November, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
417
mBM remember that King Cyrus sent out a de cree that all who wished might take gifts and return to Jerusalem and re build the temple. The king even gave back to them the beauti- ful gold and silver dishes which had been used years be fore in the temple worship. You remember how, after they returned, it was a long time before the temple was built. Our story today is about another man who made this same journey back to Jerusalem. Lesson Story: Eighty years had passed since Zerubbabel had led the Jews back to Jerusalem. You remember that many of them had n.ot gone at that time, and some o f the ones that had stayed began to wish very much that they too might go to Jer usalem. There was one man especially who wanted to go. It was Ezra, the scribe. He wanted, to go back to Jerusalem to wor ship in the temple. Ezra was not a priest, but he loved God and studied His Word. There was a new king now in this far away, country. His name was King Ar- taxerxes. Before Ezra could leave or take any o f his people with him, he had to ask the king whether he might go. This new king was like the good King Cyrus. King Artaxerxes wrote a proclamation saying that all who wished to go to worship in Jerusalem could take their gifts and go. And the king did more than this. He added his own gifts o f silver and gold to the people’s offerings. How happy God must have been when His people started out on their journey back to His temple to worship Him! Object Lesson T he S ignpost S isters Objects: Two cardboard signposts, with the names of familiar towns written on each. Lesson: People are so much like sign posts that I have given these real names. The one standing straight up I have called Susie.' The other which is leaning over, ready to fall, is Sally.
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Signposts, like people, are not always trustworthy. Susie and Sally Signpost both bear the names of towns that are familiar to us. If you were a traveler, unfamiliar with the road, you would con fidently follow a signpost which was stand ing as straight as Susie does. You would have no confidence at all in one which was leaning as Sally does. You would be afraid that the wind which had blown it over might have changed the direction in which it pointed. It is a foolish traveler who fol lows a leaning signpost. The people of God are His signposts, pointing the travelers of earth to heaven. I f we are to have the confidence o f those who pass along the roadway of life, we must keep straight, and not be changed by the winds o f the world. In the Bible we find a man named Ezra who reminds us o f Susie Signpost. W e are told that he “prepared his heart to seek the law o f the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” The reason for his being such a successful teacher was that his own heart had been prepared .to seek the law o f God and to do it; He was kept straight. Lot is a good example o f Sally Signpost. He went down into Sodom and allowed his life to be changed by the people with whom he lived. When the city was to be destroyed and the angels had warned him, he told his sons-in-law about the coming judgment; but to them “he seemed as one that mocked,” because he had not been living straight. There are many leaning “signpost Christians” in the world, but God cannot use them. He is looking for Christians who are living a straight life. Such per sons can be used to point the travelers of earth to Christ and heaven.
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DECEMBER 8, 1935 NEHEMIAH REBUILDING THE W ALL OF JERUSALEM N ehemiah 2 :1 to 7 :4 Lesson T ext: Neh. 4:6-9, 15-21. Golden T ext: “The people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). Outline and Exposition I. T he P rogress of the W ork (6-8). S o we built” (v. 6, R. V .). The force of this statement is apparent when the previous chapters, containing an ac who were antagonistic to the work of the Lord. These enemies heard that the task of rebuilding the wall was progressing, and they conspired together to hinder the outcome. It is when the work of the Lord is advancing that the enemy’s active opposi tion is aroused. II. T he P rotection in the W ork (9 ). “ Prayer” and “watch” are the two words BLACKBOARD LESSON " W A T C H -A N D -W O B K . ” '* t ,T
count o f the sneering mockery and vicious threats o f the enemy, are read. Unafraid o f the threats, unmoved by the mockery, and unashamed by the ridicule heaped upon them, the people continued the work o f building. “The people had a mind to work.” When it can be said o f the Lord’s people that they have “a mind to work,” something will always be accomplished. But the enemy also had a mind to work, and there is no fo e ' so persistent in his endeavors as is Satan. Beaten in one place, he attempted to hinder in another (vs. 7, 8 ). He acted through certain individuals
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