Thurs.’s Devo - The Trials of Following God

Read: Nehemiah 5:14-7:7-3a; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Psalm 33:1-11; Proverbs 21:8-10; Ezra was the governor of Judah for 12 years and never took a salary or imposed high taxes on the people like the governor before him. (This sounds familiar.) He fed 150 of his officials from his own table with his own expenses and devoted himself to finishing the wall around Jerusalem. Sanballat, Tobiah and Goshem devoted themselves to stopping him. When they found out he had completed filling in the gaps and putting up the gates they sent messages wanting to meet with Ezra. Ezra ignored them because he learned of their plot to kill him. Ezra sent them a message saying that he was busy with more important things. The fifth message they sent said that they believed that Ezra was planning to rebel against the king and become Judah’s king. They heard that Ezra had made his people proclaim him king and Sanballat was going to make sure the king heard about it. Ezra told him he was lying and making it all up to intimidate him and get him to stop building. Later, Ezra went to visit one of the priests who was confined to his home. This priest wanted Ezra to hide with him inside the Temple and bolt the doors because God had told him that Ezra’s enemies were coming to kill him. Ezra refused to hide in fear. He was the leader and he wanted to act like one. Ezra learned that Tobiah and Sanballat had told him to prophesy that so he would sin and they could discredit him. Ezra took this to God and told him to remember all the evil they were doing. They finished the wall in 52 days and when their enemies heard about it, they were afraid. Sadly, many of the people had sworn allegiance to Tobiah because his father-in-law was a wealthy man. The wall was finally finished and Ezra set two people to govern and guard the city. Both of their names mean “grace”. They were to keep the gates shut and barred and guarded. Ezra then called all the original people who had returned to Israel and had them registered as citizens. He gave them ownership of the city which made them feel responsible. They gave gifts to restore worship for the Temple. In Corinthians, Paul was addressing everyone’s dispute about whether it was an offense to God to eat meat offered to idols. To some, idols were not real so they had no problem eating meats offered to idols. But to others, it was a big deal, so Paul was just saying to respect both sides of the argument. The problem was that part of the sacrifice the heathen offered to idols was offered to the priests and some they got to keep. They were often offered this meat at people’s private homes and it was sold in the markets so Christians were constantly exposed to the temptation of receiving them, which was forbidden (Nu 25:2; Ps 106:28). It was a tricky decision to make for the people who wanted to please God and do what was right. Paul just concluded with asking them to be sensitive to others convictions and to not cause another believer to stumble. Lord, thank you that we are protected by grace and when we follow you, you cause our enemies to fear us.