Turn-around Time
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Turn-around Time ------------------- Date: 1/3/2002
Keywords:
"repent"
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Passage: Nehemiah 8:13-17*
13. Then on the second day the heads of fathers' households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law.
14. And they found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month.
15. So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches, and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written."
16. So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate, and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim.
17. And the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing.
Questions
1. What specific command did the Jews discover when they heard the Mosaic Law as it was being read to them? (see verse 14)
2. For how long had that command been ignored?
3. What did they do about that command?
Practical help
The Mosaic Law was written around 1500 BC. Joshua lived in the next generation, putting his "dates" in the 1400 BC range. The verses above, from the book of Nehemiah, which tell us that the Feast of Tabernacles had not been observed from Joshua’s day to Nehemiah’s day, were written in the mid 400’s BC. That means that there was just about 1,000 years of disobedience.
Yet, notice, too, how quickly the turn-around occurred. It didn’t take any time at all for the Jews to begin doing what they should have been doing all along.
That tells us that when God’s people’s hearts are warm toward God and ready to obey, progress need not be slow in rectifying a bad situation.
For how long have you been trapped by porn’s web? Months? Years? Have you given up hope of ever being free? Don’t despair. God’s strength is available to you and is yours for the taking. If you are serious about being done with smut, He will enable you to take those necessary steps and completely turn the situation around. And your obedience will lead you to the same joy that the Jews knew when they obeyed God!
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
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