Where are the people? In Nehemiah 11:1-19, now that Nehemiah has rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, the question becomes who is going to live there? You see nobody wants to live in an unprotected and undefended city, so nobody was living there. But now, this city has a wall. The city is defended. The city is the capital city and the holy city of God, and it needs people living in it. So how did they find the people to live there? Essentially, they took a tithe of people. A lot of times when we hear the word tithe we automatically think money. 10% of our money should go to…

Where’s your accountability? Looking at Nehemiah chapter 10, we see through the entire chapter today a long list of names of individuals and then a list of expectations for those individuals. A lot of times we wonder why are names listed in the Bible, especially those really long lists of names. Here I see those names as an opportunity for accountability. Nehemiah knew that these people would have expectations put upon them. If they were truly going to lead the people of Israel, they needed to be the very best at what they did and be obedient to God. One of the easiest ways to ensure that is by listing…

Sometimes we get what we deserve. As we read Nehemiah chapter 9, we finish up this chapter starting in verse 27 through the end. We see that the people of God had continued to be disobedient him. As a result, God allowed them to experience the results of their sin. He allowed them to be captured and He allowed them to go through all the difficulties that arose as a result of that. When we make a choice to disobey God, God wants to get our attention so that He can bring us back to the place where we should be. But, occasionally we are stubborn and don’t listen. So…

Yesterday, we saw the people praising God. Today, in Nehemiah 9:16-26, we see that as we see God for who he is, we end up seeing ourselves for who we are. We are sinful. We are disobedient. We fall short of the perfect God every single day. As Nehemiah retells the history of the people of Israel, it stands in sharp contrast to the faithfulness of God. The same is true for us. When we truly see who God is and what He wants to do in our life, we must admit we fall drastically short of His expectations for us. Are we willing to admit our shortcomings? Do we…

Nehemiah 9:1-15 starts out a chapter of the worship service of the people. They have all gathered together and they begin these first versus with a recounting of all the great and marvelous things that God has done for them through their history. They recognize and praise God for all that he has done. Are there points in our lives where we go through and think about all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us? Do we praise him and thank him for everything he has done in our lives? The people knew their history because they spoke about it so often and they knew how God’s hand had…

As long as we still have breath, it’s never too late to be obedient. As we see in Nehemiah 8:13-18, the people have not been obedient to celebrate the festival of booths for many, many generations. Yet, they make the decision, while reading through the Law that they need to do this. God will direct us to do things, but occasionally we get distracted by other things and we fail to follow through on obedience. God is still there and waiting for us to repent and be obedient to Him. He knows that through our obedience we get to experience God. Are we willing to go back to that thing…

How do we respond to hearing the Word of God? The people that Nehemiah and Ezra were speaking to had a response we don’t see a lot. Looking in Nehemiah 8:9-12, they had just had a great worship service and the people were so moved by the reading of God’s Word that they were in tears weeping. Nehemiah and Ezra had to remind them that this was supposed to be a happy celebration time. They then gave them practical steps to take for them to act upon their feelings. They were able to put into action all the concerns that they felt so that gave them an outlet for all…

It’s time for a worship service! Nehemiah has the prophet Ezra lead the people in a wordhip service to have the people focus on God and all that God has done for them. We see thus in Nehemiah 8:1-8. Not only did the people listen to God’s Word, they also listened to the explanation and application of God’s Word. When we study God’s Word do we look for ways to apply it to our lives? Just reading it does not ensure we will live it out. We must make a conscious choice to follow the teachings we learn there. What will we learn and choose to follow today?

A whole lot of numbers going on! Reading through the rest of Nehemiah chapter 7 can be a bit challenging. Lots of names and numbers as scripture records the listing of people and their gifts. It can be tempting to overlook this chapter. However, a couple of exciting truths can be found here. First, God is concerned about names. We may not know who these people are, but God does and He deemed them worthy to be included in scripture. Names matter to God. He knows our name and He records our names in the Lambs book of Life if we have believed in and followed Him. I can certainly…

The wall has been built! However, Nehemiah’s leadership is not over. In Nehemiah chapter 7, verses 1 through 4, we see Nehemiah continuing to take a strong leadership role. However, he delegates his position to others in order to establish more of a long-term leadership solution. He doesn’t keep the leadership role for himself, instead he seeks to find capable people who he can entrust that role. He delegates his brother and another Godly man who he trusts to be the ones in charge of the wall that they have now built. The people put this together, but now they need to man it and make it strong so that…