Reading for Today:

 Nehemiah 3:1–5:19
 Proverbs 21:27
 Psalm 89:1-4
 Acts 26:1-32

Notes:

Psalm 89:3 covenant with My chosen. The Davidic Covenant, culminating in

Messiah’s reign, was established in 2 Samuel 7 (1 Kin. 8:23; 1 Chr. 17; 2 Chr.
21:7; Pss. 110; 132). The covenant was in the form of a royal grant covenant as God,
the Great King, chose David as His servant king. In this type of covenant, the person
with whom the Lord established the covenant could violate the terms of the covenant
and the Lord would still be obligated to maintain the covenant.

Psalm 89:4 seed…forever…throne. The covenant with David was extended to

his descendants. The throne promise guaranteed that the rightful heir to the throne
would always be a descendant of David (vv. 29, 36; see also 2 Sam.
7:13, 16, 18; Luke 1:31–33). The genealogies of Jesus qualify Him for the throne
(Matt. 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38).

Acts 26:24 you are beside yourself! Festus was astonished that a learned scholar
like Paul could actually believe that the dead would live again—something no
intelligent Roman would accept. Unable to contain himself, he interrupted the
proceedings, shouting that Paul’s tremendous learning had driven him insane (Mark
3:21; John 8:48, 52; 10:20).

Acts 26:26 not done in a corner. The death of Jesus and the Christians’ claim that
He rose from the dead were common knowledge in Palestine.

Acts 26:27 do you believe the prophets? Paul’s shrewd question put Herod in a
dilemma. If he affirmed his belief in the prophets, he would also have to admit that
what they taught about Jesus’ death and resurrection was true—an admission that
would make him appear foolish before his Roman friends. Yet to deny the prophets
would outrage his Jewish subjects.

Acts 26:28 You almost persuade me. A better translation is “Do you think you
can convince me to become a Christian in such a short time?” Recognizing his
dilemma, Agrippa parried Paul’s question with one of his own.

DAY 26: Why did Nehemiah denounce the nobles and rulers?

In Nehemiah 5:1–5, the people were fatigued with hard labor, drained by the
relentless harassment of enemies, poor and lacking the necessities of life, lacking tax
money and borrowing for it, and working on the wall in the city rather than getting
food from the country. On top of this came complaints against the terrible
exploitation and extortion by the rich Jews who would not help, but forced people to
sell their homes and children, while having no ability to redeem them back. Under
normal conditions, the law offered the hope of releasing these young people through
the remission of debts which occurred every 7 years or in the 50th year of Jubilee
(Lev. 25). The custom of redemption made it possible to “buy back” the enslaved
individual at almost any time, but the desperate financial situation of those times
made that appear impossible.

So Nehemiah “rebuked the nobles and rulers” (v. 7).They had become the enemy
from within. “Exacting usury.” Usury can refer to normal interest or it can signify
excessive interest. According to Mosaic Law, the Jews were forbidden to take interest
from their brothers on the loan of money, food, or anything else. If the person was
destitute, they should consider it a gift. If they could pay it back later, it was to be
without interest (Lev. 25:36, 37; Deut. 23:19, 20). Such generosity marked the
godly (Ps. 15:5; Jer. 15:10; Prov. 28:8). Interest could be taken from foreigners (v.
20). Interest loans were known to exceed 50 percent at times in ancient nations. Such
usury took advantage of people’s desperation and was virtually impossible to repay,
consuming their entire family assets and reducing the debtors to permanent slavery.
Nehemiah denounced with just severity the evil conduct of selling a brother by means
of usury. He contrasted it with his own action of redeeming with his own money some
of the Jewish exiles, who through debt had lost their freedom in Babylon (v. 8).
Nehemiah set the example again by making loans, but not in exacting usury (v. 10).
To remedy the evil that they had brought, those guilty of usury were to return the
property they had confiscated from those who couldn’t pay the loans back, as well as
returning the interest they had charged (v. 11).