Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
August 7 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
10 Plays3 days ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
In today's reading we will read the Book of Nehemiah, Chapters 6-8. In today's reading we will see obedience and the happiness that comes from obeying. We will read about Nehemiah completing the task of rebuilding the wall that God put on his heart to do. Then we will see God put another task on his heart, which Nehemiah will also obediently do. We will read about the importance of not only reading/hearing God's Word, but the importance of understanding it when we read about Ezra reading to the people the laws that God gave Moses and then the Levites explaining the laws so the people could understand them clearly! We will read that when the people understood they were motivated to obey God's laws. Then, when the people obeyed they were happy!
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about the importance of spending time meditating on God's Word so that we can understand it and apply it to our daily lives, too, the same way the people did in today's reading. When we hear and understand God's Word it is important to then also obey it, and when we do, we will be happy like the people we read about today!
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
If you know someone who might be interested in reading the Bible with me this year please SHARE today's reading with them! It's never too late to join in! Let's help this event grow and together we can spread the word about reading God's Word!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Daily Reading
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome everybody. Today is August 7th and thank you for joining me for today's daily reading. We are reading the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:00:16
Speaker
If you are following along on your commitment calendar, it's time to take that out and get your sticker or however you're marking it off because you're about to hear the Bible today.
Acknowledgment and Gratitude
00:00:31
Speaker
If you are following along on a regular basis, you may realize that this is a very late posting for today's edition. So thank you for your patience as I was very busy today, but I will definitely get this out so that we have our daily reading for August 7th.
Jeremiah Chapters 6-8 Discussion
00:00:50
Speaker
We are going to be picking up in the book of Jeremiah and we will be covering chapter six, seven and eight today. We are so close to finishing. i'm almost sad because I i feel like we're where going to be done with it. And and sometimes being done is is can be sad.
00:01:13
Speaker
But i am also very excited to get to the New Testament. So today we are going to be seeing obedience. And what happens when obey?
00:01:27
Speaker
And we're also going to see the importance of understanding what we read in the Bible.
Understanding and Meditating on God's Word
00:01:36
Speaker
We, as you know, if you've been following along for any length of time this year, it's very important to me in this event that we have understanding of God's Word.
00:01:45
Speaker
That it's not okay to just read it and then say, okay, I've read it and then move on. We are meant to meditate, which means to think about and spend time about thinking about it.
00:01:57
Speaker
ah in God's word. And a lot of times we think about meditating as sitting there and trying to clear your mind. But the biblical in ah definition for meditating is to think about something.
00:02:13
Speaker
So when we meditate on God's word, it means to spend time thinking about it. And when we do, it helps us to understand because that is spending time with the Holy Spirit.
00:02:24
Speaker
And it's his job to help us to have understanding of the word. So we are going to be seeing today that it was very important to the people to understand the word when they were being taught.
00:02:42
Speaker
So we're going to start with chapter six first, and we're going to be seeing obedience.
Nehemiah's Determination and Challenges
00:02:49
Speaker
Now, Sanballat and Tobiah found out that the wall was back up and there were no holes in it anymore. So they sent me a message, me being Nehemiah.
00:03:00
Speaker
Come meet with us in one of the towns. But they were planning to hurt me. So I sent a message back to them. I'm very busy. ah can't come.
00:03:12
Speaker
I don't want this work to stop just for a meeting. and they sent me the same message four times. And every time, I sent back with the same message.
00:03:25
Speaker
Then Sanballat sent his helper to see me, and he had a letter in his hand. It read, we hear that you're going to plan a fight. You are going to fight against the king, and that is why you are building the wall.
00:03:42
Speaker
We hear that people are going to make you their king. And the king will hear about this. So come and meet with us.
00:03:52
Speaker
I sent this message back. You are wrong. The things you say are not happening here and you're just making them up.
00:04:04
Speaker
They were trying to scare us. And they thought that we would be too scared to work. And then the work wouldn't get finished. But I prayed.
00:04:15
Speaker
Make my hands stronger.
00:04:20
Speaker
One day I went to see a man at his home and he said, let's go meet in God's worship house. Let's close the doors behind us. Men are coming to try to kill you and they'll be coming in at night.
00:04:35
Speaker
Am I the kind of man to run away? I asked. Should I go to the worship house to be safe? I won't. I knew God had not told that man to say that.
00:04:50
Speaker
He was just trying to scare me. And Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to scare me. Then I would look bad for running away. Lots of leaders were sending letters to Tobiah.
00:05:05
Speaker
And Tobiah was sending letters to them. The leaders would tell me what good things Tobiah had done. And then they would tell Tobiah what I said.
00:05:17
Speaker
And Tobiah even sent letters to scare me.
Completion of the Wall and Census
00:05:22
Speaker
God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, and remember what they've done. Remember the people who are trying to scare me.
00:05:34
Speaker
Soon the wall was finished, and our enemies heard about it, and then they were afraid. They stopped feeling so good about themselves. And they saw that God had helped us to do this work.
00:05:52
Speaker
Chapter 7, Gatekeepers and Singers Then I chose gatekeepers and singers, and I chose my brother to be in charge of Jerusalem.
00:06:04
Speaker
I chose another man to help him, and I knew that this man always told the truth, and he cared about God more than most men did.
00:06:15
Speaker
And I said, don't to open Jerusalem's gates until the sun is hot. Tell the gatekeepers to close the doors and tell them to put the bars across.
00:06:26
Speaker
Choose some other people to be guards. Now the city was very big. It had lots of room, but there weren't many people who lived there.
00:06:38
Speaker
And all the houses had not been built yet. So, God put a plan in my heart. I called the people to come sign up.
00:06:50
Speaker
And that way we knew who the families were. I found a list and it showed who had come back to Jerusalem first. So the leaders came to live in Jerusalem and the other people threw lots, like rolling dice.
00:07:05
Speaker
And that's the way they chose people to live in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people stayed in their own towns.
00:07:13
Speaker
Chapter 8, Reading from Morning until Noon Then the people got together in front of the water gate.
Significance of God's Laws and Feast of Booths
00:07:25
Speaker
They told Ezra to bring out Moses' law book.
00:07:29
Speaker
It had God's laws for his people in it. So Ezra brought it out and he read it out loud. He read from the early morning until noon.
00:07:40
Speaker
All the people listened carefully. Ezra stood on a high wooden stand. He opened the book. Their books were scrolls.
00:07:53
Speaker
And everybody could see him because he was so high up. When Ezra opened up the book, a scroll, all the people stood up and Ezra praised God.
00:08:07
Speaker
The people held their hands up and they said, yes, yes. And then they bowed down with their faces to the ground and they worshiped God. Then men from the family of Levi taught the people.
00:08:22
Speaker
And they made the law book clear. They told the people what it meant. All the people had been crying while they listened. But Nehemiah and Ezra talked to the people.
00:08:36
Speaker
And they said, This is a special day to God. Don't cry, said. Go and enjoy some good food, said Nehemiah.
00:08:47
Speaker
Go have sweet drinks. Share your food with others. This day is special to God, so don't cry. God's joy makes you strong.
00:09:03
Speaker
So the people left to eat and drink, and they had a joyful holiday. And that's because they understood the words of the law book.
00:09:15
Speaker
The next day the leaders came together and they stood around Ezra. They learned that they were supposed to have a holiday of tents and it was to happen that month.
00:09:28
Speaker
So they said, go to the hills and get tree branches, make tents out of them like the law book says to do. So the people went out and got tree branches and they built branch tents.
00:09:42
Speaker
And some people made tents on their roofs. Some built tents in their yards. Some built tents by the water gate. And everyone built branch tents.
00:09:55
Speaker
They lived in them for the holiday. This was the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. And they were very happy.
00:10:07
Speaker
Every day Ezra read from the law book. And the holiday for God lasted seven days.
00:10:16
Speaker
And that's the end of our reading to- today.
00:10:22
Speaker
Isn't that beautiful today? We saw obedience in Nehemiah to keep going and to do the task that God had given him to do.
00:10:33
Speaker
God had put it on his heart to get that wall in Jerusalem rebuilt. He did it. He followed through. He was faithful and obedient to God.
00:10:45
Speaker
And we read that God helped them to do this great work.
00:10:53
Speaker
God, of course, is going to help us when he gives us something to do. He doesn't just walk away from us and tell us to figure things out. God will be with us the whole time.
00:11:05
Speaker
And he gave Nehemiah wisdom and discernment to know that it was not God who was sending him a message to tell it to tell him to hide in the worship house.
00:11:19
Speaker
Then we saw that that ah the wall was done and we saw that God had put another plan in Nehemiah's heart. And that was to take what we would call a census. They took accounting of the people who were there and who had arrived first in Jerusalem.
00:11:39
Speaker
And that way they could set people up to live in Jerusalem. And that way there would be enough people in there. And they would live there temporarily until they could get the town built back up.
00:11:50
Speaker
And the other people lived in their own towns. So we see more obedience. God put something in his heart, a plan. And Nehemiah followed through and did it.
00:12:04
Speaker
Then we see that the people got together and Ezra, you remember Ezra? We just finished reading about him in his book. And he brought out Moses's law book.
00:12:17
Speaker
And I thought it was very interesting the way our big Bible as says it. So I'm going to read this passage in Nehemiah chapter eight, verse two.
00:12:28
Speaker
It says Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the assembly, which included men and women and all who could understand what they heard.
00:12:40
Speaker
And this happened on the first day of the seventh month. So the seventh month is the month that the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths is supposed to take place.
00:12:51
Speaker
So isn't it wonderful that God arranged the timing for all of these things so that they would be reading about the feast that they were supposed to be ah obeying and and taking part of that very month?
00:13:08
Speaker
Isn't God wonderful to prepare them for this? This was probably at least one of the reasons why God helped them to finish it so quickly. Because God was right on time for his appointed time.
00:13:23
Speaker
God always shows up for his appointed times. They are called Moedim. They are appointed times. And so the people read about the appointed time and then they obeyed.
00:13:38
Speaker
And they observed it. And it tells us in our big Bible that they had not observed that a holiday for a very long time. But what happened when they observed it? First, let's take one step back and talk about that when they listened to the law book and they understood it, the people were full of joy. They were happy.
00:14:03
Speaker
Understanding God's word makes us happy. so that we can obey. and when we obey, we are also happy. it might sound like ah one we might call an oxymoron, that we might not want to obey something. We might think, oh, i don't want to do that.
00:14:24
Speaker
But when we do obey God, our obedience brings us happiness and joy. And we read today that God's joy strengthens us.
00:14:37
Speaker
Isn't that awesome? So when the people observe the Feast of Tabernacles, it says they lived in them for the holiday.
00:14:48
Speaker
They were very happy. I love that. So our daily application today is to obey God, knowing that it is for our own good. It makes us happy.
00:15:02
Speaker
We are joyful when we obey God and also to understand, to take the time to understand what we read in God's word, not just to read it, but to understand it so that we can obey and be happy.
00:15:19
Speaker
Isn't that awesome? I love that. Who would have thought that obeying would make ah you happy? i can think of lots of things that I wouldn't want to obey that you think, oh, I don't want to do that. But then when we do it, we're so much happier that we did it and we got it done. And God's word is not something that we just get done.
00:15:41
Speaker
It's something that we continue to do. It's our way of life. Jesus is is coming to us shortly here in the new covenant that we're going to be reading. And he's going to be teaching us that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
00:15:57
Speaker
Obeying God brings us life. When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, it gives us life.
Jesus as a Model of Obedience
00:16:04
Speaker
And Jesus is going to be modeling all of the Torah.
00:16:10
Speaker
All of the laws and the ways that God has been teaching the people how to live. He's going to be modeling that. So our big model for how to live, Jesus, he is he came to fulfill the law.
00:16:26
Speaker
So he is obeying the law. And he is teaching us that we need to obey him. he says, if you love me, you will obey me. So our greatest way that we can show our love to Jesus is to obey him, to accept him as our Lord and Savior.
00:16:47
Speaker
and And we will be happy when we do so. So I hope that you feel that God has lit your light to- today. i know he has definitely lit my light today. So when you're finished watching or listening, it would be awesome if you could help spread the word about reading God's word.
Sharing God's Word and Invitation
00:17:04
Speaker
And you can do that by clicking the share or by clicking that light button that looks like a thumbs up. It looks like a heart, but it's your light button. And together we can help spread the word about reading and understanding God's word so that we can obey and be happy as a result.
00:17:24
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I like to be happy.
00:17:28
Speaker
So thank you for joining me today. ah Whatever day you get around to watching this August 7th reading. And I will be here for everyone again tomorrow. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.