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

Nehemiah left Jerusalem and later returned.  Upon his return he discovered that the Israelites had neglected the Temple, failed to continue to provide support so that the Levites could spend fulltime ministering to God, started to do business on the Sabbath, and married women from among the people’s around them who did not worship God (and who had not given up their idolatry).  All of these things were a violation of the covenant they had entered into upon completing the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  The covenant they were violating was not the one that their ancestors had entered into at Mount Sinai, even though it was a reaffirmation of that covenant.  This was something to which they themselves had agreed.  This passage should serve to remind us of how easy it is for us to fall away from following God’s commands when the spiritual high is over.

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.

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.

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

Once the walls had been restored, Nehemiah realized that relatively few people lived in Jerusalem.  In order to decide how to remedy this, Nehemiah had the people assemble in Jerusalem to register them according to their genealogies.  Actually, it seems to me that he got the idea of doing so after he discovered the genealogical records of the first group to return from Exile.  When the people assembled they had Ezra read and explain the Law of Moses to them (the wording of this passage allows one to think that the assembly for reading the Law was a different assembly than the one Nehemiah called to register people by their genealogy, but I think that is an artifact of translation).  As the people heard the Law being read, they became grief stricken.  The passage does not tell us why this happened, but I suspect their reaction was similar to that of King Josiah when he heard the Book of the Law read: they realized how badly they had fallen short of keeping God’s commands.  Nehemiah, Ezra, and the rest of those who had been familiar with the Law before this encouraged the people not to feel grief, this assembly was one to celebrate God’s goodness.  When we truly understand how we have failed to live according to God’s desire for us we will feel grief.  There are times when we should put aside such grief and celebrate God’s goodness.

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.

I was going to write a completely different blog today than what I am writing now, but I found myself getting down into the weeds of the passage, writing about things you can read for yourself.  Then it struck me that the reason we read this book is because Nehemiah refused to back down.  When the people working on the wall were beginning to get overwhelmed by the effort, were beginning to feel that they weren’t getting anywhere with the project, Nehemiah stood up and laid out a plan.  And he did not just give them a plan, he put his back into the plan and worked alongside of them.  When people complained to Nehemiah about the rich oppressing them, he did not point the finger at other people and say that they needed to change their ways.  No, when he asked the rich to do more to help the poor, he asked them to follow his example, and he did more than he asked anyone else to do.  When he was personally threatened, he refused to take a defensive position not available to the common people because he was more important to the cause then anyone else.  He was, but he refused to let that justify giving himself special privileges.

I have written all of the above, and I think it is a pretty fair reading of the passage, but it fails to capture the thoughts behind it.  I have respect for how Nehemiah behaved as a leader of the people, but I cannot quite get it put into words.

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.

I know what I want to write about from today’s passage, but I am not sure I am going to be able to make the point I felt as I read it.  The way the passage is phrased I am not quite sure what happened when here.  However, it looks like between the time Nehemiah returned to the king of Persia and when he once more was in Jerusalem the Returned Exiles became lax in their adherence to God’s Law.  Some of them began to intermarry with the people of the land and others began to follow the local example of doing business on the Sabbath.  Some went so far as to allow those who did worshiped other gods to do business out of the Temple.  The reaction when Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem and put his foot down about these practices shows us that the majority objected to these actions, but lacked the authority to do anything about it. We need to not be afraid to live faithfully, even if it appears that no one else around us is.  Also, we should not be afraid to step up and call people back to being faithful to God if we feel He is leading us to do so, perhaps there are more people who share our understanding of how the people of God should live than we realize.

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.

When Ezra read the Law to the people during the Feast of Shelters discussed in yesterday’s passage, the people initially began to mourn how badly they had violated God’s Laws.  However, because that assembly had been called to celebrate God’s providence in allowing them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the leaders encouraged them to put aside their mourning and celebrate.  That occasion was a time for celebrating God’s goodness.  However, a short time later the people assembled once more to fast and mourn their sins and those of their ancestors.  They entered into an agreement with each other and with God to separate themselves from the people of the land and to keep God’s Laws.  One could easily interpret this passage to mean that the Israelites living in the land excluded those of other descent from joining in their worship of God and that this was how they were supposed to behave.  However, I believe that the passage I highlighted a few days ago from Ezra 6:21 applied here as well.  Certainly, I believe that God’s will was for that to apply. They were to accept into their numbers “all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices…”  And yet, we will see in tomorrow’s passage the difficulty in allowing outsiders to join us in worshiping God while maintaining separation from unclean practices.

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.

So, perhaps I am reading this wrong, but it seems to me that the assembly which Nehemiah called in chapter seven was likely the same assembly as discussed in chapter 8.  In any case, when the people had assembled it was arranged for Ezra to read the Law to them.  I am always interested to see how they arranged things so that all of the people could hear the Law being read, and explained.  However, today I want to focus on the fact that the people wept when they heard the Law being read.  Standing in rebuilt Jerusalem, hearing the words of God’s Law, and realizing how badly they, and their ancestors, had failed to keep God’s covenant caused the people to weep in regret.  But their leaders told them not to weep, because this was a time for celebration and feasting.  The people followed their leaders’ instructions.  Those who had much shared with those who had little, so that no one was left out of the celebration.

There is one other point I want to touch on.  The idea that the people should go out and build temporary shelters came from the people when they heard the Law read.  It was not something imposed on them by their leaders. It reminds me of an event held each year by an organization of which I am part.  Actually, as I thought about it some more, it reminds me of events held by many organizations of which I am aware.  Gathering away from our homes in “temporary” shelters (even if those temporary shelters are hotels) can be a bounding experience, and if done correctly should bring us closer to 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 4-6.

I see a connection between what was going on with the attempts by outsiders to intimidate the Returned Exiles into giving up on rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and the exploitation of the poorer Returned Exiles by those who were wealthier.  The outsiders were discouraging the work on the wall on purpose, but the wealthy Returned Exiles were doing so because they thought more about their self-interest than the interest of the people as a whole.  At least some of the wealthy had not realized the impact their actions were having on their countrymen.   Even Nehemiah had been doing so, but when he realized the effect his actions were having on those less fortunate than himself he acted to change things and to recompense those whom he had previously exploited.  The willingness of Nehemiah, and others like him, to expend their resources to make the project come to fruition gave heart to those who only had their physical efforts to contribute.

I hope those of you reading this can see the spiritual lesson which I got from this passage and tried to convey in the above words.

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.

This passage contains a model we should follow when we plan a major undertaking, whether that undertaking is a mission or a business, or some other sort.  First, when Nehemiah learned of the need (but it might be us learning of an opportunity), his first reaction was to fast and pray.  Some time during his fasting and praying, Nehemiah conceived a course of action which he could take.  Then he planned for what he would need to accomplish this plan.  Finally, he approached someone (the king) who could provide him with the resources he would need to carry out his plan.  And throughout this whole process, Nehemiah prayed to God for guidance and support.  We also see that Nehemiah recognized that he would need to do more detailed planning once he had gotten his support lined up.

Now I want to look at the parts of what Nehemiah did which are specific to a mission.  He recognized that the problems he sought to address were the result of sin.  This recognition meant that the problems would only be fixed by repentance and doing God’s will.

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