February 15, 2015
Hymn 358 - Tell me the story of Jesus
Prayer
Nehemiah 7:1-6
Nehemiah had come from Babylon to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. They have finished and have put up the gates. The wall can now protect them from their enemies.
Here Nehemiah had appointed three positions or jobs: singers, porters, and Levites. The porters opened and closed the gates. The gates were now the only way in or out, now that the wall was finished. The singers would worship God through song. We, too, can sing and praise God. The Levites cared for the people.
Nehemiah has also given jobs to two other men. The first one he calls his brother: Hanani. He was the man who came from Jerusalem to Babylon to visit Nehemiah. He told Nehemiah the news from Jerusalem. The other man, Hananiah, was set as the ruler of the palace. He ruled Jerusalem. Nehemiah said that he was a faithful man and feared God.
The wall was built to keep enemies out, but the people inside still needed a way to get in and out. The porters opened and closed the gates at certain times, but they weren’t left open. When the sun came up, the porters opened the door; but during the night they closed them. You had to make sure you were in the city before they closed the gates. The wall was important to keep enemies out of the city. Our ears and eyes are like those gates. They can let things in, but we have to be careful to keep wrong things out. We have to be porters of our ears and eyes.
Hananiah had the responsibility of ruling over Jerusalem. He was a faithful man. Nehemiah knew he could depend on and trust him. Remember the story of the talents. The ones who were faithful and multiplied what they were trusted with, were trusted with more . He was faithful to do what was right. Paul the Apostle said he was a faithful servant of God.
He also feared God. That doesn’t mean he was afraid of God. It meant he loved God, and honoured Him. We should want to honour God in everything. We should desire to.
God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to write the names of people who had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. The first name he lists is Zerubbalel. He returned back in Ezra’s time. The whole list was names of people who had been faithful to return to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 7:66
Fourty-two thousand people had returned. But the city was large and the people look like few in such a big city.
So Nehemiah made sure there were porters to open and close the gates just like we need to be porters of our ears and eyes. And we must remember to fear God. “The fear of God is the beginning wisdom.” We must hold respect and reverence toward God.
Acts 23:12-35; 24:1-15
These chapters are mostly narrative, with Paul as a captive—which he will be for most of his life now. He’s unable to use the gifts that God gave him to turn people from darkness to light.
Forty of Paul’s Jewish enemies got together and bound themselves under a great curse that they wouldn’t eat or drink until they had killed Paul. This would increase the intensity of their purpose, but eventually they would loose strength. We never hear of them again, but we do know that their plans were foiled!
These men tried to get the chief priests and elders to have the chief captain bring Paul down to the counsel, under the guise that they would ask him more questions. Meanwhile, they would lie in wait to kill him. Paul’s sister’s son heard about this plan, though, and came and told his Uncle Paul about it. Once he heard, Paul called a centurion and asked him to bring his nephew to the chief captain.
After the chief captain heard Paul’s nephew’s story, he reacted strongly. He decided that Paul wouldn’t be examined in Jerusalem, but instead in Caesarea. He also decided that Paul would need some protection to get there, and so sent almost 500 men to guard him! Those were good odds—40 to 500—and the chief priests weren’t likely to attack them.
The chief captain wrote a letter to Felix—the governor in Caesarea—to explain Paul’s arrival. He told how he had rescued Paul, and that he thought his issues were religious, not civil. Felix put Paul in Herod’s Judgement Hall, but reserved hearing from him until his accusers came from Jerusalem.
When Paul’s accusers did come, they brought an orator with them. Tertulus made a good speech; he buttered Felix up and tried to accuse Paul of being a pestilent man, raising sedition, and being a ring-leader of the Nazarenes. He also mentioned how the Jews would have dealt with Paul themselves, but the chief captian stopped them.
Paul then answered for himself, and was as good an orator as Tertulus. These people originally thought that he had profaned the temple, but he had done no such thing. Interestingly, Paul once again mentions the resurrection. It was a big issue, and not just with the Pharisees and Sadducees, but with the Gentiles as well. They wanted to kill Paul, but that wouldn’t be the end of things. One day they, too, would die and have to give answer what they had done.
The resurrection is still a big topic today. It’s amazing evidence for Christianity; and a problem for atheists, because the evidence is hard to refute.
Hymn 351 – One door and only one
Prayer