Wednesday - Guard Your Time

Nehemiah 13:15-22 – In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. 16 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. 19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. 20 So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 21 Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath. 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.

-       "I commanded that the gates should be shut..." Nehemiah 13:19 

The Sabbath wasn't stolen from the people, it was traded away, a little at a time, for commerce and business as usual. Nothing that filled it was inherently evil. It just wasn't what that time was set apart for.

We're not under the Old Testament Sabbath law, but the principle stands: if you don't guard your time with God, something else will take it, and usually it won't be anything sinister, just everything else.

Nehemiah's answer was simple: he shut the gates. He built a boundary.

Reflect:

-       What tends to quietly take the time that belongs to God in your day?

-       What's one "gate" you could shut this week, a boundary that protects time with Him?