Skip to main content

Nehemiah 9-10

 [Nehemiah] NINE: Confession & Commitment_ 

Nehemiah 9-10 

Though we know we should and though we have every reason to do it, one of our greatest challenges is to own up to our sins (and the sins of our family) and really ‘come clean’ before God. 

 

[Discussion starter] After what we looked at in chapter 8, how important is the confession of your wrong actions to you in your relationship with God? 

 

The remnant of Israel know they don’t stand a chance to make it in Jerusalem without the help of God... so they’re getting very honest with God and renewing their covenant with Him. This is one of the more serious moments in Israel’s history. They’re recognising that everything they have belongs to God and they’d better start being better stewards of what He’s given them!... 

 

[Read Nehemiah 9] 

 

When you read / listen to Nehemiah 9, what stands out to you about Ezra’s prayer? 

 

As discussed at the beginning, what part does confession play in your Christian life? 

 

Why do you think they spent so much time identifying with and confessing for the sins of their ancestors? 

 

Thinking about your own family members who are still alive, do you intercede for them and their relationship with God? 
Why or why not? 

 

 

 

 

 

Why do you think they had all the religious leaders sign the covenant? 

 

 

 
[Read Nehemiah 10] 

 

 

In chapter 10, verses 1, 9, 14, 28, 34, what groups of people are mentioned as covenant signers? 

 

 

[Activity] As you look down through this chapter, list the things that the Israelites are committing themselves to do... 

 

In 10:29, what do we learn about the seriousness of this commitment they are making? 

 

 

We often say that God is looking for ‘character change’ and our spiritual state of our lives... why do you think that this list of things focuses so much on the material / physical side (and not the spiritual)? 

 

 

How you work on the balance of the spiritual and the material / physical side of your own Christian life? 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Disciple: Judas

  {Disciples} JUDAS ISCARIOT_   Turning away     The most notorious of al the disciples – and the one universally scorned – is Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. His name appears in every list of the disciples (except in Acts 1), and it always appears last.   The other eleven are an encouragement to us because they show how common people can be used by God, even with all their faults and failures, to do remarkable things.   Judas, on the other hand, stands as a warning about the power of spiritual carelessness and pride, which can drag us away from loyalty to Christ.   Judas lived in close proximity to Jesus for three years.   He heard every teaching; he saw every miracle.   But in all that time his heart only grew harder.   The other disciples were being transformed, by Jesus, into passionate followers; Judas was being changed too...     [Group discussion starter] Have you ever had a friend or colleague that appeared to b...

Ephesians 5:21 - 6:9

  [Grace and Peace] EPHESIANS_   [Activity] Spend some time exploring the logical flow of Ephesians 5:21-6:9…   [Read Ephesians 5:21]   Paul addresses different relationship types (marriage, family, co-workers) when he writes to the Ephesians. Before he gets specific in his instructions, he gives a general one. What attitude are we supposed to have towards others?     What should submission look like in daily life?     [Read Ephesians 5:22-33]   In verses 22-24, why does Paul tell wives to submit to their husbands?     How does remembering that a wife is really submitting to the Lord affect submission to a husband?     In verses 25-33, how are husbands, in turn, to treat their wives?     How does comparing a husband’s love for his wife to how the Messiah loves the church remove any danger of the husband abusing the wife’s submission?       What ...

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #3

  {SEVEN LETTERS}    The Attractiveness of Suffering_   Revelation 2:8-11     In the year AD 177 persecution broke out against the Christians living in what is today the French city of Lyon. Christianity had raised the suspicions and hatred of the Roman  bureaucrats who governed the city. The vicious persecution that raged, touched Christians at every level of society. After the persecuti on subsided, church father Irenaeus, arranged for a letter to be written to Christians in other parts of the Roman Empire describing the faithfulness of the  martyrs...   We  can’t  even begin to put into words, much less describe in detail, the  magnitude  of the persecution here: how the pagans raged so terribly against the saints, and how the ble ssed martyrs endured so patiently... To begin with, they nobly endured all the abuse the whole mob collectively piled on: screaming  at them, punching them, dragging them through the stre...