Inching Away
Nehemiah 13:4-31
November 29, 2009
When we left the people of Jerusalem in chapters 9 & 10, they had separated themselves from the pagans in their midst, and humbly come before God in a solemn assembly to confess their sins and claim God’s forgiveness. More than this, they had pledged themselves to some very resolute and concrete promises, committing themselves to the observance of the Sabbath, the support of God’s work, purity in their marriages, etc. The temptation might have been for Nehemiah to end his book on this high note, with everything rolling merrily along as the people praise God and serve Him. But, as Raymond Brown says, “there is an obvious realism about Scripture.”
The people of Jerusalem had experienced real spiritual “highs”. Chapters 8-9 present such promise; Chapter 10 tells of bold promises made to God. Chapter 11 involves the determination on the part of the people that Jerusalem will truly be a holy city. In Chapter 12, the people dedicate the newly rebuilt walls, and pledge support for their spiritual leaders. Even in the first verses of Chapter 13, we see them taking a bold step on the basis of their fresh understanding of the Word. But later in Chapter 13 we see that they became guilty of “inching away” into a comfortable compromise with a pagan world. The message for us today is that we must be on our guards lest we give in to the natural tendency to do the same: to “inch away” into lives of compromise and complacency.
Worldliness acts as a spiritual gravity, always tugging downward on us even as we seek to “press on the upward way”. We can speak of this on a personal level, how we can so easily get into what one Christian group calls a “slow fade”, gradually getting a little further and a little further away from the Lord. We can speak of this on a Churchwide level as well; the American church faces the temptation to accommodate pluralism and relativism and all manner of isms in order to appear trendy and “with it”. It’s the pressure to assimilate ourselves into the godless norms of this culture! The particulars might be different, but the generalities are the same today as in Nehemiah’s day. Let’s look at
Four Areas of Compromise:
Nehemiah had spent twelve years as governor of Jerusalem, from 445 to 433 B.C., and then returned to King Artaxerxes in Persia, his term complete. Now, in 13:4, we find him returning to Jerusalem after a few years away to find things not the same as he had left them. We see the people having inched away from their commitments
1. In their religious life :4-9
”Tobiah’s guest room”
Tobiah, nemesis of Nehemiah, had always had supporters and friends on the inside in Jerusalem (6:17-19). Now, we see that Eliashib, the high priest and probably a golfing buddy, had made this cozy arrangement with Tobiah whereby he could have a guest room right in the Temple, in a room ostensibly devoted to storing the contributions of God’s people.
What does Nehemiah do about it? Notice his response in vv. 8-9. He comes in and cleans house. He knows that there are some things which simply cannot be compromised. Nehemiah might have been the first to act in this seemingly rash way, but hardly the last; we recall how Jesus’ zeal for the house of God caused Him to come in and clean house as well. And notice the sequence, for we see in it a pattern for our own lives as well when it comes to matters such as these:
CLEAR-CLEANSE-REPLACE
He got rid of Tobiah’s junk; he purified the place; he replaced the junk with the stuff that was supposed to be there. Skip forward to the New Testament. We don’t worship God at the Temple in Jerusalem; what does Paul tell us? That God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, but rather that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Question: does your temple need clearing out, cleansing, and then being filled with the things of God? By the grace of God, get the junk out, repent of having it there in the first place, and replace it with what ought to be there, the fruit of the Spirit. Second, they began to inch away from God
2. In their financial dealings :10-14
“Robbing the preacher”
They had compromised by failing in their commitment to support the house and the work of God. They had become gripped by materialism, much as Americans tend to be. A grudging attitude toward freewill giving was a mark of the times. Malachi, a prophet contemporary with Nehemiah, records in Chapter 3 of his book that the people were “robbing God” by failing to tithe to support the work of God. The Levites were dependent upon the faithful support of God’s people, but now they were having to seek a living elsewhere.
Nothing is truly new under the sun, is it? The average American churchgoer gives less than three percent of his income to the church. When giving freely becomes an irksome duty in our lives, we can be sure that something is wrong with our hearts. When our attitude is “how much do I have to give?” instead of the kind of free-heartedness that the Bible encourages, we can be sure we need to take inventory. When God gets ahold of the hearts of His people, it will make a difference in the offering plate! Our giving is one of the most accurate indicators of our spiritual commitment. “How generous am I”” is a good question, but also, “do I give generously with a cheerful spirit?” If either of those elements is missing, then my Christian experience is less than God desires.
Nehemiah didn’t take this turn of events lying down either, but rather called out the people of Judah, who responded by giving as they ought. The people had inched away in religious life, in financial dealings,
3. In their use of time :15-22
“Too busy to slow down”
The prophet Amos, writing centuries earlier, could see merchants chafing at the weekly shutdown of business brought about by the Sabbath. By Jeremiah’s time, the merchants had their way, and the Sabbath was neglected. Upon his return to Jerusalem, Nehemiah found that the Sabbath was being treated just like any other day, and in the surrounding towns as well. This was to be a day of rejoicing in God’s goodness, a day of rest in His presence. Now, the people were secularized and materialistic, and a utilitarian mindset had prevailed. With money and property their idols, they could ill afford to take a day off from buying and selling; the Sabbath was just an inconvenience which could no longer be tolerated. And their witness suffered as well.
This utilitarian approach which the people took has its counterpart today in an approach to life that values our convenience above everything else. Another issue for us in how we spend our time is that we want to segment off our lives into different compartments; we assign time segments to each part of our lives, including our “religion”, keeping our “religion” a healthy distance from other aspects of our lives; we’ll give God an hour-and-a-half on Sunday morning, but that’s a-plenty. But as Christ-followers, we must see all time as a gift from God, and use it to glorify Him, not merely in functional ways to gain advantage for ourselves.
Nehemiah again forcefully acts, and notice in verse 22 that the Sabbath is hallowed not merely by the ceasing of labor, but also by consecrating it as a day to the Lord, a day for feasting and enjoying God.
4. In their relationships :23-29
“Multi-culturalism run amuck”
What’s the problem with the mixed marriages mentioned here? Was God sanctioning racism? No, not at all. The main danger was syncretism, an undermining of Jewish identity as a people set apart for God. Now, yesterday’s enemies were today’s marriage partners. Satan will use more than one means to destroy a people!
Why did these men marry foreign women, often divorcing their Hebrew wives in the process? Likely, financial gain was the reason. Nehemiah cannot stand for this, of course, taking some means we might consider drastic in order to stop the practice in its tracks. He appeals to the example of Solomon, who had been the wisest man to live, but who had made the tragic mistake of marrying foreign wives, and his heart had been turned from God.
It still happens today, and it is no small transgression. Young people, never for any reason date an unbeliever, that is if you intend to have any seriousness about your walk with God. Emotions will begin to cloud your judgment, overriding your common sense and your witness and in some ways your life will suffer ruin. Wise Solomon couldn’t get away with it, and neither are you likely to. It is a tragic mistake!
It’s also important for churches to be places that welcome everyone but admit to membership only those who give profession and evidence to having born again by the Spirit of God. Vance Havner had this to say: “Today the world has so infiltrated the church that we are more beset by traitors within than foes without. Satan is not fighting churches—he is joining them!”
Note Nehemiah’s response: while we might blanch at what amounts to a violent response on his part, we cannot help but take note at the seriousness with which Nehemiah regards compromise. Do we take sin in our lives nearly this seriously? Does it motivate us to radical, even ruthless, action, if necessary? It did Nehemiah—and it ought, us.
We finish our studies in Nehemiah today; I thought that a good way to wrap things up would be to consider together 10 key application points that we’ve dealt with over these past three months.
• The accomplishments recorded in Nehemiah are rooted in a real dependence upon God seen in Nehemiah’s continual praying.
• The Word of God must occupy a central place in the life of the believer, and we must approach it ready to be transformed.
• Repentance is a key theme in this book—and the need for real repentance is ongoing in the life of the follower of Christ.
• Real repentance involves a change in the way one does things; it gets beyond the emotional level to the level of the will.
• People working together to fulfill God’s vision can with God’s enablement accomplish great things.
• Opposition in the Christian life is inevitable at some level for those following Christ; prayer, perseverance, planning, and preparedness will enable us to defeat discouragement.
• When God works in and through us to accomplish something great, there is no more powerful testimony.
• We live in the strength that the joy of knowing God and His forgiveness provides.
• We must recognize that in the end, it is God Who will judge our actions rightly—whether people like it or not.
• The motivation for Nehemiah to live as he did was his passion for God; it was the animating force of his life.
Nehemiah was a man under whose leadership the people of Jerusalem accomplished great things for God, and saw God transform their hearts—not once, but twice. It all sprang from a heart that was set ablaze with one holy passion for the glory of God. What is the passion of your life?
FLOCKs Homework
For the week of November 29-December 5
• Compare verse 6 with 2:1. How much time had elapsed between these two chapters?
• What had happened between the promises made by the people in chapters 8-9 and this chapter?
• What do Nehemiah’s responses tell us about him?
• How can we prepare ourselves for a lifetime of obedience? In other words, how can we avoid “inching away”?
• Read Revelation 2:1-7.
o What are some positive things said about this church?
o What does verse 4 say was the problem with the church at Ephesus? How do you think the church came to “lose its first love”? What might that have looked like?
o What is the solution to the problem?
o How might these sobering words speak to us as the evangelical church in 2009?
