I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Nehemiah recounts how he never drew on the food allowance of the governor for the twelve years he was the governor of Judah, nor did he use his position as governor to acquire land. He and his men devoted their time to working on the wall. As the work on the wall reached completion Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab sent word requesting that Nehemiah meet them in a village outside of Jerusalem. Nehemiah suspected that they were plotting to ambush him and replied that he was working on an important project and could not take the time to come to meet them. Nehemiah’s enemies sent the same message to him requesting a meeting outside of the city to him four times. He sent the same reply to them every time. Finally, they sent a personal message with a message threatening to send word to the king of Persia alleging that Nehemiah was plotting to have himself named king of Judah and rebel against Persia. Nehemiah told the messenger to pass the word to his master that such allegations were baseless and that he was not going to meet with him.
Later, Nehemiah went to visit a shut-in named Shemaiah. Shemaiah told Nehemiah that his enemies were coming to kill him that night and that they should go to the Temple and bolt the doors. Nehemiah refused to follow such advice to barricade himself in. Shortly after this they completed the walls and set up doors in the gates. During this time many letters went back and forth between nobles of Jerusalem and Tobiah. The nobles kept praising Tobiah to Nehemiah and passed everything Nehemiah said on to Tobiah. Many of the nobles in Jerusalem had sworn allegiance to Tobiah because of his family connections. After the wall was finished, Nehemiah appointed his brother as governor over Jerusalem and gave him instructions on keeping the city well guarded.
Today Paul moves on to another topic, whether or not Christians may eat food offered to idols. This is not a topic of much concern to us today, but there is much we can learn from what Paul says on the topic. The first thing Paul tells us is that it is more important to love one another, and to act towards one another with love, than it is to have the correct knowledge. He further says that it is only through love that we gain full knowledge.
From there Paul goes on to the specifics of eating meat offered to idols. He starts by expounding on the fact that idols are not truly gods. There is only one God. Some people worship many different gods, but we know that those gods are not truly gods at all. However, not all believers know this, more importantly, some believers are used to believing and behaving as if certain idols are real gods. As a result if and when they eat meat that has been offered to idols, they think of it as worship of those idols. We do not win God’s approval by what we do or do not eat. We do not lose anything in God’s eyes if we do not eat specific foods, nor do we gain anything if we do eat them.
Paul goes on to tell us that since we neither gain, nor lose, by what we eat, we should consider the consciences of those whose faith is weaker than our own. He tells us that we should be careful to make sure that we do not exercise our freedom in Christ in such a manner as to cause someone with a weaker conscience to stumble into sin. If our actions might encourage our brother or sister in Christ to sin, we should choose not to take those actions.
The psalmist calls on those who are godly to sing for joy and praise the Lord. It is fitting that those who He has purified praise Him. We can trust everything that God does. If something is just and good, we can be sure that God loves it. The psalmist tells us all we need to know of God’s power in verse six:
and the heavens were created.
He breathed the word,
and all the stars were born.
THe psalmist tells us that God brings to naught the plans and schemes of the nations, but whatever God intends comes to pass. All that happens furthers God’s agenda for this world, despite the attempts of people and nations to thwart those plans.
The guilty follow a path that winds and twists, while the innocent are direct and open about their intentions and where they are headed. If you desire evil, you are evil.