C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. For August 4th, 2019, That The Scripture Must be Fulfilled. LESSON TWO : TOPIC - IN RELATION TO ISRAEL
C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. For August 4th, 2019, That The Scripture Must be Fulfilled. LESSON TWO : TOPIC - IN RELATION TO ISRAEL
Click to read previous CAC Sunday School Manual Here
LESSON TWO
IN RELATION TO ISRAEL
God had Messiah in mind while covenanting with Abram and promising to make him a great nation.
MEMORY SCRIPTURE
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curse you; and in you all the family of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)
BRIEF COMMENT
God is a God of covenant, and the Covenant-Keeper. Genesis 12:3 is the covenant detail with Abraham. God has chosen to turn the life of Abram around and make him unique with great and wonderful blessings, on the condition that he obeyed God's instructions; he must be willing and ready to move in God's direction. Leaving his nativity and all he had held on to, is a serious condition. In Abram shoes, would you have obeyed? See the covenant detail from verse 2. What an awesome promise! Yet obedience and willingness are attached.
When we chose to obey God in all things, great is our reward, immediately and ultimately. The covenant detail has so many things attached to it --- posterity, blessings, safety, protection, greatness, fathering nations. etc. That all entitled Abram to be the great grandfather of the Messiah that is to come. Don't shrink in your obedience to God, and you shall eat the fruit of your land.
In this promise of God to Abram. He had the yet-to-be-born Israel in mind. He had it in mind to make a great nation from the descendants of Abram, who was yet to have a child. He also had it in mind to bring the Messiah to this earth for the redemption of humanity, through the anticipated great nation. God plan for all of us, both individually and corporately, is beyond expectations (cf. Jer. 29:11). He has only been unfolding them step by step. The more we stay glued to Him, the more fulfilled we are. After all, even after Abraham went home to be with Him. He still ensured that His promises concerning Israel materialised.
DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READINGS FOR WEEK ONE
Mon. July 29: Israel Grew as A Sovereign Nation (Exo. 1:1-7)
Tue. July 30: Israel, A Product of God's Covenant (Exo. 2:23-25)
Wed. July 31: Israel Enjoyed God's Deliverance (Exo. 12:29-42)
Thur. Aug. 1: Israel Came Out of Bondage (Exo. 12:41-51)
Fri. Aug. 2: Israel got An Inheritance (Psa. 136:21-22)
Sat. Aug. 3: Israel Established as Holy Nation (Deut. 7:6)
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
1. God had Israel in mind, before eternity, as special instrument to reach and bless the entire world.
2. God knows the end from the beginning --- Omniscient. He gave His Word respect of Israel; therefore, the sovereign nation, Israel, is a product of the scripture, pointing ultimately to the spiritual Israel (Jews and Gentiles that come to Christ).
BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: Isaiah 43:1ff
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
AIM: To show the learners the plan and agenda of God for Israel and the world at large, made available in His Word.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this two-week lesson, learners should be able to to:
i. explain how God made covenant with Abram to make him the father of nations;
ii. explain how God intended to preserve the promise descendants of Abraham;
iii. show Israel as a prototype of God's agenda for the entire world; and
iv. discuss why and how God had graciously commissioned Abraham's descendants (Israel) to produce the Messiah.
INTRODUCTION
TEXTUAL SOURCE: GENESIS 12:1-7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18,19; DEUTERONOMY 18:14FF; PSALM 67; 89:18-36; ZECHARIAH 12:10; 13:1,2,9.
Glory be to God of our fathers who gave us the Scripture to moderate our lives, now, in line with what He has projected for us, before eternity, and the hope for the immediate and distant future.
The previous lesson opened this series aimed at establishing the fact. That The Scripture Must Be Fulfilled. The lesson, being the first in the series, is titled, IN ANTICIPATION OF REDEMTION. We were able to see how Scriptures were given in anticipation of man's redemption. A reference was made as to how the irredeemably fallen Satan brought about the Fall of man that God had envisaged, before man's creation, given the fact that Jesus is described as the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. The lesson also delved into how God began to give man hope of redemption, even during the punishment meted on man after the Fall. What a gracious God!
This second lesson is a discourse on how Scriptures were given IN RELATION TO ISRAEL. God can never be partial. He had the whole world in mind, right from the onset. After all, He sees the end from the beginning. He knows how long this age would take, as well as how many people from different tribes and nations would live on earth with their individual details. However, He had to start from somewhere to spread to the whole world, from generation to generation.
To make this possible, He graciously found the man, later named Abraham, covenanted with him, and started to gradually and dramatically unfold His eternal covenant. The ensuing nation had since been pivotal to God's moves in redeeming man. This lesson would unravel his God had revealed these before they began to happen, in the Scriptures.
May nothing of those things, the omniscient God has made available to us be hidden from us. May our eyes of understanding be sharp enough to grasp the truths He is sending our ways in this lesson, in Jesus name.
INTRODUCTION TO EACH DIVISION
This two-week lesson is divided into two parts. I and II, with further division of each division into A and B.
DIVISION I: I WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION
This section is split into two: Will Become A Nation and Will Be Miraculously Preserved. In line with God's covenant with Abram. Israel would become a nation. The scriptural fulfillment of this can be seen in Exodus, as Israel came out of Pharaoh's den with a multitude of people. God's Word also preserved Israel from all forms of assailants willing to destroy or extirpate her. In all Israel's journey, God has always preserved "a remnants"
DIVISION II: WILL PRODUCE THE MESSIAH
Israel is not emerging as a great nation for fun, God has a task for her to fulfill. God has commissioned her to produce the Messiah. The detail of Israel's assignment to the world is split into two: one, to reveal Yahweh to the nations, and two, to be Messiah's patriarch. This is what second division of this lesson is all about.
LESSON OUTLINE
I. WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION
A. WILL BECOME A NATION
B. WILL BE MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED
II. WILL PRODUCE THE MESSIAH
A. WILL REVEAL YAHWEH TO THE NATIONS
B. WILL BE THE MESSIAH'S PATRIARCH
LESSON EXPOSITION
Aug. 4th, 2019.
I. WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION (Genesis 12:1,7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18; Psalm 89:18-36)
"To become" is to grow or develop into something. It is a gradual process. Over time, from the day God covenanted with Abraham to when Israel eventually came out of Egypt as a multitude of people, after spending 430 years in slavery, Israel grew into a great nation. The word of God was fulfilled and still being fulfilled.
A. WILL BECOME A NATION (Gen. 12:1,7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18)
Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him... (18:18).
i. 12:1-7: God promised Abram a land He would later show him, right from the take-off of their covenantal relationship. He led Abram into that land, possessing it in principle (vv. 4-8).
ii. vv. 2,3: He also promised to make him a great nation through which all the families of the earth shall be blessed (v. 3; cf. 18:18). Yet, they would have to follow Him in obedience (cf. Deut. 26:3-13; 28:1-14).
iii. To make this a reality, God promised Abram a son in his old age (15:1ff; 18:1ff), and the miracle son eventually came --- Isaac; 'laughter' (21:1-7). What a covenant-keeping, Scripture-fulfilling God!
iv. 15:16-21: God promised Abram a land for his descendants (later called Israel), as part of the Abrahamic covenant (cf. 13:14-15; 17:7). He did exactly that as He brought them out, generations later, of Egypt, their taskmasters, to possess the Promised Land (cf. Deut. 9:4). God can never fail.
v. 17:7: As a nation, Israel should be seen as a product of God's covenant with Abraham (cf. 28:10-15). They are special people (cf. Exo. 19:5,6). Glory be to Christ who has brought us into such a special relationship with God, despite being gentiles, ourselves (1 Pet. 2'9,10). Are you born again?
vi. Obedience is a vital instrument in fulfilling the scripture. Abraham obeyed and his descendants are blessed; Israel became a mighty nation, and the whole world is blessed by the Messiah coming through them. Further obedience is needed from each of us to further fulfill God's Word as we expect Christ's second coming.
B. WILL BE MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED (Psa. 89:18-36)
Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me (vv. 35,36).
i. Lines 18-29: God's covenant is forever unbreakable, on His own part. Is is man's unfaithfulness/deviation that tampers with the fulfillment, as punishment for the unfaithfulness. God made it clear to His people.
ii. The tone of lines 30,31 coupled with Moses' last advice to the people at the verge of entering the Promised Land, centuries earlier (Deut. 28:58; 31:16-21), presupposes the possibility of Israel's eventual unfaithfulness to Yahweh's law, judgment, statues, and commandments (apostasy) --- and they indeed forsook God. God's foreknowledge in play.
iii. Line 32: God's holiness and judgment never allow the sinner to go Scott-free, hence, His promise to punish the errant Israel. He had earlier warned them through Moses (Deut. 28:15-68; 29:23; 32:26). He said it was about happening (1 Kgs. 14:15-16; 2 Kgs 17:13).
iv. True to His words, they saw hell in their God-sent enemies' (whips) hands (the Assyrians, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Nero, the other emperors, and the Romans, the Turks, Hitler, the Arabs, etc).
v. Line 33: Nevertheless... God's covenant (unbreakable promise) and the Word (Scripture) that had gone out of His lips, would still miraculously preserve them (cf. Line 29; Jer. 31:35-37; Amos 9:14,15). How?
vi. Through punished, they would not be destroyed, if they repent, and they would indeed repent in their tribulation (Deut. 28:40-41; 30:1-2), which would result in them being gathered from the nations and brought back to their divinely given land (30:3-10).
vii. Despite all that the Jewish race had gone through in the hands of enemies surrounding them, they could no more be destroyed, like you could not destroy the Sun, Moon and stars. Imagine a paltry 650,000 Jews, surrounded by six Arab states who have vowed to wipe them out at all cost, yet they have survive all these centuries. God's Word never fails. Hallelujah!
viii. God is known to keep covenant, and man has always had the tendency to break covenant with God and fellow human. Whenever this happens, punishment for doing so is inevitable. This was the case with Israel, and is still the case for the entire humanity, today. However, God's mercy usually eventually comes to play (bearing preservation), so that His Word is never unfulfilled at any point.
LESSONS DERIVED
1. God's words about Israel as a nation are happening, as He had said. This gives us the assurance of the fulfillment of the yet to be fulfilled Scriptures.
2. Everything God has ordained will definitely be fulfilled. If He did it in the past and still doing is, He will surely do it for you.
WORK TO DO
Why is Israel so prophetically significant with respect to the past, present, and future?
SUGGESTED ANSWER TO WORK TO DO.
i. God established Israel to be prototype of His work (agenda) for the entire world.
ii. God has whole world in mind as to His eternal redemptive plan and purpose, but had to begin somewhere. He graciously chose Israel, through whom He planned to reach the whole world.
iii. While the whole world was going in its own direction, the fathers of Israel followed God wholly, assisted by God Himself. God helped the fathers to cooperate with Him in securing divine covenant.
iv. Through Israel, salvation in Jesus Christ would reach the entire world.
v. Israel has the commissioning to produce and father the Messiah, Saviour of the world.
vi. She had to reveal Yahweh to the world (cf. Psa. 67).
vii. She continued to enjoy the love and mercy of God, even when she drifted away from Yahweh. Why? God's love, and His eternal programme of reaching man and bringing him back to His original purpose.
viii. Presently, Israel is a sign of the fulfillment of the end-time prophecies. For instance, the return of the scattered Jews to their homeland, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the expected eventual reclaiming of the holy mountain from Islamists, the anticipated salvation of the 144,000 Israelites, etc all point to the coming of the Messiah the second time.
ix. Israel, likewise, has very significant bearing for the future of the world. God's love for the nation points us towards what God has for us all in the future (cf. Rom. 8:18).
Click to read previous CAC Sunday School Manual Here
LESSON TWO
IN RELATION TO ISRAEL
God had Messiah in mind while covenanting with Abram and promising to make him a great nation.
MEMORY SCRIPTURE
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curse you; and in you all the family of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)
BRIEF COMMENT
God is a God of covenant, and the Covenant-Keeper. Genesis 12:3 is the covenant detail with Abraham. God has chosen to turn the life of Abram around and make him unique with great and wonderful blessings, on the condition that he obeyed God's instructions; he must be willing and ready to move in God's direction. Leaving his nativity and all he had held on to, is a serious condition. In Abram shoes, would you have obeyed? See the covenant detail from verse 2. What an awesome promise! Yet obedience and willingness are attached.
When we chose to obey God in all things, great is our reward, immediately and ultimately. The covenant detail has so many things attached to it --- posterity, blessings, safety, protection, greatness, fathering nations. etc. That all entitled Abram to be the great grandfather of the Messiah that is to come. Don't shrink in your obedience to God, and you shall eat the fruit of your land.
In this promise of God to Abram. He had the yet-to-be-born Israel in mind. He had it in mind to make a great nation from the descendants of Abram, who was yet to have a child. He also had it in mind to bring the Messiah to this earth for the redemption of humanity, through the anticipated great nation. God plan for all of us, both individually and corporately, is beyond expectations (cf. Jer. 29:11). He has only been unfolding them step by step. The more we stay glued to Him, the more fulfilled we are. After all, even after Abraham went home to be with Him. He still ensured that His promises concerning Israel materialised.
DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READINGS FOR WEEK ONE
Mon. July 29: Israel Grew as A Sovereign Nation (Exo. 1:1-7)
Tue. July 30: Israel, A Product of God's Covenant (Exo. 2:23-25)
Wed. July 31: Israel Enjoyed God's Deliverance (Exo. 12:29-42)
Thur. Aug. 1: Israel Came Out of Bondage (Exo. 12:41-51)
Fri. Aug. 2: Israel got An Inheritance (Psa. 136:21-22)
Sat. Aug. 3: Israel Established as Holy Nation (Deut. 7:6)
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
1. God had Israel in mind, before eternity, as special instrument to reach and bless the entire world.
2. God knows the end from the beginning --- Omniscient. He gave His Word respect of Israel; therefore, the sovereign nation, Israel, is a product of the scripture, pointing ultimately to the spiritual Israel (Jews and Gentiles that come to Christ).
BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: Isaiah 43:1ff
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
AIM: To show the learners the plan and agenda of God for Israel and the world at large, made available in His Word.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this two-week lesson, learners should be able to to:
i. explain how God made covenant with Abram to make him the father of nations;
ii. explain how God intended to preserve the promise descendants of Abraham;
iii. show Israel as a prototype of God's agenda for the entire world; and
iv. discuss why and how God had graciously commissioned Abraham's descendants (Israel) to produce the Messiah.
INTRODUCTION
TEXTUAL SOURCE: GENESIS 12:1-7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18,19; DEUTERONOMY 18:14FF; PSALM 67; 89:18-36; ZECHARIAH 12:10; 13:1,2,9.
Glory be to God of our fathers who gave us the Scripture to moderate our lives, now, in line with what He has projected for us, before eternity, and the hope for the immediate and distant future.
The previous lesson opened this series aimed at establishing the fact. That The Scripture Must Be Fulfilled. The lesson, being the first in the series, is titled, IN ANTICIPATION OF REDEMTION. We were able to see how Scriptures were given in anticipation of man's redemption. A reference was made as to how the irredeemably fallen Satan brought about the Fall of man that God had envisaged, before man's creation, given the fact that Jesus is described as the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. The lesson also delved into how God began to give man hope of redemption, even during the punishment meted on man after the Fall. What a gracious God!
This second lesson is a discourse on how Scriptures were given IN RELATION TO ISRAEL. God can never be partial. He had the whole world in mind, right from the onset. After all, He sees the end from the beginning. He knows how long this age would take, as well as how many people from different tribes and nations would live on earth with their individual details. However, He had to start from somewhere to spread to the whole world, from generation to generation.
To make this possible, He graciously found the man, later named Abraham, covenanted with him, and started to gradually and dramatically unfold His eternal covenant. The ensuing nation had since been pivotal to God's moves in redeeming man. This lesson would unravel his God had revealed these before they began to happen, in the Scriptures.
May nothing of those things, the omniscient God has made available to us be hidden from us. May our eyes of understanding be sharp enough to grasp the truths He is sending our ways in this lesson, in Jesus name.
INTRODUCTION TO EACH DIVISION
This two-week lesson is divided into two parts. I and II, with further division of each division into A and B.
DIVISION I: I WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION
This section is split into two: Will Become A Nation and Will Be Miraculously Preserved. In line with God's covenant with Abram. Israel would become a nation. The scriptural fulfillment of this can be seen in Exodus, as Israel came out of Pharaoh's den with a multitude of people. God's Word also preserved Israel from all forms of assailants willing to destroy or extirpate her. In all Israel's journey, God has always preserved "a remnants"
DIVISION II: WILL PRODUCE THE MESSIAH
Israel is not emerging as a great nation for fun, God has a task for her to fulfill. God has commissioned her to produce the Messiah. The detail of Israel's assignment to the world is split into two: one, to reveal Yahweh to the nations, and two, to be Messiah's patriarch. This is what second division of this lesson is all about.
LESSON OUTLINE
I. WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION
A. WILL BECOME A NATION
B. WILL BE MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED
II. WILL PRODUCE THE MESSIAH
A. WILL REVEAL YAHWEH TO THE NATIONS
B. WILL BE THE MESSIAH'S PATRIARCH
LESSON EXPOSITION
Aug. 4th, 2019.
I. WILL BECOME A GREAT NATION (Genesis 12:1,7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18; Psalm 89:18-36)
"To become" is to grow or develop into something. It is a gradual process. Over time, from the day God covenanted with Abraham to when Israel eventually came out of Egypt as a multitude of people, after spending 430 years in slavery, Israel grew into a great nation. The word of God was fulfilled and still being fulfilled.
A. WILL BECOME A NATION (Gen. 12:1,7; 15:16-21; 17:7; 18:18)
Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him... (18:18).
i. 12:1-7: God promised Abram a land He would later show him, right from the take-off of their covenantal relationship. He led Abram into that land, possessing it in principle (vv. 4-8).
ii. vv. 2,3: He also promised to make him a great nation through which all the families of the earth shall be blessed (v. 3; cf. 18:18). Yet, they would have to follow Him in obedience (cf. Deut. 26:3-13; 28:1-14).
iii. To make this a reality, God promised Abram a son in his old age (15:1ff; 18:1ff), and the miracle son eventually came --- Isaac; 'laughter' (21:1-7). What a covenant-keeping, Scripture-fulfilling God!
iv. 15:16-21: God promised Abram a land for his descendants (later called Israel), as part of the Abrahamic covenant (cf. 13:14-15; 17:7). He did exactly that as He brought them out, generations later, of Egypt, their taskmasters, to possess the Promised Land (cf. Deut. 9:4). God can never fail.
v. 17:7: As a nation, Israel should be seen as a product of God's covenant with Abraham (cf. 28:10-15). They are special people (cf. Exo. 19:5,6). Glory be to Christ who has brought us into such a special relationship with God, despite being gentiles, ourselves (1 Pet. 2'9,10). Are you born again?
vi. Obedience is a vital instrument in fulfilling the scripture. Abraham obeyed and his descendants are blessed; Israel became a mighty nation, and the whole world is blessed by the Messiah coming through them. Further obedience is needed from each of us to further fulfill God's Word as we expect Christ's second coming.
B. WILL BE MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED (Psa. 89:18-36)
Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me (vv. 35,36).
i. Lines 18-29: God's covenant is forever unbreakable, on His own part. Is is man's unfaithfulness/deviation that tampers with the fulfillment, as punishment for the unfaithfulness. God made it clear to His people.
ii. The tone of lines 30,31 coupled with Moses' last advice to the people at the verge of entering the Promised Land, centuries earlier (Deut. 28:58; 31:16-21), presupposes the possibility of Israel's eventual unfaithfulness to Yahweh's law, judgment, statues, and commandments (apostasy) --- and they indeed forsook God. God's foreknowledge in play.
iii. Line 32: God's holiness and judgment never allow the sinner to go Scott-free, hence, His promise to punish the errant Israel. He had earlier warned them through Moses (Deut. 28:15-68; 29:23; 32:26). He said it was about happening (1 Kgs. 14:15-16; 2 Kgs 17:13).
iv. True to His words, they saw hell in their God-sent enemies' (whips) hands (the Assyrians, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Nero, the other emperors, and the Romans, the Turks, Hitler, the Arabs, etc).
v. Line 33: Nevertheless... God's covenant (unbreakable promise) and the Word (Scripture) that had gone out of His lips, would still miraculously preserve them (cf. Line 29; Jer. 31:35-37; Amos 9:14,15). How?
vi. Through punished, they would not be destroyed, if they repent, and they would indeed repent in their tribulation (Deut. 28:40-41; 30:1-2), which would result in them being gathered from the nations and brought back to their divinely given land (30:3-10).
vii. Despite all that the Jewish race had gone through in the hands of enemies surrounding them, they could no more be destroyed, like you could not destroy the Sun, Moon and stars. Imagine a paltry 650,000 Jews, surrounded by six Arab states who have vowed to wipe them out at all cost, yet they have survive all these centuries. God's Word never fails. Hallelujah!
viii. God is known to keep covenant, and man has always had the tendency to break covenant with God and fellow human. Whenever this happens, punishment for doing so is inevitable. This was the case with Israel, and is still the case for the entire humanity, today. However, God's mercy usually eventually comes to play (bearing preservation), so that His Word is never unfulfilled at any point.
LESSONS DERIVED
1. God's words about Israel as a nation are happening, as He had said. This gives us the assurance of the fulfillment of the yet to be fulfilled Scriptures.
2. Everything God has ordained will definitely be fulfilled. If He did it in the past and still doing is, He will surely do it for you.
WORK TO DO
Why is Israel so prophetically significant with respect to the past, present, and future?
SUGGESTED ANSWER TO WORK TO DO.
i. God established Israel to be prototype of His work (agenda) for the entire world.
ii. God has whole world in mind as to His eternal redemptive plan and purpose, but had to begin somewhere. He graciously chose Israel, through whom He planned to reach the whole world.
iii. While the whole world was going in its own direction, the fathers of Israel followed God wholly, assisted by God Himself. God helped the fathers to cooperate with Him in securing divine covenant.
iv. Through Israel, salvation in Jesus Christ would reach the entire world.
v. Israel has the commissioning to produce and father the Messiah, Saviour of the world.
vi. She had to reveal Yahweh to the world (cf. Psa. 67).
vii. She continued to enjoy the love and mercy of God, even when she drifted away from Yahweh. Why? God's love, and His eternal programme of reaching man and bringing him back to His original purpose.
viii. Presently, Israel is a sign of the fulfillment of the end-time prophecies. For instance, the return of the scattered Jews to their homeland, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the expected eventual reclaiming of the holy mountain from Islamists, the anticipated salvation of the 144,000 Israelites, etc all point to the coming of the Messiah the second time.
ix. Israel, likewise, has very significant bearing for the future of the world. God's love for the nation points us towards what God has for us all in the future (cf. Rom. 8:18).
C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. For August 4th, 2019, That The Scripture Must be Fulfilled. LESSON TWO : TOPIC - IN RELATION TO ISRAEL
Reviewed by Muyiwa Abodunrin (Muyilight)
on
August 04, 2019
Rating:
Reviewed by Muyiwa Abodunrin (Muyilight)
on
August 04, 2019
Rating:
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