Deuteronomy 28:15-25 - New International Version (NIV)
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord
your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving
you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land,
and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on
you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you
are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in
forsaking him. 21 The
Lord will plague you with diseases
until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The
Lord will strike you with wasting
disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with
blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The
sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The
Lord will turn the rain of your
country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are
destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause
you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one
direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to
all the kingdoms on earth.
When
will curses come and overtake Israel (verse 15)?
Where will Israel be cursed (verse 16)?
What will happen to the basket, kneading trough, fruit of the womb, crops, calves and lambs (verses 17 and18)?
In your opinion, what does it mean to be “cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out” (verse 19)?
Why will the Lord send “curses, confusion and rebuke” until Israel is destroyed (verse 20)?
How will the Lord plague the Israelites (verse 21)?
When will the “wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew” end (verse 22)?
In your opinion, what does it mean for “the sky over you head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron” (verse 23)?
What will come down from the skies until Israel is destroyed (verse 24)?
How will Israel flee from their enemies after coming at them “from one direction” (verse 25)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who
lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a
person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup
that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well
as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the
earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all
the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On
that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,”
declares the Lord. “I will keep a
watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then
the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are
strong, because the Lord Almighty
is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a
woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the
surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her
place.
7 “The Lord will save
the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of
Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On
that day the Lord will shield
those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like
David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On
that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one
they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child,
and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On
that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad
Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn,
each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of
David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the
clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and
all the rest of the clans and their wives.
How does Zechariah describe the Lord (verse 1)?
In your opinion, what does it mean that the Lord will “make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling” (verse 2)?
What will the Lord make Jerusalem into “when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her” (verse 3)?
How will the Lord treat Judah (verse 4)?
Why will the clans of Judah say in their hearts that “the people of Jerusalem are strong” (verse 5)?
When will the clans of Judah “consume all the surrounding peoples” (verse 6)?
Why will the Lord “save the dwellings of Judah first” (verse 7)?
Who will the “feeblest among them” be like (verse 8)?
What will the Lord do to “all the nations that attack Jerusalem” (verse 9)?
In your opinion, why does Zechariah link pouring out “a spirit of grace and supplication” with looking on “the one they have pierced” (verse 10)?
What will there be “on that day” (verse 11)?
What will the land, each clan and their wives, the house of David and their wives, the house of Nathan and their wives, the house of Levi and their wives the clan of Shimei and their wives and the rest of the clans and their wives do (verses 12, 13 and 14)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what changed in Israel that caused them to move from being defeated by enemies in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 to being the “immoveable rock” that mourns in Zechariah 12:1-14?
John 19:28-37 – New International Version (NIV)
28 Later, knowing that
everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled,
Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was
there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop
plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had
received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of
Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish
leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they
asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The
soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been
crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But
when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break
his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’
side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The
man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he
tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These
things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones
will be broken,” 37 and,
as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
Who knew that
everything was finished and that the “Scripture
would be fulfilled” (verse 28)?
What did they lift to Jesus’ lips (verse
29)?
When did Jesus bow His head and give
up His spirit (verse 30)?
What day was it (verse 31)?
Why did the Jewish leaders ask Pilate “to have the legs broken and the bodies
taken down” (verse 31)?
Whose legs were broken (verse 32)?
Why did they not break Jesus’ legs
(verse 33)?
What happened when Jesus’ side was
pierced (verse 34)?
Why does the man who saw this testify
(verse 35)?
What scripture was fulfilled (verse 36)?
Who does the other scripture say they
will look at (verse 37)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, how
is the cursing of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 related to Jesus saying “it is finished” in John 19:28-37?
In your opinion, how is the “spirit of grace and supplication” along with the mourning for the one they have pierced in Zechariah 12:1-14 related to the death of Jesus in John 19:28-37?
1 Peter 1:3-9 – New International Version (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his
great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into
an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept
in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by
God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in
the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though
now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your
faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though
you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for
you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
What
has “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ” given us (verse 3)?
Where is the inheritance that God has given us kept (verse 4)?
How are Christians shielded “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (verse 5)?
In your opinion, why can Christians “greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (verse 6)?
What will the trials result in (verse 7)?
Why are Christians “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (verse 8)?
What are Christians receiving as “the end result of your faith” (verse 9)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, how are the people who are suffering as a result of the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 different from those who rejoice in the midst of trials in 1 Peter 1:3-9?
In your opinion, how is God making Jerusalem into “an immovable rock for all the nations” in
Zechariah 12:1-14 and the shielding of Christians though faith by God’s power in 1 Peter 1:3-9 related?
In your opinion, how does what Jesus finished in John 19:28-37 lead to the “new birth into a living hope” that 1 Peter 1:3-9 proclaims?
In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Zechariah, John and 1 Peter teach us about the cursing, mourning, finishing and rejoicing of Christians?
In your opinion, how is it possible to rejoice in God’s shielding while still being subject to the trails of this world?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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