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Thoughts on Today’s Verse
Nehemiah had rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and many Israelites had returned to their homeland following the nation’s 70-year exile in Babylon. It was the first day of their new year (the feast of trumpets), and the apostate nation of Israel stood in the city square and started to listen to Ezra the priest reading the Word of the Lord. He read from the book of the Law that had been given by God to Israel.
As they listened God’s Word being read to them, this errant nation as one man realised how far they had wandered from their God. Oh, at first, they started to rejoice and cried out “AMEN, AMEN,” but as Ezra continued to read the Scriptures, they started to realise how deeply they had fallen into sin and how far they had wandered away from the truth of God’s Word, and both men and women began to mourn and grieve deeply.
The people wept as they heard the Scriptures being read, for they acknowledged their sin, but Nehemiah the governor stood up and reminded the people that this first day of the new year was a special feast day of the Lord. He comforted them, saying, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
We too can wander far from the Lord. We can leave our first love and fall into foolish sin. We can buy into various false teachings, live our lives in selfish pride, and even keep the Lord Jesus standing outside the door of our hearts, but like Israel, today is a day that is a feast day for us, for Christ our Saviour has redeemed us by His blood and we have been released from the bondage of slavery to sin into the freedom of Christ’s saving grace.
Like Israel, we should listen to the Word of the Lord, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Like Israel, we should confess our sin and recognise how far we may have wandered from the Lord. We should turn away from our wrong attitudes and actions and look to Jesus, for every day is a day that is holy to the Lord. Like Israel, we should not remain in self-condemnation, but rejoice that there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. And like Israel, we should follow the wise advice of Nehemiah: “For the joy of the Lord is indeed our strength.”
Let us keep the Word of God fresh in our hearts each day. Let us recognise our faults and failings and readily confess our sins to our Father in heaven. Let us never forget that we are the people of God who have been purchased with the precious blood of Christ – and that the many precious promises of God towards us, his sons and heirs, are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Christ Jesus.
And let us in everything, by prayer and praise, rejoice in the Lord and abide in His love, for the joy of the Lord is indeed our strength, through time and into eternity.
My Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You that You are my joy and my strength. Thank You that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus and that Your grace is sufficient for me. Keep me faithful to You, for You are my faithful and generous God. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.
Bible References
10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
29 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
2 (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
15 Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;
16 Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord.
20 Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
23 Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.
24 Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
25 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
26 The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.
27 Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you?
28 For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.
30 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,
31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:
32 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord; because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.
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