Year 5, Day 60: Nehemiah 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency, Obedience

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.
• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

In Nehemiah 13 we see that the Hebrew people quickly devolve into sinful patterns when Nehemiah leaves to report to the Persian King.  After all Nehemiah does and after all God has done for the Hebrew people, they revert back to sinful patterns in life very quickly.  It isn’t long before they are making decisions based upon what makes sense according to human logic.  It isn’t long before they are defining the terms of their life by human standards.

You see, God isn’t looking for people who can rationalize things out along human reasoning.  God sent His Son into the world by becoming man.  That doesn’t make sense.  God sent His Son to die.  That doesn’t make sense.  God raised His Son from death on the third day.  That doesn’t make sense.  God asks we believe this to be true and profess it to others.  That doesn’t make sense, either.  Let’s face it, God’s action seldom ever meshes well with human logic and reasoning.

What does God ask of us?  How are we to continue living godly lives while existing in this world?  God wants us to be competent.  He wants us to accomplish what He asks of us.  He doesn’t want us to set the agenda; He wants us to fulfill His agenda!  This naturally leads us to the idea that God also asks us to be obedient.  If He sets the agenda, He expects us to obey that agenda.

The Hebrew people get themselves into trouble on both of these accounts.  They forget who is setting their agenda.  They also forget that they are supposed to be obedient to God’s ways rather than living up to human logic.

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