A Program to Rebuild
Read: Nehemiah 2:11-20 And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. (v. 18) In Nehemiah 1, we read that Nehemiah’s brother Hanani had reported that the exiles were “in great trouble and shame” because the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and the gates were destroyed […]
A Plan for Repair
Read: Nehemiah 2:1-10 The king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. (v. 8) Have you ever asked God for an “open door”? Paul wrote about God opening “a door” for the message of salvation (1 Cor. 16:9; Col. 3:5), and Christians often use this phrase when we are […]
A Prayer from Nehemiah
Read: Nehemiah 1 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant. (v. 11) The book of Nehemiah is really the first-person memoirs of Nehemiah himself—a contemporary of Ezra the priest. The events of chapter 1 took place about 13 years after Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem—90 years or so after the first […]
Dealing with Discouragement
Are you stuck in discouragement? Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:4-11 gives you a model to leave discouragement behind, by remembering God and his promises. As we drove through Wyoming, my husband and I were amused at some of the creative—and somewhat inhospitable—names of places we saw along the way. Besides the famous “Devil’s Tower,” we […]
A Penitent Population
Read: Ezra 10:1-15 We have broken faith with our God . . . but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. (v. 2) When you drive past the rescue mission in my hometown, you see one word prominently displayed by the entrance. Hope is offered to those who come there. Sin is a destroyer, […]
Faith Comes Through Hearing
A Bhutanese woman champions the gospel in her home village with the help of audio Bible recordings. Following Christ’s Leading Many years ago, a lady named Choeden followed her husband away from their remote mountain village in Bhutan and traveled to a larger town in search of work. In the town, Choeden met a Christian […]
A Prayer of Confession
Read: Ezra 9 As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. (v. 3) The book of Ezra suddenly gets very personal! This section is written in the first person as Ezra shares his reaction to the news of the nation’s […]
A Priest’s Arrival
Read: Ezra 7:1-10 Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes. (v. 10) Eighty years after the first group of exiles had arrived to rebuild and resettle Jerusalem, another company of Jews returned to their homeland. This group included priests, singers, gatekeepers, and […]
A Passover Observed
Read: Ezra 6:13-22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful. (v. 22) Seventy years after Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, the new temple (called “Zerubbabel’s temple” by historians) was finished. It had taken 21 years from the laying of the foundation to […]