Up on DTNS, Google catches a major iOS exploit in the wild, MacBook Pros banned from airplanes worldwide. And Richard Gunther helps us understand what works with Nest, if anything does anymore. This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, August 30th, 2019 in Los Angeles on Tom Merritt. And from Studio Feline, I'm Sarah Lane. Happy Labor Day weekend from Cleveland, USA. I'm Len Perlton. And I am today's show's producer, Amos. Yeah, Roger Chang has the day off. Amos, no longer an intern, full on producing the show today. Thank you, Amos. And welcome. It's good to have you. We're also welcoming our guest, Richard Gunther. Richard, thanks for joining us, man. It's good to have you here today. I am so glad to be here today. And this is the first time we've all done a show together before. I've done shows with all of you, right? But not all before this combination. Oh, my gosh. So Len will be drawing. Amos will be producing. Sarah and I will be hosting. And Richard will be explaining to us the whole works with Nest Fiasco, because you're on the smart home beat. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a bad weekend. That's all coming up in a second. If you are on the good day internet feed, you already heard us talking about the Disney Plus deals and getting sand in your eyes and all kinds of stuff like that. So please, if you want the extended conversation, we were talking a little bit about Jack Dorsey, getting his Twitter account hacked. That's all on Good Day Internet, patreon.com, slash DTNS. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. A new feature rolling out in Google's G Suite and Hangouts Chat will warn users when somebody that they're about to send an email to might be away or on vacation. A banner will appear at the bottom of the compose panel or the chat window to let senders know when there's an out of office time block on that calendar. And we'll also note when the recipient will be back. That's handy. Disney finalized the sale of its stake in the Yes Network to an investor group that includes the New York Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Amazon in a deal worth $3.47 billion. Yes Network does the New York Yankees games and the Brooklyn Nets games. The move is the last piece of an agreement between Disney and the Department of Justice to sell off 22 regional sports networks that it acquired when it acquired a large part of 21st Century Fox. The New York Yankees already had 20 percent of the stake in Yes. They keep that and they get a little bit more as part of this deal. Politico and Bloomberg both cite an anonymous source saying that Google has agreed to pay the US FTC between one hundred fifty and two hundred million dollars following an investigation of claims that YouTube violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information about minors and then using it for targeted ads without parental consent. The FTC voted three to two, reportedly, to approve a settlement, which now goes to the Justice Department to review. The FTC has not commented on Politico's or Bloomberg's story. So yeah, when we do the official announcement of this agreement next week, the days of you will be justified because you already. All right, let's talk a little more about Google's Project Zero. That is an effort by Google to just find vulnerabilities anywhere, work with companies to fix them. And then they'll publish their research about those vulnerabilities and an effort to just make the Internet more secure for everybody. Google's Project Zero publishing research about an attack on iOS that seemed to be in the wild from at least 2017 until February of this year. It was in January that Google's threat analysis group or TAG discovered compromised websites out on the Internet. So this is a bad one. A lot of times these things are are theoretical or they're in the lab. This one was in the wild. It was being exploited. These websites, if you visited them, would install malware on an iOS device without your knowledge. Simply visiting the website was enough to get infected. You wouldn't know. You wouldn't have to do anything. There was no best behavior to prevent it. Ian Beer wrote that the on the Google Project Zero publication about this wrote that the attackers used 12 separate security flaws in combination to pull off these attacks. Most were bugs within Safari. These were zero day bugs. They were not bugs that had been discovered and not patched or anything. These were new bugs that no one else was aware of. The malware could access your location info, your contacts, even your passwords stored in the key chain and relayed it to a remote server every 60 seconds. TAG passed this discovery to Apple on February 1st. Apple patched the vulnerability in iOS 12.1.4 on February 7th. So if you don't have iOS 12.1.4 on your iOS device, you need to get it now. Google did not publish which websites were infected. They did say the sites received thousands of visitors a week. So these aren't the New York Times. These aren't massively popular websites. But it does seem most of the security researchers out there seem to think that this was a state sponsored group, probably doing a fishing net situation with some targeted websites that their targets might be likely to visit in order to compromise some cell phones of people they wanted to spy on. Yeah, the the blog post about how this all was discovered and replicated is lengthy, to say the least. The first thing I did was be like, OK, where's the list of websites? Where's the list of websites? They don't say, you know, because I was just curious, right? I mean, is this somewhere that I visited or is it, you know, just stuff that I've never heard of? And they also did allude to the fact that, yes, states sponsored targeting a specific group, whether it's regional, racial or or otherwise seemed very likely. Although they didn't get into too much hypothesis on on what that might be specifically. But the fact that there were so many examples of apps that have extremely personal information, whether it's photos or real time location or text messages or whatever, stored in plain text for a variety of apps that are considered very secure. It was it was quite a wake up call. Richard, does this undermine your faith in iOS any? I don't think it undermines my faith, but it is eye opening, right? I mean, we we have this false belief that on our iOS devices, we're safe because they're walled gardens and the apps can't talk to each other. And this is just one of those things where it's like, you know what? Maybe you should be careful in every device you use and everything that you're doing when you're connecting to the Internet. Yeah, that's my take on this. This is a very sophisticated attack. This is not an attack that happens frequently. And it is a reminder that there is no such thing as 100 percent security. Yes, iOS does a lot of really good security practices to get you closer to 100 percent security, but nothing is 100 percent. And when it's not 100 percent, that means there's a percentage chance that you can have something like this happened. And it did the good news. If there is any good news here is that Google Project Zero or at least the threat analysis group caught it, got it to Apple. Apple fixed it fast within a week and patched it up. And so you you can patch your device if you haven't already and make sure you're not affected by it. It doesn't sound like these are websites that people would would be likely to visit by accident, or at least most people anyway. At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, DD Xu Xing, CTO Zangbo, announced that the company's autonomous vehicles will start carrying ride hailing passengers in the Zhijing District of Shanghai. The free service will feature 30 different vehicle models capable of level four autonomous driving. That's the top level, but will include a human driver. The company received permits to test a self-driving fleet from the Shanghai government this week. Plans to roll out the service to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen by 2020 and then service outside of China in 2021. Yeah, I mean, we're getting more and more of these. They all have human drivers, you know, for the most part. We haven't heard of anybody just, you know, setting these loose on unplanned routes anywhere. But it's interesting to see the approach of DD, DD being the Uber of China, right? In fact, they even bought Uber in China. Is saying we're going to start in a neighborhood and then we'll expand to most of Shanghai and then we'll expand to other cities. So I don't know, does it make you think that we're getting closer to these becoming something that everybody can take advantage of? No, I mean, I think it's definitely coming. I think the question is like how I guess what's going to be the tipping point? What what is the threshold that they have to meet in terms of safety or reliability or being able to handle exception cases that people are going to feel comfortable in this? Have any of you had an opportunity to drive in a self-driving vehicle yet? I have not. No, no, I would, though. I, you know, I volunteer. But I do think that I mean, that's an interesting question, right, because they need a large amount of people to be interested enough to use the service. But I think there also has to be some sort of and I don't know what the threshold is, but some sort of time period where there's a proven track record that this is no more dangerous than what we're the danger that people already face on roads across the world now. And and that's going to be interpreted by by people in different ways as well. But that's why it's like we seem so on the precipice of this being the norm more in more and more areas.  So a citywide rollout is probably not even possible when you're trying to roll out something like this and get people used to it. But yeah, it's I'd be interested to see how how much this is adopted in its earlier stages. What's the next steps, right? So we've seen Waymo do this in Arizona.  You know, we've seen this in Boston and Singapore and London. There's lots of these efforts that are very similar. What's the next step? What's the next thing that gets you excited to be like, ah, we're making progress. It's not just more of these. Now there's one that offers dry. Is it is it not having a human in it? Is that is that what we're waiting on? Well, that would be the I mean, because that's OK. Now it's there's one less thing that has to be part of this experience, right? A fully autonomous autonomous level for a vehicle with a human driver is OK, it's doing it by itself, but we haven't taken any step out of this process. So yeah, I think that's the next step, but that's also a tougher sell. Really tough. Yeah. Waymo probably the farthest along in Arizona with widespread public availability to to to call it at least in in certain suburbs of Phoenix. So I'll keep an eye and see if any of them pull the goalie, as they say. In new Windows Insider builds, Microsoft is testing a redesigned tablet mode for two in one devices running Windows 10. The redesign keeps the desktop in full view. So instead of giving you the start menu, which is what you get in tablet mode, you still see the desktop and your taskbar icons are still visible, but they increase the space between the taskbar icons to make it easier for you to touch because they think, well, you're still going to be using a touch interface on this thing. Some of the tablet features remain. So the search box collapsed into an icon. The touch keyboard appears when you tap on a text field and file explorers, which is to a touch optimized layout. But otherwise, you're getting that desktop look. The changes are limited to two in one devices and are designed to automatically turn on when you remove a keyboard, like on a Surface Pro. So that Surface Pro is kind of the model of the two in one, right? You've got the keyboard.  And that's when it goes into this kind of modified tablet mode. Now, if you like the old tablet mode with all the tiles, that's still there in settings. You just have to turn it on yourself and dedicated Windows 10 tablets remain unchanged. If it's not a two in one, you still get the tablet mode. I we don't have enough time as much as I want to rant here about this. I am so tired since Windows 8 of Microsoft trying to figure out what Windows is. Is it a desktop? Is it a tablet? Is it a laptop? How can one product serve all of those different devices and still be the same thing? This this whole thing has been a disaster since Windows 8. They came out with a pretty good tablet interface that would have been great on tablets and they forced it on everybody on desktops. And of course, it was a complete failure and they've spent the last six years backpedaling from that. I'm just I'm tired of the back and forth and the change. And then never like it doesn't feel like there's anybody there like Sinovsky did who has a vision for how this needs to be. I'll be honest, I felt like tablet mode and not tablet mode was was a pretty good recovery, right? Like if it's a tablet, you get tablet mode, because like you said, the tiled interface is pretty good on tablets. And if you've got a keyboard attached, then you're not in tablet mode. So I'm curious whether this two and one mode is something that two and one users really want or if it's actually muddying the issue again. I don't use a two and one that office anymore. I used to have a pro, but I stopped using it a while ago. Yeah, I have a tablet. I don't have a two and one either, but I'm a Windows insider and I've just stopped taking the updates.  Well, feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com two and ones. Let us let us know two and one users what you think. On June 20th, Apple announced a voluntary recall of 2015 MacBook Pros with retina display due to a fire risk from overheating batteries. Talked about it on the show in the past. The recall covers some, but not all MacBook Pros sold between September 2015 and February of 2017. This week, quite a few airlines starting to take notice and make their own plans. Virgin Australia announced that all 15 inch MacBook Pros, regardless of their model number, must not be put in checked luggage. Qantas said that its policy further requires the laptop to be switched off during the entirety of the flight. Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines won't allow the laptops on flights at all, unless the battery has been verified safe or replaced. And TUI Group Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines, Air Italy and Air Transit have prohibited effective laptops, affected laptops as well. So when the story broke earlier this week and I saw that originally the story was you can't check your MacBook Pro, I didn't really take much notice because on my recent flight on Air France, in both Dublin and Charles de Gaulle airports, they didn't allow you to put any electronics in your check bag. That was that was a policy and they asked you about it at check-in. You don't have any electronics in this bag that you're checking, right, because we've had problems with that. So I know that not all airlines are doing that. But to me, it's like, well, if you're an airline who doesn't do that, you can look at the airlines that do and say, well, this is still less restrictive than that. So let's just go ahead and do it to make it easy. But to say to someone, hey, you can't bring your MacBook Pro on the plane at all, which a couple of these airlines are doing. Or to say like, you can have it with you on the airplane, but you can't use it on the flight that I get why they're doing it because it's easier than checking all of the serial numbers to see if it's a recalled laptop or not. But it seems to be an untenable situation for everybody here.  I would never check a laptop just because I'm afraid it's going to break because it gets jostled around so much. I like to have the stuff that's expensive and delicate on my person as much as possible. But yeah, I mean, to say you just can't you can't have it on the flight. Is that I don't know how any business traveler would be OK with this. Yeah, this is a big, big black guy for Apple. And it started out kind of curiously enough where you were wondering, well, how really are they going to manage this? Because you're not going to check serial numbers.  You you had people who didn't understand what the difference was from a tablet and a laptop when tablets were starting to become popular. So this this kind of granular filter is just not possible. So this makes sense, but you're absolutely right. I guess the upside is, hey, I'm sorry, I couldn't do any work while I was on the flight. They wouldn't let me open my laptop. Right. I mean, I guess so. There could be worse situations there. But if they wouldn't the airlines who are saying they just won't let you take the laptop on at all. You can't bring your laptop, especially if I've got a 15 inch MacBook Pro. I've checked my serial number. It's not part of the recall, but they're like, it's still a 15 inch MacBook Pro, and we're not going to bother to look at serial numbers. So you can't bring it that. Well, and you can, can you imagine the gate outrage when like four people who would need to be on a flight or just like and they're saying, well, it was in the email with your e-ticket confirmation, you know, that nobody read. That's that is not that's not a process that's going to work for an airline. And I'm like, no, I was sorry, I was going to say unlike a pen knife, it's not like you can drop it in a pen envelope. Yeah, we'll just ship this home. Well, it does fit in an envelope. We saw Steve Jobs do that. Yeah, I don't know. I think this is going to be lax enforcement, but lots of lots of people up front telling you not to bring it or to check or something like that. The airplanes do the airlines will do that lots. But I'm curious. I'm curious to hear if anybody runs into a situation where they are told, no, I'm sorry, you can't bring that with you on this flight. Folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes, be sure to subscribe to dailytechheadlines.com. All right, we've talked before about Google's fraught situation with works with nest and how they're they're trying to wrestle works with nest into the the Google assistant land. I get what the goal is, Richard, which is eventually they just want Google Home and Google Assistant and all that to be all of their smart devices, whether they're nest or not. How did we get here? What's going on? Oh, for some reason, I guess Google doesn't want you to explain this because your your connection to me just just dried up right right as I were trying to to to get you to answer this. So Richard, if you can if you can reconnect or turn off your video, yeah, let's see if that that works. Oh, it was fine up until red. Yeah, it was fine until we asked him about works with nest and I have a nest camera on this network. This is this is Google toying with us. Well, we'll give you some of the background and Richard, if you can hear us once you can hear us, just just pipe in basically works with nest launched in 2014 to integrate nest with other products.  It would, you know, it could turn the air conditioner up so it's not running while you're not there. Appliance is optimized operation time based on energy, supplier info, ceiling fans, syncing with thermostat to save AC, third party apps display and control thermostat. But as DT Nest listeners know, Google announced earlier this year at Google IO that works with nest would end on August 31st. That's tomorrow. That is tomorrow. So take it from there, Richard, where are we now? Yeah, so basically what's happened is in the meantime, nest has really been pushing their customers to switch their accounts to Google accounts. Now, if you've already done this because you've been in your nest app, then you really can't come back from that and we'll talk a little bit about what that means. But if you haven't done it and you have other things connected to your nest ecosystem through works with nest, you don't have to do this conversion. You don't have to migrate your account to the Google account. So just decline to do that and make sure that all the things that you want connected to your nest ecosystem are connected and you can do that just by going into settings in nest and looking under works with nest and it'll show you and it'll be things like IFTTT and maybe a Harmony Remote. If you have a hub, it might be connected like Wink or Lutron or Insteon. These things will all stop working if you disconnect them and if you disconnect them after August 31st, you won't be able to reconnect them even if you leave your nest account. Works with nest isn't going away. It's works with nest new additions of works with nest are going away. Does that make sense? Exactly, exactly. No more integrations, no more connections. So it's really important that you keep the things connected as we go from the 31st to the first so that when you're past that deadline then everything will still keep working the way you might want it to. Now, if you're an IFTTT user, you may already have received a notification from them telling you, don't do this, because it will break. Now, you might be wondering about other integrations like maybe you use your Echo devices to adjust your thermostat. Google has actually worked with Amazon to ensure that if you did already move over to a Google account, then it will still be able to control your thermostat and it will be able to access your cameras. But it won't be able to do everything that you were able to do before through your Amazon Echo devices. So that's something to keep aware of too. And some of those capabilities may kind of deprecate over time. It's likely that the companies that manage these things are at some point in time just gonna say, well, why are we still supporting this? Yeah, right. So, I'm trying to simplify this. If you have connections through works with Nest, don't change anything, because after tomorrow you won't be able to change them back because that would be considered a new connection. But at some point, aren't you going to, aren't they gonna, I mean, at some point don't you need to move to a Google account to get new features and things? Is it gonna be a trade-off where you're like, well, I want this new thing that they only offer if I have a Google account, so I'm gonna have to lose if because that's not supported? Or is it a waiting game where eventually all your features will migrate over to the Google account and you're just waiting for that day? I think it's a waiting game, but this is where I feel like Google really fell down because they didn't give the vendors who provide these services and products enough time to figure out how to migrate. And frankly, they didn't even give their own development teams enough time. A lot of the things that people like to do with these integrations between their smart home products is that, okay, let's say my thermostat knows that I'm away. Well, I'll use IFTTT then to trigger that if I'm away then do some other stuff in the house. That capability to know whether your thermostat thinks it's in away mode or home mode, Google doesn't offer that anymore. It's not there. So a lot of the capabilities that Google might offer just aren't up to speed with what you could do today. And that's why there's so much outcry. Eventually, yeah, it'll probably get there. And they said that they're working to improve things like their version of routines, just like Amazon's assistant has and more robust integration capabilities to mirror what you had before. But this is early days. So my advice is that if you keep things the way they are, keep stuff running as long as it can. And when you get to that point where, you know what? I only have one or two things that are still useful with works with Nest. And now Google does offer the ability to hook up all these other products and make my homework smarter all through my Nest Hub, which is what they call the old home hub, then you can go ahead and make that switch. It's just we're not there yet. And I guess if you have a connection that you really, really want, get it working tonight. Your last chance to add a new one, right? Yeah, exactly. And who knows about tomorrow, right? It says that it ends on 8.31. Now, usually what companies do is that means midnight, the furthest time zone that they support on that last day. But just to be safe, I would advise people to take a look at it tonight. Maybe tomorrow it won't be too late, but by the holiday, you're not gonna be able to make these changes anymore. Why? If I can get in and ask a question, why are they doing this? Why the change? Because security and privacy, that seriously, that's the answer they gave, which concerns me quite a bit because right now the systems already use OAuth to validate and authenticate you against Nest when you're working with their system. So you've explicitly given the vendor access to the information and Nest says what information it's gonna share, but they really wanna pull that in more and be much tighter. I think where I am sympathetic is the smaller your surface area for attack, the less chance you have of a breach. And as we saw in the earlier story about iOS, like nothing is 100%. So I get where they're saying, yeah, we could keep these two systems around, but then that is just inherently more vulnerable to have two systems. Yep, no, you're absolutely right. And it's also inefficient, right? At some point they needed to figure out how to integrate these. I just wish they had done it a little bit more, I don't know, elegantly. Yeah, well, they, I wish so too, but they didn't. So thanks for helping us to figure out what we need to do in response to it, appreciate that. Good news in the elegance department, everybody who participates in our subreddit, you can submit stories and vote on others, dailytechnewshow.reddit.com. We're also on Facebook, join our group, a lot of elegance there as well. Facebook.com slash group slash Daily Tech News Show. All right, let's check out the mail bags, Sarah. Yaru from Malaysia, how did I thought on how Google might help Huawei? Says, I think there might be a way, but it would involve Google giving Huawei preferential treatment and exceptions. As it is now, it's not easy, if not impossible, to side load Google services into open source Android, or phones not part of the Google Android Alliance. This is because of a new policy that Google implemented around a year ago that involves more checks. Yaru says, I think what Google should do is allow Mate 30 phones to side load with fewer checks, or none at all, like kind of look in the other way, it would of course not be the same as having them preloaded, but would still salvage some usability. The issue would mostly be how it's seen by other members of the Alliance as preferential treatment. But I think there's a, not 100%, but a chance that they'd see it as beneficial because they could also get hit by a trade ban, since a few of them are based in China. Yaru says, full disclaimer, I do use the Mate 20X, 7.2 inch version of the Mate 20 series. And he says, I love it very much. I'm really hoping this issue gets solved, or at least bypassed in some way because Huawei really does make good phones. And that's coming from a former iPhone user of nine years. Yeah, that's a good point, Yaru. I don't think Google could do anything without violating trade restrictions. If they take an action, I actually responded to Yaru about this in email, they open themselves up to liability. So I don't think they could turn a blind eye without opening themselves up to liability. But don't forget, Huawei operates without the Google services in China. So they're very familiar with how to get their users apps without actually officially having any kind of Google service there. And the side loading is definitely something that can be done, but like you say, it's harder. And a lot of users aren't gonna wanna mess with that and might choose not to deal with the Huawei phone if they don't get the Google services. So yeah, I hope to get that all figured out as well. Let's check in with Rilla Len Peralta, who has been illustrating the show. Len, what have you drawn for us today? Well, you know, I always love it when companies go ahead and change things in the background and not tell you. And this is sort of my take on that. I think there's gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be acting just like this. If they did not listen to this show or hear anything Richard was talking about with Nest, they could end up like this. This is called leaving the nest. It's an image of Google taking away Nest from a little gentleman who is freaking out saying, no take, nothing works. So there you go. That is, this is called leaving the nest. And if you are one of my Patreons at patreon.com forward slash Len, you have this right now. You can go and download it or if you wanna go the old fashioned way, you can go to LenPeraltaStore.com and just purchase it. You're gonna get a lot of Nest users buying this. I have a feeling. Oh yeah, this is great. I love this, I love this one. I hope so. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Len. And also thanks to Richard Gunther for being with us. Richard, tell the DTNS audience where they can keep up with the rest of your work. Absolutely. So I write over at the digital media zone. That's thedigitalmediazone.com and I host two smart home shows. One called the smart home show and one called Home On. And you can find those everywhere you find great podcasts like this one. Hooray. Also, the reason we have a great podcast like this one is because of the people who support us. We are not a big enterprise. We're an independent voice and if you wanna support that, the easiest and best way to do it is patreon.com slash DTNS. In fact, if you upgrade or join in at the 30 or $50 level, you'll either get a poster or a mug. Mug is at the $50 level. If you stay a patron at that level for three months, that's patreon.com slash DTNS slash merch if you want all the details. Our email address is feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. If you'd like to join us live, that's Monday through Friday, 4.30 p.m. Eastern time, 20.30 UTC and you can find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live. No show on Monday because we're honoring those who labor but we'll be back on Tuesday with Patrick Beja. Who's French? Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. The Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this brover. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.


Okay, good morning to all of you today. You don't look as tired as you did the week before it last. That's good to know. Yeah, it's a good good morning to all of you who are online as well. We'll get started last week. We were looking at Ezra and This week we will get into Nehemiah as we talked Ezra and Nehemiah are more or less around the same time period and And These events are taking place after Arta Zeris the Persian king has come to the throne. So This is slightly later After the events of Zerubabel and the people who had come along with him. So this is like the second phase of Restoration which is taking place here in in Jerusalem So Nehemiah mainly talks about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and this is an event which takes place in 445 BC and It's Approximately about 14 years after Ezra has come back 14 years after that Nehemiah comes back and he takes care of the Restoration of the Jerusalem walls So of course this book is a narrative history. So that would be the genre of this book. It's narrative history Some people say that Nehemiah would have written down this book Because he in many places he uses the word I and he says, you know, I did this for the people So Lord you honor me and all of those things who uses uses the first person So they say that he must have been the writer on the other hand, some people say no, no Ezra was a Qualified scribe. He was meant to be a writer So maybe he just used the journal which Nehemiah would have maintained and he would have taken the details from Nehemiah's journal But the actual final writing probably would have been done by Ezra. So that's basically what some people say As for the key personalities Nehemiah and Ezra, of course are the main key personalities And then the main villains of the story would be Sanbalat and Tobaya Those are the two persons who create a lot of opposition and trouble for Nehemiah and Around this time you also have Malakai who is serving as a prophet So he also brings word from the Lord So all so he too is present during this time during this particular era Okay, so So just look let's look very briefly at the timeline We saw that After Cyrus allows people to come back Zerubabel the newly appointed governor Comes back with the first group of people which is about just 50,000 Jews They come back and seven months after the return back to Jerusalem They built the altar of the Lord That's the first thing that they do so that they can once again start making the daily sacrifices Because God is accepting them only because of those sacrifices They are impure They are sinful and the only reason that they are able to have a relationship with the living God is because of those daily Sacrifices so seven months after they come back. They build the altar Another seven months later, which is basically 14 months after there after their return home They finally lay down the foundation of the temple. That's basically where we stopped last class We looked at how some of the people are very happy that the foundation of the temple had been laid But some of the people who saw the foundation Thought about the glory of the previous temple and they thought oh how grand that was and how simple this foundation looks And so we had some people who were weeping at that time And then after the foundation is laid There's almost a 20 year gap because of all the opposition and the construction work cannot be done and It's only after 20 years that finally in 516 vc that the temple is finally constructed and completed So now after another 60 to 63 years Uh, we have the current happenings taking place So technically speaking from the time that zerubab el first comes back with the first set of Exiles up to the current time There's a period of 83 years that has gone by But up to now the walls of jerusalem have not been rebuilt the Walls are still in a broken down state And there are some people living inside the city most of the people are living somewhere outside, you know in the in the fields Where they are growing their crops, but the city as such is not really inhabited Most of the people are not living over there. It's in a very rejected condition. So why why didn't the people rebuild the walls That's basically what the uh, that's basically one of the first things people would do, right? If they want to take over a city and re-establish themselves over there One of the first things that they would do is to rebuild the walls make their city strong Move in inside and you know start establishing their homes and their trade and commerce and all of that But these people have not done any of that. Why have they waited for 83 years? And that's because of the very Strong opposition which they had been facing When they tried to build the temple There was such a lot of opposition in fact at the very first stage when the altar is being built When we when we read in ezra it says over there zirbabel was so afraid because of the opposition of the people But in spite of that he chooses to go ahead and build the altar of god So from day one they had a lot of pressure They had a lot of difficulty because they refused to make a partnership with the Local people and we also looked at why they refused to make a partnership. We looked at all of those details So from the time that they refused to partner with the locals They began to suffer a lot of persecution Details are not given over here about what they went through but they must have gone through very very difficult times because of that they would have thought Imagine when we built the temple and established ourselves as a nation once again That itself the people were so angry the locals were so angry about it What if we start rebuilding the walls then the opposition will be even greater They may in fact even come you know with a huge army and kill all of us So that is the reason why for 83 years they have not even rebuilt the walls They are very very scared of what will happen if they start the wall rebuilding process When the temple first came up that was like a Signal to the nations you know announcing see we have come back to our land. We are the people of Yahweh We are rebuilding this temple and this is our land So it is like a declaration which they made to the all the nations around them by establishing the temple But then if the walls are rebuilt, they're also saying now economically politically We are in a firm and solid position. Nobody can have any hold over us So the rebuilding of the walls would indicate the next level of independence And that would lead to a very strong reaction from the other local Nations, so which is why they delay in doing this and they are afraid to do it Another factor, which maybe we should think about is that When the temple is finally finished when the construction is finished in the book of Ezra We see that Zarubaba's name is not mentioned. He's mentioned in the beginning of the book of Ezra But then when the temple is refinished, he's not even mentioned So we don't really know what happened to him. Did they kill him? You know, did the persecution increase to a level where they killed him off? Or did the Persian king ask him to go back because you know, there was a lot of Violence happening. We don't really know So the opposition was so strong that the governor himself disappears at some point of time So we don't really know all of the details But actually there was a lot of serious trouble that these people went through And which is why we should admire them They could have stayed happily without any problems in Babylon in Babylon business was going well Their homes were established their fields were all prospering and there was crops growing Everything was fine But these people made a commitment and decided we want to come back to the land of the Lord the land which God gave us as our Promised land They had a desire to come back to rebuild the temple to live in the presence of God So we need to admire that about these people and after all the opposition started Some of them could have wanted to go back, but they did not go back They stayed it shows that they had a heart which actually cared about the things of God These were you know good people to be admired But because of the great fear which they felt they chose not to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem They chose to remain in that kind of You know half restored condition So looking briefly at the structure of the book of Nehemiah We can say that chapters one to seven Are the first section because that's basically where you have details about how the wall was reconstructed What is the opposition which takes place when the reconstruction of the wall started? All of that would be mentioned in chapters one to seven Our chapters eight to thirteen Is a second section which mainly talks about how the people were restored spiritually How they were once again brought back into God's fold and you know told about the wrong things that they are doing They were asked to reform their ways all of that takes place in chapters eight to thirteen So we have these two main divisions Um And um in in chapters eight To thirteen we especially see uh, okay in chapter eight. We see that it's the people Um, maybe you can actually have one person read out Uh, Ezra chapter eight verse one if someone could read out, please Are you sure uh, Nehemiah chapter eight verse one If you notice over here, it's not the leaders who say come on now We need to follow the Lord. Let's learn read out. What is there in the law of moses and all of you better follow it It's not the leaders who started the leaders don't take the initiative It's the people themselves who open their mouth and they ask and they say Could you please read out for us from the law of moses? Could you please instruct us instruct us once again? So it's the people who are taking an initiative from their side and they are saying we want to get back to God It's a commitment which they are initiating from their side Because I think by now they understood that if they are going to survive in this place It's going to be only by depending on the Lord and being faithful to him in their own strength They are not going to go far and so they make an initial commitment from their side to Reach out to God and draw near to him and repent of you know, whatever Unfaithfulness they have still been indulging in so they take an initiative from their side And later on in another important thing that we could notice in this section is regarding chapter 13 verse 24 Maybe if someone could read out Nehemiah 13 verse 24 Okay, so Nehemiah is very upset by this Uh, because the people the children who are now growing up do not even know the Hebrew language Uh, most of them are speaking the language of ashdod Which means if the law of moses is read out to the people they will not even understand a word of what is being said How on earth will they follow the Lord when they do not even know what is written in the scriptures? So it is a very serious thing And so Nehemiah is very upset. He says, you know, you people have married people of other nations And those women that you have married are not even followers of Yahweh They are continuing to worship their own gods Not only that they have only taught their children their language and their customs and their rituals So the children are going to grow up, you know as heathens They will not even know the true living god and so he is very angry and he says that you have not even taught them the language And maybe that is one reason why in uh chapter eight When the people say please read out to us the law of moses It says in Nehemiah eight verse eight if someone could read out Nehemiah eight eight Okay, so the people were weak in their Hebrew So the Levites take an extra effort to explain what is being read out so that they will understand exactly what god is saying And then they understand what is being said and many of them start weeping and crying and repenting of their sins Because they realize how far they have gone away from what the law of moses was teaching So they actually repent and they come back to god and they are restored to god We see all of that in chapter eight But then later on when chapter 13 we see that they have still not completely given up their old ways Because they are still married to those foreign women and those foreign women have still not made any kind of commitment to Yahweh At which point Nehemiah says you will have to take the decision now You cannot continue living like this, you know, so you will have to give up those wives You'll have to send them back to their home And if you know, if the children are not willing to turn to Yahweh then along with the children They would just have to go back to their homes and you would have to do without your family But you would have made a commitment to the lord. So there was a There was a Very strong demand that Nehemiah was raising and it's a demand that god makes of us even today You know when we are feeling very emotional It's all very nice to go to the lord and say lord, I repent of my sins and i'm recommitting myself to you But what about those foreign things foreign elements which are still sitting inside your life? So there was a great Commitment that took place in chapter eight They did get down on their knees They did weep and cry and they were genuinely sorry for all of their sins But they were still Foreign elements in their life, which they had not given up and those had to go at some point of time Only then can they say that they have truly come back to the lord and they have truly repented So Whenever you and I You know make this emotional commitment to the lord and we say lord I'm really touched by the sermon which I have heard or I'm really touched by what you did for me today So lord, I really want to come back to you and recommit myself. That's an excellent thing. It's an excellent attitude but Have you also dealt with those foreign elements those things which are foreign to the lord those things which the lord is against Which do not please him you need to get rid of those and that will be very very painful It's easier to get down on your knees and cry and say lord i'm coming back to you But that deliberate act of sacrifice where you have to take out those things which you have held in your heart So dear and part with them and get rid of them That takes real commitment and nehemiah says that is the level of commitment that the people need to do So we see that all these details in the second half of the book of nehemiah chapters 8 to 13 um Just to talk about nehemiah a little bit There in chapter 2 verse 3 we get to know that he was belonged to the tribe of judah Okay, so he was a judahite And an important thing that we need to understand about this man is that he was a very high ranking official He was not just somebody in the administrative setup of persia Is one of the top most officials in the entire persian kingdom The persian kingdom as we know was made up of people of many many nationalities All the people that they had conquered and brought us, you know Slaves to their land and all of that But among all of them this man rose to the top Nehemiah was one of the highest ranking officials because he was appointed as the cup bearer A king will only appoint someone as cup bearer if he trusts him 101 percent Because he is the man who will be like a guard for him who will watch out for conspiracies against him Make sure that there is no attack whatsoever on the king to the extent where he will actually sip the wine which is offered to the king to make sure that there's no poison in that wine So he is literally one of the highest ranking officials. He is not a priest He is not a prophet. He is not in full-time ministry This is a secular person But look at the heart of this secular official You know it in chapter one if you were to just very quickly look at some of the details mentioned over there It says that um, okay in the 20th year or uh, whatever, whatever So which verse number two in chapter one Hanani one of his brothers comes back Uh from Judah and so he questions them about how things are going on back home and that is when he gets to know that Even after all these years No repair work has been done The city of Jerusalem is still in a broken down conditions. The walls have not been rebuilt Nothing has been done. The temple of course is now functional and people are going over there and worshiping god But apart from that nothing much has been achieved when he hears about that He probably was under the impression that you know things by now would have been well established and things are going good So he never knew about this when he gets to know about this now He's completely shattered. It says um in verse four When I heard these things I sat down and wept Here is a man who has everything in life position rank money Wealth everything But he cares about the things of god. That is what touches his heart So he literally sits down and he cries And then not just that he goes one step further It says for some days. I moaned and fasted and prayed He's not an intercessor. I mean nobody appointed him as a priest or a prophet He does this intercession on his own without anyone asking him or ordering him to do it Because in his heart, he has that kind of a love for the people of god and for the things of god So without anyone prompting him without anyone ordering him to do so on his own initiative For some days, we don't know how many days he fasts and he prays And this is what he prays is in verse six. It says I confess the sins we israelites Including myself and my father's family have committed against you We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands decrease and loss You gave your servant moses. He is not just praying for himself He's praying on behalf of his people and he includes himself with them. Now. See this was a godly man Okay, he is a man who loves god and is trying to live according to god's Directors, but in spite of who he is he he says I you know, he says I confess the sins which we have committed he He is praying on behalf of his people and he's And he's praying as though Their sins are his sins It's like he's regarding them as his own family You know, what do we do generally when we pray for people whom we do not know We say lord, they are living in sin. Lord, you forgive them. You you know change their hearts Restore them. We care about them. We are praying for them But at the same time they are them and we are we I and my family are us But they are them and I care about them and so I am praying for them But look at the heart attitude over here This man He feels like as if they are all his brothers his own family members And in fact, you know, when it talks about hanani over here in verse number two In fact, hanani might just have been a brother in the sense that he's a jewish brother I mean might not have been a blood relationship at all. So here in verse six he versus six and seven He's uh speaking as if you know, all these people's sins are his own sins because they are part of his family And he's worried about what's going to happen to them. So he's crying out and saying lord, please We have sinned against you. So please lord, you have mercy upon us. You forgive us Okay, so with that kind of an attitude he is praying and He says in verse 11 let your year be attentive to the prayer of this your servant Okay, so He cared enough to ask about what is happening at home He wept when he got to know how bad the condition was He on his own initiative He began to fast and pray and intercede and then He goes one step even beyond that he decides I must personally do something prayer is not enough What can I actually do with my hands to help with this situation? Because that is the what he says in verse 11, you know chapter one us verse 11 He says give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man I was cup bearer to the king So he's already beginning to form a plan in his mind that he is going to approach the king and he is going to somehow Help Jerusalem. He wants to be a part of it So look at the complete commitment that this person had Now how many of us have that kind of a spirit when it comes to the things of God and the people of God? Okay, so all of us are at Different stages in this burden that we have for the church for God's kingdom for God's people But maybe we know we this is a man that we should imitate This was not a man in full-time ministry He had no full-time obligate a full-time ministry obligations Just because of the love in his heart, he chose to take a series of steps. So Now, of course, God is not asking everyone in secular jobs to give up their jobs and go and do ministry but Are we willing to use our positions our influence to do whatever we can For God's people for God's purposes. That is something that we would seriously need to consider Even as we look at, you know, Nehemiah Um So he talks about how he is the cup bearer to the king Uh, and the king over here is Arta Zeris Now Arta Zeris would be the son of Zeris. Who is Zeris? Zeris is the husband of Esther. Okay, so uh Zeris marries Esther And uh, the next generation is Arta Zeris. Obviously, uh, you know Arta Zeris is not Esther's son would most probably Arta Zeris would have been the son of Vashti the first wife of Zeris. So now Arta Zeris is the king His Hebrew name is Ahasuerus So in certain portions Of the Hebrew Bible, he would be mentioned as Ahasuerus and not as Arta Zeris But anyway, it's talking about the same person. So Nehemiah is the cup bearer of Arta Zeris He's in a very high position And he chooses to take to place his own life at risk and make a very bold request You know, you're a very high ranking official. You're one of the most trusted people of the king And what do you want to do? You want to go to the king and say, uh, uh, you know king I want to leave Not for one week, uh, not for one month Not even for one year.  I mean, if you were to go to your boss and make a request like that Uh, what would your boss say, you know kindly get lost, you know, your services are not needed anymore So he's actually taking a very very great risk In fact, in those days the kings could do whatever they wanted So if he wanted if he really got angry, he could even kill, you know, Nehemiah and say, you know You unfaithful man have been good to you.   Okay, so, uh, Things were in that, you know, uh, things were at that level where the king was all powerful So Nehemiah goes into the presence of the king and he's unable to produce a smile Because his heart is completely broken inside. He has a heavy burden for his people And he's unable to smile and is unable to look cheerful And the king notices and the king says, uh, why does your face look so sad? And you can read the reaction of Nehemiah in verse two chapter two verse two He says I was very much afraid Because the king gets mad at you. He can get you killed so Nehemiah was unable to keep his pain inside It shows on his face and when the king realizes that he is sad He says I was very much afraid, you know So that was the situation that Nehemiah was in and in that situation. He chooses to place his request So we should not take what Nehemiah did lightly This man was putting his life on the line In fact, he was putting his job his everything on the line for god's purposes So we need to know respect what this person did for god And um, so it says in verse four the king said to me, what is it you want? And then it says, you know Nehemiah writes then I prayed to the god of heaven And I answered the king. He's so scared.  Now, I really would wish and I wish I could, you know, have a photograph of that moment When Nehemiah opens his mouth and tells exactly how long he wants to go and when he's going to come back Because it's going to be for a very very long time. Uh, but Uh, the god who is at work in the heart of this king The king actually agrees and he says, okay fine go ahead and then He says it please the king to send me so I set a time He sets a date when he's going to set out and go. Okay. So, um um if If if someone could read out Nehemiah chapter 13 versus six and seven at tazaris Yeah, yeah, that's that should be all right So we we're not sure exactly how long a leave he asked for initially But it actually ends up 12 long years at the end of 12 long years. He goes back to persia I don't know for maybe for one year or two years We don't really know for how long and then again after that he takes permission and returns back So basically he stops working as cup bearer of the king Um, because I'm sure the king would have appointed a new cup bearer But instead he's given a new position as governor over here in the land of israel So he's given a new designation. Uh, so For 12 years he stays over here as governor of um, of you know, jerusalem and then He goes back temporarily for about two years or something not sure it's not given here But again after that he takes permission and once again comes back So, uh, basically god gives him a new job So he put his life on the line He risked everything But god arranged for him to you know fulfill the purposes of god. So god took care of the details for him um, and um So with once atas. There is gives his permission um Nehemiah starts making preparations to come back and this is a very significant moment Once he gets the permission because when we look at um Daniel chapter nine versus 25 to 27 it talks about A prophecy of things which will happen in the future and it talks about something called the 70 weeks Now you might have heard sermons on this You might have read books about it where it talks about what exactly are the 70 weeks What are all the uh, you know different things which are described over there It's all very high five very difficult to understand. I certainly have no clue You know, if you need to know about these things you would have to ask someone who really understands these details But the basic thing is that uh This atas. There is permission which he gives is directly connected to these 70 weeks because in chapter two Verse eight once atas. There is agrees and says all right. You can go back Had that moment the 70 weeks begin The prophecy the prophecy which is given about the 70 weeks. It begins in that moment Nehemiah acts in faith He has a burden for the people of god. He takes a dangerous risk He goes to the king asks for permission and in that one act of faith something very You know momentous is unleashed because from then the countdown begins for those 70 weeks to be completed Because at the end of those 69 weeks the messiah will arrive So imagine look at the number of things which this nehemiah triggered off just by that simple act of faith That burden that that man had what an amazing thing I mean you and I may be very ordinary people stuck in very ordinary situations But if you have a heart Like nehemiahs and if you can just go into your room and pray, you know You don't even have to stand on the stage and you know call out to the whole world Just go into your room and start praying and allow god to place his desires and his plans in your heart And then you take a stand and say I will you know accomplish these things What amazing things god can accomplish because way that simple stick which this nehemiah took That moment onwards the 70 weeks, you know countdown began And as a result of that at the end of those 70 weeks the messiah himself came into the world So amazing. It's all so beautifully interlinked and it's all kind of you know Going back to this one man and this one act of faith, you know, which he performed So we see this amazing thing over here Another thing which I thought maybe we could just touch upon Is when nehemiah begins to set out to go back to jerusalem We see in nehemiah 2 9 if someone could read out nehemiah chapter 2 verse 9 Okay, so when nehemiah sets out to return to jerusalem He takes many soldiers many Officers not officers. He takes letters to the officers. Okay, so he takes all of the he basically the thing is he takes a Army contingent along with him when he is returning back On the other hand when ezra returns back, you know, which is like 14 years earlier when ezra comes back He does not have any army protecting him So the question which is raised is you know ezra when he was returning back He never asked for any army to you know come any soldiers to come along with them to protect them during the journey On the other hand when nehemiah comes he you know asks for people You know to be sent along with him to protect him So is ezra's faith greater than nehemiah's faith is what people you know Ask but then we need to recognize there are two different situations being discussed over here. So let's just you know briefly go back to ezra and If someone could read out ezra chapter 8 Versus 21 to 23 Ezra 8 21 to 23 Ezra is kind of Making a testimony And you know, he's witnessing to the king and to the people what Yahweh can do Okay, so he has said in verse Ezra chapter 8 verse 22 the gracious hand of our god is on everyone who looks to him But his great anger is against all who forsake him So he's already declared that very openly very grandly. He has said to the king You know if we serve the lord and follow him faithfully his hand is upon our lives Nothing can harm us nothing can touch us So after grandly declaring that if he says if you can kindly send some, you know Soldiers to protect us on the journey. It would look as if he is not trusting the hand of god He's trusting these Persian soldiers who are being sent along with them to protect them So ezra takes a stand and he decides let's demonstrate to this king And to all the peoples all the nations who are watching that god can protect us and take care of us So, okay, so it's an act of faith that he is taken over here and He and so they all fast and pray and say lord even as we go on the journey You know, there would be bands of robbers because that's their livelihood, right? This bands of robbers what we called it as decoits So these people that that's their main livelihood They they steal and rob from you know traveling groups because the groups when they're traveling they travel along with all their You know wealth and their cattle and their families. So it's easy to rob them So They all fast and pray and they request the lord to guard them and protect them So that they can safely reach jerusalem without any without any, you know risk or danger On the other hand when nehemiah is coming back He's coming back as an official Of the persian government. He's coming back as the new governor And so when he's coming back, he comes back along with official letters Which he is going to give to all the other surrounding governors in that region Telling them, you know what I have now been appointed over here in this region I have permission to rule in this particular area And so all of you others have to respect You know my official role and my official capacity. So in his official capacity He comes along with a troop of persian soldiers Who will back him up and prove to the surrounding governors that he indeed has been sent by the persian king himself Okay, so it's completely two different cases in ezra. Ezra was coming back as a as a priest Of god along with the people more like a civilian on the other hand when nehemiah is coming back He's coming back in his official capacity to take over the governorship of this particular region So, which is why when he comes he comes along with the military escort So which is why in nehemiah chapter two Verse seven he says may I have letters to the governors of trans euphrates so that they will provide me safe conduct And then in verse nine it says the king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. Okay, so Another thing that I thought maybe we could briefly talk about Before that anybody wants to ask any questions because we have around nine minutes left Anyone wants to ask anything or say anything Otherwise we can you know just look at a few other details Nothing all right. We will go on One other thing which really impressed and touched my heart That would be in chapter five Where it talks about how The rich were exploiting the poor. Okay, they've all come back to this land They've gone through a lot of trials and struggles Now they are re re establishing themselves in the land And in spite of all that they've gone through that human nature, you know that greed It's still there in their hearts and so the people who have more wealth and more money and all that They are ill-treating the ones who are poor even though they're all no brothers even though or they all belong to one single nation and So we see in chapter five um Verse three It's it's uh versus two and three it says we and our sons and daughters. Okay, maybe someone can read out Chapter five versus two and three if someone could read out, please and also verse four, please okay, so um Lot of people are in great economic distress because The there's a tax imposed upon that entire region So even if you own a small piece of land You're going to be paying very high taxes to the persian government for that piece of land And then moreover there seems to be a famine in the land, which means there's scarcity So people who are not doing financially well, they are unable to grow enough crops They're not going to get any money because of the famine, you know They will not be able to grow enough crops to be able to make a profit So things are bad. There's a famine happening the taxation the persian taxes are high and so The people who are not in a very financially stable condition They are now giving their sons and daughters as slaves to the rich people the rich jews So that those people will lend them some money so they can know so they can live from day to day And as a result of that their sons and daughters are becoming slaves of the rich jews And when nehemiah gets to know about this he is so horrified. This is what he says He says in verse five if someone could read out Okay, sorry that this is still the people talking Nehemiah speaks in verses six and seven. So if you could read out six and seven, please Okay, initially the people had given some of their slaves and daughters to the gentiles to get money and Nehemiah and his people try to sell you know try to collect money and pay off those people to set free the Jewish sons and daughters so from their pockets they put money to liberate some of the Jewish sons and daughters who had been taken as slaves by the gentiles He says we spent money to liberate the sons and daughters from these gentile people And now you people are making them slaves and daughter, you know Your own brothers you're turning them into slaves. It's a very very shameful thing It's one thing of the gentiles are enslaving them But you yourselves are enslaving them and why is all this happening because you are charging interest on the money that you are collecting You know that you're that you're lending to the poorer brothers So lend to them, but don't charge interest. They will return it, you know, whenever they can But don't charge interest on it and he says In verse 10 he says I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain But let us stop charging interest. So even Nehemiah has been lending But he has not charged any interest. He says my people are not, you know, mother officials under me We're not charging any interest. Why are you people taking heavy interest from the others and enslaving them? And so he commands and he says give them back immediately their fields vineyards and their houses And he says do not charge the Interest rate which you have been taking and so we see Nehemiah acting to stop the exploitation and oppression which is going on And another thing that we see about him. Maybe we could know just close with that He talks about what he has been doing from his side It says in verse 14 That neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor But the earlier governors those preceding me placed a heavy burden on the people And took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine Their assistance also lauded it over the people But out of reverence for god, I did not act like that Basically a governor job is a really excellent job to have. Okay, because uh Once you are governor over a particular region You can charge a heavy amount of taxes just for your own benefit Of course, there are taxes which the people will pay to the persian government It'll directly go to the persian treasury But there's an extra tax which you can impose because you are the governor and they should pay to you It'll go into your pocket. So a governor job is an excellent job You can make a lot of money, which is why first of all in the beginning when these people come over here The governors in the region are very very angry and there's a lot of opposition Why because they're losing money and losing power so This person Nehemiah he says the previous governors They used to take 40 shekels of silver and they used to take crops and they used to take the grapevine. Why because So that they can claim it as their percentage The governor and his officials they get a cut. They get a percentage So they were collecting that but Nehemiah He realizes that already the people are struggling under the persian taxes Now you go and put additional taxes on their heads. How are they going to manage? So he says something so beautiful in verse 15. He says out of reverence for god I did not act like that So on the other hand, what does he do? He does something amazingly ridiculous almost. He says in verse 17 150 Jews and officials ate at my table as well as those who came to me from the surrounding nations So instead of taking from the people, he was in fact feeding a lot of people You know, all the people working for him All the people maybe who are working in his fields He was in fact giving them food. He was taking care of them And where was the money for that coming from from his own pocket? You see it's coming from his own pocket because as the cup bearer of the king He must have been real stinking rich really rich So he's now using all his funds all his wealth for this good deed Where he is in fact supporting people at his table every day And he says he repeats again in verse 10 he was 18 He says in spite of all this I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were heavy on these people And then he says remember me with favor my god for all I have done for these people So he's saying lord all that I have done with a sincere heart Remember what I have done and bless me for it. And I really think his reward must be extremely great I mean when we go to heaven and you know On on on that judgment day when we are all given our individual rewards I think the reward of Nehemiah will be great Because of what he did because of the reverence out of which he did not because he's going to get a reward But because out of the reverence out of for god, he didn't have you know acted in a certain way So these are all things that we can really learn from and if we absorb these learnings and these principles and apply them in our own lives It doesn't matter how we know little we are or how insignificant we are God will take notice And when the time comes, you know our reward will be great because we have acted to honor him We have acted to please him and that in fact would really please the lord. All right so these are just some of the wonderful things that we could see in this book of Nehemiah and Maybe we can just close with the word of prayer Lord, we just thank you so much for today's class Thank you lord for all the learnings that we could get out of this book We pray oh lord that you would help us to be like this man or lord Some of us in fact are in full-time ministry Some of us a lot are getting trained to be in full-time service And so oh lord if this man who was a secular official Had this kind of a heart and an attitude how much more we should lord have that kind of an attitude So help us a lot to learn from his life Help us a lot to be humble help us a lot to have a burden for your things and for your people and lord Help us to be willing to intercede and even not just pray but also act Use our position and power To do whatever we can for your people and for your kingdom Help us a lord To be People who will honor you and who will please you. Thank you lord in jesus name. Amen Thank you so much, and I hope you are blessed by today's class