Ezra and Nehemiah

Ezra and Nehemiah 

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.

Nehemiah 5:12

Ezra and Nehemiah were both of them very wise, good, useful men, yet, there was a great deal of difference between their management. 

Ezra’s reaction

💑When Ezra was told of the sin of the rulers in marrying strange wives

👕 he rent his clothes, 
😭 wept, 
🙏🏻 prayed,

He was hardly persuaded to attempt a reformation, fearing it to be impracticable,

😊for he was a man of a mild and tender Spirit. 

Nehemiah’s reaction

When Nehemiah was told of as bad a thing

🔥 he kindled immediately, 
😡 reproached the delinquents, 
😠 incensed the people against them, 

He never rested till, by all the rough methods he could use, he forced them to reform,

🧐 for he was a man of a hot and eager spirit.

❓ What do we learn from this?

🥇 God's work may be done, well done, and successfully, and yet different methods taken in the doing of it.

❌ We should neither arraign the management of others nor make our own a standard. 

✨ There are diversities of operation, but the same Spirit.

Rev. Matthew Henry
Blue Letter Bible

Application

😔 Do you feel that you are meek, weak? 
😔 Do you feel that you cannot accomplish things?

✅ The Holy Spirit in you will make all things possible. 

🧐 Do you feel that you are rough and tough?
🤭 Do you feel that you are loud? 

🕊 The Holy Spirit will make others understand your heart. 

✨ “There are diversities of operation, but the same Spirit.”

- Rev. Matthew Henry. ✨