Nehemiah

More information about the repatriation of the Jews to their homeland. They had some tough times, and thanks to their priests, their religion helped them keep things quite weird.

Neh 4:5 - Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight; for they have hurled insults in the face of the builders.
Nehemiah is praying that God won't forgive the sins of non-Jews? This is a strange concept. I was unaware that the laws of Moses (which defined what sin was, for the Jews) were meant to apply to the sub-human non-holy people. If there is something in the OT that states otherwise, I'd love to hear about it. In any event, I thought it was pretty clear that only Jews could have a shot at getting their guilt covered.

Neh 4:9 - So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
I have one question about this. If they were praying to God for protection, why did these dimwits think they needed to post their own guards?

Neh 4:19,20 - And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, "The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet. Our God will fight for us."
The thinking is apparently quite thick, viscous and slow here. Once more, I ask the question: Why run around to fight, when you're expecting your omnipotent God to fight for you?

Neh 8:9-12 - And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved." And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
I don't know. It looks like Nehemiah and his crew had to deal with an awful lot of crying after handing out the laws everyone was supposed to live under. Personally, I don't care if the people were crying for joy (unlikely, in my opinion) or because they felt guilty (a distinct possibility) or because they realized they were being led by power-hungry religious maniacs (I'd like to think this was the case, but I'm not so lucky). What I find interesting is that the priests felt it necessary to order the people to feel the appropriate emotions. It's a sad commentary that the people felt the need to follow such orders. This looks to me like a clear example of mind control.

Neh 13:1-3 - On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Baalam against them to curse them - yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
Old customs are the best, eh? Here is yet another example of thinking that has plagued humanity all its life. The inheritance of hatreds nearly 1000 years old (or that were made to look that old), and the people whose parents weren't from the correct race were the ones thrown out - only to start new hatreds to lay on top of the old. Not a very wise path to take, if you ask me.

Neh 13:19-22 - When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I set some of my servants over the gates, to prevent any burden from being brought in on the sabbath day.Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on they did not come on the sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
Clearly, Nehemiah felt it was his duty to force people to obey the rules of the sabbath. This included threatening anyone who might "lead folks astray." Is it wise to attempt to force people to follow a religion? It certainly seems to have been a common enough practice, for far too long!

Neh 13:23-30 - In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples. And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?"

And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work.
Does this sound familiar or what? Beating up on people for marrying someone of the wrong race, forcing them to take oaths, above all, blaming a particular group of people (foreign women) for all the woes of a nation? Not to mention "cleansing" out all the scapegoats. Odd, isn't it, how the sin of Solomon wasn't attributed to Satan?