The Book of Nehemiah on Day 35

Good morning and here we are in our quest to read the bible from start to finish in one year; actually in less than a year, less than 6 months, in 90 days.  This is day 35 of what I've called Bible food.  Let's start our reading today and we will begin in Nehemiah chapter One.

¹The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

This is Nehemiah; he was of the captivity taken out by Nebuchadnezzar and he feared the Lord greatly.  Some brothers of his told him how Jerusalem was and he wept and prayed to the Lord.  His prayer is one that I had to pray and will pray continually:

⁵And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

⁷We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

He calls God the great and terrible God that keeps mercy to those that love God and keep His commandments.  God is great and terrible; but not terrible in how we think; He can certainly be terrible if you disobey Him.  Nehemiah confesses his sin and the sin of his fathers and lets us know that Israel as a nation have not kept God's commandments and covenant that Moses gave; and thus sentenced to the curses we read in Deuteronomy 28.  Also we read how evil Israel was through the Judges, Kings, and Chronicles.

Nehemiah 2

 ¹And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

In the 20th year of Artaxerxes the king Nehemiah, the kings cup bearer, had a sad expression on his face and the king inquired about it.  He requested to the king to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city of his fathers and the king granted him a certain time period to do this venture, and gave him wood to fix it and a letter for no one to bother his work.

But men, Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed the Jews to scorn, and despised them and were determined to prevent this.  However Nehemiah had the Spirit of God in his mind to accomplish this.

Nehemiah 3

This chapter simply outlines all the repairs and building the men did.  There was a great deal of things to rebuild; but they all worked together like ants to get the city rebuilt.  Ezra's account was the rebuilding of the Temple; Nehemiah is attempting to put the city back together.

Nehemiah chapter 4

Sanballat hated the progress the Jews were having and began to devise mischief to slow and even stop their program.  ⁷But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,

 ⁸And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

However, the Jews just prayed to God and continued in His mercy and grace to build.  However, half the men had to build and the other half had to be on the defense in case Sanballat sent rebels in to fight and destroy their work.  So they rebuilt the city in troublesome times.

¹⁶And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
 ¹⁷They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.
 ¹⁸For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

And construction workers today think they have it bad...
When this third temple goes up that the Jewish people are desiring to build; I believe they will have a hard time building as they will receive much opposition from Arab nations.

Nehemiah 5

 ¹And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.  This cry was because some of the rich nobles were loaning money at high interest for the Jews to renovate their property and repair it.  The burden of being back in Jerusalem, coupled with the famine they were experiencing, was pretty heavy.

So Nehemiah pleaded with the nobles to stop the heavy interest and not just the interest; but the principle and they agreed.  So knowing that they are Israel; Nehemiah called in the priest to make an oath that they will stop and give the people all that was theirs.

From the time that Nehemiah was appointed governor over the people of Judah, that is from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, he and his brothers did not live the privileged life that comes with being governor.  Although previous governors had taken pay and governors life style; Nehemiah refused because he feared God.

Nehemiah wanted God to remember all the good he was doing for the people: ¹⁹Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

In Nehemiah Chp 6 Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies saw the success they were having and wanted to meet with Nehemiah; but he was too busy to meet.  Finally they threatened to bear false witness against him by saying he was appointing a king over Judah to rebel against king Artaxerxes.  This got Nehemiah's attention but he still decided not to meet with Sanballat.

Sanballat hired men of the Jews to conspire and lie to Nehemiah; but when the spirit of GOD is upon you, God gives you instinct to do that which He put immediately on your mind, you must take heed to the immediate thought (or spirit) that comes on your mind.  Nehemiah felt that the men were lying so he refused to hide from Sanballat.

¹⁴My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

They finished the wall in 52 days; and when the surrounding enemies saw this, they thought for it to be done so that it was because of the hand of their God.

Nehemiah 7

 ¹Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed,
 ²That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.

Nehemiah put his brothers, who feared God greatly, in charge in reordering the city and checking the genealogy of the people who returned from captivity because the houses were not built yet and the streets not complete.

Nehemiah 8

 ¹And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.
 ²And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

The first day of the seventh month is the Memorial of the Blowing of Trumpets; and the people had Ezra read it with understanding to them as they gathered to keep the commandment of the Lord to hold an holy convocation or gathering unto Him on the first day of the seventh month.

⁶And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
⁸So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.


Certain things in the book of the law have significant meaning like the feast days, so when Nehemiah emphasizes that they read with understanding, that means he really boiled down why they keep the memorial of trumpets, or the feast of tabernacles, etc.  This is why we are reading the bible through with understanding, to know what we are reading and not just read a good novel.
When they read to the people to understand, some were grieved because they probably for the first time realized why they were sitting in captivity.  

Also when you learn what the memorial of the blowing of trumpets is about you may do a bit of mourning to.  So the priest had to remind them that it is a high and holy day, a high sabbath, so they should not be sad but should rejoice.

¹⁸Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

They also kept the feast of Tabernacles for seven days and kept the 8th day feast as well, according to the writings of Moses, the servant of God.

Nehemiah 9

 ¹Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
 ²And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
 ³And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.

It is always important to confess your sins, and if you are from Israel physically, then you should ask the Lord to forgive the sin of your fathers.  It is written to do this.  They begin to worship and pray and the prayer is a recount of the historic events since the creation of the earth; down to Abraham, even to their present moment.

 Nehemiah Chapter Ten

Now the men of Judah made a seal or covenant that they wouldn't give their sons or daughters in marriage to the people of the land. They also would keep the feast of the Lord and His statues, ordinances, judgments, and commandments.  Also that they should pay their tithes to keep the sons of Levi alive and on their job.

Nehemiah 11

 ¹And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts to dwell in other cities.
 ²And the people blessed all the men, that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.

Again we get a list of names and their job or role in their division.  The return of the Jews was mainly of children of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.  The 10 tribes never returned back; but the Lord brought Judah back to help build the temple for the coming Messiah.

Nehemiah 12

 ¹Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, 
This chapter numbers the Levites and tells of their jobs and roles in the return.  ⁴³Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

The offered greatly sacrifices unto the Lord and rejoiced; so loud was the joy in Jerusalem, it was heard afar off.   That is some serious celebrating.

Nehemiah 13

They read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; because they didn't come out to meet the children of Israel with bread and with water when they came out of Egypt, instead they hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them; however God turned the curse into a blessing.

 ³Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.

At this time Nehemiah found that the people were not paying their tithes so the Levites were not being taken cared of and furthermore; a man called Eliashib had been renting a room in the house of God to a Moabite called Tobiah.  Nehemiah was much upset.

He also saw the Jews buying on the Sabbath day.  So he ordered they cleanse the temple and put the priest back in and perform the daily priest roles.

¹⁷Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day?
 ¹⁸Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.

Nehemiah had his hands full; contending with the nobles who were allowing this foolishness knowing what the city was burned for; this should not have been allowed.
²³In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
 ²⁴And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.

Jews had married strange women and when the children were born; they spoke the language of the strange wife.  This angered Nehemiah because the child will identify with the culture in which language he speaks.  Nehemiah had a lot of cleaning up to do.  It seems the children of Israel just had a problem learning what to do and how to follow the Lord.  They ever got caught up in being like other nations.

And God would punish the entire nation; so one bad student will get everyone thrown into detention.

This concludes our reading today; peace and grace in the name of Jesus.


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Peace & Grace

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