RPG Adults
PROVIDENCE, THE CONFIDENCE FOR SERVICE (III)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Nehemiah 7:46-60
Ezra 2:42-58
“…thou shalt not respect
the person of the poor,
nor honour the person of the mighty…”
PROVIDENCE, THE CONFIDENCE FOR SERVICE (III)
The third group of people mentioned and recognised in the lists of Nehemiah and Ezra was a group that was easy to overlook and ignore. The world despises and undervalues manual and hard work. As such, those who do the heavy lifting and the manual, tedious and sweat-filled work are often overlooked and not recognised on many occasions. But this is not so with God. He remembers, knows and acknowledges all His children, irrespective of the world’s view of their work and occupations.
The Nethinims… (Neh 7:46). The Nethinims were those who were chosen to be servants to assist the Levites as they went about their tasks in the service of the temple. They did mainly manual and tedious work required in the temple during the services, such as wood-cutting and water-carrying. They too were ordained and set in place during the reign of David and were mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:2 in conjunction with the Priests and the Levites. They were mentioned again in conjunction with the Priests and the Levites in Ezra’s account of his arrival in Jerusalem in Ezra 7:7, 24. Ezra stated that the Nethinims had been “appointed for the service of the Levites” by “David and the princes” in Ezra 8:20.
In the case of the Gibeonites in Joshua 9, they deceived Joshua into making peace with them. As a result, they were condemned to a life of servitude and tedious labour (Josh 9:21). Yet, God helped Joshua and the children of Israel to defeat the armies that had gone to fight against Gibeon (Josh 10). They were not deprived of God’s faithfulness and justice when they became the victims of Saul’s cruelty as recorded in 2 Samuel 21:1-9. Likewise, the Nethinims, though in the eyes of the world were a people who had a life of lowly manual work, were still counted and their record was found in the genealogy of God’s people both in Ezra’s list as well as in Nehemiah’s.
THOUGHT: (Read Leviticus 19:15 and Acts 10:34-35.)
PRAYER: O Father, give me grace to overcome partiality.