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 Nehemiah first had the people assemble to listen to the Law, he and the other leaders told them not to mourn for their failure to keep the Law at that time. That was a time to celebrate what God had done for them. However, the people assembled a second time a few weeks later for a time of mourning and repentance. There is a lesson for us here when dealing with sinners who come to the Lord. When they come to know the Lord we should encourage them to celebrate their salvation, there will be time to mourn and repent of their sins later. I want to be careful on this because many people have sins which have become deeply embedded in their lives which need to be rooted out (that may even be true of some who have been walking with the Lord for years). I want to note that there was not much time between the celebration of renewal and the gathering for repentance. The former happened on Oct 8th and the latter on Oct 31st (as the dates were translated from the calendar used to our modern calendar). I want to also say that there may be times when God calls us to follow a similar pattern, celebrate what God has just done NOW, mourn and repent the sins which He revealed to us later. I would think that these occasions would usually be corporate events rather than individual ones.

    I think we should look at the procedure they followed on this day. First, the people gathered and spent three hours listening to God’s Law being read to them. Then they spent three more hours confessing their sins. After this, their leaders led them in a prayer worshiping God and confessing their sin. Finally, their religious leaders wrote out a covenant under which the people bound themselves to obey God’s Law. A covenant to which all of the people present old enough to understand bound themselves to keep. The passage does not spell it out, but the context makes it seem to me that this gathering, and this covenant, were the idea of those who gathered to study the Law of God with Ezra. This was not something imposed on them by Nehemiah, or Ezra, or another of the elite leaders. Instead this was a gathering initiated by the people in response to beginning to truly understand the Law of God.

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 wall around Jerusalem was complete Nehemiah called the people together to celebrate its completion and to rededicate themselves to God. I believe that, at least to some degree, this was modeled on the re-dedications under King Josiah and King Joash. As part of this process, Ezra the scribe (the one for whom the Book of Ezra was named) read the Book of the Law to the people. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the other leaders set things up so that everyone in the large crowd could hear and understand what was going on. There were multiple people spread out in front of the people reading the law and explaining its meaning to the people. The people reacted to the Law in much the same way that King Joash had done. They recognized how far they had fallen short of keeping God’s commands and wept in grief. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the others explaining the Law remonstrated with them to not mourn. This day was intended to be a day of celebrating the completion of the wall, of God restoring Jerusalem to His People. Further, the leaders exhorted the people to celebrate the fact that they had heard and understood God’s Law. The people followed their leaders’ advice.

    However, the people were not satisfied with hearing the Law and celebrating, then going back about their business. They selected leaders to meet with Ezra the scribe to determine how they could order their lives so as to live according to God’s Law. The following day, the selected leaders met with Ezra and began to study the Law in detail. They quickly discovered that the Festival of Shelters was due to be celebrated shortly. So they arranged for a proclamation to go out for the people to do so. The key here is that it was not Ezra, or one of the other long term students of the Law who made this discovery. It was made by those who had not previously studied the Law. We need to remember that it was those new to the study of God’s Law who made this discovery. We need to be receptive to the insights brought to the study of God’s Word by those new to it.

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.

    When Nehemiah actually got the project started to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat and Tobiah began to actively campaign against him. Initially, they spread rumors that they were going to launch an attack against the Jews. It is not clear to me that they actually planned to attack the Jews, they may have merely hoped to frighten the Jews into stopping work. However, based on the way people have behaved throughout history, it is likely that if the Jews had ignored the threats and continued building they would have attacked. Nehemiah was bright enough to take precautions against attack. At the same time as these rumors about an attack were spreading some of those working began to complain that they needed additional help with the rebuilding. I suspect that the writer intends for us to conclude that these complaints were planted by agents of Sanballat and Tobiah.

    I was going to continue to write about how Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem sought to disrupt Nehemiah’s efforts, but I realized that the important part of this was the leadership which Nehemiah demonstrated. First, he worked alongside of those he was leading, expending his own resources in the effort. Those resources were not just his wealth and property, the way I read this Nehemiah actually went and labored beside those working on the wall. He kept his focus on the project and did not let himself get distracted playing politics. When those attempting to derail the project asked for a private meeting with him, Nehemiah rejected it in no uncertain terms. We do not know if the plan was to assassinate Nehemiah, as the passage suggests, or merely to use the meetings to compromise him. In either case, Nehemiah knew that nothing beneficial to his project could come from such a meeting. Then when they threatened to spread false rumors about him and even use them to cause a divide between Nehemiah and the King if Persia, he called their bluff. As far as good leadership goes, Nehemiah had covered this one by arranging in advance how long he would be in Jerusalem.
    Finally, we have Nehemiah’s leadership when the poor complained about the hardships they were suffering. Nehemiah did not just demand that others change their behavior. He recognized that his own behavior had contributed to the problem, that he had profited off of the suffering of others. In the past I had always read the place in this passage where Nehemiah recounts how he did not take advantage of many of the perks available to him as governor as being somewhat boastful. However, as I read it today I realized he was saying, “I worked really hard to avoid being corrupted by position of power and I still missed where I was abusing my power.” Nehemiah did not get defensive when the poor complained. Instead he looked at their complaint and changed his behavior.

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.

    The Exiles first returned to Jerusalem under King Cyrus, the events recounted in this passage take place approximately 100 years later. Which raises the question, had the walls of Jerusalem been rebuilt and destroyed once more, or was the rebuilding by Nehemiah the first time since the Exile for the walls to be rebuilt? If the second, which is how I have always understood this passage, what happened that made rebuilding the walls necessary now? Having set the stage for this passage I will now go on to what the passage communicates to me.

    When Nehemiah received word that the Returned Exiles were having troubles in Jerusalem, he was stricken by the need to do something, but he did not know what he should do. So, he did what each of us should do when we feel similar conviction; he fasted and prayed. At some point during his days of fasting and praying, Nehemiah came to believe that he should go to Jerusalem and oversee rebuilding the walls. He knows he needs authority to do this, but he also knows that he has access to the man who can give him that authority, the King of Persia. Before entering the presence of the king, Nehemiah prays once more. However, in addition to praying Nehemiah had done some planning. He knew what it would take to accomplish his goals. So, when given the opportunity, Nehemiah knew what to ask for. There are three elements that we should imitate when convicted about something that is not right:

1. Fasting and praying, so that God will reveal what actions we should take.
2. Planning out how to execute the actions God has directed us to take in step 1 (step 1 is not over yet)
3. Seeking the authorization we need to put our plans into effect.

In step 1 we need to be open to what God wants us to do about the issue. Perhaps we are called to take leadership in addressing the issue, as Nehemiah was. Perhaps we are called to assist someone else who has been called to take the lead. Or, perhaps we have only been called to intercede with God for those who are addressing the issue. Do not make the mistake of thinking that just because you have never before been a leader that God is not calling you to lead this time. However, if you are someone who knows they can be a leader do not wait for someone else to step forward.

    I find it interesting that the King of Persia gave Nehemiah an armed escort, especially in light of the opposition he faced as soon as he arrived. Another thing which is never made clear is why Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem opposed the fortification of Jerusalem. Based on what I read here and found elsewhere, it seems like Sanballat and Tobiah were officials of the Persian Empire whose authority was similar to that given to Nehemiah in neighboring areas, while Geshem appears to have been a client king of the Persian Emplire who ruled over areas of the Arabian Peninsula (also nearby). From that I conclude that their initial conversation with Nehemiah was one seeking to force him to accept a subordinate position to themselves. Further, I suspect that they had been using Jerusalem as a place through which to smuggle goods. The way it would have worked was that none of them was responsible for seeing that Persian law was enforced in Jerusalem, but all three had more authority there under Persian law than anyone else, prior to Nehemiah’s arrival. If they could have intimidated Nehemiah they could have continued their little game, with Nehemiah as the fall guy if the Empire found out.