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"Remember meO my God[for] what I have faithfully done" (Nehemiah 13:14). "Some time later [Nehemiah]came back to Jerusalem" (10:6b-7a). Had he been away months, years? However long it's been, and it appears to have been years, the people have moved past the great rebuilding project and instead of a "happily ever after," Nehemiah finds they have dramatically forsaken all t...
Keep Reading"Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God broughtall this calamity upon us and upon this city?" (Nehemiah 13:18a). Sanballat and Tobiah. Do those names ring a bell? (It would be totally understandable if they didn't!) These two showed up in Nehemiah 2 "very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites." Shortly after th...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 13:4-30 Why couldn't Nehemiah have ended his book with chapter 12? The wall has been rebuilt, that accomplishment has been joyfully celebrated (chapter 8), and then we come to the dedication of the wall (chapter 12)another joy-filled celebration with a restored Temple, rebuilt walls, a repopulated capital city. It's like the days of Kings David and Solomon! After...
Keep ReadingThe whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days (Nehemiah 8:17-18). ...
Keep ReadingAnd all the people gathered with one mind at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel (Nehemiah 8:1). At the start of the quarantine our family chose to have a deeper devotional and worship time together. A highlight from this has been that our kids are asking m...
Keep Reading"Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve" (Nehemiah 8:11). The people of Jerusalem have completed the wall, a great physical work worthy of celebration. But a work is still needed in their hearts. The temple had already been rebuilt, but perhaps reading of scripture had not been routine for the people are hungry enough for the Word to stand for six hours during ...
Keep ReadingFor all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law (Nehemiah 8:9b). The thing that most intrigues me about Nehemiah 8 is the intensity of the Israelites' interest in and reaction to the reading of the Law. What, I wonder, accounted for this? As I write, wildfires rage across our Pacific Coast states. Millions of acres are destroyed and thousands...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 8 As we continue our "Let's Rebuild!" series this week we enter the heart of the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 8. And, at the heart of the heart, God's Word, and our responses to it. It's been several weeks since the rebuilding of the walls was completed. The opposition of their enemies has quieted, the predatory practices of some of their nobles ended. The people h...
Keep Reading"Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table,as well as those who came to us from surrounding nations"(Nehemiah 5:17). My husband I recently headed out with our kids and another family to paddle to an island we love. Our friends had never been, and they enjoy the great outdoors as much as we do. As we drove our paddle boards out to the boat launch,...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 5:1-12a As disconcerting as the disturbance in Nehemiah 4 was, in Nehemiah 5 an even more troubling disturbance occurs. This time the actors causing the disturbance are not from outside the community, but from inside. Having an outside enemy can unite a community. Consider the unity in America after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Having an enemy within, however, c...
Keep Reading"Restore to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses,also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oilthat you are exacting from them" (Nehemiah 5:11). Prior to Covid one of my sons told me about a time in his school hallway where he witnessed a bully picking on another student. What he remembered ...
Keep ReadingBut out of reverence for God I did not act like that (Nehemiah 5:15). You might remember from Nehemiah 3, the "job assignments" chapter, that some nobles from Tekoa "would not put their shoulders to the work" of rebuilding the walls. We gave them a dismissive brush-off ("Selfish entitled jerks!") and moved on, assuming we were done with them, that their only role in the s...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 5:1-13 Nehemiah has motivated the Jews to overcome 100+ years of inertia. They are rebuilding their crumbled walls while summoning courage to resist foreign opposition. That is hard enough, but they continue to face decades-long oppression from their own rulers: exorbitant interest, high taxes, demands for collateral, even slavery. What kind of courage is needed ...
Keep ReadingMeanwhile, the people of Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble we cannot rebuild the wall." Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will kill them and put an end to the work." The Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us" (Nehemiah 4:10-12). Ah, it se...
Keep Reading"what my God had put in my heart to do" (Nehemiah 2:11) and Nehemiah 4:1-6 Have you ever embarked on a new challenging endeavor? (Writing these devotionals counts as that for me!) Nehemiah and Co., all those years ago, embarked on a new challenging endeavor. Let's look for the similarities in our experiences. Starting out by sensing God's direction, and having an inner ...
Keep ReadingAfter I looked things over, I stood up, and said ... "Don't be afraid of them.Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers,your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses" (Nehemiah 4:14). Have you ever faced opposition while you were trying to complete a goal, or perhaps experienced it in a relationship where you can remember the words ...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 4 What are you trying to rebuild? It isn't likely the walls of a city, but whatever it is it matters: to you, to God, and perhaps to others. Just know this: opposition will come. Here, for Nehemiah and the Jews, it comes - and it comes immediately - from clear enemies. Sanballat and Tobias, likely fearing the rebuilding project as a threat to their place in the ...
Keep ReadingWhen Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed When they heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead they were very angry. They all plotted to come together and fight against Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4:1, 7-8). Rebuilding is hard enough work all by itself. Add in some opposition, however When God works not eve...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 3 One of the good things about regular, consistent engagement with Scripture is it allows God to sneak up on us and surprise us: "Wow, I've never seen that before, I've not thought about it like that, it had never crossed my mind until now that " The Book of Nehemiah is about many things: rebuilding; leadership; community; prayer; dealing with opposition; dealin...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 3 In its thirty-two verses, Nehemiah 3 lists more than seventy names. Around half are the names of ancestors: so-and-so the son of so-and-so, which means we're introduced to around thirty or so individuals who served as foremen or supervisors of a specific part of the overall rebuilding project. Everyone mentioned in this chapter, everyone listed in the Book of ...
Keep Reading"went to workbuilt the adjoining sectionrebuiltrepaired the next sectionmade repairsrestored" (excerpts from Nehemiah 3). Up until Jerusalem was sacked and its leading citizens taken into exile the city was central to the practice of the Jewish faith. It isn't a surprise; therefore, that descendants of those exiles would long to return and rebuild. Nehemiah was one of the...
Keep ReadingNehemiah, son of Azbuk made repairs as far as the House of Heroes (Nehemiah 3:16). Archaeologists are not sure what the House of Heroes mentioned in Nehemiah 3 was or its precise location. May we suggest that the chapter itself is a "house of heroes"? You may be familiar with Hebrews 11, the "heroes of the faith" chapter: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses and the rest ...
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