Nehemiah 4:1 – With a name like Sanballat you know he was going to be a curmudgeon.
Nehemiah 4:2-3 – I have this classic image in my here of two guys having a ‘private’ conversation loud enough that everyone around them hears, which is obviously their intent. “HEY TOBIAH, DID YOU HEAR WHAT THE ISRAELITES ARE DOING? …”
Nehemiah 4:5 – But Nehemiah reponds in prayer, askiong for God to notice and pointing out they have provoked Him to anger by insulting His people.
Nehemiah 4:6 – And then he moves on, “And so we built the wall …”
Nehemiah 4:8-9 – They’re back, but this time they are prepared to fight to stop the work. More prayer – and a guard is posted.
Nehemiah 4:14 – He refuses to be dissuaded. He prays and he acts to continue the work adn he reminds the people to “remember the Lord, who is great and awesome” – and then tells tehm to fight. Good advice, I need to remember this when things are tough. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome – and then fight. It’s the remembering that embowers us to fight against enemies that are stronger than us. For when we remember, we are reminded that God is fighting with us, for us and he will make us able to stand.
Nehemiah 4:15-23 – Though God had frustrated the attack, they continued to work, but were prepared, always at the ready for another attack.

This is one of those chapters that I’m tempted to breeze through. Lists of people. Yesterday, however, our minister shared that it is one of his favorites. Why? Look at the list of people, most of them not builders by trade, but they each pitched in.
Nehemiah 3:1 – The high priest – building.
Nehemiah 3:2 – men of Jericho (Jericho?) – building.
Nehemiah 3:5 – The nobles – NOT building. I wonder why? Did they think it foolish or was the labor beneath them? Nehemiah doesn’t dwell on it, rather concentrates on those who were building.
Nehemiah 3:7 – Gibonites and Meronothites – building.
Nehemiah 3:8 – Goldsmiths & perfumers – building.
Nehemiah 3:9 – District rulers – building.
Nehemiah 3:10 – Building and repairing what was near their homes.
Nehemiah 3:12 – More rulers, and daughters (Go daughters!) – building.
Nehemiah 3:13 – Inhabitants of Zanoah – building.
Nehemiah 3:14 – More rulers – building.
Nehemiah 3:15 – More rulers – building.
Nehemiah 3:16 – More rulers – building. Guess those nobles above were the exception, not the rule.
Nehemiah 3:17 – Levites – building.
Nehemiah 3:19 – More rulers – building.
Nehemiah 3:22 – Priests – building.
Nehemiah 3:23-24 – Building and repairing what was near their homes.
Nehemiah 3:26 – Temple servants – building.
Nehemiah 3:27 – Tekoites – building.
Nehemiah 3:28 – Priests – building and repairing what was near their homes.
Nehemiah 3:29-30 – Building and repairing what was near their homes.
Nehemiah 3:32 – Goldsmiths and merchants – building.
What a picture of everyone chipping in where they could. Common and noble built, each doing a part, some small some large. Some traveling to ehlp, some building right where they were.
Isn’t that what God’s church should be? But the question is, am I building? I think I easily fall back and rely on what has already been built. I know that I’m most content when I am building.
How about you, what are you building?

Nehemiah 2:3 – Considering that Nehemiah was in exile from his homeland, it stands to reason that this king may have been responsible for bringing him there. (Was he?) Even if he wasn’t he was responsible for keeping him there, so to express to the king his deep sadness at the state of his homeland I imagine could have been considered a slap in the face.
Nehemiah 2:4-8 – Not only was he bold enough to speak up to the king, he’s emboldened to ask to be allowed to go back and for letters from the king for safe passage and for timber to do the work.A bit like saying “King, while you’ve kept me here, my city is in ruins! So let me go back, provide me assurance of safe passage and materials to fix what you (or your predecessors) destroyed. OK?”
No wonder he stopped and prayed in the middle.
What’s more amazing than his request (or not, if you know God) is that the king grants it.
Nehemiah 2:9 – And he got a military escort!
Nehemiah 2:17-18 – “So they strengthened their hands to do the work.” he says. After his planning, his request from the king, it’s amazing approval, his journey there, his scouting the city and his telling the story, then “they strengthened their hands to do the work.” It seems that Nehemiah’s courage and boldness gave room for courage of their own. How long had they been there, looking at broken walls, but doing nothing about it. For whatever reason, paralyzed by fear or faithlessness maybe, they didn’t act. They just lived with it. By acting in faith and forging the way, Nehemiah made room for them to act on faith as well. The obstacles appeared too great but Nehemiah came and cleared them away.
Sometimes people just need to have the path cleared a bit before they can move ahead on their own.
Nehemiah 2:19-20 – They accused him of rebellion against the king, when they knew (verse 9-10) that the king had given his approval to what Nehemiah was doing. But Nehemiah’s response wasn’t to remind them of the king’s approval, but to affirm God’s approval for the work.

I just started Romans, but our church is spending March in Nehemiah, so I decided to switch gears and follow along with the study. I’ll return to Romans in April.
Nehemiah 1:1-2 – He was away, yet Jerusalem was still on his heart. He wasn’t simply making the best of it in this new place, he wondered what had happened back home.
Nehemiah 1:4 – I assume, since he later acknowledges that he exile was due to the sins of the people, that he knew that the news would be bad. How bad, I’m thinking he was wondering. Are they getting by? Are things improving? Hearing the truth, that things are still quite bad, desperate even, drives him to his knees, both in despair and in prayer.
He could have been content to assume that things were OK, that they were getting by, but he sought the truth and let the truth hit his heart and move him.
The same can be said of our relationships. We tend to assume that those close to us are doing fine, things are good. Of course, we all put on a good face, even when times are bad. Certainly, we should seek help when we are in need, but even more, we should dig into the lives of those close to us, looking for the truth. That truth may be as we assumed, things are fine, but we may discover hidden hurts and struggles that we can do something about.
If we rely on the hurting to seek help first, we do them a great disservice and we risk loosing them.
Nehemiah 1:5-11 – Nehemiah’s heart is moved by what he has heard, and he asks God to see it too. Of course, God already sees, yet Nehemiah, first acknowledging that God was right to punish their sin, pleads with God to look, listen to his plea and remember His promises to Israel.
And then he makes plans to act.

Romans 1:8 – Imagine the news of the faith of a single church being reported all over the world and being rejoiced about in every church. In our fractured Christianity today, one group has a success and those within it rejoice, but most of the rest don’t even hear. Of those that do, some dismiss it because they aren’t doing it right or whatever. Back in the heydays of the ICOC, when we still thought we were ‘The Church’, I can remember news of things like the multi-racial church in Johannesburg or the success of the Moscow church and having the feeling that he describes here. Of course, no one rejoiced with us and we wouldn’t have rejoiced with anyone else either.
Romans 1:15 – He’s eager to preach the gospel to them. I think we tend to think that ‘preaching the gospel’ means evangelism, preaching to those who don’t know. But Paul is writing to a church, people who not only knew Jesus but who had already been converted. And Paul was eager to share the Gospel with them.
The Gospel isn’t only for those who’ve never heard, it’s needed for all of us. We shouldn’t tire of hearing it nor should preachers tire of preaching it.
Romans 1:18-23 – Although I think Paul is speaking here of men who worship things other than God, I can’t help thinking of Darwin and his deliberate exclusion of God from creation. Now, I’m not a young earth proponent, nor do I claim that evolution is non existent. In fact, I suspect that there’s a lot more truth in Darwin’s theories than most evangelicals would like to allow. (And I find a God who can create a system like evolution, where species adapt to changing conditions yet the adaptations do not unravel the system, perhaps more compelling and awe inspiring than the creation of the Earth as we know it in one swoop. But I digress.) What stuck me in these past few weeks where the anniversary of Darwin’s birth was celebrated, and the story of his developing his theories was revealed, was how he seemed to set out, laser focused almost, to remove God from the story of creation. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” In teh context of being caught in sin (Galatians 6:1), Paul calls us to bear each other’s burdens. Guilt is quite burdensome, it can drag you down and cripple you. But if someone stand with you, and helps to bear the burden with empathy and encouragement, we can get up again.
Galatians 6:9 – Don’t “grow weary in doing good.” I take this as an encouragement as a parent of a teen and pre-teens. It’s a real challenge as they are trying to find themselves and their way in the world. It can be exhausting as it seems that you address the same issues over and over, yet they continue to fall. I get weary of the continual training, yet I cannot give up, “in due season we will reap”.
Galatians 6:11-16 – Paul returns to the reason he wrote them, don’t be compelled to live by the law. The law means nothing, he says. I think that we tend to drift to rules adn regulations over freedom because it’s so much easier. But Paul wrote them a pleading letter, with his own hand with large letters, urging and pleading them not to return to that way. I think we tend to rail against violations of rules rather than against living by rules over the freedom of grace.

Galatians 5:1-6 – How should we look at this passage? Paul argues that Christ came to free us, and if we attempt to find our justification on the law then Jesus is of no value to us. So, what then of things like expectations of members (we were just talking about this at Pinikidion’s place)? Would Paul rail against them?
Well, if it was an attempt to define what a Christian is and force others into their mold, then I believe yes. If it’s simply a matter of proclaiming who they are, then perhaps no.
A Christian is justified through Christ alone, no careful following of any rules – and Paul was talking here about God’s rules, not man made Church rules – can make us right with God. A church that proclaims that unless people act as they believe, they are not Christians (as we most certainly used to do) would earn the rebuke of Paul, based on what I see here. But, the church that simply says that this is the kind of Christians we are, we stand for these practices and believe in them, teach them and follow them would not necessarily. If they can do so without passing judgment on the rest of believers, then good.
An argument can be made, convincingly I believe, that such statements serve more to exclude and to comfort those inside and that perhaps whatever is gained in defining themselves and knowing who they are, is lost in shutting out those who might come into fellowship and bring new understandings and wisdom.
It’s always good to ask why? Why do you want this rule or that? Paul claims here in Galatians that following the rules is of no value for those who follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ coming signaled the end of the era of rules. Having a set of rules makes us feel good about who we are as a group and help us draw a line of distinction between us and others. A boundary can protect us, but can also keep us from maturing to where we can find our own way. The Christian raised within the safety of a boundary, flounders and wanders when those boundaries are removed and is danger because they have no means of determining what is safe and what is not. Inside the boundary, everything was safe.
Certainly, God has things He approves of and doesn’t and a church should stand up for and against what God does. But we must be careful and not mistake the standing for principals for the work of Jesus. No amount of vehemently proclaiming what God hates or loves will ever save anyone, only Jesus can do that. And rest assured, there are some who don’t follow your or my rules that He will save as well.
Galatians 5:11 – Paul refers here to “the offense of the cross”, what does that mean? I think I’ve always just skipped over that, but what is it? Paul’s talking about salvation by grace here, calling the law useless here. He’s quite adamant about it. What’s the implication? That we are powerless, that none of the good we can claim, no deed we have done is of any value. The cross strips us of our pride, shows us for the failures that we are in following God. Jesus on the says that we are not good enough, in fact so far away that a man had to die to bring us back. To those who think they are something, what an offense indeed!
Galatians 5:16-24 – This is a passage I’m well familiar with, we went to it frequently to teach about what Christians should and shouldn’t do. But this is written in the context of freedom, not as rules to be followed as it is frequently taught and we never visited the first part of the chapter with the last. In urging them to not allow themselves to be fenced in, Paul also warned them of the dangers of unregulated freedom. Paul challenged them to regulate themselves rather than to let others do it for them. And he says that the works of the flesh and the fruits are the spirit are clear, seek the one and flee the other.

Galatians 4:1-7 – The ESV continues the ‘guardian’ theme here, relating it to an heir as a child. Until the time set by the father, the heir is practically no different than a slave. Until then, he is under guardians and managers. His coming of age frees him from thier control and protection. Paul says that we were once slaves to ‘elementary principals’ (the law, I assume) until Christ came and we became sons and co-heirs with Christ. As cool as this concept sounds, I get the feeling that I’m somehow still missing the majesty and impact of it. It seems that it ought to feel more profound than it does, if that makes sense.
I’m a son of God, with all the rights that implies as a mature heir, not simply a servant or a child. What do you think that should mean in our lives? If I really understood this, I guess what I’m asking is, how would I live?
Galatians 4:9 – Not that we have found God, but He has found us.
Galatians 4:8-11 – Paul criticizes them here for returning to their old ways, specifically observing special days. Thinking about the general state of the church in the US, where Easter and Christmas are so important, it makes me wonder what Paul would say to us? Do we really get what Christ came for? Did he come that we should have nice buildings, egg hunts and Christmas plays? That we would light candles in wreaths and stop drinking for lent? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate these things too, but if this is what our religion is, and for too many that is what it is, then we have completely missed the point.
Galatians 4:12-20 – You can feel Paul’s anguish about the Galatians, that they have returned to the old ways when he has seen, and taught them, of the freedom to worship God as an heir. Looking around, when I see folks falling back into traditional patterns, missing the grace of Jesus and not living in it’s freedoms, am I in anguish? It seems that we can get worked up about major sin, but we tolerate folks missing out on the full freedom and joy in Jesus far too easily. I wonder if that’s because we are too far removed from it ourselves? That’s convicting right there, wow.
Galatians 4:21-27 – The implications of this passage hit me harder than it has in the past. Abraham had two son, one born through the rules (man and woman come together, sperm meets egg, baby is born), but for the other the rules, if you will, didn’t work. No matter how many times step one was performed, steps two and three didn’t follow. But God stepped in and, through a promise, fixed the process. It was only through the promise that Issac was born.
It’s the same for us. The theory holds that through following the law, we can see God. Follow the rules, be with God. But the rule don’t work. No matter how many times we try, the process fails as we cannot keep the law. But God steps in, and through the promise of Jesus, He fixes the process and in the promise we are reborn.
I ought to be ashamed at how often I fail to be amazed at what God has done for us – for me – in Jesus.

Galatians 3:3 – “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” ‘m frequently so foolish. Thanks Spirit, for getting me started, I’ll take it from here. Then I work my buns off to be good enough to be approved. I forget that Jesus said that it was finished. The work on the cross was enough, I don’t need to wrap it up myself.
Galatians 3:10 – Paul starts out in verse 1 by calling the Galatians fools for trying to work for justification. Here in verse 10 he tells them why – justification by the law is an all or nothing proposition. You either keep all of it, or none of your obedience is of any value. One violation, and they were (as we are) already well past one.
Galatians 3:19-26 – The ESV has some real interesting phrasing in these verses. Reading a new translation (I was an NIV guy for many years) helps bring new life to the text. Here’s what I mean:

• Verse 19 – The law was added because of sins. Sin existed already, the law was added to illuminate it.
• Verse 22 – “the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin” That’s a concept that’s hard to wrap my head around. Even as Christians, we like to think that the law helps us see how to life, but Paul says it imprisoned everything. Verse 23 says we were captive by it.
• Verse 24 – “the law was our guardian until Christ came” Wait, held captive, but it was our guardian? If you think in terms of children, a guardian is there to watch over, to protect and to instruct, but not permanently. There’s a time, later, when the child no longer needs the guardian. And so it is with the law, verses 23-24 say that now that Jesus came and faith is here, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

Galatians 3:25-27 – Paul here links faith with baptism and with inclusion in Christ. He says faith has come, no guardian is needed for you are sons of God through faith in Jesus. Why? Because, those who have been baptized have put on Christ. The implication is that baptism and faith and membership in the church are inherently linked.

Galatians 2:2 – Paul went up to Jerusalem to meet privately with the leaders to present what he had been teaching. To show them the way? No, “to make sure [he] was not running or had not run in vain” I like that he went privately, to not stir up controversy but to find unity, and that he went not to teach but to learn.
Galatians 2:8-9 – The ESV speaks of ‘Peter’ in verse 8 and ‘Cephas’ in verse 9 (also in verse 11, and in chapter 1). NIV uses ‘Peter’ in both places.
Galatians 2:14 – He went originally in private and reached an agreement, but when he saw Peter acting publicly contrary to that agreement, he challenged him publicly.
Paul sets himself up here as one who has championed the Gospel of freedom over the slavery of the law. Galatians 1:1-2:14 seems to be establishing who he is and what he has stood for as back ground to what he’s about to lay out.
Galatians 2:15-16 – Paul contrasts Jew with ‘Gentile sinners’ in verse 15, which might be offensive if he didn’t essentially lump them both in the same group in verse 16 saying that “by works of the law no one will be justified”.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

I wonder if we really understand the implications of this. Romans 6 describes how we die with Christ in baptism, do we really understand it? Do we live as if the death that comes to all has already come and gone for us? That which most men dread and attempt to put off, death, we have willingly embraced with Jesus. We are already dead and are only now truly alive in Christ.
I think if we really understood this concept, that we are already dead, we’ve already passed from death to life, we’d live differently. (Check out my study of Romans 6 from 2 years ago where I elaborated on this powerful idea more.)