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Series Code: PJU
Program Code: PJU190010A
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00:03 Were the people in the Bible any different to us today
00:06 or ordinary people like you and me? 00:18 What can we find out from their lives that would help us? 00:26 Let's find out with Pr. Geoff Youlden and Rosemary Malkiewycz. 00:32 Here on People Just Like Us. 00:38 Sometimes in life it seems that coincidences occur. We may just 00:42 happen to be at the right place at the right time or 00:45 the wrong place at the wrong time. 00:47 But are all of these just coincidences or 00:52 can they be part of God's divine providence? Is God guiding this 00:57 world? And most especially will He guide us in our lives? Today 01:02 we will listen to some stories from history that will give us 01:06 more insight into life's coincidences. So let's listen 01:10 to Pastor Geoff as he shares these stories with us. 01:14 Welcome Geoff. Thank you very much, Rosemary. 01:16 Actually Cyrus, and I want to talk about King Cyrus of Persia. 01:21 Very interesting character. Probably not known to a lot of 01:25 our viewers except those history buffs. But a very interesting 01:30 guy because he was the conqueror of Belshazzar in Babylon and as 01:36 far as kings are concerned he was a pretty good king. I 01:43 say that on fairly good authority because even God said 01:46 some good things about him. And when God says some good things 01:51 we can say that he must have been a good man. Like many 01:54 of the ancient kings 01:57 there are legends about his life in history. One story 02:00 had him born in the mountains, suckled by a dog and educated 02:05 as a shepherd. Another legend makes his nurse and deliverer a 02:10 shepherd's wife. But when he emerged onto the stage of 02:14 history his empire stretched, can you imagine this, from India 02:20 all the way to Asia Minor. 02:21 Where's Asia Minor? 02:23 Asia Minor is the middle Eastern circle. So you imagine that 02:29 distance. It's a huge amount of area. 02:33 Actually he had the largest kingdom or empire up to that 02:39 time. Yes, well all history presents 02:41 him as a ruler with a singular mind to accomplish what he 02:45 wanted to do with a spirit of kindness. Now when he captured 02:49 Sardus, the capital of Lydia Croesus the king was condemned 02:52 to be burned as was often the cruel custom of the _. 02:57 And as they were getting the flames ready and Cyrus over 03:00 heard Croesus speak, he said that he heard from his lips what 03:07 Spartan, the philosopher, had said to Colon Count no man happy 03:13 until the end. Cyrus was impressed by this thought as he 03:19 thought about it and so he ordered the king to be set free. 03:23 Another story is interesting. As a child Cyrus was taught not 03:27 to drink. Once on a royal visit to his royal grandfather in 03:32 Media, Cyrus asked if he could have a go at being a cup bearer. 03:37 Now he did everything perfectly In fact, the king praised him 03:43 for the excellent job he did so well but the king said there was 03:47 one thing Cyrus that you didn't do. And Cyrus thought he had 03:52 performed pretty well and he said well what's that? And the 03:56 king said, You failed to taste the wine which was the job of a 04:01 cupbearer. 04:02 Wasn't that the most important job? 04:04 Back in those days, for poison and so forth. And he said you 04:08 should have done it before handing it to the king. Now 04:13 Cyrus said in answer, the young Cyrus, remember he's only a boy, 04:19 teenager, 04:21 Cyrus said he had not tasted the wine because he thought it had 04:25 been poisoned. And the king said, What do you mean poisoned? 04:31 He answered, Well it was poisoned the other day at the 04:35 feast you put on for your birthday. I know this by the 04:38 effects it had on everyone. The thing that you do not allow us 04:44 boys to drink, he says, you did yourselves. So the people were 04:49 rude and very noisy and they couldn't even stand up, so I 04:52 thought the wine must have been poisoned. 04:55 So he wasn't going to drink it. 04:57 He wasn't... that's right. And it was Cyrus who captured the great 05:01 city of Babylon. You may remember the story that goes 05:06 Babylon had ruled the world for many, many years under 05:11 Nebuchadnezzar who was its most famous king. And at the time of 05:14 Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar was now dead, and Belshazzar was the 05:19 current king. And while holding a lavish feast, a bloodless hand 05:23 wrote on the wall Menne, menne tekel Upharsin: You are weighed 05:28 in the balances and found wanting. Now the Babylonians 05:34 were aware the Medes and the Persians were outside the city. 05:37 They knew that. You're dumb if you didn't know that, I mean the 05:42 city wall. But they weren't concerned because when they 05:46 built those walls they built them impregnably. And there 05:50 wasn't just one wall, there was a series of walls. In fact they 05:53 used to race the chariots around the tops of the wall as their 05:58 entertainment. So they knew that there was no engine in the world 06:03 that could batter the walls down So they had a feast while the 06:10 Medes and the Persians were outside the wall. But what they 06:13 they didn't know is that Cyrus had done something very, very 06:16 cunning. He had diverted the water from the Euphrates River, 06:21 which flowed right through the center of the city. He diverted 06:25 the water into an artificial lake so that as the water level 06:30 dropped, then he marched his army underneath the walls. But 06:35 even then they would have been caught like rats in a trap had 06:38 it not been for the fact that that night they had forgotten to 06:43 lock the gates. Because the Babylonians realized that it was 06:46 possible that someone could do that and that they could get 06:52 into the city, but they couldn't get through the river even if it 06:57 dropped. They had these lead gates that went right down into 06:59 the bed of the river. Well unfortunately that night they 07:03 had forgotten to lock the gate. 07:05 You know what that story reminds me of? It reminds me of a ship 07:08 that was built that they believed was unthinkable and so they 07:16 didn't build the ship to the specifications. They made short 07:19 cuts, because, ah, this ship's not going to sink. And we don't 07:22 need as many life rafts and we don't need to make the steel as 07:26 thick in certain places. And so it's not going to sink so we 07:30 don't need the life rafts and so they didn't prepare for what 07:36 could happen. And it was the same thing here. I wonder how 07:39 many times they had left those gates open in the past. 07:42 Yeah, well, history would suggest that they hadn't left 07:45 them open, but maybe they had. 07:48 They just had a bad habit of leaving them open because no 07:51 one's going to get through anyway. 07:53 Well drunk men put up very little resistance against Cyrus 07:58 and the Medes and the Persians and that night, of course, 08:01 Babylon fell. And when Cyrus took over the kingdom the Jews 08:05 had been in captivity now for 70 years. Because remember 08:10 Nebuchadnezzar went over and took them captive. One of the 08:13 first things he did when he took over Babylon was to allow the 08:16 Jews to return to Jerusalem. He'd allowed them to rebuild 08:21 their temple. He'd also restored to them the sacred vessels that 08:24 Nebuchadnezzar had taken when he captured Babylon. In fact, 08:28 this remarkable proclamation is actually recorded in the book of 08:34 Ezra. And that, once again, I find very remarkable. Ezra, 08:39 Esther, Nehemiah. Just before Nehemiah. 08:46 Nehemiah, there's the little book of Ezra. Not often a 08:49 books that we read. But it's an interesting book particularly if 08:53 you're interested in history, because here is the proclamation 08:57 that Cyrus gave, or one of the proclamations that Cyrus gave 09:00 about freeing the Jews from Babylonia or from their 09:04 captivity... 09:30 Interesting statement, isn't it? He recognized the true God... 09:47 Do you know this here he's saying that all the kingdoms of the 09:53 earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. So he's 09:56 acknowledging that God gave them to him. He didn't win them 09:58 himself. He's also saying that He has commanded me. He's 10:05 acknowledging God as being his God really because then he said 10:10 in verse 3 he actually states He is God. And so it makes it 10:16 seem like Cyrus had become a believer in God through certain 10:21 circumstances. 10:23 Yeah, well, I think it's remarkable because when you look 10:26 at history you find that that's not the way kings acted on 10:30 conquered nations. They drove them into the ground, killed 10:35 them and... killed them as slaves. 10:37 yes. Here but Cyrus was a different type of man and a very 10:41 kindly man. But what actually blows your mind, Rosemary, is 10:46 the fact that 150 years before Cyrus was born, now just think 10:51 of that, 150 years before he was born, the Bible actually named 10:58 him to be the one who would set the Jews free from Babylonian 11:02 captivity. Let me read it to you Isaiah 44:26. In a Bible 11:13 it is remarkable and here is a specific statement where it says: 11:20 This is Isaiah 44:26, the second part... 11:34 Now Isaiah is asking who said that. Verse 27... 11:44 ...Now here's the man's name... 11:58 Here 150 years before Cyrus comes onto the scene, God 12:02 actually foretells that Cyrus by name. That would be like the 12:09 equivalent of us today naming the Australian prime minister 12:14 in 150 years, or the American president, in 150 years' time. 12:19 Who would be game even to think about it let alone... 12:25 The people were not even born they weren't even alive yet so 12:27 how did they even know what their names were going to be. 12:29 Well that's why, Rosemary, I think it's so remarkable that 12:32 this prophecy is so remarkable and God named him and... 12:37 But not only that God says that He's going to open the leafed 12:41 gates. God prophesied what he was going to do. 12:44 And how he would do it. And I think probably that Daniel who 12:48 was alive at this time of course when Cyrus conquered Babylon 12:51 and he became prime minister of two nations which once again is 12:55 very, very significant. He was prime minister in Babylon and 12:59 usually when the conquering nation comes up every one's out. 13:03 If not killed. Correct. 13:05 But here he had such confidence in Daniel that he was made the 13:10 prime minister of the next empire, of the Medo-Persian 13:13 empire and no doubt I would be very, very confident that Daniel 13:18 would have shown Cyrus these prophecies. 13:25 And obviously Cyrus accepted God so that when he made his decree 13:29 he could say confidently, God has given me these countries, 13:32 God has given me this to do. He is God. 13:43 Let's have a look at this. This is Isaiah 45:4. It says: For 13:44 Jacob my servant's sake and Israel my elect... 13:58 So God says, even though you don't know me Cyrus I named 14:02 you. Now once again I think that's very interesting because 14:07 that shows that even a person, like a viewer, may have stumbled 14:10 across our section today on the television and may not know God 14:18 may not have much interest in God, but God knows them. And 14:23 sometimes we look at things and we say well that was a 14:26 coincidence, that was lucky. But in actual fact, moving behind 14:32 the scenes God is arranging circumstances and we talk about 14:37 Divine Providence in history. 14:40 God doesn't control us and make us do everything we do, but He 14:44 can work things around to help lead us in a certain direction. 14:50 Let me read you, this is another statement here. This is Acts 14:55 17:26 talking about providence, Divine providence. It says: 15:17 In other words, here the Bible is saying God has preappointed 15:21 time. In other words, these things don't take God by 15:24 surprise. In Diving Providence God is in the background, in the 15:28 shadows so to speak, moving things to accomplish His purpose 15:33 and while we've often said before, it appears to many of us 15:39 that wrong seems to rule, God is still directing. Over here in 15:47 Daniel, talking about Daniel, a minute ago, I think here in 15:50 the book of Daniel the second chapter 15:52 which is one of the most famous chapters in all the Bible 15:55 on the subject of prophecy, chapter 2 and verse 21 15:59 it says here, talking of God... 16:18 So the Bible is very clear that God sets kings up and He 16:24 dethrones them too. 16:26 He gives them a period of time to work out whether or not 16:30 they're going to be doing a good job or a bad job. 16:33 That's true. Again in Daniel, it's interesting this is a 16:37 wonderful little book, the book of Daniel, Chapter 4:35 where 16:45 it says here: 17:00 In other words, the Bible was very clear that there are instances 17:08 where God directly intervenes and changes things so that His 17:14 will can move forward. You know, there's some amazing stories 17:17 that come out of the two world wars and they're not that far 17:23 away from our days to be still aware of some of the events. 17:28 And once again when you have a look at some of these things, 17:30 you see how God's providence is in history. Germany had the 17:34 First World War won many times. And yet, as we all know, they 17:40 lost is in the end. Because it was about 4 p.m. on the 17:44 afternoon of April 22, 1915 the Germans trained their deadly 17:48 poisonous gas loose on the allies. It was unexpected and 17:54 the allied armies were unprepared and unprotected. 17:57 and would certainly have been killed. So Germany had planned 18:02 it all. All she would need to do now was to march through and 18:07 take the English channel because that's what they wanted. They 18:10 needed that English channel. The question is why didn't she do it 18:15 Well the story goes at the exact time of the release the gas was 18:20 determined not by the military but by the meteorological 18:23 society and the authorities. Dr. Schumach advised the Germans 18:28 that the winds were fixed in the direction that they were blowing 18:32 for the next 36 hours and would carry the gas over the Allied 18:38 lines so that they released their gas but suddenly the wind 18:43 changed and turned around blowing the deadly gas over the 18:45 deadly gas over the German line. The army gasped and staggered 18:50 and thousands of the German soldiers died. 18:54 So they were not prepared. 18:56 Well they knew the wind was going to go over the Allies but 19:00 they didn't account for the fact that God intervened and blew it 19:03 back. And they'd made preparation. 19:05 Yeah. Speaking of the event in his official report, Dr. 19:08 Schumach said In 40 years of meteorological records of the 19:15 German government the wind never acted so acted so peculiarly. 19:19 Doubly strange is the fact that the wind whirled in only a small 19:24 area and with their gas supplies Germany should have won the war 19:29 but she failed for God intervened. Now are we to say 19:33 Rosemary, does this story illustrate that God is anti 19:36 German. Not at all. He loves them as much as anybody else but 19:41 two-and-a-half thousand years ago in the book of Daniel it 19:45 said that Europe shall never ever again be united under one 19:50 nation and there is no other more wonderful chapter to study 19:55 in Bible prophecy than the second chapter of the book of 19:59 Daniel where we see the providence of God in the course 20:01 of history. And you may remember that Napoleon tried to unite 20:06 Europe. He got close. Then Kaiser Wilhelm tried and he got 20:13 close but failed. Then came Adolph Hitler. But God had said 20:22 very clearly that Europe will never ever be blended together. 20:25 In fact, the terminology in the book of Daniel is that iron and 20:29 clay will not unite together. And it has never been united and 20:34 it's still a long way from being united. 20:36 But isn't it amazing even though the Bible actually explicitly 20:41 says that these will never mingle again, even through birth 20:46 through marriage, they will not cleave together. Yet today 20:51 people are still trying to cleave together. The governments 20:55 are still trying to combine. 20:57 Yes and so as we look at this amazing story, we also remember 21:04 the second world war with Dunkirk and God send to fog. 21:10 This is very interesting. You can read the story in history. 21:13 And what a fog it was. It was the fog that confounded the 21:16 German bombers and like the cloud over the children of 21:19 Israel it protected the ships in the English channel because the 21:23 turbulent waters of the Straits of Dover, you know those Straits 21:27 they're very, very turbulent, became like a millpond. 21:31 Amazingly, there were no waves. It was just, as I say, like a 21:37 pond and with their launches the fishermen towed their rowboats 21:41 out and brought the Allied soldiers back from France and 21:49 brought them back to safety in England. And during the last war 21:52 it was obvious again that Germany was superior in the air 21:56 and yet the world knows that she was beaten in that realm during 22:00 the last few months of the conflict. This is what head of 22:04 the German Aerial Service said. The Allies did not have superior 22:08 air ships nor fighters, but it was the accursed clouds that 22:12 defeated us. And nearly every time when we had a company of 22:18 the enemy ships in a pocket ready to take them out one of 22:21 those accursed clouds would be hanging by and envelope them as 22:25 a thick blanket and the devil himself couldn't find them. They 22:29 would escape at leisure. It was the accursed clouds, he said, 22:33 that did it. 22:35 That's amazing. It is and the records of course 22:37 if you check the records, endorse his statement. You know, 22:41 Rosemary, not only is God interested in the big issues of 22:47 life like we are talking about nations now and the world, but 22:51 what gives me tremendous encouragement is the fact that 22:54 God is interested in you and me too and everybody else as 22:57 individuals. I mean he uses illustrations in the New 23:00 Testament. He says, He sees the sparrow fall and he numbers the 23:08 hairs of our head. Now some of us are losing a bit. And so in 23:14 other words God has to have a bookkeeping system that's up to 23:17 date on a daily basis when you comb your hair. 23:20 A moment by moment basis. 23:21 Yes but the Bible says that God is so intimately interested in 23:25 us that he even sees the hairs of our heads. He sees the 23:27 hair of our heads. He sees the sparrow fall. I'm greatly 23:31 encouraged by that. 23:32 That's right. I am too because I know in my own life God has 23:38 done things in my life that I can testify about where he has 23:43 manipulated situations, manipulated in a good way, to 23:49 bring protection. One time I had a car accident and when I found 23:55 out the different things that had happened around that car 23:58 accident late at night God had orchestrated many different 24:04 things to save me and my children. And I was just amazed 24:09 by what happened and it just showed that even though God 24:14 didn't stop that car accident from happening, He made preparation 24:19 even before I was on the road where I had the accident. He 24:25 spoke to another person and convinced that person to drive 24:29 on the exact road I was going to be on when I had my accident. 24:33 And this was in the middle of the night and that person was a 24:37 Christian and God redirected their travel that night to help 24:42 me. And I always remember that as a wonderful thing that God 24:46 did for me and my children. 24:49 Yes I think that one of the wonderful things for us all is 24:53 to realize that God is interested in us as a person. 24:57 As individuals. 24:59 As individuals. He knows the very house that we live in, the 25:02 street that we live in. He knows all about our families, he knows 25:05 all about the troubles that many of us have to contend with on a 25:11 day by day basis. He knows the sadness that comes to people 25:15 when tragedy strikes. He knows the difficulties that people 25:19 have in life; perhaps unemployment, perhaps they've 25:22 lost a job or they're very ill, yes. God is interested in us 25:32 and I think that that's the most wonderful discovery when 25:36 we read the Bible that Christianity is not just a 25:40 theory that we read in a book. The book is here to tell us how 25:46 personal God is. He's not just up there somewhere sitting on a 25:52 throne detached from us. He loves us. 25:56 He's actively involved. 25:57 Actively, very actively. And those of us who have seen 26:02 answered prayer in our own lives and I would like to encourage 26:06 our viewers, Rosemary, to pray to God and if you have problems 26:12 in your life, if you have difficulties, if you have 26:15 stresses why not go to God and tell Him all about the way you 26:24 feel, tell Him all about the stresses that you have and ask 26:27 Him to show you what to do and the most wonderful thing is that 26:32 when God, when we pray to God like that, we see the way that 26:36 God answers... 26:37 His providence in bringing answers. Correct. I'm sure you 26:41 know that... I'm sure that everybody, if they look back 26:46 in their lives they can see at least one time where things 26:51 worked out in a way that was kind of unexpected and they were 26:57 helped in a way that they wouldn't have been otherwise. 27:01 And that's God's providence. 27:03 It is and sometimes we say that was the lucky escape or I 27:07 was lucky. That was a coincidence, Yes. That just 27:10 happened. I'd like to think that that's not the case, that God 27:15 has His hand in history the same as was illustrated with Cyrus. 27:19 That God loves us as individuals and He cares for us 27:25 as individuals. That is the greatest discovery that we can 27:28 all make, that God knows all about you and he loves you and 27:32 he wants you to be saved. 27:34 God knew about Cyrus. He knew about him before he was born. 27:38 And He knows about you and he knows you before you were born. 27:42 So trust God because He's interested in you as an 27:48 providence. We're glad that you've joined us today and we 27:52 look forward to seeing you next time. |
Revised 2019-11-21