Skip to main content

Nehemiah 13:10-14 Levites were being neglected - Day 23

 Good morning friends,

It has been an interesting experience re-reading thoughts from a year ago.  Surely Nehemiah went back and re-read this history in the light of the intervening years.  Maybe he too asked, "What has changed in the heart of the exiles who had returned since these events happened/"  So I ask What has changed in my heart since I wrote this?  

Dear reader, God's word is sharper than a two edges sword.  It does expose the thoughts and inttents of the heart.  The form of asking what does this passage teach me about God must become personal as the Holy Spirit applies truth to our hearts.

Blessings,

Jeff

Neglecting the house of the Lord is the fruit of an assortment of bad roots. Based on corrective actions, Failure to distribute portions to the Levites was a leadership issue. People brought their tithes when they saw them properly used.   While people are commanded to tithe, leadership is commanded to use the tithe properly. When tithing is preached, do we also show stewardship of those gifts and offerings?   

So where are my good deeds for Your house and service?  It seems to me that sometimes I play at church. It is just a hobby.  Does zeal describe anything in my life?  If my Master was consumed by zeal for Your house, shouldn't I as His disciple be consumed as well.  I would settle for  "reliable".  I see politicians absolutely sold out to ideology, especially on the left. 

Confession  - rejecting You as the greatest asset of Your church. Seeking fiscal and social sustainability instead of life transformed by the gospel. Relationship with the Holy One of Israel is all I can really offer because it is all that You provide.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall