Nehemiah: God's Invitation to RebuildSample

Obedience to God

How good are you at seeing a task all the way through to completion? Do you have a closet stuffed with projects you began with great enthusiasm, only to peeter out about three-quarters of the way through?

Once the newly rebuilt wall around Jerusalem was dedicated—a fantastic accomplishment—there was a grand celebration amidst the restoration of all the duties of those in temple service (priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers.)

Perhaps you expected to read the perennial words, “the end”, right? Wrong. The more they continued to read God’s Law the more areas of their collective lives came under the spotlight. There was more work to do.

• Foreigners had to be excluded from the assembly, especially arch-enemy Tobiah from the privileged location he’d been allotted in the Temple.
• The tithes due for the support of Levites needed to resume, as per God’s command.
• Appropriate observance of the Sabbath had to be restored.
• Marriages between God’s people and the pagans in the land were not to be allowed.

Nehemiah wisely recognized that incomplete obedience is disobedience. God gives all his commands for good reasons, because he can see the future—we can’t. This scripture graciously illustrates what happens when we think we can pick and choose among his commands, like a buffet.

1. In what area of your life do you need to obey?
2. Have you been obedient in an incomplete way to something God has asked of you?

Prayer: God, thank you for your Word and your commandments. I trust you. Help me be faithful and obedient to follow after you.

Bonus Reading: Judges 1:27—2:5