Read: Nehemiah 12:27-13:31; 1 Corinthians 11:3-16; Psalm 35:1-16; Proverbs 21:17-18
In celebration of the wall dedication Nehemiah assigned two large choirs to give thanks. They met on top of the wall and one choir followed Ezra and the other choir followed Nehemiah as they walked opposite directions around the city. They sang praises the whole way surrounding the city with praise. Talk about surround sound! People could hear the praises from far away. Then they read the law from the book of Moses.
The priest, Eliashib was friends with Tobiah who had tried over and over to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Eliashib allowed Tobiah to have a room in the Temple where they had originally stored things for the Temple.
Nehemiah had been away from Jerusalem for several years to return to serving the king in Persia. When he returned he found out about Tobiah and how they had neglected the service of the Temple, given their sons and daughters to their enemies and misappropriated the money given to the Temple. They were allowing the merchants from other nations to come in and sell and trade on the Sabbath. They were doing everything that they had promised they wouldn’t.
Tobiah hadn’t been able to stop their building so he infiltrated them and got them to bring a curse down on themselves through sin. It was the same thing that Balaam did when he wasn’t allowed to curse Israel. He infiltrated their ranks and got them to enter into idolatry.
This is the same thing the devil does to us. He will try to get us from outside circumstances and if he can’t win, he will go for our hearts, our attitudes, and our thoughts. It will end up with the same result because our physical circumstances will fall in line with what is going on in our hearts.
Nehemiah had to purify everything again. I’m sure that was frustrating to him. I feel his pain. It is frustrating to me to find that I am still having the same issues when I thought I had won that battle. I have to remind myself that I did win that battle and this is a counterattack. With the same grace I used to win the first one, I can win the next one and the next one, etc.
In Corinthians, Paul had to do a lot of teaching of the chain of command because Corinth was a Greek city where the gods were all women and women were out of order. Paul taught them that the man represented the head which is God and the woman represented the church which is the body. They must have each other, but the body must honor the head just at the church must honor God who is in control of everything.
Lord, help us to recognize the attacks of the enemy and fight them with your Word and the power of your blood.
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