Nehemiah- Do I Really Have To Babysit Jerusalem Officials?

By Mary Vee
Nehemiah 10

From Nehemiah's Journal

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My name is Nehemiah. 

I am visiting back in Jerusalem for the second time. God has burned a desire in me to check on the progress in the city. When I left the last time the walls had been rebuilt, the people had been taught the laws of Moses, and they said they would seek to obey them.

I thought everything would be fine as I returned to my job in Babylon. But I was wrong. I came back and found a mess.

Last time, I told how the sneaky Tobiah wormed his way into having a room for himself in the Temple. Really? Well, let's have the enemy right in our camp..shall we? Not! I didn't waste anytime throwing him and all of his stuff out of there.

Then I looked around the Temple and saw it hadn't been taken care of the way it should be. The lamps, the bread, repairs, the singers. Nothing done. Where were the Levites who were supposed to be taking care of this?

I searched for one of the priests. "Where are all the Levites? Why aren't they here taking care of the Temple?"

"I'm sorry Nehemiah. The food portions that were supposed to be given to them haven't ben given. The Levites were hungry. So they went back to their fields to grow their own food."

"What? You're kidding me."

"No."

"Call a meeting right now. I want every official in this room in the next few minutes. Go!"

He ran out of the room and returned with all the officials in a very short time. Good thing that he did because I would have gone out and found them myself and I was in no mood to be toyed with.

The official entered the room and greeted me as though I were a long lost friend. Big mistake. I was not happy. "Sit."

They sat. 

"Why has the house of God been neglected? When I left, everything was in order. What have you done to make the Levites return to their fields instead of fulfilling their duties here? Tell me!"

The men sat silently. Just as I thought. Too afraid to admit what they'd done wrong. "Fine. You will go out to every Levite field and bring each one back here. Have them in the temple by sundown."

Although the official didn't say anything to me, they certainly did their fair share of grumbling as they left. I didn't care. I was here to put the temple back in order.

That night all the Levites were back in their stations. Each doing their own job. Each receiving their food. 

Come back next time, because interesting tales happen in Jerusalem in days to come.
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sources: New International Version, New King James Version