Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 1

Nehemiah 13:8-9 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

Let me be clear, the enemy isn’t interested in a drive by shooting in your life. He isn’t really interested in lobbing grenades over the wall at you, now he will do that, but he has much more sinister things in mind for you. 

You see, he wants to live with you. His goal isn’t to have skirmishes with you and torment you like that. His goal is to move in with you. He wants your real estate to become his real estate.

Look at this picture of the Devil we are given in what Nehemiah was facing. What was Tobiah thinking? How long could it have lasted? Surely, eventually someone was going to rise up and kick him out.

It is not a coincidence that Tobiah tried to make the Temple his house, do you know why? Because the devil has been doing that ever since he turned on God and thought he could ascend to God’s throne himself. He is filled with that much pride.

Isaiah 14:13-14 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.‘

Pride corrupted Lucifer and he thought he could usurp God, that was his eternal mistake. Now we see someone as a puppet of the devil once again attempting to usurp the seat of God by setting up residence in the house of God. That preaches of course, but I want to go in different direction.

I am blessed, invigorated and tickled by what Nehemiah does.

The passage says that Nehemiah threw out of the chamber Tobias’ furniture. We have all seen the videos of disgruntled spouses throwing clothes and furniture out the second story window for the ejected (ex)spouse to come and claim. The walk of shame, gathering it all as it is spread all across the driveway and front lawn.

Can you imagine Tobiah standing there as Nehemiah walks in and grabs his bed, drags it out and throws it on the ground. And then he grabs his night-stand and maybe his dresser. What other pieces of furniture do you see laying out there on the ground, broken?

I imagine Tobiah is yelling at Nehemiah! Eliashib the priest who let Tobiah in is off on some missions trip that just came up, LOL. Tobiah is screaming his rights to be there and Nehemiah isn’t even listening, no conversation. Not the time to talk. It’s time to act! Nehemiah is fuming and he throws furniture as far as he can.

Nehemiah is Jesus and Tobiah is the Devil and the temple is you.

Do you see it? The king has given authority for Nehemiah to come and rebuild. There is an enemy who thwarts every move that Nehemiah makes. The place of connection with God is rebuilt first, just like God deals with your heart first so you can be his temple. After the temple is constructed, the lives of the people are rebuilt with safety and freedom, walls are constructed for safety and commerce soon follows. Later the enemy tries to come into the temple and become the center, Nehemiah (Jesus) throws him out of the temple. The temple is you. Not only was Tobiah thrown out, all of his household articles are thrown out too. Every connection and affiliation with Tobiah, was thrown on the ground outside the temple.

And, so it should be with you.

Is there anything left over in you from when the enemy lived in the temple of your heart? Any antiques hanging around that you still consider valuable from times past? Suppose Jesus were walking through the rooms of your heart, would he stop and ask you, “Isn’t that Tobiah’s bed? What is that doing here?”

As Jesus began to pull it from the room, would you stop Jesus and say, “Wait its valuable to me, I like it here. I think it is harmless.”

Nehemiah didn’t leave any piece of the past present in the temple, nor should you. It all goes out on the lawn. No antiques, remnants or reminders, it all goes to the burn pile.

Lord, forgive me when I hold onto old sins that you hate. Lord I want to be pure and holy. Please give me strength to be in agreement with you regarding what I hold as dear and needed in my life. Please do your work in my life and help me become righteous in your eyes, not mine.

Thank you, Jesus for fighting for me even when I fight against you. Please don’t ever stop fighting for me Jesus. Thank you so much – take whatever you wish and throw it out on the lawn Lord.

Devotional Thoughts for God’s Family – 2

Nehemiah 13:8-9 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

Time for some spring cleaning—

After Tobiah’s stuff was out on the lawn like a yard sale, Nehemiah had the place cleansed.

They scrubbed the rooms, they fumigated the rooms, they Frebrezed them. They got the fleas and ticks out – bed bugs too. Whatever was left over from Tobiah living there was washed away.

2 things to consider – there was cleansing from the past and then the making ready for the new.

When Jesus touches your life, he does both of these. First Jesus (without any help from you except that you want it) cleanses you.

John 13:8 “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” We are washed by the blood of Jesus. We are baptized in the blood of Jesus. In the baptism of blood, sin is killed. Sin is what Tobiah brings to the table, that is what Tobiah’s household furniture supports…sin.

Jesus cleans it all and makes the room of your heart perfectly clean. Man-oh-man, have you ever walked into a perfectly clean house after work? Or wake up in the morning to a nicely cleaned house and you are the one that gets to mess it up by making a fine cup of coffee?

Imagine how God feels as you are clean, cleaned spotless by Jesus.

Colossians 1:21–22 (NLT): “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…”

This is amazing to me; we have been cleaned. The rest of the passage tells the rest of the story, listen to this-

Colossians 1:23 (NLT) But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.

You see, the temple had to be cleaned from what was in it and then prepared for the new. It wasn’t enough that the temple in Nehemiah’s time was washed of every last scent of Tobiah. That temple chamber had a function and even though it was clean, it needed to be prepared for its job, and so do you.

Maybe you have gone ahead and wondered what frankincense and grain represent spiritually. What are these temple vessels about? You will discover that frankincense represents holiness and righteousness, and grain represents immortality. It is not to be missed that these two together are the purpose of the temple for the people of Israel.

The temple (although temporarily shut down) teaches the law, which shows the holiness of God and the requirement of righteousness thrust upon man if he is going to be with God eternally. which the people were to follow, that was their path to heaven and immortality.

Tobiah’s presence (sin) in the temple halted that process.

Our application of this passage leads to an understanding that Jesus does the work of cleaning us (temple) and we submit to the process that the Holy Spirit deems necessary in growing in holiness and righteousness.

Both are necessary – otherwise we can be a cleaned temple with no usefulness, or a temple of God with someone else living there (devilish spirit). Both of these lead to “not good.”

Let’s prepare a chamber, our hearts, for the Lord. Let’s ask for his cleansing. Let’s confess our sin to the Lord and be ready for his renewal. The Lord is good and he is merciful, God is full of love and grace if we will let him do his work in us. Let him tell you about the furniture of the enemy that we have become accustomed to that needs to be cast out onto the lawn.

The Holy Spirit does this happily so that we can be a vessel of hope for others.

Lord, I thank you today that you love us where we are. God, through your Holy Servant Jesus, you accept us in all of our sin and brokenness. You also love us so much that you are not willing for us to stay in our sin and brokenness. You demand that we change, and you demand that we look like Jesus as we grow. We are grateful for your covering and care.

Blessings

Pastor D