Skip to main content

One Year Bible: Day 357 - Nehemiah 5:1-7:3; Revelation 18:1-17a; Proverbs 31:10-20

Again, the combination of prayer and work is seen in Nehemiah - "I devoted myself to the work on this wall" (Nehemiah 5:16), "I prayed, 'Now, strengthen my hands.'" (Nehemiah 6:9). "So the wall was completed ... this work had been done with the help of our God" (Nehemiah 6:15-16). We may contrast the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the fall of Babylon - "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!" (Revelation 18:2). The contrast between Jerusalem and Babylon - the 'tale of two cities' - is the contrast between God and the devil, between holiness and sin, godliness and ungodliness, righteousness and unrighteousness, good and evil. the triumph is the Lord's. The word of judgment concerning Babylon has been spoken (Revelation 18:10,16-17). Proverbs 31:10 tells us that "noble character ... is worth far more than rubies." Again, what a contrast there is between the rich blessing of noble character and the empty futility of worldly riches: "Woe! Woe, a great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!" (Revelation 18:16-17).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Let Us Pray For More Of God's Blessing.

What God did for His people, Israel, was very great. There is a striking contrast between their slavery in Egypt and their abundance in the promised land. God had multiplied His blessing upon them, just as Jesus did when He turned water into wine (John 2:1-11). If the blessing is to be maintained and increased, we must honour the Lord. We must cry to Him for blessing: "Hear my prayer, O God, listen to the words of my mouth." We must call upon Him with faith: "Surely God is my help; the Lord is the One who sustains me" (Psalm 54:2,4).

God’s Blessing .

“The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake” (Genesis 39:5). God’s blessing overflows. We go back to Genesis 39:2 – “the Lord was with Joseph.” God was blessing Joseph – and His blessing overflowed to others.

Reaching out with the Good News of Jesus Christ

‘Reconciled’ to God through Christ, we have received ‘the ministry of reconciliation.’ Saved by Him, we are to ‘work with Him.’ We are ‘not to accept the grace of God in vain’ by living for ourselves. We are to be ‘ambassadors for Christ.’ We must proclaim the urgent message of salvation - ‘now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.’ We must call men and women to respond to God’s message of salvation: ‘Be reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2). If we are to be effective ‘ambassadors for Christ’, we must dedicate our lives to Him: ‘Let us cleanse ourselves… and make holiness perfect in the fear of God’(2 Corinthians 7:1). Without this heartfelt commitment to godly living, we cannot really serve the Lord at all. Our wrong lives will drown out our ‘right’ words. We need true lives as well as ‘true’ words.