Once upon a time a famed shoemaker named Manolo said, "Maintenance is terribly important."
But how important is it?
Virginia Satir, an American author, seemed to understand its significance, for she said, "We need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs for maintenance, 12 hugs for growth."
In today's daily bread Bible passage, Nehemiah also understood the significance of maintenance.
As Kurt Vonnegut Jr., another American author is quoted saying, "Another flaw in the human nature is that everybody wants to build, nobody wants to do maintenance", after completing the work on the house of God and the Jerusalem Wall, people left the work to fall into disrepair.
Twelve years after the completion of the work, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem and saw horrible things going around in the house of God, as is recorded in Nehemiah 13.
To bring the Lord's house back to the condition he had first left 12 years before, he took such drastic measures as throwing Tobiah and his stuff out of the house of God.
When Jesus came to the land of Israel, in Luke 11:24-26, he taught people the way of maintaining the house of God (which is within you) and the significance of maintaining:
1. The way of maintaining the house of God, that is, to gather with and stay with Jesus.
2. The significance of maintaining it, that is, the one who does not gather with Jesus is bound to scatter. In talking to those who had spoken ill of Jesus, he said of a man who was cleansed of an impure spirit, not maintaining his inner condition, only to become worse than 7 times than the first.
But this is not to say that one can keep himself clean without Jesus, for those who are not with him are against him, just as the religious leaders of Jesus' day like the unbelieving Pharisees and Sadducees falling victim to the devil.
Notes:
1) Nehemiah's work began in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes II and he revisited Jerusalem in the 32nd year (Neh 2:1; 13:6). [This king is the son of Esther. Biblical Archaeology.org says he is Artaxerxes I, but I think this is an error. See note 2 below.]
Artaxerxes I (also known as Ahasuerus) husband of Esther (in power 14 years)
But how important is it?
Virginia Satir, an American author, seemed to understand its significance, for she said, "We need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs for maintenance, 12 hugs for growth."
In today's daily bread Bible passage, Nehemiah also understood the significance of maintenance.
As Kurt Vonnegut Jr., another American author is quoted saying, "Another flaw in the human nature is that everybody wants to build, nobody wants to do maintenance", after completing the work on the house of God and the Jerusalem Wall, people left the work to fall into disrepair.
Twelve years after the completion of the work, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem and saw horrible things going around in the house of God, as is recorded in Nehemiah 13.
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| Jerusalem Wall |
To bring the Lord's house back to the condition he had first left 12 years before, he took such drastic measures as throwing Tobiah and his stuff out of the house of God.
When Jesus came to the land of Israel, in Luke 11:24-26, he taught people the way of maintaining the house of God (which is within you) and the significance of maintaining:
1. The way of maintaining the house of God, that is, to gather with and stay with Jesus.
2. The significance of maintaining it, that is, the one who does not gather with Jesus is bound to scatter. In talking to those who had spoken ill of Jesus, he said of a man who was cleansed of an impure spirit, not maintaining his inner condition, only to become worse than 7 times than the first.
But this is not to say that one can keep himself clean without Jesus, for those who are not with him are against him, just as the religious leaders of Jesus' day like the unbelieving Pharisees and Sadducees falling victim to the devil.
Notes:
1) Nehemiah's work began in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes II and he revisited Jerusalem in the 32nd year (Neh 2:1; 13:6). [This king is the son of Esther. Biblical Archaeology.org says he is Artaxerxes I, but I think this is an error. See note 2 below.]
2) Belshazar - Daniel 5 (in power for 3 years)
Cyrus - authorized the return of exiles and rebuilding of temple (in power 3 years)
Darius the Mede - Daniel 10 (aka Darius I) reigned 1 year
Artaxerxes II (aka Darius II the Persian) - son of Esther (in power 35 years) authorized Temple's completion
(Source - Tanach the torah prophets writings, mesorah publications inc., Edited by nosson scherman P 2027 Appendix A the babylonian exile based on seder olam and talmud)
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