Study Desk

And others said, "We're having to borrow money to pay the royal tax on our fields and vineyards. Look: We're the same flesh and blood as our brothers here; our children are just as good as theirs. Yet here we are having to sell our children off as slaves—some of our daughters have already been sold—and we can't do anything about it because our fields and vineyards are owned by somebody else."

The "Great Protest" A great protest was mounted by the people, including the wives, against their fellow Jews. Some said, "We have big families, and we need food just to survive." Others said, "We're having to mortgage our fields and vineyards and homes to get enough grain to keep from starving." And others said, "We're having to borrow money to pay the royal tax on our fields and vineyards. Look: We're the same flesh and blood as our brothers here; our children are just as good as theirs. Yet here we are having to sell our children off as slaves—some of our daughters have already been sold—and we can't do anything about it because our fields and vineyards are owned by somebody else." I got really angry when I heard their protest and complaints. After thinking it over, I called the nobles and officials on the carpet. I said, "Each one of you is gouging his brother." Then I called a big meeting to deal with them. I told them, "We did everything we could to buy back our Jewish brothers who had to sell themselves as slaves to foreigners. And now you're selling these same brothers back into debt slavery! Does that mean that we have to buy them back again?" They said nothing. What could they say?

When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn't yet installed the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: "Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono." I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: "I'm doing a great work; I can't come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?" Four times they sent this message and four times I gave them my answer. The fifth time—same messenger, same message—Sanballat sent an unsealed letter with this message: "The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it's true—that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That's why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There's a king in Judah!' The king is going to be told all this—don't you think we should sit down and have a talk?" I sent him back this: "There's nothing to what you're saying. You've made it all up." They were trying to intimidate us into quitting. They thought, "They'll give up; they'll never finish it." I prayed, "Give me strength." Then I met secretly with Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, at his house. He said: Let's meet at the house of God, inside The Temple; Let's find safety behind locked doors because they're coming to kill you, Yes, coming by night to kill you. I said, "Why would a man like me run for cover? And why would a man like me use The Temple as a hideout? I won't do it." I sensed that God hadn't sent this man. The so-called prophecy he spoke to me was the work of Tobiah and Sanballat; they had hired him. He had been hired to scare me off—trick me—a layman, into desecrating The Temple and ruining my good reputation so they could accuse me. "O my God, don't let Tobiah and Sanballat get by with all the mischief they've done. And the same goes for the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who have been trying to undermine my confidence." The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul. It had taken fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard the news and all the surrounding nations saw it, our enemies totally lost their nerve. They knew that God was behind this work. All during this time letters were going back and forth constantly between the nobles of Judah and Tobiah. Many of the nobles had ties to him because he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. They kept telling me all the good things he did and then would report back to him anything I would say. And then Tobiah would send letters to intimidate me.

"I'm Doing a Great Work; I Can't Come Down" When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn't yet installed the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: "Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono." I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: "I'm doing a great work; I can't come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?"

"I'm Doing a Great Work; I Can't Come Down" When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn't yet installed the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: "Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono." I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: "I'm doing a great work; I can't come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?" Four times they sent this message and four times I gave them my answer. The fifth time—same messenger, same message—Sanballat sent an unsealed letter with this message: "The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it's true—that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That's why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There's a king in Judah!' The king is going to be told all this—don't you think we should sit down and have a talk?"

The city was large and spacious with only a few people in it and the houses not yet rebuilt.

"If only my words were written in a book— better yet, chiseled in stone! Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life— and eventually he'll take his stand on earth. And I'll see him—even though I get skinned alive!— see God myself, with my very own eyes. Oh, how I long for that day!

"You agree, don't you, that God is in charge? He runs the universe—just look at the stars! Yet you dare raise questions: ‘What does God know? From that distance and darkness, how can he judge? He roams the heavens wrapped in clouds, so how can he see us?'

"Are you going to persist in that tired old line that wicked men and women have always used? Where did it get them? They died young, flash floods sweeping them off to their doom. They told God, ‘Get lost! What good is God Almighty to us?' And yet it was God who gave them everything they had. It's beyond me how they can carry on like this!

"I hung on your words while you spoke, listened carefully to your arguments. While you searched for the right words, I was all ears. And now what have you proved? Nothing. Nothing you say has even touched Job. And don't excuse yourselves by saying, ‘We've done our best. Now it's up to God to talk sense into him.' Job has yet to contend with me. And rest assured, I won't be using your arguments!

"Keep listening, Job. Don't interrupt—I'm not finished yet. But if you think of anything I should know, tell me. There's nothing I'd like better than to see your name cleared. Meanwhile, keep listening. Don't distract me with interruptions. I'm going to teach you the basics of wisdom."

Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden's dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.

Sing your songs to Zion-dwelling God , tell his stories to everyone you meet: How he tracks down killers yet keeps his eye on us, registers every whimper and moan.

Our children and their children will get in on this As the word is passed along from parent to child. Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news— that God does what he says.

God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

Meanwhile, I'm sure you're on my side— no victory shouts yet from the enemy camp! You know me inside and out, you hold me together, you never fail to stand me tall in your presence so I can look you in the eye.

You got me when I was an unformed youth, God, and taught me everything I know. Now I'm telling the world your wonders; I'll keep at it until I'm old and gray. God, don't walk off and leave me until I get out the news Of your strong right arm to this world, news of your power to the world yet to come, Your famous and righteous ways, O God. God, you've done it all! Who is quite like you? You, who made me stare trouble in the face, Turn me around; Now let me look life in the face. I've been to the bottom; Bring me up, streaming with honors; turn to me, be tender to me, And I'll take up the lute and thank you to the tune of your faithfulness, God. I'll make music for you on a harp, Holy One of Israel. When I open up in song to you, I let out lungsful of praise, my rescued life a song. All day long I'm chanting about you and your righteous ways, While those who tried to do me in slink off looking ashamed.

Yet you, God , are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign. You'll get up from your throne and help Zion— it's time for compassionate help. Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust! The godless nations will sit up and take notice —see your glory, worship your name— When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory, When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.

Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God : " God looked out from his high holy place; from heaven he surveyed the earth. He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells." Write it so the story can be told in Zion, so God 's praise will be sung in Jerusalem's streets And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.

They angered God again at Meribah Springs; this time Moses got mixed up in their evil; Because they defied God yet again, Moses exploded and lost his temper.