Your Servants The Prophets

Ezra 9:10-12 - “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’


Deuteronomy 18:9 - When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

Jeremiah 7:25 - From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets.

Exodus 34:15 - “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

Joel 3:20 - Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations.

Application:

· Do I resort to the wrong sources for my information, guidance or revelation? Do I listen to the Lord’s prophets?
· Do I serve the Lord faithfully?
· Do I partake of things that invite compromise?
· When God’s judgment and redemption are consummated, His kingdom will endure and flourish eternally.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Prophets

Zechariah 13:2-3 - “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the LORD’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.


Nehemiah 6:12-13 - I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

Zechariah 12:10 - “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Application:

· Do I propose courses of action contrary to God’s Word?
· Do I waver in the face of threats against me?
· Have I told lies in the Lord’s name?
· Does the Holy Spirit cause me to be repentant and seek forgiveness?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Prophets

Nehemiah 9:30-33 - For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.



2 Kings 17:13 - The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”



Zechariah 7:12 - They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.



Genesis 18:25 - Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”



Application:



· Have I violated the requirements of God's covenant? Have I spurned the words of the Lord?

· Do I listen to the words that the Lord Almighty has sent by His Spirit?

· Do I see the justice and authority of God? Am I confident that God will do what is right?



All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I Also Raised Up Prophets And Nazirites

Amos 2:11 - “I also raised up prophets from among your children and Nazirites from among your youths. Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 7:25 - From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets.

Deuteronomy 18:15 - The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

Numbers 6:2-3 - “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the LORD as a Nazirite, they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins.

Application:

· Am I used by God through word and example?
· Do I serve the Lord faithfully?
· Do I listen to the Lord's messengers?
· Am I totally devoted to the Lord?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

False Prophets

Lamentations 2:11-14 - My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' arms. What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading.

Jeremiah 9:1 - Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

Jeremiah 23:10,23,28-29, The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered. The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly…"Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away?... Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the LORD. "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

Application:

• Do you weep for others?
• Do you mislead people?
• Do you feed and nourish others?
• Has God's Word tested your work and judged your heart?
• Have you violated the Lord's covenant?
• God lives in a high and holy place and…He lives with you!

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Prophets No Longer Find Visions

Lamentations 2:7-10 - The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. 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. The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

Amos 8:11 - "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

Job 2:13 - Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Application:

• How is the Lord communicating to me?
• In my distress, does God answer with hope and guidance or silence?
• When encountering those who are suffering, do I comfort people with my presence, or do I take a chance by adding words?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Leaders And Prophets Rebuked

Micah 2:11-3:4 - If a liar and deceiver comes and says, 'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people! "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head." Then I said, "Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?" Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.

Romans 12:9 - Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Psalm 14:4 - Will evildoers never learn—those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD ?

Conclusions:

• If I am not just, if I hate good and love evil, God will not answer when I cry out
• My love must be sincere
• If I do not call on the Lord, I am an evildoer.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Prophets...Searched Intently

1 Peter 1:10-11,18-19 - Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow…For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

2 Peter 1:21 - For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Luke 4:17-19 - The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Zechariah 9:9-10 - Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Zechariah 13:7 - "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!" declares the LORD Almighty. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

Luke 24:46-47 - He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Acts 3:18-20 - But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

Conclusions:

• God was the source of the content of Scripture, so that what it says is what God has said
• Those who are united with Christ will benefit in the midst of their present sufferings from His having already entered into glory
• Righteous means conforming to the divine standard of morality and ethics, particularly as revealed in the law; being righteous is a characteristic of the ideal king
• Christ’s rule will be universal
• The Old Testament depicts the Messiah as one who would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
• Zechariah 13:7 is quoted by Jesus not long before His arrest and applied to the scattering of the apostles

Application:

• Are you united with Christ?
• Are you righteous?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible