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.