Wed.’s Devo - Celebrating the New Wall

Read: Nehemiah 12:27-13:31; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16; Psalm 35:1-16; Proverbs 21:17-18 To dedicate the new wall, the singers who had built houses on the outskirts of Jerusalem all came to the city and divided into two groups. They sang songs to the Lord as one group walked the wall to the east and one to the west. They began at the top of the wall and met at the bottom where they then walked straight up to the Temple. It was like having surround sound in the city. They all met at the Temple and sang praises to the Lord while the priests sacrificed and the people had such fun, their joy could be heard for miles. Men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the offerings. They were responsible for collecting tithes of people outside Jerusalem. All Israel was to use their tithes to pay the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Levites. The Levites were to give the priests their pay from what they received. That day, they read the law from the book of Moses and read that no Ammonite or Moabite would be permitted to enter the assembly of God because they had hired Balaam to curse Israel when they came out of Egypt. They had to do an immediate elimination of those among them. Before this had happened, Eliashib the priest had been appointed the supervisor of the treasury rooms. He was also a relative of Tobia who was Nehemiah’s enemy the whole time he was building the wall. Tobia had been given a room which was suppose to be used by the Levites. In Nehemiah 2:10 it tells us that Tobia was an Ammonite. When Nehemiah returned and found him there, he threw him out with all his belongings and restored the room with the Lord’s things. Nehemiah also learned that the Levites had not been paid so everyone who had worked at the Temple had to go work in the fields to provide for their families. Nehemiah brought them all back and the people began to pay their tithes again. He put new people over the storehouses that the people could trust. Next, Nehemiah saw that they were still doing business on the Sabbath so he closed the gates of the city on the night before the Sabbath and it stayed closed till the Sabbath was over. He told the vendors that they would be arrested if they didn’t stay away on the Sabbath. Then Nehemiah realized that some of the men of Judah had married strange wives. He confronted them and called down curses on them if they didn’t divorce them. This took care of that problem. Reading Nehemiah reminds me that there will always be problems when people are involved, even and especially in the church. It takes great patience and grace to be a leader in the church and I am thankful for the pastors who have been in my life. They are the fathers with all sorts of children to manage. In Corinthians, Paul reminds the people that he is their leader but the head of all men is Christ. Everyone submits to someone, even Christ. Women submit to men, who submit to Christ, who submits to God. God created Adam and woman came from man. The woman was made for the man. That flies in the face of woman’s lib. Men protect women and are responsible for the way they treat them. It should be an honor to be a woman not a burden to be liberated from. Everyone will be judged by the way they treated others and the way they submitted to others. We all need one another and are called to love each other. Lord, may we love you and how you created us. May we stay faithful in all we do and be thankful for all you have done for us.