Lessons From the Exiles: part 4
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So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.
For the last several weeks, we have been looking at lessons from the exiles.
Jews who were forced to leave the southern kingdom of Judah because of their sinful behavior.
God had made a covenant with their ancestors.
As long as they were faithful, God would bless them and make their nation an example to the rest of the world.
If they rejected God, he would cast them out of the Promised Land.
When they repented, he would return them back to the Promised Land.
We have been looking especially at Nehemiah, a devout man whom God used to restore Jerusalem.
God took this cupbearer to the king of Persia, and made him the governor of Jerusalem.
While God had given Nehemiah favor with King Artaxerxes, there were others who did not want the Jews restored.
In this passage, Nehemiah is once again dealing with Tobiah, who is apparently a half-breed Hebrew who has gained some political power in Jerusalem. He had married a Jewish woman of an important family, and his son married into another important family. But Tobiah was threatened by Nehemiah, and he was determined to shut Nehemiah down by any way possible.
In verse 19, we learn that a great number of Jews are actually loyal to Tobiah. They kept telling Nehemiah about how wonderful Tobiah was, and at the same time they were reporting to Tobiah everything Nehemiah did.
Reading this passage, it is difficult to understand how people can align themselves to a man who has done nothing for them rather than the man who is trying so hard to restore their city and heritage.
But we see this all the time—people taking up with others that they shouldn’t.
It’s easy to see this with young people dealing with peer pressure.
They are so eager to gain the approval of others that they will throw away their principles.
When you try to warn them, they say things like, “You just don’t know them like I do.”
But young people aren’t the only ones to fall into this.
We don’t want to offend others, and in the name of “tolerance”, we end up defending someone’s sinful lifestyle.
Or else we want to remain neutral between two clashing parties, but end up helping one tear down the other.
Now, I understand trying to stay neutral when two people I care about are disagreeing. But I also have had to take a stand when I saw one person determined to somehow damage the other person.
We can relate this passage to our personal lives.
The book of Proverbs warns us about following those who only care about satisfying their own desires.
my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
The people who love this world are on a path to destruction.
Their ways are contrary to the Word of God.
When someone is in sin, and is determined to stay that way, we cannot make excuses for their actions.
We are tempted to turn a blind eye, because they are a close friend or family member.
We fail to be a proper witness to them out of fear of offending them.
We overlook the sins of our favorite celebrity, pointing out all their positive qualities.
We see what we want to see.
Remember the televangelist scandals of the late 90s and early 2000s?
Great men of God fell into sin because nobody was willing to hold them accountable.
And even after their sin became public knowledge, many still defended them because they were such great preachers.
As the Church, we also need to be careful.
While all these Jews were loyal to Tobiah, the fact is that Tobiah did not really want to see Jerusalem restored.
He secretly hated the Jews. He wanted power over them.
When Nehemiah showed up, Tobiah and his friends did their best to hinder him.
They even plotted to kill Nehemiah.
God wants to build this church up, just like he restored Jerusalem.
But Satan does not want that to happen.
About a year ago, a woman started attending an AG church Zenetta and I are acquainted with.
She came across as very spiritual—she bragged about having Jewish heritage and was more than eager to educate the rest of the church with her “Jewish” perspective on spiritual things.
The more she got involved, the more some people began to notice things that weren’t quite right.
She was eager to be a leader, but a lot of what she said didn’t line up with scripture.
But the ones who noticed didn’t want to “speak out of turn.”
Some of these were friends of ours. While they shared their concerns with us, they didn’t want to confront this woman or say negative things about her to the rest of the church.
It took a lot of counseling from us to get them to even talk to the pastor about it.
But even the pastor has been reluctant to directly address her.
In the meantime, one of the strongest prayer warriors in that church has become a close friend of this woman, and she is completely spellbound by this woman’s pseudo-spirituality.
We learned that this prayer warrior is going with this woman to a special retreat to learn about “spiritual cleansing,” which is all New Age mysticism and occultism.
And this prayer warrior has become blind, quick to defend any criticism that arises about her good friend without weighing the validity of their criticism.
As individuals, we need to be careful about who we are making our heroes and role models.
If we are not careful, we will end up becoming just like that person we are defending.
We need to be vigilant, about what is going on around us spiritually.
Satan will even use friends to sew discord in our church and hinder our growth.
I am NOT saying to distrust your friends; neither am I accusing anyone of intentionally trying to hinder this church.
I am saying that Satan is a master manipulator, and he can even turn God-fearing believers against each other if we aren’t careful.
And just as Satan came into the garden as a serpent, he continues to send agents into infiltrate Christian communities and, when possible, bring confusion and division.
So how can we protect ourselves against these things?
First, we need to clearly know who God is, and who we are in him.
Nehemiah knew God.
He knew God’s covenant with Abraham.
And he understood what that covenant meant for him and his people.
That covenant gave him clear guidelines for who he was meant to be and how he was supposed to live his life.
He knew that God’s desire was to bring his people back to himself and restore the nation of Israel.
Because he understood God’s will and his role in fulfilling that will, Nehemiah could clearly identify those who were enemies of God.
Nehemiah would not entertain anything or anyone who would hinder God’s will to restore Jerusalem.
Second, we need to use discernment in our relationships.
Are our relationships helping us grow closer to God, or do they distract us from knowing God better?
Even in dealing with others in the church, we need to be looking at the character of others.
Are they more about building up the church and others, or are they more interested in promoting themselves?
The serpents that Satan sends into the fellowship are good at appealing to the egos of others.
At the same time, like the woman I mentioned earlier, they are quick to give their opinions on everything going on in the church with an air of authority.
Remember King David’s son Absolom, who came to hate his father and decided to take the throne for himself?
He started going into the city to hear the complaints of the people.
He would criticize his father in front of the people, getting them to sympathize with him and distrust David.
He flattered the military leaders and convinced them to side with him against David.
Some of David’s most loyal men were seduced by Absolom’s charm.
And just because someone seems very religious does not mean that they are in tune with God’s will.
Jesus spoke against the Pharisees
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
The very men who were supposed to be leading their people in godly living were instead leading their people in empty religious practices and turning their people away from God.
These religious leaders had become so corrupt that they could not recognize the Messiah they claimed to be waiting for, and instead plotted to have Jesus killed!
Even the Apostle Peter fell into heresy for a short time.
This man who had followed Jesus allowed himself to be convinced by others that gentiles could not be saved unless they got circumcised and became Jews.
It took the Apostle Paul to confront him and set him straight.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
If someone like Peter, who knew Jesus and was the very first Pentecostal evangelist, could be led astray by clever arguments and strong personalities, how much more should we be on guard.
God wants this church to grow. Satan wants to kill it.
Satan will do everything he can to divide us and intimidate us.
We need to use discernment when people talk about this church—even if they are people within this church.
Is the talk helpful or demeaning?
Is the language about building up each other or winning you over to a point of view?
Is there an effort to bring some new “revelation” into the church that does not line up with Scripture?
Is it about serving God and this body of believers, or about asserting control?
If there is any reason to doubt the actions or words of someone, we can’t just turn a bind eye.
If you see me doing something or hear me preaching something that does not line up with Scripture, you need to come to me.
As an Assemblies of God minister, I am accountable to the leadership of the AG in matter of doctrine and ethics.
As your pastor, I am accountable to you to give correct teaching and foster real spiritual growth in your lives.
It doesn’t matter how nice you think I am—don’t let your loyalty to me cause you to overlook or defend me if I am not living in complete obedience to God.
And if you know someone who has some sort of grudge against this church or me, I urge you to use discernment.
I am open for discussion, but if they more interested in promoting their own agenda or tearing me or someone else in the church down than in doing what is best for this church, you need to get away from them.
There will always be people with differing viewpoints, but we must guard against those who would be enemies of this church and of God.
We must be diligent to recognize those who would pose as a believer but lead us to sin.
We must stand against those who would have us use the world’s methods to prosper rather than living in obedience to God.
And we must make sure that our loyalties are first and foremost to God over any human being.
God is building this church.
Let’s shake off anything that would hinder us from fulfilling what God has called us to do!