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

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

When the people had gathered at the beginning of the month to hear the Book of the Law read, their initial reaction was to mourn their failure to keep God’s law, but they were told that the time was wrong.  Instead they celebrated that they were able to gather, worship God, and hear His Law.  Then they studied His Law and celebrated the Festival of Shelters.  Finally, at the end of the month, they gathered once more to mourn and pray for forgiveness.  They confessed their sins and the sins of their forebears.  They acknowledged that their suffering was a result of their sins and vowed to behave better going forward.

Throughout Nehemiah the Jewish people came together to help each other, and when they recognized an example of mistreating each other they vowed to change.  When they discovered their fellow Jews enslaved to outsiders, they pooled their resources and bought them out of captivity.  When they realized that their own behaviors were causing their fellow Jews to be sold into slavery, they changed their behaviors.  They sought ways they could act to relieve the burdens on their fellow Jews.  And while they banded together to defend themselves against outside aggressors, at no point did they seek to attack those outsiders who might have been perceived as harming them.  We should take responsibility for how our own sins have led to our suffering, repent, and seek to follow God’s will more closely going forward.