Notes: June 21, 2009

Perfect love casts out all fear

Nehemiah 5

  • Financial scandals are not only a modern phenomenon (v. 1-5).
  • In what must have been an unexpected shake-up, Nehemiah ordered the people responsible for the scandal to repent and make restitution (v. 6-13).
  • He himself took no salary for 12 years, providing for himself at his own charges (v. 14-19). Question: how did a king’s cupbearer have so much money? Was he an independent marketer on the side?

Nehemiah 6

  • Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem accused Nehemiah of desiring to be king of the Jews (v. 1-9). Obviously they didn’t understand the messianic message of the Hebrew prophets.
  • Failing to lure Nehemiah into their midst, they hired others to advise Nehemiah to hide himself in the temple. Nehemiah recognized this ploy to tarnish his reputation and refused. (v. 10-14).
  • Because of Tobiah’s family relationships, he had a large group of supporters within the land; and active correspondence passed between the two, with the intent to frighten Nehemiah (v. 15-19).

[print_link]