-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)
As biblical characters go, I really like Nehemiah. He seems to me like he’s a bit feisty, like Paul in the New Testament. A passionate fellow, who isn’t afraid to lay hands on you, and not in a healing manner. He actually threatens to lay hands on some folks in today’s reading, and then does in another couple sections. As it was mentioned in yesterday’s devotion, the return of the people from exile happened in waves: Zerubbabel went to start rebuilding the Temple (@538BC), Ezra went later and restored the law (@458BC), and then Nehemiah returned (@445BC) and rebuilt the wall, the infrastructure, and finished restoring the law to Israel (with Ezra).
This is important to understand when looking through the book of Nehemiah, because at some points it will read something like “**Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel… “, and that should indicate to you as you read “ah, ok, so this was decades before, this is the first wave…”. Often following this, there was a genealogical listing of the descendants down until Nehemiah’s time because as has been mentioned in previous devotions, the Jewish people were absolutely obsessed with genealogy (see 4/11/26 and 6/19/26 devotionals). To the ancient Jewish mind, this just let’s you know who’s who, and what their functions/authority are, because your genealogy determined your inheritance (and role). This was incredibly important in their culture, and why 2 of the gospels in the New Testament take such pains to list Jesus’ genealogy: in order to prove that he met the qualifications of the Messiah that were prophesied (see 5/18/26 devotional). (**all biblical quotes today are from the LSB translation)
Flipping back a few chapters you can see exactly how important this was for legitimacy: in Nehemiah 7:5 it says “Then my God put it into my heart, and I gathered the nobles, the officials, and the people to be recorded by genealogies. Then I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up first, and in it I found written:…” and then it goes on to list numerous folks. Towards the end of that chapter in 7:63, there’s a list of some folks, and then it goes on to say in v64 “These searched in their genealogical records, but it could not be found; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood. ” (at least until their fate could be decided by inquiring of God via Urim and Thummim). It was that big of a deal, if you couldn’t definitively prove your heritage, you could lose your job and your livelihood.
When we turn in our reading past the genealogies in 11 and 12 (and we just talked about why those were so important), at the beginning of chapter 13 in v1-3 we see them reading from “the book of Moses” about the laws that “no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God “, and then “they separated all foreigners from Israel“. This sheds a little light on the passion Nehemiah has in chapter 13 v4-9, when he throws Tobias and all of his belongings out of the temple, because if you flip back over to chapter 2:19 you see that this is actually “Tobias the Ammonite official”, mentioned in conjunction with Sanballat the Horonite and Geshem the Arab as opponents to Israel. Living now in the temple?! No sir, not under Nehemiah’s watch.
In Nehemiah 13: 9-14 we see a problem, and then a solution. The Levites haven’t been given their portions, and as a result they’ve all gone to their own fields and left the temple neglected. Nehemiah has what we can assume is an “intense fellowship” with the officials, and then returns the Levites to their posts and reinstates their portion. Then comes the focus of today’s devotion, in v14 where Nehemiah says: “Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my lovingkindnesses which I have shown for the house of my God and its responsibilities.” I love this.
We see this same formula repeated 3 times throughout this chapter. In Nehemiah 13: 15-22 we see another problem, and then another solution. The Israelites were not keeping the Sabbath, and some of the foreigners weren’t either, working and bringing in goods and selling them on the sacred day of rest. After more “intense fellowship”, and an offer for the laying on of hands, Nehemiah shuts the gates of the city during the Sabbath and sets guards to keep Israel from violating the Sabbath again, and then says again (in v22): “For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness. “.
Again, in Nehemiah 13: 23-31 we see another problem, and then another solution. The Israelites had (in direct opposition to what God had told them) intermarried among some of the locals, to the point that many of the children couldn’t even speak their native tongue. In verse 25 it says: “So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God …“. Sounds like another nice, calm, rational round of intense fellowship, after which he finds that Joiada, a priest, has done the same thing “so I made him flee away from me.” Like I said at the beginning, he’s feisty, I like him. It sounds like the majority of his fellowship is what we’d call “intense”. Then again, in verse 31 we see the formulaic “Remember me, O my God, for good.” Nehemiah is a man who understands that he has flaws, a passionate man who performs services for God , and then humbly asks God to remember these acts, and to grant a favorable judgment. I love the chutzpah.
We understand as Christians that nothing that we could ever do will warrant the overwhelming favor that God has granted us. No act that we could ever perform would earn our entry as citizens into the kingdom of God. HOWEVER, we also know that faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and that we were created to do good works which God prepared for us (Eph 2:10). We don’t like to talk about this much, but 2 Cor 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”. Not what you believe, but for your deeds. If you have a faith that can move mountains, that’s great, but what have you done with it?
Every time we ignore a brother who is in need, we are storing up wrath for ourselves in the day of judgment. Christ himself said, “What you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.” (Matt 25:40), and by extension when we ignore the least of these, we are ignoring our king. Conversely, when we do good works in the name of our king, we are storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven (Matt 6:19-21). James 1:27 says “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. ” How many times in a week are we actively seeking the opportunities to serve God?
Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Join me in beginning to seek every day what good work we can do, to actively seek out the good works that God has prepared in advance for us, to the glory of God. When we are presented the blessing of an opportunity to serve, offer up a silent prayer of thanks, and a humble plea to “Remember me, O my God, for good.“.
REFLECTION QUESTION (Just one today):
- What are you going to do today to physically exhibit God’s love to another?
PRAYER
Father God, thank you so much for all of the blessings that you have given me, none of which I’ve deserved. Please provide me an opportunity today to do a service in Your name. Please help me to be an active servant who pleases You. You have prepared good works in advance for us to do, please show me what some of them are today. Please forgive me for all the times when I’ve ignored the opportunities, and open my eyes to see them when you present them, even if they are out of the way. Help me to follow the example of Jesus, our king. In Jesus name, Amen.
Seek Grow Love 