Nehemiah

Just finished reading Nehemiah. It is a fascinating book. How frustrating it must have been to be given permission and money by the most powerful king of the world (at that time) to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and to have to fight to do it the whole time. The workers had to carry their swords with them at all times while they were trying to do manual labor and even when they went to get water.

Other things that were interesting to me:

• They set aside the Sabbath again as a holy day of rest


• They promised to remember and keep the year of Jubilee (one of the reasons they went into captivity in the first place is because they broke that)


• They instituted the keeping and celebrating of the "Feast of Booths/Tabernacles"-it had not been kept since the days of Joshua (8:17)


• When they dedicated the wall the "joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar"

Ezekial

Ezekial is amazing because he was my age. When he was 30 he was to have begun his years of service as a priest (Number 4:3). There was no higher honor as a Jew than to serve God in the temple. They were to teach the people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean (Ezekial 44:23). God Himself was the inheritance of the priests and Levites.

Just when Ezekial's dream was about to be realized Nebuchadnezzar took him, along with 10,000 others, captive into Babylon in 597 B.C. Then in 586 Nebuchadnezar completely destroyed the temple and much of Jerusalem. Ezekial's hopes must have been shattered.

Yet Ezekial was not abandoned by God. In fact he was given something far better. God Himself spoke to him and gave him a glimpse into the future. He was shown the future of Israel and the nations. Most importantly Ezekial got to see the glory of the Lord as he was taken inside another temple and another Jerusalem-one that is still yet to come. The name of the city is Jehovah-shammah-"the Lord is there."
"God said to me, 'Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name."-Ezekiah 43:7

When I study Ezekial I see that God is intimately acquainted with me-and my hopes and my dreams. When I seek Him with all my heart I will not be disappointed.

"God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame."-Elizabeth Browning