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Day 198, or July the seventeenth. Be godly in a godless culture.

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Our thoughts today are rooted in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 13.

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You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the

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stars of God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of

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Mount Zephon.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse.

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This is a bleak period during which Isaiah condemns Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab,

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Damascus and Samaria, in other words, most of the enemies of God's people at that time.

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Ironically, if you look at a modern map, many of these same countries would still not call

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Israel a friend. Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and even the central belt of

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the land we call Israel today.

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Israel was the spokesman for God, a God who had emotions and wanted to relate to his people.

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All the other pagan deities were man-made and simply demanded sacrifices and worship.

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Gods weren't relevant to daily life, they were there to be worshipped and hopefully,

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in return, they would give you what you wanted—victory in battle, rainfall, or bumper crops.

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And now our action step for today.

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Isaiah addresses the mighty kingdom of Babylonia and its ruler who appears a total megalomaniac.

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In ancient times rulers were often revered as gods, so the king's claims in today's

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verses are not unexpected, in fact, he had to make them in order to appear powerful.

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Today, however, we are much more subtle and far too civilized for such superstition. We

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are constantly drip-fed by the mantra of, only stupid or badly educated people believe

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in God. Clever people are above all that. We are becoming an increasingly godless society

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where power, influence, and notoriety are all that count. We need to pray for our country

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and its leaders in particular. We are producing generations that not only have no spiritual

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experience but even worse, don't know that they lack it. We must confront our godless

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society with something of God's love and justice. It's not too late.