How Quickly They Forget
Notes
Transcript
Just a few weeks ago we celebrated Memorial Day, a day to remember the fallen soldiers as well as the POW/MIAs that have not returned home. I saw, among various displays and signs, a phrase that is often spoken in this area of life:
We Will Not Forget
We humans have a hard time with forgetting - we forget the blessings that God has given us. We forget the lessons we’ve “learned” the hard way. We forget about little tricks to make certain jobs easier. We are bad about forgetting.
That’s why we need days like Memorial Day - to remind us of things that we are prone to forget.
That’s also why God has gone through so much trouble to reveal himself to us through the Bible - we need a written record to remind us of those things that matter most. We need to have something to jog our memories, to reignite in us the flame of God’s gifts, to bring afresh into our eyes the divine perspective on life. We must not ever forget God’s goodness, nor his expectations of us.
This morning, I want us to consider our own forgetfulness - perhaps a better name for this sermon is “How Quickly We Forget.” More than just forgetting some information, we often forget God’s wisdom in how we live, and that memory loss causes so many issues.
In Nehemiah 12, you have what seems to be a perfect ending to the story. The wall is built, and at the dedication there is great joy in the city. It seems like a great place to end the story with “…and they lived happily ever after. The end.”
But God’s Word only has one happy ending - and Nehemiah 13 ain’t it. Most of chapter 13 happens some time after 433 B.C. After serving as governor of Jerusalem for twelve years, Nehemiah goes back to the king. Then he ends up coming back because the people have forgotten their promises.
Back in chapter ten, we find several promises made by the people. The people would provide for the temple and the Levites who served there. They promised to bring all kinds of supplies and tithes and offerings to God (cf. Neh 10:32-39). Then look at the summary at the end:
39 For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”
But fast forward to chapter 13, and how quickly they have forgotten their promise:
10 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.
Not only were the portions not given to the Levites, but they were clearing out storage areas for enemies of Israel:
4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah,
5 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.
So the people have become so lax that the high priest has cleared out storage room (they weren’t really using it anyway) to house Tobiah. What a minute: we know this Tobiah, don’t we...
10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
As soon as Nehemiah begins to do his work in Jerusalem, Tobiah is already opposing him. And now, when Nehemiah returns to Susa, the high priest just lets him live in the temple. This is wrong in two ways: first, he is an enemy of Israel. Second, he is an Ammonite: he forbidden from entering the community of Israel at all, (cf. Deut. 23:3-6) not to mention living in the Temple!
The Israelites also made promises about the Sabbath:
31 And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.
In other words, they would remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. They would not buy on the Sabbath, nor would they harvest in the seventh year - giving the land its rest, too. They would also forgive debts every seventh year, something that was also commanded by God.
Then they forgot those promises, too:
15 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.
16 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!
Rather than remembering the Sabbath and maintaining the sanctity of that day, the Israelites were working - making wine and harvesting grain. Other peoples were breaking the Sabbath laws, too. What was commanded to be a unique feature of Israelite life was discarded as though it meant nothing.
Speaking of discarding cultural uniqueness, they were also slowly losing their cultural identity through mixed marriages with other ethnic groups:
23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.
Not only were they going lax on the Laws that made Israel unique, they were going lax on their cultural heritage as God’s chosen nation. There were marrying into other nations, and the kids were losing their native language.
A side note about this is warranted here: how we talk shapes how we think. In English, we have ways of talking that shape our thinking into a certain pattern. We speak of things in a mixture of poetic and direct prose that reflect a western way of thinking. We recognize patterns like the number in a noun/verb by context, while other languages use various forms to make the distinction. We always put the subject before the verb, for the one doing the action is stressed even above their action. The list goes on.
So the danger in the kids speaking foreign languages is their thinking being shaped by foreign cultures that had no good concept of God or his holy demands on humans. The next generation was losing their heritage.
It was so bad:
28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me.
Yes: that Sanballat: the one that was in league with Tobiah and Geshem to thwart the building efforts.
All of these problems show us something about human nature:
Our Sinfulness Will Not Quit...
Our Sinfulness Will Not Quit...
No matter how great our leaders might be, and no matter how many efforts at reformation we make, we will still carry our sinful nature with us. And that sinful nature will stop at nothing to drag us down.
You see, even though I believe the people really were trying to follow God in the prior chapters, by the time we get to chapter 13, they have stopped fighting for the things of God.
It’s too hard to continue to fight your own desires, and it’s even harder when there are so many close contacts with enemies of God all around you. Being a chosen nation and remaining unique among the nations was a task too hard for Israel.
Our sinfulness will not quit - it is always seeking a foothold and will not stop until it re-establishes its dominion over you.
...So Our Holiness Must Not Quit Either
...So Our Holiness Must Not Quit Either
Nehemiah’s reaction to each of these situations is telling. After discovering what Eliashib had done in clearing out space for Tobiah to live in the Temple, notice what Nehemiah does:
8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
9 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.
Kind of reminds you of Jesus clearing out the Temple in his day, doesn’t it? It should. Both Nehemiah and Jesus saw that the Temple was being defiled, and both sought to directly confront and remedy the situation. Sometimes, holiness requires a direct and proportionate response to sin. Our sinfulness doesn’t quit, so our holiness must not quit either.
And what about those portions the people stopped giving?
11 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.
12 Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
13 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.
14 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.
In this case, he brings a court case against the officials of the town. Then he puts people back in their spots. He puts good, trustworthy men in charge of making sure the house of God will not be forsaken again. That restoration wasn’t like the response earlier to Tobiah’s apartment in the Temple - this one required restoring public confidence and public support for the Temple work. So he did what was needed to get the Temple in proper order. Sometimes holiness is simply doing what’s right. Our sinfulness doesn’t quit, so our holiness must not quit either.
Nehemiah also had to address the Sabbath problem. This one required a two-pronged attack:
17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
18 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.”
Notice how he calls out the leaders - the nobles. He reminds them that this issue is what caused the exile and difficulties they’ve been trying to overcome. He calls them to remember - DON’T FORGET! Don’t forget that our fathers did this, and then God brought disaster. Then he rectified the situation:
19 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.
20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.
21 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.
22 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.
He simply shut the gates before sundown - the beginning of the Sabbath was Friday at sundown. He didn’t even let them come into the city. Then, he warned the ones sitting outside the wall not to stay there. Nehemiah put a giant “No Loitering” sign on the gates and locked them up.
Then, he commanded the Levites to guard the gates on the Sabbath. Just as the Levites stood for the Lord when Moses came down the mountain and found Israel worshiping a freshly-poured golden calf (cf. Ex 32, especially 25ff.), so the Levites were to stand guard to keep the Sabbath holy before God.
Then came the issue of intermarriages. Nehemiah dealt with those too - with a less-than-conventional approach:
25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.
27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
Once again, Nehemiah is direct. He doesn’t just challenge them: he punishes them. Granted, this might not be the most effective way in most cases, but it’s the method needed here - because the problem when all the way up the religious ladder:
28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me.
29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;
31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Sometimes holiness takes decisive action. Sometimes it is working slowly and deliberately. Sometimes it is bold and active to persuade, sometimes it is more diplomatic to engage. But always, always, God’s holiness in us must be persistent. We must persist in actively being holy and in bringing that holiness to bear fruit in our lives. We have a sinful nature that does not quit, and so we need a holiness that does not quit either.
But where is this holiness found? It certainly doesn’t come from within me or you: we are not capable of being completely and constantly good. Holiness is both the command of God, and the provision of God:
26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
Holiness is God’s work in us - and it takes a work of God to produce the character we need to overcome our sinfulness. Let us never forget that truth.
Transition to Invitation