Nehemiah 13
Nehemiah 13
Today we see Nehemiah actively calling out sin that started while he was gone with King Artaxerxes. It was during Nehemiah’s absence that Malachi wrote his prophetic book calling out the priests and the people for their sin, so Nehemiah is the last chapter of the Old Testament to be written.
In Nehemiah 10, the people promised to stop doing three things: 1.) have ungodly romantic relationships (Nehemiah 10:30), 2.) buy and sell on the Sabbath (Nehemiah 10:31), and 3.) not support the Levites and ultimately the work of God with their money (Nehemiah 10:32-39). In Nehemiah 13, only 10 or 12 years later, they failed in all three of these areas.
This is one of many examples in the Old Testament that the Law, rules, and covenants the people made are not able to stop them (or us) from sinning. No matter how much they tried or we try, sin is still the result. Nehemiah’s reactions should be how we feel: frustrated and aching for a solution.
God has provided that solution through Christ. Romans 8:3-4 states, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
We cannot get to God through good deeds and making vows and promises. All those things only cause us to look to ourselves instead of looking to Christ and what He has done to save us. The purpose of the Law wasn’t to save us, but to reveal our need for a Savior.
How have you been behaving as if you saved yourself? What can you do today to remind yourself to continue looking to Christ instead of yourself?
By: Kaitlin White
Today we see Nehemiah actively calling out sin that started while he was gone with King Artaxerxes. It was during Nehemiah’s absence that Malachi wrote his prophetic book calling out the priests and the people for their sin, so Nehemiah is the last chapter of the Old Testament to be written.
In Nehemiah 10, the people promised to stop doing three things: 1.) have ungodly romantic relationships (Nehemiah 10:30), 2.) buy and sell on the Sabbath (Nehemiah 10:31), and 3.) not support the Levites and ultimately the work of God with their money (Nehemiah 10:32-39). In Nehemiah 13, only 10 or 12 years later, they failed in all three of these areas.
This is one of many examples in the Old Testament that the Law, rules, and covenants the people made are not able to stop them (or us) from sinning. No matter how much they tried or we try, sin is still the result. Nehemiah’s reactions should be how we feel: frustrated and aching for a solution.
God has provided that solution through Christ. Romans 8:3-4 states, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
We cannot get to God through good deeds and making vows and promises. All those things only cause us to look to ourselves instead of looking to Christ and what He has done to save us. The purpose of the Law wasn’t to save us, but to reveal our need for a Savior.
How have you been behaving as if you saved yourself? What can you do today to remind yourself to continue looking to Christ instead of yourself?
By: Kaitlin White
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