Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

Spurgeon comments on this passage:

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.