the Sixth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Voice of the Lord
The joy of ADONAI is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
The Jewish Sages teach about a righteous man who was thrown to the lions for an unrighteous reason. The lions did not eat him. A nearby heretic scoffed, "The reason they did not eat him is that they are not hungry." To test his theory, the guards threw the heretic to the lions, and he was promptly eaten (Sanhedrin 39a). This story sheds light on Nehemiah 8:10. Nehemiah was not saying that our strength is in a feeling of joy we get from the Lord. Rather, he was speaking of strength we obtain by pleasing God. The Hebrew says, Chedvat Adonai hi ma'uzzekhem (The Lord's pleasure is your strength).
When we have the favor of God, he will watch over us. The favor of God was on the minds of the people in the above passage from Nehemiah 8. The Torah had been rediscovered. When the people came to understand how far they had fallen from God's ways, and the terrible penalties involved, they fell into a panic. Their leaders comforted them with reminders of the promises of God, for they were beginning their return journey towards being a God-pleasing nation.
Today's passage from Nehemiah says that an increase in the degree to which God is pleased with us will increase our strength. It is for this loving purpose that God's Spirit summons us to learn God's ways.
...make it my ambition to be pleasing to God.
BC
The Voice of the Lord, Copyright © 1998 by the Lewis and Harriet Lederer Foundation, Inc. Published by Messianic Jewish Publishers, Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this article may be reproduced in print or on the web, or transmitted in any form, without the written permission of the publisher.
