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Take your time with the Scripture sections you’re tempted to breeze over (like Nehemiah 7). Look at commentaries and consult other scholars to see what treasures they found tucked away inside of it.
Read the first part of this passage (particularly verse 16) alongside Psalm 126. How do the details of one help support the truth of the other?
Read Nehemiah 5-6 alongside Psalm 37. How do the details of one help support the truth of the other?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown’s gives particularly helpful historical insight on verse five and open vs. closed letters in Nehemiah’s time.
Here’s what we have: a Moabite, an Ammonite, and an Arab, turning up the heat on their archenemy with a pile of letters nowhere close to the olive branch that, on the surface, they appear to be; a freshly-built wall, free of breaks (and also, as yet, doors); and an unwavering Jew with a divine amount of discernment.
Paraphrased Bible version like The Message help provide a simpler understanding of what is happening in a story.
Read this passage side-by-side with Luke 6:35 and 1 John 3:17-18. How do the details of each support the truth of the others?
This chapter can feel a little bit jarring if you aren’t paying attention (at least I was confused when I got to verse three and read about the famine.)
Dig into each piece of it in Ephesians 6:10-18, and practice mindfully putting it on daily.
Read this passage side-by-side with Job 5:8-16. How do the details of one support the truth of the other?
Nehemiah’s enemies knew that Nehemiah knew all about their plan and that God had brought it to nothing (or, as the Hebrew language describes, made it void).
Read these verses alongside Ephesians 6:10-20. How does one further illustrate theother?
Rocks, soil, dirt, trees – they all tell a story. What you can find about the kind of stone that ancient Jewish walls and temples were built with?
In chapter three, the Jews made incredible headway on the great rebuilding project of 444 BC.
