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

Servants

Nehemiah 7:66-8:3 - The whole company numbered 42,360, besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 245 male and female singers. There were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys. Some of the heads of the families contributed to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 darics of gold, 50 bowls and 530 garments for priests. Some of the heads of the families gave to the treasury for the work 20,000 darics of gold and 2,200 minas of silver. The total given by the rest of the people was 20,000 darics of gold, 2,000 minas of silver and 67 garments for priests. The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the musicians and the temple servants, along with certain of the people and the rest of the Israelites, settled in their own towns. When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 1:10 - “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.

Deuteronomy 31:10-11 - Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.

Application:

· If I sin and fail, am I still one of God's people? Does He still redeem me?
· Do I listen attentively to the reading and exposition of the Scriptures?
· Do I see reading God's Word as one of my main dutues?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Free Men

1 Peter 2:15-16 - For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

John 8:32 - Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Galatians 5:13 - You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Romans 6:22 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Conclusions:

• Closely connected with Jesus, the truth is not philosophical truth but the truth that leads to salvation
• The truth setting you free is freedom from sin, not from ignorance
• Liberty is not license but freedom to serve God and each other in love
• Slavery to God produces holiness, and the end of the process is eternal life
• There is no eternal life without holiness
• Anyone who has been justified will surely give evidence of that fact by the presence of holiness in his life

Application:

• Has the truth that leads to salvation set you free from sin?
• Do you use your freedom to serve others in love?
• Have you become a slave to God?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible