Monday, July 29, 2013

On 8-4-13, Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 13-18 or 8:13-18 will be our Adult Sunday School/Uniform Series/International Sunday School Lesson herein is my commentary. This lesson is known by some as Feast of Tabernacles aka Festival of Booths

Feast of Tabernacles aka Festival of Booths
Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 13-18 or 8:13-18
International Sunday School Lesson
August 4, 2013

Commentary
By
Jed Greenough

Revival!  Plant that word between your ears and keep it there!
When we read today’s scripture we might think that we are reading that the people hadn’t done what the word of God had instructed them to be doing.  We might think this especially when we read that “from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this.”
We would be right in the sense that what we should understand is that for generations the people had simply gone through the motions.  After this week of meetings hearing the word of God the people were revived.
How is your church doing?  Is it sinking, diminishing in numbers?  Or is it rising, growing in numbers?  In either case there may be a need for revival.
When I was young living at home every so often our church would have revival meetings.  We don’t see that happening any more.  Where I worship our numbers have grown by leaps and bounds and I don’t think people see the need for a revival like we used to see, but I do.
Back in the day revivals meant coming to church throughout the week.  We heard different voices evangelizing those who attended.  We heard different music.  We ate differently and we opened our homes as hosts.  We saw different people in attendance from the community.  The pastor had someone he could relate to in a way that he needed. 
Every one of us needed what those Revival Meetings brought to us and just as the people in today’s scripture needed it then so do we now.  Just as the people requested Ezra to read the Word, so do we the church need to request revival.  Will you?
For Discussion:
1.      Discuss how you might go about having a revival meeting
2.      If you currently are having revivals discuss how you might help your brothers and sisters who are not
3.      Discuss how you might have a Festival of Booths theme for a revival
4.      Discuss all the things that a revival brings from reenergizing people, to building the sense of unity, to new ways to share the gospel in the community and so on
5.      Discuss that all came together in today’s scripture from men to women to all who could understand
6.      Consider your own need for revival

Upcoming Lessons
8-11-13:  Community of Confession Nehemiah 9:2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 30-36
8-18-13:  Dedication of the Wall Nehemiah 12:27-38, 43 or 12:27-36, 38, 43
8-25-13:  Sabbath Reforms Nehemiah 13:10-12, 15-22
     



Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved


Monday, July 22, 2013

On 7-28-13, Ezra 8:24-35 or 24-30 will be our Adult Sunday School/Uniform Series/International Sunday School Lesson herein is my commentary. This lesson is known by some as Giving Gifts for the Temple aka Gifts for the Temple

Giving Gifts for the Temple aka Gifts for the Temple
Ezra 8:24-35 or 24-30
International Sunday School Lesson
July 28, 2013

Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



Hundreds and hundreds of talents of gold and silver weighing tens of thousands of pounds!  The best I can see is that a talent of gold was probably around 75 pounds and if you figure the ounces and consider the scarcity of gold you get a pretty good idea at the vast amount of wealth we are talking about.
Choosing men of trustworthy character would be of vital importance if you consider this almost unimaginable treasure that was being transported.  The temptation to take even just a little would weigh upon so many people’s minds that it would be truly important to take the selection process to the highest level of discernment.
12 priests were chosen and they were made interestingly enough of two named men and their brothers.  I am not sure if this is one or two families but still, I find it very interesting that they were from at most 2 families.
When the time came and these articles were delivered, the delivery wasn’t to just a small group who likewise could come under temptation or recrimination or so that the deliverers would be accused later of something but there were many witnesses.  The receiving witnesses were not just priests but the other Levites and heads of the families of Israel.
Did any of this treasure matter to God?  Not in the sense that so many of us first think of when we consider this vast gold and silver.  This aspect was meaningless to Him.  What did matter to God was that it certainly mattered to men.
Just as with last week when I talked about how God knows we are fueled by the food we eat and how we are driven by our need to replenish.  When we give up this need for food to draw close to God, He can see our sincerity and we are rewarded.  We don’t do it for the reward we do it to be earnest.  But God being God does this for us and the scripture makes this plain.
So too does God know how we are so driven by money.  We are driven by a notion that money will make life easier or better.  But when we give up our drives and give things up to God, He again sees the sincerity in our hearts and we are once more blessed.
I’d rather stop there with my comments as I think this idea and the lessons about fasting are integral to come away with but I would be remiss not to mention how the example from this scripture need apply to the church today.
All too often those who serve in areas dealing with the funds are there because no one else will serve or because they are in some aspect of finance in their secular lives or because they knew someone who did the selecting.  This is not grounds for the selection process and is no different from having people fill other roles within the church when they do not meet the Biblical guidelines.
What is important is that their character and their discernment are above reproach.  God must be first in their lives if they can be trusted with this responsibility to care and use the funds that have been given up for God. 
God is no more taken with gold or silver than He is for certain choices that are made with regard to how today’s gold and silver are spent within the church.  Let’s make accountability of how these funds are used truly important and have them weighed out before the whole church.

For Discussion:
1.      Discuss the parallels of fasting with this giving and stewardship
2.      Discuss choosing those who should be in charge
3.      Discuss problems that have arisen with examples from the past where temptation won with church or ministry monies
4.      Discuss accountability
5.      Look into and discuss these treasures and their values
6.      Discuss choices that are made with your church’s “freewill offering to the Lord”


Upcoming Lessons
7-28-13:  Giving Gifts for the Temple aka Gifts for the Temple Ezra 8:24-35 or 8:24-30
8-4-13:    Feast of Tabernacles aka Festival of Booths Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 13-18 or 8:13-18
8-11-13:  Community of Confession Nehemiah 9:2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 30-36
8-18-13:  Dedication of the Wall Nehemiah 12:27-38, 43 or 12:27-36, 38, 43
8-25-13:  Sabbath Reforms Nehemiah 13:10-12, 15-22




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Monday, July 15, 2013

On 7-21-13, Ezra 7:6-10; 8:21-23 or 8:21-23 will be our Adult Sunday School/Uniform Series/International Sunday School Lesson herein is my commentary. This lesson is known by some as Fasting and Praying

Fasting and Praying
Ezra 7:6-10; 8:21-23 or 8:21-23
International Sunday School Lesson
July 21, 2013

Commentary
By
Jed Greenough


For me this week’s scripture is one of questions and I think it should be for you as well.
I read today’s scripture and I oddly enough thought about eating habits and if we were together we could compare ours.  I would have to admit to you that being detail oriented as I am it extends to my meals usually planned out a week in advance.  My wife on the other hand wouldn’t mind opening up the pantry and deciding at that moment what the next meal will be.
I am sure that many of you are meal driven and that some of us get more upset about a missed meal or a messed up one than we do about a missed Bible study or a messed up church service!  Those of us who think like that might want to rearrange our priorities.
When we read in today’s scripture about fasting it might make you want to know more about fasting or examine your ideas about fasting.  How much do we really know about it and is it correct?  There are those questions I brought up as we began. 
A simple concordance search on the matter will show only a little so what we may have been taught may have been more opinion of the teacher than Biblical fact but if it is serving to glorify God that’s okay this time.
About the most solid thing we can draw about fasting is that Jesus made clear in His own words that is wasn’t to be for show.
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,  so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  Matthew 6:16-18
So if we take this as our most important instruction on the matter we see that fasting is not a matter of if but when.  Frequency or length doesn’t seem to matter but sincerity does.
A further examination of the scripture shows penitent and sincere hearts are fasting often at momentous times such as in our scripture from Ezra today.
I believe that when you feel the need this is the time to fast.  It might be that you too need to repent or you urgently wish to come as close as you can to God.  God knows you need fuel for your body and how it drives you but when you put all things aside even that He will see in your heart and as Jesus said reward you.  God wants to be first in our hearts.

For Discussion:
1.      Do a concordance search of fasting and discuss examples
2.      If you fast discuss your experience
3.      Discuss misconceptions about fasting
4.      Discuss types of fasts
5.      Discuss how medically lengthy fasts are not for everyone
6.      Lengthy fasts medically speaking are serious and should be researched before undertaking
Upcoming Lessons
7-28-13:  Giving Gifts for the Temple aka Gifts for the Temple Ezra 8:24-35 or 8:24-30
8-4-13:    Feast of Tabernacles aka Festival of Booths Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 13-18 or 8:13-18
8-11-13:  Community of Confession Nehemiah 9:2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 30-36
8-18-13:  Dedication of the Wall Nehemiah 12:27-38, 43 or 12:27-36, 38, 43
8-25-13:  Sabbath Reforms Nehemiah 13:10-12, 15-22




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Sunday, July 7, 2013

On 7-14-13, Ezra 6:13-22 will be our Adult Sunday School/Uniform Series/International Sunday School Lesson herein is my commentary. This lesson is known by some as Dedicating the Temple aka Dedication of the Temple

Dedicating the Temple aka Dedication of the Temple
Ezra 6:13-22
International Sunday School Lesson
July 14, 2013

Commentary
By
Jed Greenough

If I were choosing a title for this week’s scripture I might have chosen something along the lines of Exile to Exultation.  But that would be me a man making it about man and really what struck me as I considered today’s scripture and the ones that we have recently looked at in Ezra is that it wasn’t about men.
Yes, the people of Israel were being freed from exile but it was God’s promise that this would happen and the duration of it that this would be so.  Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10
Yes, God used men such as the Babylonians and the Persians to take His people into exile and to release them from the same (Ezra 1) but it was for His purposes.
Had I been writing the story instead of receiving it through inspiration I would have built out the character of Cyrus the king.  I would have chosen someone from the family heads of Judah or Benjamin and probably too some Levite to make you have an invested interest.  I probably would have built upon some drama to keep that interest.
Interestingly enough there was plenty of drama but God never saw it necessary to expand upon it just to report it.
There was the miraculous fulfillment of prophecy as we know from Ezra 1 but it was simply recounted.  There were the thousands of items from the temple that had not been melted down or scattered that were still intact.  Thousands of people likewise still intact in that they identified with their tribe, their former region and even duties.  All fascinating but merely stated.
The Samarians offered to help but were rebuffed and so spurned managed to get the building stopped. (Ezra 4)
One doesn’t get the sense that after all the drama of returning from exile to rebuild the temple that it should be stopped, was a problem.  Instead the years rolled by, moving not according to the men who would die and those who would be born, but according to God’s timetable.
At the right point in His calendar God stirred up Haggai and Zechariah and they in turn stirred up the Jews and the rebuilding began again.  (Ezra 5:1-2).
Today finds us at the exultation point as we see the celebration as the people celebrated the dedication of the rebuilt temple.
One doesn’t think too much of the book of Ezra as a source of learning in our walk in the Way other than for historical purposes but it really is just that.
We can see that we are His and live to serve Him and bring Him glory.  We may face obstacles as we set out to build a church, a class or a study, or some other ministry.  We may come to a standstill; we might have starts and stops along the way.  We might not be the ones who are successful in accomplishing the task.  But when we enter those times of frustration and we have made it about ourselves we can stop and consider the book of Ezra and remember it is all happening according to His plan and in the end He will receive the glory.

For Discussion:
1.      Discuss the examples you can give of successes and failures for some even yourself and then others accomplishing the task
2.      Discuss the length of time that the rebuild took in total
3.      Discuss man’s role
4.      Discuss God’s time table
5.      With regard to what the people were doing in the interim read Hagai 1
6.      Read Exodus 12:1-30 about Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
7.      Remember not all had been in exile 6:21

Upcoming Lessons
7-21-13:  Fasting and Praying Ezra 7:6-10; 8:21-23 or 8:21-23
7-28-13:  Giving Gifts for the Temple aka Gifts for the Temple Ezra 8:24-35 or 8:24-30
8-4-13:    Feast of Tabernacles aka Festival of Booths Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 13-18 or 8:13-18
8-11-13:  Community of Confession Nehemiah 9:2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 30-36



Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved