From Weeping to Worship
Ezra
10:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)
1 While Ezra
was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before
the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered
around him. They too wept bitterly. 2 Then Shekaniah son
of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been
unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around
us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. 3 Now
let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women
and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who
fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. 4 Rise
up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do
it.”
5 So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all
Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the
oath. 6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God
and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no
food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the
unfaithfulness of the exiles.
7 A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for
all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. 8 Anyone who
failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in
accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be
expelled from the assembly of the exiles.
9 Within the three days, all the men of Judah and
Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth
month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God,
greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. 10 Then
Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you
have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. 11 Now
honor the Lord, the God
of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around
you and from your foreign wives.”
How did those who gathered around Ezra as he was “praying and confessing,
weeping and throwing himself down” respond (verse 1)?
What is there “in spite of” the
unfaithfulness displayed by the marrying of foreign women (verse 2)?
In your opinion, why would making “a
covenant before our God” be an appropriate response to the situation (verse
3)?
Why was Ezra to “take courage and do it” (verse
4)?
What did Ezra put “the leading priests and
Levites and all Israel” under (verse 5)?
Why did Ezra continue to eat no food and drink
no water (verse 6)?
Who was the proclamation too (verse 7)?
What would happen to those who did not appear “within
three days” (verse 8)?
Why were the people “greatly distressed”
(verse 9)?
How had they added “to Israel’s guilt”
(verse 10)?
How were the people to “honor the Lord . . .
and do his will” (verse 11)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
John 4:13-26 - New
International Version (NIV)
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be
thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them
will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t
get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no
husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and
the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite
true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our
ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place
where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not
know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet
a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers
the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his
worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is
coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Who
will “be thirsty again” (verse 13)?
What will the water that Jesus gives
become (verse 14)?
Why did the woman want “this water”
(verse 15)?
In your opinion, why would Jesus say “go,
call your husband and come back” (verse 16)?
What did Jesus say when the woman said “I
have no husband” (verses 17 and 18)?
What could the woman see about Jesus (verse
19)?
In your opinion, is the woman’s response
to Jesus a question, a plea, or an attempt to start an argument (verse 20)?
What time is coming (verse 21)?
Who is salvation from (verse 22)?
How will “true worshipers” worship
the Father (verse 23)?
Who is “spirit” (verse 24)?
According to the woman, what will the
Messiah do “when he comes” (verse 25)?
Who does Jesus claim to be (verses 25 and
26)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, what
does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different
from those in the world?
In your opinion, why does Jesus invite the Samaritan
woman, who would have been one of the people that Ezra was instructing the Israelites
to separate themselves from in Ezra 10:1-11, to become a part of something that
is neither of Israel nor Samaria?
1
John 2:26-29 –
New International Version (NIV)
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to
lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you
received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But
as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is
real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he
appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who
does what is right has been born of him.
Who is John “writing these things” about (verse
26)?
What remains in the ones John is writing to (verse 27)?
Why do they “not need anyone to teach you” (verse
27)?
How are they to respond to the real anointing they
had received (verse 27)?
How can the “dear children” be “confident
and unashamed before him at his coming” (verse 28)?
What do we know if we “know that he is
righteous” (verse
29)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, how does
John 4:13-26 help us understand the anointing of 1 John 2:26-29?
Revelation
2:18-29 – New International Version (NIV)
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of
the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished
bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith,
your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at
first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my
servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to
idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her
immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on
a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her
suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I
will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who
searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your
deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold
to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will
not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on
to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the
end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that
one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like
pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I
will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has
ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Who is John to write to (verse 18)?
Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 18)?
What does Jesus know (verse 19)?
What does Jesus have against them (verse 20)?
What does Jezebel call herself (verse 20)?
How does Jezebel mislead Jesus’s servants (verse
20)?
What had Jesus given Jezebel (verse 21)?
How can those who committed “adultery with her”
avoid suffering intensely (verse 22)?
How will “each of you” be repaid (verse 23)?
Who will not have “any other burden” imposed
(verse 24)?
In your opinion, what does it mean to “hold on to
what you have until I come” (verse 25)?
How will the “one who is victorious” rule over
the nations (verses 26 and 27)?
What else will the victorious receive (verse 28)?
Who is to hear (verse 29)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage
show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?
In your opinion, how does
the “hope for Israel” in Ezra 10:1-11 help us understand what those who
had committed adultery with Jezebel in Revelation 2:18-29 must do?
In your opinion, how
does Jesus’s discussion with the angel of the church in Thyatira in Revelation
2:18-29 help us understand what Jesus meant when He told the Samaritan women
that a time was coming when “true worshippers will worship the Father in the
Spirit and in truth” in John 4:13-26?
In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra,
John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about how weeping is transformed to hope?
In your opinion, how are hope and anointing threatened
by Jezebel’s teaching and Satan’s secrets?
In your opinion, what is crucial to success in
remaining or holding on?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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