Wednesday: The Law and the Prophets
Read Nehemiah 9:23-31. How are the Israelites described in comparison to God’s “great goodness” (Neh. 9:25)?
This next section of the prayer/sermon focused on life in Canaan as the Israelites possessed the land that God had given them. They had been handed land, cities, vineyards, and fields ready for use, but they had taken it all for granted. At the end of verse 25, we are told that “they ate and were filled and grew fat” (NKJV). Growing fat is an expression that is found only a few times in the Bible (Deut. 32:15 and Jer. 5:28), and each time it has a negative connotation.
Hearing the Law
The people might have “delighted themselves in Your great goodness” (NKJV) but theirs wasn’t a delight in God but, instead, in all they had. Apparently having everything doesn’t produce a close walk with God. Many times we think, “If only I had this or that, then I would be happy”. Unfortunately, we see that the Israelites had everything from God, and yet their “happiness” in those things only made them less devoted to God. Too often it’s too easy for us to focus on the gifts while forgetting about the Giver. This is a fatal deception.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we cannot be happy for the things that God has given us. He desires that we rejoice in His gifts, but this joy in the things He gives doesn’t guarantee a relationship with God. In fact, if we are not careful, these things can become a stumbling block.
Nevertheless, in this chapter, the leaders now confessed the ways that they had been unfaithful to God. As they looked through their history, they specifically named transgressions they had committed as a nation. A couple of aspects emerge as especially important, because they are repeated: 1 Israel cast God’s law away, and 2 they persecuted the prophets.
In other words, they realized that God’s law and His prophets were essential to their development as a godly nation and as individuals. The prayer emphasizes this conclusion by stating that “if a man does” God’s commandments, “he shall live by them” (Neh. 9:29, NKJV; direct quote from Lev. 18:5) and by highlighting that it is the Spirit that spoke through the prophets. God has given us His commandments for an abundant life, and He sent His prophets to guide us in our understanding of His truth. What we do with these gifts is the essential question for us all.
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There is a great danger in knowing we have the truth. We can become complacent in that knowledge, thinking that we have arrived. And sometimes we can become arrogant towards others who have "lesser" or even "apostate" truth. This was the problem with the Children of Israel who grew fat in their knowledge of their special relationship with God.
The one thing that I have learned about truth during my short life is that truth is not a set of goals that one arrives at, but a journey of experience and experiment. It's a dynamic, and is something we learn from the most unexpected places.
Our relationship to truth affects our ability to communicate it. I used to teach Chemistry. I knew a lot about chemistry, having done it as one of my majors for my BSc. So when I stood in front of my class to teach them the truth of Chemistry I thought that all I had to do was to teach them chemistry. I was the jug, full of knowledge, and they were the cups and I had to pour the knowledge from my jug into their cups. It did not work! My students performed badly and I seriously doubted my calling.
Somewhere along the line I learned that teaching knowledge about Chemistry was not effective. I had to model how to learn Chemistry. Instead of being the source of Chemistry knowledge, I had to be a fellow learner.
We need to understand that it is the same for the Truth of Christianity. It is not about knowledge. Christianity is not a defined set of absolute axioms that you accept and defend. Rather it is a journey of discovery that you can share with others. It is experimental and experiential. We do not have time to grow fat in our knowledge of truth because we are exercising it.
We started this lesson talking about corporate sin. Is the "big sin" of Seventh-day Adventists our arrogance of thinking we have the truth, rather than understanding that we are learners of the truth.
Holy Ghost, give me the mind of Christ. You are forgiving and so I need to be.
"At the end of verse 25, we are told that “they ate and were filled and grew fat” (NKJV). Growing fat is an expression that is found only a few times in the Bible (Deut. 32:15 and Jer. 5:28), and each time it has a negative connotation".
In the bible,to my understanding, eating and were filled and grew fat has two different meaning.
Physical and using a terminology.
Physical-
The bible mentioned being "fat" in its physical form
1. e.g Judges 3:12,22. speaking about Eglon, the king of Moab. There was a reason or more why this is place in the bible.It says the King was fat.
2. 1 Samuel 4:18 speaking about Eli.Some versions said he was fat/heavy/overweight.
One culture might say being fat is a 'GOOD' thing, while another might differ. Being fat did not mean the two men did anything wrong just being fat.
In Judges, When the children of Israel went into the promised land the Lord told them what to do and what not to do. The Lord prepared everything for them from the seven previous nations. They met springs of water, flourishing gardens, and things ready to eat and relax.
In heeding to the Lord, some built a city and did what the Lord told them, others drove out the other nations because of their sins toward God. We read several tribes did not do what the Lord said but dwell among the heathen. By mingling with them, they made league with them and became corrupt. After Joshua death the bible says the other generation did not knew God.
Why? because they cast God' law away.
As the people began to prosper physically, they intermingled more and more with the natives. God became less and less in their thought. They started worshiping the gods of the heathens which they were told not to do.
Many times Christians fall into this same predicament. God was all who they knew when they were young, helpless and poor. As time goes by and they are blessed by God, the retain God less and less in their thought, until the cares of the world separates them from God.
Let us not forget God as the children of Israel.
I had applied for a job and had an interview. I thought to my self this is a great job and I have done so well in the interview I will surely be hired.
I did not get the job.
Out of the blue a manager from a different department called and asked if I would be interested in working for him.
When I said yes, he checked my references and HR called me with a tentative job offer on Friday January 20th.
When President Trump took over the office that weekend, he signed an executive order put a freeze on hiring all federal workers.
Since I did not receive a formal offer letter, the HR could not continue the hiring process.
I thought to myself, why?
Then five months later, the manager calls me again and asks would I be interested in the Job.
He said, I had to reapply for the job and go through the interview process.
Finally, on September 2017 I began working for this institute.
God does everything perfect in his own time.
Do you feel there is no way out of your situation?
He who knows the end from the beginning.
His timing is always perfect.
Do not despair. If God is for us who can be against us.
Sometimes it is more about getting used to the fact that we have it all. As such, our dependence on our savior and our interdependence on each other starts to be less obvious hence less important. This then plunges us into a path of self-dependence and self actualization. With time, we loose track, forget and are easily overtaken by the enemy. It takes time and because its gradual, even understanding that we are getting lost is really difficult. We need to keep closer and daily accept our dependence on our source of salvation regardless of how self sustaining (both spiritual and physical) we may seem to be!
To have everything sometimes or many times it makes us to walk far with God, not only that but also we cast God's law away by drinking alcohol, smoking etc.Then we persecuting our leaders in church and our members church and more over being unfaithful to God so that we repeating the mistakes which Israelites had done before.So we ought to be carefully when God provides things to us.
The truth is only One, Jesus! He is the truth. As we get to know Him, we get closer to the truth and life. Jesus is the truth that we must hold on to, with Him we never get lost. Everything gets clearer as we get closer to Him. And Jesus is love! Love can heal our pains!
Phil in a different lesson mentioned this text in a different setting or mind you a different context. But I have been contemplating it since. To me it iterates the fact that since we have the truth we need to go with it. It is most obvious in the amplified classic edition, so I will give the full text.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 AMPC
No we don’t hammer others with our knowledge of truth, just gently nudge, with Christ like love.
Good day,
John
This may be simplistic, but I think the mistake we make is reading scripture with the mindset that we must get others to see it the way we see it. If I read scripture with the mind set of “what is God saying to me, and how will it change my life today?”, then I believe others will see a transformed life and want to have that for themselves. Our lives are to reflect Christ. This weeks lesson is on forgiveness, and when we fully understand that, our lives will change.