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Daily Readings: Nehemiah 5 and Psalm 17 Nehemiah 5 presents a difficult season in the life of the returned exiles. The work on the wall was under threat again. This time, however, the threat came not from an outside enemy but from the financial and material strain the ordinary people were under. Much to Nehemiah’s
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Daily Readings: Nehemiah 4 and Psalm 16 Due to the Emperor’s permission to Nehemiah, the sworn opponents of the wall-building project, Sanballat and Tobiah, had no authority to stop the work from going ahead. This meant they had to resort to the mental, emotional and spiritual attacks of insults, criticism, discouragement and the threat of
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Daily Readings: Nehemiah 3 and Psalm 15 Nehemiah was a visionary leader who had the gift of seeing the end goal, as well as how God’s people could accomplish that goal. In chapter 3, we observe that he also had the gift of entrusting work to others and allowing them to express themselves by getting
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Nehemiah 2 and Psalm 14 In Nehemiah 2 we see Nehemiah enjoying astounding favour. It appears that he received absolutely everything he asked for. We should conclude that when heart-felt, sincere, fervent prayer and fasting aligns itself with the will of God, this brings a tremendous release of God’s favour. It all started when Nehemiah
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Daily Readings: Nehemiah 1 and Psalm 13 The events of the Book of Nehemiah begin about 15 years after the events of the Book of Ezra and about 100 years after the first exiles returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. Having prioritised the rebuilding of the Temple, they had not yet rebuilt the city walls of
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Daily Readings: Ezra 10 and Psalm 12 Ezra 10 is a confusing and disturbing chapter. A significant number of Israelite men had entered into illicit marriages with pagan wives. Such marriages were illicit because of the express Law of God outlawing them – for religious (not racial) reasons. They had known before entering these marriages
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Daily Readings: Ezra 9 and Psam 11 No sooner had Ezra and his caravan of returning exiles arrived than a matter of grave concern was reported to him by the leaders of God’s people. Like Solomon, Ahab, and many others before them, some of God’s people had been so tempted by the wealth to be
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Daily Readings: Ezra 8 and Psalm 10 Ezra must have seemed absolutely full of faith and very confident in the power of the LORD when he told Emperor Artaxerxes: “‘The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him’” (v.22). When he
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Daily Readings: Ezra 7 and Psalm 9 Until now the most significant leaders of the returned exiles were the priest named Joshua and the royal family-member, Zerubabbel. In Ezra 7, we finally meet the priest Ezra, after whom the book is named. He would become profoundly influential in Jerusalem. What made him unique was that
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Daily Readings: Ezra 6 and Psalm 8 In Ezra 5, as the rebuilding continued under the inspiration of Haggai and Zechariah’s prophetic ministry, the local govenor of the province (Trans-Euphrates), Tattenai, and his secretary Shethar-Bozenai questioned their authority to build such a Temple. But the response they received back from the new Emperor Darius was
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Dave's Diary 