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section where Isaiah of course gives this message before he

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before they go in captivity. But God, to Isaiah, this

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message is given to try to demonstrate to the people

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who are explain to the people, teach the people of

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God's greatness. Of his power, of how he's in a

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sense incomparable to anything else. And you see this in

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Isaiah forty twelve to seventeen. We'll just read it quickly.

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It asked a lot of rhetorical questions. Who hath measured

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the waters in the hollow of his hand, meeted out

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heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the

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earth and a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales

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and the hills and a balance. The only one who

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has done that is God, meaning God is superior, greater

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than all of this. Who hath directed the spirit of

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the Lord being his counselor who hath taught him? No

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one has taught God. There's no one who can teach him,

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because he's all knowing, with whom took hey counsel, and

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who instructed him and taught him in the path of

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judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the

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way of understanding. No one. He didn't need any help,

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didn't need any understanding. Behold, the nations are as a

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drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small

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dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles

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as a very little thing Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

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nor the beasts thereof sufficient for burnt, offering all nichous

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before him or as nothing, and they're counted to him

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less than nothing and vanity. This is demonstrating God is

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greater and God and he wants to demonstrate God that

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the writer wants to demonstrate God's greatness to those in

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captivity for two reasons. The first reason was to show

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them that God is greater than the Babylonians who is

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holding them in captivity, to give him some sense of hope,

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peace and comfort. Second, they want he wants them to

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understand God's greatness and He's incomparable to anything, because they

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are in Babylon, and Babylon is known for all of

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its idolatry and all of its different gods that they have,

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and it wants them to understand it because in the

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very next section it goes into talking about idolagry. So

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because that's what God is attempting to do. What I

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decided to do in the first hour, and we're going

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to complete it in the second hour, is we are

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looking at because it is essential that we understand the

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religious context of Babylon during that time and What we

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need to know is that Babylon was one of the

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most religious, our most religiously complex and idle dominated societies

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in the ancient world. So what we did in the

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first hour is we went through the basically the pantheon

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of gods in Babylon. There were seven major ones. The

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first one is mark Duk, who was the supreme god

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of Babylon. Not going to go through everything about him.

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The second one was Ishtar. She's the goddess of love, war, fertility,

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and we talked about her. The third one is Nabu,

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the god of wisdom. The fourth of Shamash, the god

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of the Sun and justice. The filth one is sin

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which is the moon god. Number six is Nergal, the

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god of the underworld and the plague. And the seventh

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one is Tilmont, the primordial chaos goddess whom Marduk defeated

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to bring order to the universe. Those are the gods

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of Babylon. The main thing you need to take away

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from this is these gods were involved in every aspect

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of life for the Babylonians. It was it was. They

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were connected to the king, they were connected to justice,

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they were connected to the government. They were connected to truth,

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they were connected to wisdom, they were connected to everything.

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So if you're the if you're a part of Judah

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and you'rept held captive within, if you're held captive within Babylon,

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what are you going to be influenced by all of

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that religious system? So when they come out of captivity,

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what is a great chance they're going to bring with

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them those religious ideas. So God God is taking the

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time here in Isaiah to show them the true God

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is greater than these other gods. All right, that's what

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he's attempting to do and trying to talk about. All Right.

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Is that a good enough summary? I hope so. All right,

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So that brings us to now what we're going to

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start in this hour. All Right, We're going to talk

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about the Babylonian idolatry and their worship practices. We're going

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to talk about the idolatry specifically and their worship practices. Okay,

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all right, does that make sense? All Right, here we go.

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Let's talk about the role of idols and Babylon. Let's

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talk about the role of Babylon. The role of idols

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and Babylon. This entire section is going to be about

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Babylonian idolatry and the actual practice. Okay, so we're going

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to start with the role of Babylon or the role

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of idols and Babylon and obviously this becomes a physical

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representation of gods. Babylonian religion relied heavily on idols, which

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were believed to house the divine presence of their respective God.

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I need you to understand that, all right, in Babylonian thought,

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the idol housed the divine presence of their respective God.

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All right, why is that important? How do we typically

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preach against the idolatry of Babylon. They built this idol.

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It's nothing. It's just wood, it's just gold, it's just

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material they came up with. How stupid are they to

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worship something that they built. It's ridiculous, it's meaningless, it's useless.

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A Babylonian would have said back, what, it's more than

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the gold and silver, It houses the divine presence. So

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you need to understand that sometimes our way, the way

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we sometimes speak of their religion in many cases, is

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not always accurate. Right. I just want you to understand that.

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It's because so many times what happens you come to church,

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you hear a sermon, whatever the pastor says about the

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religious system of whatever, people have a tendency to do

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what just accept it. So one of the things that

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ticks me off when pastors speak about Satanism, drives me

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crazy because they almost always misrepresent it. One of the

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reasons I went to a Catholic universities. I got tired

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of hearing pastors speak about Catholicism and demonstrate they had

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no clue what they're talking about. From a practical standpoint,

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here's what I want you to understand. Whenever we speak

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of another religious system, what is paramount that we do

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that we speak accurately and we speak truthfully, right, because

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misrepresenting it. If I miss just represent it and then

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argue against it, I'm not actually arguing against the real thing.

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I'm arguing against a straw man that I created to

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knock down. And that's an easy that's a logical fallacy.

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But it's a common thing people do in arguments, right,

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even in politics. If you're going to argue against another side,

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you don't fairly represent it. You create a straw man

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and then you can knock it down, and then you're like, look,

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I'm worse smarter than them because you completely misrepresented the

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entire idea. You always got to be accurate. So for them,

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an idol was more than just the materials that were

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used to build it. It was what a house of

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the divine presence? Does everybody understand it? It was a

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house of the divine presence. These idols were made of wood, gold, silver,

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and stone and were regularly maintained by priests through rituals

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to sustain them. So they knew what it was made of.

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But they would do things to sustain the house, right,

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because it was just the house for the deity the

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same way, and we can mock it, we can mock that.

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But did not Israel maintain the temple. They maintained the

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temple and guess what they believe God's dwelt in it? Okay, right,

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So just it's the same concept, right, it's the same concept. Right.

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Just want to make sure we have a better understanding here, right.

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The gods were believed to dwell in the idol, meaning

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they were physically present in them. They believed they were

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physically present in them. So if so, if you would

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have walked up to a Babylonian like that's nothing it's

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just wood, gold, silver, It's nothing that would be like no, no, no, no,

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there's more there. Now, the question is how did the

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physical presence of their deity end up inside the idol?

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How does it get there? Does anyone know how it

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gets there? They had a ritual to get it there? Right,

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This ritual it would be spelled mis pi, two separate words,

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miss p. Right, it's the ritual of miss p, the opening.

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It's called the opening of the mouth. It's the ritual

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of miss p. It's the opening of the mouth. This

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is one of the most significant ceremonies for idle worship.

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It was the mispe or the opening of the mouth

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ritual which activated a new idol and infused it with

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the divine presence. This is how the divine presence entered

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in by doing this ritual of miss p. That the

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opening of the mouth, and it activated it. So if

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you had an idol and it hadn't gone through that ritual,

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it didn't have the divine presence. If you went through

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the real than it did. Right. So just this is

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how it actually occurred. I was watching briefly just a

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YouTube video this morning, and I don't know the credentials

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of the individual. But he was mentioning this very thing,

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this ritual of miss P, and I was like, oh, okay,

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that's okay, good. I'm on, there's at least someone out

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there who agrees with me on this, right, because that's

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the ritual that did this right. Priests would perform purification

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rites and cantations and sacrifice to make the idol suitable

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for God, to their God to dwell in. So whatever

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God was going to do well in it, they would

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do incantations, sacrifices, things opening the mouth in a sense,

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opening that God or opening that idol for the divine presence.

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So just make sure you understand that that they just

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telling them. It's just would go that would have been like,

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you don't even understand my religion. There's a God inside

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of it. Now, we wouldn't believe there's a God inside

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of it, but they they would, and they so just

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make sure we understand that all right now. Once the

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ritual was completed. Once they completed completed, miss P, guess

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what the idol would be treated as living deity. It

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would be carried in processions, it would be clothed, and

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then they would do an animal sacrifice in a sense

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in order to like feed their God. Right, So if

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you don't understand, miss p, you don't understand idolatry of Babylon?

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Does that make sense? And I'm not by no means

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I am I saying it was you. I cannot prove this.

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I do not have the knowledge to prove this. I

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don't know if that was a unique thing to Babylon

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on the loan, but I would pretty much bet it was.

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It all right, I'm pretty much sure that there was

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some similar thing in all cultures and they because we

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always kind of treat it like these people bowing down

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to this stupid piece of metal, Like pastors tend to

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really speak speak down of that, like the people are stupid.

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It's like that's not quite the way it went. They

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believe there was a god inside of it. Does that

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make sense? So the thing is, we can disagree with

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the idolatry, but we want to fairly what represent the idolatry?

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Do you see the difference? You can one thousand percent

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disagree with something, but you gotta accurately represent it. That's

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when I get I get so ticked off every time

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Christians want to yell and scream because some celebrity saying

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imagine by John Lennon. It ticks me off. The Christian

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Post just recently, I think, within the last two or

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three months, was going off on against someone saying, you know,

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I think they were mad because some liberal politician played

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Imagine by John Lennon. Oh my goodness, it's anti crisis evil.

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It's evil. It's evil. It's like, could you at least

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represent the song accurately. I may disagree with the message

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that John Lennon was trying to say, but what he

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was trying to say is we need to get rid

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of all the things that divide us. What divides us?

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You tell me, religion doesn't divide us, that does. Hey

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wanted to imagine a world where there would be no division.

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There would be no heaven in hell because that's a

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symbol of what division with a world where there is

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no religion? Why, because it is divisive. Now you may

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disagree with him thinking that there's a way that that's

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ever going to happen, but you can understand why someone

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would like to imagine a wor where it wasn't that way.

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And if there's anyone who probably ultimately knew about division,

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when you get shot and killed in Central Park. You

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probably know about a device the world, right, He kind

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of knew how it was going. He didn't like it.

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Do I agree that his solution? No? But can we

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all I would like to imagine a world where there

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would be no division. I would like to imagine a

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Christianity where we didn't fight about every single verse. Oh

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but that's satanic. No, that's Antichrist, and it's evil. It'sy.

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It just ticks me off that. How about we say hmm.

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John Lennon had a perspective on the division in the world,

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and his solution was, let's just remove all division. There'll

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be no country, there'll be no border, there'll be no this,

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there'll be no that. I know all the song. I'm

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just naming things. Okay, do we agree? I know? Maybe not?

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Does that make it? Can we just accurately represent it

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as like he was in a basement with a pentagram

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with a goat he cut open and he was like,

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oh God, the Satan has given me the song. I mean,

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can we just it's so ridiculous how we have to

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do that. Sometimes it's just like, okay, can we just

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discuss the song? Well, when we discuss the religion of Babylon.

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We need to accurately, accurately represented. They weren't just like

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they just went picked up wood and built this thing

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and believed it was just wood and just gold. They

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believe something else was there. Do we disagree with that, Yes,

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but that doesn't that gives you some insight, right, just

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like Israel believed who resided in their temple God. Right,

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So now of course we can argue the difference, but

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the point is there's a similarity there. Does that make sense?

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All right? Now? So that's the the opening of the

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mouth ritual misp and uh and yeah, just know everything

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about that. So that's a little bit about the role

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of idols, that it's the opening of the mouth. I

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think there's probably one more thing, a couple that we'll

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talk about. A couple of their festivals and processions. The

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New Year festival is spelled a k i tu akatu.

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Maybe I don't know this one. I don't even know

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how to say. I don't even have a clue. I

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didn't even bother to look this one up. It's the

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or to look up how to say it. I looked

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up information about it. But Akatuu festival, this is the

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New Year Festival. It was one of the most important

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religious festivals where Marduk's idol was paraded through the city.

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The king would participate, bowing before the idol and reaffirming

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his submission to Marduk. Now, see, once again, what do

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you have the mixing of the civil authority, government with religion.

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And I'm telling you, we've talked about how anytime that's

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happened in history, people die. It always goes bad, Okay,

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And I don't want to go back and repreach everything

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I did in the first hour. As I said, plenty there,

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all right, But yeah, that just drives me crazy that

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I can't stand that, all right, I can't stand it

285
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from just make sure we know that I don't like that.

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I don't like it even when government leaders do it

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with Christianity, because inevitably then they act like God is

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on their side, and it always leads to all kinds

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of problems and issues. So daily rituals and vod presenting food,

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drinking incense to the gods, and they and these gods

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were believed to maintain cosmic balance and divine favor. Of course,

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everyone believes God is on their side. Everyone always does,

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all right, So The main thing is the Akatu festival

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was the New year festival, and Marduk's idol was paraded

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and everyone bowed down before it. Basically, all right, you

296
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had daily rituals and going on those kind of the

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things happening there now. Divination and astrology and babylon divination

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and astrology. Babylonian religion was deeply tied to divination, particularly

299
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by omens from the stars, animal introls, and dreams. So

300
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they were always trying to contact and do things to

301
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contact some kind of spirit or something to get information answers.

302
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Astrology was developed by the Babylonians and played a major

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role in decision making for kings and priests. What are

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the stars doing? What do the stars mean? How do

305
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they have impact on our lives? The gods were believed

306
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to communicate their will through celestial movements, so by latching

307
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the stars, that would interpret that as God telling them

308
00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.680
what to do or not to do? Do this, do that?

309
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Do this? All right? There? Does that give us a

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good insight of the of the idolatry and religion of Babylon.

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Now keep that in mind because as we go through

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Isaiah forty, where we're getting ready to start in probably

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a week. Guess what it's going to be about idolatry,

314
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and you know what it's going to sound like like

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it's responding to everything we're reading. You know why because

316
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it was written to a specific people in a specific

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historical setting, and it will make perfect sense at that point.

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All right, Now, so that gives us the Babylonia idolatry

319
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and worship practices. Now, let's consider why Isaiah forty attacks

320
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Babylonian idolatry. Right, I'm going to give you two passages

321
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to look at. Specifically, look at Isaiah forty. Look at

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verses eighteen through twenty. We'll read these Isaiah forty, eighteen

323
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through twenty. Everybody there, It ask a question, does it

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not to whom? Then? Will ye like in God? Or

325
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what likeness will you compare under him? Now, the idea

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is you should not be liking in God to anything,

327
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and there should be no likeness you're comparing to him,

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because he's what incomparable. I think that's the words they

329
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we use. I think that's the word we used in

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our outline. Right. Look in verse nineteen, the workmen melteth

331
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a a graven image. That's what we just talked about

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the goldsmiths spread it over with gold and cast its

333
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silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath

334
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no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot. He

335
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seeketh under him a cunning workman to prepare a graven

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image that that shall not be moved. That's going immediately

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to what idolatry. You know, when preachers preach us, you

338
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will say, these people were so ridiculous. They made this

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idol and they bowed down to it. How dumb can

340
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you be? Well, just remember, even though you may think

341
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it's foolish, they're not bowing just to wood or silver

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or gold. They're bowing to what they believe is the

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divine presence of a god. Right. Just make sure we

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understand that, Okay, not saying we have to agree with it.

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The other passage is versus Isaiah forty. Look at verse

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twenty five. He does the same thing, basically, very similar.

347
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What does he start with again in verse twenty five?

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To whom then will ye liking me? Or who shall I?

349
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Who shall I be? Equal? Saith the Holy One? Lift

350
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up your eyes on high, behold who hath created these

351
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things that bringeth out their host by number. In that

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interesting that he specifically mentions what the host by numbers is,

353
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what the stars, the heavens, what was key to Babylonian astrology.

354
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So what is he trying to demonstrate? God created all

355
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of that? The God of Israel is the creator of

356
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all of that, which is even almost a bigger claim. Marduk.

357
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Remember how it is in Babylonian religion, there was the

358
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goddess what was her name again, I don't have in

359
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front of me. Tamatu, right, Tamata, right, Tama Tamah Right,

360
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Tama Tiama was the goddess. She's the premortal. She's there

361
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at the beginning. She's the god of chaos, all right,

362
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She's the god of chaos and other things. Right, Tama

363
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is this god of chaos? So everything was chaos. Marduk

364
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showed up, defeated her and brought order to the universe. Right,

365
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So he just defeated a goddess and brought order. Israel

366
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is being taught, guess what, our God created everything. He

367
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didn't just bring out order from chaos. He created everything

368
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in the first place. So it's trying to demonstrate the

369
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supremacy of God so that they understand that does that

370
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make sense? All right? So, and Isaiah forty eighteen through

371
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twenty and Isaiah forty twenty five through twenty six, depending

372
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how you read this, some say this almost there's almost

373
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like a ridicule of their idolatry and contrast to the

374
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One True God, or at least it's being shown to

375
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be almost ridiculous compared to what the true God. Do

376
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you worship the God who created everything? Or do you

377
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worship something that's part of the creation. Does that make sense?

378
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So that's what they're trying trying to be trying to demonstrate.

379
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So if you look at Isaiah forty eighteen through twenty,

380
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which we just read a minute ago, all right, I'm

381
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gonna read it from a different translation. To whom then,

382
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:34.960
will you like in God? Or what likeness compare with him?

383
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An idol, a craftsman cast it, and a goldsmith overlays

384
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it with gold and cast it for silver chains. He

385
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who is too impoverished for an offering, chooses would that

386
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will not rot? He seeks out a skillful craftsman to

387
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set up an idol that will not move. In Isaiah

388
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forty eighteen through twenty, Isaiah in a sense is almost

389
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mocking the human made nature of idols. They are crafted

390
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by men, yet worshiped as divine. Isaiah is somewhat mocking it.

391
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So make sure we understand that Isaiah is. But Isaiah

392
00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:14.200
is mocking it using whose words? God's words? Yeah, God's words,

393
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so God. So it's almost like what it's happening here

394
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is God's trying to establish. Guys. I know you've been

395
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in captivity for seventy years. I know you've been around

396
00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:28.400
this religion. I know from a practical sense you may

397
00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:32.440
think what their God is greater than me because my

398
00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:38.839
temple was destroyed. But I want you to know that's ridiculous.

399
00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:41.759
I Am the true God. That's what're trying to establish here.

400
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:46.279
Does that make sense? The Babylonian priests claim their gods

401
00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:51.480
inhabited these statues. Don't forget that. They claim that. Isaiah

402
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:58.400
emphasizes that these idols and reality are what. Lifeless and

403
00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:02.200
mobile and powerless is what he ultimately wants to demonstrate.

404
00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:06.440
They're lifeless and mobile and power Someone has to carry it.

405
00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:11.079
They have to carry it right, right, so, and they

406
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:13.640
know they have to carry it right. Eh. But it's

407
00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:15.839
going to be very hard though, to convince the people

408
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:19.160
of Judah that these things are powerless. Why is it

409
00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:21.480
going to be hard for them to realize this? Because

410
00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:30.359
from a practical perspective, the God of Babylon captured Judah,

411
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:35.799
destroyed the temple, and they've now been here for almost

412
00:26:35.880 --> 00:26:37.799
seventy years. We don't know exactly at what point they

413
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:40.000
get this, but they're going to be there for seventy years,

414
00:26:40.519 --> 00:26:46.359
and they so from a practical standpoint, from a site perspective,

415
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.400
it would look like the God of Babylon or the

416
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:52.160
gods of Babylon are greater than the God of Israel.

417
00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:54.680
And so what they're going to have to do is

418
00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:59.759
they're going to have to believe by faith when everything

419
00:27:00.279 --> 00:27:04.799
them may say otherwise. Does that make some sense? All right?

420
00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:07.319
Look at Isaiah forty twenty five through twenty six, which

421
00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:10.240
we've already read. I'm gonna read it one more time.

422
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:13.559
To whom, then, will you compare me that I should

423
00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:16.079
be like him? Says the Holy One. Lift up your

424
00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:20.519
eyes on high, and see who created these He who

425
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:24.279
brings out their host by number, calling them all by name,

426
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:26.880
by the greatness of his might, and because he is

427
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:31.400
strong in power, not one is missing. Basically, like, hey, guys,

428
00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:35.359
I created all of this. So what is the critique

429
00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:40.359
being offered here? While the Babylonians worship the stars as

430
00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:45.240
divine beings connected to marduk Ishtar and Sin, Yahweh is

431
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:49.119
presented as the one who created and controls them. See,

432
00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:53.319
within the Babylonian religion, marduk Ishtar and Sin would be

433
00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:55.880
very much connect those are three of their deities would

434
00:27:55.880 --> 00:28:02.319
be connected to these stars and almost as being divine beings. Almost. Well,

435
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:05.640
guess what they're being told? God is the one who

436
00:28:05.640 --> 00:28:11.000
created and controls them. Now, from a philosophical standpoint, you

437
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:13.319
could see this could be a little struggle. Well, if

438
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:17.039
God controls there, if my God controls them, then how

439
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:20.200
come I'm in Babylonian captivity? Right? You can see where

440
00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:24.119
that could raise some questions. Right, God's sovereign power over

441
00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:29.960
creation makes him incomparable to the powerless Babylonian idols. So

442
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:32.680
you can see in those sections those gods are being

443
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:41.839
white critiqued, They're being challenged. Now this raises the question

444
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:47.440
why would Isaiah then? Why why would Isaiah attack these

445
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:51.920
Babylonian Why would he attack these Babylonian idols? Why would

446
00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:55.359
he go through this well, we see the critique, he offers, Right,

447
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:58.680
we see that, but we need to consider the impact

448
00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:05.000
of Babylonian idolatry on the Israelites. All right, I want

449
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:06.839
you to think of how it would end. So I'm

450
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:08.440
just going to ask you. I've got how many here?

451
00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:12.720
I got at least two? Well? Could we could probably

452
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:14.599
do it a couple of different ways, but just think

453
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:16.720
about it from a practical standpoint. I'll just kind of

454
00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:20.519
present this to you, all right, if you try to

455
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:24.119
imagine you live back in that time, so you're going

456
00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:27.759
to have much more of a superstitious religious kind of

457
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:29.960
way of thinking than our modern world. It's going to

458
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:31.920
be you're going to have everything's going to be connected

459
00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:35.160
to a god. Everything, you know, the wind, everything in

460
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:37.160
your mind. It's just the way it would have worked

461
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.599
at that time. You get carried off into Babylonian captivity

462
00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:44.240
and you see all of their idols, all of their religion,

463
00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:48.559
and you're surrounded with it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night.

464
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:50.920
You're there week after week, month after month after month

465
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:55.440
after month. What would be the practical implications and how

466
00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:58.119
it would possibly impact you. That's what I want you

467
00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:02.440
to think about the prac This is not theoretical. This

468
00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:06.240
has real world application for these people. That's why, that's

469
00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:08.799
why you've got to interpret the text in light of

470
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:13.720
what's happening here. Right. Oh, the kids are born into it, yeah,

471
00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:17.720
I mean this is all they know. They've never seen

472
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.599
the Temple, they've never seen the Jewish religious system, even

473
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:26.000
at work. This is all they would know, all right,

474
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:29.000
So I think we can I think this is a

475
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:32.839
given they would be tempted to adopt to Babylonian worship.

476
00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:34.960
I mean, I think that's a given. Right, Can we

477
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:39.079
agree to that. Living in Babylon, the Israelites were constantly

478
00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:44.720
exposed to idle processions, sacrifices, and state sponsored religious festivals.

479
00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:50.559
Government sponsored religious festivals. Some Israelites may have been tempted

480
00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:53.480
to conform or even believe that the Babylonian gods were

481
00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:58.400
stronger since Babylon had defeated Judah. So there's a temptation there.

482
00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:01.960
There's no way to get around that. They would be tempted, no,

483
00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:06.400
in some cases, just to conform, right, I mean, you're

484
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:08.960
in captivity. It's probably good not to take off your

485
00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:12.559
captors by you know. I don't believe in your God, right,

486
00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:16.319
your God? Your God is nothing? Okay, that probably is

487
00:31:16.359 --> 00:31:18.599
not gonna go well for you long term, right. I

488
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:21.000
mean people say, well, I would never do that, Okay.

489
00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:23.440
I understand all the big talk we like to do

490
00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:26.000
in church, but the reality is they've been there year

491
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:28.559
after year after year after year after year after year.

492
00:31:28.680 --> 00:31:32.200
You may start questioning where your God even is. You

493
00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:35.880
may start question, I think my God took a long vacation,

494
00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:40.079
or maybe my God was defeated along with our entire nation.

495
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:44.680
Maybe our God is dead. I know that sounds ridiculous

496
00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:47.680
to us, but and their way of thinking, I think

497
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:50.960
that would be a very feasible possibility. So there's gonna

498
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:54.799
be great temptation there. Can we agree that would be

499
00:31:54.839 --> 00:31:58.839
a major impact, right? Not now, I'm gonna I didn't

500
00:31:58.880 --> 00:32:00.880
write this one down, but we talked about in the

501
00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:04.200
last hour. I think a second temptation. The temptation would

502
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:08.279
be to how did I put that one? To basically

503
00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:11.599
adopt it right, to just follow their system. I think

504
00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:14.640
a second one, and this is similar, would be to

505
00:32:14.799 --> 00:32:25.000
merge it critism, to merge Babylonian concepts with the Jewish system,

506
00:32:25.559 --> 00:32:28.880
and you merge it to some syncretistic religion, which is

507
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.920
constantly I mean, it's always the impact that happens everywhere.

508
00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:33.519
They did the same thing when they came out of

509
00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:35.440
Egypt and they wanted a golden calf. Where did they

510
00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:39.279
get the golden calf idea from Egypt? Right? So I

511
00:32:39.319 --> 00:32:42.839
think there was a concern of syncretism merging the two

512
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:45.720
concepts together, and they got to just understand, there's nothing

513
00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.400
they need from the Babylonian religion. They got to leave

514
00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:53.200
it alone. Right. Does that make sense? All? Right? So

515
00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:56.759
what as Isaiah chapter forty tries to do. Well, It

516
00:32:56.759 --> 00:33:01.839
tries to reaffirm monotheism, and it systematically tries to review

517
00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:06.079
refute all of the Babylonian religious claims. Right, So let's

518
00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:08.039
look at some of the way. If you look at

519
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:12.160
Isaiah forty twelve to thirty one, basically this is an

520
00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:15.880
attempt to refute all of the reclaims of the Babylonian religion.

521
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:19.400
I'll just go through some of these. God created everything,

522
00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:26.480
not Mark Duk, not anybody else. No other Babylonian god

523
00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:31.359
created an everything. Only the God of Israel. God does

524
00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:37.000
not need to be sustained, unlike the idols that require offerings.

525
00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:42.039
God alone is sovereign over all the nations. Babylonian's power

526
00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:49.279
is temporary, all right, So they want them to know

527
00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:53.759
God has created everything, God doesn't need anything, and God

528
00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:57.079
is sovereign over everything. That's really what Isaiah chapter forty

529
00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:02.000
attempts to do. Right, God created everything, God doesn't need anything,

530
00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:06.079
and God is sovereign over everything. That's why I want

531
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:08.719
you to really get down in Isaiah chapter forty to

532
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:11.280
try to argue against this idolatry in all of this.

533
00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:14.320
It wants you to know that God created everything, doesn't

534
00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:28.239
need anything, and a sovereign over everything. All right? Does

535
00:34:28.280 --> 00:34:34.039
that make sense? Now? What do you think we can

536
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:41.760
do here to apply this in any possible way? All right? Well,

537
00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:50.800
let's do this idolatry and its basic definition. If we

538
00:34:50.920 --> 00:34:53.400
just want to make a simple definition. How would we

539
00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:57.639
define idolatry in its most basic simple definition, at least

540
00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:04.360
from a our perspective, is when we put anything before God?

541
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:09.320
When we give our worship to anything other than God?

542
00:35:10.239 --> 00:35:16.199
Right worship? Would we when we put anything before and

543
00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:20.960
when we give our worship to anything other we put

544
00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:24.840
it before? We give our worship too, And our worship

545
00:35:24.920 --> 00:35:29.480
is our time, our focus, our love, our devotion, our passion, whatever,

546
00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:33.159
all right, So, so worship would really have if we

547
00:35:33.159 --> 00:35:36.119
put anything before God and anything we give all of

548
00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:40.719
our worship too, that's other than God? Right, anything before

549
00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:44.880
our worship to anything other than There's there's idolatry at

550
00:35:44.920 --> 00:35:50.519
its very simplistic idea. Right. Obviously it involves in many

551
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:54.679
cases idols and other things. But at its very core,

552
00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:57.239
if you put anything before or if you give your

553
00:35:57.239 --> 00:36:04.559
worship to anything other than and I will argue by

554
00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:08.039
art because as from a Christian perspective, because we are

555
00:36:08.119 --> 00:36:14.559
born sinners, we are born by nature. What we are

556
00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:22.639
idolators by nature? And what is the idol of choice? Self? Right?

557
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:26.360
I know Calvin said he said something I'm paraphrasing, that

558
00:36:26.440 --> 00:36:30.599
the human heart is an idol factory and that we

559
00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:35.360
create idols. I disagree a little bit. It's not that

560
00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:39.679
the human heart creates idols. It's that within our heart

561
00:36:39.880 --> 00:36:44.159
is a sinful nature. So that we are the idol

562
00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:51.880
are What do we put before God us all the time,

563
00:36:54.239 --> 00:36:58.159
all the time. What do we give our attention, our focus,

564
00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:05.239
our worship, our passion to all of our thinking about us? Right?

565
00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:09.039
I talked about this, I did an hour long philosophical

566
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:12.440
discussion about what we can learn from dogs. And there's

567
00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:15.039
something dogs don't have that we have, right, and it

568
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:17.960
makes that and and so they've done the study demonstrating

569
00:37:17.960 --> 00:37:20.480
that a dog is far more content with its life.

570
00:37:20.599 --> 00:37:23.199
A dog is far more happy with its life than

571
00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:27.920
human beings. Are we because there's something they don't have

572
00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:29.199
that we have. But one of the things we have

573
00:37:29.320 --> 00:37:32.239
is this self consciousness. We are aware of self, and

574
00:37:32.280 --> 00:37:34.320
we are aware, and so we have all these feelings

575
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:38.519
and desires, but we are we are what overly consumed

576
00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:43.639
with what our self when people spend all the when

577
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:47.679
people go to counseling, because we are thinking about ourselves.

578
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:50.519
When we are, however, when we have fights with one another,

579
00:37:53.679 --> 00:37:58.159
self self self self self Self is the God we worship,

580
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:02.639
and so typically within Christianity, nobody wants to admit this

581
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:07.280
God is simply the tool utilized so that we can

582
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:14.400
worship ourself and then amazing God. What we ask Christians?

583
00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:20.280
What do we constantly say? They are wrong? They them,

584
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:24.079
They're the bad people, They're the ungoly people, they're the

585
00:38:24.199 --> 00:38:27.639
heath they are the false teachers. Everyone else is wrong.

586
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:31.480
Everyone else does wrong. Things. God is on whose side?

587
00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:35.119
Our side? I'm on God's side. I go to heaven,

588
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:38.920
you go to hell. I'm righteous, you're unrighteous. I have

589
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:41.760
the truth, you don't have the truth. God is the

590
00:38:41.880 --> 00:38:47.880
very tool we use to exalt ourself. I know I'm

591
00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:50.639
not supposed to say that in church, but it is true.

592
00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:54.400
What we should do is take down the cross and

593
00:38:54.440 --> 00:38:59.599
put pictures of ourself up there. God is simply the

594
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:06.199
oh we used to elevate us. I mean, how many

595
00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:11.280
times in sermons them, they them, they them, them, they them.

596
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:13.360
They are bad. They're the bad people. They're the bad

597
00:39:13.400 --> 00:39:18.559
people the world them. It's always condemning everyone else, condemning

598
00:39:18.599 --> 00:39:22.159
everything else. Everyone else is a false teacher. We have

599
00:39:22.280 --> 00:39:25.039
the truth, they don't have the truth. We're right, they're wrong.

600
00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:30.440
That's all Christianity does. Can you not see where that

601
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:38.519
could be problematic? Because in a subtle way we exalt ourselves.

602
00:39:39.039 --> 00:39:43.159
In a subtle way, we worship ourselves. We just disguise

603
00:39:43.320 --> 00:39:51.559
it as we're actually worshiping God. That's the essence of idolatry,

604
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:58.559
is it not. We are the idol So in modern terms,

605
00:39:59.159 --> 00:40:02.679
we're not so much. I know, whenever people talk about idolatry.

606
00:40:02.679 --> 00:40:06.480
What do we typically turn to? Okay, it's Super Bowl Sunday,

607
00:40:06.519 --> 00:40:08.400
so immediately you know where sermons would go to. If

608
00:40:08.400 --> 00:40:11.639
they're talking about idolatry. There'll be how many people fit

609
00:40:11.679 --> 00:40:13.840
into the stadium they're playing in tonight. I don't even know.

610
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:16.679
I don't even know. Does anybody know how big it is? What?

611
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:21.639
Okay about one hundred thousand? Okay, I'll speak wrestling terms.

612
00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:24.400
Was it last week? It was the Royal Rumble Indiana

613
00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:30.440
over seventy thousand people for a wrestling show. Now, those

614
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:36.599
people screamed, yelled, everything, sing along with the entrance music, everything.

615
00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:38.840
Just like tonight, people are gonna be yelling and screaming.

616
00:40:39.159 --> 00:40:42.719
They're gonna say that's idolatry, that's idolatry, that's idolatry. People

617
00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:44.960
are gonna be sitting watching I was listening just yesterday

618
00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:46.840
to a sermon. People will be watching the game on

619
00:40:46.840 --> 00:40:49.280
their forty five inch television. I was like, who's using

620
00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:51.599
a forty five inch television? They got problems there, Okay,

621
00:40:51.639 --> 00:40:54.639
But the point is, it's like I was like, we

622
00:40:54.760 --> 00:41:01.280
always think idolatry is something external. The external things are

623
00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:06.039
simply symbolic or symptomatic. It's just the symptom of what

624
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:12.280
it self. I do something for what reason? Because it

625
00:41:12.320 --> 00:41:17.639
gives me pleasure, because I have fun, because it's exciting.

626
00:41:18.559 --> 00:41:23.440
It's about me and what happens for some people in

627
00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:28.119
sports when it does. I mean certain people can't hear it.

628
00:41:28.119 --> 00:41:30.360
But there's a person back there teaching Sunday school right

629
00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:32.599
now that I'm very aware of. When they're watching the

630
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:35.639
Boston Celtics and it doesn't go their way. I can

631
00:41:35.719 --> 00:41:42.320
hear it from upstairs. Yeah, come on, if you've ever

632
00:41:42.360 --> 00:41:46.800
been a sports fan, you can get come really frustrated afterwards, right,

633
00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:52.000
really mad. Now, in reality, they're the ones all I did.

634
00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:57.119
It doesn't impact me, right, they lost, not me. I

635
00:41:57.159 --> 00:41:59.480
didn't mess up, I didn't miss the kick, I didn't

636
00:41:59.480 --> 00:42:02.039
miss the shit. It's on them. Why am I getting

637
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:05.320
bothered by it? But we become so connected to it.

638
00:42:05.400 --> 00:42:08.119
Why don't we become so connected to it because it's

639
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:13.079
we feel When they win, we feel like we won,

640
00:42:13.239 --> 00:42:15.480
but if they lose, we feel like we love. Right,

641
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:19.760
we become connected to it because it's about self, is See,

642
00:42:19.800 --> 00:42:21.800
everybody wants to make it in about Oh we got

643
00:42:21.840 --> 00:42:24.199
to get rid of these external things. You can get

644
00:42:24.280 --> 00:42:26.519
rid of football, you can get rid of music, you

645
00:42:26.519 --> 00:42:30.039
can get rid of Hollywood, you can get rid of everything.

646
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:36.320
And you don't get rid of the idol. Because it's you.

647
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:41.840
We're the idol. It's just true. It's because that's that's

648
00:42:41.880 --> 00:42:43.960
the very What do I always say about sin? How

649
00:42:43.960 --> 00:42:47.760
do I always define sin? Sin is the exaltation of

650
00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:51.000
the eye. The middle letter of sin s It's not

651
00:42:51.119 --> 00:42:55.440
really that clever. It's I that's sin. I the exaltation

652
00:42:55.519 --> 00:42:57.800
of me. Me me, me, me, me, me, me me.

653
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:00.880
What do I I always say just about love. Everybody

654
00:43:00.920 --> 00:43:04.000
loves the idea of love, but love to me, we

655
00:43:04.039 --> 00:43:09.880
love people for what reason? Because what we get we get.

656
00:43:10.679 --> 00:43:14.800
We love to get. That's what we love. It's hard

657
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:19.079
to love if you're not getting. If you don't receive,

658
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:22.119
you tend and then go find somewhere that I can

659
00:43:22.159 --> 00:43:26.079
get what I want and what I need. Does that

660
00:43:26.599 --> 00:43:31.400
so from a modern application? Does that make sense? Now?

661
00:43:31.760 --> 00:43:34.679
As one source says, we may not bow down to

662
00:43:34.760 --> 00:43:38.679
statues of Mardeaux, but modern now look at how this says.

663
00:43:38.840 --> 00:43:43.880
Modern societies has idols of power, money, technology, and self sufficiency.

664
00:43:43.960 --> 00:43:48.360
And I want to scream the idol is not power, money, technology,

665
00:43:48.360 --> 00:43:55.719
and self sufficiency. The idol is me. I want power

666
00:43:56.920 --> 00:44:01.519
because it makes it helps me. I want money because

667
00:44:01.639 --> 00:44:05.719
it helps me. I'm the idol. I don't know how

668
00:44:06.599 --> 00:44:09.320
it's so weird that we looking at it. It's like

669
00:44:09.480 --> 00:44:11.960
we walk into a room like that's an idol, that

670
00:44:11.960 --> 00:44:13.599
could be an idol, that could be an idol, that

671
00:44:13.639 --> 00:44:16.159
could be an and we point everywhere to except where

672
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:22.159
here we're the idol walking into the room. All right.

673
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:26.079
So Isaiah forty reminds us that anything we rely on

674
00:44:26.320 --> 00:44:28.559
instead of God as an idol, anything we put before God,

675
00:44:28.559 --> 00:44:32.119
anything that gets our worship as an idol. So I

676
00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:35.400
cannot stress that enough. Or that's probably the main thing

677
00:44:35.400 --> 00:44:37.199
I want to focus on, is just that right there.

678
00:44:37.559 --> 00:44:40.000
I just want to focus on that, all right, because

679
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:41.760
if I go to any of the others, then we

680
00:44:41.800 --> 00:44:47.840
missed that point. I just think, did they have idols, yes?

681
00:44:48.239 --> 00:44:51.440
Did they believe gods were inside those idols? Yes? But

682
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:54.480
you see how it was so connected into their society

683
00:44:54.559 --> 00:44:57.840
that those idols then become why it becomes connected to

684
00:44:58.679 --> 00:45:01.760
our country is right. Country is wrong. We are right.

685
00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:06.559
They're wrong because and aroundabout way, your God is an

686
00:45:06.599 --> 00:45:14.039
extension of yourself, and then God gives you justification, gives

687
00:45:14.039 --> 00:45:16.960
you salvation, gives you for whatever you need you get

688
00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:20.920
from God ultimately to build yourself up. There's a little

689
00:45:20.920 --> 00:45:23.480
bit of truth to that, even in Christianity, right, I mean,

690
00:45:23.480 --> 00:45:26.679
we got to acknowledge that, right, and so it's very

691
00:45:26.719 --> 00:45:29.199
easy before we know it. I just want you to

692
00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:31.599
see how quickly you can take a God that you

693
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:34.679
supposedly worship and bow and next thing you know, you've

694
00:45:34.800 --> 00:45:38.679
kind of simply turned that God into a tool so

695
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:41.559
that you can worship yourself while you're claiming to be

696
00:45:41.639 --> 00:45:46.920
worshiping God. It's easy to do, and I don't have like, well,

697
00:45:46.960 --> 00:45:49.199
how do you fix that? You just got to acknowledge

698
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:54.880
our propensity for self exaltation and self worship. We just

699
00:45:54.920 --> 00:45:57.840
have to acknowledge that. I mean, I want everything to

700
00:45:57.880 --> 00:46:02.119
go my way, don't you. I mean, man, as soon

701
00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:04.119
as something doesn't go our way, what do we do?

702
00:46:05.360 --> 00:46:07.760
We get mad? We get angry, we get mad, we

703
00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:11.199
get frustrated, we get discouraged, we get depressed, we get upset,

704
00:46:11.679 --> 00:46:14.960
and everything in life has to go my way. And

705
00:46:15.039 --> 00:46:19.440
for many people that becomes a problem even with their Christianity.

706
00:46:19.840 --> 00:46:23.159
If God doesn't do it their way, what happens? They're

707
00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:28.440
mad And you can understand why, because you've almost been

708
00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:32.400
taught and trained that God is the key to everything

709
00:46:32.440 --> 00:46:37.400
going your way. That's oh. And so I just want

710
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:41.000
us to see a from a practical standpoint, all of

711
00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:46.079
that idolatry should point to our idolatry. And whether it's

712
00:46:46.119 --> 00:46:49.960
an idol, whether it's anything else, those are just the

713
00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:53.519
symptoms of the idolatry that is us. It's not that

714
00:46:53.559 --> 00:46:57.239
the human heart is an idle factory. The human heart

715
00:46:58.639 --> 00:47:01.599
is an idol in and of itsl else, Okay, And

716
00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:04.639
we then look to anything to see how can we

717
00:47:04.719 --> 00:47:08.400
manipulate it for our own good? And again I think,

718
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:10.360
I know people don't like it, but I think because

719
00:47:10.360 --> 00:47:13.079
of our sinful nature, that's how we do love. Right,

720
00:47:13.599 --> 00:47:14.400
I'm gonna love.

721
00:47:14.280 --> 00:47:20.599
You because I get this, this, this, this, this, this,

722
00:47:21.320 --> 00:47:23.920
and if it doesn't start going my way, if I'm

723
00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:25.920
not getting more out of this and I feel I'm

724
00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:29.679
putting in, then it's amazing how you no longer are in?

725
00:47:32.800 --> 00:47:38.119
Well, what happened and what happened? What happened? Oh? I

726
00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:41.719
love you so much? Well, you know, yeah, you've done

727
00:47:41.760 --> 00:47:44.079
this and I'm not getting this, and I'm not getting this. Well,

728
00:47:44.079 --> 00:47:50.400
what happened? Yeah? You love yourself? Who do we love ourselves?

729
00:47:50.559 --> 00:47:52.480
So I think we can understand that, all right. So

730
00:47:53.119 --> 00:47:56.519
Isaiah forty's critique of Babylon is far more impacted, or

731
00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:59.840
let me think of this way. Isaiah Chapter forties critique

732
00:47:59.840 --> 00:48:05.599
of Babylon's idolatry is far more impactful when we understand

733
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:10.119
the deep religious system of Babylon, how idols were crafted, worshiped,

734
00:48:10.159 --> 00:48:14.280
and given divine power, how Israelites and XR would have

735
00:48:14.320 --> 00:48:18.559
been pressured to conform, and how Isaiah directly contrasts Yahweh's

736
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:23.960
supremacy with Babylon's empty gods. You can't understand Isaiah forty

737
00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:30.719
without understanding that idolatry. The more you see that idolatry,

738
00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:33.679
this is what I want us to take away is

739
00:48:33.719 --> 00:48:37.519
not to go those people were dumb. What I want

740
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:44.320
you to see is h idolatry is very much applicable

741
00:48:44.360 --> 00:48:50.519
to us because Babylon's problem, Isaiah, Israel's problems, Judas problems,

742
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:52.960
and our problems are all the same. Is that we

743
00:48:53.079 --> 00:48:57.800
have made ourselves an idol and all these other things

744
00:48:57.840 --> 00:49:03.280
are simply symptoms of the idolatry that is us. Now,

745
00:49:03.320 --> 00:49:06.199
I know that goes against every other theory on idolatry,

746
00:49:06.760 --> 00:49:09.800
but I'm going to stand my ground on that because

747
00:49:09.840 --> 00:49:11.920
I think it's true and we have to What do

748
00:49:11.960 --> 00:49:16.360
we have to protect? God is trying to protect them

749
00:49:16.599 --> 00:49:20.000
from the idolatry of Babylon. What we need to learn

750
00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:23.280
from that is we must be protected and Israel as well,

751
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:28.119
protected from the Babel, the idolatry of self. That's what

752
00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:31.199
we have to be protected from. All right. Now, I

753
00:49:31.320 --> 00:49:34.400
was going to go into then verse by verse study

754
00:49:34.440 --> 00:49:42.440
of twelve through seventeen, but obviously if I start that now, yeah,

755
00:49:42.719 --> 00:49:44.320
we're not going to get anywhere. So we're going to

756
00:49:44.400 --> 00:49:46.519
just stop now, all right, We'll stop now, right, So

757
00:49:46.559 --> 00:49:49.920
let's pray Lord God. We come before you this afternoon. Lord.

758
00:49:51.159 --> 00:49:53.079
We are grateful that we get to learn about this

759
00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:56.840
history and understand this text better. But Lord, let us

760
00:49:56.840 --> 00:49:59.480
not forget that we have been confronted with a reality

761
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:02.199
that none of us here want to admit. We have

762
00:50:02.239 --> 00:50:05.280
a tendency to love ourselves and worship ourselves, and we

763
00:50:05.519 --> 00:50:08.360
use You in order to do that. Forgive us for

764
00:50:08.559 --> 00:50:11.320
every time we have done that, forgive us for every time.

765
00:50:11.400 --> 00:50:14.920
We will do it today, tomorrow and in the future.

766
00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:17.679
And we are grateful that our salvation is not based

767
00:50:17.719 --> 00:50:19.880
on what we do, but it's based on what your

768
00:50:19.920 --> 00:50:22.159
son did for us. And it's in his name we pray,

769
00:50:22.159 --> 00:50:27.119
and God's people said