August 17
Neh 12:27-13:31 | PS 35:1-16 | Prov 21:17-18 | 1 Cor 11:1-16
We watch day in, day out disrespectful individuals getting in the face of police and national guard, some spitting in their face, others close enough to feel their breath, while those committed to protect our cities are commanded to stand and take it. We have a school system throughout our nation in which some kindergarten children are read stories by drag queens, where children can choose to be the opposite gender in which they are, and this is supported by the school system in opposition to parental rights, even with potential irreversible consequences through puberty blockers and surgeries. In California, they are trying to pass a law in which a child can disown their parents and simply be reassigned to another as long as the child agrees, which one can only imagine that this is a sex-traffickers dream come true. Sorry, our nation is sick, very sick. That these situations are even up for debate reveals just how sick we are. Our nation is consumed with all that is disgusting, all that is morally repugnant, which should be apparent to even a base individual. Where are our voices? Where are our consciences? We cannot call our nation a Judeo-Christian nation with such demonic behavior openly paraded and applauded. This is not freedom of speech, any more than it would be deemed freedom of speech to yell bomb on an airplane. Tolerance of evil is not progressive it is demoralizing and will lead our nation to its downfall.
Nehemiah was an amazing Governor of Judah, both in his building projects, but more importantly in reforming the nation back to God. We read of the absolute high experienced in Nehemiah 12:43, "Many sacrifices were offered on that joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy. The women and children also participated in the celebration, and the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away." But we read that Nehemiah had to leave for a while as he was still in service to the king of Persia, as we read in 13:6-9, "I was not in Jerusalem at that time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign, though I later asked his permission to return. When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God. I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room. Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense." Eliashib was the priest appointed as supervisor of the storerooms. He then learned that the Levites had stopped their duties at the temple because the people had stopped providing for them, which he quickly confronted the people and had reversed as we read in 13:12, "And once more all the people of Judah began bringing their tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the Temple storerooms." He then realized that the Sabbath was being desecrated, so after the religious leaders, then the people, he turned on the nobles, as we read in 13:17-18, "So I confronted the nobles of Judah. “Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?” I asked. “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way!” He then confronted the foreigners who continued to camp outside the city wall on the Sabbath in 13:20-22. When he realized that the Jewish people began intermarrying with the pagans again, which always brought ruin to the nation, he became physical, as we read in 13:25, "So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land." He also didn't care about position, as we read in 13:28, "One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence."
This leader brought about some much needed reform to the nation of Judah. Our nation might have good or bad leaders, both at the national, state, and local levels. We can not simply be like tofu, being absorbed into whatever the flavor being infused to us might be. We are God's creation. We either choose to go along or rebel against the utter and pervasive godlessness that we find ourselves immersed in. We don't need to be governor, but we need to be vocal. We must realize that every decision to remain quiet, every act of submission to evil, every time we acquiesce or simply look the other way, we are allowing the moral crumbling of our nation. Support those things that God supports, and reject those things that God rejects. If you are ignorant of what these things may or may not be, please pick up God's Word and educate yourself, as ignorance to the Bible never was and never will be a legitimate excuse. Apathy and laziness are not excuses. All of you have the time, and I mean every single one of you. Please don't tell me about your busy work schedule, or your time commitment to your kids, if God is important to you, everyone will find the time to pick up God's Word for the fifteen to twenty minutes every day which is all that it takes to make it through God's Word in one year. If you complete it, then start again, as this is meant to be a lifelong pursuit.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: