Nehemiah: Meditations on the Book of Nehemiah

by H.L. Rossier, Irving Risch (Editor)

Publisher’s IntroductoryBack in the eighteen and early nineteen hundreds there were a group of men known as the Plymouth Brethren. These men had many writings and many of them were taken from Lectures given in many areas and at different times during this era. Some were given in different languages and then translated into English.I have taken many of these writings and messages and formatted them so they could be read on tablets and phones. In other words, they are in epub and mobi formats. I have set up indexes with headers and have enabled text to speech. I then run them through a checker to make sure the ebook format is without errors. In doing this I have produced a high quality product for a very low price. These are not just scanning of old writings but have been completely redone by hand.I started doing this for my own private use. I found there were others who wanted them also so after praying about it and contacting publishers who already got permission to use all these writings and lectures I too got permission via email. (which I have on file).I now have over 230 of these writings in ebook format on Amazon for the Kindle and on Google play for the Android OS. Hopefully this number will keep increasing as time goes on.About this book of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah does not immediately follow the book of Ezra. It begins in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Longimanus), that is to say thirteen years after the arrival of Ezra at Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 7:7): an arrival which resulted in the events related in Ezra 7 to 10. During these thirteen years, the "Jews that had escaped" had fallen into reproach and great misery. It is true that the temple had been rebuilt, but, in a city with no defense, these poor Jews who had escaped were in constant danger of falling under the attacks of their enemies, and the house of God, which was the great object of their concern, was in danger of being plundered anew.The account of Nehemiah embraces a period of about twelve years. It treats another subject and consequently it has another bearing than the book of Ezra. In the book of Ezra we see the altar re-established in its place, the foundations of the temple laid, the house itself built, and all this work followed by the purification of the people from their profane alliances. Thus, the object of this book is the service of worship of the people of God and the moral state which must accompany it. On the other hand, the book of Nehemiah speaks of the restoration of the walls, the gates and the dwelling places of Jerusalem. Thus, while Ezra presents the restoration of Judah and Benjamin from the religious point of view, Nehemiah speaks from the civil point of view and in the course of these meditation we will consider the bearing of this restoration for ourselves.Here we do not see, as in the book of Ezra, a Zerubbabel or a Jeshua, a governor of royal descent and a high priest, set at the head of the people in order to lead them, nor do we see prophets to re-awaken them, nor even a scribe of the priestly line, like Ezra, sent to remind them of the law of Moses and to purify them. No doubt, this scribe himself, as invested by the king, has the upper hand over the civil power, but only because of the confidence which his moral character inspires (Ezra 7:25); and if he has the right to exercise this authority, this is not what he seeks. All his attention and all his zeal are directed toward the spiritual condition of the people, for whom the house of God has become their center.

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 17, 2015