Nehemiah’s last diary entry is one last push for the people to return all God’s commandments, to internally understand why God gave them, with how imperative it is to obey His commands so they will not fall back to accepting all things unholy to God. 

Nehemiah is compelled to remind the Israelites how mixing evil cultures with God’s Law will not work for them.  God’s Law was given for their good from God who loves them dearly and wants to protect them from evil, who is the enemy of God.  Mixed worship of idols and God lead to confusion which God knows will eventually lead them away from Him!

Notice how this wise leader intercedes for himself and for God’s people. “Remember me, O God,” for exampleis a cry to God to lead him in the work with wisdom to do the work in ways that please God.  I’ve prayed that prayer myself many times over the years. I still pray it today. As we close our study of Nehemiah we must remember that God’s call to Nehemiah was not only to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem; but to restore the faith and practices of God’s people. 

Ezra read The Law out loud to God’s people after the wall was completed.  The people wept, confessed openly, and repented of their sins.  Nehemiah urged them adamantly to remember that God is God alone.  For God declared as he gave The Law to Moses, “I AM the Lord your God.” Nehemiah then followed up with words of comfort for the repentant; “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Chapter 8)

The people knew after the reading of The Law that their habits of mixing in the worship of idols with the worship of God, is like mixing oil and water.  Almighty God cannot and will not occupy the same space as Evil. We choose God or we choose evil.  In other words; adding in the beliefs, worship, and practices of other non-believing, unholy cultures cannot happen. The first two commandments of God’s Law clearly and concisely states Truth to be lived;  

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall make no idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

Going a bit deeper for understanding—

The first four commandments outline our relationship with God while the final six teach us how to relate to each other because of our love for God—All for our good and His glory!

Reading the story of God through Nehemiah is like current revelation I was honored to hear a few years back as a church leader.  We received a prophetic warning along with pertinent and timely informative from George Barna, a believer who is by vocation is a professional statistician. We learned in that setting with other church leaders, that The Barna Group spent years surveying those in the American church who professed to be born again believers of Jesus Christ.  The survey was set up meticulously to avoid less error in the results. After all was gathered, sorted, and analyzed, Barna wept.  As a believer the results of what people say they believe and how they behave was daunting.

Barna reported his findings in a document entitled, “The State of the Church.” I highly recommend the reading and studying of this document.  If you are a pastor or staff member of a church; the findings may not surprise you. Similar in nature to the Gallop Pole, a survey instrument to see what our nation understands about politics and other social lifestyles; Barna set out to see what born-again church attenders understand about their faith and practice. Read the document for the numbers that prove that the world is affecting the church much more than the church is affecting the world in which we live.  Barna also followed up with ways to reverse the curse and many pastors are leading their people back to God alone.

All this to say, we understand Nehemiah’s urgent actions to reform the unhealthy, old spiritual habits of mixing evil ways with the holy practices of walking humbly with our God—the One and Only God!

Nehemiah 13

Nehemiah’s Final Reforms

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, ² because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) ³ When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.

⁴ Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, ⁵ and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

⁶ But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission ⁷ and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. ⁸ I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. ⁹ I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

¹⁰ I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. ¹¹ So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

¹² All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. ¹³ I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.

¹⁴ Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.

¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. ¹⁶ People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. ¹⁷ I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”

¹⁹ When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. ²¹ But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

²³ Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. ²⁴ Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. ²⁵ I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. ²⁶ Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. ²⁷ Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸ One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.

²⁹ Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

³⁰ So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. ³¹ I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits.

Remember me with favor, my God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The Law of Moses was clear, but both the priests and the common people had deliberately disobeyed it. Nehemiah then purified the priests and made certain that only those who were qualified served (v. 30). It is easier to stray than to pray!  Avoid diluting the Truth as a way for sins to be acceptable—it will never work.  To follow Truth is to keep our spiritual eyes on Truth who is Jesus.  Jesus taught us to pray, so evil would not enter in to mix our beliefs.  In praying; Jesus reminds us that though we are tempted by evil, God will help us.  His Holy Spirit lives in us to lead us to all Truth.  We’ve got the power given to all who believe on the Holy Name of Jesus!  Here is that profound prayer of simple, undiluted faith recorded in Matthew 6;

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

And we pray this today in Jesus Name, Amen!

Nehemiah closes with two prayers that God would remember him for his faithful service. His conscience was clear, for he knew he had done everything for the good of the people and the glory of God. Despite his sacrifices, the people didn’t always appreciate him, but Nehemiah knew that it was God who had led him. To God be the glory!

I’m going to miss you, Nehemiah!  On to Esther!