Nehemiah 13
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Good morning, its good to see everyone this morning, well we have made it! We will be finishing up our study on the book of Nehemiah this morning, so turn with me in your Bibles to .
If you remember last week we see the people coming together and they are marching on top of the wall that they built together and they are singing praises to God and thanking God for what He has done.
It’s been a long journey but through God doing a work through King Artazerxes heart the king allows the Jews to go back home and rebuild their city.
They begin this massive rebuilding project, they rebuild the wall which rebuilt the city, but the goal of all of that was to rebuild the people so that they could bring God glory in the way that He wanted glory brought to Him through His people and so they dedicate the wall and its this huge celebration, and even in chapter 10 they sign a covenant together which is really a promise they make together with God and they say, now that we have read our Bible and we understand where we went astray, and how God disciplined us, since God does not bless disobedience and that’s where these people have been for years and they say its time for discipline.
God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians one after another rolled across the nation of Israel and they found themselves scattered and enslaved. Until, God moves on the heart of the Persian King and they return and begin to rebuild, the Temple is there they are worshipping God once again.
God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians one after another rolled across the nation of Israel and they found themselves scattered and enslaved. Until, God moves on the heart of the Persian King and they return and begin to rebuild, the Temple is there they are worshipping God once again.
They commit themselves to God, thats where we want the story to end, but it doesn’t.
There is chapter 13 to deal with.
Just because you start well, that is no gurantee that your going to finish well. So in chapter 13 we find the people of GOd in that old familiar place of disobedience and rebelliousness.
Whats crazy is their disobedience is in the same area that just a few short chapters ago they promised before God that they would never do. They are right back in it. Its this cycle of sin, repent, sin,repent,sin repent.
So we come to 13 and it doesn’t end well and the book just ends. you kinda scratch your head and you go wow um ok… theres a sense in which the Bible is written in a sobering way.
Because this is really how to Christian life is, it is mountain top highs and valley lows, sin, repent, sin, repent.
God knew that we need a once for all provider, for our sins atonement. That is why Jesus the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came and humbled Himself unto death even death on a cross.
Jesus would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey years later but He could only do that because the city was rebuilt by these people.
As he rides in on that first Palm Sunday there were people who waved palm branches and shouted Hosanna, Hosanna, but those were also the same people who just a few short days later would be shouting CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!!
Because Jesus as He often did, did not meet the expectations of the people around Him, not because He couldn’t meet their expectations but rather because their expectations of Him were wrong.
So here they are in 450 years before the times of Jesus. We read this
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 enter the assembly of God,
Why?
for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
So this story is told in Numbers and heres what happens. The Israelites when they were under the judgment of God and they were wandering around in captivity, they encounter these people groups the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Israelites were struggling, but rather than helping them giving them water giving them food, the Moabite king hires this guy named Baalam who is a prophet and he says, I am gonna give you some money, but I need you to speak a curse against the Israelites.
It was believed that if a prophet spoke a curse then it would come true, the problem came whenever God took control of Balaams mouth, and so everytime Balaam would speak it ended up being a blessing for the Israelites.
So they realize this is not working, Balaam realizes its not working so he gets crafty and he says, if you really wanna bring a curse on the Israelites, get your prostitutes and have them intermingle with the Israelites and they will seduce them and in doing so they will bring the curse of God upon themselves.
So God tells the Israelites were not going to have anymore dealings with them, were just not going down that road again, Were gonna separate ourselves from them.
As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
So they listened they act on it.
Now you have heard me say before, there are two people in the world… there are those who place themselves under the word of God. Then there are those who place themselves above the Word of God.
all humans can be divided into those 2 categories.
The ones who hear Gods word and realize they are in disobedience and they will say I need to repent and change.
Then there are those who really do not care what the word of the Lord says they say God will not tell me what to do.
Heres the thing, Gods word is unchangeable, Gods word is immovable.
There was once a US Navy Captain it was a very dark night no moon, all you could see is thousands and thousands of stars in the sky, He is commanding His battleship across the sea, Heavy fog begins to set in.
Way across the water the navigator spots a light, and he tells the Captain, Captain weve got a ship out there and were on a collision course what do you wanna do?
Captain says “radio the ship and tell them to change course 20 degrees” So the Navigator radios “Change course 20 degrees and avoid collision”
Message comes back “Change course 20 degrees avoid collision”
Captain is a little baffled by this why is he being told change course 20 degrees when He has just told the other vessel to change course 20 degrees.
So he sends this:
“I am a Captain in the US Navy change course 20 degrees”
a response comes back:
“I am a petty officer in the Us Navy change course 20 degrees”
Well now the Captain is upset and angry he says tell them this:
“I am a captain in the US Navy commanding a battleship change course 20 degrees”
reply comes back:
“I am a lighthouse, change course 20 degrees”
The Battleship changed course.
The Bible is the lighthouse, the Bible is that anchor, the Bible is that north star it is in authority over humanity, it is Gods manual, It is Gods love letter of all creation.
All the things God created only humans are created in Gods image and because He cares about us He has given us a lighthouse. That is, the Bible.
These people recognize it and they say this is what we will do on that day.
Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah,
“Now BEFORE THIS” Refers to Nehemiah’s leaving Jerusalem. If you remember in the earlier chapters King Artaxerxes, he loved Nehemiah, he says you can go back you can lead the rebuilding project, I’ll make you governor, but I want you back when are you coming back?
Well its time for Nehemiah to go back to Babylon, he has been governor in Jerusalem. He has been gone by most scholars estimate about 10-12 years He has been gone awhile.
But before he returns, Eliashib the priest who was kinda the head dawg of religious life, who was related to Tobiah, now that name should sound familiar because all the way back in chapter we were introduced to this guys he was the guy who mocked belittled and ridiculed the Israelites when they began rebuilding the wall.
Remember he was the guy who said look at that wall, what a piece of junk that is if a fox jumps on that wall it will crumble.
He was the one who strongly opposed Nehemiah.
The other thing you gotta know about Tobiah is that he is an ammonite. Uh what?
He is an Ammonite, now what did we just read? God told them to distance themselves from the Ammonites they are not out to do us any favors separate yourselves from them they are out to bring us down.
Eliashib who is related to Tobiah probably by marriage this is what He does for Tobiah.
prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
Let me tel you whats going on, the High Priest because of his association with Tobiah He clears out these chambers inside the Temple which were used to store the grains and frankicense all the things which were used in the worship of God....
The high preist clears it out and he lets Tobiah the Ammonite move into the Temple.
He does all this while Nehemiah is gone, now why does he do this?
One of the first thing that erodes and deteriorates when we become spiritually apathetic is our relationships with others. Spiritual apathy leads to WRONG RELATIONSHIPS.
It really does think about your own life, how many times have you ended up spiritually in a bad place, and it all began with the group you were hanging out with?
This aint just for teenagers this for human beings in general, you become who you surround yourself with. Surround yourself with whiners and you will become a whiner,surround yourself with people who complain, you will become a complainer, surround yourself with drinkers and before too long you will be tempted to drink.
Surround yourself with Godly people trying to live for God and watch your spiritual life take off!
When I am out of sink with God my relationships suffer, the relationship with my wife, with my kids, I tend to be less forgiving, less giving. But when my relationship with God is right, when Jesus is the center of my life everything else flows from that.
When I remember what God has done for me through Jesus Christ His Son the grace mercy passion and forgiveness that has been extended to me, I am so motivated to extend that to others around me thats what makes relationships healthy.
But if you choose to live your life so as to be out of sink with what God’s word says to you… one of the first things that suffers is relationships.
It starts with right relationship with God and everything flows from there.
Nehemiah aint gonna be happy with this
While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king
and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
We need more people like this, he has a righteous anger over someone who is living in disobedience to God and His word. He has a righteous anger for what has been done.
And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
Nehemiah says I have seen this before, when we start acting like this God’s hand of blessing is gonna be pulled away from us, we gotta make this right.
Theres another problem
I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field.
Why?
Because the people stopped giving their money and supporting.
So what happened was the spiritual leaders the Levites were living in the house of the Lord were like has anyone eaten? They were like no no one gave, and someone said well is anyone hungry?
I am starving like to death, well what is in the storehouse, nothing, We gotta go back to our feilds and feed ourselves now.
Another thing that happens when we become spiritually apathetic… we become greedy.
I seriously doubt the people thought that the people said we really dont like the leaders, were not gonna support them, were not gonna help them I dont think thats what they thought at all.
More often it happens like this...
We take what resources we have and we use it on ourselves, and then if we have something left over then we will give generously to God.
It is the leftover mentality
True story about missionaries who recieved a small package, and whenever your on a mission field your always eager to open things that are sent to you from the states and so they open it up and it was a collection of those little bags of tea and they were used.
Some American had used the tea, and said you know what I’ll do?
I’ll send these used items over to the missionaries.
They probably felt good about doing it, but it is this leftover mentality that is killing many Christians.
When we give to God the Bible says we are to give of our firstfruits, do you know what that means?
It is the firstfruits of the season, why the first? Because it is a vivid way of reminding you that this all comes from God. Everything we have comes from the Lord.
So were gonna give it back to the Lord.
There is a very interesting take on this from the apsotle Paul, He says that God has given bread for food and seed for sowing. The seed that is given is so that a harvest of righteousness can be produced through your generosity and through our giving others will thank God for your generosity, heres the problem we take the bread God gives us and we consume it.
Then we take the seed God gives us and we use it to grow more bread and we stuff our faces with more bread, and God says no thats not why I gave it to you, I gave it to you for you to be a blessing to others with it.
This spiritual apathy has lead to greed
So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
Nehemiah 13:
Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers.
Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.
Time and time again you see him praying these little prayers and he really does have a strong desire to be pleasing to God thats why you see him praying these prayers.
Nehemiah 13:
He is courageous in that way.
Put it in our context as a way of thinking through being good stewards of what God has given to us, I want you to picture yourself throwing a party, and your guest of honor is Jesus.
Now Jesus shows up at this party and theres a BIG plate of food and so you pick up this plate of food and you pass it to Jesus and He is a gentleman and he doesnt take from it, He is going to wait until everyone has had something.
So everyone takes from it and on and on.
By the time it gets around to Jesus, the plate looks empty there’s no food left, and to your horror there is no food left and your like oh my gosh what am I going to do?
Jesus has nothing to eat!
Ok I do have food, hey Jesus I have some leftover spaghetti in the refirgerator if you’ll wait just a few minutes Ill nuke it real quick and then at least you will have something to eat.
We would never do that!
If Jesus was the guest at our party He gets to eat first, because more to the point HE BROUGHT THE FOOD!
Yet alot of time we get this leftover mentality and its not just with money its with our time, its with our talents.
Let the words of Jesus ring in your ears.
I wann get better at this myself.
STORE UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN AND THEY WONT BE DESTROYED
The only thing you and i get to keep in this life is the things we give away!
Think about that
but its hard because we have this tendency to be self absorbed and this is what spiritual apathy feeds.
One more problem to deal with
Nehemiah 13:
In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food.
Nehemiah 13:
Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself!
Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
These were the rich business men of the day, now one of the things that happened as they read the word of the Lord together and they stood within the city walls and said Ezra read to us from our Bible..
Oh wait a minute theres a part in there that says were supposed to keep the Sabbaths think sun down Saturday night to Sunday night. THIS IS A WORD TO THE WORK AHOLICS God says I am not going to let you be like that.
All you workaholics out there God is not pleased with you not getting rest.
Yes you have responsibilities but at the same time some people work and they work and they work, and they wear themselves out. But they never get the results they are looking for.
BECAUSE UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE THOSE WHO LABOR LABOR IN VAIN!
1 out of every 7 days should be a day of rest and reflection on the Lord.
Thats a commandment God COMMANDS IT BECAUSE HE CARES ABOUT YOU
I DONT WANT YOU TO BE A WORKAHOLIC, TAKE 1 DAY TO REST AND REMEMBER ME
We are not very good at resting and we are not very good at rememebering.
Now the question should be asked is it important for us to take a Sabbath today?
When Jesus was with his disciples He explained very clearly that we are not under the Old Covenant. He said I am doing something new.
Someone could argue from Colossians let no man judge you according to the Sabbath Day.
Having said that let me say this, it is a really good idea and we would do well to take a day to rest and speand quality time with our families.
There ought to be one day where we talk to our families about what god is doing in our lives.
Where we rest from labor and enjoy quality time with those we love
Spiritual apathy will just lead to busyness and busyness will cause you to forget God. Thats exactly what these people are doing.
Isn’t crazy after everything God has done for them they get spiritually lazy.
Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day.
Nehemiah
Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.
But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.
Nehemiah carried Godly authority
Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
Remember Nehemiahs main concern is not to please men.
IF YOU FEAR MAN YOU WILL FEAR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING BUT IF YOU FEAR GOD YOUR NOT GOING TO FEAR ANYTHING ON THIS PLANET.
Nehemiah sees more challenges there are people who are coming into the camp, Nehemiah gets physical with them. Slaps em around roughs em up a little bit.
You say thats a little harsh but listen he understands the discipline of God is what they want to avoid, so if he has to step in and send a very strong message for their benefit it is the loving thing to do to spare them from Gods discipline.
I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair. I forced them to take an oath before God and said: “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves!
In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
Nehemiah 13:2
Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;
So I purified them from everything foreign and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.
Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin.
and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits.
Remember me, O my God, for good.
