Nehemiah

I didn't offer to do the blog but I took a few notes so I might as well!

Today we looked at Nehemiah. We didn't have time to look at the whole book, we just really looked at the first couple of chapters. To start with we came up with what we already knew about Nehemiah:

• He had a vineyard ( I have yet to check this... but perhaps this is getting mixed up with Naboth??)
  
• His name means 'Comfort of Yahweh'
  
• He was a servant to the King - cupbearer


• Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

We have to look out for Nehemiah praying - you see different forms of prayer within the look.
2:1-5 The king was asking Nehemiah "what are you requesting?" and Nehemiah prayed before answering - we discussed how this might've been an extremely short one such as "Lord give me strength" without needing to close his eyes either.

His prayer in chapter 1 starts off by recognising God for who he is. He prays for the people as PART of the people - not in between the people and God. v6 "...which we have sinned against you..." He's the same level of behaviour and responsibility as everyone else.
See Isaiah 55:8 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'
Everything might look good from the outside but when you look closer theres all these glitches.. take the Earth, for example. It looks perfectly round and flat from really far away but when you look really close you see quite a different picture. No-one standing in the Himilayas is going to say the earth is flat! That was difficult to explain... (anyone care to help me?)

We then looked briefly at the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem . It wasn't for a while after the temple got rebuilt that the walls around Jerusalem got repaired (see that diagram I drew, the gap between the 80years rebuilding the temple and when Nehemiah comes into the picture). Nehemiah 2:17 says
"17Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision."
Need to build up the walls to distract us from things of the outside world. Rebuilt - stop people breaking through. Try to do it induvidually - cannot do it. Work together, help each other, encourage each other.

chapter 5:19 reads "Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people." This sounds pretty boastful but it's Nehemiah needing God's salvation. He's been trying hard but needs God's salvation. It seems boastful but that is probably just the language used.

Our task: Look through Nehemiah and find bits where we think he is praying (If i remember correctly).

November 2nd - Gideon

This week we looked at Gideon and to start off, we looked at how he was also called Jerubbaal (Judges 7:1), which means ‘’Let Baal Plead’’. We then had a whip-round of what we could remember about Gideon and some of the things we could remember were:

He destroyed the alter of Baal
He fought the Midianites
He defeated Zeba and Zalmunna
The fleece and dew signs
He was sent to save Israel
He built an alter called Jehovah-Shalom (“The LORD is Peace”)

We also had a think back to when we discussed the cycle in Judges and how it goes:
Faithful => Wandering => Oppressed => Appealing to God => A judge is sent => God delivers
And with Gideon, we can see we are at the ‘’Judge Is Sent’’ stage as God sends Gideon to battle and this battle is successful and Israel are saved. This cycle could also be applicable to each of our lives – we are all faithful but we are also appealing to God to send Jesus back to the earth so that we may be saved and granted access to the Kingdom of God.
So after the quick recap of Gideon, we read through Judges 6 to refresh our minds of part of the story of Gideon. We were then able to see some points that we’d missed out – the trumpets in v34, ‘But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abi-ezer was gathered after him.’, and that Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh.
From reading this chapter, we were able to look at some learning points for us as individuals and a key point that we came across was that in Judges 6:6-8 we read, ‘And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD…the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel.’ Here, we see that God was ready to answer the children of Israel’s cries and from this we are able to take comfort in knowing that when we are in trouble, when we pray to God, He will answer us, and even if God doesn’t answer us straight away, we always have the Word of God to give us an answer. Another lesson that we were able to make was by linking Judges 6:8-9 to Jeremiah 16:14-15 where it says, ‘Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it will no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them…’. From this, we were able to see that God will send the Prophet back to save us, the children of Israel, from all the lands that He has driven us and with our faith, we can keep this hope alive by reading the Bible and reading of His promises to us.
Another point that we were able to make from chapter 6 of Judges was about the cakes in v19. We looked back to Cain and Abel’s sacrifices and how God torched the one that He found acceptable and with Gideon, we see that God makes Gideon’s sacrifice acceptable as it gets torched, ‘…and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.’.
We also looked at the humility of Gideon in v15; ‘My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ Gideon’s family had an altar dedicated to them which showed they were highly respected. They also had 2 bullocks and these animals were special in those times as they were able to breed to provide food. Gideon himself had 10 servants upon which he could call. The humility that Gideon shows is a big example to us to help us remember that we are a lot lower than God and that we need to humble ourselves before God when we pray to Him.
So in summary, this week we were able to look at the faithfulness of Gideon and we were able to take away benefits from God’s Word in that He is always there for us when we call on Him.

Your job – look through chapters 7,8 and 9 and come up with any point that you want to make about Gideon and say how you feel that there is a lesson for us in it.
My comment:
Chapter 7:3-8. Here it talks about how Gideon’s army was reduced in number from 22,000 to 300. I think the process of elimination could compare to our lives and that it’s a bit like God saying that those who are afraid are those who don’t listen to the Word of God and they return to the world but those who lapped the water are those who lap up the water are those who lap up the water are those who lap up the Word of God as He saves those people from the Midianites and helps them to defeat the Midianites. Melanie x

The Golden Calf Exodus 32

So the Golden Calf... this is when Moses has been up the mountain and the people make a calf-idol of gold, which is obviously not a good thing to be doing..

We had a peek at the context of this incident, as it always helps to know what's been going on before the incident. We went back to Ex 19 and 20, where we find Israel at Mt Sinai. God is talking to his people, showing that He is prepared to communicate with them, so long as they approach Him in the right way:

19v10,11 - Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.

And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people."

He promises the people that He'll make them a 'special treasure above all nations' IF they're good. (19v4-6)

However, the people don't want things this way. They cannot see the goodness of the promise, or that God brought them there to learn, they only see fear. In 20v18,19, they are so scared that they plead with Moses that God speaks to them no more and that Moses speaks to Him for them. It's interesting that the last commandment that God gives to them (through Moses now) before Moses speaks privately to God,is this:

20v23 You shall not make anything to be with Me - gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.

Fitting, eh?!

In ch 24, the people's plea is put into practice, and Moses repeats to them the words of the Law given to him in 23-24. In v9-11 Aaron goes part way up the mountain with Moses, other nobles and Josuhua, before Moses leaves them and later Joshua to go back again to God for forty days and nights. But the point is, it says Aaron 'saw God' - although God is angels here, its still a pretty amazingly mindblowing experience to go through!

And so we come past all the commandments God gives to Moses, to the people, less than five weeks after God thundered at Mount Sinai... The people are having a hard time remembering what God has done for them throughout their wilderness journey, so much that in v1 they say it was MOSES who was the 'man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt.' They had forgotten all about God, had limited their horizons to man, and so Moses had become their highest authority, in place of the LORD their God! Moses had been gone weeks, so the people lose faith in even him, and start asking for a replacement 'god.' We might say but HOW could a people who'd been through all they had FORGET about God?! But it was incredibly easy, simply because they'd STOPPED REMEMBERING! This is really quite important for us too - if we stop remembering what God has done and is doing for us, then it's too easy to forget Him.

Aaron, too, who'd seen 'God' was soon swayed and overcome by the people - this is also something we must be careful, and once again it is a matter of remembering God and His doings so that people in the world can't change our mind about His sheer righteousness and lovingkindness - God is the best thing we have but even so people will try to take us away from Him! So keep remembering Him, it's important.

Moses' actions in this chapter are quite an interesting type of Jesus. When he sees the scale of the people's sin (the 'unrestrained'/'nakedness'/'broken loose' in v25 seems to have connotations of sexual sinning too, not just idolatry) he throws the tablets down in disgust (God's commandments are broken). Then comes the 'who is on the LORD's side' call, and the Levites join Moses. (It seems as if the Levites had been resisiting this new move of the people all the way through, if you look at v25 it says the people were sinning 'to their shame among their enemies', which would suggest there is some adversity to the events of the 5 and 1/2 weeks, most likely the Levites, who were on 'the Lord's side'). Anyway, Moses later, having ordered 3000 to be killed for the sin, later goes to 'make atonement for your sin' with God. We are reminded of Jesus, especially when he asks God to either forgive the people, or put their sins on him and 'blot me out of Your book.' He is offering up his life to allow the people to be forgiven. It was a huge sacrifice to make (even though God's justice meant he didn't have to actually make it in the end), especially since the Book is probably the Book of Life - the people who will be in Kingdom... Moses was offering to be disallowed into the Kingdom of God!! That's some sacrifice, just like Jesus gave His whole life to our forgiveness - He had to spend every minute of every day not sinning FOR US! It's just amazing!

Moses also gave God the glory - he wanted the sin/wrath lifted because God's reputation would be at stake! It wasn't about him, it wasn't about the people, it was about God that Moses was worried. We can learn from him!

So. Why was it a CALF the people decided to make? Well it's all to do with Egypt, really. They had a lot of cow gods or similar. Especially Ptah, a creator god, who had a 'living image' (sort of manifestation on earth) in the Apis Bull. This was a bull that was chosen from the flocks of Egypt and basically treated like a god and royal. It had everything your average cow could ask for, plus more..! This Bull (there were also statue idols of it around Egypt, not just the living thing) had a disc between its horns, which represented the Sun God. There was Hathor, a cowheaded goddess of the desert, too - so you can see that calves would be quite special in Egypt- revered really. Perhaps an Israelite had brought along a wee Apis Bull idol and they made a mold (mould?) from that? Whatever it was, they were certainly looking back to Egypt. But 'remember Lot's wife'!

Dont stop remembering, because then you'll forget!

The Seven Days of Creation in Psalm 104

Hello there! I suddenly realised it's Sunday tomorrow, so I'd better get on with this blog! :P

Last week we had a look at the appearance of the seven days of creation in Psalm 104...

Day 1 - The creation of Light and the division of light from darkness

This appears at the start of the Psalm, in verse 2:
"Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment"
This is fairly straightforward and we have a wonderful image of God manipulating light at his will and covering himself with it like putting on a coat!

Day 2 - The creation of a firmament to divide the waters of the sky from the waters of the deep

In verse 6, "Thou coverdst it (the earth) with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains"
We can see here that there is water covering the earth and water above the mountains - indicating a division between the two, which is where the firmament comes in.

Day 3 - The creation of dry land from the waters and the creation of plants

In verse 7:
"At thy rebuke they (the waters) fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away."
This gives us a poetic glimpse of how the land may have been created - the waters simply fell away at God's command to make way for the land! Some interesting parallels with the Red Sea here...
Verse 8 seems to be a description of the water cycle - thousands of years ahead of its time!
Verse 9 refers to God's promise to Noah after the flood.
Verse 14-16 refer to the creation of the plants and indicate their purpose towards the sustaining of man and the animals.

Day 4 - The creation of the sun and the moon

Verse 19: "He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down."
Verse 22: The sun ariseth, they (the young lions) gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens."
This is an indication of the purpose of the sun and the moon - to let us know when to sleep and when to wake up!

Day 5 - The creation of the birds and the fishes

Verse 17:
(the trees are) "Where the birds make their nests: as for the the stork, the fir trees are their house."
We can see from this verse how the creation all fits together very nicely - where would birds live without trees to make their nests away from predators?
Similarly with the fish and 'creeping things' in verses 25-26:
"So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein."
Again we can see that the sea created earlier was a perfect habitat for these creatures, and that God would have known this from the start.

Day 6 - The creation of mammals and man

Verse 11: "They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst."
More evidence of God's creation all linking together - the water cycle is also vital for animals to get a drink of fresh water!
Verse 14 is the same in that the plants provide nuorishment for the animals.

Man also has his part to play in verse 23: "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening."
We can also see that God would have had Jesus in mind right from the start: In Genesis 3:15, God refers the woman's seed (singular) and "his heel" - this verse is in fact referring to Jesus triumphing over sin! God could see the whole timeline right from the beginning - everything that has and will happen was known by God even before he created us!

Day 7 - The day of rest and meditation

This appears in verse 34 of Psalm 104 - "My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord."

Thanks for reading folks - as usual anything I have omitted or forgotten or misunderstood, please feel free to post a reply!

Another Look at Creation

Argh, first day back. We spent most of this morning going over what we did last session, what we plan to do this session, and air.

The main thing we looked at from last year were some of the parallels between Creation and other things described in the Bible. I can remember two seperate bits we looked at - if there were more, remember them yourself.

Firstly, the Sun. Jesus is often linked with the sun, and the links are obvious. There are several instances in the NT where He is described as the 'Light of the World' - you wouldn't think it could get much more straightforward than that, but it does.
Malachi 4:2 prophesies of a 'Sun of Righteousness' that will arise with healing in His wings. The sun brings light and provides the energy needed to sustain life on earth. There are probably more similarities in there we could look at, but we didn't.

We also considered clouds, and the water cycle as a whole. It's interesting that thousands of years before modern science, Job writes how God:

Draws up drops of water
Which distill as rain from the mist
Which the clouds drop down
And pour abundantly on man.

Again, there are parallels we can take from this - the influence of Jesus (the sun) causes certain droplets (believers) to separate from the sea (of nations) and rise up to condense in clouds (ecclesias?) which in turn rain down purified water (preaching?) onto the earth. It's interesting there to notice how when water is evaporated it leaves behind many of the impurities and extra bits it had, such as salt. I thought so, anyway.

Hebrews picks up on this as well, speaking of a 'great cloud of witnesses.' As clouds, it's the ecclesias' job to go forth and water all the earth.

No doubt there'll be more next week. Stay tuned, folks. And sorry for the gap between hearing and blogging.

The Symbolisation of Precipitation (Rain Explained)

It's finally here, OBSCENELY late (sorry folks, but better late than never I guess), it's the blog for Sunday 11th May! If you can cast your minds that far back (quite a feat, I know) we were looking at the Water Cycle and linking in the natural things with spiritual things...

We had a look at day 2 of creation...
Genisis 1:6,7

6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the water.
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

From this we can see that there were two seperate areas of 'water' - the sea and the clouds. The sea is often used to represent the world or the surrounding nations - for example, when jesus walked on water, he was symbolically trampling on the surrounding nations, and when Peter tried to follow him, he was distracted by the waves - i.e., the world surrounding him.
From this, we get the idea that we are part of the world, and therefore part of the sea (which is not where we want to be!). The heirs to the promises (also handily dubbed 'the good guys') are part of the waters in the sky, however. In essence there is a 'firmament' or a division between the 'bad guys' (the world) and the 'good guys'. We are trying to get up into the waters of the heavens, or the clouds. What do you need to get water from the sea to the sky? Evaporation by the sun. We can see that the sun is represented spiritually by Christ. From this, we get that we, in the sea, need to be evaporated (become seperate from the world, i.e. bad guys) to become part of the clouds (hiers to the promises, i.e. good guys), and that the only way we can hope to achieve this is by the sun (Jesus Christ)!

Apologies for any inaccuracies and any bits I might have missed out (and also my sacriligeous overuse of the words 'from this' at the beginning of sentences) - if you have anything to add to this post, correct or generally shout at me about, feel free to do so on this very blog!

Creation week and the 7000 year plan

I have made the vital error of posting this a week late and not taking notes so this is going to be the shortest post ever.



This is the first week of the timeline we are doing round the meeting room wall. The bible uses the term "a day for a thousand years" in 2 peter 3 vs 8. So the picture on the left is the 7000 year plan.