December 07, 2024
Daily Devotion:
"Divine Justice and Human Accountability"
Nehemiah 9:33
New Living Translation
33 Every time you punished us you were being just. We have sinned greatly, and you gave us only what we deserved.
God was faithful. After 70years in exile were complete, God's people were restored to the land. Things weren't exactly as they had been before. They didn't have their own king. But
God allowed them to live in the land, rebuild Jerusalem, and have everything they needed to resettle back in Judah.
Ezra led the first set of people back to Judah. They were relatively small in number, and the task they had seemed overwhelming to rebuild Jerusalem, the city walls, their homes, and the temple. But God continued again and again to faithfully provide for His people. Zechariah had also returned to Jerusalem in one of the first groups. God gave him an important message for His people worried about the task ahead. The task would not be accomplished by their power, nor might, but by the Spirit of the Lord (See Zechariah 4:6-7)!
Nehemiah came back from Babylon in a later group, about 13 years after Ezra had arrived. He helped to encourage and reignite the rebuilding of Jerusalem, particularly the temple and walls. The work on these structures had stalled due to constant opposition by their enemies and the resulting weariness of his people.
What about the people's hearts? Has God transformed them? The people were ready to obey the Lord. They even
wanted to sign a covenant! While they would be tempted and fall into sin again, we saw an increased faithfulness in the attitude of God's people at this time.
God is still transforming hearts from death to life and has been doing so especially since Jesus returned to heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit.
God is the great promise keeper. We can be sure any promises He has made will happen. But He doesn't always
fulfill His promises in the way we might expect or want Him to. We can trust His ways are best. He is righteous and acts faithfully in all He does. His love drives all that He does, which provides us with grace after grace.
