Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

When Nehemiah left Jerusalem and returned to the Persian capital, the people of Judah allowed corruption to become the norm once more.  The man in charge of the temple storerooms turned over one of the largest ones to be used by Tobiah, who had previously tried to prevent Jerusalem’s walls from being repaired.  This resulted in the Levites not receiving their portion, which resulted in them leaving temple service in order to provide for themselves and their families.  In addition, some of the people of Judah had begun doing business on the Sabbath, both on their own account and with foreigners who had come to reside among them.  In addition, Nehemiah discovered that some of the men of Judah had married foreign women and were not raising their children with those women to worship God, this even included the grandson of the high priest.  We have a tendency to see each of these as separate incidents, but in fact they each represented a failure of the people to remain faithful.

If the people are buying from foreigners who bring their wares into the city on the Sabbath, why shouldn’t I sell my wares on the Sabbath?  First, if I don’t, I will lose some of my customers to the foreigners because it is more convenient for my customers to buy from them on the Sabbath than wait for a weekday to do business with me.  Second, even without the possibility of losing customers, it is more convenient for them to do business with me on the Sabbath, since otherwise they have to leave their own work to do business with me.  Then, if the people are doing business on the Sabbath, what is the big deal about the guy in charge of the temple store rooms making a little extra money by renting out space that is under utilized (which quickly makes more space “under utilized” so that he can make more money).  Of course that works both ways, if the guy in charge of the temple store rooms is renting out space in them, why shouldn’t I do business on the Sabbath.  So, the little dispensation we allow ourselves, (I mean really, its just a minor rule, it doesn’t make that much difference) soon grows into widespread disregard for honoring God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 9-10.

In today’s passage the returned Exiles (which is not an entirely true designation as many of those who gathered were second and third generation after returning) gathered to mourn and repent of their sins.  They separated themselves from those who were not part of their community of faith.  They praised God for the many wonderful things He had done for their ancestors and confessed that their ancestors turned away from God after receiving His blessings.  One could easily focus on their confession of their ancestors sins, but I believe that this recounting actually serves to focus on God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Time and again the people had suffered because they failed to obey God, only for God to show them mercy and bless them once more when they turned to Him and cried out for deliverance.  And the final point is that, after listing the ways in which their ancestors had sinned against God, they acknowledged that the troubles they were experiencing resulted from their own sins, not from the sins of their ancestors, or the sins of anyone else.   Then they entered into an agreement together to faithfully follow God’s commands going forward.  We need to follow their example by separating ourselves from those who are not God’s people and acknowledging that the troubles we face result from our sins, not the sins of the people around us who are not God’s people.  It is worth noting that some of those who were excluded from the assembly in this passage claimed to be worshipers of God, but they did not agree with those gathered as to what it meant to follow God.  Today, there are others who claim to follow Christ, but have a different view of what that means.  We must separate ourselves from them and follow Christ as He has revealed Himself to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 7-8.

I find following the timing of this passage a little tricky because of the inclusion of the genealogical records from when the first Exiles returned to Judah.  However, it reads to me (in yesterday’s passage) that the work on Jerusalem’s walls and gates were completed in the final month of the year.  That means that the assembly described in chapter eight occurs in the seventh month of the year following the completion of Jerusalem’s walls.  I am not sure that any of that is important, but thinking about that led me to here.   The people all assembled to hear the Law of God read to them.  The passage says that Ezra read the Law to the assembly.  The wording here seems to suggest to me that “assembly” here means more than just those assembled.  It seems to me to mean those who had a say in important decisions.  The passage tells us that the assembly included men and women, and “all who were able to understand.”  For the purposes of this assembly, which was to hear, understand, and commit to obey the Law of God, men and women were equal.  Even those who were otherwise considered children were considered equal, as long as they were old enough to understand God’s word.  Men, women, and children are all of equal value to God, and we should also value them equally.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

There are two things I want to look at in today’s passage.  The first thing I am going to write about comes in the middle of the passage.  While the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls was going on, something being done as a community project with everyone contributing as their abilities allowed, some of the less well-to-do and the poor complained to Nehemiah about the way the wealthy were getting wealthier at their expense.  When Nehemiah looked into it, he realized that they were right.  So, he called the elites together and demanded that they stop charging interest on loans to their fellow believers and that they refund the interest they had already collected (including returning the land which had secured some of the debt which had not been paid).  However, the key part of this demand by Nehemiah was his acknowledgement that he and his family had also been guilty of getting wealthy at the expense of the poor.  Nehemiah also refunded the interest he had collected and returned the lands which he had taken in lieu of repayment.  Nehemiah led by example.

When the enemies of the Jews heard that they were rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem, they were initially dismissive and ridiculed the effort.  The passage makes it clear that the ridicule was intended to discourage the Jews from continuing.   When the Jews continued to work, and made real progress, their enemies plotted to intervene with violence.  Nehemiah worked with the leaders to plan how they would protect themselves from such an attack.  The enemies continued to plot to attack the Jews, while making sure that the Jews knew about their plan.  The key here is that God’s people did not allow their fear to stop them from continuing to work.  When that failed, the Jews’ enemies tried to convince Nehemiah to meet with them some place where they could arrange to ambush him.  They went so far as to tell Nehemiah that the purpose of the meeting was to offer Nehemiah an opportunity to address rumors that Nehemiah was planning to revolt against the king of Persia.  And when that failed, they tried to discredit Nehemiah by scaring him into hiding from assassins.  Nehemiah refused to meet with the enemies of his people and he refused to hide from the threat against him.  So, while we need to prepare for the obstacles our enemies, God’s enemies, put in our path, we should not stop doing the work God has assigned to us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what our enemies are saying about us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what the enemies of God say about His followers.  And we should not hide from threats of violence.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 1-3.

For many years I thought that the description of Jerusalem which Nehemiah’s brother gave him described the state in which the Exiles found it when they returned from Exile.  In actuality, Nehemiah lived a couple of generations after the first Exiles had returned to Jerusalem.  Those who had first returned had rebuilt Jerusalem, but then something had happened to lead to the walls being broken down and the gates being burned, perhaps bandit attacks, perhaps something else.  In any case, the sad state of Jerusalem’s walls and gates is a change from what Nehemiah expected to be true.  So, greatly saddened by this news, Nehemiah fasted, prayed, and sought God’s guidance on how to make this better.  In his prayer, Nehemiah acknowledged that the state of Jerusalem was because of the failure of God’s people to faithfully obey God’s commands.  In the same way, we need to recognize that the sad state of our country also results from the failure of God’s people to faithfully follow God.  We, also, need to follow Nehemiah’s example to fast and pray, seeking God’s guidance on what He wants us to do in order for God’s people to faithfully follow Him.  Some of us will be called to lead people in the rebuilding, but most of us will merely be called to do our small part, just as most of the people in Judah were called to work on just their small part of the wall around Jerusalem.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.