They are your servants
and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong
hand.
THE STUDY:
In this verse
we see Nehemiah’s thought process has not changed: reminding God of his
promises of the past! He starts by stating that “they are your servants and your people.” This verse is almost identical
to the one found in Deuteronomy 9:29 For
they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power
and by your outstretched arm.
I found it interesting that
Nehemiah uses two types of descriptions when it comes to God’s children:
servants and people. His servants was those who worshiped Him in His temple, whereas,
His people is whom He has redeemed from Egypt by His great power and by His
strong arm.[1]
Redeemed is
another through-back to the Torah. Redemption involves the payment of a price
to reclaim a person from slavery. Here reference is made to God’s act in
delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt. The exodus theme is used many times in
the New Testament to emphasize redemption from the power and judgment of sin
and the subsequent relationship between the Redeemer and the redeemed[2]
WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY
WITH ….
- We walk away with the understanding that as Gods servants and people we are redeemed by His great act. Not an act that was produced by us. We could not produce the payment that was needed to free us from the judgment of sin. No action on our part would meet the needed payment.
APPLICATION:
Sometime ago a traveling evangelist was
singing to himself the song, “I’ve Been Redeemed.” A fellow passenger, hearing,
joined him in the song. After singing, the evangelist put the question to the
stranger, “Have you been redeemed?” “Yes, praise the Lord,” was the answer.
“May I ask how long since?” “About two thousand years ago.”
The reply was astonishing and thoughts
of insanity were astir in the mind of the evangelist. “Two thousand years ago?”
“Yes, sir, but I’m sorry to say it’s not much more than a year that I have
known it.”
This morning let us remember it was by Christ
sacrificial act of love that we were redeemed. Not by our act of repentance and
submission but by His blood being shed. We have all been redeemed at this
moment in time. God has done everything that is needed for salvation. Now it is
up to us to accept and respond to this act of love and grace. Do we accept
Christ as our personal savior or do we ignore this precious gift.
Blessings my friends
Pastor Rod
No comments:
Post a Comment