Be Strengthened in Doing Good for the Lord!

Recap:

Living as Exile for our Faithful God:

Highlighting God’s providence and faithfulness to his covenant people

FIRST WAVE: Jewish exiles return under Zerrubabbel 539 BC

Temple foundation is laid 537 BC

Temple work resumes after stoppage 520 BC

Temple work completed 516 BC

Events of Esther Occurs

SECOND WAVE: Jewish exiles return under Ezra 458 BC

THIRD WAVE: Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to rebuild walls 445 BC

Book of Malachi is written

Nehemiah returns again to reform the people 433 BC

Nehemiah pleads with God for mercy as he continues faithfully to bring about change among the disobedient Jews. The idea seems to be the plea for Nehemiah for God to strengthen him as he struggles to grow weary in doing good.

Unholy offenses against God

Unholy Dwelling 4-9

Eliashib was the High Priest while Nehemiah returned to the Persian capital. While away, the Jews returned to their lifestyle of sinfulness, starting with their leadership. Eliashib made unholy alliances with the enemies of the Jews, Tobiah and the Ammonites.

The Ammonites were enemies of Israel since the days of Abraham and Lot. Lots daughters engaged in unholy sin and from their sin spawned the nations of Amon and Moab. Since then, these were the sworn opponents to YHWH and his people. Moab and Ammon were not kind to Israel as they journeyed towards the promised land in Caanan. Instead of providing assistance to them, they sent a seer to utter a curse against the nation.

In Deuteronomy 23, the Lord through Moses forbid Israel from seeking friendship or peaceful partnership with the people including their participation in the worship of YHWH. They were the only two nations of people who were not allowed to worship the Lord. Theirs opposition and evil influence was so great the Lord called for separation from them.

During Nehemiah’s rebuilding efforts, these enemies were visible again in the person of Tobiah, the Ammonite. It is assumed he was ruler over Ammon and he felt threatened by the Jews re-establishing the land. He discouraged the rebuilding efforts, tried to discredit Nehemiah as a leader and eventually set out to harm him.

After the walls were completed, Nehemiah returned to Susa, the capitol of Persia. During his time away from Jerusalem, Eliashib, the High Priest made alliances with the Tobiah the Ammonite. Those alliances led Eliashib to prepare a place for Tobiah to lodge in one of the chamber rooms in the temple courts. These rooms were reserved for the servants of the temple and for collection of tithes. Tobiah, the opponent to the settlement of the Jews and the Ammonite enemy of the nation of Israel was now living in a room in the temple area.

APPLICATION: God’s servants cannot create and indulge in alliance with the enemies of God. We cannot and we should not for it brings the judgement of God upon the church. The church is guilty of partnerships with worldly ideologies, worldly entertainments and worldly people to grace the pulpits where the word of God should remain central.

Podcast: First Baptist Orlando hosted the funeral serves of the victims of the Homosexual night club shooting in 2016. During that service, one of the speakers in that pulpit made the blasphemous connection that homosexual people were the “people possessed by God” of 1 Peter 2. Reading from 1 Peter 2:9 in the KJV, Pastor Mills cited that those who are the“chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation and peculiar people” are the people of Orlando who led love triumph differences. He goes on to relate the “chief cornerstone” in that passage as the LGBTQ community. This so called pastor, has filleted the word of God down the middle, open both side and inserted a side of Satan’s worldy and evil schemes. This is how the church partners with the world.

For correction, the poor translation of 1 Peter 2:9 in the KJV is part of the problem here, for the better translation is that God’s chosen people are HIS POSSESSION. Those possessed people are not the sinful, evil-practicing homosexuals who deny Christ and his word. That verse refers to people who have put their trust alone in the true chief cornerstone, who is Christ, who submit themselves fully to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and who repent of the sins that dishonor him.

Friends, don’t live like Eliashib...for as Paul says in 2 Cor 6:14-15

Unholy Neglect 10-13

Numbers 18:8-21 the Lord had promised Aaron that those who served the temple would benefit from the contributions to the temple. The food that was sacrificed on the altar and the gifts given was divided up so that the Priests and levites would receive their portion. In Nehemiah’s absence, Eliashib leadership failed once again and the portions for the Levites and singers were kept from them. This led to the abandonment of the service at the temple by the Levites and singers so they had to return to their homes to find food to eat.

What appears to be an unholy neglect and greed on behalf of the leaders of Jerusalem is disobedience towards God and a lack of care for one’s neighbor. What God had promised those who served the Jews in worship were being neglected in such a way that made these Levites scatter in order to survive.

Application: Lack of care for its leaders

Unholy Rest 15-21

A few weeks ago we looked at how a violation of the Sabbath law was not a law to be a great burden on the Jews. Instead, it was a law that lead to faith in the Lord. Since commerce never takes a day off, when the Jews stopped working on the Sabbath, they had to trust that the Lord would provide for their needs with one days wages now missing from their pockets. The temptations to work were always present since Jersualem sat as a thoroughfare of travelers looking to peddle their goods. Nehemiah discovers on his return that the Jews choose not to resist the temptation to work on the Sabbath. Traders have once again found a marketplace everyday of the week to sell their goods and the Jews themselves were found violating the Sabbath and working on that holy day, instead of trusting the Lord is good.

APPLICATION: Trusting in the Lord’s provision or making your own way

Unholy Marriage 23-27

We spent a considerable amount of time looking at how and why the Lord forbid the Jews to intermarry with foreigners. The law warned the Jews of the dangers of intermarriage being a lack of love for the Lord as the one true God. The third offense in vv. 23-27 that it is discovered the intermarriage of Jews to those from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

Ashdod was one of the principal cities of the Philistines, another opponent of Israel during their OT times. You will remember how the Philistines took the ark of Israel in their victory in battle that was recorded in 1 Samuel 5 and they placed it in the temple of the false god Dagon. The power of God proved mighty over the Philistines as Dagon’s statue was broken into pieces and the people were given tumors. After moving around the ark to other cities they eventually returned it to Israel.

Nehemiah discovered upon returning that once again the Jews had married into other cultures which led to the idolatry of false gods. It is recorded that that this disobedience of the Lord was so widely practiced that half of the children of the Jews spoke the language of Ashdod and they could not speak the language of Judah. In verse 28, we see that disobedience was even part of the spiritual leadership of Israel. Eliashib, the High Priest, grandson, married the daughter of Sanballat, the Horonite. Sanballat was another of the major opponents to the Jews re-settling the land. This grandson of the High Priest not only violated the commands of God by marrying a woman of another culture, but he married into the enemies of the resettlement of Jerusalem.

Consider how easy it is to let the culture graft itself to the God’s people. It like running into a large spiders web and trying to rid yourself of it. It is easier for the web to be spun than it is to be removed from that which it doesn’t belong.

Faithful Acts for God

Faithful acts require confrontation

Each of these offenses were discovered and confronted by Nehemiah. His expediency to return to Jerusalem and confront these offenses is clearly displayed. Notice that in verse 11,17, and 25 the term “confronted” is used. Different translations use different terms to convey the same meaning such as reprimand, contend, rebuke and confront. The point is that Nehemiah was willing to enter into a verbal battle to contend for the truth of God in the lives of these Jews who just re-committed themselves to live as faithful covenant keepers.

How quickly does the human heart slip into sin? It is a necessary thing for those who claim the name of Christ to consistently evaluate their hearts to see if they have sunken again into the mire of sinfulness. You may not be overwhelmed with sin covering your head, and you are enslaved to it anymore because of Christ and yet, you can find it sticking to you, slowing you down and causing you to look to self and not Christ.

How necessary is it for the servants of the Lord to confront sin in themselves and with those whom they know, love, and serve. Loving someone is speaking truth of God’s word to them without fear. If their actions are offended by God’s word then his work is accomplished. If we live sheepishly and mute when we see noticeable sin in the hearts of our loved ones and friends, then we truly don’t love them if we remain silent. Nehemiah, loving his neighbor and fellow Jew, went to them and confronted the people.

Galatians 6:1 ESV

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Spurgeon comments on this passage:

Galatians Exposition

When a brother falls into sin, it is too often the habit to push him down—to cast him out and forget him. But spiritually minded persons must not do so. We must seek the restoration of the brother. Is there not more joy over the sheep that was lost than those that did not go astray? Do we not have the best reason to deal tenderly with wanderers, since we might need the same generous offices for ourselves?

Nehemiah then displays a consistent faithfulness, one that he learned from the Lord’s faithfulness with the Jews in spite of their sin. He was consistent to confront in every situation.

Confrontation means that we as followers of Jesus committed to the word of the Lord being the north star of our lives on this earth. Everything should be aligned with it and when something is off course with the vessels of our loved ones, we must cry out! If you and I want to be faithful to Christ, then we must be willing to approach the person in love and expose the sin! We must not apologize for how offended they might be for the gospel offends the sin of the human heart. We must not be afraid for the Lord has prepared us for the task. We must take credit for the confrontation because the law of the Lord judges their hearts. We didn’t write it.

Faithful acts require change

There needed to be change in these scenarios of sin and Nehemiah was suited for the task.

With the unholy dwelling of Tobiah, Nehemiah leads the people to see that sin cannot be tolerate. He enters the chambers and he aggressively removes the furniture, tosses it to the metaphorical street and then cleanses the space that became unholy with the dust of the foreigner. The work of the Lord through Nehemiah is concluded when Nehemiah restores the vessels of the chamber back to where they previously were held.

With the confrontation over the neglected Levites in v 11, we can see how Nehemiah brought change to disobedience. He asks, “why is the house of God forsaken?” Then he moves to bring change by receiving tithes from Judah, storing it in its proper places and then assigning proper leadership to oversee the distribution. Those treasurers by the names of Shelemiah, Zadok, Pedaiah, and Hanan were considered men to be trusted by Nehemiah’s judgment.

With the issues of the Sabbath, Nehemiah responds with action as well. We read in vv. 15-22 how the governor first called attention to the sin. Then after calling attention to the present offense, he reminds the people of the past sins that brought about devastating consequences. Then he called guards to be re-established at the gates and commanded the doors be closed to stop traders from coming in. Even as these tradesman lurked around outside the city, Nehemiah had them run off which cemented the Sabbath as a day of rest again.

Finally we come to the final acts of Nehemiah. They are the most controversial but I have a feeling we can relate to Nehemiah more than we might acknowledge. Nehemiah acts once more against the sins of the Jews by confronting about the intermarrying of foreign women. Throughout the history of the Israel as a nation among many nations, intermarrying and falling into idolatry was the repetitive theme of the Jewish people.

His confrontation and actions are controversial because he acts violently against them. Scripture tells us that he cursed them, beat some of them, and pulled out their hair. In one sense, this was not a good look for Nehemiah as a leader and we don’t condone violence on others. But in another sense, fighting against sin does this to a person. If you don’t pull out your own hair in frustration, you might pull out those immersed in sin. This reads more like a Three Stooges episode instead of the actions of a man of God.

But Nehemiah was seeking to shame the people in such a way to see their sin as monstrous. Pull out their hair most likely went the beards of men. The beard of Jewish men was a sense of pride. With shame and remorse, many would repent by sitting in sackcloth and ashes, and pull out their beard in shame. The pain reflected the shadow of God’s judgment.

Isaiah 50:6 ESV

6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Nehemiah’s beating and pulling out the beard was an act of looking forward to the pain and suffering that God points to God’s holy wrath against sin. You may not go around pulling out people’s beards but you do spank your young children out of obedience to the Lord. Again, that pain reflects the judgment of God against sin!

Nehemiah’s action concluded with making the people take an oath to keep their marriage holy and pure within the nation of Israel so that hearts would not be led astray to worship the false Gods of the nations. Nehemiah reminds them with that oath how even their own great King Solomon led the nation to ruin with his failure to keep his marriage pure. (26)

When we as God’s people seek to act in faithfulness and righteous deeds, our confrontation needs to progress to change. When we fight against the sin in this world, our only step of action cannot be declaring something as wrong in the eyes of God. We must move beyond this to initiate change. For example, if we see people in sin and we confront them, then we need to move towards action to help them beyond your our honest confrontation. Walk with them through their struggles, praying with them, memorizing Scripture to fight against it, spending time as accountability. It is not enough to just say…that is wrong.

If you want to fight against major issues in the church, like abortion or care for orphans, it is not enough to just clarify the need for adoptive parents, or the need for abortion to stop because of God’s word states. You must move forward to fight in that cause with your financial support, your volunteer time picketing abortion clinics, serving at homeless shelters, opening your home for foster care relief. These are just examples were the people of God must be people of action who fight against sin with our hearts, minds and hands!

Faithful acts require Christ’s strength

Three times in this passage, Nehemiah pauses to repeat the same phrase, Remember me O God

Nehemiah 13:14 ESV

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.

Nehemiah 13:22 (ESV)

22 ... Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

Nehemiah 13:31 (ESV)

31 Remember me, O my God, for good.

These prayers by Nehemiah are prayers of faith finding strength in the Lord and serving him faithfully by good works. These ways in which these prayers are scattered throughout the text seems that Nehemiah is drawing upon the strength of the Lord upon every step, as he lives amongst a sinful people and seeks to purify the people so that they might shine with the glory of the Lord among the nations.

It brings to my my the NT exhortation by Paul,

Galatians 6:9 ESV

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

This doing good is not an act of earning the salvation with God but in being faithful in difficult times. For nehemiah, we could render his experiences as governor those 12 years in Jerusalem and his reforms when he returned as a difficult seasons of ministry to the Jews. I think all of God’s people can relate to such things today as we labor for the gospel in different areas of life. Whether you are serving as an elder of a church, a Christian in the workplace, a mother among unbelieving children, or a believer among the lost in your community, we must heed the words of Paul and not fall into weariness when doing good for the Lord.

Another way in which followers of Christ might say this is “remember me Lord as I do good things in your name, and give me strength that can only be found in Christ.” Christ is our strength in our difficult days and difficult moments where we seek to fight for the purity of God’s people. Notice that Nehemiah summaries his work at the conclusion of this work in an unexpected way,

Nehemiah 13:30–31 ESV

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.

His summary was not about physical structures repaired or built. It was about the worship of the Lord that was restored and the way that God’s glory is reflected in that worship. That was the most important to him. These acts of Nehemiah point to Christ in the way that our Lord way a way for His people to be truly purified through the blood of the Lamb. Christ made a way, by giving his own life so that sin is defeated and we can triumph over it in him.

Therefore, my exhortation to you as God’s people is not fight weariness in the battle against sin because of your resilience and fortitude. Instead, as you fight against the schemes of the devil in your home, in this community and in the world, you must understand that your strength to do so is found only in Christ. Remember:

Ephesians 6:10–13 ESV

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Paul states here that we find strength in the Lord and his might. He has lived the perfect life that none of us can live. Therefore, do not grow weary in your struggle with sin because Christ overcame. He gave his life as a ransom for his people, to liberate them from the bondage to sin and death which means you need not grow weary in trying to apea