March 8, 2011 Nehemiah 5, 6
Nehemiah was an amazing man. In Chapter 5 we see him sticking up for the poor. He got right in the business of the rich nobles and officials and chastised them for being cruel and unfair. They listened and that is amazing in itself.
In chapter 6 we see the heat turned up from his enemies. They were complete liars too. The amazing thing about Nehemiah is that once again he had discernment and knew when a wolf was a wolf...And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. Nehemiah 6:12-14 (ESV)
Of course it is important to pay attention to all of Nehemiah's "quick prayers" throughout. He is conversational with God. I think in this day and age it is so important to remember that there are enemies among us. Sanballat was a Jew-I am not sure if he was an Israelite but he was a practicing Jew never-the-less, and look at what an enemy he was. He incited people to go against Nehemiah, he lied about the motive to rebuild and yet was supposed to be one of them. Divisiveness marks a wolf.
New Jewelry set for a customer:
I really hope in the next few months to get items uploaded to my etsy shop-gotta finish the cookbook FIRST:
