Many Days

Hosea 3:2-5 - So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.


Daniel 11:31 - “His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.

Lamentations 2:9 - Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD.

Zechariah 10:2 - The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

Hosea 5:1 - “Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen, royal house! This judgment is against you: You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

Hosea 8:10 - Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together. They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.

Hosea 6:6 - For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 10:2 - Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.

Conclusions:

· God has a glorious future in store for me!
· Do I choose to stand strong rather than go against God's law?
· God can cause loss of protection, leadership, written revelation and direction!
· Do I resort to God for guidance?
· Have I taken advantage of innocent people?
· Do I seek others for my security rather than God?
· Do I express steadfast love and knowledge of God?
· Do I sin more as I prosper? Can I handle prosperity?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Special Days

Galatians 4:9-10 - But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!

Leviticus 16:29-30,34 - "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you-because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins…"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites." And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Conclusions:

• Legalistic trust in rituals, in moral achievement, in law, in good works, or even in cold, dead orthodoxy may indicate a relapse into second childhood on the part of those who should be knowing and enjoying the freedom of full-grown sons
• Special days are days such as the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement, which had never been, and can never be, in themselves means of salvation or sanctification
• Months and seasons are New Moons, Passover and Firstfruits
• Years are sabbath years
• The Pharisees meticulously observed special days, months, seasons and years to gain merit before God
• On the Day of Atonement the repentant Israelite was assured of sins forgiven
• Christ's sacrifice was once for all, not once a year.

Application:

• Do you legalistically trust in rituals?
• Are you assued of sins forgiven?
• Christ's sacrifice was once for you?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Early Days

Philippians 4:14-16 - Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.

Acts 16:30-32,34 - He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house…The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

2 Corinthians 8:1,5 - And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches…And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.

Conclusions:

• The jailer had heard that these were preachers of a way of salvation
• Now with the earthquake and his own near death, he wanted to know about the way
• Believe in the Lord Jesus is a concise statement of the way of salvation
• Paul and Silas explained the gospel more thoroughly to the jailer and to all the other members of his household, and they all believed in Christ and were saved
• Being filled with joy is the consistent consequence of conversion, regardless of circumstances
• The grace of giving on the part of believers is more than matched by the self-giving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
• “They gave themselves first to the Lord” is the true principle of all Christian giving
• These Macedonian Christians are an amazing example to the Corinthian believers and to the church in every age of the dynamic difference that God’s grace makes with the lives and attitudes of His people—a central theme of 2 Corinthians

Application:

• Do you want to know how to be saved?
• Do you believe in the Lord Jesus?
• Have you been saved?
• Are you filled with joy?
• Have you exercised the grace of giving?
• Do you give yourself first tot he Lord?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Last Days

James 4:15-5:3 - Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?

Acts 2:17 - " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

1 John 2:18 - Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

Conclusions:

• To illustrate Christian holiness and discipline, Paul alludes to the prohibition against the use of leaven in the bread eaten in the Passover feast
• Leaven in Scripture usually symbolizes evil or sin, and the church here is called on to get rid of the yeast of sin because they are an unleavened batch of dough—new creations in Christ
• Peter interprets the quote from Joel as referring specifically to the latter days of the new covenant in contrast to the former days of the old covenant
• The age of Messianic fulfillment has arrived
• With other New Testament writers, John viewed the whole period beginning with Christ’s first coming as the last days
• They understood this to be the last of the days because neither former prophecy nor new revelation concerning the history of salvation indicated the coming of another era before the return of Christ
• The word last in “last days”, “last times” and “last hour” also expresses a sense of urgency and imminence
• The Christian is to be alert, waiting for the return of Christ
• John assumed his readers knew that a great enemy of God and His people will arise before Christ’s return
• That person is called antichrist, the man of lawlessness and the beast
• But prior to him, there will be many antichrists
• Antichrists are characterized by the following: (1) They deny the incarnation and that Jesus is the divine Christ; (2) they deny the Father; (3) they do not have the Father; (4) they are liars and deceivers; (5) they are many; (6) in John’s day they left the church because they had nothing in common with believers
• The antichrists referred to in John’s letter were the early Gnostics
• The anti in antichrist means against

Application:

• Have you removed the yeast of sin?
• Has God poured out His Spirit on you?
• Are you alert waiting for the return of Christ?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible