Written by: deeperwiderhigher
Nehemiah 10 v 34-36
We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have thrown lots to decide at what
time of year each family must bring wood to the Temple. The wood is for burning
on the altar of the LORD our God, and we will do this as it is written in the
Teachings.
We also will bring the first fruits from our crops and the first fruits of every
tree to the Temple each year.
We will bring to the Temple our firstborn sons and cattle and the firstborn of
our herds and flocks, as it is written in the Teachings. We will bring them to
the priests who are serving in the Temple.
Notes
The people of Israel faithfully brought wood throughout the year to keep the
fire burning on the altar. This was before they brought the first fruits of
everything that they had harvested. In Nehemiah’s time, most people relied on
the produce of farming to provide their income.
Nowadays most of us live from day to day without thinking where our money comes
from. Perhaps this is because we are used to grabbing it from a hole in the
wall. The people of Israel well understood the idea that God provided their
first fruits (Genesis 1v11). They knew that without His provision of good
weather, their very existence would be threatened. They were committed to giving
thanks to God by bringing one-tenth of what He had provided them with. Although
most of us are not farmers, we do however still need to see that it is God who
provides our daily bread. However you receive it, take time out now to thank God
for the way in which he provides for you.
If you do not already tithe to the church, think seriously now about God’s
daily commitment to you – and make a commitment to give back to Him a fraction
of what He has provided for you already.
Nehemiah 10 v 37-39
We will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the Temple the first of our
ground meal, our offerings, the fruit from all our trees, and our new wine and
oil. And we will bring a tenth of our crops to the Levites, who will collect
these things in all the towns where we work. A priest of Aaron’s family must
be with the Levites when they receive the tenth of the people’s crops. The
Levites must bring a tenth of all they receive to the Temple of our God to put
in the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel and the Levites are to
bring to the storerooms the gifts of grain, new wine, and oil. That is where the
utensils for the Temple are kept and where the priests who are serving, the
gatekeepers, and singers stay.
We will not ignore the Temple of our God.
Notes
Nehemiah can seem a crazy book to be reading in the year 2001, our 21 Century
lives are so far removed from talk of ‘ground meal’, ‘Levites’ and
‘gatekeepers’ but it has amazing lessons to teach us. This text I don’t
feel is about money, fruit, roles or professional status (priest, Levite,
gatekeeper, singer) it is more about priorities.
For me certain words jump out: “first of our ground meal” (v37a), “the
fruit from all our trees” (v37b), “our new wine and oil” (v39a) and
“gifts of grain, new wine” (v39b).
So the people of Israel weren’t selecting stale, dried up, mouldy, has-been
items, they were choosing the best and bringing those ‘best’ items –into
the temple, to the Levites as unto- the LORD. In turn the very best of the best
was then ‘creamed off’ by the Levites as their tithe (giving) to the LORD.
So what does this say to us, well it says many things; we should give the LORD
our best, but it shouts at us, What are our priorities?
C. S. Lewis says to live, as a Christian is a daily battle because at the start
of everyday the demands of ‘who’ and ‘what’ to put first leap out at us,
he says; ‘like wild animals’.
So what are we going to put first? What or who is going to take priority and be
lavished with your first (thoughts, ideas, concerns, anxieties), your all
(everything about you good and bad, needs, dreams and nightmares), your new
(energies, desires, passions), your gifts (worship, honour, time)? Is it going
to be the LORD or someone or something else?
Perhaps you need to spend some time today, reflecting on your priorities.
It might be worth you listing the things that shout for your attention and
giving those things to the LORD.
Nehemiah 12 v 27-30
When the wall of Jerusalem was offered as a gift to God, they asked the Levites
to come from wherever they lived to Jerusalem to celebrate with joy the gift of
the wall. They were to celebrate with songs of thanksgiving and with the music
of cymbals, harps, and lyres. They also brought together singers from all around
Jerusalem, from the Netophathite villages, from Beth Gilgal, and from the areas
of Geba and Azmaveth. The singers had built villages for themselves around
Jerusalem. The priests and Levites made themselves pure, and they also made the
people, the gates, and the wall of Jerusalem pure.
Notes
God has been faithful to the Jewish people. Although they had repeatedly turned
away from Him, broken His commands and worshiped other Gods, He would always be
willing to forgive.
The dedication of the new wall of Jerusalem was all part of a process of the
Jewish exiles recommitting every aspect of their lives to God. It is also a
recognition that God is inherent to the rebuilding process – giving back to
Him what is rightfully His. Unfortunately the cycle of rejecting God, before
once more accepting His authority, is to be repeated later in the account (Neh.
13 v.23).
Under the New Covenant, Jesus Christ has paid the price for the times we reject
God. God is still faithful to His promise – by His grace we will be forgiven.
Each day, we must freshly dedicate our lives to God , through Jesus Christ.
‘Lord, sorry for the times I doubt you.
Help me to run towards your light.’
Nehemiah 12 v 31-32 and 37-39
I had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall, and I appointed two large
choruses to give thanks. One chorus went to the right on top of the wall, toward
the Trash Gate. 32 Behind them went Hoshaiah and half the leaders of Judah.
They went from the Fountain Gate straight up the steps to the highest part of
the wall by the older part of the city. They went on above the house of David to
the Water Gate on the east.
The second chorus went to the left, while I followed them on top of the wall
with half the people. We went from the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall,
over the Gate of Ephraim to the Old Gate and the Fish Gate, to the Tower of
Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred. We went as far as the Sheep Gate and
stopped at the Gate of the Guard.
Notes
What is all this talk of gates, ovens, fish, sheep, towers, hundreds and walls?
It’s about remembering.
The leaders and choruses are ‘marking’ the rebuilding of the walls. They
walk from both ends of the wall as a mark of remembrance, as well as to dedicate
the wall to the LORD.
Many of those who are walking (in this chapter) were actually involved in the
building work. Approaching the wall from both ends is reflective of the way in
which whey conducted the actual rebuilding.
Walking along the completed wall was a testimony of the LORD’s faithfulness to
them.
And what about us, Nehemiah was certain that it was the LORD that had allowed
them to achieve all they had (Nehemiah 2:8b), it was down to His faithfulness,
are we that certain?
It is often easy to forget what the LORD has done or has allowed us to achieve,
especially when things aren’t going quite the way we might like. We can be
tempted to feel we have made it on our own, ‘under our own steam’, that
successful outcomes we have experienced, have been down to our own hard work and
talent. Can that ever be completely true?
I am not convinced it can.
It is good to count our blessings, to acknowledge that the Creator of the
universe, stoops down and comes alongside, to get involved in rebuilding walls
and breathing His life into the most basic and mundane bits of our lives.
Perhaps today it’s worth you taking some time out to look back at the LORD’s
faithfulness to you and you’ll experience the same sense of rejoicing.
Nehemiah 13 v 1-3
On that day they read the Book of Moses to the people, and they found that it
said no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be allowed in the meeting to worship.
The Ammonites and Moabites had not welcomed the Israelites with food and water.
Instead, they had hired Balaam to put a curse on Israel. (But our God turned the
curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this teaching, they separated all
foreigners from Israel.
Notes
God wants us to worship him with pure hearts. The Ammonites and Moabites are a
symbol for impurity in God's people, which is why they are not allowed in the
meeting to worship. In the same way God desires purity in our hearts when we
come to him.
Next time you go to church or fellowship group meeting, or just in your quiet
time, set aside a few minutes beforehand, and ask God to show you where the
impurities are in your life. These may be attitudes on your heart, thoughts in
your mind, or things that you have said or done.
As God reveals them to you leave them in repentance with Jesus at the foot of
the cross, then enter into God's presence with thanksgiving in your heart.
Nehemiah 13 v 4-9
Before that happened, Eliashib the priest, who was in charge of the Temple
storerooms, was friendly with Tobiah. Eliashib let Tobiah use one of the large
storerooms. Earlier it had been used for grain offerings, incense, the utensils,
and the tenth offerings of grain, new wine, and olive oil that belonged to the
Levites, singers, and gatekeepers. It had also been used for gifts for the
priests.
I was not in Jerusalem when this happened. I had gone back to Artaxerxes king of
Babylon in the thirty-second year he was king. Finally I asked the king to let
me leave. When I returned to Jerusalem, I found out the evil Eliashib had done
by letting Tobiah have a room in the Temple courtyard. I was very upset at this,
so I threw all of Tobiah’s goods out of the room. I ordered the rooms to be
purified, and I brought back the utensils for God’s Temple, the grain
offerings, and the incense.
Notes
Isn’t Nehemiah great? (Although I don’t think Tobiah would have felt the
same!) This amazing ‘trouble-shooting guy, gets in there, gets people
organised and gets the job done. He can spot trouble a mile off and in today’s
text there is trouble. The problem is one of ‘space’ and the controversy is
about what you put in it.
The ‘large storerooms’ (v4) were to house the gifts and offerings the people
of Israel had given.
Eliashib kind of misses the importance of the space and allows Tobiah (his
friend) to occupy this space. Unfortunately for Eliashib and Tobiah, Nehemiah
does not miss the significance of the room.
I tend to think that Nehemiah saw at least a two-fold impact here:
1. The offerings have been removed and the purpose, of the ‘large
storeroom’, has been changed not by the LORD but by Eliashib.
2. The occupation comes in the form of Tobiah. Now it is bad enough occupying
this important space with something else but for it to be occupied by Tobiah,
means trouble. Why? Because Tobiah was one of those opposed to the rebuilding of
the wall (Nehemiah 4v3).
So the ‘space’ set apart for the LORD’s use is occupied by someone who
opposed the will of the LORD. The response…Tobiah had to go and the LORD’s
purpose for the room was restored.
So what does this mean for us?
Where are our Tobiah’s: the things that have taken the LORD’s space in our
lives, the things that have changed our priorities without His say so? Where
this is true of us we know what has got to happen…it has got to go and those
spaces in our lives, have got to be given over afresh to the LORD and made holy
again.
Nehemiah 13 v 10-13
Then I found out the people were not giving the Levites their shares. So the
Levites and singers who served had gone back to their own farms. I argued with
the officers, saying, “Why haven’t you taken care of the Temple?” Then I
gathered the Levites and singers and put them back at their places.
All the people of Judah then brought to the storerooms a tenth of their crops,
new wine, and olive oil. I put these men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah
the priest, Zadok the teacher, and Pedaiah a Levite. I made Hanan son of Zaccur,
the son of Mattaniah, their helper. Everyone knew they were honest men. They
gave out the portions that went to their relatives.
Notes
This passage talks to me about taking people – and God – for granted. The
people had begun to take their relationship with God for granted and were no
longer bringing their tithe to the temple – as a result the Levites had to go
back to their farms to earn their living in a different way. Nehemiah could see
that the situation at the temple was actually wrong and that it needed to be
sorted out. This he did and put honest men in charge of the distribution of the
tithe.
As Christians taking people for granted is a bad witness. It is important that
our relationships with other Christians are protected – if we fall out with a
fellow follower of Jesus Christ, it is important that we are reconciled to that
person.
Similarly, non-Christians expect that Christians will behave a certain way. It
is no good if with our mouths we profess that we are Christians but then our
actions towards others let us (and God) down – the thoughtful way that we
treat others may well start them thinking “what is it that makes so and so
such a kind, generous and likeable person?”. The answer that “they are like
that because they know Jesus” is a wonderful testimony to God that He can
powerfully use in that person’s life.
Thankfully when we get it wrong (because we all do), God doesn’t avoid us. His
grace and mercy are freely available to us when we recognise that we could have
done better. If you feel that maybe you have taken God (or somebody else for
that matter) for granted, talk to Him about it. God is always ready to pick us
up, dust us off and help us on our way with Him again. He’ll also give you the
words to speak to restore friendship’s that need some tender loving care.
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the
Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word
Publishing Milton Keynes