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
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