Worship in Heaven

Revelation 4 At this point I had another vision and saw an open door in heaven.
And the voice that sounded like a trumpet, which I had heard speaking to me before, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this." ²At once the Spirit took control of me. There in heaven was a throne with someone sitting on it. ³His face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all around the throne there was a rainbow the color of an emerald. ⁴In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, on which were seated twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven lighted torches were burning, which are the seven spirits of God. ⁶Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
Surrounding the throne on each of its sides, were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind. ⁷The first one looked like a lion; the second looked like a bull; the third had a face like a human face; and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. ⁸Each one of the four living creatures had six wings, and they were covered with eyes, inside and out. Day and night they never stop singing:
"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, who is, and who is to come."
⁹The four living creatures sing songs of glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever. When they do so, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say,
¹¹"Our Lord and God! You are worthy
to receive glory, honor, and power.
For you created all things,
and by your will they were given existence and life."

Oppression of the Poor

Nehemiah 5 Some time later many of the people, both men and women, began to complain against the other Jews. ²Some said, "We have large families, we need grain to keep us alive."
³Others said, "We have had to mortgage our fields and vineyards and houses to get enough grain to keep us from starving."
⁴Still others said, "We had to borrow money to pay the royal tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵We are of the same race as the other Jews. Aren't our children just as good as theirs? But we have to make slaves of our children. Some of our daughters have already been sold as slaves. We are helpless because our fields and vineyards have been taken away from us."
⁶When I heard their complaints, I grew angry ⁷and decided to act. I denounced the leaders and officials of the people and told them, "You are oppressing your own relatives!"
I called a public assembly to deal with the problem ⁸and said, "As far as we have been able, we have been buying back our Jewish relatives who had to sell themselves to foreigners. Now you are forcing your own relatives to sell themselves to you, their own people!" The leaders were silent and could find nothing to say.
⁹Then I said, "What you are doing is wrong! You ought to obey God and do what's right. Then you would not give our enemies, the Gentiles, any reason to ridicule us. ¹⁰I have let the people borrow money and grain from me, and so have my companions and those who work for me. Now let's give up all our claims to repayment. ¹¹Cancel all the debts they owe you--money or grain or wine or olive oil. And give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses right now!"
¹²The leaders replied, "We'll do as you say. We'll give the property back and not try to collect the debts."
I called in the priests and made the leaders swear in front of them to keep the promise they had just made. ¹³Then I took off the sash I was wearing around my waist and shook it out. "This is how God will shake any of you who don't keep your promise," I said. "God will take away your houses and everything you own, and will leave you with nothing."
Everyone who was present said, "Amen!" and praised the LORD. And the leaders kept their promise.

Nehemiah's Unselfishness

¹⁴During all the twelve years that I was governor of the land of Judah, from the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was emperor until his thirty-second year, neither my relatives nor I ate the food I was entitled to have as governor. ¹⁵Every governor who had been in office before me had been a burden to the people and had demanded forty silver coins a day for food and wine. Even their servants had oppressed the people. But I acted differently, because I honored God. ¹⁶I put all my energy into rebuilding the wall and did not acquire any property. Everyone who worked for me joined in the rebuilding. ¹⁷I regularly fed at my table a hundred and fifty of the Jewish people and their leaders, besides all the people who came to me from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸Every day I served one beef, six of the best sheep, and many chickens, and every ten days I provided a fresh supply of wine. But I knew what heavy burdens the people had to bear, and so I did not claim the allowance that the governor is entitled to.
¹⁹I pray you, O God, remember to my credit everything that I have done for this people.

Plots against Nehemiah

Nehemiah 6 Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and the rest of our enemies heard that we had finished building the wall and that there were no gaps left in it, although we still had not set up the gates in the gateways. ²So Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message, suggesting that I meet with them in one of the villages in the Plain of Ono. This was a trick of theirs to try to harm me. ³I sent messengers to say to them, "I am doing important work and can't go down there. I am not going to let the work stop just to go and see you."
⁴They sent me the same message four times, and each time I sent them the same reply.
⁵Then Sanballat sent one of his servants to me with a fifth message, this one in the form of an unsealed letter. ⁶It read:

"Geshem tells me that a rumor is going around among the neighboring peoples that you and the Jewish people intend to revolt and that this is why you are rebuilding the wall. He also says you plan to make yourself king ⁷and that you have arranged for some prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem that you are the king of Judah. His Majesty is certain to hear about this, so I suggest that you and I meet to talk the situation over."

⁸I sent a reply to him: "Nothing of what you are saying is true. You have made it all up yourself."
⁹They were trying to frighten us into stopping work. I prayed, "But now, God, make me strong!"
¹⁰About this time I went to visit Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel, who was unable to leave his house. He said to me, "You and I must go and hide together in the Holy Place of the Temple and lock the doors, because they are coming to kill you. Any night now they will come to kill you."
¹¹I answered, "I'm not the kind of person that runs and hides. Do you think I would try to save my life by hiding in the Temple? I won't do it."
¹²When I thought it over, I realized that God had not spoken to Shemaiah, but that Tobiah and Sanballat had bribed him to give me this warning. ¹³They hired him to frighten me into sinning, so that they could ruin my reputation and humiliate me.
¹⁴I prayed, "God, remember what Tobiah and Sanballat have done and punish them. Remember that woman Noadiah and all the other prophets who tried to frighten me."

The Conclusion of the Work

¹⁵After fifty-two days of work the entire wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. ¹⁶When our enemies in the surrounding nations heard this, they realized that they had lost face, since everyone knew that the work had been done with God's help.
¹⁷During all this time the Jewish leaders had been in correspondence with Tobiah. ¹⁸Many people in Judah were on his side because of his Jewish father-in-law, Shecaniah son of Arah. In addition, his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. ¹⁹People would talk in front of me about all the good deeds Tobiah had done and would tell him everything I said. And he kept sending me letters to try to frighten me.
Nehemiah 7 And now the wall had been rebuilt, the gates had all been put in place, and the Temple guards, the members of the sacred choir, and the other Levites had been assigned their work. ²I put two men in charge of governing the city of Jerusalem: my brother Hanani and Hananiah, commanding officer of the fortress. Hananiah was a reliable and God-fearing man without equal. ³I told them not to have the gates of Jerusalem opened in the morning until well after sunrise and to have them closed and barred before the guards went off duty at sunset. I also told them to appoint guards from among the people who lived in Jerusalem and to assign some of them to specific posts and others to patrol the area around their own houses.

God the Supreme King

Psalm 99 The LORD is king,
and the people tremble.
He sits on his throne above the winged creatures,
and the earth shakes.
²The LORD is mighty in Zion;
he is supreme over all the nations.
³Everyone will praise his great and majestic name.
Holy is he!

⁴Mighty king, you love what is right;
you have established justice in Israel;
you have brought righteousness and fairness.
⁵Praise the LORD our God;
worship before his throne!
Holy is he!

⁶Moses and Aaron were his priests,
and Samuel was one who prayed to him;
they called to the LORD, and he answered them.
⁷He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they obeyed the laws and commands that he gave them.

⁸O LORD, our God, you answered your people;
you showed them that you are a God who forgives,
even though you punished them for their sins.
⁹Praise the LORD our God,
and worship at his sacred hill!
The LORD our God is holy.