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

I wrote yesterday that when the people in rebuilt Jerusalem heard the Book of God’s Law  read to them they grieved, but their leaders instructed them to put aside their grief because they had assembled to celebrate God’s mercy.  They followed their leaders’ advice, but in today’s passage we are told that two weeks after that festival they assembled once more, this time to express their grief over their sins.  This time they fasted and prayed, and once more listened to the Book of the Law being read to them.   Then they listened to a litany of how their ancestors had cried out to the Lord when in distress, been rescued by Him, only to turn back to their sins as soon as the crisis had passed.  Once more they, as a people, were in  a situation of crisis and were turning to the Lord.  Are we too willing to admit that we cry out to the Lord when in trouble, only to return to our sins when the crisis has passed?  Are we willing, as these people were, to strive to make a break with out past and commit to following the Lord when the good times return?

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