PURIFY THE CHURCH
Nehemiah
13:1-14 / Keywords 13:9
I gave
orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the
house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
Nehemiah’s Final Reforms
13:1 On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, 2 because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) 3 When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, 5 and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. 11 So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
12 All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. 13 I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.
14 Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.
1. The
Israelites went on to read the book of Moses and tried to abide by the Law and
instructions. Unfortunately, they could not keep up with their decisions for
long.
2. Nehemiah
had been called back to Babylon after his term as a governor of Judea. When he
returned to Jerusalem after some years, he saw that the priest in charge of the
temple storeroom let Tobiah, who opposed the restoration work (2:10), take a
personal space in the storeroom (5). People had stopped giving tithes and
firstfruits as offering to support the house of God. As a result, the temple
workers were not being provided for and forced to scatter to provide their
living (11).
3. Nehemiah
threw out all of Tobiah's belongings and ordered all rooms in the temple to be
purified (9). The tithes and grain offerings were restored (12). We cannot
depend on our feelings of goodwill to live a life of faith and worship God. We
need to trust God's grace and provision and have the discipline to purify our
hearts before him and practice giving an offering. What is in your heart that
needs to be cleared to put God in the center?
Prayer Father, you are my LORD, and I
worship you with all my heart. Please help me to have the strength to purify my
heart to be right before you and serve you without hindrance.
One
Word We need God's grace
to keep pure hearts
No comments:
Post a Comment