15 December 2019 | Loren Seibold’s piece in the Fall 2019 Adventist Today magazine, titled “It’s Too Late for Jesus to Come Soon,” is right on target. And it is an example of why I became a supporter of AT years ago. I drifted away from active engagement some time back for a variety of reasons, […] Source: https://atoday.org/its-too-late-for-jesus-to-come-soon-is-right-on-target/
Chocolate and Little Lights
by Shirley Schneider | 15 December 2019 | It all started with chocolate that morning. Doesn’t everything start and end with chocolate? It seems so anyway, when you are a die-hard chocolate addict like me. And that’s not funny at all. So there I am, sitting in my comfy swivel rocker seeking inspiration for […] Source: https://atoday.org/chocolate-and-little-lights/
Monday: Nehemiah’s Reproof
Read Nehemiah 13:26-27. What does this show about how important biblical history is for informing us about the dangers of deviating from the right path?
Solomon was led deeper into sin by the choices he made. It would be accurate to say that Solomon caused his own ruin by disobeying God’s command for the kings of Israel: “Neither shall he [the king] multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away” (Deuteronomy 17:17, NKJV). Solomon’s life is used as a negative example: not only did he marry more than one wife, but significantly, as Nehemiah points out, he chose women who were not worshipers of God.
Why was Nehemiah correct in reproving the nation for intermarriage with pagans? Gen. 6:1-4; Gen. 24:3-4; Gen. 28:1-2; Deut. 7:3-4; and 2 Cor. 6:14.
Image © Providence Collection Goodsalt.com
The command not to intermarry was not about nationalism but about idolatry. People in the Bible married non-Israelites. Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite woman; Boaz married Ruth, a Moabite. Instead, the issue with intermarriage in these commands concerns marrying someone who is of a different faith or of no faith. The problem was that the people in Ezra and Nehemiah’s time did not choose to marry believers in God. Richard M. Davidson, in Flame of Yahweh (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2007), states: “The Edenic plan for marriage . . . called for a complementary wholeness of two partners in spiritual faith as well as other significant values” – Page 316. The pagan wives in this story did not choose to renounce idolatrous worship. Consequently, Nehemiah was perhaps more saddened than outraged by the choices of the people, since to him this demonstrated a lack of real commitment to God.
The Bible gives us formulas for practices that will keep us grounded in God and are designed to maximize our happiness. In the same way, the command to be equally yoked in marriage was supposed to help us lead a better life and to encourage mutual devotion to God.
| What principles can we take from these accounts today that can help us protect our faith and that of our family? |
Amen!
(0)
(0) Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/66AZrFworeQ/
John 1:17-18
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~s/dailybible/main/?i=http://dailybiblepromise.com/verse/2019/12/15
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dailybible/main/~3/SfvbD-HNEwk/15
Sunday: Nehemiah’s Reaction
Read Nehemiah 13:23-25. What happened here, and how do we explain Nehemiah’s reaction to the situation?
Since the children didn’t speak Aramaic (the language used during the Exile) or Hebrew, they couldn’t understand the teachings from Scripture. This was a real problem, because the knowledge of God’s revelation could thus be distorted or even disappear. The scribes and priests expounded on the Torah mostly in Aramaic in order to make the preaching clear to the people.
Image © Providence Collection Goodsalt.com
However, since the mothers were from Ammon, Ashdod, and Moab and were generally the primary caregivers for the children, it is not surprising that the children didn’t speak the language of the fathers as well. The language we speak informs the way we think about concepts, because we use the vocabulary of that culture. Loss of the biblical language would have meant losing their special identity. Thus, for Nehemiah, it was unthinkable that families were losing touch with the Word of God and consequently their connection with the living God, the Lord of the Hebrews.
Biblical scholars point out that the actions of Nehemiah were most likely a public shaming of the people as part of prescribed punishments at that time. When it says that Nehemiah rebuked them and cursed them, we shouldn’t think of Nehemiah using foul language and expletives, but rather that he was speaking over them the curses of the Covenant. Deuteronomy 28 outlines the curses that would happen to those who broke the covenant. It is very possible that Nehemiah chose the words of the Bible to bring them to the realization of their wrong action and the consequences of their poor choices.
Moreover, when the text says that Nehemiah “beat some of the men and pulled out their hair” (Neh. 13:25, NIV), instead of seeing Nehemiah in a rage and reacting with fury, we should note that a beating was a prescribed form of public punishment. This kind of behavior was applied only to “some” of them, meaning to the leaders who caused or promoted this wrong behavior. These acts were to serve as methods of public shaming. Nehemiah wanted to ensure that the people understood the gravity of their choices and the results that would ensue from them.
| How should we react when we see what we believe is wrong-doing in the church? |
Amen!(0)
(0) Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/iRWGN80PtYo/
