Tag Archives: Nehemiah

Ruth and Ezra/Nehemiah: conflict about foreign wives in the Bible?

Grace and Judgment Posted on by

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Bible appear to take a very intolerant attitude toward foreigners. More than a hundred men who married foreign wives caused a great scandal that ended in mass divorce. But in the book of Ruth, Boaz becomes the hero by marrying Ruth, a foreigner.

People who think the Bible is full of contradictions have a field day.  As always, a careful look at everything the Bible has to say resolves the apparent conflict. Ezra 9-10 and Nehemiah 13 describe the scandal of foreign wives. We need to understand other passages in the Bible to put these chapters in perspective.… Read the rest

Construction tools and weapons: spiritual multitasking

Grace and Judgment Posted on by

Nehemiah’s best-known accomplishment is getting a wall built. Lots of people have supervised similar construction projects. Not many have done so in the face of armed opposition that forced them to resort to multitasking. And even fewer have had their stories enshrined in Scripture so that thousands of years later, we can learn spiritual lessons.

Nowadays, multitasking seems to be the rule, not the exception. I have long observed people who claim they can be more efficient by doing several things at once. Usually I observe that they do at least one of the tasks so badly that they have to do it over.… Read the rest