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.

I am using 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 the people had gathered at the beginning of the month to hear the Book of the Law read, their initial reaction was to mourn their failure to keep God’s law, but they were told that the time was wrong.  Instead they celebrated that they were able to gather, worship God, and hear His Law.  Then they studied His Law and celebrated the Festival of Shelters.  Finally, at the end of the month, they gathered once more to mourn and pray for forgiveness.  They confessed their sins and the sins of their forebears.  They acknowledged that their suffering was a result of their sins and vowed to behave better going forward.

Throughout Nehemiah the Jewish people came together to help each other, and when they recognized an example of mistreating each other they vowed to change.  When they discovered their fellow Jews enslaved to outsiders, they pooled their resources and bought them out of captivity.  When they realized that their own behaviors were causing their fellow Jews to be sold into slavery, they changed their behaviors.  They sought ways they could act to relieve the burdens on their fellow Jews.  And while they banded together to defend themselves against outside aggressors, at no point did they seek to attack those outsiders who might have been perceived as harming them.  We should take responsibility for how our own sins have led to our suffering, repent, and seek to follow God’s will more closely going forward.

I am using 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 and gates of Jerusalem had been rebuilt, Nehemiah invited (or perhaps ordered) all of the people under his authority to gather for a reading of the Book of the Law.  The passage sort of glosses over this, but the people who gathered reacted to the reading in a similar fashion to that of King Josiah.  They were saddened by their failure to keep God’s regulations.  However, Nehemiah and the religious leaders encouraged the people to celebrate their ability to gather and hear God’s Law rather than mourn their previous failure to follow it.

Then once this day of celebration was over, representatives of the people met to review the Book of the Law.  It was this group of laypeople who recognized the importance of the Festival of Shelters.  They saw how celebrating that Festival would help the people become more committed to serving the Lord.  This entire passage gives us an understanding of the importance of both trained and untrained eyes studying God’s Law.  Experts can give us an understanding of what the Bible says, but sometimes we need to see for ourselves how it applies to our lives.

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

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

Understanding that the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt once already since the return from exile puts the reaction of Nehemiah’s enemies in context.  One begins to understand that they were taking advantage of the disrepair of Jerusalem for their own purposes.  They wanted Jerusalem to be in a state of disrepair in order to facilitate their own illegal activities.  Initially they tried to discourage the Jews from repairing the walls by deriding their work as inadequate.  When that failed, they planned to send “bandits” to attack the city, destroying the work which had been done.  However, Nehemiah received word of their plans and implemented a defensive strategy.  The passage does not make it clear why Nehemiah’s enemies did not follow through anyway, but I suspect that a successful attack on Nehemiah’s defenses would have revealed that the attackers were not just bandits…or perhaps, their forces WERE just bandits and thus not up to taking on a well prepared force of defenders.  With the failure of this strategy they attempted to lure Nehemiah to where they could ambush him by threatening to lie to the King of Persia about his intentions.  This failed.  Part of the reason this failed was because Nehemiah had clearly laid out his plans to the King of Persia before he left to come to Jerusalem.

In the middle of the above, Nehemiah discovered that the poor among the Jews were being exploited by the wealthy and thus being driven even further into poverty.  When he realized this was true, he called the elites from among the Jews together and demanded that they stop.  But, he did not exempt himself from liability.  Rather, he recognized how his own actions contributed to the exploitation of the poor, even though that was not his intention.  Overall the portion of the passage where Nehemiah worked with the elites among the Jews to stop the exploitation of their poorer neighbors also provides us with an example for all leaders.  The passage points out how Nehemiah did not take advantage of many of the perks of his position which would have allowed him to become more wealthy in ways someone else would not be able to do.  Those perks were intended to allow a man of less wealth than Nehemiah had to fulfill the duties of his office.  However, reading between the lines one realizes that most people in a position similar to Nehemiah’s used those perks to make themselves even more wealthy and powerful.

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

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

It would be easy to think that the news which Nehemiah’s brother brought him from Jerusalem just represented the lack of rebuilding which had happened since it was sacked by the Babylonians.  However, if that were the case, he would have reported that the walls and gates had not been rebuilt.  Realizing that the walls had been rebuilt by the returned exiles and then destroyed once more puts some needed context on the rest of the passage. When Nehemiah received this news, he mourned, fasted, and prayed.  However, when Nehemiah was finished fasting and praying, he had a plan of action, which means that his definition of fasting and praying was different from what we normally think of when we talk about fasting and praying.  It is time to re-evaluate what God intends for us to do when He calls for us to fast and pray.