All right, let's jump in, verse one.

On that day, they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found

written that no ammonite or moabite should ever come into the assembly of God.

And here's why verse do. Because they had not met the

children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Belam against them to curse them. However, our God,

and I love this, turned the curse into a blessing. How many of you know that only God,

as only he can, can take that which is meant for a curse or evil and turn it into a blessing

and bring good from it. And that's what he did. So it was,

verse 3, when they had heard the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

This is what I call not only reading, but heeding the word of God. They read in, and think about this, this is probably

very likely the first time in the newly rebuilt temple that they had actually read from God's

word about this account.

Now, I want to come back to that because it's one of the most fascinating accounts in all of

Scripture, but it appears that there was a gap of time between the previous chapter and

chapter 12 and chapter 13, because we're told that it was on that day and we're going

to see as we get further into the chapter that Nehemiah had since returned and now has come back.

It is believed that it's probably been several years and it's that proverbial when the cats gone the mice will play

it's not long after nehemiah goes back to king art xerxes that the israelites have done the

very thing that they vowed to god made a, and committed to God that they would not do.

And apparently, as we're about to see, this is exactly what they did.

And for those of you who read ahead to stay ahead, they did in fact allow this Ammonite access

into the temple of God. And to their credit, they did remove

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