Committed To Pleasing His God

Review

Turn to Nehemiah 13

In my previous message of this series, I preached on Nehemiah 13:15-16. Nehemiah was in the middle of a second visit to Jerusalem and was overseeing a number of spiritual reforms. The most recent area of reformation was concerning the Sabbath. Some of the Jews were working on the Sabbath Day - something that God clearly forbid them from doing. The problem was that they had a “Live, And Let Live” mentality on an issue where God said, “live, and do as I say.” This mentality pervades our American culture and we as Christians must resist it anytime it encroaches on God’s commands or God’s design.

Summarize Nehemiah 13:17-22 with the following:

A second confrontation - Nehemiah 13:17-18

A solution implemented - Nehemiah 13:19-22

Verses 23-31 tell us of another situation, even more serious than the others, that Nehemiah had to address.

Introduction

In my life experience, there are three ways to identify that your car has a problem.

Either you hear a problem, you see a problem, or you take the car to a mechanic and get the computer scanned so you can know what code the check engine light is throwing.

I had one of those situations come up just this week. Maybe you did too, so this isn’t a sob story, it’s just a part of life for all of us, but I had one of those situations with our Toyota Sienna.

Just before we were leaving for our road trip to Ambassador Baptist College, Jana ran a quick errand to grab a few items at the store. Minutes after she left the house, I got a phone call. She said something to this effect:

“Hey honey, when I’m driving the van down the road, the engine makes a strange sound and the van shakes violently.”

Now, of course, since I’m a pastor, I’m sure you can imagine that when I heard that news, I put my halo on and began singing the Doxology, right?

My wife didn’t know what the problem was, but she knew the most important thing: she knew that there was a problem.

She heard and she saw that something was wrong.

Nehemiah tells us the same thing in our text.

Read Nehemiah 13:23-24, 28.

Next slide here:

The problem identified - Nehemiah 13:23-24, 28

In verse 23, Nehemiah sees a problem and in verse 24, he hears a problem. He meets some Jewish men who married pagan women from the surrounding region and he hears their children speaking a mixed version of their mothers’ native language. They’re not speaking Hebrew. They have Jewish fathers, but beyond that, there is nothing Jewish about them and that was a huge problem in Nehemiah’s day.

Why?

Two reasons: first, because God had forbidden this in the law (Exodus 34:12-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5). And second, because these very same Jews had made a covenant that they would never do this (Nehemiah 10:30)!

So they’ve sinned on two counts. They married pagans and they broke their word.

There’s one more situation and it was the icing on the cake. A grandson of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat, Nehemiah’s enemy. This was the greatest of betrayals. It was in defiance of God’s law, it was an insult to the Jews who had faithfully built the wall in spite of Sanballat’s many attacks, and it was a personal insult to Nehemiah himself.

Last week we heard a message on the difference between a biblical worldview and a secular humanist worldview. That’s what was at stake here. The Jewish men had a worldview that was at least partially guided by the Old Testament Scriptures. The pagan women? Perhaps they had mixed worship of Jehovah with that of idols, but understand this: there was no commonality between Judaism and paganism. The gods they worshipped demanded human sacrifice whereas the God of Israel abhorred it. These marriages, based on conflicting worldviews, lead to heartache and confusion.

Application: There is a principle that we see from their failure. Christian, if you are single and looking to marry, do not marry an unsaved person. Know what you believe and know what they believe before you ever say, “I do.”

If you do not prioritize marrying a saved and spiritual person, you run a tremendous risk of losing the next generation. If you go all the way back to the time of Joshua, once he died and his generation died, here’s what happened:

Judges 2:10 KJV 1900

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

All it takes is one generation and your descendants will not know the Lord and won’t care about Him either. Don’t make the mistake that these Jews did.

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The problem addressed - Nehemiah 13:25-27

Read Nehemiah 13:25-27

Curse: to publically disgrace. To openly call them out for their wickedness and to revile them for their sin.

Contended: third time we’ve seen this word in chapter thirteen (13:11, 17, 25)

Nehemiah’s had more than his share of fighting since he returned to Jerusalem this second time. He’s being rather contentious, isn’t he? You may be tempted to wonder, “did Nehemiah enjoy this? Did he always go about looking for a fight?”

From what I see Nehemiah say in the text, I don’t think that was the case at all.

You see, people who are looking for a fight, they always have a “me versus you” mentality.

“I’m going to beat you.”

“I’m going to ‘one up’ you.”

Nehemiah didn’t have that attitude here at all.

Read Nehemiah 13:27

Notice, Nehemiah’s not focused on himself in that moment, he’s completely focused how this sin is against God!

Nehemiah didn’t pick this fight because he enjoyed fighting; he picked this fight because he was committed to pleasing his God, and that is the same motivation that he has displayed from beginning to end of this book.

It never was about him! It was about doing whatever God wanted him to do so that God might be pleased!

Application: Christian, if you live life with that motivation, you will be a success in God’s eyes.

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The priesthood restored - Nehemiah 13:28-31

For centuries, England attempted to subdue the Scottish people by force, but Highland clans remained resistant and waged guerrilla-style warfare when necessary. But after the 1707 Act of Union, Britain shifted to assimilation through law, economy, and culture. The Crown integrated Scottish elites into British politics, gave them land and titles, and promoted the use of English language and customs.

Later reforms and education policies suppressed Gaelic culture but encouraged Scots to join the British army and imperial service.

Within two generations of those efforts, the Scots became some of the staunchest supporters of the British Empire — their identity largely transformed from “rebellious Highlanders” to “loyal British subjects.”

Today, although the recruits are not strictly from the Scottish highlands, the Scots Guards are one of the most famous regiments in the British Army. They form part of the Household Division, the elite units that protect the British monarch and perform both ceremonial and combat duties. This honor is a far cry from the mortal enemies that the English and the Scotch once were for centuries.

This strategy of victory by assimilation was the very strategy attempted by Sanballat in the final verses of Nehemiah 13.

Read Nehemiah 13:28-30.

Sanballat failed to stop the Jews from building the wall of Jerusalem and from restoring the city that was central to their national identity, so it seems that he decided to assimilate with them by way of a political marriage: his daughter with the grandson of Eliashib the high priest. By corrupting the Jewish priesthood, the end result would be the same for the Jews: defeat.

Nehemiah took the necessary steps to remove any priests that had made such marriages, and restored the priesthood by appointing priests who were dedicated to obeying the law of God.

We’ve seen Nehemiah take such extraordinary steps like this throughout the book that perhaps it seems commonplace at this point, but I want you to put this in context of who Nehemiah was when God began this story in his life.

Turn to and read Nehemiah 1:11

That’s who Nehemiah was. He was the king’s cupbearer - an influential role, yes, but he wasn’t a great national leader like Moses! Nehemiah wasn’t a great monarch like David! He wasn’t a great prophet like Elisha!

He was a cupbearer, a high-ranking official, yes, but when we began this book, he was far removed by hundreds of miles from all this mess. He didn’t oversee city-wide construction projects, much less serve as the leader of spiritual revivals or of priestly reforms.

How did he get here? How did he make it this far? How did he survive Sanballat’s relentless attacks? How did he persevere through widespread discouragement among the Jews? How did he survive physical exhaustion? How did he overcome the betrayal of the Jewish nobles? How did he lead the nobles to reform their monetary lending practices against the poor? How did he manage to resettle the city of Jerusalem? How did he lead the Jews to renew their covenant with God?

I believe the answer to all of these questions is found in the last sentence of verse 31.

Read Nehemiah 13:31b

That’s what motivated him. Nehemiah was Committed To Pleasing His God.

All of those things I just mentioned? He didn’t pull that off by shear willpower. He didn’t get it done because he was some great person or he was especially gifted to do those things. No, I believe that God had Nehemiah living outside of his comfort zone from the day that he left Shushan the palace till the day that he returned. After all, his day job was to be a cupbearer, not a general contractor, a governor, or a religious leader. He was a cupbearer, yet see what great things God did through him.

Application: Christian, if there’s one challenge I want you to remember from Nehemiah’s life, it is this: Be Committed. Be Committed To Pleasing Your God.

If you do, God just might use you to be the next Nehemiah. In other words, he might just take an ordinary person and use him or her to do extraordinary things.

It will mean going outside your comfort zone.

It will include seasons of great hardship.

It will require great tests of your faith.

But the rewards of pleasing God are far greater than the challenges. So today I challenge you to Be Committed. Follow Nehemiah’s example and in every area of your life, Be Committed To Pleasing Your God.