Nehemiah

Nehemiah deals with the resoration of the walls of the city of Jerusalem after the exiles come out of captivity in Babylon.  The captivity in Babylon is significant in the sense that Babylon literally means "house of the gods."  The Israelites were captive to the house of the godss because they chose to follow after them and thus the place where those gods were bron eventually captured the Israelites.  In the attempt to restore and rebuild the walls, the Jews are faced with Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite who are bitter opponents of the rebuilding of the walls.  Together, they represent the forces of darkness that try to keep the broken walls of our lives from being erected and standing tall again.  Nehemiah gives us an account of the returning exiles.  A story of significant theological importance in Nehemiah is taht of Tobiah the Ammonite who is befriended by one of the priests of Israel and allowed to dwell in the room of grain offerings in the temple.  Grain offerings in Leviticus are decribed as being offerings of appreciation unto God.  Tobiah represents the spirits that try to inhabit the room of grain offerings in our body  When this comes to the attention of Nehemiah, he becomes furious and throw's Tobaih out of the rokms and purifies them.  In our lives today where spirits have inhabited our ability to show our appreciation unto God, we need to purify the rooms of our body so that we can more openly and freely show God appreciation for what he has done for us.  Also in the book of Nehemiah is a session in which Ezra reads the book of the law and the people pray, weep, and put on sackcloth for the repentance of their sins as a sign of exposing themselves as naked before the Lord.