When You Know They Are Serious!
Food, clothing, and shelter are basic necessities for living this life. After those things are accomplished there are higher needs in man that he seeks for. Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist cited what those hierarchy of needs were. After the basic needs, he cited the need for safety. In the case of the returning Jewish captives into Jerusalem, that need was satisfied with the rebuilding of the walls. The next need according to Maslow is the need for love and belonging. In the case of those in Jerusalem, they sought to hear from the lover of their soul:
When everyone had settled, they re-gathered in Jerusalem. Everyone met in the square that is in front of the water gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law, the word the Eternal sent through Moses to Israel. 2 Ezra the priest did as they asked, bringing God’s law to Israel. The community included both men and women—anyone who was able to understand was welcomed. This gathering took place on the first day of the seventh month. 3 Facing the people in the square, next to the water gate, he began to read excerpts. The document was massive, and just reading parts took him six or seven hours, from daybreak until noon. Everyone who was there heard him: men, women—anyone with the ability to understand. As he read, they were focused and listened carefully to the book of the law.Nehemiah 8:1-3 (The Voice)
Inherent in the history of the Jewish people was a relationship with their God. Time after time they strayed away from Him following the pagan gods of their neighbors. However, time after time they returned to the God that they knew was their true deliverer, Yahweh. In the days of Nehemiah, it was no different. Those who were able to understand, understood that their mighty deliverance from their captivity; the. miracle of the restoration of the wall and their homes was due to the mercy and the love of their God. So early they assembled at the Watergate to hear the Words of the law that they knew would bring them continued success if they followed them.
It is no different for us today. If we seek to hear the words of our deliverer – and follow them -we too will gain victory and success in all we seek to do. Just like the children of Israel, we have allowed the tantalizing frivolities of pagan gods to gain our attention. We have courted things that were not edifying to God, or profitable to us. We haver allowed the walls of our soul to be broken down by viewing the ungodly spirits of Babylon. It’s not too late to reverse these ungodly practices, the Word yet cries out:
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; Hebrews 3:7-14 (KJV)
Maria