July 25, 2024: Tuesday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 9:1-19
Good morning, and God bless your day with joy and hope,
If you are a Gospel of Mark person, this last Tuesday there was no study. I have been ill this week with an intestinal and stomach bug which Jesse and I both seemed to have picked up. I am still not back 100%, but we all know how that goes. The demands of our families – like groceries, transporting the children, Dr’s appointments, and yes, getting into the office to do today's study – really all have to happen. I am so thankful for Melody, who really knows how to pick up the pieces when I end up having to spend a day in bed dealing with being sick. I am so blessed to have had her in my life for 52 years of marriage (53 years in Dec.), and even before our marriage for 6 years of being “steadies” and at the end of those years being engaged to be married.
Today we return to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. We just completed readings where Nehemiah gathered the people who had rebuilt the walls and gates of Jerusalem, and then he called for a night of feasting and celebration which was to include all of the people who supported that rebuilding. Next, we had those same people gathered together to hear the reading of the Torah (the first 5 books of our Old Testament. It took hours and hours! I know that sometimes reading the Passion story on Palm Sunday at the end of the service as we enter into Holy Week seems like too much. But like the Judahites, the recalling of this story of God's choice for forgiveness and life through His Son, Jesus Christ, must be planted in our minds again, as we contemplate coming to the degradation of our Holy Savior on the cross of our sin and brokenness. If you are like me, it is far too easy in the busyness of every day to set this most important part of our life-story as One who loves us all, dies so that our relationship with the Father can be made right by our obedience to God's Law through Christ's complete and humble obedience to God's desire to save us. This is THE LOVE which surpasses all understanding. So, in our reading today what we have is the confession of faith of the Judahite returned exiles' families long after the original exiles have died. We need to note in this 19-verse reading how the confession of faith includes the sins of "now", and the participation of the people who had been returned from exile in their rejection of God's plan for Love for them, as well as, including the ancient history of Egypt's enslavement of the Hebrews, and the subsequent failure of the Hebrews to remain faithful in the wilderness. They built a gold idol naming it the god who brought them out of Egypt. Then we are encountered by the next part of the confession. God was so desirous of keeping these people in His fold, that He acted to restore them to Himself. Is it any wonder that this act of confession and contrition, really feeling and being sorry for all of the actions of their past, and of what they have done or not done currently in their lives brings these people to their knees in grief? “Sack cloth” may have indicated a person's everyday work clothes. When we have a down day, we often don't shower, or get dressed up when there is no place to go to feel better. This is the kind of thing that "sack cloth" indicates. When I was a boy, we used to take our inner tubes to the lake and make a raft out of them using what we called gunny sacks. So naturally, as I grew up, my picture of sack cloth was the gunny sack of my little raft in Lake Michigan. To wear one of those would be unbearable. In confession what is unbearable is our sin and brokenness in the presence of our God who loves us in spite of it all, and still wants us to come to Him to be enfolded in His Love. Just as a quick word… the naming of specific people in Scripture, whether the people they name may be real or not, gives us a much stronger connection to the text. Real people were offering heartfelt confession, and receiving God's forgiveness, just like us!
God bless you today and always,
In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim
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