Daily Lesson for September 24, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Nehemiah chapter 6 verses

10 One day when I went into the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his house, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, tonight they are coming to kill you.” 11 But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Would a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” 12 Then I perceived and saw that God had not sent him at all, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He was hired for this purpose, to intimidate me and make me sin by acting in this way, and so they could give me a bad name, in order to taunt me. 14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

The governor Nehemiah is attempting to build and guard the city. But strong forces set themselves up against him. They conspire, and collude, and recruit even some of the prophets to join in the intrigue. The purpose is to intimidate Nehemiah into backing down and giving up. They want him to give up on the idea that the city is worth saving, and they use mob tactics to try to make it happen.

But Nehemiah will not back down. He refuses to be pushed around. He will not be bullied into giving up on rebuilding the city's walls.

Friends, the walls of our own cities' are being threatened. Whether it be our school boards, our city halls, our attorney generals' offices, our election boards, or any manner of other democratic institution apparatuses, powerful forces are conspiring to undo the work. There are enemies -- both foreign and domestic -- who are trying to sabotage our democracy. They are doing this in part with the same intimidating tactics as we see in Nehemiah. They tact is to get the leaders to give up and the people to give in.

We need strong, courageous leaders at all levels of government now. We need people of principle. We need officials of ethics. And, we need the people -- you and me -- to join them in helping to guard the gates, lest the thief come in and steal, not only our cities, but our whole country away from us.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow we continue with Nehemiah chapters 8-10.