The Angel and the Little Scroll

Revelation 10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down out of heaven. He was wrapped in a cloud and had a rainbow around his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like columns of fire. ²He had a small scroll open in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, ³and called out in a loud voice that sounded like the roar of lions. After he had called out, the seven thunders answered with a roar. ⁴As soon as they spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice speak from heaven, "Keep secret what the seven thunders have said; do not write it down!"
⁵Then the angel that I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven ⁶and took a vow in the name of God, who lives forever and ever, who created heaven, earth, and the sea, and everything in them. The angel said, "There will be no more delay! ⁷But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, then God will accomplish his secret plan, as he announced to his servants, the prophets."
⁸Then the voice that I had heard speaking from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go and take the open scroll which is in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land."
⁹I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey."
¹⁰I took the little scroll from his hand and ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey in my mouth. But after I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach. ¹¹Then I was told, "Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings."

Separation from Foreigners

Nehemiah 13 When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God's people. ²This was because the people of Ammon and Moab did not give food and water to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Instead, they paid money to Balaam to curse Israel, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. ³When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.

Nehemiah's Reforms

⁴The priest Eliashib, who was in charge of the Temple storerooms, had for a long time been on good terms with Tobiah. ⁵He allowed Tobiah to use a large room that was intended only for storing offerings of grain and incense, the equipment used in the Temple, the offerings for the priests, and the tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil given to the Levites, to the Temple musicians, and to the Temple guards. ⁶While this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year that Artaxerxes was king of Babylon I had gone back to report to him. After some time I received his permission ⁷and returned to Jerusalem. There I was shocked to find that Eliashib had allowed Tobiah to use a room in the Temple. ⁸I was furious and threw out all of Tobiah's belongings. ⁹I gave orders for the rooms to be ritually purified and for the Temple equipment, grain offerings, and incense to be put back.
¹⁰I also learned that the Temple musicians and other Levites had left Jerusalem and gone back to their farms, because the people had not been giving them enough to live on. ¹¹I reprimanded the officials for letting the Temple be neglected. And I brought the Levites and musicians back to the Temple and put them to work again. ¹²Then all the people of Israel again started bringing to the Temple storerooms their tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil. ¹³I put the following men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah, a priest; Zadok, a scholar of the Law; and Pedaiah, a Levite. Hanan, the son of Zaccur and grandson of Mattaniah, was to be their assistant. I knew I could trust these men to be honest in distributing the supplies to the other workers.
¹⁴Remember, my God, all these things that I have done for your Temple and its worship.
¹⁵At that time I saw people in Judah pressing juice from grapes on the Sabbath. Others were loading grain, wine, grapes, figs, and other things on their donkeys and taking them into Jerusalem; I warned them not to sell anything on the Sabbath. ¹⁶Some people from the city of Tyre were living in Jerusalem, and they brought fish and all kinds of goods into the city to sell to our people on the Sabbath. ¹⁷I reprimanded the Jewish leaders and told them, "Look at the evil you're doing! You're making the Sabbath unholy. ¹⁸This is exactly why God punished your ancestors when he brought destruction on this city. And yet you insist on bringing more of God's anger down on Israel by profaning the Sabbath."
¹⁹So I gave orders for the city gates to be shut at the beginning of every Sabbath, as soon as evening began to fall, and not to be opened again until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my men at the gates to make sure that nothing was brought into the city on the Sabbath. ²⁰Once or twice merchants who sold all kinds of goods spent Friday night outside the city walls. ²¹I warned them, "It's no use waiting out there for morning to come. If you try this again, I'll use force on you." From then on they did not come back on the Sabbath. ²²I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to go and guard the gates to make sure that the Sabbath was kept holy.
Remember me, O God, for this also, and spare me because of your great love.
²³At that time I also discovered that many of the Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some other language and didn't know how to speak our language. ²⁵I reprimanded the men, called down curses on them, beat them, and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath in God's name that never again would they or their children intermarry with foreigners. ²⁶I told them, "It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. Here was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into this sin. ²⁷Are we then to follow your example and disobey our God by marrying foreign women?"
²⁸Joiada was the son of Eliashib the High Priest, but one of Joiada's sons married the daughter of Sanballat, from the town of Beth Horon, so I made Joiada leave Jerusalem.
²⁹Remember, God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.
³⁰I purified the people from everything foreign; I prepared regulations for the priests and the Levites so that all of them would know their duties; ³¹I arranged for the wood used for burning the offerings to be brought at the proper times, and for the people to bring their offerings of the first grain and the first fruits that ripened.
Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it.

Psalm 104 ²⁴LORD, you have made so many things!
How wisely you made them all!
The earth is filled with your creatures.
²⁵There is the ocean, large and wide,
where countless creatures live,
large and small alike.
²⁶The ships sail on it, and in it plays Leviathan,
that sea monster which you made.

²⁷All of them depend on you
to give them food when they need it.
²⁸You give it to them, and they eat it;
you provide food, and they are satisfied.
²⁹When you turn away, they are afraid;
when you take away your breath, they die
and go back to the dust from which they came.
³⁰But when you give them breath, they are created;
you give new life to the earth.

³¹May the glory of the LORD last forever!
May the LORD be happy with what he has made!
³²He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
he touches the mountains, and they pour out smoke.

³³I will sing to the LORD all my life;
as long as I live I will sing praises to my God.
³⁴May he be pleased with my song,
for my gladness comes from him.
³⁵May sinners be destroyed from the earth;
may the wicked be no more.

Praise the LORD, my soul!
Praise the LORD!