Planning permission – Nehemiah: a review

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Jews who wanted to, have returned from exile. Jerusalem is once again being lived in. However the city needs a little bit of urban regeneration. The once mighty city is still little more than ruined shell of its former glory. Step forward Nehemiah, royal cupbearer (an important and trusted role in Persia) and now civil governor.

Build the wall

Dear diary

The penultimate Old Testament review in my bible in a year is a little strange. The book is a mixture of narrative, more lists of names and quite a few prayers. In fact it felt like it was a personal diary. I could imagine Nehemiah using live journal if he had been around a few years back.

Nationalism?

I found some of the content a little difficult too. There was an emphasis on nationalism that I found a little uncomfortable, but then I have never been much of a nationalist. Nehemiah’s concern was that the nation had been exiled because they had not followed the law. This included the marrying of Jews to other nations. It also meant that the law, and the application of the law needed to be followed a little stricter in the future.

In short Nehemiah institutes a national purity based on the law. At the same time he makes sure the city of Jerusalem is fit to keep this reborn nation. He organises the people to fix the broken city wall and protect the city from those who want to see it remain a ruin.

Nehemiah is dedicated, he is a visionary and he is focussed on the job at hand. He isn’t swayed by popular opinion or discouraged when others turn against him. All attributes that make great leaders both in the past and today.

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A fool such as I – Proverbs: a review

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Isaac Newton’s third law states

To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions

My physics 101 brain likes to interpret that as, if you do something to something there will be a reaction. In turn I like to think that this is also my summary of the book of Proverbs.

The domino effect

Collected wisdom

During my journey through the bible in a (almost) year, I have been reading some Old Testament and New Testament each day. The reading plan has also thrown in a little something extra each day too. Proverbs is one of the books that has been thrown in and I’ve now come to the end of it.

The book is basically a collection, from multiple authors, of common sense sayings. They can pretty much all be summarised as ‘if’ ‘then’ statements, for they almost always fall into this parallel pattern. There is a definite cause and effect style, which would fit very well into a National Curriculum for young Jewish children at the time of Solomon.

Live long and prosper

One of the main characters in Proverbs is the fool. He is ridiculed and compared unfavourably with the wise person. And that really is what the book is all about. It instructs the reader to live life to the fullest. It is an instruction manual, a sort of 3,000 habits of highly successful people. As I read I couldn’t help comparing the black and white of Proverbs with the grey of Ecclesiastes. Just like Newton’s laws have been developed by later physicists, the cause and effect of Proverbs isn’t the whole story for a wise life.

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I am a number and a free man – Ezra: a review

February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you like 1 Chronicles then Ezra will be right up your street. If like me, you have the odd book in the bible that you are not too keen on… such as 1 Chronicles, then your heart may just dip a little. Ezra is pretty similar in style and content to the aforementioned Chronicles part une.

Could you come to a meeting?

Just like 1 Chronicles, Ezra is pretty full of names and numbers. It heralds the return of the family tree and lists all the good and dutiful. It also contains letters of authority and permission. This makes it more like a local council’s minutes than a piece of sacred writing. Perhaps a little context is required. Ezra was an official in the court of Artaxerxes, and was in charge of Jewish affairs. The book that bears his name talks of two accounts of exiles returning to Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple and to then rebuild their spiritual lives. With this in mind it is no wonder that it reads the way it does.

The minutes

I’m not a lover of minutes and business meetings. I do like knowing what to do though. I like my meetings to have outcomes and action points. Ezra does have that. There is a lot about dealing with opposition, both physical and spiritual. The whole point of Ezra is to show that merely being somewhere isn’t enough, there has to be related action. Now if only that could have been said without all the names and numbers :)

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