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This time on the CU CateCast, Fr. Ryan Humphries presents The Book of Baruch
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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good morning i'm father ryan humphries
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welcome to the cu catacast and today
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we're looking at the third book of
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scripture which is closely associated
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with the prophet jeremiah and so the
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first is obviously jeremiah the second
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is the book of lamentations which
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consists of five psalms that were
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assembled ostensibly by jeremiah but
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probably by
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by someone else working with him after
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the fall of jerusalem
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after that should say the babylonian
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captivity the third and the final book
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we look at today is the book of baruch
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which is attributed directly to
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jeremiah's friend and personal secretary
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baruch
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if you remember jeremiah's great
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contribution to uh
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to scripture is this kind of
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internalized
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self-reflection right all the other
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prophets write these big dramatic things
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that happen or don't happen but jeremiah
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kind of stops and looks within and he
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has some important prophecies for israel
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some important prophecies for other
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things but the best part of his writing
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is this internalized notion of a
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spiritual life and lamentation really
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grabs on to that and of course the
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middle of each of those psalms part
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three we have this kind of internalized
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sort of thing going on which is
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beautiful and it's very poetic
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now baruch's a contribution happens in a
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very similar vein in that he gives us an
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internalized perspective but this time
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not from himself but from the point of
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view of the jewish diaspora
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now what is the jewish diaspora you ask
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yourself and i ask you so i have
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something to talk about well it's very
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very simple the jewish diaspora is the
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group of jewish people who were cast out
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of israel jerusalem and lived elsewhere
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very simply put so if you remember after
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the fall of the northern kingdom the
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jews from the northern kingdom were
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thrown around the middle east you had
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folks in modern-day egypt modern-day
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turkey modern-day libya iran iraq all
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over the middle east you have the jewish
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people spread out after that happened
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and even into the roman empire going
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into rome itself
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going into the northern germanic parts
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of the roman empire and in the other
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direction of course the babylonian
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empire which is iran iraq and turkey but
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even further toward india even
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you have the jews spread out all across
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the the world well after the fall of
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jerusalem happens the same thing the
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jews get chunked in all sorts of
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different directions but instead of
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landing in a place that had no jewish
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background they now found themselves
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being able to connect with ghettos in
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different communities in the city of
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rome and in the the larger parts of the
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world and being able to say hey there's
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a jewish community alive and thriving in
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alexandria egypt
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and so the jewish diaspora kind of gets
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connected and there's all these little
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central uh these little places where the
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jews have set up shop well when
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everything ends when the when the
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babylonian captivity ends and ezra and
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nehemiah come back in and we're going to
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be able to reestablish the temple there
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are plenty of those jews who have
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families businesses who don't want to go
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home they're perfectly satisfied and a
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lot of them were born in this diaspora
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and have no particular desire to go to
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the homeland the motherland
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they just don't have that and so the
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jewish diaspora consists of cultural
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jews and religious jews as well as those
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ethnic jews who want to go home and
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there's different phraseology for that
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but what baruch really does for us is he
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gives us a glimpse into the interior
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life of those jews in diaspora
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especially the ones who want to go home
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the ones who want to return to the
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temple
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and he specifically looks at it from the
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point of view of modern day iran and
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modern-day egypt that's the places where
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these the the jewish diaspora that
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baruch has connections with are doing
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their thing and so that makes for kind
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of you understand it's it's a
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fascinating picture uh and an interior
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look at something we would otherwise not
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have a good way to get a look at so
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baruch is a simple book it's in six
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chapters it starts with a statement of
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authorship which connects it back to
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baruch but the book was obviously
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written by several folks you have
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different sections that have very
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different vocabulary very different ways
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of writing and it was probably written a
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good deal later because it seems to
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reference the maccabean revolt which is
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going to take place in the 2nd century
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bc jeremiah is going to die in the 6th
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century bc so there's no meaningful way
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that his best friend wrote this thing
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400 years later
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and so just like a lot of the wisdom
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books it seems like the the folks who
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wrote this are trying to say look we
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want to put this in the mouth of someone
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close to jeremiah because what we're
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saying is in tune with that and we see
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that in isaiah we saw it of course in
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the wisdom in the history books and
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we'll continue to see some of those
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things happen as we move further along
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even into something like the the letter
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to the hebrews in the new testament that
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seems to sort of kind of be connected to
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paul but not really and we'll look more
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at that when we get to you know 20 books
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ahead and so we have a book here that is
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is in six chapters the authorship is
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claimed to be baruch but probably not
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and its purpose
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is very very much to give us a sense of
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the jewish diaspora now that purpose is
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probably associated um
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with
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with a sense of wanting to not only
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explain what's going on with the jewish
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diaspora but also to instruct and
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encourage the jewish diaspora so just
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like nowadays you might make a
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documentary
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about some people but it primarily wants
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to encourage those people who are in the
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midst of that documentary
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same sort of thing we're trying to kind
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of teach and educate and instruct people
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in the diaspora by writing a book about
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the diaspora
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so that because of that there's no
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single like theological theme we just
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have the idea of this is about what's
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going on in the interior of the diaspora
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perhaps the most important thing that we
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have to keep in mind though is because
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it is about these folks there there is a
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strong sense of the attitudes they
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should have and the attitudes they do
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have and there's a sense of like this is
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the way you should see the world and so
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when we think about themes there's
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overarching stuff like loyalty to the
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temple love for jerusalem obedience to
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the law of moses prayer
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hope in the lord for the future and a
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deliberate sense of resist the pagans
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you know so you have these kind of
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underarching themes but their purpose is
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really to say look for jews in the
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diaspora who are reading this and who
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are connected back to jeremiah who
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ostensibly predicted what's going on
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because he knew because hezekiah was a
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stinker
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because of all these things remember
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these underlying principles from the
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writing of jeremiah and these are the
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attitudes you need to have
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um i find that most readers will tend to
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enjoy chapters three and four chapter
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one is is fairly perfunctory uh chapter
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six has um kind of a songish sort of
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thing to it which is great and all but
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is somewhat difficult to grab but
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chapters three and four really are the
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poetic beautiful center chapter three
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begins with o lord almighty god of
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israel the soul in anguish and the weary
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spirit cry out to you hear o lord and
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have mercy for we have sinned before you
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for you are enthroned forever and we are
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perishing forever you know you have this
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incredibly deep spiritual sense of
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what's going on
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careful readers
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are going to find hints of sirach and
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even hints of job both in the technical
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style and in the kind of the sentiment
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and theme but you don't really need to
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be that close of a reader to to be
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stressed out about anything like that
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this is only six chapters it's a quick
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read it's an easy read the most
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important thing
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by far to remember and you kind of have
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to tattoo this on the inside of your
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eyelid while you're reading it
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is that this is about the jewish
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diaspora
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that's a big deal if we get disconnected
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from that we just kind of feel like this
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cat is just yelling and screaming at
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everything under the sun and it's not
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clear why he's got all these things to
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say uh it's not clear who he's and and
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part of that the difficulty is there is
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a kind of subtext that this is about the
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diaspora rather than him saying in verse
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one my name is baruch and i'm writing to
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the jewish diaspora that would be very
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helpful but he doesn't do that so if you
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want to read it it's an easy read but do
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keep in mind that what he's talking to
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and what he's trying to do is inform
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about and encourage these jews who are
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outside of israel and want to go back
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they want to go back to the temple and
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they should want to go back to the
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temple and they should not simply be
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content with their tent making business
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in downtown ephesus because that is not
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a cool thing to do if you're a jew you
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need to be in jerusalem or you need to
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be in the jewish place and so
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it's a good thing the only kind of
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outside reading note that would be
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helpful is if you are familiar with the
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jewish palestinian stuff going on
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nowadays you can see in the book of
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baruch the attitudes that continue to be
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relevant to the jewish people today
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happening here in baruch the idea of
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it's not just a matter of i want to own
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the gaza strip it's not just a matter of
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you know this 10 miles of territory
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matters strategically or we need to have
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x number of you know whatever we need
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there's the idea of god has told us
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this is supposed to be
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our inheritance and so it doesn't matter
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whether we want 10 miles of random
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desert in the middle of nowheresville
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this is what the lord told us to be in
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charge of and so we're going to be in
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charge of it that's the plan and even if
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it means we have to blow up half of our
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national inventory of bombs missiles and
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everything else we're going to do it
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because this is how the lord wants it
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and that seems insane to us but we can
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see here in the book of baruch the
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foundation of that way of thinking and
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so anyway that's a lot of stuff that's
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not really directly about the book of
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baruch but i still only made it to 10
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minutes it's just what it is there's not
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that much to say
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next time
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we go to ezekiel where there is that
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much to say
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ezekiel is a remarkable prophet there
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are some really exciting passages like
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the valley of dry bones we'll be able to
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point out ezekiel is a monster of a book
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we'll have a lot to say about that also
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after that we'll have daniel which is a
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monster of a book and we'll have a lot
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to say about that and then we'll finally
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flip into the minor prophets who are all
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complicated and we'll get into talking
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about the day of the lord and what joel
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has to say about the end of the world
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and that'll all be a hoot as well
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and so more to come from all the minor
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prophets but we have now finished isaiah
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and we have finished jeremiah and so
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hope you join us next time for the book
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of ezekiel until then i'm father ryan
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humphries this has been the cu catacast
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thank you so much for joining us and
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have a good one
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you