|
Nehemiah was a man Who had a heart
for God and for what God wanted done. Nehemiah had a close relationship
with the Lord God, and here we can read about God's Character in action.
"Stand up and praise the LORD
your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting." "Blessed be Your
glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone
are the LORD . You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their
starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.
You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship You. Nehemiah
9: 5,6
7"You
are the LORD God, Who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans
and named him Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you
made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your
promise because you are righteous.
9 "You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; You
heard their cry at the Red Sea. 10 You sent miraculous signs
and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of
his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a
Name for Yourself, which remains to this day. 11 You divided
the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you
hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. 12
By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a
pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.
13 "You came down on Mount Sinai; You
spoke to them from heaven. You
gave them regulations and laws
that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. 14
You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and
laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them
bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you
told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted
hand to give them.
16 "But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and
stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to
listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became
stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to
their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious
and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not
desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an
image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,'
or when they committed awful blasphemies.
19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in
the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their
path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20
You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your
manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21
For forty years You sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their
clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
22 "You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them
even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon
and the country of Og king of Bashan. 23 You made their sons
as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you
told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 Their sons went in and
took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who
lived in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to them, along with their
kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. 25
They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses
filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves
and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they
reveled in your great goodness.
26 "But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they
put your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had
admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful
blasphemies. 27 So you handed them over to their enemies, who
oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they
cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion
you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
28 "But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was
evil in Your sight. Then You abandoned them to the hand of their
enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they
cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you
delivered them time after time.
29 "You
warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant
and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a
man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you,
became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were
patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your
prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the
neighboring peoples. 31 But in your great
mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and
merciful God.
32 "Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God,
who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in
your eyes-the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon
our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of
the kings of Assyria until today. 33 In all
that has happened to us, You have been just; You have acted faithfully, while we
did wrong. 34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests
and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your
commands or the warnings you gave them. 35 Even while they were in
their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile
land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.
36 "But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave
our forefathers so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it
produces. 37 Because of our sins, its
abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our
bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
9 Then
Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were
instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the LORD
your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as
they listened to the words of the Law. 10 Nehemiah said, "Go and
enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing
prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not
grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8
Neh 13:22 Then I commanded the Levites to
purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day
holy. Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to
your great love.
A brief Bible study: Nehemiah
re-tells all of the great and mighty deeds of Love that the Lord God Almighty
does for His children. Over and over again, his children turn their back on Him,
they turn away from His laws of life for them, and are not grateful for His relationship with
them. People get stubborn and rely on themselves, and by doing this, they
get into trouble. When the trouble is too much for them to bear, they call on
God to help them, and time and time again God comes to their rescue. God
is truly faithful, patient, compassionate and eager to save.
However, the
most important thing for our lives is to not be on a roller coaster up and down,
with and without God, but Instead, to have a long line of continuum, growing in Him, in
relationship with Him, with our life in His laws by His Spirit, and when we are filled with His
Holy Spirit, then we can fulfill all that He has planned for us, and we will not
go astray too far.
|
