Derek N.’s Journal

The Lord God is faithful and compassionate even toward the disobedience. Here the Israelites confessed to the Lord their God how they had been unfaithful times after times, and when they were in distress, they cried out to Him and confessed their sins, He delivered them from the hands of their enemies. What a loving God! What a wonderful Savior! Oh how great is your love for us? No measurement can measure how great your love is for us, the sheep of your pasture. In our weaknesses we lift our hands up to your throne. We confess that we are weak and we need your help to deliver us from our sins. O Lord shed your light on us and help us to walk faithfully before you. Thank you for your love and faithfulness. Thank you Jesus for everything. Amen.

The Lord commanded the Israelites to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacle in the seventh month starting from the 15th day. They were to celebrate it for seven days. The first day is the Sabbath where they do no work and the eighth day is also the Sabbath day. They people were instructed to build for themselves temporary shelters from luxuriant trees: palms, willow, and other leafy trees. They were to live in there during the duration of the festival (Leviticus 23:37-44). This was to remind them that the Lord had the Israelites lived in temporary shelters during the time he delivered them out of Egypt and into the promise land. The people listened and did as instructed by Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites and their hearts were all glad and filled with joy. This is a wonderful reminder to us why the Lord had the Israelites lived in temporary shelters. We must also remember that the Lord is bringing us into His eternal salvation, and like the Israelites, we are put in a temporary place, full of trials and testing of our faith, before we reach the promise land, which is God’s house. Let us remind ourselves of this and learn not to hold on to this world and the things of this life more than holding on to the promise of God, a promise land that He’d prepared for us since the beginning of time. If seven days of the festival of Tabernacle represents our temporary life in this world, are we using our lives to glorify God or are we building up temporary shelters for ourselves that will vanish one day? What is more important? Temporary life or Eternity in the house of God?

God put it in Nehemiah to assemble the people for registration and to resettle them in the city and rebuild this city. There were few people in the city and the houses had not yet been built, but it has to start somewhere. God called Nehemiah to start from scratch and build up the city. It was hard but Nehemiah took the calling. Sometimes God call us to do something, but we hesitate. We stop and ponder to see if we can do it instead of considering who call us to do it. If God calls us what then do we fear? How do we then know if God calls us to do something? God put it into your heart!

Jesus will help us in times of persecution or trouble. Though the enemies threaten us, God will protect and deliver those who believe in His name. So whenever we feel scared, or weakened in faith and became intimidated, let’s come before the God and pray. For surely, God is an ever present help in times of trouble. Let’s learn from Nehemiah who though facing much oppositions from enemies and even from those who claim to be prophets, his friends, yet were helping his enemies, yet he continued to press on and completed the work given to him by God. Hardships do not make the faithful lose hope, but they help them to build character and perseverance in Christ.

Greed and desire for profits over other people’s expenses or through their suffering is a stumbling block that will separate us from the love of God. For how could we walk in love and with love, that is Christ Jesus, if we do not love each other truly from the heart? God is love and if we do not love, we do not know Him. Nehemiah did not acquire land for himself though he was appointed governor over Judah. He did not try to gain benefits from the people like the way the previous governor and his assistants did. Instead he devoted himself fully to the work of the Lord. Nothing lasts forever, not even life itself, but only one thing will last and will last for eternity, that is the love of God in Christ Jesus for all of us. And God’s love is enough for us all to share with everyone around us. Those who have will be given more, so continue to give love to people around us because the more love we give, the more love we will receive.

The things these Israelites had to go through in order to fulfill their duty in rebuilding the house of God. The enemies ridiculed them and plotted to kill them at the moment they least expected yet they continued on building. They worked with one hand while carrying a weapon on the other hand for protection. The courage and the perseverance of the faithful ones set us great examples of faith. While it’s easy to give up when our faith is challenged or our walk with God gets rough or troubles linger at the door because of the wicked ones. We are comforted to know that we are not walking this earth alone but God is walking with us every step of the way. The battle is not our alone but it is God’s and we know nothing is impossible to God. So what then should stop us from persevering and continuing this race that is set before us? Should troubles stop us? Let’s put on the armor of God and fight the good fight till the end.

The people of Israel gathered together to rebuild the wall and the gates for Jerusalem. They each contributed their part in the rebuilding process. I imagine the building of the wall as being like the building of the house of God, piece by piece. Each person is a brick in the house of God and together with the unison and bond in Christ, we will be able to build one big church.

What gives Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, have the courage to present his request before the king to let him go to Judah and fix the wall of Jerusalem? His courage came from his faith in God. When the king asked him what is it you want? He prayed to the God of heaven, then presented his requests. If you have not, try it. Before you do something that makes you anxious or nervous because you are worried about the outcome, pray to the Lord and you will see how everything turn out perfectly and you will see the miracle of God in your life, sometimes not the way you want it, but even better. But the point is that, even if you are small in your eyes, in God’s eyes you are worthy because he created you wonderfully and fearfully.

Nehemiah knows that God is attentive to his prayer because God is present with those whose heart seeks Him. If anyone is able to help Nehemiah, it is God. Nehemiah trusts that the Lord can and will help him so he prayed to the Lord, first to confess, then to seek His help. I believe that’s the first place we need to be when we need help, down on our knees before the Lord and seek Him. The Lord is compassionate and faithful, ready to help us whenever we need Him. I praise You, o Lord, for your love endures forever.

This must have been very hard to do during the time considering the fact that they married those foreign women and then had to send their wives and children away. Though it was hard, it had to be done. There are things that we hold onto in our lives that we know displeases the Lord and yet we continue to hold on to them. Usually those things are what block us from our fellowship with God and hinder our walk with Him. Whatever that stumbling block may be, we must make a tough decision and ask ourselves whether that thing or person or behavior or feeling or ambition or relationship or whatever that may be, is more important or whether God is more important. Is that worth our soul and our relationship with our loving God, who had given us everything, and provided for our every need in life and for eternity? Decisions must be made because time is not always going to be there.