Nehemiah Lesson-14: Unfinished Business (Part II)

This Week’s Lesson

We are in Lesson-14 in the series “Rebuilding the Covenant Community” from the book of Nehemiah.
 
This is Volume II of our series: “After the Exile” a study of Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther.
 
The lesson is titled “Unfinished Business – Part II”, and our focus passage is Nehemiah 13:15-31.
 
Please find your way in your Bible to that passage.

Review of Our Previous Lesson

In our previous episode, we began the study of the last chapter in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 13.
 
As a way of reminder let’s see what happened at the end of Nehemiah 10. The Jewish Exiles made a series of commitments to the LORD as they renewed the covenant with Him:
 
* 10:29-30 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages.
* 10:31 Honor the Sabbath.
* 10:32-39 Support of Temple Operations.
 
In our first division from Nehemiah 13, we saw that the people had violated their commitment to support Tempe Operations.
 
In Nehemiah’s absence, the enemy of the Jews was using the storeroom in the Temple as a personal storage unit.
 
Worse than that, the contributions for the Levites were not being provided so they left Jerusalem to return to their fields so they could support their families.
 
Upon his return, Nehemiah took decisive action, challenged the leaders, and restored order.
 
But it is a troubling sign that things fell apart while he was gone.
 
In his first of the three prayers recorded in this chapter, I see a man concerned with the failure of his people but also concerned with his efforts going to waste.

Introduction to Today’s Lesson

In today’s lesson we will conclude the study of this  last chapter in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 13.
 
Unfortunately as we will see, the people also failed their other commitments from Neh. 10.
 
Let’s see how Nehemiah deals with these failures.

Let’s get started.

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