Oh that Clutter

Today’s Bible Reading: Nehemiah 13; Joel 1-2

I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms. Nehemiah 13:8-9

I love the feeling of a new school year. It’s a clean slate with new supplies and the potential of doing better than the year before. However, inevitably, somewhere along the way a goal isn’t met or that nice new backpack gets dirty. That’s how it often is as we walk with the Lord. After the emotion of a revival or the excitement of a retreat wears off, there’s the potential of easing up and the enthusiasm wanes.

That’s exactly what happened in today’s reading. The temple had been rebuilt, the city walls restored, the people had rededicated their lives to God and life in restored Jerusalem was well on its way. That’s when Eliashib the priest eased up on that trouble maker Tobiah and gave him a room in the temple (Nehemiah 13:4-6). What?! Didn’t he remember all the trouble Tobiah had caused in chapter 4? Well, I think we can all relate with this one…we who were once dead in trespasses and sins are now made alive in Christ (Colossians 2:13); yet we all have the propensity to let trouble (sin) creep back in. We are the temple of the living God, and there shouldn’t be any rooms reserved for those old trouble makers!

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

Nehemiah chapter 13 holds a great lesson for us today. Sin and compromise leads to death (Romans 6:23). When we find a room in our heart that’s been reserved for something that doesn’t belong – it needs to go.

Praise our precious Jesus, for it's His blood that cleanses and washes us white as snow. It’s the water of the Word that washes out those dusty rooms.