Nehemiah 9

Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would speak to us, Lord. We pray that you would speak to the children that are gathered, Lord God, to use the teachers there in a good way, Lord, to lead them close to you, Lord, and to keep them there. We ask God for your mercy in that. And we pray that you would just show us through your word how faithful you are, Lord, and be with us to give us strength to do our part, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. So yeah, I thought there was a good time for review because there in Nehemiah 9, they're going to review from creation all the way to where they find themselves.

I don't know how much we'll get through that, but depends how this review goes. So, I'm going to go over the very brief survey of the first eight chapters and mostly the highlights that I saw today. Chapter one is where Nehemiah inquires about his brothers that escaped, it says, or survived the captivity. So, some of them actually got away, it looks like, and they stayed there in Jerusalem and and he found out a little bit about it. Nehemiah mourns, fasts, and he prays for many days. It says, and then the Lord answered pretty quickly., so here's a pattern that we'll see in chapter 9 too that Nehemiah begins with confession before God and then recalling all the things that God had done as well.

And it seems like he's reminding God of his promise of when he would restore the people of Israel after they would go astray. It's like almost guaranteed, right? That they're going to fail. Who is not going to fail? No hands. Me either. So, chapter two is Nehemiah is allowed to go by King Arderes. He's given letters for traveling as well as letters for provision., certainly something that came from God because God it says somewhere that God moves the hearts of the kings. Am I talking loud enough? Yes. Okay. It says somewhere that God moves the hearts of the kings, right?

Or he directs them. Can't remember where that is. I didn't. It just came to me right now. So so that's what we see in chapter 2 is going on as well as Nehemiah arrives to Jerusalem. He assesses the walls. He goes he does that walk in the night where he goes and he looks at the work that needs to be done. And then the enemies that were there hear of him doing this and they despise him and they just it says you know any thought of rebuilding they begin to kind of conspire. So chapter three the work is divided up by the families.

That's where we saw if you remember there was a picture that Clint had up of the gates with all the names and then for each gate or each area between the gates there was a family or some type of group whether it was like the Levites or someone else that was specific group that they kept the groups together to work together. And then chapter 4, the wall is built and defended as they work. It says in there that they had a tool in one hand and a sword or a weapon in the other, right? Pretty much I thought about that today and I thought, how impossible is it to work like that?

Like I was zoning in on a couple jobs not too distant past here recently and like I'm trying to just make one cut on a piece of flooring to go in a space and I can't imagine doing that while fighting off someone who hates me. It's like an impossible thing to picture but somehow they did it. Maybe they weren't fighting the whole time, but they certainly had to be on high alert. Chapter five, Nehemiah deals with then some of the wealthier people that were there that began to be discovered that they were putting their brothers who had just been freed from captivity back into a different form of bondage by putting them in debt by exacting usury.

It says or excessive interest. And so the people actually respond well and they release their brothers from their debts. That reminded me of Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. You know that he said, "Forgive us our debtors or our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us." it's it's hard to release something like that from our minds. But when you consider the debt that we have before God, if our sins are as a debt, then it becomes a lot easier, you know. So Nehemiah gives a good example of it by then we see what he provided. He had a massive amount of food.

I forgot how many steer and how many lambs it was every day and fowl or chickens and whatever else. Oh, they ate a lot. Well, because there were so many people, he had to provide a lot of food. So, he shows also an example of generosity., right after he tells other people to stop being greedy, he then leads. It's always a good the best way to teach somebody something is to example it. So then we go to chapter six. There's a plot by some foreigners to isolate Nehemiah in a meeting. So they wanted to kill him. And there's a plot by someone that was referred to as I think it was a double agent to get Nehemiah to enter the temple because there was a threat to his life.

And then by entering the temple, Nehemiah would be trespassing against the law of the temple that says that there's certain area only the priests go, you know. So he wanted him to go into an inner court of the temple where he wasn't supposed to be. And Nehemiah would rather had died than commit this sin. And so God honors him. And the work is then done in chapter 6. I don't remember what chapter it is that says that it was completed in 52 days. And the then the doors of the gates are installed so the people can kind of rest gives us a picture of being able to finally be in a place where we can rest of entering the heavenly Jerusalem where we can just finally say, "Oh, there's no more threat of this or that, of death or enemy, nothing.

We can just rest." you know., and also then we go to chapter 7. There is a registry by genealogy that Nehemiah puts together. So then there's a large list of the people that came residents and it's that also reminds me of a heavenly thing where it says that our names are registered already right in heaven. We're citizens there. So, I forgot to write down where that was from that reference in the New Testament. Anyways, chapter 8, we get to this time of appointed times it's called or feasts where we see the people are called it says they came to all the people gathered together as one man in the open square and I was saying that that one man is a reference to a God beginning to work as in a covenant relationship.

So the language there points to a covenant. And I kind of left that without much explanation. So I wrote down Ephesians 2 so that you can see where my mind was when I said that if you were curious at all. 214-18 it says for he himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create him in himself one new man from the two thus making peace and the and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross thereby I putting to death the enmity.

And he came and preached peace to you who are a far off, to those who are near. For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Oh, and then it says, "Therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." So, I was wondering if it said that's where we were registered. Didn't there we are where God begins to renew them by the power of his word., remember pe we talked about that a little bit that Peter said that as newborn babes we're to desire the milk of the word.

He also said that you're born again by the word of God. So the word of God has that power. And so this seventh month when the word is brought forth, we begin to see the nations rebirth and they they actually react kind of like a newborn baby they begin to cry because they realize where where they've been., and that's a lot like it is when somebody, anybody hears the word of God that they realize, wow, I've been distant. I've been really, I've been dead to this. You know, the Bible says dead in your sins and trespasses. It doesn't just say a little bit off.

No, it's considered to be separate from God according to the Bible. That that's death, right? Because when Adam and Eve sinned, God said, "In the day that you sin, you will surely die." But they didn't fall over and stop breathing. But their separation from God out of the garden to be exiled, that's death. So separation from God is biblical death. And so that as they're being brought back to life, they are crying. And there was an in there's a connection I kind of make with that. But does everybody here know about the Dead Sea Scrolls? Does anybody not know about the Dead Sea Scrolls?

You don't know about them. Well, you have homework. But we'll begin with it. So the Dead Sea Scrolls were the copies of manuscripts of mostly the Old Testament as far as I know. Some probably New Testament manuscripts too, but I don't think all Yeah, I don't think there was anything new. There was 20 most of it was Yeah. Like to 200 300 BC. Earlier, right? It was in that area. Yeah. It was in that it was in the desert. Yeah. In a cave. In Kuman, it's called. Yes. In a cave in Kuman. So my connection to that was discovered.

Do you know what year? 1947. Very good. And then the nation of Israel became a nation in what year? 1948. Pretty ironic. Huh? Ironic. Do you see how that is? The word of God comes out and it's like Jesus, right? When Jesus came out of the cave, he's the word became flesh. We then we can now have hope in the resurrection. So that's where our hope is. So there's a connection in my mind. I don't know if you can detach it or not. If you can, that's all right., that's just my theory of what when the nation was actually born. It didn't have to be a document.

It was God's doing a work. And, some of the every book except one was found in the caves. That was the book of Esther. The one book that doesn't have the name of God in you know, an exact wording. They say it's found in different places forward and backward in the book., in the acronyms, I believe they're called in a mystery, so to speak. It's there. It's just not mentioned specifically. So then we're still in chapter eight., the feast of Sukkot or they call it booths or tabernacles is found in the law. And Ezekiel 36 is something I referenced I don't know if I should read it as a fulfillment.

Ezekiel was about 150 years prior to this. And in Ezekiel 36, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the land and to the mountains. And he says in verse one, you son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, oh mountain, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, because the enemy has said of you, "Aha, the ancient heights have become our possession." Therefore prophesy and say, "Thus says the Lord God, because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of the talkers and slandered by the people.

Therefore, oh mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, and desolate waste, and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds in order to plunder its open country. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, and the valleys, thus says the Lord God, behold, I have spoken of my jealousy and my fury because you have borne the shame of the nations.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I have raised my hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame. But you, oh mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they are about to come. Okay, they're about to come. And this happening in Nehemiah began with Ezra, right? And this shooting forth of the branches is giving what they need to observe the feast of tabernacles. They need to go out and gather branches. So we saw that in chapter 8 that they went out to gather branches because the land had been desolate run down.

And it says that then man and beast would multiply. He says also in Ezekiel and it's kind of like in where is it? It says that the earth groans waiting for its deliverance or its redemption. It as in as if it's in labor pains like the things we see around us. The earth is under the burden of our sin, right? It can't resist. It can't necessarily stop us. But it's looked at or it's given to us as a picture of something that's alive. It's an organism, a creation of God that's affected by man's sin. It bears thorns now, right? And it's waiting for deliverance.

So the word of God is what delivers. And so we see that happen in in a big way in chapter 8 as well as moving into chapter nine. What happens after the feast? Because remember they were told they began to mourn when they heard the law and they were told you can't mourn today. This is a holy day. They told them where we're at on the calendar is a day of rejoicing. It's actually a whole week, eight days even of rejoicing. So there's a time to mourn and a time to rejoice, right? So then we see when we get to chapter nine that two days after the feast is finished, they go right back to mourning.

So you can see the effect the effect of the law was still strong in them. The that's the what the law does is it says in Psalm what number is it? Did I write it down? 38 perhaps. It says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple and it says that thereby your servant is warned by them." So, as they begin to open the law and see, it's like a mirror. They see their guilt and the weight of the guilt of their fathers that that brought them to the place where they were in bondage and now they have to defend themselves as they build their homeland back.

But they see the hand of God moving to it. And I would think that they saw all of the provision and that humbled them in such a way to want to do what they do at the end of this chapter, which is to actually write their own promise to God. And seal it. What they begin to do in yeah, in chap the end of this chapter, they begin to make the seal a letter, a promise to God that's an oath or a curse. Well, let's not get ahead. So, I'm going to go through the first four verses with some commentary and the rest of it I'll think we'll just read it as it is a it is like a biblical survey sort of that they're led by the Levites in this type of a proclamation or a prayer to acknowledge all that God did.

So, it's like a it's like a broad overview of all of from creation to where they're at now and of God's work on them or through them through all of history. And there's a couple other places in the Scripture where you see that type of thing. Stephen in Acts 7 when he's about to be stoned to death, he does the same thing and it's actually in the same location. So, Stephen gives an overview of God's dealing with Israel starting with Abraham. In this recording of the overview, it begins with creation. There's also one overview from Psalm 78 that starts in creation as well.

And it brings it up. It's written by Asaf and it brings it up to nearly the same time that he was there. And there's another one somewhere else I think in Joshua 24, the end of Joshua, he reminds every it's like a reminder. You know, sometimes you need a great reminder of where it all began. Just the humility of understanding God made everything and then what he's all brought his people through and where it is that you're at right now. Just that sobering reminder of how powerful he is but yet still loves us that greatly to it says often in these reminders that they're transgressing or they're sinning and doing iniquity.

Iniquity is kind of one of those mysterious words that we see a lot, but it's it's kind of like just looked over as like another type of sin. But iniquity is better described as both perversions. So when it talks about sins and iniquity, it's really a little graphic in what idolatry leads people to and what they did and why God would judge them. You know, it's not a small thing. It's not like it's not like just stealing. Okay, stealing is bad, right? But stealing is different from perversion. So anyways,

Any comments before we go to chapter nine? That was a longction. Now on the 24th day of this month, the seventh month, then the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for 1/4th of the day. And for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Then Jeshua, Bonnie, Cadmiel, Shebaniah, Bonnie, Sherbabiah, Bonnie, and Shannani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

So I guess I kind of explained most of that where we were the but the process begins right the san the sanctification process is beginning with them. The sanctification begins with confession. Right? You can't be cleansed unless you confess. Right? According to John, he says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So this is the process that we're watching, sanctification. The nation is being set apart. They're setting themselves apart from all the foreigners because they understand now. They're beginning to read the law. 1/4 of the day is a long time.

If you think my introduction was long, 1/4th of the day, they stood there listening to the law of Moses and they would have clearly understood now the perversions were one thing, but God had a purpose in keeping them separate from the nations in order to bring the Savior, right? So they're beginning to sanctify themselves to set them apart for what God had called them to be. God calls each of us to be something. And it's our responsibility, our part, right? To sanctify yourself. Sanctify myself. It's God's power to do it. But it's our responsibility to come to him and submit or to cooperate with him in that work.

I think it's also Peter that said to sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Right before he said and always be ready to give an answer for everyone. We all know that, right? We're supposed to be ready with an answer for those who question the hope that's within us. But it's a lot easier to do that if you've already sanctified the Lord in your heart. If you've already made that place of lordship for him to allow him on the throne, his proper position over us. It's not something we just talk about, something that we can share by experience that we know it.

So here they are and that's what we're seeing that they were realizing by the reading of the law that all of the judgments that they were encountering were because of disobedience and the responsibility it said they understood was a lot of it was their fathers. A lot of times we sin in ignorance, but a lot of times it's and this was their their first understanding of the law for most of them., but they had been neglected. They had been neglected in being brought up to know the word of the Lord.

That speaks to anybody with children. It's our place in their lives, a privilege that God has given us. So yeah, they have a they have a commitment obviously. They're realizing what's going on and they're presenting themselves to hear the word., so

That's all my notes. I'm going to read what happened here with the Levites. It says Jeshua, Cadmiel, Bani, Hesh Bananiah, Sherabiah, Hodaja, Shabbaniah, and Pthaniah. So they said, "Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve them all. The host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of the of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, Perizzites, Jebisites, and the Gerbishites to give it to his descendants. You have performed your words, for you are righteous. You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land. For you knew that they acted proudly against them. So you made a name for yourself as it is this day. And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land.

And their persecutors you threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters. More moreover you led them by day with a cloudy pillar and by night with the pillar of fire to give them light on the road which they should tread., just going to pause to say that, the pillar of cloud. I'm sure some of you have heard this before, but being in the desert to have a pillar of fire by night is more than just a light, right? Because the desert gets very cold at night. So it's a source of heat. So there's like a there's always this multi what multiplication or like a deeper purpose in all of the things that God does for those who are following him.

And as well as the cloud the cloud by day is a shade. Like you can find some shade under a cloud. You can find heat by a fire. And God is just that way, right? He says to Moses, I will be what I will be to you. Or I am that I am as you hear it said, right? That's what it means. I will be what I will be. There's a lot more to just I am that I am, right? But like the language, we just see hear that, but that's not just what it means. And so he just in so many ways provides for his people with water from a rock.

Anyways, we're going to keep going. We I just wanted to stop and because that kind of came back up in my mind., you came down also on Mount Si and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. Made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, and told them to go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed your commandments.

They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of your wonders you that you did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, "This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt and work great provocations. Yet in your manifold mercies, you did not forsake them in the wilderness." Ah, that was the word I was looking for. Manifold. There's a manifold way that God works.

The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go. You also gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your mana from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts. So they took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbah, and the land of Og, king of Bashan.

That would be like the area of Jordan. So, east, east, and a little bit I don't know, north. So, you also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to go in and possess. So the people went in, possessed the land. You subdued them. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might do with them as they wished. And they took strong cities and a rich land and possessed houses full of all goods.

Cisterns already dug vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and graffit and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. Cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself and they and they worked great provocations. I'm just going to read really quick because that part of Acts 7 is it when I think about Steven's sermon to the Sanhedrin, they took him before the Sanhedrin, which they would have, like I was saying, they would have most likely been gathered in an area called the hall of the hume stones which is right near this area in Nehemiah interestingly enough.

So at the end of his sermon he says you stiff neck and uncircumcised and hardened ears you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. It's it's sad, right, to see all that God has done and that he sends prophets to warn them and yet they don't listen one bit. In order to not listen, they behave like people in our day and age that when you bring the gospel out in the open their desire is to do what it says in Romans 1, that they will, that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

I watched a video today of a short clip of some guys that were out by a school preaching and the police came. They ushered all the children inside and then the police ran their sirens just to drown out what they were saying. Yeah. To interfere. Like it's one thing to tell them like, "Hey, you're maybe you're you shouldn't be here. Is there a law or an ordinance, something we can enforce against them? But they know they can't because it's free speech. But instead, they use their sirens to drown out the gospel. So, I don't know where it was. I think it was down south actually in the Bible belt.

It's incredible what's going on. But I think if they could a lot of times if they could get away with it, they would kill them. If somebody's preaching, if they could get away with it, and I know people would kill for that because that's the best way to suppress the truth is to make sure it doesn't go any further. This person is the one doing it. We can eliminate. They think, well, the prophets already wrote it down by God's direction by the direction of angels, so they weren't getting away from, but it was written already for their good. You know, it's like you don't go out and preach the gospel to someone because you want to increase their judgment, right?

You don't want to make it certain that now you're accountable. You know it all and now you're going to be judged righteously. That might be the case. That might be part of the case, right? That God says you had every opportunity. But I think the purpose and the desire of God sending anyone is so that people would turn to him and begin a relationship with him to love him. Right? To have eternal life and to be loved by him rather than judged. But they suppressed the truth and unrighteousness just like they did here as their recounting. So according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers.

Oh, wait. I skipped some of that verse. Verse 27. Therefore, you delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven. And according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers who save them from the hand of their enemies. That's our reference to the book of Judges, right? Every time they cry out, they get delivered. God sends a savior. It's it is another word for or we and our Bibles have it as judges. And God does that because of his great love of his abundant mercy. And here we go again.

Same cycle. But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Therefore, you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and testified against them, that you might bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly, did not heed your commandments, but sinned against your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they shrug their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Just like what Steven said, and then what did they do?

It says in Acts seven, right, when they rushed at him, they stopped their ears. It says, let me see if I can say when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they nashed at him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, "Look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord.

And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. It's just like what they did in the prophets, right? They don't want to hear it. It's no different. Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit and your prophets. Yet they would not listen. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercy, you did not utterly consume them, nor forsake them. For you are God, gracious and merciful. So all of these things I think it's important to remember that God didn't right it says utterly consumed. He didn't completely wipe them out.

He left space to continue his covenant because if he utterly wiped them out, well then the seed would be gone. Salvation would be gone. That would be it. And he wants to fulfill that. I think even as they act as his enemies. He sees way beyond that. You know, God always sees way beyond the present circumstances. And he remembers. It says he remembers what he promised. Now therefore, our God. Verse 32. I think right. Yes. Verse 32. Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty and awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy. Do not let all the troubles fall before you that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

However, you are just in all that has befallen us. For you have dealt faithfully, but we have done wicked. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers have kept your law, nor heeded your commandments and testimonies with which you testified against them. For they have not served you in their kingdom, or in the many good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works. And then they say this. Here we are servants today in the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its beauty.

Here we are servants in it. And it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure and we are in great distress. So what a weight to have up on yourself like it's not just the past and what happened to them. It's their present situation. They're still feeling this great burden on them. Like they realize that, okay, we rebuilt the city, but we're still under a foreign dominion, right? They needed permission to get there. They have the walls built. They have the gates in place. They have safety from the immediate enemies, but they still understand the greater situation is we're oppressed.

We have probably what do they call those types of taxes imposed on them by tribute, right? They call them tribute. Had probably had to pay tribute. As soon as they gain something, they're going to be required some sort of tribute to a foreign king. Whether it's a multitude of them or one of them, they're realizing that all of the work that they do and all of the cattle that they raise and all of that, it's still under a type of bondage, right? Isn't that how our lives are in the land of the free? You get taxed from birth to death, right? It's it's it's a reality, right?

That we want deliverance, right? We are not unreasonable, I think, as some people might say, to look to be delivered from this world. It's not unreasonable at all. We should have an effect in it. We should have a goal to be effective in it. To do good for those around us and to make the situation better. But ultimately, it's not unreasonable to want to be delivered just as we see in them in them. And then they what do they do? They say because of all of this, we make a sure covenant and write it. Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it. They make a pact with God in their own writing.

I would like to see what they wrote. That interests me. That's like one of those mysteries that I don't think we have the words for it, right? I don't think we have what they wrote. Some of those things like but they bound themselves to a curse as well. Right? So some of those things you have to understand too when right when you make a vow let me see if I can find it. I always I always used to share this with people in in jail because that's where I got saved. And people would say all kinds of things in there Lord, if you get me out of this, I'm going I'm going to serve you.

You kind of see it before they even leave. Like, no, you're not. You're already forgiven. You're already turning away. Oh, here we go. Psalm 66. I will go into your house with burnt offerings. I will pay you my vows which my lips have uttered and my mo my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. Right? People often are like in the worst situation and they're ready to make a commitment and a promise and they bind themselves sometimes to something beyond what they can fulfill. I think I've done it too. And sometimes God will remind you what you know you remember that day. Remember when you said I will tell people about you every day or remember when you said there you know what is it I don't know I wasn't with you when you spoke to God but he knows right just be certain like what you're saying to God is is not just words that it's a that it's a

It's got to be serious, man. Please. Yeah, it's got right. It's got to be from conviction, but it has to be Yeah. Serious that they're setting themselves up if they don't follow through. And we're setting ourselves up sometimes. It's not that God's going to condemn us. I don't think I think there's I think there's not there's nothing wrong with that, right? With making those those vows, but look what is it a bell or is it a I'll do this if you do that? Is it different? Is it a deal? Right. Yeah. Are we making a deal or you know so right and really all we need to do is look back at what he told us he'll do if we do this because then when we put more on top of that you know it's already enough that we couldn't do the things that are required I think but I don't I don't think

It's wrong either that you know you do make a commitment to God. Maybe it's just like for a short time it's better like Lord I'm going to commit myself to this for a week and see if you make that week because it's easy to remember something for a week but then when you go for like the rest of my life type of commitment then you might realize wow I' I run into difficulty these all the time. I can't seem to get over this these obstacles in my life. Well, let's go back and remember then. Did you make a commitment to God that you're breaking?

Do you need to ask him to remind you or forgive you or to help you? I don't know. That's just some of my thoughts about it. Like you bind yourself to something too heavy, right? Remember the men that bound themselves to not eating until they killed Paul? Remember that in Acts? I don't think they starved to death. But they didn't kill him. He was executed in Rome, right? So failure. They bound themselves. It said under an elf and a curse not to eat anything until we get this guy. Yeah. Be careful what you got. But look at the promises that God made and be careful not to forget those.

So that will strengthen you, right? That will give you something to hold on to when things are hard, when you're tempted. I got to hold on to what the promise that I'm looking for this reward from God, right? Because he's faithful to and he's he rewards those who diligently seek him. That's where I look at the whole thing that they're writing here. I think it's a good thing, but it's a heavy thing. If they don't keep it, right? Blessing and cursing set before you this day, right? Moses told the children of Israel. Joshua told them the same thing. And Joshua, he told them, I read that.

I'll read that, too, because it's it's kind of connected. It's sobering. So So the people, let's see. So the people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed." And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwell in our land.

We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God." And listen to what Joshua tells him. Now, verse 19, Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods. Then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord." So Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him."

And they said we are witnesses. So then he tells them they have to put away everything for him, the foreign gods. And he sets up a stone. He said this stone hurt everything. And he sets up this stone for them to be a witness against him. Funny things they do, right? The stone heard it all. You have this stone. They have ears too. And the thing but the thing was like he told them you can't like I believe he wasn't condemning them. He was just telling them like it's it's more than you know or understand. Really we have to accept that at some level we're going to try everything and do everything that we know is right but we realize still that God is holy and we need we need to go to a new body that's never been touched by sin that God is preparing for us that that we can have that pure fellowship with him that's never

Been that's never been weakened by any foreign thing, anything foreign to heaven, right? And that's why God lets his spirit live in us because everything without his spirit is unacceptable, right? It's the sanctifying spirit. It's the one that makes us more and more into his image as we walk with him and serve him. It's not that we're perfect. And we can't fulfill the oaths or the requirements of the law, but Jesus did that. So that all of our hope is in what he did, not in our own selves. I think that's more the point of what Joshua would say. I know like don't trust in what you can do.

Trust in what's already been done for you. So, my ears are open if anyone wants to talk. I don't mean to not let people interact. All right. All right, let's pray and we'll have our final song. Father, we thank you for the hope that we have in your work that your finished work that will ultimately deliver us, Lord, and in the testament that you sealed with your own blood, Lord. We trust in that. We trust not in our own works, but as well, we do desire to serve you. So give us the ability, Lord. Give us the right desires and the focus, Lord, the commitment, the dedication that we need to have toward you, Lord, to make others know who you are and to be a living testimony of your faithfulness and your righteousness, Lord, that you can work through us even though we're frail and we fail and we sometimes even trespass

Against what we know is right. Lord, we know that you're you're merciful, Lord, beyond what we can imagine. So, we thank you, Lord. We bow to you, Lord, and we just offer ourselves before you God. Work in us, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. All