Nehemiah 11-13

This passage took me 20 minutes to read, and it was a very difficult read.  I would hate to read it out loud.  For here Nehemiah lists the names of the leaders of the people who took up residence in Jerusalem, even though their inheritance was actually somewhere else in Israel.  Nehemiah describes this as a bold move, and refers to these people as courageous.  To live in Jerusalem was to leave the planting and harvesting of the gardens on the inherited land to others, or not at all.  Therefore, there was a greater dependence upon God.  There was also the issue of the continued threat against Jerusalem’s wall by her enemies.  Nehemiah names those who made that sacrifice of faith.  He also speaks of the lapse of faithfulness while he was away from Jerusalem.  The people were violating the Sabbath, and intermarrying with those outside of the covenant.  Nehemiah called them to account, with physical force as needed.  All of these actions Nehemiah offered to God; as he stated in the last line of his book.

Stuart