R³ Devotional - Day 272

Have you heard the expression: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play”?. This is exactly what happened with the Israelites after they had rebuilt the wall.

The people of Israel, with the leadership of Nehemiah, had finished rebuilding the wall. God had protected them during this time, they had confessed their sins and returned to God’s ways, and they finally dedicated the wall with celebration. Nehemiah 12 says there was great joy, and it was so loud that the Joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. (Neh. 12:43)

At this time, Nehemiah had to return to Persia as he promised (Neh. 2:6), and chapter 13 gives us insight into how the people had stepped away from the good path they were on. They had just read that no Ammonite or Moabite should enter the assembly of God (vs 1), and then we see that they had let Tobiah the Ammonite live inside the temple!

When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and found this, he was just disappointed, frustrated, and angry at some point. Not only this happened, but also, the Levites were not receiving the portions they had to receive, which led them to go to their fields to work and not work at the temple (vs 10).

In those days, people were also trading on the Sabbath, which made Nehemiah confront these people and even kick them out of the city, and they even went back to marrying women from Ashdod and Ammon, as they were commanded not to.

This points back to the first expression, when there is no cat, the mice will do anything they want. In this case, it was Nehemiah who kept them in the right path. God guided Nehemiah, and he led the Israelites. But for us now it is about Christ.

Every one of us has Christ in us or has the opportunity to have Christ in us to guide us, but when we don’t spend time with him, when we do not listen to him, we will start doing things however we want and not according to his will.

Real: Life Principles

• Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Our life should follow his guidance, his words, his will.
• If we try to do things away from God’s will, from God’s guidance, we will end up far away from God.

Relevant: Life Applications

• We need to recognize that we need Christ every day in our lives. We can’t do it on our own.
• Depending on God’s guidance is not weakness. It is having the true freedom of Christ acting in our lives.

Ready: Life Action Steps

• Seek him every day, in every decision, in every aspect of your life. Follow his will.
• Proverbs 3:5 says to trust in the Lord only, and not rely on our own understanding. The Israelites in this passage thought they knew better, but who did they end up?