September 5, 2024: Thursday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 12:44 ff to the end of the book
God's blessings and peace be with you today and always, and may you stay safe on this heat warned day. I am certainly hoping that after this next stretch of hot days that we are finally able to get down to where the temperatures should be for this time of the year, cool nights and afternoon temperatures that are high for just a few hours. Please keep the homeless in your prayers during this long hot next couple of weeks, especially Chris and his cat, who Melody and I met on the east Tucson Marketplace Blvd at south Kino Pkwy. We have been praying for his well-being and for the safety of his support cat in the heat every day. Pray for Jeff and Kandice who are battling terminal cancer. Both are working hard to keep their quality of life in a good place. Pray for our Church Council vice-president, Camille, as once again she is faced with uncertainty about the cancer that has several times gone into remission but has returned to need further treatment. Continue to pray for Teri and Butters, her dog. Their journey continues as Butters battles quality of life issues due to cancer. Pray for Vanessa and baby Elan as they prepare for his Baptism this Sunday. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice with thanksgiving for His gifts of new life filled with the promises of Holy Baptism. (Elan's nickname has already found its way into his little life. The family has named him Yo-yo)
Today we come to the end of the book of Nehemiah and considering all of the guidance and leadership that Nehemiah has brought to the Judahite community, he finds himself quite frustrated. People are not doing the things that they have committed to. They are free of the heavy hand of Artaxerxes and free of exile. Nehemiah has done a really great job of keeping the records of the people, including the generational families who first came with Ezra. Not only is Nehemiah ordered in how he has approached all of this record keeping, but he also knows that the King of Persia will require an accounting of his steward upon whom he has so often depended, and upon whom he has placed his absolute trust. So, let’s consider what is happening. There is at least one big surprise. When I come to you with that Advent request for special giving, I know that you have the privilege of rejecting my request. However, we did purchase as gifts for people around the globe, chicks, pigs, goats, and a cow, and you chose to be a part of these wonderful gifts of love in honor of the birthday of the Savior. But for Nehemiah there are people in the Judahite community who have not joined in to do the work to which they have been called. He feels forced to take action to discipline and reject them. Their presence is stricken from the Temple and Community. Their place in leadership is literally wiped clean, and their spaces in the city are cleaned out, and ritually cleansed by the Levite priests. The big surprise in all of this is that the people of Moab are a group to whom this happens, and they are cast out to never be a part of what continues to happen in Jerusalem forever. So, the big question that we should be asking is, "What about Ruth?" How is it that she will be accepted because of her beauty and ethical character? In fact, she will become an heir in the line of Mary, generations removed, but still a Moabite who is restored through her Boaz and his responsibility to care for Naomi, Ruth's Jewish mother-in-law, and to warmly welcome Ruth into the family providing the continuance of Naomi' family line through his marriage to Ruth the Moabite. If you have more questions, I would love to see you on the last Sunday of September as we begin our study of the book of Ruth. How does this fit with Nehemiah's actions of rejecting the Moabites forever from Jerusalem and the temple? Does Deuteronomy 23 have something to say about this forever rejection that Nehemiah as put in place? I have some interesting ideas based on earlier Scripture that might help us understand why God would allow for this. Now another thing that happens while Nehemiah is back in Persia reporting on the progress that is being made in Jerusalem, is that an acting priest gives a space in the temple to Tobias the Ammonite! This is in direct conflict with the direction that Nehemiah has set. This might be a sign that not everyone in Jerusalem was happy with the direction that Nehemiah had set for the city, its temple, and those who were considered the Elect of God. Such an action by a temple priest would be cause for big trouble with Nehemiah.
In the next section in chapter 13: 15-31 we get a much clearer picture of what exactly is happening. Remember those long days of the reading of the Torah, and then all of the people promising to be the righteous people of God? What we see in this passage is Nehemiah's great frustration with the people. They have gone back to all of things that they were doing on the Sabbath before, and they are failing to "Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy". Some of us can remember those days in the 50s when traveling on a Sunday created all kinds of problems. No gas stations open, restaurants closed, commercial establishments unavailable. It was meant to encourage an entire nation to keep the Sabbath, to remember its purpose. Those rules and laws were called the "Blue Laws". This is the very same thing that Nehemiah has put in place, but in his absence back in Persia, the people in Jerusalem went right back to their old ways of offending God on the Sabbath, but not just then, but welcoming those who were forbidden into their families through marriage. All of this created all kinds of issues for the kind of purity that Nehemiah was looking for in this former exile community who now lived in Jerusalem and its surroundings. In this passage we hear about the kinds of actions that Nehemiah took against all of these things. He even got downright violent in some situations. At the end of this passage, Nehemiah appeals to God to remember how he put all of the good and just things in place, and by suggestion, asking that God not punish him for the sin of the people. As you and I know, God will take care of that later! I feel pretty certain that Nehemiah felt that the sin and brokenness in the lives of the Judahites was more than any one person, or even any nation, could move to prevent.
Next Thursday we move on to the O.T. book of Esther. (my mother's middle name)
With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim
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