Nehemiah 12

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XII.—Happy are those ministers, those saints, who are recorded in the Lamb’s book of life! Notwithstanding the ravages of death, God will always keep up in his church a succession of servants and people, and shew them distinguished honours. It is highly proper, even in a most solemn manner, to devolve the protection of our cities, and all that we have, upon our God, as reconciled through the sacrifice of Christ. And it is comely when all, even wives and children, share in the joys of the gospel, and are taught to sing God’s high praise. How necessary, through the selfishness or unconcern of most professors, are fixed methods of collecting a proper maintenance for the ministers of the Lord! - But it is highly becoming for them faithfully to attend to their work, and leave the supply of their needs to the care of their God. In the two preceding books we have seen God’s marvellous preservation of those Jews who returned to their own country. In this probably written by Mordecai, we have an account of his marvellous preservation of those who continued in the eastern parts of the Persian empire. Particularly (1) How God brought Esther to be queen, and Mordecai to be great, at the Persian court, to prepare them to be instruments of the intended deliverance; chap. i. ii. vi. (2) Upon what provocation, and by what arts, Haman obtained an irrevocable order from the Persian king for the destruction of all the Jews; iii. (3) The great distress into which the publishing of this order cast the Jews, particularly Esther and Mordecai; iv. (4) The defeating of Haman’s particular plot against Mordecai’s life; v. vi. vii. (5) The defeating of his general plot against Jewish nation; viii. ix. (6) The joyful commemoration and happy issue of the deliverance; ix. x. 59. 64. 6 C