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Tag: lent

Nehemiah 9 – The People Confess Their Sins
Today’s Short Take on Scripture focuses on confession.

Yesterday this personal conviction came to mind from imprinted corporate confession of the church. (You’re church may not use such a confession, but should they lead us in this way?)

Confession of Sin Before Communion

Corporate Confession of Sin by the Church
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From the Anglican BCP [Book of Common Prayer] (public domain, source not secure)
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Minister and People
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Almighty God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
maker of all things, judge of all men:

We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness,
which we from time to time most grievously have committed,
by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine Majesty,
provoking most Justly thy wrath and indignation against us.
We do earnestly repent,
and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings;
the remembrance of them is grievous unto us,
the burden of them is intolerable.
Have mercy upon us,
have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
forgive us all that is past;
and grant that we may ever hereafter
serve and please thee in newness of life,
to the honor and glory or thy Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Excerpts Nehemiah 9:
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New King James Version; Неемія 9
 Ukrainian Bible; Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition; נחמיה The Westminster Leningrad Codex; Неемия 9 New Russian Translation
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A corporate Confession of Sin after the jews rebuild the second temple

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers..

And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God..

“You came down also on Mount Sinai,
And spoke with them from heaven,
And gave them just ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.

“But they and our fathers acted proudly,
Hardened their necks,
And did not heed Your commandments.
They refused to obey,
And they were not mindful of Your wonders
That You did among them.
But they hardened their necks,
And in their rebellion [They].. [sinned: a long list of confession]
Nehemiah 16-17a – Corporate Confession of Sin by the people prior to rededication to worship of the Lord God

30 Yet for many years You had patience with them..

But we have done wickedly.
34 Neither our kings nor our princes,
Our priests nor our fathers,
Have kept Your law,
Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies,
With which You testified against them..

“Here we are, servants today!
Nehemiah 9:36a NKJV

For You are God, gracious and merciful.

32 “Now therefore, our God,
The great, the mighty, and awesome God,
Who keeps covenant and mercy:
Do not let all the trouble seem small before You
That has come upon us,
Our kings and our princes,
Our priests and our prophets,
Our fathers and on all Your people,
From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

“And because of all this, We make a sure covenant and write it;
Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it.”
9:38 [NKJV] (WLC 10:1)וּבְכָל־זֹאת אֲנַחְנוּ כֹּרְתִים אֲמָנָה וְכֹתְבִים וְעַל הֶֽחָתוּם שָׂרֵינוּ לְוִיֵּנוּ כֹּהֲנֵֽינוּ׃

My question for your COMMENT is:

How should the people confess OUR SINS?
Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM
March 4, 2022
Ashes to Ashes

Genesis 18:27 KJV And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

Do you know the context of this? (Answer in a moment; but first another quote and some additional background.)

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

Remember: you are dust and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you…
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

Numbers 19

9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. 10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

The ashes are a sin offering to the Lord for the altar of worship.

Returning to Abraham in Genesis 18:

Abraham is standing before God pleading for mercy for the people of his nephew Lot’s city. It is a city and a place full of sin on which God will rain down His Almighty wrath and judgment – the city of Sodom.

26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

It is the office of the Priest to intercede for the sins of the people. Abraham, in this instance, is a Priest before Almighty God.

Christians have a greater Priest and Perfect Sin Offering, Christ Jesus the Very Son of God.

Abraham failed in saving Sodom, because not even ten righteous men could be found; only Lot. Even Lot’s wife (who did not obey the Lord) was lost for her sin. The wrath of God brought quick and unexpected justice against the entire town and valley.

Ashes rained down and purified the sinful.

God had formerly judged the whole earth and purified it by water, saving only Noah and his family. Yet God kept His covenant to never destroy the whole earth again by water. Part of it? Yes. Cities by fire? Yes. By war? Certainly. God confirms in scripture His support of enemies to purify the unfaithful Chosen who by obedience to God’s Law are supposed to live with God’s righteousness.

Time after time and Prophet after Prophet, up until John the Baptist and even the teaching of our Lord, Christ Jesus; the message of God does not change.

Repent. Return to God. Turn from your sin. Return to righteousness.

Repent to dust and ashes and bow down in worship to the Lord, your God.

We have been following Jesus’ early ministry and many miracles in Galilee. (This is not even to mention His Sacrifice of the Cross for your sins and for mine.)

Do you recall what Jesus said of repentance to these towns where He has just preached to the multitudes, yet most would not follow Him by faith?

Here is Jesus’ warning to those who refuse to hear the Gospel from us:

Luke 10

10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’

12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin!

Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?

You shall be brought down to Hades.

16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

Therefore, dear brother or sister in Christ Jesus, know that as you call on the world around you to repent to dust and ashes and they will not listen; neither did they hear our Lord. For they hung Him in disgrace on a Cross, for all to see His Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The Blood of Christ, sacrificed in Jerusalem, cries out from the Altar of all Righteousness for the wrath of God to rain down, even as His mercy has been sacrificed for us.

It is Ash Wednesday – a time for repentance, in these last days.

It is a time of urgency for us to proclaim the love of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself that we might have eternal life.

February 26, 2020
Our Lament and Weeping -2- Judgment
Previously, we asked of Jeremiah’s lament for Jerusalem, “For what hope have any who have turned against the Lord?” He has just said, “For my groans are many, and I am sick at heart. – Lamentations 1:22b And now his elegy will address a just judgment on Jerusalem by the Lord.
Judgment on Jerusalem
Lamentations 2
Judgment on all of Judah
Hope through God’s Mercy
Waiting for Judgment
Can you wait for the Lord in your suffering?
Unless the Lord has ordained it
Judgment on Jerusalem

Lamentations 2

אֵיכָה֩ יָעִ֨יב בְּאַפּ֤וֹ׀ אֲדֹנָי֙ אֶת־בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן הִשְׁלִ֤יךְ מִשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶ֔רֶץ תִּפְאֶ֖רֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹא־זָכַ֥ר הֲדֹם־רַגְלָ֖יו בְּי֥וֹם אַפּֽוֹ׃ ס
איכה 2 The Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

The Lord [אֲדֹנָי ‘Adonay] has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger!

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion
with a cloud in his anger,
and cast down from heaven unto the earth
the beauty of Israel,
and remembered not his footstool
in the day of his anger!
Lamentations 2:3 AKJV

His daughter is Zion, Jerusalem, ‘the parched place.’ She receives the cloud of His anger over her beauty, as if she had never dwelled in the Light of His heavenly Throne as His beloved footstool. She no longer worships Him!

2 … In his wrath he has demolished the fortified cities of Daughter Judah…

Judgment on all of Judah

And now another beloved daughter. So the Lord punishes not only Jerusalem but all of Judah. He cut off ‘all the horn of Israel,’ its strength and its rays of light on the high places.

ה He
5 The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces
and destroyed its fortified cities.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
within Daughter Judah.

ו Waw
6 He has wrecked his temple
as if it were merely a shack in a field,
destroying his place of meeting.
The Lord has abolished
appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion.
He has despised king and priest
in his fierce anger.

ז Zayin
7 The Lord has rejected his altar,
repudiated his sanctuary;
he has handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.

Can you imagine this happening to our nation, our religious and political leaders and to the security of our homes and families today?

Jeremiah describes the dismay of their leaders.

י Yod
10 The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth….

Then Jeremiah points back to their former sin of hearing false prophets who predict with deceptive visions and do not mention our iniquities. Yet he laments, “Who can heal you?” So this is his intercession on their behalf.

Hope through God’s Mercy

I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath.
He has driven me away and forced me to walk
in darkness instead of light.
Lamentations 3:1-2

Jeremiah recalls his own suffering when leaders of Jerusalem and all of Judah and Israel refused to listen to the Lord’s warnings spoken by him. And he asks for God’s mercy.

19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness,
the wormwood and the poison.

Then he prays: “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” He then encourages others to hope in the Lord, even in their distress.

Waiting for Judgment

ט Teth
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the person who seeks him.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord.

Can you wait for the Lord in your suffering?

Sin so often destroys us – the sin of others and our own sin. Do you listen to the rebukes of the Lord before your fall?

Listen to some of Jeremiah’s encouragement, even in this lament.

28 Let him sit alone and be silent, for God has disciplined him. 30 … let him be filled with disgrace.

How we take an attitude against the Lord and against any who suggest that who ought to endure deserved scorn and reproach.

We refuse to be shamed for punishment we rightfully deserve. Yet He will judge – He will judge if we protest our rebuke and He will judge even when we sit silently hoping in our Redeemer. May the Lord have mercy on us.

Unless the Lord has ordained it

מ Mem
37 Who is there who speaks and it happens,
unless the Lord has ordained it?
38 Do not both adversity and good
come from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should any living person complain,
any man, because of the punishment for his sins?

Jeremiah’s question to fallen Israel could well apply to one fallen in our own sin today.

So sit alone, be silent and consider the Lord’s discipline.

Even we do not willingly allow our deserved shame and disgrace. Neither will we sorrowfully thank Christ for carrying our reproach to the Cross.

I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
You heard my plea:
Do not ignore my cry for relief.
Lamentations 3:55-56 CSB

59 Lord, you saw the wrong done to me; judge my case.

Can you ask judgment (without Christ’s grace), as Jeremiah plead?

66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them under your heavens.

Will the Lord also pursue you in your sins and iniquity, overshadowing all hope of deliverance from death?

O, contemporary christian, how like those who would not listen to Jeremiah are we, when turning from the Lord.
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To be continued...
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March 14, 2019