Sun.’s Devo - Finishing the Work

Read: Nehemiah 6-7
Nehemiah had three enemies - the unholy trinity. He was almost finished with the wall and Sanballat couldn’t stand it. He had to stop the building so he first asked Nehemiah to leave his work and come and meet with him. Nehemiah refused to leave. Sanballat sent four letters to Nehemiah trying to intimidate him to leave. Nehemiah knew that they meant to kill him so he kept working and refused to let fear get in the way of God’s work. So Sanballat sent a fifth letter stating that they were planning a rebellion against the king. This was a lie and Nehemiah told him so and kept working. Next, Sanballat sent a false prophet to try to get Nehemiah to lock himself up in the temple in fear. He refused and kept working. Finally the wall was finished after working for fifty-two days. The heathen recognized this as the hand of God but some of the Israelites were loyal to Tobiah, Nehemiah’s enemy because of his status. They took his side and Tobiah used this against Nehemiah to intimidate him. Despite all the opposition, Nehemiah fulfilled his destiny and finished the work the Lord had given him to do. He put his brothers, Hanani and Hananiah to be the rulers over the palace of Jerusalem. Their names mean “grace” and “favor”. He put them in charge of the gates and gave them specific instructions to only open it at daylight.
God put it on Nehemiah’s heart to find the genealogies of the people who had returned to Jerusalem and cleanse the priesthood.
God is building his temple once again and its walls are salvation. Only the saved can come into his provision. We have a real enemy called the Devil who will lie, discourage and oppose us in every way he can. We need to learn how to resist him. The last thing to go up is the gates. Our gates are our mouths and our hearts. We need to order our conversation aright and watch our motives. Our confession is what we get. Once everything is in place, God will cleanse the priesthood. We are seeing this happen as we see leaders rise and fall and sin exposed. It is all to make us the spotless bride.
Lord, help us to watch over the gates of our mouth and our hearts. Let the priests be holy and just. May we finish the work.