Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people told them, “This is a holy day for the Lord your God. Don’t mourn or cry.” All the people were crying as they listened to the reading of God’s Teachings.
“⌞Zion’s⌟ gates have sunk into the ground. ⌞The Lord⌟ destroyed and shattered the bars across its ⌞gates⌟. Its king and influential people are ⌞scattered⌟ among the nations. There is no longer any instruction ⌞from Moses’ Teachings⌟. Its prophets can find no visions from the Lord.
In the same way, the Israelites will wait a long time without kings or officials, without sacrifices or sacred stones, and without ephods or family idols.
The days are going to come, declares the Almighty Lord, when I will send a famine throughout the land. It won’t be an ordinary famine or drought. Instead, there will be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
Your leaders exchange justice for bribes. Your priests teach for a price. Your prophets tell the future for money. But they rely on the Lord when they say, “After all, the Lord is with us. Nothing bad will happen to us.”
Here’s the reason: Whoever sins without having the laws in Moses’ Teachings will still be condemned to destruction. And whoever has these laws from God and sins will still be judged by them.
I became like a person who does not have Moses’ Teachings for those who don’t have those teachings. I did this to win them even though I have God’s teachings. I’m really subject to Christ’s teachings.
We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.