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August 4 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
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If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
In today's reading we will complete the Book of Ezra with Chapters 9 and 10, then begin the Book of Nehemiah with Chapter 1. Today we will read about the sin of intermarrying with women of the countries around them who worshipped other gods. We will see Ezra very dismayed at this sin because it wasn't just the people, it was the leaders who were at the forefront of it, providing bad example by disobeying God's laws. Ezra shows us the right thing to do in any sinful situation- he prompts the people to confess their sins and take action to correct their behavior, which they did!
In our discussion for daily application we will look at the importance of confessing our sins and changing our behavior as well as being mindful of the fact that our own behavior can negatively (or positively!) affect those around us when they see us sinning or refraining from sinning. We are so fortunate that our God is such a loving, forgiving God who is faithful to forgive us of our sins when we confess them to Him. There is nothing that separate us from His love, which is in Jesus, but God does discipline us because He loves us. We are His children. He is our Heavenly Father and He does not want to see us stray even further into our sin. Let us be encouraged today to confess any sins we may be engaging in and correct our behavior, as we read today in Ezra, reassured by the fact that Jesus has paid the price for our sins and we can approach Him to repent. He is so faithful and loving. God will always receive us and forgive us.
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
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Transcript
Introduction and Bible reading
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back everybody. Today is August 4th and you are here with Robin. That's me! And I am within the Family Way Coaching and we are going through our daily Bible reading. We are here for today's reading through the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:00:21
Speaker
If you are following along on that daily commitment calendar, it's time to take that out and get your sticker or however you're marking it off because you are about to hear the Bible today.
00:00:36
Speaker
We have had a lot of views lately, mostly from YouTube or YouTube Music. So thank you for following along, mostly on YouTube and YouTube Music.
Availability and Acknowledgments
00:00:45
Speaker
It is available elsewhere, this event.
00:00:48
Speaker
It's available on Amazon Music. I see we have a listener going on over there. So thank you for joining us on Amazon. That might be ah you, Patrick. So shout out for Patrick.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yay. Nice to hear from you and see you at work. I'm glad things are going well with you. Thank you for joining us for this event. Shout out for Maurice. Nice to see you and following along.
00:01:12
Speaker
We have... um a lot of new views actually on YouTube. So thank you for clicking that light button so we can get that word out there about spreading the word about reading God's word.
00:01:24
Speaker
I got up today and I checked and there were 13 views on our yesterday's video. And I was like, wow, that is awesome. Praise God!
00:01:35
Speaker
I'm so glad that people are hearing about this. That doesn't mean that everybody is sticking around and listening to the full video. It just means that it is being prompted for people to be able to check out the event.
00:01:47
Speaker
And we know God gives us free choice. So I'm just happy to know that it is getting out there, that people are having the opportunity to know that God's event exists.
00:01:58
Speaker
So thank you for clicking that light button wherever you are. i really appreciate it.
Ezra and Nehemiah's Context and Themes
00:02:04
Speaker
Today we are going to be picking up in the book of Ezra and we are going to be completing the book of Ezra with chapters 9 and 10 and then beginning the book of Nehemiah.
00:02:16
Speaker
We mentioned a little bit before that in the Jewish Canaan, the books of esther or Ezra rather and Nehemiah are combined into one book. It is thought to be possible that they were written by the same person, and they like they cover a span, I think they said, of about 87 years between the two books.
00:02:37
Speaker
So we know that this is after the exile. We know that now we are in the second return. We talked about that. And so I just want to kind of keep us in mind as to where we are in time so that we can have an understanding.
00:02:55
Speaker
Today we are going to be looking at repentance of sin and confession. which is a very important part of our relationship with God.
00:03:06
Speaker
God tells us that he is faithful to forgive us when we come to him and ask for forgiveness. And we know that God reached out to us by sending his savior, his son, to pay the price for our sins and that he looks for us like lost sheep.
00:03:27
Speaker
And that is such a wonderful thing to know that our God loves us so much that he looks for us like lost sheep. And we're going to be getting to that very soon. oh so exciting.
00:03:39
Speaker
But today we're going to see the people ah confronting their sin and doing something about it, making it right.
Ezra's Reaction and Actions
00:03:49
Speaker
Restoration.
00:03:51
Speaker
So let's look at chapter nine of Ezra and it's entitled, Sins as High as the Sky. but that's a lot, huh?
00:04:03
Speaker
So this is Ezra speaking and he says, the leaders came to me and they said, God's people have mixed in with other nations. They've married women from other lands.
00:04:16
Speaker
Even leaders have done this. I tore my shirt and my coat. I sat down in shock. People gathered around me and everyone was there who knew it was important to obey God's words.
00:04:33
Speaker
I sat in front of the worship house until evening. Then I got up and I bowed down. I held my hands out to God and I prayed.
00:04:46
Speaker
I said, God, feel too bad about this to even look at you. Our sins are piled higher than our heads.
00:04:57
Speaker
Our wrongs reach up to the sky. We have been the ones to blame since long ago. that's why we lost the fights. That's why we were taken to other lands.
00:05:09
Speaker
That's why other kings rule over us today. But now have been kind and loving to us. You saved a few of your people.
00:05:20
Speaker
You brought us to your worship house. We are slaves, but you have not left us alone. You made the kings of Persia kind to us, and you are letting us build the worship house again. Now what can we say?
00:05:38
Speaker
We haven't kept your rules. You told us not to marry people from other nations, and that's because they do wrong. But that's just what we did. head You do what is right, God.
00:05:55
Speaker
Here we are. We are to blame. Because of our sin, we cannot come near you. Ezra was praying, and he was crying on the ground in front of the worship house.
00:06:11
Speaker
A big crowd gathered around him, and they began to cry too. One man said, We have not obeyed God. We married women from nations that don't follow him.
00:06:26
Speaker
But we still have hope. Let's make a promise to God. Let's send all these women back to their land. Get up. You can tell us this is right to do.
00:06:38
Speaker
We'll do whatever you say, be brave and do it. So Ezra got up. He made the people promise to do what the man said, and they all promised.
00:06:52
Speaker
Then Ezra left the worship house and he went into a room. He didn't eat or drink anything. He was still sad. He was sad because the people did not obey God.
00:07:07
Speaker
Then a message was sent through all the land. It went to God's people who had lived in the other lands, and it called them to come to Jerusalem. At the end of three days, all the people were there.
00:07:23
Speaker
They sat in the yard in front of the worship house. It was raining, and the people were upset because of the reason they were meeting, and they were upset by the rain too.
00:07:35
Speaker
Ezra stood up. He said, You have not kept your promises. You married women from nations that don't follow God. Now tell God what you did.
00:07:47
Speaker
Be sorry. Then do what God wants. Stay away from people who don't follow him.
00:07:56
Speaker
Everyone said, you are right. We should do that. But there are lots of people here and it's raining and so we can't stay outside. This is something that will take more than one day.
00:08:09
Speaker
This is a big sin. So let our leaders say what to do and then choose a day. Everyone who married a woman from another land can come here and then we will do what God wants.
00:08:22
Speaker
And that's what they did. They sent away women who worshiped the gods of their own land.
00:08:31
Speaker
Nehemiah chapter one, the broken wall.
Nehemiah's Response and Prayer
00:08:36
Speaker
These are the words of Nehemiah. I was in the city of Susa in Persia, and one of my brothers from Judah came to see me.
00:08:45
Speaker
I asked him about Jerusalem and I asked him about God's people who were there. He said, the people are in trouble. People treat them like they're no good.
00:08:56
Speaker
Jerusalem's wall is broken down. Fire burned the city gates.
00:09:04
Speaker
I sat down and cried. I cried and went without food for many days, and I prayed to God. Then I said, Lord, great, wonderful God, you keep your loving promises to people who obey you.
00:09:22
Speaker
Listen. Open your eyes. Hear my prayer. Yes, we have sinned. We did wrong to you. We did not obey you.
00:09:35
Speaker
Remember what you told Moses. You said that if your people did not follow you, you would send them away. You would send them to other lands. But if your people came back to you, you would bring them back.
00:09:50
Speaker
You would bring them back to the land that you gave them. These are your servants, God. These are your people. You saved them with your great power.
00:10:03
Speaker
Listen to my prayer. Listen to the prayers of the people who love you. Be kind to me. May things go well.
00:10:16
Speaker
And that's the end of our reading today.
00:10:23
Speaker
Wow, that was a big sin that the people had committed while they were in
Intermarriage and Idolatry Discussion
00:10:28
Speaker
Jerusalem. They were returning. It's possible that as they returned from the ah other lands like Babylon, Persia, that they had already married and that they had brought their wives with them.
00:10:41
Speaker
Also, for the people who had already returned, they were intermarrying with the people who were living in the land and who were near and around the land. And in the book of Ezra, they give an accounting of all of the people.
00:10:55
Speaker
And it says that the priests were at the forefront of this sin. So they were not providing a good example of leadership. We've spoken ah couple of times this year about the importance of being a good example to those around us, especially if we are in a position, any kind of a position of leadership.
00:11:17
Speaker
And even if we don't know that people are watching us, we are ah supposed to be behaving properly so that and when people do see us, they will see our good works and praise our Father in heaven.
00:11:31
Speaker
We will learn about that as we come into the new covenant. I believe it may have been Paul who said that, but it was definitely taught in the new Testament that we are supposed to be good examples of leadership and the people were supposed to be being led by leaders who were good shepherds over the flock.
00:11:50
Speaker
And so as we come into the new covenant, we will see that this is what Jesus accuses them of doing. He says that in order to come into the kingdom of God, you will have to be more righteous than the leaders.
00:12:02
Speaker
And the people thought that the leaders were very righteous and were taking care to do things well. They were becoming legalistic. And they were but they were not following God with their heart, we will see.
00:12:16
Speaker
And here we see that they have they were not even following God's rules. So this was a very pervasive issue. They were backsliding into what they had done before being exiled.
00:12:28
Speaker
And now they were intermarrying. And this was not acceptable. This was the first thing that would happen before They would begin to worship idols again.
00:12:39
Speaker
As we remember, Solomon, when he built the temple, he took many, many wives. And he, too, was guilty of introducing idolatry into the nation and into the temple because he was marrying women from other countries where they did not worship God.
00:12:57
Speaker
They did not convert. They were worshiping their own gods. And so this is a very pervasive issue we see throughout the Jewish history. And so Ezra is just astonished that they've only just been allowed back into the nation and already they are defiling it And so it was very responsible when he told them that they needed to confess their sins and they needed to change. They needed to restore. They needed to ah be sorry for what they had done so that they could make that ah that change and go back to to correcting their behavior.
00:13:38
Speaker
And they did. And so the book of Ezra records the confession of the people and it records that some of them even had children with these women and they sent the children away to back to the countries from which they had come from.
00:13:55
Speaker
And so this was a cleansing of the land. And it was a good thing to do in order to obey God. As Ezra mentioned, from the very beginning, God had warned them before they even entered the promised land that they were not to intermarry with the other nations and the people who were there because they had made the land unclean with their idolatry.
00:14:20
Speaker
And God cares very much about us taking care to only worship Him and to not worship false gods. And we've seen that over and over throughout the Old Covenant.
Confession and Forgiveness Emphasis
00:14:32
Speaker
So that is our lesson for today. Our daily application is that when we find ourselves sinning, it is very important, even though it is difficult.
00:14:42
Speaker
It can't possibly be as difficult to correct our sin as it was for the people to actually separate from their spouse. their wives, and from the children that they had had in order to obey God.
00:14:55
Speaker
We are meant to put God before everybody. God is to be the most, not one of the most important things in our lives, but God is to be the very most important one in our lives.
00:15:10
Speaker
God told us the other day, he says, I am a father, yet where is the respect that is due to me? I am a master, yet where are the good things that my servants should be saying about me? We need to make sure that we are honoring God with all of our heart, with all of our minds and with all of our soul.
00:15:26
Speaker
and That is the most important thing that we can do. And we learned with the Proverbs that making God the most important one in our lives is the beginning of wisdom.
00:15:39
Speaker
It's worded in the Big Bible that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that is what our Day by Day Kids Bible translates it into as being the most important one in our lives.
00:15:52
Speaker
I love that translation. I love that explanation. Making God the most important one in our lives is even now as we complete, we are about to complete the Old Covenant.
00:16:04
Speaker
it still holds true as being the most important lesson that we can learn from reading the Bible every day this year and seeing God's great big picture for us throughout the Bible.
00:16:17
Speaker
This day-by-day kids Bible version gives us the big picture. And in that big picture, we can see that it is extremely important to make God the most important one in our lives and to find those times when we are committing sin and to purging, to cleanse ourselves of that sin by confessing that sin, which confession means to tell the truth.
00:16:42
Speaker
And then we can be sorry for that sin, but God is looking for us to confess our sins. And we are so fortunate that God is so gracious that he always forgives us.
00:16:54
Speaker
We are not always so great at forgiving, are we? But our God, he is perfect. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us with a love that never ends and he is always faithful to forgive us of our sins.
00:17:10
Speaker
And even before Jesus had come, God was still always faithful to forgive the people of their sins when they confessed them. Anytime we have seen throughout the Old Testament that somebody was sorry for what they had done, God was always lenient.
00:17:30
Speaker
He does not want to have to give consequences for our sins, but we know that he does discipline us as needed as a father or a mother disciplines their child.
00:17:44
Speaker
We do so because we want to see correction. And so God disciplines us in order to correct us and to bring us back to him into alignment with his will and with his perfect, perfect way.
00:17:58
Speaker
So I hope that you feel that God has lit your light today, even though it was on the subject of sin and confessing our sin, but to know that God is faithful to forgive us of our sins. And so that is something that should always cheer us up and help us to be restored in our relationship.
00:18:15
Speaker
As Ezra mentioned, he said, I can't even look at you. Our sin is too great. We now know that Jesus tells us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
00:18:29
Speaker
We can come to him. There is nothing that can, ah that should stop us. Even though we are in a state of sin, potentially for doing something wrong, we can still always come before him.
00:18:43
Speaker
Our enemy wants us to believe that we have done something that we cannot come back to God for. that our sins are piled over our head and therefore we are unable to approach our God.
00:18:55
Speaker
But our God tells us that nothing can separate us from his love. And that is such a wonderful testament to him. and his faithfulness.
00:19:05
Speaker
So I hope that you feel that you can go to God with whatever it is that you may have. If you have something that you that he is pointing out to you in your life that he needs you to correct and know that he wants you to be restored to him.
00:19:20
Speaker
There is nothing keeping you from him. He is still one with you. Nothing changes that. And I hope that you have a fantastic rest of your day here on August 4th.
00:19:32
Speaker
And when you are done watching or listening, please click that light button so we can encourage others who may be feeling that they can't come before our God because they have committed sins.
00:19:43
Speaker
And we want them to be encouraged to know that they can. that nothing will separate them. By listening to this ah message today of God's word and to helping us spread that word about reading God's word so that if they have any doubts at all in their heart, that they can see God is faithful. He writes it down in the Bible that nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
00:20:08
Speaker
So thank you for joining me today. And I will be here for everyone again tomorrow.