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Chapter 16: Nehemiah
Neh:1:5: And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
Neh:1:6: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
If Nehemiah believed his God was all-knowing and all-seeing, why would he pray for God to "open his eyes"? Wouldn't such a God's eyes always be open?
Neh:1:8: Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
Would the ultimate, all-knowing being need to be reminded of his own words? Asking such a being to remember his promises would seem insolent.
Neh:4:3: Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.
Neh:4:4: Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
Neh:4:5: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.
Nehemiah prayed for harm to come to those who mocked his efforts to repair the walls of Jerusalem. This example is in direct contradiction to the Gospel writers' admonition to "bless those that curse you".
Neh:9:24: So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
Nehemiah evidently believed that, having "conquered" the land of the Canaanites, the Israelites had carte blanche to do whatever they pleased to the native inhabitants! This type of immoral thinking would naturally excuse Moses' order to kill everyone except the virgins.
Neh:13:23: In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
Neh:13:24: And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
Neh:13:25: And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
Today, if someone were so racist as to strike a person and pull out their hair for having married someone of a different race, we would lock up such a person as a danger to society. Yet this is the example the Bible gives us of moral, upright conduct! Nehemiah does not relate his acts of racist violence in the form of a confession of wicked deeds. He states them proudly, and asks God to remember him for having acted so 'righteously'!
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