Wed.’s Devo - Finishing the Wall

Read: Nehemiah 5:14-9:73a; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Psalm 33:1-11; Proverbs 21:8-10 Nehemiah was the governor of Jerusalem and during his tenure, he had never used any of the allotted allowance for food. The governor before him and taxed them greatly and Nehemiah felt the people were having a hard enough time feeding themselves. He devoted himself to getting the wall built and fed 150 people daily out of his own pocket. *** The people had built the wall and all they had left to do was to set the gates up. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem found out and called a meeting demanding Nehemiah to attend. Nehemiah knew they were up to no good and refused to come. They sent four letters and on the fifth time, they read the letter to all the people. In it they accused Nehemiah of wanting to be their king and rebelling against the king of Babylon. Nehemiah called it “fake news” and ignored it. *** When lies and intimidation wouldn’t work, they tried to discredit him by telling Nehemiah to hide in the Temple to save his life. Nehemiah didn’t buy this either. He kept reminding the Lord all he had done and all his enemies had done. *** The wall was finished in less than two months and everyone knew it was a miracle from God. Instead of Nehemiah proclaiming himself to be king like Tobiah had accused him of planning, he gave his governorship over to his brother Hanani. He set guards at the gates and took a census of the people who had returned to Jerusalem and Judah. He found that 42,360 people had returned also with servants and singers bringing the total to almost 50,000 people. *** In Corinthians, there had been a discussion about eating food offered to idols. The market sold this meat that was left over from those who offered it to the temples to other gods and it was cheaper than other meat. This greatly bothered some of the believers and they didn’t want to eat of it while others thought it was sacred. *** Paul told them to honor each other’s convictions and do what they thought was right. The important thing was to know that there was only one God and he didn’t care what you ate as long as he was your king and you honored him as God. The other thing was to honor one another by not violating the conscience of those who were weak or new believers. It all goes back to the first and second commandments which are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. *** Lord, may the whole world fear only you and stand in awe of what you do. May we love you with all our hearts, soul and mind.