Nehemiah 13:23-31
Nehemiah
was that kind of guy too. We have read throughout chapter 13 about many
decisions that he made that no doubt made him an unpopular guy, but he
accomplished God’s vision. In today’s passage he confronts the issue of parents
allowing their sons and daughters to marry outside of the faith. And he does so
in a violent manner by cursing them, beating on them and pulling their hair out.
Why
did he do these things? Why was he so passionate about these laws? We get some
insight into this question in the final sentence of the book when he says, “Remember me with favor, my God”. This
is a phrase that he repeated three times in chapter 13.
Nehemiah
is passionate about the Lord and His Word; He is passionate about being
faithful to the Living God; He is passionate about the sovereign God of Israel;
because he wants God’s favor.
Jesus
spoke of this also when he told the parable of the bags of gold. The master
gave one servant five bags, another two and another one. The two servants who
invested their gold received praise and affirmation from the master as he said
to them, “Well done, good and faithful
servant!”
Jesus
himself received his Father’s affirmation following his baptism when God said, “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am
well pleased”. Personalize this by putting your own name at the beginning
of the statement: Joe, you are my
son, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased.
Don’t
we all desire that same affirmation from our Heavenly Father? Unconditional love
that affirms how much we mean to Him; how much He desires us to be with Him;
how much He wants us to be faithful to Him.
Therefore,
let’s keep our ears and eyes open for opportunities to be faithful to Our Lord.
And when they present themselves maybe, just maybe, we’ll hear God say to us,
“Git-R-Done”.
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Neh.13.23-Neh.13.31
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