Tuesday 15 Sep 2020

September 15: Nehemiah 13:1-9
 
Key Verse: Nehemiah 13:8
I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.
 
Devotion:
When we sort things out in our lives or in our businesses, there is bound to be someone who will go against what we are doing because they have their own motives which are not the same as yours. They may be saying and doing the right thing at the time, but as soon as your back is turned, they revert to their own motivations and things go astray once again!
 
God knows there are going to be people in our lives who will go against what we are doing for God; and when this happens, we have to work hard to bring things back in line. Nehemiah was back with the king at the time while Eliashib was undoing what had been done and when Nehemiah returned, he had work to do!
 
The priest had, in effect, invited the evil back into the city after Nehemiah had spent a long time trying to protect the city from evil and well as re-focus the people back on God. When the people heard the words said by Moses where it said, ‘no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,’ they took things literally and excluded any foreigners from the city!
 
God does not want us to exclude people from the church just because He demanded that of certain races during the times of the great exodus. Jesus came to show us how to include all people into His kingdom; how we should love our neighbours... But He did not tell us to invite evil back into our lives... Tobiah had done many things to try and prevent Jerusalem from turning back to God and would continue to do so.
 
Points to Ponder:
What do you get up to when you’re not “in church”?
 
Will you live your life as if Jesus is standing next to you instead?