Eskimo's Icy Wisdoms

Nehemiah Chapter 12

Good Morning my friends, I pray you have had a blessed week thus far and will pray it continues.
Chapter twelve of Nehemiah begins by listing out the priests who were in Jerusalem at the time; see how short that list is? Seven verses. Seven, that’s not a lot of priests, yet the chapter, continues by listing out more Levites. That’s right, fourteen more verses of guys who helped the priests. And they got their names put into the Bible, these guys had to rate.

Verses 22-26 remarks on the chief of the Levites, which is important because any organization needs to have clear leadership. Obviously Nehemiah thought so too if he took the time to have Hashabiah, Sherebiah and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel listed.

Starting at verse 27, we have the dedication of the wall. Why is this important?

Prayer is one of the most important things we mortals have. It is our direct line to talking to God. It’s the time we set aside, we sacrifice not doing something else in order to praise, worship, when, complain, ask, seek and knock with God. (Matthew 7:7)

So why Prayer? Why was prayer so important for the city?

Because prayer also protects. Ask any Godly parent who prays over their children at night. They pray for protection on their children, in my family anyway we pray for a hedge of protection around the house, around each family member… (Job 1:10) Now think on a national scale, if you got all the Israelites to pray for the walls, for protection from enemies, for each other and for God to move through them. The prayer was also to dedicate the walls to God. (Proverbs 3:6)

Now don’t think the prayer was all solemn and boring like many you may hear in church. This was a joyful thing. They sent out word all around to the countryside to get all the Levites and singers to come to Jerusalem and they had enough people for two full choirs! (See Nehemiah 12:31) Both Choirs marched around the city until they met in the middle where the sacrifices, ones that hadn’t been done for years, were started anew.
My point today is prayer. It makes things happen, it protects, it builds up, it praises, it worships, it keeps our focus on God where it should be.

Just think, without prayer, Nehemiah may not have been able to come to Jerusalem in the first place.
Remember Nehemiah 2:4

How many things in your life could be changed if you simply take a moment to pray about them first? How often we humans forget that prayer is an action and doesn’t happen automatically. You have to spend the time to pray.

I pray these words strike true to their purpose this week. I know they pierced my heart in a spot where I need to work on my prayers.

God bless you this week,
Until next time,

Eskimo

Nehemiah Chapter 11

Hello again my friends, I pray you had a good week since last we met.

The next chapter of Nehemiah at first glance doesn’t seem that important. I mean, talking about guys getting sent to Jerusalem, how many Levites there are… Boring stuff right?

You sir or madam, couldn’t be more mistaken. Nothing in the Bible is just there to bore you. It’s there for a reason.

[quote=Nehemiah 11:1]

1Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. [/quote]

Did you see that? The first sentence: “All the leaders”. Why is this significant? They just rebuilt the wall; of course the leaders want to be there it has got to be one of the safest places to put leadership right? I won’t argue this is right or wrong, it’s the fact that the leadership of all the tribes was in a single place again. They moved to Jerusalem, together, forming a unit of leadership again. This would allow the Tribes to work together in a much more cohesive manner. It would help with working, protecting, farming… The list goes on and on. By having the leadership in one place you get some Proverbs 1:5 stuff happening.

[quote=Proverbs 1:5]

5let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance

[/quote]

Now you got all these leaders in the same place, but what about people? Having only the leaders in the city doesn’t make much sense, you need people to run a city!

So that’s exactly what happens next, by moving ten percent of all the towns to the main city, (OK 1 in 10)  they insured that a good cross reference of the people were represented. This also let all the tribes lay claim to Jerusalem again. Not any one tribe held the power, not any one tribe had the ability to do so easily either. It created a balance within the city.

Now it’s important to note the number of Levites; why you may ask. Well let me see if I can explain. I have to be honest, I’m not 100% up on Levites, and however I did find the following article that explains pretty well what they did.

[quote=IDS.org]

Levites

Levites. Descendants of Levi. The work of ministering in the sanctuary was assigned to this tribe. The Levites are sometimes spoken of as distinct from the priests (1 Kgs. 8:4; Ezra 2:70; John 1:19); sometimes as though all Levites were also priests, “the priests, the Levites” (Deut. 18:1; Josh. 3:3). The work of the Levites was to assist the priests (Num. 3:5–10; 18:1–7). They acted as musicians (1 Chr. 6:16, 31; 15:16; Neh. 11:17, 22); slaughtered the sacrifices (2 Chr. 29:34; 35:11; Ezra 6:20); and generally assisted in the temple (Neh. 11:16, 19). The Levites were themselves offered as a wave-offering on behalf of the children of Israel (Num. 8:11–15); they thus became God’s peculiar property, given to him in place of the firstborn (Num. 8:16). They were not consecrated, but cleansed for their office (Num. 8:7–16). They had no inheritance in Canaan (Num. 18:23–24); but they had the tithe (18:21), 48 cities (35:6), and a claim on the alms of the people at feast times (Deut. 12:18–19; 14:27, 29).

[/quote]

As you can see, Nehemiah set in motion items that put Israel back together. It brought the leadership back together to form a strong, unified Israel. It brought back people to be set aside for the temple. It brought the tribes together again.

Pretty amazing stuff, there is no way this all happened without God moving through Nehemiah.

I pray God moves through you this week,

Until next time,

Eskimo

Nehemiah Chapter 10

Hello again my friends, I hope that today’s chapter brings you some hope and cheer and shows you the kind of people we can be.

Well first off, we have to back up back to chapter nine for just a moment. That’s right, Back to the 38^th verse to be precise.

[quote=Nehemiah 9:38]

38“In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”[/quote]

Why this wasn’t part of chapter 10, I’m not sure… However it’s the start of a contract: one between the people and God; something not to be taken lightly.

I won’t bore you with all of the people who signed this contract, however you can read for yourself exactly how many people there were between verses 1 and 27… That’s a lot of people. Now the importance of having the names written down is it makes it more permanent and is a good reminder of who said they would do it. Plus then there is no excuse if people start to fall out of line. It’s an absolute; no wiggle room. You signed it; you need to hold up your end of the deal.

Is it just me, or do the items that the Israelites spell out make them stand apart from the rest of the world?

[quote=Nehemiah 10: 31}

31"When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.[/quote]

We won’t buy from people who work on the holy day. Every seventh year we will forgive debts… Can you imagine what would happen in this country if Christians followed this rule? I am not saying you have to; however think of the consequences… Every Seven years you have to forgive all debts to you… Could you do it?

The verses in this chapter capture truly changed hearts. They repented fully, and armed themselves to go forth once more under God’s full protection. They had walls around the people for physical protection. Now they were getting their spiritual walls rebuilt.

I hope and pray that this has blessed you in some way.

Have a great week,

Until next time,

Eskimo

Nehemiah Chapter 9

Hello again, today we move deeper into the rebuilding of the people of Israel. It wasn’t enough for them to feel bad about having sinned; it was time to do something about it.

[quote=Nehemiah 9:1]

1On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads.[/quote]

Now, I couldn’t find it biblically where God told the people to wear sackcloth, however from my understanding and some research into the culture of the time, it’s more of an outward sign of internal change. So here you have a lot of people dressed up in scratchy, itchy, very uncomfortable clothing, and not only that!

[quote=Nehemiah 9:2]

2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.[/quote]

They stood with just the Jews.  At this point in time they were probably intermarried with non Jewish people and this is a huge thing to step away from your family to show that you are repentant.

Then, they read from the Book of the Law and then prayed. Half the day was spent doing this, which means very little work got done. However; getting yourself right with God was far more important than tilling the field or pulling the weeds; without God at the head of their own lives, their family and their nation… How would things ever change?

I’ll let you read the prayer in your own Bible. Go ahead, it starts on verse 5 and continues until the next chapter. It reads like a rap sheet of sin.

Notice how they say what their parents did, acknowledging that the problem started before them, but not making excuses for it.

It is  especially interesting how they mention that every time they sinned, they became oppressed and were put into bondage until they cried out for the Lord. They know that’s what happened, and still repeated history.

Yet… At the end of the chapter… They allude to something more.

I’m afraid that’s all the time I have for this week, your comments and insights are welcome.

God bless you this week,

Until next time,

Eskimo

Good evening once again my friends and thank you for joining me once again as we delve deeper int Nehemiah.

This chapter, surprise, isn’t about building up broken walls, but building up broken people.

Ezra (Another really cool dude you should check out. I mean, he has a book in the Bible named after him), stands up in front of all the people who are assembled. Now get this, because its an important feature of this chapter

[quote=Nehemiah 8:3 (shortened for point making] He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand…[/quote]

Men, women and others who could understand. So anyone with understanding was there, I suspect meaning children above a certain age as well as slaves/servants/visiting non-Jews.

And whats the first thing Ezra does? He prays! He doesn’t just start into teaching, he first prays and those gathered join him, to the point of falling down on their faces.

Ezra must have had some voice because he read for hours! And the other Levites (You can check out their names) Were there to help explain what Ezra was reading (Verse 7)

[quote=Nehemiah 8:8] They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.[/quote]

They made sure what was being read was understood. They did their best not to leave anyone behind. They wanted to drive home the points made within the book of law.

[quote=Nehemiah 8:9] Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.[/quote]

Imagine this, you haven’t had the opportunity to read the Bible, much less hear it and when you do, you realize just how far outside of God’s will you are living… What else can you do but weep? You know that you have sinned and deserve the wrath that should fall upon yourself… Yet here is Nehemiah telling people to cheer up and party. Why?

Because there is hope. Yes the people had sinned; yes they deserved the harsh penalization that had befallen them, yet… There was hope, and mercy. This hope was brought back to the people because Nehemiah did what was right. He stood up in the silence and told the King what was bothering him. He went to the trouble to come out to Jerusalem and start rebuilding. He endured the false accusations of the nearby peoples…

Declaring the Joy of the Lord is their strength put everything back on God. It was a way for Nehemiah to say “Hey! Relax. God has things in control, while it may not look good now, God will straighten it out.”

And the people did. [quote=Nehemiah 8:11-12] 11The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.”12Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.[/quote]

And they shared with those who had nothing. Remember those people from a couple chapters back who had to sell their family into slavery to pay their bills? Yeah, those people.

The power of God is infectious. When it hits one person it starts to spread. The power of God was on Nehemiah and it infected the people of Jerusalem. There were some who refused it, yet for the most part, people wanted and needed the hope that Nehemiah brought.

A few questions that came to mind: And please know this is on my heart and not directed at any single person. When I say the words ‘you’ I’m talking to myself as well.

What are you doing to bring hope to those around you?

Are you infectious with God’s power? Or are you letting your personal agenda get in the way?

When was the last time you read the Bible and wept after reading it because of how hard the Holy Spirit hit you with an insight? Are you thirsty to read the Word or has it become too commonplace in your life?

I pray this is something you will think about. I know I am.

Blessings on you and your household this coming week,

Until we meet again,

Eskimo

Well… Chapter seven starts out with some awesomeness

[quote=Nehemiah 7:1-3]
1 After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed.
2 I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do.
3 I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.”[/quote]

So they got the gates (doors) set up; basic security in a wall after all, and Nehemiah decides to put two of the most trustworthy men he knows in charge of guarding Jerusalem. Not because it was his brother, not because of military prowess, but because of integrity and fearing God.

Now let’s step back a moment here. Fearing God. This isn’t the “I’m afraid of going to hell so I obey God” Type of fear. It’s more of a “I am in awe and reverence to God and obey Him out of Love” fear. It sounds crazy, but if you think about it. Isn’t better to be afraid of misstepping in your walk, not because of the sin itself, but because you will disappoint your Heavenly Father?

I digress… So now you have two men that Nehemiah totally trusts setting up protection for the city. And of course Nehemiah gives them some orders.

I especially like the one about having the guards placed near area’s where they live. Protecting those nearest to you makes more sense with a reminder like that.

Of course, now that you have a city, you need people in the city right? So Nehemiah started going through the records of the people who came to the city.

Now you have to remember, genealogy is important. Knowing where you come from is important and with Nehemiah wanting to help restore the priesthood, well, those records telling who was allowed by Biblical rules to become a priest were extremely important.

You have to remember that waaaaay back in Numbers (chapter 1 and 2) God tells Moses about the Levites and how they are to be set aside for doing the work in the Tabernacle (Which got turned into the temple)

So know who was actually a Levite is a very, very good thing. You wouldn’t want to mess up orders from the Lord.

So what can we learn from this?

A couple things in my opinion.
You got Nehemiah who surrounded himself with good, Godly men and he found them to be men of Integrity. Are we being found as men of integrity or are we just doing good enough to get by?

Nehemiah got the walls built and the gates hung in record time by motivation and having God’s hand upon him. How often in our own lives have we failed to move forward because we were afraid to act or worried about what other people might think of us?

Knowing who your family is and where they come from is important. God blesses generations (He promises too, look it up!) children get blessed because of their parents, grandchildren get blessed because of their grandparents, parents get blessed by their children, all when they are doing what God has them to do.

I’m out of time for this week, homework is calling my name.

I hope this blesses you in some way and that you are challenged.

Have a most excellently blessed week,

Till next time,

Eskimo

Nehemiah chapter 6

It seems with every step forward Nehemiah was able to lead his people; the devil was stirring up others to try and stop them.
Of course, it seems to me that Nehemiah had good friends in those places to find out about these same schemes.

I think it was awesome how Nehemiah was able to resist the easy way out of the pestering from Sanballat and Genshem. Most people would have given in just to get them to shut up.

[quote=Nehemiah 6:3]
so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”[/quote]
He put it back on them, like “Why are you bothering me? I’m doing something important. If you want to see me, you come here.”
Then the threat came.
[quote=Nehemiah 6:6-7]
6in which was written: “It is reported among the nations–and Geshem says it is true–that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king7and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together.”[/quote]
Of course Nehemiah knew this to be false, and… His reply still makes me laugh.

[quote=Nehemiah 6:8]
8I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”[/quote]

 
Isn’t that something so many of those tabloid writers are doing every single day? Making up stuff out of their head? And yet so many believe them to be fact… Just an observation made.

Of course it was just a scare tactic, trying to undermine the people, fear and conjecture will take the will right out of a peoples. So after realizing this, Nehemiah instantly goes to prayer. He doesn’t just blow off the whole thing; he goes to the one who has given him the strength to accomplish all of this great work. And he shows that short prayers are good too.

Poor Nehemiah, not only was he facing enemies from outside the walls, but even some of those inside had turned against him! He goes to visit a shut in and the dude is like “Nehemiah, you need to go hide in the temple. People are coming to kill you.”

To which Nehemiah replied “So? Why would a man like I am run away from adversity like that? Why should I run and hide like a coward in the temple just to save my own skin?” While that is my adaptation, you have to wonder what these people were thinking. Of course, Nehemiah explains that in the next verse.

[quote=Nehemiah 6:12-13]
12I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.13He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.[/quote]

One of the Jews agreed to be hired to do this! Why would they do such a thing? How can you betray someone like that? Especially someone who is trying to better your life…

The closing of the chapter is about the completion of the wall. How it took them only like fifty-two days to fix and rebuild. Imagine that! A whole wall done in 52 days. I don’t think that some people can fix a pothole in the road in that amount of time. The work ethic that drove these people was something I see sorely lacking in today’s generations…

That’s all that I have time for this week.

May God bless you this week in an extraordinary way,

Till next time,

Eskimo

CHAPTER 5!!!

… I had to read this one several times ot grasp the significance of it all. I mean seriously, The leadership of the city needed to be kicked in the buttocks and then replaced. The people would buy their families back from the gentiles and then have to re-sell them to get food… And the leadership just sat back in their wealth and didn’t seem to care! And they knew what they were doing was wrong. I mean Nehemiah hits them on the head verbally in verse 7 & 8
Quote:
Originally Posted by A very ticked off Nehemiah 5:7-8

7.
I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them

8.
and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.
Nothing to say. Of course, with the man who was granted permission by the king to come out who united the people for a cause, what could you say?

Of course he didn’t stop there. Then he hit them in their money bags.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A still ticked off Nehemiah 5:9 -11

9.
So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?

10.
I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop!

11.
Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them–the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.”

Alright, just for those of you who read this who do not know what usury is…

According to Dictionary.com:

1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest.
2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, esp. in excess of the legal rate.

This reminds me so much of our world today. Everyone is looking out for #1 and not for the good of their neighbors. Think about having to decide between starvation or selling your wife, son, daughter into slavery… And then when you go to your friends and neighbors for help they charge you so much money that you have to give them your whole income from your job, or your car or your house to pay them off…

You gotta admire the guy, he had guts and a massive backbone. He saw what they were doing wasn’t right and called them on the carpet for it. They of course had nothing to say. (I can only imagine the excuses our current leaders in our country would have)

Of course the leadership agreed to give everything back, but being a shrewd man, Nehemiah made them swear an oath in front of the priests. Then, to seal the deal, Nehemiah took off his cloak and shook it off.

Quote:
Originally Posted by A calmer Nehemiah 9:13

I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!” At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

Nothing like putting the fear of the Lord in somebody to get them to keep a promise.

So life moves forward and suddenly Nehemiah is promoted to Governor. Not just for the city, but for all of Judah! This means he was in charge of the country basically. What a step up! The king was obviously pleased with how Nehemiah was handling things.

And just to show, (remember kids, actions speak louder than words!) Show that he was not like the previous governors, Nehemiah paid for everything himself. He didn’t take the food and silver allotted for the governors office from the people. Instead he fed all the officials, visiting dignitaries and other people who came by from his own pocket. This was like a massive tax break for the people. Instead of saying “times are tough and we need more money to fix things” He turned around and said “God wouldn’t want me to do this, yes times are tough, but I’m not going to make them harder.”

His ending prayer shows that he knew his reward would come from heaven, not from earthly men. His feet were firmly planted in the ground while his face was turned towards heaven.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nehemiah 5:19

19. Remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for these people.
I can only pray to have the integrity and courage Nehemiah did. While I may not face the same issues he did. Having the courage to stand up against the crowd and those in power is something that is harder to do than one would think.

God bless you this week,

Until next time,

Eskimo

CHAPTER 4!!!

WOW! I mean really WOW! Talk about adversity… People were going out of their way to cause trouble for the Isrealites, mocking them and then planning to attack them! Picture that today…

“I don’t want you putting up that fence, so me and my buddies are gonna come by and start harassing you until you stop.”

But then you got Nehemiah sitting back there praying

[quote=Nehemiah 4:4]

Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity[/quote]

And God heard Nehemiah and I think gave him the tactical plan of having half the people stand guard while the others worked. Then Nehemiah went a step further and had everyone with a weapon. Instead of being cowed by the antics of Samaria and the Ammonites, He stood fast in his hope and faith in the Lord.

And then the baddies (Easier to spell. ) saw that their plans were foiled they didn’t attack and everyone got back to work!

Then when the Isrealites were afraid again, for they were spread thin and with all the rubble the enemies could sneak up on them, Nehemiah got everyone together and said,

[quote=Nehemiah 4:19-20]

19. Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.

20. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”[/quote]

So I can just see the first time the baddies tried something:

Baddy #1: “Let’s get those guys over there!”

Baddy #2: “Sounds good, on the count of 3. 1, 2… Wait, did you hear a horn?”

Nehemiah: “CHAAAARGE!”

Baddy #1: “Where did all these other guys come from! I’m outta here!”

Baddy #2: “Not if I get outta here first!”

Of course I’m sure it helped that Nehemiah had trained soldiers with him to help re-train the Isrealite’s in fighting, and those poor guys, may not have even been Jews, yet they fought for Nehemiah anyway.

The man was a great leader, he had the guts to tell a King what troubled him, he had the faith to go to Jerusalem, the Charisma to get people working together on rebuilding, and the mind to see the tactics needed to protect the people while they worked.

God gave victory to Nehemiah and the Isrealites because they went to Him with their problems and God provided the insight necessary to use the resources they had available to bring victory.

Just something to think on this week.

God bless,

Till next week…

Eskimo

Chapter three listed all the people who worked on the rebuild. It amazed me to read about how many people were already living there and who had not done anything to try and repair the walls (at least its not listed) and suddenly rallied behind Nehemiah.

Of course, with the way the guys were talking in chapter 2, its no wonder people were afraid. Fear is the strong tool any dictator has over people…

Sorry guys, I don’t have much more to add to this chapter.

Well… I do have a few things.

If you read the chapter, think of exactly how many people were working. Could you oversee such a project? Without God’s help I know I would fail. Yet Nehemiah got all these people into it, even the daughters were helping out as much as they could. (Verse 12)

One thing I would like to point out is the state of the walls…

You have four walls for Jerusalem, on the Eastern and southeastern side of the city, the wall had to be totally rebuilt from the ground up.On the Northwest and Southwest side, all you ahd to do was repair the wall. *they built things to last then, according to the little research I have done, archaeologists found parts of that wall and it was eight feet thick!)

Still, I think the hand of God being on Nehemiah was awesome to get all these people working together so quickly.

What are your thoughts?

until next week,

Eskimo