Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / October 17 - Nehemiah 5

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October 17 - Nehemiah 5 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello, friends. It's Sean here.
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  It's Thursday. It's the 17th of October.
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  Thank you for inviting me in. I hope that you're going well.
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  I hope this week's been going well.
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  It is almost at the end of the week, not quite, still a couple
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  of days to go, but we are continuing to read through this
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  story. We started with Ezra and now we
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  have been listening to Nehemiah tell the story of how they were
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  rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem just as God told them
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  to. And if you weren't entirely
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  convinced that Nehemiah was a legend, well, today is the day
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  that it officially becomes that way with a red stamp on his
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  forehead saying dead set legend. It is another story of God
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  raising a people with his own heart, hearts not only to
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  restore things as they should be, but that's part of that to
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  make sure that nobody gets lost along the way.
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  Leave no man behind. Yes, that is almost Nehemiah's
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  cry as we will hear today. Not quite, but kind of.
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  So having said all that, let's keep going with the story,
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  friends. Let us read together Nehemiah
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  Chapter 5. About this time, some of the men
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  and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow
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  Jews. They were saying we have such
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  large families, we need more food to survive.
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  Others said we have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes
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  to get food during the famine. And others said we have had to
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  borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.
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  We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy and our
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  children are just like theirs, yet we must sell our children
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  into slavery just to get enough money to live.
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  We have already sold some of our daughters and we are helpless to
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  do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already
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  mortgage to others. When I heard their complaints, I
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  was very angry. After thinking it over, I spoke
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  out against these nobles and officials.
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  I told them you are hurting your own relatives by charging
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  interest when they borrow money. Then I called the public meeting
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  to deal with the problem. At the meeting I said to them,
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  we are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who
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  have had to sell themselves to Pagan foreigners, but you are
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  selling them back into slavery again.
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  How often must we redeem them? And they had nothing to say in
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  their defence. Then I pressed further.
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  What you are doing is not right. Should you not walk in the fear
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  of our God in order to avoid being mocked by enemy nations?
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  I myself, as well as my brothers and my workers, have been
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  lending the people money and grain.
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  But now let us stop this business of charging interest.
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  You must restore their fields, vineyards, olive Groves and
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  homes to them this very day and repay the interest you charge
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  when you lent them money, grain, new wine and olive oil.
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  They replied, We will give back everything and demand nothing
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  more from the people. We will do as you say.
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  Then I called the priests and made the nobles and officials
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  swear to do what they had promised.
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  I shook out the folds of my robe and said, If you failed to keep
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  your promise, May God shake you like this from your homes and
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  from your property. The whole assembly responded,
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  Amen. And they praised the Lord, and
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  the people did as they had promised.
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  For the entire 12 years that I was governor of Judah, from the
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  20th year to the 32nd year of the reign of King Artaxerxes,
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  neither I nor my officials drew on our official food allowance.
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  The former governors, in contrast, had laid heavy burdens
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  on the people, demanding a daily ration of food and wine besides
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  40 pieces of silver. Even their assistance took
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  advantage of the people. But because I feared God, I did
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  not act that way. I also devoted myself to working
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  on the wall and refused to acquire any land, and I required
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  all my servants to spend time working on the wall.
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  I asked for nothing, even though I regularly fed 150 Jewish
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  officials at my table, besides all the visitors from other
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  lands. The provisions I paid for each
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  day included one ox, six choice sheep or goats, and a large
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  number of poultry. And every 10 days we needed a
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  large supply of all kinds of wine.
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  Yet I refuse to claim the governor's food allowance
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  because the people already carried a heavy burden.
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  Remember, O my God, all that I have done for these people, and
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  bless me for it. Yeah, Lord, he is a legend.
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  Thank you for this story. Thank you for this character who
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  has authored this book for us to read.
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  It's just quite something to hear someone live in a way when
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  they know that they are already blessed by you.
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  And that's us, Lord. We are blessed people.
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  We don't need to spend our waking moments planning and
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  scheming how we can build up an empire for ourselves, because
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  Your empire is for us. And You invite us to eat at Your
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  table in Your glorious Kingdom. Thank you, Lord, that our future
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  is already assured and that all that's left for us to do is to
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  bring our friends and family and all that we can with us into
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  that incredible blessing that You offer.
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  Lord, give us generous hearts to share Your love and Your
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  generosity with those in our lives so that as they see the
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  way that we live, they can be shocked and wonder how we can be
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  so self assured knowing that we're taken care of not by our
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  own cleverness, but by Your incredible grace.
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  Thank you for the grace that You have given us and most notably
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  Lord, for the grace that You have given us in Jesus.
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  Thank you for His life, His sacrifice of His life for us,
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  and His resurrection so that we can be made blameless in Your
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  sight and live eternally with You, our Triune God.
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  And we pray all of this in your holy and wonderful name, Amen.