Nehemiah 11-13
Posted: October 6, 2014
From these three chapters the most salient thing that I see is found at the end of Chapter 12 and throughout chapter 13. In Chapter 12:44 it begins to describe the logistical plan for the upkeep of the temple. You know, who's in charge of what, how the food will be distributed, and who will receive it. We learn in Chapter 13 that somewhere after the temple was built, and presumably after the wall had been built, that Tobiah (yes, the very same Tobiah who was a close friend of Sanballat) had been given a room inside the temple. It sounds like he had personal household goods stored in the temple. He was using God's house as a storage unit. That's outrageous! And it was the priest who was in charge of the storerooms who had allowed it to happen.
It's almost discouraging to me when I read that Nehemiah left town for about a year, and upon his return the leaders had allowed the community to drift away from obedience. They had intermarried, withheld food from others and as I mentioned earlier, even rented out the temple.
What's wrong with us? Why do we continually drift right back into the same bad habits that we had before? Yesterday I wrote about repenting "being sorry enough to change". I wonder how common that response really is. From what I see of the Israelites they were sorry enough in the moment, but they didn't seem to genuinely change. As soon as they weren't being forced to behave correctly, they were right back to dating the wrong women and cheating their friends. Buying and selling on Sunday.
I have to assume that they are are foreshadowing of our own behavior, we don't appear to be much different. I see people who were raised in the church drift into inappropriate relationships, I see addicts who turned their lives over to Christ returning to their old habits after a year or two.
But wait...I also see a few who don't go back. There are some who make the radical commitment and their lives are genuinely different from that moment on. I want to stand with that group. I think that I belong with those folks. And as I look at the text, I see that a number of men had taken other wives, but not all of them. I suspect that there will always be a crowd who compromises their faith, yet continues to hang around. The question is "what do we do about it?"
Nehemiah rebukes them and gets them back on the "straight and narrow". And the leader that had compromised his position? He was removed from office. Someone who would take the job more seriously took his place. Nehemiah filled the role of leader by commanding that the gates to the city be closed on the Sabbath, and threatened to punish any vendor who hung around outside looking for an errant soul to sell something to. As leaders I think we need to do likewise.
I guess sometimes that's what it takes. I'm willing to bet that there were people in Jerusalem who considered themselves righteous that didn't really like Nehemiah all that much. I'm not sure how Nehemiah felt about them, but I can sense his passion for the law in his writing. I doubt that he was easily swayed by public opinion. That's not to say that he didn't care about the people, I know for a fact that he did. He gave freely of his resources for their benefit. I'm just saying that there were times when it probably looked like "tough love".
Seriously, it's really too bad that we need constant prodding to remain in our faith. Thankfully, God is patient and kind and forgiving, and for some reason loves us so much that he sticks it out with us. I consider the people of Israel, and I think about my own behavior, and I am mystified at why God loves us so much. I know He does, I just cannot understand why.
But I'm glad that He does!
PR
Talk about a rollercoaster ride. Our reading today, takes us from the pinnacle of praise and worship of God to Nehemiah's righteous indignation. How people can so quickly change their practices and habits. So here are a couple of observations I gathered.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are on a spiritual high, be very careful not to let your guard down. Nehemiah for whatever reason returned to King Artaxerxes and when he came back, his old nemesis Tobiah (remember the guy who along with Sanballot tried to thwart Nehemiah's rebuilding the wall) has taken up residence inside the temple...WHAT?!? Seriously, how did that happen? Well, the same way we let sin into our lives... little by little. Tobiah's daughter married a Jewish priest and somehow, Tobiah was able to convince his son-in-law to let him move in. Tobiah was an Ammonite (4:3) and was forbidden to even enter the temple and now we find him living there! I'm thinking Tobiah did this on purpose just to spite Nehemiah.and to see how far he could go to infiltrate these Jews. As we see, there were a lot of improper actions taking place. Oh how soon we forget. Here they are working on the Sabbath, letting foreigners inside the temple, allowing their children to marry pagans.
Remember to clean house when necessary. Nehemiah does something similar to what Jesus will do during his time on earth... he cleans out the temple. Not only does he throw out Tobiah along with all his possessions, but he also makes those who married foreigners send their wives and children away. It seems like pretty harsh measures, but you can't let sin get a foothold in your life. Nehemiah uses Solomon as an example of what can happen if you allow false religions into your life. (King Solomon married hundreds of foreign women in defiance of God's law, even though God had given Solomon great wisdom but because of the pagan influences his wives had on him, Solomon fell into disfavor with God, 1 Kings 11:9). Trying to justify what you are doing, only compounds the problem later on. Unfortunately it happens all the time, you allow a little sin here or a little backsliding there and before you know it, you've wandered off.
Just remember, Jesus wants you back. Do some house cleaning of your own. Get rid of the things that will keep you from God – throw them out and then like we read in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Blessings
Pastor Kathy