year 2 week 50 day 344 350totalgrowth.org/devotion/lgc_devotion_2013_wk50_eng.pdf · (2) then, in...

Year 2 Week 50 Day 344-350

December 10 – 16, 2013

Week 50 Day 344-350 December 10 – 16, 2013

I. Invocation and Adoration:

“Father, through John the Baptist you tried to prepare your people for the coming of

Jesus, will you try to prepare us too? Prepare our hearts and minds that we may know

what to look for in the coming of Jesus Christ into our world...May we show the joy of

the Advent message in our lives day by day. Through Him who came at Christmas.

Amen.” (For the third Sunday in Advent, from Prayers Before Worship)

Adoration through Psalm 101

We’ll use this Psalm, not for today’s Bible reading, but for the sake of focusing our

thoughts on God.

Read slowly this passage at least three times and each day gather one thought about

this psalm that points to God’s character and translate it into a prayer of adoration.

II. Confession

Pause now and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you your sins and ask for forgiveness.

III. Thanksgiving

List, one by one, things for which you should give thanks.

IV. Scriptural Reflection:

We shall conclude the study of the book of Nehemiah of the Old Testament this week.

Read slowly and reflectively the assigned passage twice at least and consider the

questions that follow each day:

Day 344 Nehemiah 12:1-21

Nehemiah began listing the names of priests and Levites among the batch of returnees

that accompanied Zerubbabel and then he extended the list to name those descendants

who continued to serve in his time. As much as they were names, most of which are not

necessarily familiar to us, let’s quietly read through the list and ask the Holy Spirit to

enlighten us in its reading:

(1) First, in vv. 1-9 he listed the names of the priests and Levites who returned with

Zerubbabel and it is important to remember that most of these are family names and

should not be confused with the names of individuals. Therefore Ezra in v.1 would

not be the Ezra who returned some 20 years later, but the family name of one of the

priest families. With this long list of names, somehow Nehemiah singled out some

of them to tell us that they were “in charge of the songs of thanksgiving” (12:8).

What might be the reason for such an emphasis? (See 11:23)

(2) Then, in vv. 10-11, he gave us a list of the high priests, from Jeshua to Jaddua,

roughly from 538 BC to well after 400 BC. As we have already studied the book of

Ezra and are drawing near the end of the book of Nehemiah,

a. Can you recall any role or impact any of these high priests had, either in the

rebuilding of the temple or the rebuilding of the walls of the city?

b. As the High Priest, what role should they have played?

c. You may want to look up Zechariah 3 to get a sense of the spiritual condition of

these high priests, as one of them was confronted by Satan before God.

(3) In vv. 12-21, he then listed the priests serving closer to his time. It is interesting to

note that of the 22 family names mentioned in vv. 1-7, the family of Hattush was

missing from this current list, probably signifying that by the time of Nehemiah, this

family had ceased to yield male descendants to continue their priestly lineage.

Food for thought.

(4) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?


(1) In vv. 22-26, he then listed the Levites serving closer to his time. It is interesting to

note that:

a. Their names were required to be recorded during the reign of Darius;

b. These names were also registered in the Book of the Chronicles (which may or

may not refer to the Chronicles of the Bible); and

c. Again, the fact that some were assigned to sing praises and thanksgiving was

particularly mentioned.

What might be some of the reasons that Nehemiah chose to highlight the above?

(2) Vv. 27-30 gives us the connection as to why Nehemiah listed the names above,

because these Levites (including priests) were drawn out from their dwelling places,

even from outside of Jerusalem, to come back and participated at the dedication

ceremony of the wall of Jerusalem. The geographical locations so mentioned

indicated that they were spread across the land of Judah and of Benjamin. V. 27

says, “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from

where they lived”, what does it mean?

(3) In any case, whether they resided in Jerusalem or elsewhere, all had to purify

themselves before participating at the dedication ceremony. For the priests and

Levites, it probably meant “fasting, abstaining from sexual intercourse and a sin

offering, and for the laymen the washing of garments, bathing etc.” (Fensham,

255/6):

a. Why was such purification required before their participation at the dedication

ceremony?

b. What is the message for us today?

c. Have you taken drawing close to God in worship or celebration as serious as

they did?



(1) The dedication of the wall of Jerusalem took place both at the wall and inside the

temple — the Ezra-led procession went up from the right, while Nehemiah’s

procession went up from the opposite end, both were flanked by a large choir. When

the two choirs reached the top, they gave thanks (12:40), then took their places back

in temple where more songs were sung and sacrifices were made. Nehemiah

remarked that God had given them great joy and the sound of rejoicing could be

heard afar:

a. Put yourselves in their shoes, try to give all the reasons that they should give

thanks to the Lord under such a circumstance?

b. What might be the greatest reason for their great joy?

c. Many commentators opine that Psalm 147 in fact originated from this

dedication ceremony, especially 147:2 & 13. Read Psalm 147 and see what

reasons might be given for their great rejoicing.

(2) After describing the dedication of the people to the strict observance of the Law of

Moses, followed by the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah purposely

highlighted a few things that they did, obviously in response to the oath they made

back in 10:28-39. See if we can relate these few things back to the oath they made:

a. What part of their oath does v.44 refer to?

b. What is the significance of such compliance?

c. What does the remark that “for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests

and Levites” mean?

d. What part of the oath does v.45 refer to?

e. What kind of a picture does this paint concerning the pre-oath days of worship

in the temple?

f. What part of the oath does v.46 refer to?

g. What kind of a picture does this depict concerning the pre-oath days of the

lives of the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers?



In this concluding chapter, Nehemiah shared with us that the reform under him was not

all smooth sailing; it took persistent (and in some cases, disciplinary) efforts to ensure the

vows so taken would be followed. Commentators in general see all of these corrections

as having been made upon Nehemiah’s return after his absence from Jerusalem in the

32nd

year of Artaxerxes (i.e. 433 B.C., exactly 12 years after Nehemiah arrived in

Jerusalem). Here are the incidents cited:

(1) Vv. 1-3 deal with exclusion of any foreigners, presumably from their religious

assembly.

a. Read Deuteronomy 23:4-6 to see what was the exact prohibition imposed by

the Law.

b. Why did they apply it to all foreigners beyond the Ammonites and Moabites?

c. The prohibition says, “even down to the 10th generation” (Deuteronomy 23:3).

Does it mean never? (Note that the Gentiles who aspired to worship Yahweh

were presumably allowed to gather at the “court of the gentiles” in the 2nd

temple and Ruth was a Moabite)

d. Why did Nehemiah see the necessity to enforce such laws to their “extreme”?

e. What can we learn from him?

(2) Vv. 4-5 deal with favor given to the enemy of Israel, Tobiah:

a. Who was Tobiah? How did he oppose Nehemiah? (See Nehemiah 2:19; 4:3,

7-8; 6:1-7, 12-19)

b. How influential was Tobiah (see Nehemiah 6:17-18)?

c. What was the room that Eliashib allowed Tobiah to use for?

d. If Ammonites were to be excluded from the assembly, what kind of sin was

being committed here?

e. Why did the priest (if he is not Eliashib the High Priest, he probably was

related to him) do this to a known enemy of the Israelites?

(3) Vv. 6-9 deal with action taken by Nehemiah upon his return from the Persian court:

a. We are not told about his reception by the king after a 12-year absence. What

does the fact that he was granted a leave of absence to come back again to

Jerusalem reflect his status with the king?

b. Why do you think he wanted to come back to Jerusalem again?

c. How did he deal with “the evil thing Eliashib had done”?

d. What impact would his action have on the priests, the leaders and the people in

general?



Vv. 10-14 deal with the neglect by the priests and the Levites in the proper collection and

storage of the people’s offering:

(1) Why did “all the Levites and singers” go back to their own fields, meaning that they

did not serve in the temple on a regular basis, but returned to be farmers in the fields

outside of Jerusalem?

(2) Whose fault was it?

(3) What impact might such negligence have on the people (12:44)?

(4) How did Nehemiah correct the situation?

(5) Nehemiah presumably had to return to the king’s court eventually; how then could

he ensure continuous compliance by the people, especially by these religious

leaders?

(6) What does his prayer in v.14 indicate?



Vv. 15-22 deal with the breach in their oath to keep Sabbath:

(1) In their solemn oath to observe the Law of Moses carefully, what did they specify

concerning the observance of Sabbath? (10:31)

(2) How did they, the men of Judah break the law that they so passionately vowed to

keep?

(3) Why would they dare to break the Sabbath:

a. Did they not respect the Law anymore?

b. Were they not afraid of the leaders or the High Priest?

c. Were they not afraid of inviting the wrath of God as their fathers did?

(4) What did the people from Tyre do on Sabbath?

(5) Why did Nehemiah put the blame on the nobles of Judah?

(6) What did Nehemiah do to correct the situation?

(7) Why did he have to put his own men to guard the gates?

(8) What warning did he give to the merchants, likely foreigners? (Presumably, upon

his return to Jerusalem, he still was holding the position of governor)

(9) When the threat to breach Sabbath was gone, he replaced his own men with the

Levites on a permanent basis. What was the charge he gave the Levites in this

respect?

(10) Do you think by so doing, the people, the nobles, the priests and the Levites would

truly honor Sabbath?

(11) What does his prayer in v.22 indicate?



Vv. 23-31 end with Nehemiah’s dealing with inter-marriage with gentiles:

(1) In their solemn oath to observe the Law of Moses carefully, what did they specify

concerning the separation from the neighboring people? (10:28-30)

(2) How did the men of Judah break this vow?

(3) What had Ezra done previously in an attempt to eradicate this problem in Ezra 10?

(4) Why was Nehemiah so concerned that their children spoke a foreign language and

did not know how to speak Hebrew? Was he being nationalistic or were there

important ramifications concerning the worship of Yahweh? (See the example he

gave about Solomon)

(5) How did he correct such a situation?

(6) Why would he use force (presumably such authority was conferred upon him in the

exercise of the local law as the governor)?

(7) Why was he particularly harsh on the grandson of the high priest (see Leviticus

21:14 and his prayer here in 13:29)?

(8) What did he do to restore the neglect of the priesthood and the worship at the

temple?

(9) Although the last prayer he said and recorded was brief, what does it reveal about

Nehemiah?

(10) What can you learn from his effort not only to rebuild the wall to protect the Holy

City, but to bring his people back to the true worship of Yahweh?

(11) What is the main message of this book to you and how may you apply it to your life?

V. Meditative Reflection

Day 344 The High Priest

“Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the

father of Joiada, Joiada the father of Jonathan and Jonathan the father of

Jaddua.” (Nehemiah 12:10-11)

The office of the high priest was established by Moses with Aaron and his sons

being anointed to such an office, to be succeeded only by the descendants of Aaron. As

much as Aaron was held responsible for the building of the golden calf, he remained as

the second most important spiritual leader of Israel during the time in the wilderness.

After the passing of Moses, such an office obviously increased in its importance,

fulfilling the functions specified by Moses which included:

- Being the only person permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year

during the Day of Atonement to make atonement for the sins of the entire

nation;

- His special dress also signified his role of intercessor for the people as well,

bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his breastplate and on his

shoulders (with the names engraved on the precious stones); and

- He was to enquire of the Lord for decision making and for seeking the will of

God through Urim and Thummim;

Other functions presumed by virtue of his office would also have included:

- The overseeing of all the functions pertaining to the worship and proper

operation of the temple;

- The ensuring of the continued worship of the people and their following of the

Law of Moses — in this respect, he could even overrule the king in enforcing

the law concerning the priesthood — Azariah’s withstanding the encroachment

of king Uzziah is a case in point ( II Chronicles 26:16-20); and

- Support the king or God-appointed leader with the force of priests and Levites

under his command — the overthrow of the usurpation of Athaliah, the daughter

of Ahab, by Jehoiada the high priest is a case in point (II Kings 11).

However, during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, it appeared that they had little

influence over the people whether in their effort to rebuild the temple or in the rebuilding

of the wall of Jerusalem.

The fact that even after the second temple was built, many of the Levites and priests

moved away from Jerusalem, causing the malfunction of the temple and the worship of

God, clearly showed the total neglect of the office by the high priest. Furthermore,

Eliashib, the high priest, sought to undermine the reformation under Nehemiah. The sins

of these high priests were vividly depicted in the vision of the prophet Zechariah in

which the high priest, Joshua (believed to be the same as Jeshua) “was dressed in filthy

clothes” before the Lord and was the object of accusation by Satan (Zechariah 3).

However, as weak and sinful as these high priests were, their office was a

foreshadow of the Ultimate High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who only needed to offer

up Himself once as “the” atoning sacrifice to redeem us and lives forever to intercede for

us (Hebrews 11:25, 27).

Day 345 Exerting Spiritual Leadership

“At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where

they lived and were brought to Jerusalem…” (Nehemiah 12:27)

Yesterday, we were considering the failure of the high priests in the time of Ezra and

Nehemiah in that they had exerted little influence over the people in the rebuilding of the

temple and the wall of Jerusalem. We also mentioned that they had neglected to properly

manage the temple worship to the point that many Levites and priests had moved out of

Jerusalem, leaving the temple without enough personnel to function properly.

Now that Nehemiah made an effort (no doubt using his political clout as well) to dig

up every single Levite outside Jerusalem and brought them back to participate in the

celebration of the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, it appeared that not only the

celebration was a great success, but the temple was able to function properly. The

description in 12:44 is particularly interesting:

“At the time men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the

contributions, first fruits and tithes. From the fields around the towns they

were to bring into the storerooms the portions requiring by the Law for the

priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priest

and Levites.”

In other words, before this, no one cared to look after the offerings brought to God’s

house. Since the priests and Levites were not there to receive them and showed no

respect and interest in the business of the house of God, the people did not bother to bring

their tithes, first fruits and contributions any more to the house of God. So, the problem

began not with the people, but with the clergy.

Now that Nehemiah had ensured that they would properly take care of the people’s

offerings, the people resumed tithing because “Judah was pleased with the ministering

priests and Levites”.

I am afraid there is a lesson to be learned by the clergy and lay leaders today.

Sometimes, there are complaints that the congregation does not care about the business

of the house of God — not many people are willing to volunteer their time to serve, and

the budget of the church is not met. The problem might have begun not with the people,

but with the clergy and lay leaders. We are not there to be man-pleasers for sure, but we

have to set an example in our love for people and for God, and in giving of our time and

money to the ministry of the gospel.

Day 346 A Time to Rejoice

“For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the

singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.” (Nehemiah 12:46 )

As a concluding remark, Nehemiah wished to inform us that the oath taken so

solemnly by the people of Israel was in fact seriously taken by the people. And so in 12:

44, he specifically told us that “at the time”, meaning after the dedication of the wall of

Jerusalem, they did follow through with their pledge, and appointed men (obviously

referring to Levites) to be in charge of the storerooms for the contributions, first-fruits

and tithes given by the people. In other words, before this pledge, the people didn’t

really care if the Levites and the priests had enough to support their families. This also

explains why many of the priests and Levites ended up moving away from Jerusalem and

many became farmers. This resulted in the business of the temple being totally neglected

as there were not enough priests and Levites to help the temple function properly.

Now that they had pledged “we will not neglect the house of our God” (10:39), one

of the first visible differences was that songs of praises were once again heard in the

temple with the re-forming of the temple choir—“For long ago, in the days of David and

Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and

thanksgiving to God” (12:46). Obviously, they did not have a song director for a long,

long time. The temple had been a rather subdued place of worship for many, many years.

Indeed, irrespective of how sinful and rebellious we may be, God still deserves our

praise and adoration. Every time believers gather before the Lord, it is first and foremost

a worship — this is why even in weddings and funerals, I would inform the hosts that we

are there to worship God first and foremost. And, with God being the center of our

worship, we cannot help but praise and adore Him. Somehow, God has seen fit to give us

the great gift of music which has a very unique way of helping us express our heart-felt

worship and adoration in ways that nothing can parallel — whether in songs, with

cymbals, harps and lyres (12:27), or with pianos, organs, synthesizers and guitars.

Since God deserves the best, let us do our best in preparation for worship every

Sunday, including giving Him the best offering in music, not as an entertainment to

ourselves, but to the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Day 347 A Matter of the Heart

“But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second

year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I had returned to the king.” (Nehemiah 13:6)

At times, the reader might be confused by the use of the term, king of Babylon

(Nehemiah 13:6) or the king of Assyria (Ezra 6:22), in referring to the king of Persia in

the Bible. While modern readers are very conscious of the historical shift in power in

Mesopotamia, it appears the ancient, especially the Hebrews who served under the

successive powers in the region, did not care too much about the ethnicity of the rulers.

To them, they were rulers over the same or similar territories controlled by the

Babylonians and the Assyrians.

Irrespective of who the ruler was, we know that “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart

is a stream of water that He channels toward all who please Him” (Proverbs 21:1). As a

result, we find that many of these Babylonian, Assyrian and Persian rulers had been used

by God not only as instruments of disciplining His people, but also to give them a second

chance to return to their God.

Artaxerxes was such a ruler who gave Nehemiah the power to return to Jerusalem

with the power of a governor to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and to implement his

spiritual reform. Unfortunately, rebuilding the wall of the city in spite of fierce

opposition from their enemies was the easy part; to reform the people was the hard part,

because he was dealing with the heart of the people. Without transforming the heart,

there is no change of behavior. Nehemiah could do all he could under his power to

enforce the code of law (i.e. the Law of Moses), but once he left Jerusalem (and we do

not know for how long), many parts of law were broken, including those that the people

solemnly vowed to keep.

It is a solemn reminder to us as well, as sometimes we tend to push for the enactment

of laws in our land so that our society may conform to the principles and teachings of the

Bible — whether it concerned the definition of marriage or other areas of significance to

the stability of a society. The unfortunate thing is we cannot legalize morality; it is a

matter of the heart. If people’s hearts are not transformed by the gospel, there is no hope

that they will appreciate, agree with and follow the principles and teachings of the

Scriptures.

We should remind ourselves all the time that we are not here to Christianize the

world culturally, we are to evangelize the world — one soul at a time. Yes, it is a slow

process, but the only process taught by our Lord has promised that “this gospel of the

kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the

end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

As slow as the process has been, it has gone on for over 2,000 years. We have

witnessed in our generation that the gospel has indeed reached beyond Jerusalem, in all

Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). “The end” is indeed very near.

Not that we should give up fighting for what is good and decent, but do understand that

when the end is near, as the angel told John in his vision, “Let him who does wrong

continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right

continue to do right and let him who is holy continue to be holy” (Revelation 22:11).

So let us not be discouraged if the world continues to ignore God and His message,

we should stick to the sharing and the living out of our testimonies, and leave the result in

the hand of God.

Day 348 Perseverance Pays Dividend

“I put Shelemiah the priest…and made Hanan…their assistant, because these men

were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the

supplies to their brothers.” (Nehemiah 13:13)

Nehemiah must be very discouraged upon his return from Persia the see that many of

the reform he put in place had not been kept—the re-mingling with their foreign

neighbors, the abuse even by the high priest in allowing his number one enemy, Tobiah

the Ammonite, the use of the room for storing sacred offerings from the people, and now

the neglect by the priests and Levites in providing for the needs of their fellow Levites. It

was kind of like a situation of “one step forward and two steps backward”.

Would you not feel discouraged? What can one do, especially when you cannot

really trust the leaders who were always working against you!

But Nehemiah pressed on, knowing that as much as he had the backing of the king

and he was obviously a very capable leader, only God could hold this reform together

and make it last. Therefore, at each of the corrective actions he took, he ended it with a

prayer to express his total dependency on God and His mercy.

And so we read in 13:14 this prayer of helplessness: “Remember me for this, O my

God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its

service.”

But the example that Nehemiah had left us is not just his total dependency through

prayer without taking any action, he exercised his wisdom in appointing men he

considered as trustworthy to enforce the distribution of supplies needed for other priests

and Levites (13:13).

This combination of prayerful dependency and exercise of wisdom had paid

dividend as we learn from history in that his reform, to a great extent, had steered the

entire nation of Israel away from idol-worship to strict adherence of the Law of Moses in

the next four centuries to come.

Day 349 Keeping Sabbath

“In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and

bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys…” (Nehemiah 13:15)

It is quite surprising to read that one of the terms they broke in their solemn vow to

God concerned the Sabbath, because they did single out the keeping of Sabbath in their

vow, pledging that “When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on

Sabbath. We will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day.” (10:31)

Now, they not only permitted the people from Tyre to bring in goods on Sabbath,

they themselves brought grain and other goods to the market as well.

Did they not know that it was a desecration to the Sabbath? Of course, they did!

Did they not fear the rebuke of the high priest or the nobles? Of course, they did not,

because many Levites and priests had stopped serving in the temple and left town, and

the Sabbath was not really honored as such by these leaders anyway. Who knows

whether these leaders also frequented the market to buy things as well on Sabbath!

But did they not fear that the same fate of their forefathers would befall them? Well,

to be absolutely honest, they were still under foreign occupation. Whether it was in

Babylon or in Jerusalem, the more important question was their survival. As they were

definitely not living a life of luxury, there were really not a whole lot of things they could

lose. It appears that while most people kind of kept their Sabbath, those who did not

obviously had an unfair advantage to make more money. Greed therefore was the real

motive as “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (I Timothy 6:10).

However, the Commandment to keep Sabbath was not just a sign of the covenant of

God (Exodus 31:20) denoting their uniqueness as a people of God, it was also an

expression of their love for God above all else, yes, even money.

As New Testament believers, it is true that we are no longer under the law, including

the Law to keep Sabbath. However, we are under the law of love and the test of our love

for God does include whether we put Him first in our lives, the most basic test of which is

to rest and worship Him on the Lord’s Day.

We are all familiar with the story of Eric Liddell who was willing to forego the

chance of winning an Olympic medal by not running the race on the Lord’s Day.

However, I have seen many Christians work on Sundays by choice, or go skiing or take

children to all kinds of extra-curriculum activities on Sunday and skip worship.

We are really no better than those who were rebuked by Nehemiah.

Day 350 Setting an Example for Future Generations

“I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and

pulled their hair.” (Nehemiah 13:25)

I am quite sure that when you read of how Nehemiah acted with violence toward

those who married foreign women, you were puzzled how such a man of God acted with

violence.

We need to bear several things in mind while trying to understand Nehemiah’s rather

unusual behavior:

1. As much as he grieved and was angry that they reneged so quickly from their vow

to God, breaching the very first promise they made (10:30) by marrying foreign

women, he did not force them to divorce their foreign wives and drive out their

children as Ezra did (in Ezra 10);

2. There was an earlier edict by Artaxerxes authorizing the governing of Judah by

the Law of Moses (Ezra 7:26) which included the power to execute offenders —

the beating of these offenders as the governor was well within the proper exercise

of his power under the law; and

3. Nehemiah’s rebuke fully revealed his grief and fear for the nation. He was afraid

that the people would offend God and invite His wrath again. One commentator’s

paraphrase of 13:26 aptly depicts the fear of Nehemiah:

“If the powerful King Solomon was powerless to resist the influence of

foreign wives, and if he, the beloved (of) God, found in his relation to

God no defence against the sin to which they seduced him, is it not

unheard of for you to commit so great an evil?” (Keil & Delitszch quoting

from Bertheau, 183)

It is also important to understand that Nehemiah did not drive out one of the sons of

Joiada the high priest because of personal vendetta, but because of his blatant violation

of Leviticus 21:7, 14, which automatically disqualified him as a priest.

In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus (Ant. xi, 7: 2 & 8: 2-4) told of a similar story

not long after Nehemiah in that Manasseh, a brother of the high priest, Jaddua, married

Nicaso, a daughter of the satrap Sanballat, a Cutheam. The Jewish elders, for fear of

God’s wrath, excluded him from the priesthood. However, he established, by the

assistance of his father-in-law Sanballat, the temple worship on Mount Gerizim which

presumably marked the beginning of the Samaritan worship on Gerizim (as alluded to by

the woman who conversed with Jesus at the well in Samaria in John 4).

In other words, the “extreme” but faithful action taken by Nehemiah had impacted

future generations in the preservation of the purity of Yahweh worship.

VI. A Time for Silence

You have meditated much with your intellectual faculty today. Now have a moment of silence (the length is up to you, 5 or even 30 minutes), and ask God quietly, “Lord, is there any important message from you today that I might have missed? Show me, your servant is listening?” VII. Supplication

Use the following chart to cover people and ministries that you want to remember before the Lord, apart from praying for yourself:

Your

Family

Other

People

Church

Ministries

Other

Ministries

City &

World Others

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

VII. Benediction

“O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend on us, we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in; be born

in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell: O come to us, abide

with us, our Lord Emmanuel.” Amen. (Philips Brooks, 1835-93)

year 2 week 50 day 344 350totalgrowth.org/devotion/lgc_devotion_2013_wk50_eng.pdf · (2) then, in...

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