Have you met Nehemiah?

I mentioned last week that I have started a new online course from Be A Disciple called Leading Like Nehemiah. 

The first question we were asked to answer was if we had read the book and were familiar with it, and what it has meant to us.  I have read the book of Nehemiah before; I can’t remember exactly when – it was either part of a Disciple Bible Study or a Bethel Bible Study. I remember when I read it that I found it to be a hopeful book. After you read from prophets whose ministry was right before or during the exile, reading scripture about a person who was returning to Jerusalem to rebuild it felt hopeful – as if there was to be a future for God’s people.

In addition, I’ve been troubled by the commands from Ezra and Nehemiah that the Israelites divorce their foreign wives. What happened to them? I compare that to the book of Ruth; she was a foreigner who became the ancestor of Jesus.

I’m sure I’ll post about the class again, but this is where I started.