Fri.’s Devo - The Plots of the Enemy

Read: Nehemiah 5:14-7:73a; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Psalm 33:1-11; Proverbs 21:8-10 Nehemiah served as governor of Jerusalem for 12 years. He was not like the previous governors who taxed the people to pay for his expenses. Nehemiah did his share in building the wall and required his personal servants to give time to the wall. He fed 150 Jewish officials out of his own pay check and didn’t write it off on an expense account. Nehemiah did this because he feared God. Sanballat, Tobiah and Goshen the Arab learned that he had finished the wall all except for seeing the doors in the gates and sent a message for Nehemiah to meet with him. He had planned harm for Nehemiah, but Nehemiah learned of his plan and refused to meet with him. He told him he was too busy. After the fourth time, Sanballat sent an open message which said that they had learned that the Jews were planning to rebel against the king. It accused him of having prophets proclaim their sovereignty. It threatened that news would get back to the king so he had better come and talk to Sanballat about it. Nehemiah saw right through Sanballat’s manipulation and sent back a message saying that all his story was lies he had made up. Nehemiah continued working even harder on the wall. Nehemiah went to visit Shemaiah, a friend of his who was homebound. Shemaiah wanted Nehemiah to meet him inside the Temple behind locked doors. He warned Nehemiah to hide because his enemies were going to kill him that night. Nehemiah didn’t fall for it. He realized that Sanballat had done what he accused him of doing - hiring a prophet to say what he wanted him to say. Nehemiah refused to run in fear so they could discredit him. I love how Nehemiah was always reminding God to remember what he did for good, and to remember what his enemies were doing bad. Finally in the fall, on Evul 25 the wall was finished - 52 days after they began. Those 52 days were hard days for Nehemiah as Tobiah did everything he could think of to stop the work and frustrate Nehemiah’s plans. Many of the people of Judah sided with Tobiah who looked good on the outside and who was aligned with the elite of the land. The populous knew nothing of Tobiah’s evil letters and plots. (Sounds a lot like America’s politics.) Once the wall was finished, Nehemiah’s job was over so he gave his responsiblibty of governing Jerusalem to his brother Hanani. He appointed Hananiah commander of the fortress. Both feared God. He gave them strict orders to guard the gates. Since there were not many people living in Jerusalem at the time, God gave Nehemiah the idea to find the geneological records and see who were priests and who were Levites. They could live in the city and protect it. In Corinthians, they asked Paul about eating food that had been offered up to idols, eating with someone who worshiped idols, eating in someone’s home who had idols, etc. Paul told them that love had to be their motivation in everything. They also had to think about the example they were giving to new believers. All of that had to be taken in consideration. If they had questions about what to do then the best answer was, don’t do it. Love should be the motivation in all that we do. Lord, help us to live our lives not only for you but for others who are watching us. May all we do glorify you.