Nehemiah 11-13   Nehemiah was instrumental in getting Jerusalem resettled and repopulated .  He was a great leader and a faithful man of God.  Even after the rebuilding of the wall and the reorganization of worship at the temple, Nehemiah worked hard to keep everything on track.  After 12 years in Jerusalem, Nehemiah went back to Babylon for a little while.  When he returned to Jerusalem once again he found that they had already backslid.

Although they had learned that foreigners were not allowed in the temple, one of the priests had allowed Tobiah to actually use a room in the temple for his own personal use!  Nehemiah was outraged by this and threw out all of Tobiah's stuff out and had the room cleansed.

 He also found out that the people had stopped bringing in the tithes and offerings as they were supposed to.  The Levites could not feed their families so they left their temple service to go farm.  Nehemiah rebuked the leaders for allowing this to happen and set them straight.

Then Nehemiah found that they were allowing work and commerce on the sabbath, so he took action against that.

Finally, Nehemiah discovered that there were many mixed marriages, and even some of the priests had married outsiders.  Their children were speaking foreign languages and unable to speak Hebrew!

Nehemiah's constant prayer was "Remember me, O my God, ...".    He prayed for God's compassion and favor as he tried to do what was right in God's eyes.

Father, we live in this world where there are always temptations to do things our own ways instead of yours.  We are weak and worldly.  We are followers of the world instead of followers of Christ.  Forgive us Lord!  Raise up more godly and faithful men like Nehemiah.  Men unafraid to rebuke the careless and sinful attitudes of people who call themselves believers, but fail to obey Your Word.
I know we are no longer under the law, but under grace.  Yet, we are still called to be holy and set apart for You.  We are commanded to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by You.
Renew our minds, and transform us into Your likeness, O God.  Remember us and have compassion on us.  Help us to do only what is right in Your eyes, I pray, in the Name of Jesus, Who died for us. Amen.