© Image Copyright 2012, D.J. Hacker. All rights reserved.

Nehemiah 3:15-5:13     Today’s passage begins with a continuation of the detailed list of who worked on rebuilding the various sections of the wall. The importance of this is that it shows that the people pitched in and worked on the project. Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem was not a project that was done by leadership taxing the people and hiring builders. The people themselves took responsibility for different parts of it. Some people took responsibility for just the little bits “immediately across from his own house.” Other people took responsibility for larger sections. All are given credit here with no sense that some were better than others because they did more. Not only does this account not read as giving some more credit than others, it reads, to me, as those who did more doing so happily and not considering themselves more important than those who only did the section across from their own house.

     When the leaders of the neighboring peoples learned of the progress being made by the concerted effort to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, they were furious. They insulted the quality of the work being done in what appears to have been an effort to discourage the workers. Nevertheless work continued. The neighboring peoples made plans to attack Jerusalem. However, Jews who lived near to them heard of their plans and warned Nehemiah. Nehemiah responded by posting guards and mobilizing the people. When their enemies discovered their preparations they abandoned their plans to attack. From that point on, Nehemiah kept his guard up and made sure that the people were prepared to stop working and defend the city at a moment’s notice.

     At this point some of the Jews came to Nehemiah to complain that the wealthy and powerful among the Jews were taking advantage of them and causing them to have to sell their children into slavery. Nehemiah was angry when he learned what was going on, so he called a public meeting to address the issue. Nehemiah makes the point that they as a collective group were working to redeem Jews who had had to sell themselves into slavery, yet, here some of the same people were causing some of the Jews to sell themselves back into slavery. Nehemiah says that they must stop doing this. He admits that he, his family and retainers had been profiting from lending to the poor. He says that they must all stop charging interest for their loans to their fellow Jews and that they must restore what they had taken to cover the debt. The leaders agreed to return the property they had taken as interest and not charge interest going forward. Nehemiah does not say, “You are doing this and you must stop.” He says, “We are doing this and we must stop.” A reading of the passage suggests that Nehemiah and those around him were not guilty of the abuses that led to the problem coming to a head. But Nehemiah recognized that there was a fine line between what he was doing and what was causing the problem and that his actions might inevitably lead to the problem. Even though his own actions might have been “OK”, he chose to stop them because they could too easily slip over into the “Not OK”.

© Image Copyright 2012, D.J. Hacker. All rights reserved.

1 Corinthians 7:25-40     Apparently the Corinthians had also asked whether it was OK for those who were not yet married to get married (or perhaps whether they should get married). I suspect that Paul was not quite sure of what exactly they were asking, so he phrases his answer several different ways to make sure that it was clearly understood. The first thing he says is something that he emphasizes is just advice, not a command. He says that he thinks that if you are not married, it would be better not to get married. However, he emphasizes that it is not a sin to get married. He points out that a single person can focus solely on doing God’s will. Whereas someone who is married needs to think about how to care for their family. He repeats that he is not placing restrictions on them. He tells them that he wants them to do what will help them serve the Lord with the fewest distractions. If sexual desires and temptations are distracting someone from serving the Lord, they should get married. If, on the other hand, they can restrain themselves, they should remain single. Paul expresses his belief that it is better to stay single, but that everyone must make that judgment for themselves. I think that this is something that the Church today fails to focus on. The Church (in the U.S. at least) seems to almost take the approach of teaching that getting married is God’s calling for people. Yet Paul here seems to be saying that we should look at it in the reverse. That staying single is the calling and getting married only for those who do not have that gift.

© Image Copyright 2012, D.J. Hacker. All rights reserved.
Psalm 32:1-11     The psalmist tells us that we must confess our sins in order to be forgiven. That when we refuse to admit and confess our sins, they will eat away at us. When we stop trying to hide our sins and pretend that we have it all together God will forgive us and bring us healing. When we admit that we are not perfect, we will experience joy. If we pretend to have it all together, it will all fall apart. It is only when we admit our sin and brokenness that we can experience God’s healing and redemption.

© Image Copyright 2012, D.J. Hacker. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 21:5-7     Today we have three proverbs that I see as linked. The first tells us that careful planning and hard work leads to prosperity, but that attempting to take shortcuts leads to poverty. The second two expand on this theme because they represent two “shortcuts” to wealth. One tells us that if you gather wealth on the basis of lies, at some point that wealth will vanish and you will be trapped by the lies, finding it hard to acquire wealth by legitimate means once you have started down the path of deception. The other tells us that using violence to acquire wealth will sooner or later cause that violence to rebound onto the perpetrator.

© Image Copyright 2012, D.J. Hacker. All rights reserved.   
  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.