Nehemiah faces pressure not only from outside the people but
from within as well. There seems to be
famine in the land that was so severe the people were mortgaging their property
and selling their children into slavery in order to get enough to eat. They were only beginning to resettle after
the seventy years of exile and re-establish their fields and farms and they
were cut off from their trading partners in the nations around them. The bad actors in this drama included at
least some of the nobles and leaders of Israel who were lending at interest
even though this was forbidden them and accepting the children as slave
labor. Nehemiah takes the bold step of
bringing charges against these men before the people. He shames them through the law into acting
like brothers. This allowed the work on
the walls of the city to resume.
Nehemiah also tells us that he waived the tax for food for the governor
during his tenure so as not to place a burden on the people and so that he
could not be accused of getting rich on the backs of the people. Nehemiah knew how to deal with distractions
and he knew that no matter the personal cost he had to be above reproach, the
people had to come first.
There is a very consistent message throughout scripture that
Jesus teaches here in the simplest terms imaginable. If we will keep Him and His kingdom first,
pursue His kingdom and righteousness, then we will have all our needs taken
care of by Him. He teaches it in the
prayer He taught the disciples, the first petition is, "Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done…" Last week's Old
Testament reading on Sunday from Haggai teaches that same principle, that if
the people would put God's temple first they would have the prosperity they had
been working for but were denied. The
same principle is at work in God's provision for the people in the wilderness
with the manna. If they had set His
kingdom first, trusted Him, their sojourn there would have lasted about forty
days and the manna would have always been a source of wonder to them. Because they rebelled and refused to enter
the land for fear, it became a forty years nightmare and they hated the
manna. What percent of your time is
spent seeking and building your kingdom versus His? The best way to begin to change that is to
intentionally spend more time in reading, prayer and service and allow that
then to crowd out the other activities.
Paul is anxious to give as much as he possibly can give to
the community at Troas. He has been with
them a week only and he has so much to say.
Because of his passion for teaching and ensuring that the people he is
given to instruct have all they need to keep them safe when those who sow seeds
of doubt come among them, he is willing to teach all night if necessary. Here, Luke tells us that this night he
prolonged his teaching until midnight.
One of the young men at the meeting, Eutychus, is sitting in the window
listening when he falls asleep and falls out the window. This becomes an opportunity for the Lord to
reveal Himself in power as Paul is used to restore this man's life. All circumstances can be an opportunity for
God to gain glory for Himself if we keep our heads and pray.
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