Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

When Nehemiah left Jerusalem and returned to the Persian capital, the people of Judah allowed corruption to become the norm once more.  The man in charge of the temple storerooms turned over one of the largest ones to be used by Tobiah, who had previously tried to prevent Jerusalem’s walls from being repaired.  This resulted in the Levites not receiving their portion, which resulted in them leaving temple service in order to provide for themselves and their families.  In addition, some of the people of Judah had begun doing business on the Sabbath, both on their own account and with foreigners who had come to reside among them.  In addition, Nehemiah discovered that some of the men of Judah had married foreign women and were not raising their children with those women to worship God, this even included the grandson of the high priest.  We have a tendency to see each of these as separate incidents, but in fact they each represented a failure of the people to remain faithful.

If the people are buying from foreigners who bring their wares into the city on the Sabbath, why shouldn’t I sell my wares on the Sabbath?  First, if I don’t, I will lose some of my customers to the foreigners because it is more convenient for my customers to buy from them on the Sabbath than wait for a weekday to do business with me.  Second, even without the possibility of losing customers, it is more convenient for them to do business with me on the Sabbath, since otherwise they have to leave their own work to do business with me.  Then, if the people are doing business on the Sabbath, what is the big deal about the guy in charge of the temple store rooms making a little extra money by renting out space that is under utilized (which quickly makes more space “under utilized” so that he can make more money).  Of course that works both ways, if the guy in charge of the temple store rooms is renting out space in them, why shouldn’t I do business on the Sabbath.  So, the little dispensation we allow ourselves, (I mean really, its just a minor rule, it doesn’t make that much difference) soon grows into widespread disregard for honoring God.

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

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

In today’s passage the returned Exiles (which is not an entirely true designation as many of those who gathered were second and third generation after returning) gathered to mourn and repent of their sins.  They separated themselves from those who were not part of their community of faith.  They praised God for the many wonderful things He had done for their ancestors and confessed that their ancestors turned away from God after receiving His blessings.  One could easily focus on their confession of their ancestors sins, but I believe that this recounting actually serves to focus on God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Time and again the people had suffered because they failed to obey God, only for God to show them mercy and bless them once more when they turned to Him and cried out for deliverance.  And the final point is that, after listing the ways in which their ancestors had sinned against God, they acknowledged that the troubles they were experiencing resulted from their own sins, not from the sins of their ancestors, or the sins of anyone else.   Then they entered into an agreement together to faithfully follow God’s commands going forward.  We need to follow their example by separating ourselves from those who are not God’s people and acknowledging that the troubles we face result from our sins, not the sins of the people around us who are not God’s people.  It is worth noting that some of those who were excluded from the assembly in this passage claimed to be worshipers of God, but they did not agree with those gathered as to what it meant to follow God.  Today, there are others who claim to follow Christ, but have a different view of what that means.  We must separate ourselves from them and follow Christ as He has revealed Himself to us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 7-8.

I find following the timing of this passage a little tricky because of the inclusion of the genealogical records from when the first Exiles returned to Judah.  However, it reads to me (in yesterday’s passage) that the work on Jerusalem’s walls and gates were completed in the final month of the year.  That means that the assembly described in chapter eight occurs in the seventh month of the year following the completion of Jerusalem’s walls.  I am not sure that any of that is important, but thinking about that led me to here.   The people all assembled to hear the Law of God read to them.  The passage says that Ezra read the Law to the assembly.  The wording here seems to suggest to me that “assembly” here means more than just those assembled.  It seems to me to mean those who had a say in important decisions.  The passage tells us that the assembly included men and women, and “all who were able to understand.”  For the purposes of this assembly, which was to hear, understand, and commit to obey the Law of God, men and women were equal.  Even those who were otherwise considered children were considered equal, as long as they were old enough to understand God’s word.  Men, women, and children are all of equal value to God, and we should also value them equally.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

There are two things I want to look at in today’s passage.  The first thing I am going to write about comes in the middle of the passage.  While the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls was going on, something being done as a community project with everyone contributing as their abilities allowed, some of the less well-to-do and the poor complained to Nehemiah about the way the wealthy were getting wealthier at their expense.  When Nehemiah looked into it, he realized that they were right.  So, he called the elites together and demanded that they stop charging interest on loans to their fellow believers and that they refund the interest they had already collected (including returning the land which had secured some of the debt which had not been paid).  However, the key part of this demand by Nehemiah was his acknowledgement that he and his family had also been guilty of getting wealthy at the expense of the poor.  Nehemiah also refunded the interest he had collected and returned the lands which he had taken in lieu of repayment.  Nehemiah led by example.

When the enemies of the Jews heard that they were rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem, they were initially dismissive and ridiculed the effort.  The passage makes it clear that the ridicule was intended to discourage the Jews from continuing.   When the Jews continued to work, and made real progress, their enemies plotted to intervene with violence.  Nehemiah worked with the leaders to plan how they would protect themselves from such an attack.  The enemies continued to plot to attack the Jews, while making sure that the Jews knew about their plan.  The key here is that God’s people did not allow their fear to stop them from continuing to work.  When that failed, the Jews’ enemies tried to convince Nehemiah to meet with them some place where they could arrange to ambush him.  They went so far as to tell Nehemiah that the purpose of the meeting was to offer Nehemiah an opportunity to address rumors that Nehemiah was planning to revolt against the king of Persia.  And when that failed, they tried to discredit Nehemiah by scaring him into hiding from assassins.  Nehemiah refused to meet with the enemies of his people and he refused to hide from the threat against him.  So, while we need to prepare for the obstacles our enemies, God’s enemies, put in our path, we should not stop doing the work God has assigned to us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what our enemies are saying about us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what the enemies of God say about His followers.  And we should not hide from threats of violence.

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

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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

After Jerusalem’s wall had been rebuilt and dedicated, Nehemiah returned to the court of Artaxerxes, as he had promised when he first proposed going to rebuild Jerusalem.  Then after a period of time he went back to Jerusalem to discover that the Jews in Jerusalem had neglected maintenance of the temple in his absence and allowed nonbelievers to use the temple for commerce.  As Nehemiah looked around he saw that they had stopped being faithful to God in many other ways.  As I read this passage, Nehemiah realized that their failure to keep the Sabbath holy played a central role in their falling away from God.  In much the same way, I suspect that the failure of Christians in the United States to keep Sunday as a holy Sabbath contributed to their inability to take a stand against other sins.  The first step in bringing people back to God is for those who seek to faithfully serve Him to set one day a week aside purely for maintaining their relationship with Him.

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

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

In yesterday’s passage, when the Jews gathered in Jerusalem to hear the Book of the Law of Moses read after rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, they responded to hearing God’s commands by weeping.  The leaders convinced them to put off their mourning because that gathering was one of celebration.  So, they gathered a second time to once more hear the Book of the Law and mourn their sins.  That right there contains a lesson for us, but is not what I want to write about today.  When they gathered the second time it was to confess their sins and renew their covenant with God.   However, before I get into my main point for today I want to touch on how this gathering also emphasizes my point from yesterday’s entry.  The version of the covenant this group entered into with God specified that all those who had separated themselves from the neighboring peoples along with their wives, and their sons and daughters who were old enough to understand were agreeing to this new covenant.  That is, this renewed covenant was being entered into by men and their wives on an equal footing.

As part of that renewed covenant they recounted the many wonderful things which God had done for their ancestors, and the ways in which their ancestors had turned from God.  We can learn from this that our human nature leads us to turn away from God when times are good,  which leads to suffering and hard times.  Yet, when we do fall on hard times and cry out to God, He will come to our rescue time and again.  I especially want to draw your attention to the characteristics of God which they describe here.

• God gives life to everything
• God gave us regulations and laws which are just and right, and good
• God is forgiving
• God is gracious
• God is compassionate
• God is merciful

The first two are important reminders for us and the other four are characteristics we should seek to emulate.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 7-8.

I am not quite sure where I am going with what I am going to write today.  So, I am just going to write about a few things which struck me and see if they flow together into a theme.  I will start by noting that Ezra was a contemporary of Nehemiah.  While Ezra arrived in Jerusalem before Nehemiah, it seems clear to me that the two of them being in Jerusalem at the same time was critical to both of their successes.

The description in this passage of what happened when Ezra read the Book of the Law of Moses to the assembled people contains many things which can be useful lessons for us.  However, today I want to take note of something which I never particularly noticed before.  When the passage tells us who was there for the reading, it says that the assembly was made up of “men, women, and others who could understand.”  This struck me because the “others who could understand” appears to refer to children who were old enough to understand God’s Law.  However, as I began to write that down, I realized that the first part of this was just as important.  The people who had come together as one to hear the words of God’s Law were men and women on equal footing.  There was no expectation that men only needed, or were able, to learn what God commanded.  No, hearing, learning, and understanding what God wants us to do is for men, women, and children who are old enough to understand, with no difference in their responsibility to listen and act.  This passage runs counter to the claim that the Bible is misogynistic and that it presents women as less able to understand God’s Laws.  In fact, this passage presents men and women as being equally able to understand God’s Law.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

Before I get into my study of today’s passage I want to make note of something I only really became aware of after I started writing these blogs:  Nehemiah did not come to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls which had been destroyed during the Babylonian conquest which immediately preceded the Exile.  Rather, he was rebuilding the walls which had originally been built by those who first returned under Cyrus.   So, when Nehemiah got the Jew started rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, their enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite, ridiculed them for even trying to rebuild the walls.  As we read on we realize that part of the reason Sanballat and Tobiah thought the rebuilding effort was a joke was because previous governors of Jerusalem(I am unsure what the correct title was for Nehemiah and his predecessors) were corrupt.    In fact, we even see that a significant number of the Jewish leaders with whom Nehemiah had to work were corrupt, or on the side of Tobiah and Sanballat for other reasons.  n any case, Nehemiah encouraged the workers who were building the wall and they continued to work hard at it.  This led Tobiah and Sanballat to plot, or perhaps, just plant the rumor that they were plotting, to attack the builders when and where they were unprepared.  Nehemiah met this threat by making sure the men who had come with him could be clearly seen to be prepared to repel attackers, and got the rest of those working on the wall to do likewise.

In the middle of today’s passage, which is mostly about the attempts to prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls and how Nehemiah countered those attempts, we have a bit where Nehemiah learns that the elites of Jerusalem, including himself, were oppressing their fellow Jews who were poor.  Initially, it seems like a separate issue from Nehemiah’s efforts to get Jerusalem rebuilt and functioning.  However, I realized today that this bit in the middle explains why Nehemiah was successful in building the walls while his predecessors had left them in ruins.  When Nehemiah realized that he was getting rich off of the misfortune of others, he immediately changed his business practices and convinced the others who were doing likewise to follow his example.  By behaving in this manner, Nehemiah showed the people that rebuilding the walls was not a vanity project for Nehemiah.  He wanted to rebuild the walls because he cared about the protection this would offer the people who could not afford armed guards.  Nehemiah pushed rebuilding the walls because he believed it was in everyone’s best interest to do so.  Which led those who liked things the way they were, because they profited from the vulnerability of others, to attempt to assassinate Nehemiah, or failing that to make him look like he put his interests ahead of those of everyone else.  Despite having been appointed by the king of Persia to govern Jerusalem, and being the leader who could inspire the people to restore it to being a major city, Nehemiah refused to act like he thought he was more important than anyone else.  We should seek  to follow Nehemiah’s example…and its flip side, we should refuse to view ourselves as less important than anyone else.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 1-3.

Today has a follow-up theme to yesterday’s.  When Nehemiah received news about the state of things in Jerusalem, he sat down and wept.  Once he had wept for a short time, he began to fast and pray.  After fasting and praying before God for “some days”, Nehemiah went before the king of Persia, Artaxerxes, with a plan.  Interestingly, he does not tell us he had a plan, but we can tell that he had one because he was able to answer Artaxerxes when the latter asked him when he would return.  Further, once Nehemiah knew that Artaxerxes looked favorably on his mission, he had a list of things he requested of Artaxerxes.  So, when Nehemiah prayed to God asking God to fix the terrible situation in Jerusalem, he did not just petition God, he listened to God speaking to him and followed the plans he heard God giving him.  We see more of the way Nehemiah combined prayer, faith, and thought from his account of what he did when he got to Jerusalem.  When he got there, he did not tell the people there the purpose of his coming to Jerusalem until he had time to assess the situation.  First, Nehemiah went out and inspected the walls so that he would have an idea of what the project would entail before he began talking to the leaders who had been here all along.  So, likewise, we should not just pray about the problems which God places upon our hearts.  We should pray, and sometimes fast, and listen to God telling us what actions He wants us to take.  Then, while still praying and fasting (if fasting is called for), we should begin planning how we can carry out what God has laid on our hearts to do, listening to God’s prompting the entire time.

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