Eskimo's Icy Wisdoms

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