The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Nehemiah 5:8,
"'As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!' They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say."
Nehemiah excoriated nobles and officials in Jerusalem because they were charging their fellow countrymen interest that crippled them financially. In order for many countrymen to pay the taxes required of them to the King and also to put food on the table, many had to mortgage their fields, vineyards and homes. As a result many were having to indenture themselves and their children as slaves due to the interest these nobles and officials were charging.
In a fit of righteous anger, Nehemiah called together these nobles and officials and pointed out that while he and others were "buying back" Jewish slaves from the Gentiles to return and live freely with their fellow Jews, these Jewish leaders were creating more slaves!
The officials were ashamed of themselves and agreed to return everything back to those they had exploited with the interest imposed upon them.
This reminds me of the do-gooders and law-keepers in the church today. Where Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the law, released us from our slavery to both sin and the law God gave Moses, and set us free, we have those among us who seek to place us right back in bondage.
In Romans 8:1-4 we read, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
However, from the do-gooders within the church, I have often heard something on the order of "Hold on there, pilgrim!" You have to this, that, or the other thing! I recall in order to join many a church, the "covenant" of that church had to be signed as something to be adhered to. Those church covenants always included a list of do's and don'ts. Those do's and don'ts always added up to Christians, already redeemed by the Jesus Christ's sacrifice of atonement, freeing us from both sin and the law, freeing us to live new lives for Jesus Christ, are now indentured to law all over again.
Where Paul says in Romans 7:6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code", these do gooders attempt to make us slaves all over again. Just like the officials and nobles attempted during Nehemiah's day!
While many of these church covenants have fallen out of fashion these days, unfortunately the do-gooders have not.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
"'As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!' They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say."
Nehemiah excoriated nobles and officials in Jerusalem because they were charging their fellow countrymen interest that crippled them financially. In order for many countrymen to pay the taxes required of them to the King and also to put food on the table, many had to mortgage their fields, vineyards and homes. As a result many were having to indenture themselves and their children as slaves due to the interest these nobles and officials were charging.
In a fit of righteous anger, Nehemiah called together these nobles and officials and pointed out that while he and others were "buying back" Jewish slaves from the Gentiles to return and live freely with their fellow Jews, these Jewish leaders were creating more slaves!
The officials were ashamed of themselves and agreed to return everything back to those they had exploited with the interest imposed upon them.
This reminds me of the do-gooders and law-keepers in the church today. Where Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the law, released us from our slavery to both sin and the law God gave Moses, and set us free, we have those among us who seek to place us right back in bondage.
In Romans 8:1-4 we read, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
However, from the do-gooders within the church, I have often heard something on the order of "Hold on there, pilgrim!" You have to this, that, or the other thing! I recall in order to join many a church, the "covenant" of that church had to be signed as something to be adhered to. Those church covenants always included a list of do's and don'ts. Those do's and don'ts always added up to Christians, already redeemed by the Jesus Christ's sacrifice of atonement, freeing us from both sin and the law, freeing us to live new lives for Jesus Christ, are now indentured to law all over again.
Where Paul says in Romans 7:6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code", these do gooders attempt to make us slaves all over again. Just like the officials and nobles attempted during Nehemiah's day!
While many of these church covenants have fallen out of fashion these days, unfortunately the do-gooders have not.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
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