Key Verse: Verse 3 - "And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire."
Key Words: great affliction
As you read the book of Nehemiah, you discover several truths in regard to the affliction of Israel during the days of the Babylonian captivity.
We read in:
- Nehemiah 1:3 about the great affliction,
- Nehemiah 4:1 about the great indignation,
- Nehemiah 8:12 about the great mirth,
- Nehemiah 9:18 about the great provocations, and
- Nehemiah 9:37 about their great distress.
Yet God in His goodness delivered them from all of these. You would think that Israel in return would have a great appreciation for God; but in Nehemiah 13, they have forgotten God. No wonder they had to experience such great affliction.
There is an old saying that goes, “He who does not learn from his past is bound to repeat it.”
As a boy growing up in a rural part of South Alabama, we would often hunt and fish and even trap animals, particularly field larks. One day we decided to start putting bands around the birds’ legs to indicate how often we would capture the same bird. Now, there were, on numerous occasions, birds that we would capture two and three times. But the winner who we named “bird brain” had seven bands around his two legs when we stopped banding him. He just never learned. So it is with many today. They stay in affliction and mirth and distress because they simply have not learned from their past. I believe God calls that person a fool (Proverbs 26:11).
What to do:
✞ Learn from your past, or you will repeat it.
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