9/16/2011 7:21:45 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The Sabbath promise
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Nehemiah 13:15-22
Message of the verses: “15 ¶ In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food. 16 Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. 17 Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? 18 "Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath." 19 It came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 Then I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you." From that time on they did not come on the sabbath. 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the sabbath day. For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.”
It kind of makes me a bit sad that this is the last SD that I will be doing on the book of Nehemiah, as far as taking a portion of Scripture and then commenting on it. In many of Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries he will save the last chapter to go over what has been learned from the entire book that he is commenting on. Perhaps in the next SD I will post some of his comments from this last chapter that he has written. I have found in the past that they are some of the richest of all his writings.
When it comes to writing about the Jewish Sabbath there is much more material than I have time for in this short writing, however this short section of Scripture has the word Sabbath written in it ten times and so that must mean that it is an important subject to Nehemiah as he closes out his book. Once again we must go back to the tenth chapter to see what these Jewish exiles had said that they would do in order to keep God’s Law, “As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt (Neh. 10:31).” This seems pretty clear that they were not doing what they had promised to do and this was greatly upsetting to Nehemiah. Nehemiah had spent some twelve years with these people building the walls and then helping to begin a revival in their hearts and he goes away for a short time and comes back to find all of the problems that he writes about in this final chapter of his book, and I would think that this would bring about some distress in his life, and yet he goes about challenging the people and even pulling out some of the hair of these people in order to discipline them. God gave the Sabbath Law to the nation of Israel and of all of the Ten Commandments it is the only one that is not repeated in the NT, it was for the nation of Israel and it was the seventh day or Saturday. It was a Law that was good for the people, for on that day they had time to worship the Lord, to rest themselves and their animals in order to be refreshed that they might begin a new week. The people were greedy and wanted to make more money and that is why they were doing what they were doing on the Sabbath.
Nehemiah reminds them that this was one of the reasons that God disciplined their forefathers and would do the same to them if they did not get it right. He shut the gates and told the gentile people to get out of town on the Sabbath or he would force them out. He stationed guards to make sure this did not happen again. Nehemiah, at the end of this section give another of his “famous” telegraph prayers to the Lord and that is how we will end this portion of this SD: “For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that Sunday is a day that I am to worship the Lord in the corporate setting of the local church with like minded believers. I believe that I should not do on Sunday what I can do on other days, things like cutting the grass, going shopping, washing the car, and so on. Sunday is the day that the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and as it was also pointed out in the commentary today it was the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the believers on Pentecost. I must admit that this was not something that I realized before, but none the less it is true.
As far as Saturday it is a good day to reflect on the creation of the earth for it was that day that the Lord rested from His work of creation. Rested in the sense that a great painter stands back after taking many days to create his painting to take time to look at it, and this is what the Lord did after His great work of creation. It is a good day to take a walk in the woods in order to admire the wonderful creation that the Lord has made, to reflect on His goodness to me and those I love.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to learn contentment.
9/16/2011 8:07:25 AM
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