DAY 267 Read Nehemiah 9 through 11:14.
Today's reading: After the seven day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the people gathered for a rededication of themselves to God. They formulated and signed a solemn covenant.
Memory gem: "Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God" (Nehemiah 9:31.
Thought for today:
"Nehemiah's efforts to restore the worship of the true God had been crowned with success. As long as the people were true to the oath they had taken, as long as they were obedient of God's word, so long would the Lord fulfill His promise by pouring rich blessings upon them.
"For those who are convicted of sin and weighed down with a sense of their unworthiness, there are lessons of faith and encouragement in this record. The Bible faithfully presents the results of Israel's apostasy: but it portrays also the deep humiliation and repentance, the earnest devotion and generous sacrifice, that marked their seasons of return to the Lord.
"Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life. When a sinner yields to the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sees his own guilt and defilement in contrast with the holiness of the great Searcher of hearts. He sees himself condemned as a transgressor. But he is not, because of this, to give way to despair; for his pardon has already been secured. He may rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in the love of a pardoning heavenly Father. It is God's glory to encircle sinful, repentant human beings in the arms of His love, to bind up wounds, to cleanse them from sin, and to clothe them with the garments of salvation."--Prophets and Kings, p. 668.
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Difficult or obscure words:
Nehemiah 9:4. "Stairs"--literally, ascent; probably the high pulpit of Nehemiah 8:4, where the word used means "tower," or high scaffold.
Today's reading: After the seven day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the people gathered for a rededication of themselves to God. They formulated and signed a solemn covenant.
Memory gem: "Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God" (Nehemiah 9:31.
Thought for today:
"Nehemiah's efforts to restore the worship of the true God had been crowned with success. As long as the people were true to the oath they had taken, as long as they were obedient of God's word, so long would the Lord fulfill His promise by pouring rich blessings upon them.
"For those who are convicted of sin and weighed down with a sense of their unworthiness, there are lessons of faith and encouragement in this record. The Bible faithfully presents the results of Israel's apostasy: but it portrays also the deep humiliation and repentance, the earnest devotion and generous sacrifice, that marked their seasons of return to the Lord.
"Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life. When a sinner yields to the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sees his own guilt and defilement in contrast with the holiness of the great Searcher of hearts. He sees himself condemned as a transgressor. But he is not, because of this, to give way to despair; for his pardon has already been secured. He may rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in the love of a pardoning heavenly Father. It is God's glory to encircle sinful, repentant human beings in the arms of His love, to bind up wounds, to cleanse them from sin, and to clothe them with the garments of salvation."--Prophets and Kings, p. 668.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Nehemiah 9:4. "Stairs"--literally, ascent; probably the high pulpit of Nehemiah 8:4, where the word used means "tower," or high scaffold.
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