Renewing Our Covenant With God
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ScribdTranslationsRenewing Our Covenant With God
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ScribdTranslationsTheme: "Renewing the covenant with God"
Biblical Text: Nehemiah 9:38
Introduction
In this portion of the book of Nehemiah, a confirmation is briefly described.
of the covenant of the people of God in Jerusalem, after decades in exile from
Babylon.
Los muros de Jerusalén habían sido finalmente reconstruidos gracias al liderazgo
and the passion of Nehemiah, who led the people to complete the work in a timely manner
record. From there, a process of religious reform was initiated led by
Ezra.
This process begins by teaching all of God's law; upon hearing it, the people ...
repent
Ezra, the priest, ends his prayer by saying the following:
Nehemiah 9:38 - Therefore, because of all this, we make a solemn promise,
and we wrote it, signed by our princes, by our Levites and by
our priests.
Development
This text is relevant to us for three reasons:
a. Describe the confirmation of the covenant with God in a context full of praise.
The village had gathered for three weeks to praise God, and the climax
At this moment is the prayer that Ezra makes in the presence of all the people.
This is a statement of affirmation of the covenant that Israel has with God, that is the
spirit in which I hope we conclude this meeting, reaffirming our pact
with God and among each one of us.
b. The renewal of the covenant is signed by the priests. The leaders, the Levites
and the priests wrote their names down in that renewal of the
pact. Nowadays, that is something that each one of us must also
to do, since we are priests in Christ Jesus.
c. The sentence of which this covenant confirmation is a part is full of the
sovereign grace of God and the glory of His name. It is necessary that each one
de nosotros también recordemos la solidez del pacto que nos une. Nuestro
the foundation is not found in ourselves, or in our ability to
fulfilling our promises, but rather it is in God, and especially in His grace
interminable.
The prayer of Ezra presents us with the grace and power of God, as well as
the foolishness and rebellion of the people despite that.
The grace and power of God
Nehemiah 9:6 - You alone are the Lord; you made the heavens, and the heavens of the
heavens, with all its army, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and everything
what is in them; and you give life to all these things, and the armies of heaven
They adore you. 7 You are, oh Jehovah, the God who chose Abram, and brought him out of
From the Chaldeans, and you named him Abraham; 8 and you found his heart faithful.
before you, and you made a pact with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite,
from the Amorite, from the Hittite, from the Jebusite, and from the Gergashite, to give it to his
descendants; and you kept your word, for you are just. 9 And you looked at the affliction
from our parents in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea; 10 and
you performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against
the whole town of your land, because you knew that they had acted with arrogance
against them; and you made a great name for yourself, as on this day. 11 You divided the sea
in front of them, and they passed through it on dry ground; and their pursuers
you threw into the depths, like a stone in deep waters. 12 With
cloud column you guided them by day, and with a column of fire by night, to
to light the way for them to go. 13 And on Mount Sinai
you descended, and spoke to them from heaven, and gave them righteous judgments, laws
true, and good statutes and commandments, and You commanded them on the day of
holy rest for you, and by your servant Moses you prescribed to them
commandments, statutes, and the law. 15 You gave them bread from heaven in their hunger, and
You brought forth waters from the rock for them; and you told them to enter and possess the land.
land, for which you raised your hand and swore that you would give it.
V. 6 The God who has created all things that exist.
V. 7-8 The choice of Abraham to make a covenant with him and to form a
people for their purposes.
V. 9-10 The liberation of the people from slavery in Egypt, for God
he heard their cry. This release was carried out with samples of his
enormous power.
V. 12 God led the people through the clouds by day and the columns of
fire by night.
V. 13 God gave the people a covenant of commandments that are for their
blessing and for your convenience.
V. 15 God provided abundant provision for the people–Bread from heaven and
water from the rock, he told them they could go take the land that had been
promised to them.
2. The rebellion of the people
Despite all this, the response of the people of Israel is summarized in the
verse 16: But they and our fathers were proud, and hardened their
cervix, and they did not listen to your commandments. 17 They did not want to hear, nor did they remember.
of your wonders that you had done with them; instead, they hardened their neck,
In their rebellion, they thought of putting a leader to return to their servitude.
Despite having seen the hand of God in a miraculous way in the midst
from them the people rebelled against God, they demonstrated:
They were full of pride
They didn't want to listen
They did not remember his wonders.
Their desire was to return to Egypt where they had lived in slavery.
3. The mercy of God in the face of the people's rebellion.
In the face of this disobedience and rebellion, we find a list of mercy of
God over the people:
Ezra 6:17-19 – But you are a God who forgives, gracious and merciful, slow to anger
for anger, and great in mercy, because you did not abandon them. 18 Moreover,
when they made for themselves a molded calf and said: This is your God that
he brought up from Egypt; and they committed great abominations, 19 you, still, for
Your many mercies did not abandon them in the desert. The column of cloud
He did not depart from them by day, to guide them along the way, nor by night the column
of fire, to light the path they were to take.
In this renewed mercy of God, in this faithfulness to his covenant, it is
What Esdras is based on to make the request we read at the beginning of this
message.
On this occasion, we cannot forget our commitment to God and to
your work based on our strength and our wisdom. Rather
we must tell each other, 'With a God like this, there is hope for me.'
hope that I will find the help I need, there is hope indeed
I regret and return to Him without a doubt He must forgive my wickedness
4. That pattern is repeated throughout the sentence.
In the sentence, we see the foolish response of the people repeated throughout.
the history.
In the face of this constant rebellion, the people end up being sent into exile:
Ezra 9:30 - You endured them for many years, and you testified to them.
with your Spirit through your prophets, but they did not listen; for
which you delivered into the hands of the peoples of the earth.
Even after the exile, God's mercy was once again shown for his
town
oEzra 9:31 - But because of your many mercies you did not consume them
you did not forsake them; for you are a compassionate and merciful God.
This is how Ezra can make the request to renew the covenant.
with God, for He has revealed Himself as a merciful and full God
mercy, which is faithful to its covenant despite the unfaithfulness of its people.
Conclusion
The reform of Nehemiah and Ezra was highly effective, however with the
over time the town fell into other sins. In history we find
Malachi, who prophesied against the people because of various sins:
It is not worth serving God.
The lack of faithfulness of the people regarding their tithes and offerings.
The distancing between parents and children
Then in the New Testament we find a radically different people.
monotheistic, there are no longer signs of the polytheism that was a fundamental sin in
the A.T. but now there is a religious elite that has become legalistic and that had
before their eyes the promised Messiah and whom they could not recognize due to the
foolishness of their hearts.
All of this left us with the expectation of the new covenant, the one in which God
He would change our hearts and seal us with His Holy Spirit in a way
without parallels in history. That is the new covenant that you and I enjoy, and
it is a pact that has committed us to the work of God and with the rest of
brothers of the body of Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 - But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
people acquired by God, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you
from darkness to his marvelous light;
