Hello again and welcome to the program. We're here with a little strength for today. We're going to start today in Psalm chapter 2. The question is asked, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? It has been estimated that there's over 3,000 questions in the Bible, and some have indicated that Jesus alone asked over 300 questions, as recorded in the four Gospels. In Psalm chapter 2, the psalmist asked the question, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine the vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. And so in these verses, we have reference to the heathen, we have reference to the people, we have reference to the kings and the rulers and also to the Lord. Why do the heathen rage? Who are the heathen in this portion of Scripture? The phrase, the heathen, is in the Word of God 140 times. Now, when studying the Scriptures, one rule is called the rule of first mention. That is, go back to where you first see something and chase it through. It'll help you understand what it's talking about. The rule of first mention, we'll go back to the book of Leviticus, where we first find the phrase, the heathen. We look at the beginning of Leviticus 26, verses 1 to 13, and the Lord is telling Israel all the blessings that they will have if they'll do what they're told. But, from Leviticus 26, verse 14 to verse number 39, He talks to them about the penalties of disobedience. In Leviticus 26, 33, he said, if you're disobedient, I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities shall be waste. He said, now, you need to do as I tell you to do. or i'm going to scatter you among the heathen when the bible refers to the heathen it's talking about the gentiles understand we're looking at two groups here we're looking at the jews and we're looking at the gentiles so what the lord is saying is if you're disobedient i will scatter you jews among the gentiles and that happened in babylon That happened in Egypt, and then for the last 2,000 years, they've been scattered among the Gentiles throughout the world, until they came back and were declared a nation on May the 14th, 1948. And so, when God said, I will scatter you among the heathen, he said, I will scatter you among the Gentiles. Verse 1 goes on to say, in the people, will imagine a vain thing. Now, sometimes when it's referring to the people, it's referring to the Jews, and sometimes it's referring to people in general. This can be determined by the context in which it appears. The phrase, the people, occurs in the Word of God 1,220 times. The first mention we have of the people is back in Genesis chapter 11, where we are looking at the descendants of Noah. So, these are Gentiles, because the Jews did not come into existence until Genesis chapter 12. We read in chapter 11, the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, that's the Gentiles, and they have all one language and this they began to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do go to let us go down there and confound their language that they may not understand one another speech so the lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. So concerning the descendants of Noah, of course they're Gentiles, in Genesis chapter 10 and verse 1 we read, Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and unto them were sons born after the flood. Then in verse 5 we read, By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their family, in their nations. And then in chapter 10 and verse 32, we read, these are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations in their nations. And by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. now we're reading all that in chapter 11 in chapter 12 we have the beginning of the jewish nation in chapter 12 verse 1 we read now the lord had said unto abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that i will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And so in studying the scriptures, we need to understand there's actually three groups in our world. There's Jews, and then anyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile, and then the third group are Christians, and they are people who are made up of either Jews or Gentiles, who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Well, the Jews have been in bondage for almost 2,000 years, but in Ezekiel 36, 24, we read a promise of God to them. He said, I will take you from among the heathen, the Gentiles, and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land, the land that I gave unto your fathers, and ye shall possess it." And so here we have an introduction to what we're going to look at. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine the vain thing? There's a lot of people raging today and imagining vain things. We're going to look at it. Be sure and be with us for our next program.