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.


-- 
Peace & Grace

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2 Chronicles & Ezra on Day 34 of Bible Food

Well; here we go again on the Lord's Sabbath day were we can read the bible, the Word of God with understanding and clarity.  Let's jump right into it; we will begin in 2 Chronicles 36 and continue into Ezra.

2 Chronicles 36

After Josiah's death, the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem because the king of Egypt removed him; and put Eliakim, Jehoahaz brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.  Why he did this, we do not know.

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.  The Lord did not waste time with him and sent Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who bound him in fetters, to carried him to Babylon enslaved.

Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.  It looks like Judah is going down the path Samaria went and it is because of evil kings.  At the end of the year, king Nebuchadnezzar brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, also doing evil in God's sight, he would not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who came to him to warn him many times that the Lord is getting ready to bring destruction.

Not only that, he rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; to an agreement but he turned from the LORD God of Israel.  The chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD.

The LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers and prophet many times warning them; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

When we get to Jeremiah's book you will read the stories of how Jeremiah was pleading with the last three kings for over 20 years for them to stop their wickedness.  They would not listen and more than that, they would assault him and throw him in jail.  So finally if there is no remedy is speaking to a person logically, then you must move to the next method.

So God brought up the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.  He destroyed the land, burned down the temple, and took the people captive to Babylon.

²⁰And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
 ²¹To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Now the land was emptied for 70 plus years.  During these 70 years is when Daniel was in captivity in Babylon and wrote his books.  This chapter clean sweeps pass all of that and goes right into Cyrus's kingdom of Persia.
  
²²Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
 ²³Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.

Cyrus had the Jews within his kingdom go back and build a temple and restore the land.  In reality this was not suppose to happen at this time according to Moses; but because the Messiah need a place to come, teach, die for the sins of the people, and return to His throne, God had to send back the Judahites (Jews) to occupy the land until all of this was accomplished.  Once it was done; then the Jews would be sent right back into slavery and captivity as written in the books of Moses.

Ezra 1


The Jews and the Benjamin tribe gather up to return to the land, Cyrus also gives the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took out of the house of God to restore it.  Cyrus the Persian king would be equivalent to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran today (except the Persians had world dominance then and they do not now).  The Iranians are the Persians.

Ezra 2

This chapter list out the children of Judah who went back to the land.  Remember, this was not a mandatory thing; it was optional so those who wanted to return, went.

 ²Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. Here I just underlined a few that are notable names within the bible.  You had to be able to produce documentation that you were a Levite and proof that you were an Israelite as well.

⁶⁴The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,
 ⁶⁵Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.

Besides servants and maids, and the choir, there were 42,360 people who went back to the land.

Ezra 3

 ¹And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
⁴They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;


They kept these feast to the Lord in their correct times.  In the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; began to appoint the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.  They are beginning to get the rebuilding stages together.

¹⁰And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.


If they had a party full of rejoicing and giving thanks to God just for the foundation of the temple; I cannot imagine what it was like to finish it; and what it will be like to have the new temple built in Jerusalem that the Lord will sit on.

However, some of the old men who were there when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's temple when they saw the foundation they wept because they had seen the first one in all it's glory.  13So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

Ezra 4

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; they came to pretend to want to help, but would really delay the building.  I say that because the bible called them adversaries.  These were the people that occupied the land of Samaria that Esarhaddon king of Assur, put in the land when when the 10 tribes were removed.

Zerubbabel refused their help, this is something the Jews had to do or Cyrus would have sent his men to do it for the Jews.

 ⁴Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
 ⁵And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
 ⁶And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

I can't imagine how troubling this was; like today do you know how hard it is going to be for the Jewish people who want to build the third temple, to build it?  You have opposition, legally and local thugs and terrorist who are going to attempt to stop that by all means.  There will have to be a set in stone mandate from the governments for this to happen.  So the same thing is taking place in Zerubbabel's days.

They were threatened, the enemies of Judah threatened the Persian of sanctions if they allowed the temple to be built and the land restored to the Jews.  Paperwork was going back and forth to continue permission; but the people had faith in God, however one letter got the king of Persia's attention and he made a mandate to cease work on the temple.

²⁴Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 5

 ¹Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.  The prophets received word from the Lord to continue to build so they built; and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

When the locals demanded they stop; the elders kept going until the matter reached Darius again.  The elders sent a letter to Darius stating the historical events that decrees them the right to rebuild the city and the Temple.

Ezra 6

 ¹Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.
 ²And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:
 ³In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits;

So Darius made a decree to find the documents that Cyrus made in the return of the Jews (not the 10 tribes), and the rebuilding of the Temple.  It was found and read and Darius restored the building of the house of the Lord.

¹⁴And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

We will read some of their books as we read the bible in the coming days; they did not only prophesy the building of this temple, they did a lot of prophesying even until the return of the Lord.

 ¹⁵And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
 ¹⁶And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.

Things were looking good and they kept the Passover and the feast of Unleavened bread 7 days and they were full of joy from the Lord; and even God sent the king of Assyria to help them in the process.
Ezra 7

Now Ezra is making his way back to the land.  He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

Now I do not know how he wrote the first six chapters of this book after not being there the first six years; but how the bible was written and what is left out today is not nearly as important as what is within the bible today.

¹⁰For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.


King Artaxerxes gave a letter for Ezra to go with letting it be known that the people had to do the work of the Lord speedily.  The Jews of this time had to really have convinced the Gentiles that God had sent them into slavery for being disobedient because the people truly listened and helped the Jews on their matters concerning the God of Israel.

Ezra chapter 8


This chapter is the account of Ezra getting ready to go to JERUSALEM from Babylon and he was going with a lot of substance so he declared a fast to have the Lord be with them.  He did not want to have the king send him with their security; that is just weird.  You serve this great God; but you need our help to secure you?  But we shall not overlook sometimes God sends people to be your protection; so don't turn it down; just let things be.

Ezra 9


When Ezra arrives; he hears that the people are slowly doing the things that got them in captivity in the first place.  So Ezra prayed then gather men who did not only fear the Lord; but trembled at Him; and the fasted and prayed; and were astonished at what they saw going on.

All Ezra could do was pray for the people and pray to God to have mercy on them because they were doing the same things that got them into captivity in the first place.  There is foolishness in robbing a bank; going to jail, getting out and thinking robbing a local bank will not land you in jail again.

Ezra Chapter 10


The people try to make amends for their sin.  They called all the men who returned up to Jerusalem to settle the matter of taking on wives from other nations.  ⁹Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.
¹¹Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
 ¹²Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

I heard this before when they got out of Egypt and were in the mountain getting the commandments from Moses.  So here they are promising to rid their strange wives.  I am not sure how well this is before God because a marriage covenant is a covenant. The Lord said Israel couldn't marry strangers is that if they were not rooted in the Lord; the stranger would turn them away from Him.
  
You know how it could be; you see your wife everyday; you don't see God; so unless you really believe; you can slowly be turned from your God.  The best way to avoid this is to avoid marrying someone who does not know your God and serve Him diligently.

This will conclude our reading today; we are doing good and moving well through the Word of God and His historical accounts.  See you tomorrow and enjoy the Sabbath day.

-- 
Peace & Grace

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