Nehemiah - Chapter 13

1-3:

SEPARATION FROM FOREIGNERS

This short passage serves to address the issue of separation from others, the non Jews. The beginning verse that states “in that day” does not mean in that specific 24 hour day but rather it refers to that time in the life of the city. It means during that period of time. Verse 4 will support that thought as it shows considerable time had passed.

The separation was to assure that non Jews did not enter the congregation for religious worship. It meant obedience to the law of Moses in that regard but sadly we will soon see that the obedience of the people was soon to be no longer true.

4-14:

RESTORING THE HOLINESS OF THE TEMPLE

The dedication of the wall in chapter 12 ends with a joyous celebration and the following transition verses advise of the covenantal faithfulness of the people of Jerusalem and Judah. But now in chapter 13, all seems to fall apart.

Before the separation was done, a priest named Eliashib had been given the responsibility for the storerooms of the temple. He decided to allow Tobiah, one of the strongest enemies of Nehemiah, to use the storerooms presumably to keep inventories for his business with his political contacts inside the city. This action reveals two disturbing factors:

First, it indicates the required offerings were not being given for the support of the temple ministry. If they had been continued, there would have been no open rooms to allow Tobiah to use.

Second, Tobiah was a Gentile, and Ammonite (revealed in 2:19), who should never had been allowed to enter the sacred areas of the Holy place. Tobiah's presence in this area defiled and desecrated the temple itself. It is strange that this abomination was allowed to continue by all the priests and Levites.

Meanwhile Nehemiah had left Jerusalem and had returned to Babylon and to the court of king Artaxerses. His initial twelve year stay ended in the 32nd year of the king's reign. Some years had passed (we are not advised exactly how many) before Nehemiah had arranged another leave from his court duties to return to Jerusalem. All we know for sure is that this scripture teaches that “after certain days” Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and he found the evil matter that Eliashib had allowed.

Nehemiah reacted in strongly emotional terms. We are told that his grief was bitter. He took quick action, throwing all the items Tobiah had stored inside the temple out and commanded all the rooms to be cleansed (purified after the desecration). Here we have a direct foreshadow of the cleansing of the temple by Jesus 400 years later for the same reason (commerce had overcome the temple intent of prayer and worship). Finally, Nehemiah restocked the rooms with the proper offering items originally intended to be stored.

After grasping that the proper tithes had not been collected for quite some time, Nehemiah held the Levites and leaders responsible and contended with the Levites in a meeting to assure they reverted to the proper actions that God had directed of their people centuries before. Nehemiah even now appointed storehouse “treasurers” to keep track of all accounting, placing a check system upon the Levites to be sure they back slid no longer.

This portion of scripture ends with the first of three prayers by Nehemiah asking the Lord not to wipe out the good deeds he had done. The original Hebrew tells us that he asked the Lord to remember his “acts of faithfulness”.

The Israelites had forsaken the covenant they had promised to keep and now Nehemiah found himself in the position of correcting the people as well as their unfaithful leaders.

15-22:

RESTORING THE HOLINESS OF THE SABBATH

Sometime during his second term in office in the Holy City, Nehemiah observed the people dishonoring the sabbath. Many who lived in the countryside around the city were working on the sabbath day, making wine and transporting it to the city and engaging in commerce. Nehemiah wanted this practice stopped.

Also, there were men of Tyre who lived in Jerusalem bringing goods into the city and selling them on the sabbath day, which to them was simply another day to work and generate income. But these businesses were corrupting the Jewish people. Nehemiah first decided not to confront these Gentiles but rather to contend with the leaders of Judah.

Nehemiah warned them not to profane the holy day by reminding them of their fathers and ancestors who had disobeyed this command and had brought destruction upon their people. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had brought this wisdom in their writings.

Not being satisfied with using persuasion to correct the problem, Nehemiah commanded the gates to be shut and guarded on the sabbath so no merchants could enter. Then he threatened these merchants with physical violence if their commerce continued on the Jewish holy day. The problem was solved and Nehemiah commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves and to begin to guard the gates.

By guarding the gates themselves, the Levites would sanctify the day but once more we see clearly that the people had broken the covenant they had so willingly accepted. By having to lock the gates and to post holy guards, Nehemiah showed his distrust of his own people and their convictions.

His prayer to conclude this time shows the beginning of a feeling of resignation on his part, rather than hope. He now asks God to spare him according to mercy.

23-31:

RESTORING THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE

Now Nehemiah observes yet another instance of covenant breaking by the people as some of them were marrying women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Verse 24 tells us that the marriages to the women of Ashdod was creating the most difficult disobedience.

Nehemiah observed that the children born of these marriages were unable to even speak Hebrew, but spoke only a foreign language.

In his response, Nehemiah not only confronted these people but he himself resorted to physical violence, hitting them, pulling out their hair, and then forcing them to swear such marriages would stop. He forced them to repeat the portion of the covenant covering this matter which they had originally promised to obey.

Intermarriage threatened the religious integrity of Israel. It was also a threat to the survival of the culture of the Jewish people. Such marriages were sinful and the Jewish men were being led by their pagan wives into false worship, exactly as king Solomon had clearly shown in his great sinfulness in the same issue.

We see also that the people had become so accepting of this great sin as common place that even a priest had married a pagan woman, a daughter of Nehemiah's chief enemy, Sanballat. Nehemiah asked God to remember their sin.

Here is the very beginning of an issue that we see carried forward even into the ministry of Jesus himself, hundreds of years later. 

This marriage and the resulting conflict led to the establishment of a temple of worship away from Jerusalem at Mount Gerizim, which began to be considered a holy place by the Samaritans. This moment in Nehemiah caused the Jews to forever look down upon the Samaritans as half breeds and to consider Samaria to be a place to be avoided at all costs. Such feelings were so strong as to cause the disciples of Jesus to be astonished when they saw Him talking to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:19-22). In this conversation, the woman was skeptical why Jesus, a Jew, would even ask her for a drink of water from the Samaritan well. Jesus used this moment to introduce “living water”, meaning salvation to her successfully.

This disobedient priest sought refuge among the Samaritans, and built a temple on Mount Gerizim in which Jehovah was worshiped along side false idols. This area was strongly viewed as holy by the Samaritans. On this mountain lived the families descended from the handmaids of Leah & Rachel, as well as the original tribe of Reuben. In the valley below this mountain, Joshua read the whole law to the people. In this same valley, Abraham met Melchizedek and Jacob slept here when he had his famous dream. The temple of false worship stood for over 200 years and was finally destroyed by the Jews under John Hycanas, and later rebuilt by Herod the Great.

As we recall, there was conversation between Christ and the woman as to where worship should properly occur and Jesus corrected her by saying that “where” to worship was less than “how”, instructing her to worship in spirit and truth.

In his final prayer, Nehemiah asked God to simply remember him for his good. As governor he had the authority to command obedience but he saw his work of spiritual restoration slipping away.

What was Israel's fundamental problem? Why did the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah fail, at least in part? In Nehemiah 13 we see God's people allowing the world to invade what should be holy, set apart for God alone. They failed to live holy lives with respect to the temple, the sabbath, and marriage. Even though adultery with pagan nations had repeatedly brought destruction and exile to the Lord's chosen ones, God's people still abandoned their holy status and their promise under conviction and to join with the world.

Time and again, Israel allowed the world and its idols to invade her life. Paul taught this message strongly in Romans 12:2 by teaching that she became conformed to the world.

What is our main message learned from Nehemiah? We have learned clearly that true revival comes ONLY from hard work in hard times. But much more importantly we have seen that true revival and its transformation requires more than leaders forcing it upon people by commands. It begins and is sustained by an inner transformation that flows outward by tangible acts of faithfulness, led by a changed heart.

Nehemiah himself tried to honor God and to lead his people into a covenant relation with the Lord. He succeeded not by persuading the nation to continue to follow him and God, but his success was living and leading faithfully before God. Where he fell short, as we all do, God's mercy compensated and lifted him up. What matters most is not Nehemiah's achievements, but his character and relationship with the Lord.