Friday, August 7, 2015
Jeremiah 26:8-15 NIV
8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the LORD's name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD's house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!" 12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the people of God do to the prophet Jeremiah after he hold them all that the Lord told Him to say to them? Why? (v.8-9)
2) What did the religious leaders do after hearing what God's people had done to the prophet? (v.10-11)
3) What did Jeremiah prophesy to God's people and their religious leaders? (v.12-15)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Do you know of any modern day prophets of God who have been ignored and/or persecuted by the people of God because they spoke of impending judgment on a church and/or nation?
LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord always raises up prophets to forewarn His people of impending judgment. Those who ignore God's prophets and continue to rebel against the Lord will face God's wrath.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Jeremiah 26:1-7 NIV
1 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: 2 "This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD's house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.' " 7 The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) Who was Jehoiakim the son of and what happened early in his reign? (v.1)
2) What did the Lord say to Jeremiah the prophet? (v.2)
3) What did the Lord tell the prophet to say to His people? Why? (v.3-6)
4) Who heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord? (v.7)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Have you ever heard a prophetic word, from the Lord, concerning yourself, your church, and/or your nation?
6) if so, what do you generally do in response to those prophecies?
LIFE LESSONS
7) The Lord sends His servants (the prophets) to warn His people of impending judgment to allow them to repent of their transgressions against Him.
8) When the people of God repent of their sins, the Lord God will relent from allowing calamity to befall them.
9) When God's people refuse to heed the words of the prophets, judgment is certain.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Isaiah 48:12-19 NIV
12 "Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last. 13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together. 14 "Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians. 15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission. 16 "Come near me and listen to this: "From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there." And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. 17 This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me."
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What does the Lord tell the people He called to do and what does He tell them about Himself? (v.12-13)
2) What does the Lord reveal about His purpose for those who have taken them captive? (v.14-15)
3) What else does the Lord reveal about Himself to His people, through the prophet? (v.16-17)
4) What would have happened to His people if they had heeded His words prior to their captivity? (v.18-19)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Have you ever ignored a warning from the Lord? If so, what happened as a result?
6) Do you believe that the Lord has been warning this nation of impending judgment? If not, why not?
LIFE LESSONS
7) The Lord never chastens His people without many prior warnings.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Micah 2:4-11 KJV
4 In that day shall [one] take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed [it] from me! turning away he hath divided our fields. 5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD. 6 Prophesy ye not, [say they to them that] prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, [that] they shall not take shame. 7 O [thou that art] named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? [are] these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? 8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10 Arise ye, and depart; for this [is] not [your] rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy [you], even with a sore destruction. 11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, [saying], I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After warning the wicked (evil) of pending disaster, how will others react to His wicked people and what will become of their land? (v.4-5)
2) How do the people respond to the words of the Lord through His prophet(s)? (v.6)
3) What does the Lord ask, and tell, His people? (v.7)
4) How do the people of God respond to the Lord's judgments against them? (v.8-9)
5) Why does the Lord allow His people to be taken from their land (homes)? (v.10)
6) What kind of prophet would God's people prefer according to the Lord? (v.11)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) How do you respond when a prophet of God foretells of disaster within your life, within your church, and/or within your nation?
LIFE LESSONS
8) The Lord sends His servants (the prophets) to convict His people of their sins with the hope of their collective confession, repentance, and restoration.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Hosea 9:5-9 KJV
5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? 6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant [places] for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns [shall be] in their tabernacles. 7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. 8 The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God. 9 They have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After telling His people, through Hosea, that He would no longer allow them to worship Him, what did the Lord ask them? (v.5)
2) What did the Lord plan for His people and for their land? (v.6)
3) What was to come (note: "visitation" means judgment or punishment) and why? (v.7-9)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you, your church, or this nation ignored the Lord's prophets? If so, why?
LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord does not punish His people without first warning them through His prophets.
6) The Lord's prophets are often ostracized and/or belittled by God's people.
7) Prophets are God's spokesmen in this earth to warn God's people of impending judgment for unconfessed sins.
Monday, April 13, 2015
1 Peter 1:8-12 KJV
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, [even] the salvation of [your] souls. 10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should come] unto you: 11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) Though we do not see Him, how are we to be toward Him and because of Him? Why? (v.8-9)
2) What did the prophets search diligently to discern? (v.10-11)
3) What was revealed to the prophets of old, to those who would preach the gospel, and to the angels? (v.12)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) To whom do you share the message of salvation?
LIFE LESSONS
5) The mystery of salvation is revealed by the Holy Spirit to those who need Christ's redemption.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
1Samuel 3:11-21 KJV
11 And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all [things] which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. 14 And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever. 15 And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision. 16 Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here [am] I. 17 And he said, What [is] the thing that [the LORD] hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide [it] not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide [any] thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee. 18 And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It [is] the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good. 19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel [was] established [to be] a prophet of the LORD. 21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the Lord tell Samuel that he would do to the house of Israel and the house of Eli? (v.11)
2) What had the Lord told Eli concerning His judgment against the prophet's house? Why? (v.12-14)
3) What did Samuel do the next morning? (v.15)
4) What did Eli ask Samuel to do for him that same day? (v.16-17)
5) What did Samuel tell the older prophet and how did Eli respond? (v.18)
6) What immediately became of Samuel after his discourse with the Prophet Eli? (v.19-21))
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) Has the Lord ever used you to deliver difficult and/or troubling news to one of his servants? If so, briefly describe one such time.
LIFE LESSONS
8) The Lord expects those who serve Him to be faithful stewards over their God given gifts and the people He has blessed them to serve.
9) When the Lord's servants mistreat the sheep of His flock, He will demote, or remove, that servant and apppoint someone else to succeed him/her/them.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Isaiah 29:8-14 KJV
8 It shall even be as when an hungry [man] dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, [he is] faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. 9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. 13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, [even] a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise [men] shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent [men] shall be hid.
OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After declaring that all the nations will attack Jerusalem (Mount Zion), what does the Lord declare about those who do so? (v.8)
2) What will the Lord allow to take place among His people, their prophets, and their spiritual leaders? Why? (v.9-14)
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
3) Have you ever ignored the words or teachings of an individual that the Lord may have sent to help you and/or your church? If so, please describe one such time.
LIFE LESSONS
4) The Lord gives His people those with five-fold ministry gifts to edify His body.
5) When God's people ignore, or treat those the Lord sends to them wickedly, He sovereignly removes, or silences, those He sent and allows His people to languish in their error.
