To the dismay of Nehemiah (although no one should be surprised), the Israelites, despite there "new" covenant with God, continue to neglect the house of God and God's will for them.
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.
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15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. 16 People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. 17 I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? 18 Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”
Why should we be surprised - I mean c'mon I know of myself I cannot avoid sin - how silly is this?
While one can view Nehemiah as a great man, we can fault him for expecting too much.
We need Jesus and Jesus alone as our savior for only He can take away our sins and help us lead a life worthy of God's glory. Even with Jesus, we are going to be who we are - humans. And as such we will continue to sin until the day we die. Until then we need to go to Jesus and ask forgiveness and to ask for Him to purify us of our sin as only He can do. We also need to see others as Jesus does and pray that we can do this even when we don't want to or won't.
My Prayer: Lord, only you are a perfect Jesus...and You are. And it continues to amaze me that You - our great God - love me and you died for me and that you desire me. Lord, please forgive me for my sin because it is daily and painful. I do wish that you can help rid me of my sin and that you will transform my heart and life so that I can more pure and more like you. Please do help me Jesus.
