In the eyes of Americans, the greatest president we have ever had was Abraham Lincoln. He was a model of perseverance. At age 23, he suffered major defeats in losing his job and losing his first political race, a bid for the state legislature. The next year, 1833, he failed in business. In 1835, his childhood sweetheart died. In 1836 he had a nervous breakdown. In 1843 he was defeated in the bid for the United States Congress. In 1848, he tried again and was again defeated. In 1849 he decided to become a land officer but was rejected. In 1854, he was defeated in a race for the United States Senate. In 1856, he lost a nomination for the vice presidency. In 1858 he was again defeated in a race for the Senate. In 1861 Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States.
Perseverance is a requirement for reaching any worthwhile goal and a quality that God constantly seeks to build into his children. As we come to the closing chapter in our study of Nehemiah, we continue to see an inspiring leader at work, in this case a leader who persevered, and a godly man who finished is race well.
Our study of Nehemiah 12 last week ended with the citizens of Jerusalem experiencing a great spiritual high as with joy they renewed their covenant obligations, and with euphoric hearts gave thanks and sang praises to their God, who had enabled them to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. That wall had been in shambles for over 100 years but rebuilt in 52 days. Their spiritual passion was at an all-time high:
- Ezra had been reading and teaching the Word of God every day.
- The whole community had been gathering to worship several times a week.
- A national holiday was declared—a week long Feast of Booths in which the families built lean-tos and camped out as a family.
- Compelling music had penetrated their souls as the professional musicians and singers paraded across the top of the wall.
- Their eyes were focused on the concrete proof of Yahweh’s reality and blessing—the wall, he had sent Nehemiah with materials from the Persian King Artaxerxes to re-build.
It was the perfect formula to ignite spiritual passion.
But then the celebration was over, the month of Tishri ended and life returned to normal. Nehemiah remained as Governor for 12 years but then returned to serve again in Artaxerxes’ court. Years passed before Nehemiah, who was probably in his mid-sixties by then, appears again to have heard an alarming report about Jerusalem. But this time it is not about Jerusalem’s broken walls; it’s about the broken covenant vows of Jerusalem’s citizens. Nehemiah could have easily said, “That’s not my problem,” but instead showed remarkable perseverance in putting up with the rebellion of the Jews of Judah. So, in chapter 13, Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem and tells us what he discovers—that the specific vows the people made to Yahweh in chapter 10 were being broken.
CHAPTER 13 REVEALS JERUSALEM’S PEOPLE BREAKINGTHE COVENANT VOWS THEY MADE IN CHAPTER 10
A. Vow not to intermarry with unbelievers.
Nehemiah 10:30: We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.
Nehemiah 13:23-24: In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 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.
B. Vow to keep the Lord’s Day holy.
Nehemiah 10:31: 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.
Nehemiah 13:16: 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!
C. Vow to tithe:
Nehemiah 10:37: and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor.
Nehemiah 13:10: 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.
Nehemiah’s NO-NONSENSE Leadership
Author John White is correct in my view when he criticizes the unwillingness of many spiritual leaders to confront sin. He writes, In Christian work our cowardice in avoiding unpleasantness is currently doing more damage than any damage from irascibility on the part of Christian leaders…. The church has become flabby, old womanish, inept, unwilling to act. Discipline should be reconciliatory and loving, but it should take place. Nehemiah could so easily have given up on the people of Judah. But he did not. Instead, in response to Nehemiah’s discovery of the intermarriage of his people with unbelievers (vs 23-24) we read (25-27).
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. 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. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?
In response to Nehemiah’s discovery that they were profaning the Sabbath (vs 16), we read (vs 17-18). 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.
In response to the discovery that the people weren’t tithing (vs 10), we read, (vs 11-13), 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. 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…”
Apart from being challenged by Nehemiah’s willingness perseverance with Judah’s hard-hearted people and willingness to confront them, there are some lessons for us to consider as we examine why they broke their vows.
4 REASONS JUDAH’S RESIDENTS BROKE THEIR COVENANT VOWS
A. They neglected to follow one of the most profound verses in Scripture: Proverbs 4:23: Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Their vows to Yahweh were made during the honeymoon phase of their return to him. During this euphoric month of covenant renewal, it was easy for emotions to flood in the direction of full devotion to the LORD. But emotions are short lived. They are easily replaced by other emotions. That is why God says to be alert to inbound things that trigger our desires. We are to stand on the watchtower in the citadel of our hearts and observe what is coming across the plain to knock upon, or batter down the door to our affections and capture our hearts. On the positive side, weekly worship is designed to reenergize our passion for God, as is time alone with him. In Psalm 63:5-6 we read, My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. One of the most profound truths of life is this: If you tell me what has captured a man’s heart, I will tell you the direction of his destiny. We need not only to keep God our first love but cultivate that passion, lest it be overtaken by a greater passion.
B. They lost confidence that obedience to God mattered. Remember, Malachi the last of the Old Testament prophets was sent by God to Judah probably while Nehemiah was back at Susa in Artaxerxes court to confront the same abuses in Judah that Nehemiah confronted. For example, Malachi 2:11 condemns the practice of marrying pagan women. Malachi 3:8-10 confronts them with robbing God by their failure to tithe. Malachi confronting this same group of people puts his finger on the reason their disobedience. You have said, “It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.”
Malachi was saying, “You people are saying it's not worth it to obey the law. Here, I am tithing the best four sheep I have out of my flock of forty. It's true that my flock continues to grow and flourish. But my next door neighbor—he didn’t tithe his best sheep. He only gave one, and it was the scrawniest, sickest lamb you ever saw for the temple sacrifice and his flock is growing much faster than mine!” The people of Judah wanted immediate blessing for their obedience. They wanted to walk by sight not by faith. After all, their great euphoric celebration of the wall had been with their eyes fixed on the wall right in front of them—proof that God had provided and could be trusted to keep his promises. But God calls us to walk by faith not by sight—a quality that is especially pleasing to him. God promises that obedience though painful will always bring blessing in the long run; but they wanted blessing now. And when they didn't get it, their conclusion was, “it's not worth it to obey God.”
It should not surprise us that we have so many messages coming our way saying it's not worth it to follow God. Think for a moment about God's most powerful enemy, Satan and his strategy to cause Eve to sin. Remember his opening question? “Did God actually say you can't eat any of this luscious fruit?” Of course, God said nothing like that. He said they could eat fruit from all of the trees except one. But by Satan’s question to Eve he inferred that God is the kind of mean God who just might have created all this luscious fruit, put it right in front of you, just so he could deny you from eating ANY of it? That is preposterous, but it planting the seed of doubt about God’s goodness. And trusting God’s goodness matters enormously to God. In fact, Peter compares such trust to pure gold in the eyes of God. And Paul reasons that is illogical, if not irrational, to not trust God, since he gave his precious Son for us. He proved his desire for our best, once and for all.
C. The third reason the people returned to their sinful ways was the failure of their leaders to keep their vows to God. Nehemiah begins by making clear that all the priests and all the people knew that God specifically forbid Ammonites or Moabites from even entering the temple: Vs:1-3.
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, 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. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
But while Nehemiah was back in Susa this command of Yahweh had been grievously violated by Eliashib the priest by not only allowing Tobiah the Ammonite to enter the temple but by renting him a room there! Vs. 4:
Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to 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. 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. 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.
This disregard for the Law happened in front of ALL people and worse ALL THE PRIESTS who DID NOTHING. The failure of the priests is also seen in Malachi’s rebuke of Judah’s spiritual leaders. Malachi 1:6-9
A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.
Note Malachi’s further criticism of the leaders in chapter 2:7-8. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. This rebuke of Judah’s spiritual leaders is a sobering reminder that God takes seriously his assignment of spiritual leadership to a man, whether as head of his wife, father of his children, officer in the church, or holder of another position of influence. I suspect that 100% of these leaders that Nehemiah had to confront had been all-in, while celebrating the wall and passion for Yahweh was flowing hot. But sober leaders watch over their hearts with all diligence.
D. The fourth reason they failed to keep their covenant promises is revealed to us by Paul in the NT. This final chapter of Nehemiah is significant. It shows that after the mighty restoration of the wall (torn down by Judah’s enemies as the result of covenant sanctions for rebellion against Yahweh) and the euphoric renewal of commitment promises made to God, in only a few short years, God’s people rebelled again. Nehemiah writes chapter 13, so we see that the promises to keep the covenant in chapter 10 have given way to breaking every vow. This final historical description of God’s OT people leaves us with a final, mini portrait of the entire experience of God’s people in the OT. The Law, alone, cannot produce righteousness. Our sinful nature is too strong. In Roman’s 8:3-4 Paul writes, “The Law never succeeded in producing righteousness—the failure was always the weakness of human nature. But God has met this by sending his own Son Jesus Christ to live in that human nature which causes the trouble.”
Not only does OT history end with a portrait of God’s covenant people failing to keep the covenant, OT prophecy also ends on a similar note of old covenant failure. Moses had long ago set the pattern in Abraham, for fathers to be the guardians and teachers of the ways of God. “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him,” (Gen 18:19). But the fathers, regularly failed to turn their hearts to their kids and turn the hearts of their kids back towards them and God’s Word. So, just as Nehemiah’s final assessment of the problem of the entire Old Testament is the failure of human, sinful nature, so Malachi the final OT prophet ends with the failure of human, sinful nature and the need for further help. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Mal 4:5-6).
John the Baptist was the wilderness voice that ushered in the new era. Jesus would bring the New Covenant. Like the Old Covenant, the New Covenant is a Covenant of Grace, membership is by faith alone, through grace alone. And yet the power to love God by obeying his Word has been poured out to indwell the hearts of Christ-followers, to apply God’s Word and give a create a sense of God’s presence in our hearts. God’s people need a New Covenant—the one described in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and declared by God in Hebrews 8 to now be fulfilled in Christ.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Unlike OT dads and leaders, we have the Holy Spirit’s help to persevere as we lead the way for our loved ones in our commitment to Christ.
For Further Prayerful Thought.
- What is your reaction to the direct match in chapter 10 (what the inhabitants of Judah vowed), with chapter 13, (the vows they had broken)?
- What have you discovered to be the hardest part of confrontation?
- Have you made commitments during a spiritual high that you found tough to keep when you were spiritually low? What have you discovered about keeping your spiritual passion high? What have you discovered about watching over your heart?
- What do you find most encouraging about Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant that Hebrews 8 tells us has come to pass in Christ?
