Nehemiah was distraught over the condition of Jerusalem. Nehemiah first prayed to God about the situation, then confessed Israel and his families sin, recalled God’s promises and petitioned for God’s favor. The king granted Nehemiah’s request to rebuild the city. Once there the leaders supported the rebuilding of the wall, “’Good! Let's rebuild the wall!’” All of Israel participated in rebuilding the wall. Not only was the work hard (“Then the people of Judah began to complain that the workers were becoming tired. There was so much rubble to be moved that we could never get it done by ourselves”), but they faced opposition from the surrounding leaders, to the point that they had to “placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows.” In addition to this, inside of Israel there was problems of how affairs were being handled, “We belong to the same family, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others” Nehemiah confronted the leaders and people about this which put an end to the wrong. As the wall neared total completion, the opposition to Nehemiah grew, “But I realized they were plotting to harm me” and “They were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin”
Once completed the city needed to be repopulated, which occurred by drawing back people from Israel’s decedents being able to from the records Ezra kept, “I had found the genealogical record of those who had first returned to Judah” Once populated, they read from the Law of Moses, which produce brokenness from the people, “All the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law” Ezra said that they were to celebrate (Feast of Booths) the success of rebuilding the wall. But after this celebration they confessed their sins and exhorted God. The remembered all that God did for Israel’s fathers.
After this Israel signed a commitment, “now all heartily bound themselves with an oath. They vowed to accept the curse of God if they failed to obey the law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, laws, and regulations of the LORD their Lord” Finally, they dedicated the wall and celebrated, “During the dedication of the new wall of Jerusalem, the Levites throughout the land were asked to come to Jerusalem to assist in the ceremonies. They were to take part in the joyous occasion with their songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, lyres, and harps. 28 The singers were brought together from Jerusalem and its surrounding villages and from the villages of the Netophathites”
Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem only to find that they had not maintained their commitments. Nehemiah took action to correct the errors/sins that Israel had done.
Nehemiah is a great example of approaching problems, by praying first, confessing our sin, recalling God’s promises and then petitioning Him for our requests. Doing God’s work is not easy and opposition will exist. We need to be faithful to our calling. Nehemiah help to refocus Israel back to where they should have been, only to return to see that they were faulting on their commitment.
We seem to follow the same path that Israel took. We make commitments (church retreats) only to find that we probably have faltered. But this doesn’t mean that God abandons us. God never abandoned Israel; He kept His promise to them and He will keep His promise to us.
Once completed the city needed to be repopulated, which occurred by drawing back people from Israel’s decedents being able to from the records Ezra kept, “I had found the genealogical record of those who had first returned to Judah” Once populated, they read from the Law of Moses, which produce brokenness from the people, “All the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law” Ezra said that they were to celebrate (Feast of Booths) the success of rebuilding the wall. But after this celebration they confessed their sins and exhorted God. The remembered all that God did for Israel’s fathers.
After this Israel signed a commitment, “now all heartily bound themselves with an oath. They vowed to accept the curse of God if they failed to obey the law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, laws, and regulations of the LORD their Lord” Finally, they dedicated the wall and celebrated, “During the dedication of the new wall of Jerusalem, the Levites throughout the land were asked to come to Jerusalem to assist in the ceremonies. They were to take part in the joyous occasion with their songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, lyres, and harps. 28 The singers were brought together from Jerusalem and its surrounding villages and from the villages of the Netophathites”
Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem only to find that they had not maintained their commitments. Nehemiah took action to correct the errors/sins that Israel had done.
Nehemiah is a great example of approaching problems, by praying first, confessing our sin, recalling God’s promises and then petitioning Him for our requests. Doing God’s work is not easy and opposition will exist. We need to be faithful to our calling. Nehemiah help to refocus Israel back to where they should have been, only to return to see that they were faulting on their commitment.
We seem to follow the same path that Israel took. We make commitments (church retreats) only to find that we probably have faltered. But this doesn’t mean that God abandons us. God never abandoned Israel; He kept His promise to them and He will keep His promise to us.
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