Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / October 31 - Nehemiah 13

Transcript

October 31 - Nehemiah 13 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean. Here it is Thursday.
• 0:15
  It is the 31st of October. And yes, that means it's
• 0:19
  Halloween today. And I know that Halloween will
• 0:22
  be a tricky day for many of you. Oh, clothing controversy in the
• 0:27
  Christian community. How do we tackle Halloween?
• 0:30
  I know some of you might well be trick or treating because that's
• 0:33
  what you do in your part of the world and in your community.
• 0:37
  And some of you might think I don't want to be doing anything
• 0:40
  to do with Halloween. And others of you might be stuck
• 0:43
  in a situation where you don't want to celebrate it.
• 0:46
  But all your friends and your kids friends and your neighbours
• 0:49
  are all going to be out and about trick or treating tonight.
• 0:53
  So wherever you fall into that continuum, I pray that your day
• 0:57
  is a day that can be centred in the promises of our God, and
• 1:02
  certainly not in the fear that we need to be appeasing any kind
• 1:07
  of spirits, dead or alive. But I know some of you we'll use
• 1:11
  today as an amazing opportunity for outreach where you will
• 1:14
  engage with your communities exactly where they're at, and
• 1:17
  you will do that with a heart of joy and service to our God.
• 1:21
  And so I just commend wherever you are and whatever's going on
• 1:25
  for you, that this would be a day that you would feel God's
• 1:28
  blessing in whatever way that plays out for you.
• 1:32
  Does that sound like me sitting on the fence?
• 1:35
  Oh, I guess it might sound a bit like that and I have had an
• 1:39
  evolving relationship with this day depending on where I've
• 1:42
  lived and what is happening in the community around me.
• 1:46
  So I'll leave that to you friends.
• 1:48
  Today, irrespective of it being the 31st of October or not, we
• 1:52
  are going to continue with the second last chapter of this book
• 1:56
  of Nehemiah. This is a chapter where good old
• 1:59
  Nehemiah decides if I am going to be governing these people,
• 2:02
  what are some things that I need to reform to make sure that
• 2:06
  people continue to live in the way they're going?
• 2:08
  What is calling them to? So today we don't have long
• 2:11
  lists of names. Today we have all the things
• 2:13
  that Nehemiah is changing in the way that he governs that society
• 2:17
  to keep people in their walk with God.
• 2:21
  So why don't you join your friends as we read together?
• 2:23
  Nehemiah chapter 13. On that day, as the book of
• 2:37
  Moses was being read to the people, the passage was found
• 2:40
  that said no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be permitted to
• 2:44
  enter the Assembly of God, for they had not provided the
• 2:47
  Israelites with food and water in the wilderness.
• 2:50
  Instead, they hired Balaam to curse them, though our God
• 2:55
  turned the curse into a blessing.
• 2:58
  When the passage of the law was read, all those of foreign
• 3:01
  descent were immediately excluded from the assembly.
• 3:05
  Before this had happened, Elijah shipped.
• 3:07
  The priest who had been appointed as supervisor of the
• 3:09
  store rooms of the Temple of Our God, and who was also a relative
• 3:13
  of Tobiah, had converted a large storage room and placed it at
• 3:17
  Tobiah's disposal. The room had previously been
• 3:21
  used for storing the grain offerings, the frankincense,
• 3:24
  various articles for the Temple, and the tithes of grain, new
• 3:28
  wine and olive oil, which were prescribed for the Levites, the
• 3:32
  singers, and the gatekeepers, as well as the offerings for the
• 3:35
  priests. I was not in Jerusalem at the
• 3:39
  time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the
• 3:43
  32nd year of his reign, though I later asked his permission to
• 3:47
  return. When I arrived back in
• 3:49
  Jerusalem, I learned about Elias ship's evil deed and providing
• 3:53
  Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God.
• 3:57
  I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah's belongings out
• 4:02
  of the room. Then I demanded that the rooms
• 4:05
  be purified, and I brought back the articles for God's temple,
• 4:09
  the grain offerings, and the frankincense.
• 4:12
  I also discovered that the Levites had not been given their
• 4:15
  prescribed portions of food, so they and the singers who were to
• 4:19
  conduct the worship services had all returned to work in the
• 4:22
  fields. I immediately confronted the
• 4:25
  leaders and demanded why has the temple of God been neglected.
• 4:30
  Then I called all the Levites back again and restored them to
• 4:33
  their proper duties, and once more all the people of Judah
• 4:37
  began bringing their tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil to
• 4:41
  the temple storerooms. I assigned supervisors for the
• 4:45
  storerooms, Shemalaya the priest, Zadok the scribe, and
• 4:49
  Pedaya, one of the Levites, and I appointed Hanan, son of Zakhur
• 4:54
  and grandson of Matanaya, as their assistant.
• 4:57
  These men had an excellent reputation and it was their job
• 5:01
  to make honest distributions to their fellow Levites.
• 5:05
  Remember this good deed, O my God, and do not forget all that
• 5:09
  I have faithfully done for the temple of my God and its
• 5:11
  services. In those days, I saw men of
• 5:15
  Judah treading out their wine presses on the Sabbath.
• 5:19
  They were also bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys and
• 5:23
  bringing their wine, grapes, figs, and all sorts of produce
• 5:26
  to Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath.
• 5:29
  So I rebuked them for selling their produce on that day.
• 5:33
  Some men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish
• 5:37
  and all kinds of merchandise. They were selling it on the
• 5:40
  Sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem at that.
• 5:45
  So I confronted the nobles of Judah.
• 5:48
  Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?
• 5:51
  I asked. Wasn't it just the sort of thing
• 5:54
  that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this
• 5:58
  trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more
• 6:02
  wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in
• 6:06
  this way. Then I commanded that the gates
• 6:09
  of Jerusalem be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening, not
• 6:14
  to be opened again until the Sabbath ended.
• 6:18
  I sent some of my own servants to guard the gate so that no
• 6:21
  merchandise could be brought in on the Sabbath day.
• 6:25
  The merchants and tradesmen with a variety of wares camped
• 6:28
  outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I spoke sharply to them and
• 6:32
  said, What are you doing out here?
• 6:35
  Camping around the wall? If you do this again, I will
• 6:39
  arrest you. And that was the last time they
• 6:41
  came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to
• 6:45
  purify themselves and to guard the gates in order to preserve
• 6:49
  the holiness of the Sabbath. Remember this good deed also.
• 6:53
  O my God, have compassion on me according to your great and
• 6:58
  unfailing love. About the same time, I realised
• 7:03
  that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod,
• 7:07
  Ammon and Moab. Furthermore, half their children
• 7:11
  spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could
• 7:15
  not speak the language of Judah at all.
• 7:18
  So I confronted them and called down curses on them.
• 7:22
  I beat some of them and pulled out their hair.
• 7:25
  I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let
• 7:28
  their children intermarry with the Pagan people of the land.
• 7:32
  Wasn't this exactly what led King Solomon of Israel into sin?
• 7:36
  I demanded. Was there no king from any
• 7:39
  nation who could compare to him? And God loved him and made him
• 7:43
  king over all Israel. But even he was led into sin by
• 7:47
  his foreign wives. So how could you even think of
• 7:50
  committing the sinful deed and acting unfaithfully toward God
• 7:54
  by marrying foreign women? One of the sons of Joyeda, son
• 8:00
  of Eliashib the high priest, had married a daughter of Sanbilat
• 8:04
  the Horonite. So I banished him from my
• 8:07
  presence. Remember them, O my God, for
• 8:11
  they have defiled the priesthood and the solemn vows of the
• 8:15
  priests and Levites. So I purged out everything
• 8:20
  foreign and assigned tasks to the priests and Levites, making
• 8:24
  certain that each knew his work. I also made sure that the supply
• 8:29
  of wood for the altar and the first portions of the harvest
• 8:33
  were brought at the proper times.
• 8:36
  Remember this in my favour, Oh my God, oh Lord, what an example
• 8:50
  we see in Nehemiah. Not only does he burn with zeal
• 8:56
  for you and your ways and your commands, but he is also so
• 9:02
  trustworthy and reliable. So far away was he from the King
• 9:06
  of Persia, but he chose to return at the time that he had
• 9:09
  promised, only to be able to be released again.
• 9:15
  Our Lord, we thank You that you are a God of order and a God who
• 9:19
  is reliable and true to Your Word.
• 9:22
  Or to pray that you would inspire that in us, that we
• 9:26
  would be trustworthy people, That we would be known for
• 9:30
  people who will honour our word and always be true to what we
• 9:34
  have said. So that as people live around
• 9:37
  us, we can be examples of your character and little begons of
• 9:44
  your Kingdom in a world that is all too quick to cut corners and
• 9:50
  not follow through if there's no penalty for not doing so.
• 9:55
  So, Lord, I just thank you for you, the uprightness of your
• 9:59
  character and the great depths of your dependability and love.
• 10:05
  Ah, that we can just rest in you with utter assurance of your
• 10:10
  undying love and dedication and provision to us.
• 10:17
  We love you and we are so grateful for you.
• 10:20
  And we pray all of this in the loving name of Jesus, Amen.