"His Boastfulness" (Ester 1:1-9)

 

SIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2011 8:05:47 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                                 Focus:  “His Boastfulness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  Ester 1:1-9

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, 2 in those days as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne which was at the citadel in Susa, 3 in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his princes and attendants, the army officers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of his provinces being in his presence. 4 And he displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty for many days, 180 days. 5 When these days were completed, the king gave a banquet lasting seven days for all the people who were present at the citadel in Susa, from the greatest to the least, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. 6 There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble columns, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones. 7 Drinks were served in golden vessels of various kinds, and the royal wine was plentiful according to the king’s bounty. 8 The drinking was done according to the law, there was no compulsion, for so the king had given orders to each official of his household that he should do according to the desires of each person. 9 Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus.”

 

            Today’s SD begins a new book from the Scriptures, the book of Ester, and it also continues the commentary of Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s “Be Determined,” which covers both the book of Ruth and also the book of Ester.  It has been eighteen months since I did Spiritual Diaries on the book of Ruth, March 10, 2010 was the first SD on the book of Ruth and so I will pick up on Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary to aid me in the study of this very important book of the Bible.

           

            There is no mention of “God” in all of Ruth, and I suppose that caused some debate when those who were deciding on whether or not to include this book as part of Scripture.  We meet the king of Persia in this first chapter of Ester and a bit of background on him will make it easier to understand the book.  His name in the Persian language is Khshayarshan, and this becomes Ahasuerus in Hebrew and Xerxes in Greek. His father was Darius I, and his grandfather was Cyrus, the same Cyrus that is mentioned in the 45^th chapter is Isaiah whom God spoke of long before his birth to be the man to let the children of Israel leave Babylon.  Babylon captured Judah and carried exiles to Babylon on three different occasions starting in 605 BC and the last was 586 BC with one more time in the middle, 597.  You can find some of the details of how the Medes and the Persians captured mighty Babylon by reading the fifth chapter of Daniel where we have the famous “hand writing on the wall.”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that most kings are very proud men and this was the case with Ahasuerus and so as I go through this first chapter of Ester and this first chapter from “Be Determined,” it will become clear that there were three areas of pride that will be seen from this king.  I believe that we find out what the Lord thinks about pride from reading the book of Proverbs. 

 

            As far as who wrote the book of Ester it is not known for sure, but some think that perhaps Ezra or Nehemiah wrote Ester.  As far as OT history this is the last book in the OT history section which started with Genesis.  Sections of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi report later OT history than Ester does, Malachi beings the last book of the OT and OT section of Minor Prophets.  Pastor, teacher, and author John MacArthur writes that others have suggested Mordecai as a possible author of Ester.  I suppose that one of the reasons this book is so loved is because of the drama that is played out in it, and there is a lot of drama found in Ester.

 

            When one reads these verses they might think that there was a six month party that went on, but that is probably not the case for Dr. Wiersbe points out that there were three different banquets that each lasted one week, for if the king would have assembled all of his leader it could surely have weakened the kingdom so there was probably a different banquette for different parts of the empire.  This would have been part of the political banquette.  There was another banquette that went on in the kings winter palace in Susa (Greek) or Shushan (Persian).  There was also a party that was given by Queen Vashti.

           

            The Greek historian Herodotus (485-425 B. C.) writes that the possible reason for these first banquettes was to plan an invasion of Greece, for Ahasuerus’ father Darius I had been defeated by the Greeks at Marathon in 490 and perhaps his son wanted to take care of this defeat.  Darius had died in 486 B.C.  “Herodotus claims that Ahasuerus planned to invade all of Europe and reduce the whole earth into one empire.”  As mentioned earlier this man was boastful, and if he would have looked at Daniel’s writing he would have found out that his plan was doomed. 

           

            History shows that in the case of Ahasuerus that a little verse from the book of Proverbs that is quoted often was true in his case:  Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (NKJV).”  His navy was defeated on a number of occasions by the Greek navy and so his plan to rule all of Europe fell by the wayside.  Latter on he would be assimilated.

           

            It was mentioned in yesterday’s SD writing on twelve qualities of a leader that a great leader must realize that they are number two all of the time, realizing that God will do what He desires and plans to do.  This kind of boastful attitude is found in different parts of the Bible from what happened to Pharaoh in Exodus all the way to what happened to Herod Agrippa as seen in Acts 12:20-23.  There were others in between these events.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My life verse has become Philippians 4:11 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”  The last part of that verse has been on my mind for a long time and I surely have a long way to go to say what Paul wrote that he had learned to be content.  One of the things that get in the way of contentment is pride and this can be seen in this great book of Ester as it will weave its way through the story. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Continue to learn contentment.

2.     Word on my prayer life.

 

9/18/2011 9:05:47 AM

 

 

 

"Conclusion of Nehemiah"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2011 8:20:57 AM

 

 

            As I mentioned in yesterday’s SD (9-16-2011) that I did not know if I would do one more as a wrap up of the book of Nehemiah, but after beginning to read the last chapter in “Be Determined” I have decided to do one more from Nehemiah. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe entitles this last chapter in “Be Determined” “Looking For Leaders,” and in his last chapter he lists twelve qualities that made Nehemiah a successful leader, so in this final SD on Nehemiah I have decided to list these twelve qualities with a brief statement about each of them.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that the Church today is in great need of leaders so it is good to realize exactly what the qualities of a good leader are.

 

1.      A good leader is called.  I remember reading a biography of the late President Ronald Reagan and in it I learned that he truly believed that he was called by God to rid the world of communism and I would say that bringing the end to the cold war showed that he truly believed his call was from God.  Nehemiah was truly called by God to go to Jerusalem and to make sure the walls were repaired and the people were following the Law of God.  He received this call while praying about the situation in Jerusalem.  It is so important that in the Church that leaders are called by the Lord for there will be times when that are all that they have to keep them going.  Jeremiah is a great example of this for as he went through the awful things that he went through he had to rely upon the call of the Lord and upon the Lord that called him.  Nehemiah was a man called by God.

2.     A good leader depends on prayer.  Nehemiah hears from his brother who had been to Jerusalem and had just returned to Babylon with terrible news about the people and the city.  This pricked the heart of Nehemiah and he began to fast and to pray for the city and the people.  This began in our months Nov./Dec. and ended in March/April, a period of around four months.  Prayer is very hard work and the book of Nehemiah is filled with prayer, and it also has many “telegraph” prayers in it, short prayers that came from the heart of a man who made prayer a vital part of his life.  Phillips Brooks wrote “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes “One mark of true spiritual leaders is their honest acknowledgement of their own inadequacy and their humble trust in the power of God.”  R. A. Torrey writes “Pray for great things, expect great things, work for great thing, but above all pray,” and we have seen that Nehemiah was a man of prayer.

3.     Nehemiah had vision and saw the greatness of the work:  It is not only important for a leader to be called by God and to pray but having a vision is also very an important quality of a leader.  Nehemiah had a vision and it was not just repairing the gates in Jerusalem, what he was doing was setting the stage for the Messiah to visit Jerusalem.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “If you lose the greatness of a vision, you will begin to cut corners in your work, stop making sacrifices, and start looking for something else to challenge you.”  Nehemiah never had this kind of a problem.  When he was challenged to do something else in chapter six he replied “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.”  This next quote from Dr. Wiersbe is something that I believe is needed to be listened to by all members of our local churches:  “No matter what God has called you to do, it’s great work because it’s part of the building of His church; and that’s the greatest work in the world.”  I have a sign on our refrigerator that reads:  “We are not human beings going through a temporary Spiritual experience.  We are Spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.”  I truly believe that Nehemiah knew this.

4.     Nehemiah submitted to authority.  As believers we are under the authority of our government, as Paul writes about in Romans 13.  Nehemiah knew that he was under the authority of the king, and he also knew that he was under the authority of the Word of God and the God of the Word.  I have heard a statement that goes along with this quality of leadership and it goes “A good leader always knows that he is second in command.”  Now I suppose that this quote would go along with a President, or a CEO, or even a Pastor, but once a leader forgets that he is under the authority of God he will find himself in a great deal of trouble.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “In recent years, we have seen the sad consequences of religious leaders refusing to submit to authority and be accountable.  When you read the Book of Nehemiah, you meet a man whose work prospered because he submitted to God, the Word, and the king.”

5.     Nehemiah was organized in his work.  One can see the calling that God had given to Nehemiah and that he had a vision of what God wanted him to accomplish, but more than that he was organized in the work that he was accomplishing for the Lord.  When he first got to Jerusalem he took a late night ride to see what needed to be done and then he spoke to some other leaders that would be working for him to give his plans to them.  He encouraged the workers as he knew where all of them were working.  When the work was finished his plan was to dedicate the walls and have a revival meeting.  Nehemiah’s priorities were right and his work was organized.

6.     Nehemiah was able to discern the tactics of the enemy.  The apostle Paul wrote in 2Cor. 2:11 “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”  This was true of Nehemiah as seen in the first part of this book on many different occasions.  Satan can be seen as an angle of light or a roaring lion and Nehemiah saw both of these while building the wall.  Nehemiah understood the wiles of Satan’s attacks and all good leaders should have this quality as well.

7.     Nehemiah worked hard.  Charles Spurgeon said the following to his students “Do not be afraid of hard work for Christ; a terrible reckoning awaits those who have an easy time in the ministry, but a great reward is in reserve for those who endure all things for the elect’s sake.  You will not regret your poverty when Christ cometh and calleth His won servants to Him.  It will be a sweet thing to have died at your post, not turning aside for wealth, or running from Dan to Beersheba to obtain a better salary, but stopping where your Lord bade you hold the fort” (An All round Ministry, p. 197).”  One can see this quality in the life of Nehemiah for he could have stayed back at the king’s palace and lived the good life, but he chose to work hard with his fellows Jews in Jerusalem.

8.     Nehemiah lived an exemplary life.  You never saw any lying, stealing or cheating going on in Nehemiah’s life.  Sir Walter Scott wrote these famous words “O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”  This was surely not true in the life of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah was not sinless, however his life was sinless.  Look at Philippians 2:15, “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”  That was Nehemiah!  Now look at the first qualification of a Pastor (Elder) “An overseer, then, must be above reproach,” “if any man is above reproach,” (1Timothy 3:6 & Titus 1:6).

9.     Nehemiah sought to glorify God alone.  Nehemiah realized that the city of Jerusalem and the people who lived there were not bringing glory to God and that was the purpose of why they existed.  When we go back to the creation of this world that took place in six twenty-four days we see that at the end of each day God pronounced that “it was good.”  There was nothing wrong with it and so it was good and it also glorified God.  Psalm 19 speaks of the heavens declaring the glory of God that is one of the purposes for all of the stars and planets that are in the sky to bring glory to God.  During the sixth day of creation God created man and then He declared at the end of that day “it is very good.”  God took over five days to create the earth and the stars and everything we see in preparation for His most awesome creation, and that was man, and the reason that it was so awesome was that man is made in the image of God, man walks upright and can look at the heavens and see the glory of God in those heavens.  The catechism says that the chief purpose of man is to bring glory to God and that is what Nehemiah was doing when he went to Jerusalem.  Nehemiah was not doing this for his glory, but to glorify the Lord, the King of Glory.

10.  Nehemiah had courage.  Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter to him the following, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”  There seems to be evidence that Timothy was timid or in some translations fearful.  That is what the word in the Greek means fearful or timid, and Nehemiah was neither.  We see throughout this book that he stood his ground and did not back down.  When things got tough he would pray one of his short telegraph prayers to the Lord to give him strength and courage, for he had a sure calling from the Lord, knowing that what he was doing would bring glory to the Lord.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that someone said that success is never final and failure is never fatal:  its courage that counts.”  The ancients Greeks said that courage was the master virtue because without it you could never use the other ones.

11.  Nehemiah enlisted others to work.  One of my favorite passages on the church and on the Pastors of the church is found in the epistle of the church and that would be the book of Ephesians.  Ephesians was not actually written only to the Ephesians, but was meant to go to all of the surrounding churches and its theme is how the church should be run.  Paul writes that one of the duties of the Pastor is to equip the saints to do the work of the Lord.  The church is like a station where you can come to get filled up on the Word of God in order to go out into the world to tell others that you meet about what the Word of God has to say.  Some think that it is the Pastor’s job to tell others about Christ, and that is true in the sense that all believers are to tell others about Christ, but his job is to make sure that we are equipped to tell others about Christ and to be able to disciple others once they too have become believers.  When one reads the book of Nehemiah they will see that Nehemiah enlisted others to be part of the work that he was called to do, that he prayed over and that would bring glory to God.  Dr. Wiersbe point out that in his study of Christian biographies that there were certain people that were like magnets to others who would follow their leadership to do the work of the Lord.  D. L. Moody is a man like that.  I have read several biographies on Moody and this can surely be seen from those books.  Nehemiah was like this.

12.  Nehemiah was determined.  Dr. Wiersbe entitles the “Be” book “Be Determined,” and I suppose that this is the reason that he saved this quality of a leader to last.  The Polish labor leader who would later become their president, Lech Walesa said the following as quoted from “Be Determined,” “To be a leader means to have determination.  It means to be resolute inside and outside, with ourselves and with others.” “If anybody lived up to that description, it was Nehemiah.”  We find this quality throughout the book of Nehemiah as one of the main themes of the book.  Dr. Wiersbe quotes Dr. V. Raymond Edman who was the president of Wheaton College in Illinois as saying to his students “It’s always too soon to quit.”  Luke 9:51 speaks of Jesus determination as He set his face like a flint towards Jerusalem in order to accomplish the will of His Father.

Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on Nehemiah with some words that are very meaningful to the church today.  “The church today needs leaders, men and women and young people who will determine under God to accomplish the will of God, come what may.  The church needs leaders who will say with Nehemiah “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down!” 

“So the next time you feel like quitting, remember Nehemiah and stay on the job until the work is finished to the glory of God.”

“Be Determined.”

   

9/17/2011 11:23:54 AM

 

 

                                                                                               

"The Sabbath Promise" (Neh. 13:15-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2011 7:21:45 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  “The Sabbath Promise”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Nehemiah 13:15-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “15 In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food. 16 Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. 17 Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the Sabbath day? 18 “Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath." 19 It came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the Sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the Sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 Then I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you." From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the Sabbath day. For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.”

 

            It kind of makes me a bit sad that this is the last SD that I will be doing on the book of Nehemiah, as far as taking a portion of Scripture and then commenting on it.  In many of Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries he will save the last chapter to go over what has been learned from the entire book that he is commenting on.  Perhaps in the next SD I will post some of his comments from this last chapter that he has written.  I have found in the past that they are some of the richest of all his writings.

 

            When it comes to writing about the Jewish Sabbath there is much more material than I have time for in this short writing, however this short section of Scripture has the word Sabbath written in it ten times and so that must mean that it is an important subject to Nehemiah as he closes out his book.  Once again we must go back to the tenth chapter to see what these Jewish exiles had said that they would do in order to keep God’s Law, “As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt (Neh. 10:31).”  This seems pretty clear that they were not doing what they had promised to do and this was greatly upsetting to Nehemiah.  Nehemiah had spent some twelve years with these people building the walls and then helping to begin a revival in their hearts and he goes away for a short time and comes back to find all of the problems that he writes about in this final chapter of his book, and I would think that this would bring about some distress in his life, and yet he goes about challenging the people and even pulling out some of the hair of these people in order to discipline them.  God gave the Sabbath Law to the nation of Israel and of all of the Ten Commandments it is the only one that is not repeated in the NT, it was for the nation of Israel and it was the seventh day or Saturday.  It was a Law that was good for the people, for on that day they had time to worship the Lord, to rest themselves and their animals in order to be refreshed that they might begin a new week.  The people were greedy and wanted to make more money and that is why they were doing what they were doing on the Sabbath.

           

            Nehemiah reminds them that this was one of the reasons that God disciplined their forefathers and would do the same to them if they did not get it right.  He shut the gates and told the gentile people to get out of town on the Sabbath or he would force them out.  He stationed guards to make sure this did not happen again.  Nehemiah, at the end of this section gives another of his “famous” telegraph prayers to the Lord and that is how we will end this portion of this SD:  “For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that Sunday is a day that I am to worship the Lord in the corporate setting of the local church with like minded believers.  I believe that I should not do on Sunday what I can do on other days, things like cutting the grass, going shopping, washing the car, and so on.  Sunday is the day that the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and as it was also pointed out in the commentary today it was the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the believers on Pentecost.  I must admit that this was not something that I realized before, but none the less it is true.

           

            As far as Saturday it is a good day to reflect on the creation of the earth for it was that day that the Lord rested from His work of creation.  Rested in the sense that a great painter stands back after taking many days to create his painting to take time to look at it, and this is what the Lord did after His great work of creation.  It is a good day to take a walk in the woods in order to admire the wonderful creation that the Lord has made, to reflect on His goodness to me and those I love.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Continue to learn contentment.

 

9/16/2011 8:07:25 AM

 

           

 

 

"The Support Promise" (Neh. 13:10-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2011 9:29:37 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Support Promise

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                Reference:  Nehemiah 13:10-14

 

            Message of the verses:  10 I also discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to his own field. 11 So I reprimanded the officials and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" Then I gathered them together and restored them to their posts. 12 All Judah then brought the tithe of the grain, wine and oil into the storehouses. 13 In charge of the storehouses I appointed Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and in addition to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered reliable, and it was their task to distribute to their kinsmen. 14 Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my loyal deeds which I have performed for the house of my God and its services.”

 

            As I begin this SD I want to go back again to one of the promises that these Jewish exiles had made with Nehemiah in the tenth chapter of Nehemiah in order to show that they are now in this chapter breaking that covenant that they had made with him and most of all with the Lord:  “For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine and the oil to the chambers; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God” (Ne.10:39).

 

            Nehemiah takes care of this problem and gets the people back to where they should have been.  What we seen in this passage are a couple of items that need to be addressed.  The first one is the importance of the temple worship, and keeping the temple worship going that way that God had intended to operate.  This was the center of worship for these people and the Lord had set up how it should work through Moses when he had built the tabernacle and then when David planned for the temple he set up other things that went along with what Moses had set up because the temple was much bigger than the tabernacle.  God had led David to do things like having choirs at the temple to sing and he even wrote the music for them to sing.

           

            It is easy to make worship just a process that does not flow out of the heart and that makes it wrong.  We all worship in one way or another and worship is 24/7/365.  How this worship is going is up to us.

 

            The other item that is discussed is giving.  The giving of the tithes and offerings stopped and so the room where these things were stored became empty and so that is why Tobiah could stay in it.  Dr. Wiersbe speaks of giving in this section and has some very good things to say, and so I wish to quote a couple of them here.  “When God’s people start to decline spiritually, one of the first places is shows up is in their giving. ‘For where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.’  (Matthew 6:21)  “Giving is both the ‘thermostat’ and the ‘thermometer’ of the Christian life:  It measures our spiritual ‘temperature’ and also helps set it at the right level.”

           

            “"Money-giving is a good criterion of a person's mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill people." "The world is full of two kinds of people, the givers and the takers. The givers eat well--but the givers sleep well." Karl Menninger & Modern Maturity magazine   

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Since we left a church that we had gone to for many years and have not joined with another church, my giving has not been as “normal” or as regular as it was before.  I am grateful for this reminder from this section and will get back on track as soon as I can.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Do your giving while your living so your are knowing where it is going.

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

 

9/15/2011 10:10:39 AM

PT-3 "The Separation Promise" (Neh. 13:23-31)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2011 7:24:27 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-3 “The Separation Promise”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Nehemiah 13:23-31

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. 25 So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land. 26 “Wasn’t this exactly what led King Solomon of Israel into Sin?’’I demanded. “There was no king from any nation who could compare to him, and God loved him and made him king over all Israel. But even he was led into sin by his foreign wives. 27 How could you even think of committing this sinful deed and acting unfaithfully toward God by marrying foreign women?’’  28 One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence. 29 Remember them, O my God, for they have defiled the priesthood and the solemn vows of the priests and Levites. 30 So I purged out everything foreign and assigned tasks to the priests and Levites, making certain that each knew his work. 31 I also made sure that the supply of wood for the altar and the first portions of the harvest were brought at the proper times.  Remember this in my favor, O my God.’”

 

            There are times that in the commentary that I use to aid me in the study of the Bible that the author will skip around in the chapter or chapters that are being studied in order to continue a point that he has made and this is one of those times as he has incorporated this last nine verses in chapter thirteen of Nehemiah into the first main point of his commentary.  He has entitled this section “Mixed marriages,” and this will be covered in today’s SD.

 

            Here is part of what was promised by these Jews as seen in chapter ten:  “"We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.’”  As seen in the verses above they did not keep their promise to the Lord.  Nehemiah is very upset with these people as he finds other things that have been behind his back while he was away reporting to the king in Babylon.  He finds that even one of the high priests grandsons had married a daughter of Sanballat and this could even ruin the priestly line.  We have found a lot of pulling of the hair in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, a sign of great despair over sin.  This time Nehemiah pulled out the hair of the offenders and not his own like Ezra did (Ezra 9:3).

           

            Nehemiah relates to these people the sin that King Solomon committed while he was reigning over Israel, and that was to marry many foreign women, which was surely against the Law of the Lord, as this was in the case of these Jews marrying foreign women. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes this whole section with these words “How important it is that we take a stand for separation from sin, ‘and having done all, to stand’ (Ephesians 6:13).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is the world’s way of speaking and then there is the believers way of speaking and I as a believer am to use the believer’s speech.  John writes “4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

           

            Separation is important to me and as I think of it I must remember that I am to go out into the world to tell others about the Lord, but I am not to become part of the world’s system.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Be in the world but not a part of the world

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

3.     Continue to be ready to tell others about Christ as the Lord brings them into my life.

 

9/14/2011 7:58:29 AM 

PT-2 "The Separation Promise" (Neh. 13:4-9)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/13/2011 11:54:56 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus: PT-2 “The Separation Promise”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Nehemiah 13:4-9

 

            Message of the verses:  “4 Before this had happened, Eliashib the priest, who had been appointed as supervisor of the storerooms of the Temple of our God and who was also a relative of Tobiah, 5 had converted a large storage room and placed it at Tobiah’s disposal. The room had previously been used for storing the grain offerings, the frankincense, various articles for the Temple, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil (which were prescribed for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers), as well as the offerings for the priests. 6 I was not in Jerusalem at that time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign, though I later asked his permission to return. 7 When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God. 8 I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room. 9 Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense.”

This is the second sub-point from Dr. Wiersbe’s for the main point that is seen above.  He entitles this second sub-point “An enemy intruder,” and it covers the verses seen above.  It should be noted that this begins the part of Nehemiah that shows what happens when the leader leaves his job, as Nehemiah had been governor for twelve years (Neh. 5:14) and after that he returned to Babylon to report to the king and now he is back to serve a second term as governor and finds this mess that we will discuss in this SD.

As we learned in yesterday’s SD the fact that the Ammonites or the Moabites could not to be married to Jews, but they were not to go into the temple and now we find an Ammonite (Tobiah) actually living in a room in the temple.  Now I have to stop here to talk about something that is on my mind concerning this section.  When one goes to the book of Ruth we find that Ruth was a Moabite and she is also found in the bloodline of the Lord Jesus Christ, which surely shows the grace of God in action.  When I studied that book last summer I read about the law from the OT that spoke of not allowing an Ammonite or Moabite to worship at the temple for ten generations, (“"No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”) (Deu. 23:3-4)  There were some commentators that said that it was already the tenth generation for Ruth and therefore she was allowed to go into the temple, and if she was allowed to go into the temple then I would think that others would be allowed to go into the temple, however in the case of Tobiah this should not have happened and the reason that it did was because he was actually married to one of the realities of Eliashib the high priest.  Again I look at Ruth being married to Boaz, Ruth being the Moabite and Boaz the Jew.  I will have to look into this further so that I can be satisfied that I understand it better, but one thing that I do know now is that the people that we are talking about in this section are not the “good guys.”

We must remember that these kind of thing can happen in the church today as perhaps one member of the church was instrumental in starting the church, yet further down the line perhaps his grand children are not strong believers or believers at all and if they have influence in the church it can cause trouble.  Eliashib’s relative was privileged in being born into the family of a high priest, yet through away his life by marrying Tobiah and causing grief for the entire nation.

All of this happened when Nehemiah was away.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “It doesn’t take long for the enemy to capture leadership, and too often the people will blindly follow their leaders in the path of compromise and disobedience.”

According to this passage for today’s SD it took little time for Nehemiah to correct this problem, by throwing Tobiah out of this room that was used to house some of the things that were to be sacrificed to the Lord, and to then purify the room so that it could again be used for its desired purpose.  This is the sign of good leadership, leadership that does not compromise.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The thing that I want to take away from this section is “no compromising.”  I do not want to be weak when it comes to the things of the Lord even if it causes me pain, and there are times when it will cause me pain.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.      No compromise

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

9/13/2011 12:44:56 PM