Nothing new on an actual return date to my youth group. I'll just leave that there and move on with life and see how God works this out.
Nehemiah 13
This last chapter deals with the final reforms of Nehemiah. I've read through this chapter 3 times this week and each time learned something new and interesting about leadership and being a man who genuinely seeks after God's best. I'm going to take this a section at a time, so this very well may be a long post. So strap in, grab a cup of coffee and let's see where God Takes us.
On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, 2 because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) 3 When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
I have no doubt that someone reading this today will probably go off on a rant about racism or something similar to that, but it's not about race, it's about a heart issue and being obedient to the LAW. Take a look here in Deuteronomy 23:3-6. When I say it's a heart issue, I mean it's about who do you want influencing you. Who do you want to have as people who are part of your circle? The people of Ammon and Moab worshipped different gods that were morally repugnant to GOD and to the majority of Israel, as it was later realized, when Israel allowed these influences into their culture, it weakened the moral fabric of their nation. GOD understood that in Deuteronomy, and had it placed in the law. When Nehemiah and Ezra had the book of the law read aloud, the people were convicted and followed through with the law. Did they go overboard, did that mean they closed their borders and shut themselves off from the world? No, they simply did not grant citizenship to those who were not of Israeli descent. We could and should probably just end the chapter here and it would be a great ending: A victorious return, a leader triumphant, and nation restored.....but it doesn't end like that. Life happens, and as we all know, life is messy and complicated. A true leader has to know how to navigate in the complications and messiness of life. I'm learning that it's easy to talk about how to lead through the messy complications, harder to actual live through it.
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, 5 and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and than I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. 11 So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
12 All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. 13 I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.
