Saturday, February 27, 2016

Day 16 – Saturday -- The Book of Nehemiah


Day 16 – Saturday

The Book of Nehemiah

This book reads like a diary. Nehemiah, a Jew living in Persia, and a personal assistant to the Persian King, Artaxerxes, gets word about the bad shape Jerusalem is in. Getting permission from the King to go to Jerusalem and help rebuild it, Nehemiah arrives twelve years after Ezra’s book ends.

Under his direction the people get to work. They repair the gates and start rebuilding the walls. But there is opposition. Nehemiah has to put armed guards around the construction sites so that the building can progress.

News gets to Nehemiah that the ordinary people are being charged interest on their fields and grain. He orders all those in power to stop charging interest and to return any land that has been taken.

Like Ezra, Nehemiah is enraged about the mixed marriages. So he rounds up the guilty men, curses them, beats them, and pulls out their hair (13.23-25).

The wall is completed around 444 BCE. In chapter eight Ezra shows up and gathers all the people for a reading of the Law. Ezra builds the first pulpit. The Levites explain what Ezra has read. So we have Ezra the lector and the Levites as preachers (the explainers). There is much crying. And when the people returned to their homes, they celebrated by eating and drinking and by sharing their food with those in need, because they had understood what had been read to them (9.12, CEV). Now, that’s the kind of response any preacher hopes for.

Soon afterward they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles (Feast of Booths). On the eighth day the stood and listened to the Law being read for three hours, then confessed their sins for three hours. There is a long and poetic prayer in chapter nine which recounts God’s mercy, followed by Israel’s rebellion; the Lord’s mercy, followed by Israel’s unfaithfulness; God’s mercy, followed by Israel’s stubbornness; the Lord’s mercy…well, you get the picture.

Next comes the renewal of the Covenant. They recommit themselves to their partnership with God and promise to stay separate from foreigners.

What are we to say about the extreme insular attitude of the Jewish community at this time? Well, we have to remember that different measures are called for in different circumstances. It was a time for walls. It was a time when outward “markers” were needed to form a new community. These markers were circumcision, rituals, feast days, the temple, songs, prayers, genealogical purity, ethnic consistency, tradition, homogeneous marriages, and official roles.

The Exile was a devastating event. The Jewish community of faith had to re-establish and redefine itself. The harsh measures taken by the leadership would be quickly condemned by us today. But remember, we’ve been there too. Look back at American history or Protestant history. Remember what we used to do. We’ve come a long way.

Nehemiah was a builder of walls. Psychologically speaking, we take about the need for boundaries. Sexual harassment and sexual abuse in churches are the result of someone in authority not taking boundary issues seriously.

Finish this: I maintain psychological and ethical boundaries by….



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