TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, Week August 28 to September 3, 2023, "Show that you are loyal to Jehovah by choosing your friends", Prepared Speech.

TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, 28–August-3-September-2023, “Show that you are loyal to Jehovah by choosing your friends”, Prepared Speech. 

“Show that you are loyal to Jehovah by choosing your friends” (10 min.)

Dear brothers and kind-hearted people who visit us, let's think about these questions: Why should we avoid bad companies? How can we support God's organization? What will help us give priority to spiritual things and not lose our Christian identity? 

The answers to these questions is so important and so reasonable based on what happened in the time of Nehemiah and the law on friendships with those who did not serve Jehovah.

To understand it better let's see the context, Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem, he finds that a foreigner had been allowed to have a reserved place in the temple. The Levites are abandoning their labors. The elders of the city do business on Saturdays. And many Israelites are hunting with Ammonites and Moabites who were opponents of the people.

Given this, Tobias is expelled from the temple and it was necessary to review the law that reminded them on the subject: Let us search the Bible for the word of God, the biblical record of Nehemiah, chapter 13, verse 1 and 2, please accompany me with the reading, says the following:

LET'S READ NEHEMIAH 13:1,2.

That day the book of Moses was read to the people. And they saw that it said that neither the Ammonites nor the Moabites should ever be admitted into the congregation of the true God, since they had not received the Israelites with bread and water. Instead, they had paid Balaam to curse them. But our God turned that curse into a blessing.

The Ammonites and Moabites had influenced the people so much that even the Eliasib priests had been allowed privileges within the temple, due to the marriage alliance, they had even been relatives. As Nehemiah mentions in chapter 13, verse 4 and 5 that we are going to read says:

LET'S READ NEHEMIAH 13:4,5.

Before that, the priest who was in charge of the storerooms* of the house* of our God was Eliashib,who was a relative of Tobiah. 5 Eliashib had provided Tobiah with a large storage room.* The grain offering, the frankincense, the utensils, and a tenth* of the grain, the new wine, and the oil that belonged to the Levites were previously kept there. the singers and the porters. The contribution for the priests was also kept there.

These illegal kinship ties perhaps explain why the high priest Eliasib allowed himself to be influenced by a pagan adversary. Instead, Nehemiah demonstrated his loyalty to Jehovah by removing all of Tobiah's furniture from the dining room. Let's see please now the text of Nehemiah chapter 13 But this time the verses from 7 to 9 Did you find it? Let's see it Together please it says like this:

LET'S READ NEHEMIAH 13:7-9. 

Then I returned to Jerusalem and realized the barbarity that Eliashib had done to please Tobias: he had given him a storage room in the courtyard of the house of the true God. 8 This incensed me so much that I threw all of Tobiah's furniture out of the storeroom.* 9 Then I ordered the storerooms to be cleaned* and put back the utensils from the house of the true God, the grain offering and the frankincense. 

Nehemiah showed loyalty to Jehovah, for he ended the agreement between Eliashib and Tobiah the Ammonite, God's enemy. As a people dedicated to God, they had to be loyal to him, since it was imperative that they abide by his just standards.

This reminds us that we must never put family ties above Biblical Principles. And also that the elders should always be guided by Jehovah's criteria, not by their own opinions or feelings. They have to make sure that we don't do anything that will cause us to lose God's approval.

This is what the spirit of the word loyalty dictates, hence the question: If we choose people who do not love Jehovah as friends, are we really being loyal? Most likely the answer is no, and why are we so sure? Why the Bible in James 4:4 says that "Friendship with the world is enmity with God, and anyone who wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an enemy of God." 

That is why we want to demonstrate the same loyalty that King David manifested when he said these words in relation to friendships, let us please see the text Psalms Chapter 139 and verses 21 and 22.

WE ARE GOING TO READ PSALMS 139:21,22.

O Jehovah, do I not hate those who hate you and detest those who rebel against you? 22 Hate is all I feel for them; they have become real enemies to me.

If we imitate this great example, God will never forget those who are in awe of him and love his name. And we do it by avoiding bad company, supporting God's organization, giving priority to spiritual things and never losing our Christian identity. 

If we pass the test of loyalty with flying colors, we will participate in the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty. In this way we will obtain his favor and receive the gift of eternal life.