Christian Devotional – February 18, 2020
Day 49 – Accountability. When we are brought face-to-face with sin, how do we respond? Read Nehemiah 13:1-9.
On that day they read aloud from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and there was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing. So when they heard the law, they excluded all foreigners from Israel. Now prior to this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, being related to Tobiah, had prepared a large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils and the tithes of grain, wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. But during all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone to the king. After some time, however, I asked leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and learned about the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, by preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. It was very displeasing to me, so I threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. Then I gave an order and they cleansed the rooms; and I returned there the utensils of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense.
Nehemiah 13:1-9 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/neh.13.1-9.NASB
Sin is sin regardless of whether we know that it’s wrong or not. However, it becomes very telling how we act and respond once we are aware of sin. In these 9 verses we see two cases of people being made aware of sin. In the first case, it talks about foreigners who God had specifically indicated should not be included in assemblings. Once the people learn this, they took action and followed through on what God’s word said.
In the second case an individual was doing something wrong. He allowed someone to be living in the part of the temple that was used for sacrifices. It’s not clear who all knew about this arrangement, but once Nehemiah found out about it, he took action and threw him out and cleansed the room.
When we are confronted with our sin how do we respond? We are not going to know and understand everything immediately all the time. That’s what God’s Holy Spirit does in our lives is helps us understand and reveals our sin. The big question then becomes how will we respond once we have seen our sin revealed? Will we take immediate action to repent and to remove that sin? Or, are we continue in sin even knowing that we shouldn’t? Accountability. How accountable will we be to God who sees everything?