Daily Dose of Hope

March 9, 2025

Day 1 of Week 50

 

Scripture:  Nehemiah 10-13; Revelation 8

 

Welcome back, everyone, to the Daily Dose of Hope.  This is the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  We start week 50 today.  That is hard to believe.  Congrats on all of you who have read almost the entire Bible!!!

 

Today, we are back in Nehemiah for our Old Testament reading.  We begin in chapter 10 with the people making a commitment to follow the Law.  They know it, now they will live it. 

 

Jerusalem is the capital and the holy city. It had the leaders and the temple employees but it needed real citizens to make it a defensible community. It wasn’t easy to live there. They still had the residents actively serving as guards. The gates are complete, the wall is done, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be opposition. They still haven’t let their guard down. To live in Jerusalem, at that time, meant to be a rotating security guard of sorts.

 

A number of people volunteered to form the nucleus of the city. We find their specific names listed in chapter 11. These were real people with real families and responsibilities who volunteered to do whatever they could, even if it was a significant interruption to their lives, in order to make Jerusalem a functioning society. Sometimes God asks us to interrupt our lives for his work in this world.

 

Let’s move on to chapter 12.  After the wall was dedicated, there was much joy among God’s people. But after the music and celebration ended, Nehemiah made sure the people understood the importance of tithing. As they were seeking to be in alignment with God’s Word, this was of vital importance. The first fruits and tithes of the people provided for the work of the priests and the Levites, as well as any other need associated with the worship of God and his work in the world. Tithing is still of vital importance. Throughout Scripture, God calls his people to give 10% of their earnings to him. This isn’t because God needs our money. Rather, it is a matter of heart.

 

All we have comes from God–everything! As an act of obedience, he then calls us to give part of our resources back to him for his work in the world. In my experience as a pastor, people really struggle with this. This is an estimate but I would guess only about a fifth of our church truly tithes. Giving10% may feel hard at first but once you do it, it is actually quite freeing. You know you are in compliance with God’s Word and God always blesses that. For me, it is also an important acknowledgment that God is Lord of my life and I’m trusting him with my all. Do you tithe? Why or why not?

 

In chapter 13, we find that Nehemiah has to return to serve the king of Babylon. God had called him to Jerusalem for a season, he was obedient, and then he had to go back to his day job. But after some time (we don’t know how long but it must have been quite awhile), Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem. He finds that the people were not obeying the Law as they had promised to do. There were issues with the tithes and the temple, people were not obeying the Sabbath, and there was intermarriage with the pagan people who lived around them. Nehemiah does his best to institute reforms once again so the people would be in alignment with God’s law.

This wasn’t easy. The people had grown comfortable in their ways. After each set of reforms, Nehemiah asks God to remember what he has done and honor it. Nehemiah was an honest and Godly man who simply wanted to serve God well and teach his people to do the same. Who are the Nehemiahs among us? Who are those men and women who seek to serve God and lovingly encourage others to do the same, even when it’s hard and even when the people don’t want to hear it?

Our New Testament reading is Revelation 8. The interlude is over. It’s time for the seventh seal to be opened. After watching the last seals be opened, John is probably expecting something really big but this time, there is nothing but...silence. The Scripture says there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. Silence is often a way to show reverence to God in worship. There are whole religious orders that take vows of silence before God.

I don’t know about you but, as an extroverted extrovert, I struggle with silence. It is in long, extended periods of silence that we are faced with our own thoughts, our doubts, and our struggles. That’s not always fun. But I’ve also found tremendous value in silence-it’s in those long periods of silence that I take time to really engage with God and allow time for listening, for resting in the presence of God. Mother Teresa is quoted as saying, “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence ... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Could it be that we learn the most from God in the silence? What has been your experience? God can also use silence as a method of preparation. We find this in today’s Scripture. After the silence, things get pretty intense. The seven angels who stand before God are given seven trumpets. The prayers of God’s people (symbolized by the incense) make their ways to God’s nostrils. And then, the trumpets blow and God’s wrath is poured out on the earth. The purpose of the trumpet blows is to warn the unbelievers of God’s impending wrath and judgment.

There is something about a trumpet that makes you take notice. It’s quite loud, so loud in fact that there is no way to NOT notice it. Take notice, these angels are saying. Pay attention! Turn from your wicked ways and acknowledge God! Who do you know who has not yet acknowledged God? Are there people in your life that need to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ? Read the words of the apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians 6:1-4 and the unbelievers in your life in prayer.

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
    and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

 

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki