Then the rest of the people…joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath. They swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey the Law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord. [Nehemiah 10:28-29 (NLT)]
In the years following the exiles’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple, adherence to the Law grew lax. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depended on knowing the commandments of the Torah but the people had drifted away from God and His word and were committing the same sins that got them exiled! More than fifty years after the Temple’s rebuilding, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. As a priest and teacher of the law, Ezra was shocked to find such disobedience. He tore his clothes and pulled his hair in sorrow before kneeling in prayer. He led the people in prayers of confession and repentance after which they swore a solemn oath to follow the Lord’s commands.
A decade after Ezra’s arrival, Nehemiah arrived and rebuilt the city’s wall. When the wall was completed, all the men, women, and children (old enough to understand) assembled in the square by the Water Gate. Ezra stood on a high platform and read to them from the Torah. After Ezra read, the Levites went among the people to help them understand each passage. The next morning, after further study, they found directions for the Feast of Booths and immediately reinstituted the celebration. Realizing they’d broken their covenant with God, the people assembled again to hear the Book of the Law. After confessing their sins, they again rededicated themselves to following God and keeping His law. They specifically pledged to faithfully observe both the Sabbath and the seventh Sabbath year, to pay their Temple tax and tithes, and not to neglect the Temple or marry pagans. Their vows were recorded and the document was ratified and signed by the leaders, Levites, and priests.
Good intentions aren’t enough and remaining faithful to God’s word requires daily vigilance. Nehemiah was called back to the Persian court for an unknown amount of time and, in the years between signing that covenant and his return to Jerusalem, the people managed to violate every promise they made. It was during this period that the prophet Malachi rebuked the priests and people for their willful disobedience.
Nevertheless, despite Malachi’s warnings and their good intentions, when Nehemiah returned, he found the people blatantly disregarding God’s Law. Tithes and offerings weren’t being made, provision hadn’t been made for the Levites, trade and work were being done on the Sabbath, intermarriage with pagans had resumed, and wood hadn’t been provided for Temple offerings. Many of the children couldn’t even speak Hebrew! Worse, in direct violation of the Torah, an Ammonite was given a room at the Temple. In his anger at finding God’s house despoiled, Nehemiah cleared the Temple (as Jesus would again nearly 400 years later). “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city?” asked Nehemiah. [13:18]
The city’s walls may have protected Jerusalem from attack, but they couldn’t prevent sin from entering the people’s lives. They’d done more than neglect bringing wood for the fire at the altar—they’d allowed the fire in their hearts to die! Despite their good intentions, they took their eyes off God and His word. The flame of faith needs more than good intentions; it needs both fuel and tending. Gen. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, told his followers “Bear in mind that it is the nature of a fire to go out; you must keep it stirred and fed and the ashes removed.” The exiles had failed to keep the fire going. The book of Nehemiah closes with him making sure there was a supply of wood for the altar. Just as the fire on the altar was never to be allowed to go out, the fire in our hearts must burn continuously, as well!
Take care of giving up your first zeal; beware of cooling in the least degree. Ye were hot and earnest once; be hot and earnest still, and let the fire which once burnt within you still animate you. Be ye still men of might and vigor, men who serve their God with diligence and zeal. [Charles Spurgeon]
When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, over ninety years had passed since the first of the exiled Jews had returned to Judah. Although the temple had been rebuilt for seventy years, Jerusalem’s city walls and gates were still in ruins. Nevertheless, within fifty-two days of his arrival, the walls were reconstructed and new gates installed. That Nehemiah managed to accomplish in less than two months what hadn’t been done in ninety years is a case study in Management 101.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Nearly fifty years after Jerusalem was destroyed, the first of the exiled Jews returned to the ruined city. Although his brother Hanani returned to Judah, Nehemiah, who served Persia’s King Artaxerxes as cup-bearer, didn’t. While his job included ensuring the safety of the king’s food and drink, Nehemiah was more bodyguard than waiter. In constant contact with the king, he served as both confidant and companion to Artaxerxes. He carried the king’s signet ring and possibly served as his chief financial officer.
The timelines in most Bibles indicate that the first captives were taken to Babylon in 605 BC and the first exiles returned to Judah in 538 BC. No matter how you figure it, the years don’t quite match Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years. Is “close” good enough for God or does He round up? If we are to trust Biblical prophecy, it should be accurate, and this apparent discrepancy is troubling.
Even without knowing what a petard is, we probably know that when someone gets “hoisted by his own petard,” he’s been foiled by his own scheme. When Shakespeare’s audience heard this phrase spoken by Hamlet in 1600, they knew a petard was a bomb. In the bard’s day, hoisted had more than one meaning. Along with lifted, it meant removed or taken out. Taken literally, Hamlet’s phrase meant that his enemy would be blown up by his own bomb!
The version of what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” in Luke 11 and the one we find in Matthew 6 are somewhat different. The shorter version in Luke was given to His disciples (probably on the Mt. of Olives) while the one in Matthew was taught to the crowd gathered on the hill by the Sea of Galilee as part of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s quite likely that Jesus gave this prayer example several times during his three-year ministry, each time with slightly different wording. Both versions, however, are probably shorter than the prayer most Protestants recite today. Missing is the phrase, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.” Because this phrase was not found in the two earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew’s gospel, most modern Bible translations do not include it. Although found in later manuscripts, most Biblical scholars believe it to be a later liturgical addition to the original prayer. So, how did we come to pray this prayer in its longer form?
Devotions of the Heart 