Episode Transcript
All right, anybody know what time it is?
10 o'clock, that's right.
Good job.
Outstanding.
Last week we began looking at God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer, which you will find in 2 Kings chapter 19, 2 Kings chapter 19, the same place we left off last week.
And I also would like for you to mark John chapter 3 in your Bible.
Just put a marker there, and I'm hoping we can get to that point in our study today.
2 Kings 19 is our text in John chapter 3.
Mark that.
So when we come to it, you won't have to be flipping through the pages to find it.
We'll actually look at it together because it will help us to understand part of our lesson.
And as you turn there, I'm so excited to hear that a new Genesis to Jesus class is going to begin, I believe, next week.
Now if you're new, and we speak to the online people as well, if you're new to the way we do things here, then I'm going to briefly explain it to you.
When a person comes to our church, whether they want to join or they just want to see what we have here, then we examine their profession of faith according to the Scriptures.
That's the first thing we want to know is, is the person a Christian?
And if they say they are, how do they know?
What are they basing that upon?
And in almost every case, we recommend that person go through the Genesis to Jesus class beginning then.
And that's not a verse by verse study as you have seen.
It is a journey from creation to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it hits the peaks along the way.
It doesn't explore every blade of grass like we do in here.
And the goal is to teach you about salvation by starting at the beginning of God's word so you can understand it.
And after people graduate from the Genesis to Jesus class, then we ask them to attend the Building on Jesus class, which is about eight weeks, where they're taught about things like baptism and tithing and what the Bible really says about speaking in tongues, things that might be controversial or be a mystery to you before that class.
And at that point, once you've graduated, which you all have, many of you have, we transition you to the strong meat.
You have to have milk first, and that's what the basics, the fundamentals of salvation, the fundamentals of the faith are.
They're the basics, and if you don't have that, you cannot go on to strong meat.
You'll be confused.
And we take you from spiritual milk to strong meat by slowing way down.
Imagine that.
We don't speed up.
We slow down.
By doing verse by verse teaching.
And we do that in my class and also in the 11 o'clock hour when our pastor speaks, and also on Wednesday nights.
And that's what you'll have for the remainder of your time with us, which I hope is a very, very long time until the Lord comes to take you with him.
Too many people just go to a church, and they never understand what salvation is.
Their pastors are often more committed to spouting off the same old tired sayings and cliches that some of you have heard, and I also heard.
Their doctrine is bad.
And they do that because that's all they know.
That's what they've been taught.
Most of those pastors don't know how to teach the Bible, or they're just too lazy to put the work in studying it because it is a lot of work.
So if you're attending here or watching the class online, and you've never been through the Genesis to Jesus class, I want to encourage you to put that this class, my class on pause, and start with Brother Fulton next door next week.
As he teaches from the first day.
Genesis 1.1 teaches you about your Bible and how you got your Bible.
And you'll never understand what we're talking about in here if you don't understand what he's talking about in there.
You just won't.
And contrary to maybe the way a lot of churches run, Brother Fulton and I don't compete with each other for attendance.
We don't compete for likes on Facebook or any kind of recognition.
We're not trying to make disciples of Richard or Andy, but disciples of Christ.
That's our goal.
And if you have any questions about any of that, about why we do things the way we do, please ask me or ask our pastor.
We're happy to tell you.
We don't take offense to that sort of thing.
In fact, it's hard to offend us at all.
But we certainly want you to know why we do what we do.
And now to our wonderful text in 2 Kings chapter 19.
Last week we were in verse 20, and we'll pick up with verse 21 this morning.
And for the new people in here, I'll give you the chapter and the verse.
So when I quote or read from a particular verse in the Bible, I'll tell you what it is, and I'll usually repeat it again.
And that way you can write it down in your notes.
Because I use a lot of scriptures, and if you have to wait to find it in your Bible, it delays the amount of time-- or it delays me being able to explain the text.
So just write it down in your notes.
Listen as I read it, and you can always go back and read it later for yourself.
And I do encourage you to take notes.
If you miss a verse, ask me after class to repeat it.
Sometimes you'll see my wife come up here, and she's not coming up here to say, boy, you're a fine preacher, even though she does say that.
She's asking for a verse that she missed.
It's important to her to have all the verses down in her notes.
But if you ask me after class to repeat the verse, I will.
And this keeps people from struggling to find a verse in their Bibles, during which time they'll miss what I'm teaching about the text.
Now, God chose to reveal his answer to Hezekiah's prayer through a prophet, through the prophet Isaiah.
He didn't always do that, but he did it here.
So let's look at verse 20.
I'm going to reread verse 20 and go right into verse 21.
2 Kings 19 verse 20, if you've just joined us.
"Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.'
This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him.
The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn.
The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee."
Now, let's look at verse 21.
This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him.
That is concerning Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.
And he uses this phrase, "the virgin, the daughter of Zion."
So the virgin and the daughter of Zion, that's the same reference there.
That is a question you may have.
You say, "Who is this?
Who is the virgin, the daughter of Zion?"
We're going to find out.
This very phrase is found in two other places in the Old Testament.
One of those is in Isaiah, I believe it's 37-22, but it's in Isaiah 37 where he is saying the same things as we read in 2 Kings.
Isaiah, and in what we're reading in 2 Kings, those are happening at the same time.
They're about the same thing.
And then it's also found in Lamentations.
But the virgin, the daughter of Zion is the nation of Israel.
And we're going to see how.
Write down Jeremiah 31 verses 3-6.
Jeremiah 31 verses 3-6 which says, "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, 'Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
Again, I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel.
Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria.
The planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things, for there shall be a day that the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, 'Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.'"
When God spoke through Jeremiah in that passage, he was speaking of a nation that didn't have all those adornments, those tabrets that couldn't make dances because they're merry.
They were in a sad state.
And he spoke to Jeremiah saying, "One day they'll be restored."
That's what all of that meant.
Now listen to Lamentations chapter 2 and verse 1.
Lamentations 2 and verse 1.
Now just for your knowledge, Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations as well.
"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger?"
So God is angry with Israel in that verse.
And then verse 10, still Lamentations chapter 2, but verse 10, "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.
They have cast up dust on their heads.
They have girded themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground."
And then skipping down to verse 13 in that same passage, "What things shall I take to witness for thee?
What things shall I liken unto thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I equal to thee that I may comfort the, O virgin daughter of Zion?
For thy breach is great like the sea.
Who can heal thee?"
All right.
So the question, one of the questions that you have to ask is referring to our text, "How can a nation as sinful as Israel be referred to as a virgin daughter?
How is that possible?"
They've gone a whoring after other gods.
They've left the Lord God, and they've worshiped idols and the gods of other nations.
They've sold themselves to do wickedness.
They've denied the Lord God.
In fact, Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 6, Jeremiah 3 verse 6, "The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, 'Has thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done?
She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree," and listen to this, "and there hath played the harlot."
The harlot.
A harlot is one who has committed fornication, who's played the whore.
So a harlot has not been faithful to her spouse.
And let's examine that for just a moment.
If a woman loses her virginity, she can never get it back.
It's a permanent loss.
If that virginity is lost to her husband, that's a wonderful thing.
That's the design.
That's God's design.
She's saved herself for her husband, so in losing her virginity to her husband, her loss is actually gain.
She's gained a husband.
She's now one with the one with whom she was before they were separated.
They were once two people in love with each other, and now they're one.
They don't physically, literally become one person, but they're one in God's eyes.
They're one.
And if you've read Ephesians chapter 5, that's a picture of the church.
But in the case of the virgin who plays the harlot, she's now lost her virginity to one who is not her husband.
How could she ever get it back?
So we're going to do the hypothetical situation.
How could she ever get that back?
There's only one way she could get that back, and that is if she could turn back time to where she was still a virgin.
Now that's impossible, isn't it, to turn back time.
There's not any of us in here who hasn't wished to turn back time to make a better decision about something, to undo something we did, but we can't.
We read nowhere of that ever happening in the Bible.
And for Israel, this harlotry, this hordom was spiritual.
Although the evidence of it showed up in their earthly behavior, they did commit all kinds of sexual sin, spiritual sin, robbing their brothers and sisters, intermarrying with unbelievers as well.
And many of them were unbelievers too.
It all went south.
But for Israel to be a virgin again in the eyes of God, she would have to turn back to a time when God first called her out of Egypt.
And that is also impossible because Israel cannot turn back time.
So we still have this question.
How can God refer to Israel as the virgin, the daughter of Zion?
Let me offer this to you.
There's only one way God can see Israel as a virgin daughter.
And that is if he does not see her in her sin, but rather he sees her in his son.
The only way God can refer to Israel as a virgin daughter is not if he sees her in their sin, because then he sees a harlot, doesn't he?
But when he sees them, when he sees Israel in his son, to see Israel as perfect and undefiled and sinless, he must see Israel through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The same gospel that was preached in Genesis 3.15 to Adam and Eve, the same gospel preached to Abraham, in whom all the nations would be blessed, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, David, to John the Baptist.
All of those men believed in a gospel whose savior had not yet come.
He had not lived and died for sinners and been resurrected from the dead.
But it was the same gospel, that gospel through which God sees Israel, it's that same gospel that the Apostle Paul preached.
And it's the one we preach today to sinners whose savior has already come and lived and died and rose again from the dead.
Let's look at what Jesus said to a very religious Jew, but he was lost, this Jew.
And that's in John chapter 3.
So flip right over to John chapter 3 verses 3 through 7.
You should already have that marked in your Bible.
So I'm going to read beginning in verse 3.
He's speaking to a man named Nicodemus, who's a ruler of the Jews.
That's what it tells us.
He was a Pharisee.
Tells us that in verse 1.
Verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Now stop right there.
Jesus just told Nicodemus the secret, and it's no secret, but the key to being once again seen as the virgin daughter of Israel, or of Zion, same thing.
Virgin daughter, the daughter of Zion, the daughter of Jerusalem.
Those are all the same terms.
And Jesus gave him what was obviously confusing to Nicodemus.
So look at verse 4.
Nicodemus saith unto him, "How can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
Now see, here's how Nicodemus, a very educated religious Jew, took this.
I'll give you another way to describe what he just said.
Jesus, how can we turn back time so that I could be born again?
You said I have to be born again.
How do we turn back time so I can go back into my mother's womb and be born again?
He had the wrong understanding about it, didn't he?
He thought that's the key.
That's the key.
Turn back time and let's try it again.
But there are some key phrases in that passage.
Be born again.
A man must be born again.
Look at verse 5.
Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
Now that's what Nicodemus was talking about.
"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again."
Jesus said, "You don't need to go into your mother's womb a second time and be born.
You need to be born again spiritually."
That's your only hope.
You might ask, "Why couldn't God just let me be born again physically so I could make better decisions and not be a spiritual harlot?"
I mean, now I know all this stuff that the Bible says and how I'm supposed to live and the things I'm not supposed to do.
I've had good teaching along the way and I understand it.
Why can't God just turn back time and let me try this one more time?
If God did that, and that was your only chance to be born again, you would die in your sin and be eternally condemned, and it wouldn't take long.
You see, you and I are physically born from a corrupted seed, from the corrupted race of Adam, every one of us.
"Wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world and death by sin, death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned."
So there you go.
That's what your second chance would look like.
If God said, "All right, we'll let you be born a man again and start all over."
Well, zero the count, wipe the slate clean.
You're already born from a corrupted race.
You have no chance.
You have absolutely no chance.
You will make the wrong decisions one more time.
To be born back into that race of Adam is to be condemned again.
God had a much better plan than that.
Even the educated Nicodemus didn't initially understand what that plan was, but Jesus explained it to him.
So you see from the explanation of the passage here in John 3, that this truth about the harlot Israel being seen as a virgin in God's eyes extends way beyond that earthly nation of Israel.
It's not just talking about that earthly nation of Israel.
In fact, it speaks of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ because the nation of Israel was a type of the Lord's church.
The nation of Israel was in bondage in Egypt and God delivered them from that bondage.
You lost person were in bondage to sin and through the gospel, God delivered you from that bondage.
You're Egypt.
And I think you learned quite a bit about that in the Genesis to Jesus and building on Jesus classes if you were over there.
But we repeat it often because we don't ever want to forget those things.
We want to be reminded of them just like we sing some of these hymns over and over again.
Well, what else is there to sing?
But praises to the Lord.
And we're going to keep doing that over and over again until he comes.
We don't have something else to teach and we don't have something else to sing in here.
Now, I want you to listen.
And by the way, the church is made up of a bunch of people.
Let's talk about our church.
We're made up of a bunch of people who just like the children of Israel were lost, undone, breakers of God's covenant.
Listen how the Apostle Paul uses the term virgin and shows how it can be applied to a defiled, unclean center.
So this is personal for you.
Doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman.
We're not talking about earthly virginity here.
We're talking about spiritually speaking.
He said in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2.
If you don't know how to spell Corinthians, C-O-R period, that'll work.
2 Corinthians 11 verse 2.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy."
"For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
Now, only when we are members, not of the earthly nation of Israel, but of the Israel of God as believers, can we be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ.
And we will.
If you're saved, you will be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ.
When he comes to get you, your vile body that we have here, that's got all kinds of things wrong with it, and will continue to have all kinds of things wrong with it until it results in our demise, that's going to be swapped for a glorified body.
You will be presented as a chaste, undefiled virgin to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in his sight, in God's sight you already are, but we'll get there here in just a minute.
So the Israel of God that I referred to is not a term I came up with.
The Israel of God is not the nation that we're reading about in the Old Testament.
That's not the Israel of God.
Now, there are some believers in that group who are of the Israel of God.
But the nation, the physical earthly nation of Israel is not necessarily the Israel of God.
Only the believers are.
And I'll show that to you if you're new to that truth.
Galatians chapter 6 verses 15 through 16.
Galatians chapter 6 verses 15 through 16.
Where Paul wrote, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
And as many as walk according to this rule," What rule?
The rule that it's not physical circumcision or being a Jew that matters, but being a new creature.
"And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them in mercy and upon the Israel of God."
That's who the Israel of God is.
The new creatures in Christ.
"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
That's the new creature to whom Paul was referring in Galatians 6 verse 15 and 16.
Now, you may recall that circumcision was the putting away of a part of the male child's flesh.
And the command to do that was given by God to the children of Israel.
And they were to do that on the eighth day.
Anybody remember what the eighth day represents in the Bible?
That's right, brother.
A new beginning.
Absolutely.
That's why I love this class over here.
You come in here and you're already armed to the teeth with good gospel doctrine.
And it just gets better.
And the physical act of circumcision signified the putting away of the sin of the one who was circumcised by faith in the gospel.
That's your inner man.
And the Gentiles were often called the uncircumcision.
The uncircumcision.
And you find that in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11.
But you also find it in several other places.
Because circumcision was given to the Jews, to the children of Israel, that was a specific mark that the male child was supposed to have is to be circumcised.
And so the Jews would call and the Bible calls the Gentiles the uncircumcision.
The other side.
Paul said it doesn't matter which one you are.
Aren't you glad?
It doesn't matter which one you are.
The new creature is the Israel of God.
Boy, that's some good, good doctrine right there.
So what Paul was teaching in the Galatian passage was that being a member of the Israel of God did not depend on whether you were circumcised or uncircumcised in the flesh.
But whether you're a new creature.
So for God to see Israel as a virgin is for him to see her as a new creature.
That's what that is.
This is some deep doctrine so you may have to chew on it a while but it applies to you and it applies to me too.
Thank God he doesn't look at me and see me as that vile sinner that I am.
But he sees me as that spiritual virgin because of my position in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And my position in the Lord Jesus Christ is my position in a sinless, spotless, undefiled son of God which makes me in my position a sinless, spotless, undefiled child of God.
Only when I'm seen through the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the works and holiness and those sorts of religions say well you got to keep that holiness up.
You got to keep that sinlessness up.
You can't.
Do you know the only way you can live above sin?
That's if you live above a bar.
If you're on the second story maybe that's how you could do that.
You can't live above sin.
That's not how God sees us.
He sees us in his son.
Look at the next few words in our text.
We're back in 2 Kings 19 so just flip back there.
We'll look at the next few words here in our text.
And it'll help you further understand this truth I believe.
This virgin daughter of Zion it says hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn.
Now who has the virgin daughter of Zion laughed to scorn?
Sennacherib and the nation of Assyria who represent Satan and his forces.
Another translation reads the virgin daughter of Zion has shown contempt for you and mocked you.
Now listen the defiled wicked nation of Israel that we're reading about right now and remember our the king we're studying Hezekiah is king over Judah the southern kingdom.
But the nation of Israel is supposed to be and is the unified children of Israel.
I think we mentioned that a few weeks ago when we were talking about how Hezekiah addressed God in his prayer when he said oh God of Israel not oh God of Judah.
He looked at him as the one who was the God of a unified people and you know that's what the virgin the daughter of Israel the daughter of Zion is a unified people with one head the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this defiled wicked nation of Israel had no right to despise or to laugh anybody to scorn.
You know why?
Because they were worthy of scorn and despite themselves.
But as the redeemed chased virgin of Zion the believers both then and now may laugh to scorn and despise the enemies of God because they're our enemies too.
Speaking of the wicked ones in Psalm 59 verse 8 Psalm 59 verse 8 the psalmist wrote but thou oh Lord shall laugh at them thou shalt have all the heathen in derision and derision is simply scorn or ridicule or mockery it's just another word for it.
If we are in the Lord, if you are in Christ then we laugh at what He laughs at.
If He holds the heathen in derision we will too.
But the lost people who are unsaved have no right to hold anyone in derision.
The defiled are mocking the defiled.
The condemned are mocking the condemned.
That's all they are.
In our flesh, in our sinful flesh, we have no right to condemn the condemned.
But in Christ Jesus we will do that one day.
Luke chapter 11 verses 30 through 32.
Luke chapter 11 verses 30 through 32.
Now you'll hear the name Jonas that's Jonah.
That's just the way the New Testament renders that word because it comes from the Greek language instead of the Hebrew in the New Testament.
For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites so shall also the Son of Man, that's Jesus, be to this generation.
The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
For she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here.
That's Jesus.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment, rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it.
For they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here.
So you see how it is that the Queen of the South and the generation Jesus is talking about and how the people of Nineveh who repented at the preaching of Jonah.
You see how they have a right to condemn?
They only have a right to condemn through the wisdom that they obtained from the Scriptures.
They were believers because of their position in Christ they will condemn the condemned.
Looking back in your text we further read in our text concerning Sennacherib the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at the... now this is the same as the daughter of Zion just a different name.
The word shaken now you'll find this interesting.
The word shaken is also translated as the word fugitive.
Now I know a lot about fugitives that's my line of work one of the many things that we do.
The list gets longer by the way.
Brother Fulton knows about fugitives.
So that's the word shaken and where might we find the first use of the Hebrew word translated as fugitive or shaken?
It's found in the book of Genesis like a lot of them are.
Like a lot of the firsts are.
Genesis 4 11 through 12 so write that down in your notes.
Genesis 4 verses 11 through 12 where God says this to Cain and now thou art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand when thou tellest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto her, unto thee her strength.
A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
Cain committed murder and became a fugitive from God and from his fellow man too.
Remember he protested to God he said every man that shall find me shall slay me.
He was afraid but you know Cain's religion was based upon works and God rejected his works because Cain had rejected God.
He rejected God's way that man was to come to him which was blood.
I remember teaching Sarah my youngest daughter about this when she was a little girl she was probably four or five.
She wasn't three because she just went when she was three but she's four she learned to speak the English language very well.
She was a little girl and so I taught her that Abel brought a blood sacrifice to the Lord and when I read to her what Cain brought and that God rejected it I said why did God not like what Cain brought?
You know what she said it wasn't blood she knew that at four or five years of age she didn't understand everything about the gospel and the bible and all that took place there in that scene she wasn't quite old enough to understand about the salvation being referred to there but when God said bring blood he would not accept anything else and so she was beginning to understand the gospel because she was beginning to understand that it is God who must be pleased with the offering.
When Cain killed Abel, Abel died in faith but Cain lived as a fugitive.
He lived as one who was shaken and it says the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee.
In other words you're a fugitive to this daughter of Jerusalem.
The Israel of God, the virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem sees the Assyrian king and all the Assyrians as a fugitive and this further proves that the earthly defiled nation of Israel is not truly the daughter of Zion because they also were fugitives from the covenant of God and today the majority of the nation of Israel is in unbelief so that makes them fugitives as well.
They have their talmots which are their biblical commentaries on the Torah the first five books of the bible and then the prophets.
They have that.
They have their apparel they wear, their wailing wall, all of their feasts and their ordinances but they have rejected the messiah.
They bring a pretty offering to God just like Cain did and he said nope you rejected my son the one who shed his blood but when Israel turns to their messiah one day when they turn to him in faith they will not only be the earthly nation of Israel but they'll be members of the spiritual Israel of God just like me and just like you if you're a believer.
Look in verse 22 continuing to speak about the virgin the daughter of Zion he said whom has thou reproach and blasphemed and against whom has thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the holy one of Israel.
Now let's look at that.
The question and this is a rhetorical question meaning the answer is obvious.
You could read it thou hast reproached and blasphemed thou hast exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high against the holy one of Israel.
That's what Assyria had done.
That's what Sennacher of their king had done.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed now we see another proof that the virgin the daughter of Zion is the spiritual Israel of God rather than this whorish earthly nation of Israel in our text.
Israel in her sin is no more lovely than Assyria in her sin.
Sin's never lovely in God's eyes.
He doesn't say oh well it's it's cute on these people over here but I despise it here.
God hates sin.
He despises it.
One has no right to condemn the other.
Assyria and Israel condemning each other.
That's the condemned.
We're approaching the condemned.
One has no right to blaspheme the other and I want to look at that word that it's in our text.
Whom has thou reproached and blasphemed.
That's a key word in this phrase blasphemed which means to revile.
In fact it's very similar to the word reproached and is translated as reproach in one other place.
But just about every time a form of the word blasphemy whether it's blaspheme blasphemist blasphemer blasphemus I think I got all the forms of the word.
Just about every time it's used in the Bible it is blasphemy against God.
Now there are a couple of exceptions found I believe in the book of Acts where the Pharisees falsely accused the apostles of blaspheming this place meaning their temple.
But in the Old Testament it's exclusively used against God.
That's what blasphemy is.
You see blasphemy in the Old Testament it's against God.
And what that means is if blasphemy is against God then how can it be said that Sennacherib is blaspheming the virgin the daughter of Israel.
I thought all blasphemy was against God not against a group of people.
Remember Sennacherib is blaspheming the virgin the daughter of Zion.
The undefiled Israel whom Jesus whom God sees through his son Jesus Christ through the gospel.
That's who's being blasphemed.
The Assyrians can help themselves blaspheming against the children of Israel as a nation because for the most part they were worth being reproached.
They had made God angry.
Aren't these people just a bunch of sinners living in the land of Israel.
Not in God's eyes.
Oh he sees the sin but he sees them in his son.
And we've seen that God is able to see Israel as a virgin only by seeing him through his son in the gospel covenant.
And that is we who are in Jesus Christ by faith in the gospel are not seen by God as sinners.
We're seen as members of Christ and of his church.
We're his body.
And we have to stop right there and we're going to come back next week and we're going to talk about what that means.
We are his body and how that applies to this text right here.
Don't you hate the clock.
We won't have one when Jesus comes to get us.
Let's pray.
Father we're so thankful for the faithfulness of the people who come and who tune in online.
And Lord we thank you for all who were teaching today and Lord we look forward to the next hour to hear more good Bible doctrine to learn how to live the Christian life and how to testify to others of the compassion that you've shown us through the gospel.
And I pray you'd help us to do that in Jesus name.
Amen.
