Lasting Reform (Neh 13)

Lasting Reform: Nehemiah 13 In our series through the book of Nehemiah, we’ve come to the last chapter. – Nehemiah, cupbearer to the great Persian emperor, cared deeply for the destruction of Jerusalem back home and the impact of that on his people when news of it came to him. Without any certainty of the outcome, but only a burden on his heart from the Lord, Nehemiah trusted completely in the good hand of God to guard him and to guide him. In the earliest chapters we see God granting him favor with this King of Persia first and then with his own people back in his homeland, Beyond the River. With exiles having returned under Zerubbabel, then Ezra (and temple worship being restored) and now others with Nehemiah, he is tasked with motivating the people to rebuild the wall of protection around the Holy City. In spite of heavy opposition from neighboring peoples, discouragement and conflict within their own camp, and even plots to subvert Nehemiah himself, God grants them astonishing success to complete the wall surrounding the city in only 52 days. With that completed, Ezra reads and teaches the book of the law of God, stirring the people to make confession to God for their sins and the sins of their people. And because they see how God has kept his steadfast love toward his people, they corporately pledge themselves to return in faithful relationship to their God (listing specific obligations). Under Nehemiah’s leadership, they follow this up by repopulating Jerusalem with 10% of the clans in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and further demonstrate their devotion by making good on their recent promises (especially regarding temple worship) and praising God for what he accomplished in a great wall dedication celebration. - But as tends to be the case with us, a little time and distance beyond the monumental event, and their devotion wanes, their resolve wavers, and they are soon wandering in the wrong direction. Read chapter 13 and PRAY: I. How do we wrestle with our own waning, wavering, and wandering? A. It can happen to us as it did to them. We allow our fervor for replenishing the hot embers of our love for God to wane, then our resolve (our commitment) to God dwindles down to a mere flicker, and the lack of tending to this primary relationship allows the flame of our hearts to wander off in devotion to the wrong things. (until we have idolatrous flames lapping thirstily after money and material, after power and influence, after sensuality and self-indulgence… ugh! The truth of it is sickening in the light of the free grace offered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.) B. Or think of us like sheep. We head off after something else that attracts us, after some other sustenance, some other reward, some other goal, some other soothing and tempting voice. And why would we do that? Because we lost sight of our leader (which guarded our resolve to follow him). And that happened because we ceased devoting ourselves to listening for his voice that lovingly calls to us, “Follow me.” C. We can glean a few things from this final chapter in Neh. to help us wrestle with our waning, wavering, and wandering. II. Spot the problem. What happened here? Two things: Selfish leadership (and lack of leadership) and neglecting God’s Word A. Nehemiah was gone and Eliashib tanked. (vv. 4-14) 1. Neh had gone back to the King (v. 6) to give an account of his governorship (as he had been told to do). Now we don’t rightly know if or how many other times Nehemiah may have made trips back during his 12 years as governor, or exactly how long this stint was, but while he was gone the disobedience developed. 2. Where’s Ezra? We don’t know. Perhaps having a permanent out of body experience. (absent from the body and present with the Lord) 3. Eliashib turns out to be a compromising, self-serving priest. (the horrific irony is almost indescribable – the priests were tasked with sacrificing to God in atoning for the sins of the people) a. The first problem was letting family relationships take precedence over faithfulness to God’s covenant love. – Tobiah, enemy of God’s people, was a relative, and Eliashib made him a crib IN THE CHAMBERS OF THE TEMPLE. Talk about family favors. (Nepotism, and other forms of pandering to family, can be a real problem in any age and on any team and in any church. However, we need not fret over it unnecessarily in situations with god-honoring men and women who, on their own merits, display devoted faithfulness to God. It sometimes happens that those people come in clans. Praise God for his grace to that family!) b. The second disaster was partly caused by the first. Eliashib messed with the stuff that was for the responsibility of and provision for the other servants—Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, etc. (Again, he was probably only providing for the priests, likely giving them extra. What a scoundrel! – His sin was impacting everyone. The Levites and other servants abandoned their post, the priests were probably complicit, and all the people were slacking in providing 4. (It didn’t stop with Eliashib’s lousy leadership.) There was also a lack of leadership, a void. – Apparently nobody was in charge of keeping the Sabbath or of preventing the enemies of God from infiltrating the worship of God (with their falsehood) or from infiltrating Jewish families with their idolatrous worship. (vv. 2-3, 15-29) a. The Balaam thing. *(from Num. 22-24) b. The intermarriage thing. (vv. 24,26-27) Isn’t it just like us that we can be plagued by the same problems again and again? (We can be about as slow and stubborn as Balaam… not his donkey.) B. They must have been neglecting the frequent and regular reading and teaching of God’s law. This was the deeper and greater underlying problem that grew from the leadership void. (I believe this to be the case because what set them straight?! What set them on the path to rectifying the situation? – v. 1)  Keep the sword of the Spirit [Eph. 6:17] always in your head so that it penetrates your heart [Heb. 4:12]. – Usually we wield a weapon with our hands, but this is a battle for control of your mind and heart, so you pour over God’s Word to gain understanding. – Have you yet to become a serious student of the Bible? Eph. 6:16-18a In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. III. (Once you’ve identified the problem as selfish leadership and neglect of God’s Word) Stay close to loving leaders who demonstrate submission to God’s Word (and are therefore decisive against sin and definitive for faithfulness to God – repeat 2nd part). A. First of all, they read and listened to God’s Word (v.1). Secondly, Nehemiah clearly submitted to it and held the people accountable (vv.2-3). 1. Thirdly, Nehemiah got angry about the sin. (We read it in v. 8. That’s the right response, even as hard as it is for us to not be sinful in our anger.) 2. Finally, in each case, Nehemiah took swift, direct action to respond to the sin. a. In vv. 8-9, he threw Tobiah and his trash out, and gave orders for the chambers to be purified and restored to their rightful use. b. In the case of the Levites and other servants no longer keeping up with their duties, he confronted the “officials” (those in charge), v. 11, and took it upon himself to make sure that all the people and their responsibilities were set back in working order. – Additionally, this caused the people to respond again to their obligation (12), and Neh. set up further leadership and accountability over the treasury and distribution of these goods (13). c. In the case of disobeying and dishonoring the Sabbath (vv. 15ff), Neh. reprimanded the nobles of Judah and then enacted his leadership to set boundaries that would prohibit future abuse and limit opportunities for disobedience. (19) He even threatened loiterers outside the gates and set up guards. – Neh meant business b/c he was serious about the people honoring their God. His aim was lasting reform. d. And we might consider the concluding treatment of intermarriage to be fairly harsh, b/c of calling curses on them and beating some and pulling out (probably) beard hair - OUCH. But it was pretty effective. Anyway, he made them take an oath to stop, rather than making them split up their families as had been done previously under Ezra’s watch when trying to curb this problem.  Being unequally yoked always has been and always will be a problem for true believers (vv. 26-27). IV. Follow the leader. A. Practically speaking, being faithful as a group does require wise management. We need leadership. – We can actively be both discerning followers and helpful followers. (Discerning who and how we follow, and helping hold our leaders accountable. I’m convinced that the reason for plurality of leadership of N.T. churches is for this very thing. Not simply wisdom in numbers, but also accountability.) B. Now, that does mean that at different times and in different ways, we all get to follow. – Because of our human nature (sinful inclinations of the flesh), we don’t usually jump to volunteer when asked, “Who wants to follow instead of lead? Who wants to go last instead of first?” But that sounds exactly like Christ’s description of the servant leadership he desires from us. (Leading from the back, if you will.) – The best followers make the best leaders. Those who are motivated by humble, loving service to others are the best leaders we can follow. C. So choose to follow those you can tell are always saying “Remember me” to God. Those who express in word and deed that Christ alone is their sufficiency. (see 14, 22b, 31b) Nehemiah isn’t praying expecting merit from God for his works, but rather seeking the glory of God and blessing from God on his desire to please Him. – Do you not desire God’s blessing on your efforts to obey him? Nehemiah committed himself and his deeds, again and again, into the good hands of God. V. You have to ask yourself, what caused the problem, really? The sinful inclination in our hearts. A. To that end we aim to understand ourselves and our weaknesses in light of who God is and his desire for us. In order to do that, we must remain steeped in God’s truth from His Word.  If we’re not regularly steeped in God’s truth from his Word, slowly but surely we turn our backs on our first love… and all accompanying promises, commitments, and obligations. When the church thinks it has the power to pursue God and transform itself apart from God’s Word it has completely lost its way. The same can be said for every Christian. [Matt Chandler tweet quoting Beth Moore] B. We therefore desperately need leaders who are themselves held accountable to God’s word as they boldly call us to surrender our lives to both love and truth in the will of God, which is written on our hearts as the Holy Spirit takes His Word and keeps moving forward the work of completing us in Christ Jesus. C. May we be like Nehemiah, who both trusted in and yielded to “the good hand of God.”