SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2011 9:03:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intrigue: “We Will Not Give Up”
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference:
Nehemiah
6:15-19
Message of the verses: “15 So
the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two
days. 16 When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us
saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished
with the help of our God. 17 Also in those days many letters went from
the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many
in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah
the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam
the son of Berechiah. 19 Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in
my presence and reported my words to him. Then Tobiah sent letters to frighten
me.”
In
today’s SD we will discuss the forth strategy that Satan used against Nehemiah,
strategies that he still uses on believers today.
We
can see from the passages above that Satan never gives up even after the battle
of building the walls were complete in only fifty-two days and it seemed that
now the people of Jerusalem could take a break from the battle for they had won
a great victory, but they all needed to follow the advice of what a saintly
Scottish minister once said. Andrew A.
Bonar said “Let us be as
watchful after the victory as before the battle.” Elijah would agree with this statement for
after he won a great victory in killing 400 prophets of Baal he ran for his
life from Jezebel who said she would kill him.
I experienced the same thing, for after my 18 month son had successful
open heart surgery on May 7, 1980, and after praying for many months about this
we saw a perfect operation on him, but spiritually it was the worst summer of
my life for Satan did not give up after this victory and I was like Elijah
losing the battle after winning the war.
Nehemiah however was not like this for he continued to be on guard
against the attacks that the evil one was using against him.
John
Ray wrote a book in 1670 entitled “English
Proverbs” and in that book he penned these words “Blood is thicker than water,”
and the meaning is obvious. Humanly
speaking, you have greater obligation to a relative than you do to a stranger. This is what we see happening in the verses
from today’s SD. This is the answer to
the question as to why these Jews from Judah were supporting Tobiah, but they
were going, not only against Nehemiah, but against Nehemiah’s God as well. I want to take a look at a few different
Scriptures that will show this and why they were wrong.
Let
us start in the beginning chapters of the Bible in order to show that Judah
would be the special tribe to bring the Messiah into the world. Genesis 49:10 “’The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from
between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the
peoples.’” The next verses that I
want to look at show the family of Judah that the Messiah would be born
into. 2Samuel 7 tells the story of David
having a desire to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, but because his
hands were bloody from fighting so many wars the Lord told David that his son
would build the temple, but that God would build a dynasty through David. This dynasty would end with the birth of
Jesus Christ. 2Samuel 7:11b “The LORD also declares to you that the
LORD will make a house for you.”
The
devil has always been against the nation of Israel because they are God’s
chosen people and it was through them that the Word of God was written and also
the God of the Word came to earth as Messiah and Satan knew that this was going
to happen and this is why he was trying to stop this from happening and this is
one of the places in Scripture that we can see Satan’s work again trying to
stop this from happening.
Now
let us look at another Scripture that has to do with why these Jews were wrong
in siding with Tobiah against Nehemiah and this time the words are from the
Lord Jesus Christ “Matt. 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than
Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me.’” I want to go back to
the statement from the English proverb about blood being thicker than water and
interject that when you think about this statement and remember that Jesus
Christ shed His blood so that I would become a believer in Him then this
statement is true.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Again I see the great leadership abilities of
Nehemiah in his discernment, for he knew that he was in a battle and that he
was being tempted and that there were people who were out to stop the work he
was doing for it was a work of the Lord and that is always opposed. Spiritual discernment is a quality that I
surely need to sharpen for the glory of the Lord.
At
this time I wish to quote from Dr. Wiersbe on what he writes at the end of this
section, which is the end of this chapter and what he writes will help tie this
chapter into the next chapter: “Nehemiah’s story began with ‘So I prayed’ (Neh. 2:4). Then we read, ‘So I came to Jerusalem (V-11).’ ‘So
they strengthened their hands for this good work’ is the next link in the
chain (V-18), followed by ‘So built we
the wall’ (4:6) and, ‘So we labored’
(V-21).
“Now
we reach the end of this part of the story; ‘So the wall was finished’ (6:15).
But this marks a new beginning, for now Nehemiah must protect what he has
accomplished. How he does this is the
theme of the rest of the book.”
Stay tuned for how he does this.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to pursue discernment for the glory of the
Lord.
2.
Continue to pursue contentment for the glory of the
Lord.
8/20/2011 10:08:39 AM
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