Sermon Tone Analysis

Nehemiah was an exceptionally faithful servant of God — a man devoted to continual prayer and obedience to the Lord.

That was evident when he first heard about the deteriorated condition of Jerusalem and when Sanballat and Tobiah tried to frustrate his rebuilding efforts.

We see his faithfulness again in the last chapter of his book, where he pursued an aggressive program of reformation.

However, to appreciate this chapter we need a little background.

The first twelve chapters of Nehemiah took place in a matter of months.

From the time that he first asked his brother about Jerusalem until the wall was rebuilt and dedicated not much more than a year had passed.

But twelve years later, Nehemiah had to go back to Persia according to the time that he had proposed to King Artaxerxes (cf.

2:6; 5:14).

He was in Persia probably not less than one or more than three years before he asked permission to resume his governorship in Jerusalem.

Verse 6 says, /But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king/.

When Nehemiah arrived back in Jerusalem, he quickly found several major problems that had arisen during his extended absence.

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Ammonites and Moabites

Nehemiah laid out the first of these problems in verses 1 through 3.

The people of God had allowed Ammonites and Moabites into the congregation, which probably meant that the Jews had permitted these foreigners to participate in certain aspects of their worship.

This matter came up, according to verse 1, /on that day/, i.e., about that time.

A few commentators assume that Nehemiah was referring to the dedication of the wall in the previous chapter, but most connect it to verse 6.

If the latter view is correct, the chronology would go something like this: Nehemiah rebuilt and dedicated the wall; twelve years later, he returned to Persia; after another one to three years, he requested permission to go back to Jerusalem; and shortly after he arrived in Jerusalem, the people assembled for the reading of the law (probably on a day when the law was to be read anyway) and were convicted of their own sin in regard to the Ammonites and Moabites.

The longer timeframe accounts for the people’s earlier enthusiasm having worn off, and Nehemiah’s absence provided an opportunity for their sin to take root.

Nehemiah identified the specific sin at issue in verse 1 and 2, which paraphrases a few verses from the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy (vv.

3–5).

It has to do with how the Ammonites and Moabites had treated the Jews during the exodus.

When the Jews tried to pass through their land, both nations, although blood relatives of the Jews through Abraham’s nephew Lot, refused to help.

The behavior of the Moabites was particularly appalling because they not only refused help but also hired an evil prophet named Balaam to curse God’s people.

The Lord turned his evil curse into a blessing, but this only irritated him more.

He then advised Balak to send an army of harlots into the Israelite camp so that the Jews might secure their own divine curse through fornication.

Strange as it may seem, our text has been used at times to support racial segregation, but this is ridiculous.

The Jews, the Ammonites and the Moabites all had a common ancestor: Terah (Abraham’s father and Lot’s grandfather).

Further, the issue here is not race, but religion.

The Ammonites and Moabites had turned their backs on God’s people, and in doing so rejected God himself.

Therefore, the Lord excluded them from the congregation.

God had chosen the Jews to be his own people, the nation through which the Messiah would bless all nations, and yet they disregarded God’s clear command to exclude the Ammonites and Moabites.

They did this to their own shame!

On the other hand, we shouldn’t think that this prevented Ammonites and Moabites from ever turning to the Lord.

The law itself allowed for people of non-Jewish backgrounds to unite with the Jews through conversion.

In fact, Ruth was a Moabitess who chose her husband’s family and her husband’s God over her own family and her family’s gods (Ruth 1:16–17).

The Lord not only welcomed her; he also included her in the pedigree of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, the Jews of Nehemiah’s day chose God over sin.

Verse 3 says that they separated from /the mixed multitude/ as soon as they heard the Word of God.

We pray, /Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven/, but our actual response to the Word of God is, more often than not, rather sluggish and half-hearted.

Not so with Nehemiah’s contemporaries.

In fact, this is the second time in Nehemiah that the reading of God’s Word moved the people to immediate obedience.

The Bible is God’s principal means of our sanctification.

Jesus said, /Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth/ (John 17:17).

In particular, we need to appreciate the fact that God has chosen us, like the Jews of old, to be a special treasure unto himself.

This being so, part of our sanctification is to separate from sin.

Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians: /Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?

and what communion hath light with darkness?

and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty/ (II Cor.

6:14–18).

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Eliashib and Tobiah

The next situation that Nehemiah had to deal with is recounted in verses 4 through 9: Eliashib had given Tobiah the Ammonite a room in the temple storehouse where the people’s grain offerings were ordinarily kept.

This incident helps to explain the previous one.

Eliashib’s example of providing lodging for an Ammonite in one of the temple storerooms opened the door for the people to welcome both Ammonites and Moabites into the congregation.

Nehemiah makes this connection for us in verse 4 when he wrote, /Before this/.

That is, before the people as a whole embraced the Ammonites and Moabites, Eliashib set the example by chumming up with Tobiah.

What made Eliashib’s behavior particularly reprehensible was his office.

Verse 4 says that he was a priest, and that would have been bad enough, except that Nehemiah 3:1 specifically says that he was the high priest.

As the high priest, he would have had /oversight of the chamber of the house of our God/, as verse 4 says.

Thus, he had the power to offer one of the temple’s storerooms to Tobiah.

And as the high priest, he should have known not to house God’s enemies in the precincts of temple.

The leaders of God’s people must take great care not to lead them astray by a bad example.

That’s true of church officers, who lives must adorn the doctrines of the gospel, but it is just as critical for parents, whose children depend on them for a godly example.

Those who are under others often take it for granted that their superiors know how to live by the Word of God and have the integrity of character to do so.

What else do we know about Eliashib?

In chapter 3, he appeared to have been a faithful priest.

He participated in the rebuilding of the wall.

He and other priests worked on the sheep gate, which they also sanctified.

After that was done, he continued to work on the neighboring section of the wall by the tower of Meah.

Interestingly, though, between the rebuilding of the wall and our present text his name appears in Nehemiah only in the genealogical records of the previous chapter.

It doesn’t occur in connection with the reformation that took place under Ezra or any of the subsequent feasts, celebrations or covenant affirmations.

Yet, in our text we find that he was still around many years after all of these things happened.

Wouldn’t we have expected him to have taken a leading role in Nehemiah’s reforms since he was one of the key religious leaders of the day?

The fact that he didn’t probably indicates that he had separated himself from Nehemiah very early in Nehemiah’s service.

In chapter 13, Eliashib appears again.

This time we see him in a very negative light.

While Nehemiah was away in Persia, Eliashib formed an alliance with Tobiah the Ammonite, one of Nehemiah’s cruelest foes.

Although Nehemiah did not identify the nature of their alliance, they were most likely allied by marriage.

Nehemiah 6:18 reports that Tobiah had taken a Jewish wife and so did his son Johanan.

Eliashib’s family also intermarried with the pagans.

In verse 28 of the present chapter, we discover that one of his grandsons was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, Nehemiah’s other adversary.

In fact, the intermarriage of Jews and pagans was a major issue that Nehemiah had to deal with in the last few verses of his book.

In any case, Eliashib felt obligated to give Tobiah travel quarters in one of the storerooms because of their alliance.

Eliashib made another very serious mistake at this point: he allowed what he regarded as an obligation to another man take precedence over his obligation to the Lord.

Even oaths and vows that would require us to sin should not be kept.

Of course, we shouldn’t make such oaths to begin with, but if we make them, we should not keep them.

David, for example, acted correctly when he, after promising to destroy Nabal and his household, did not do so (I Sam.

25:22, 32–34).

In that instance, God honored David’s obedience by killing Nabal himself.

Eliashib and Tobiah were able to get away with their mischief for a time because Nehemiah had to return to the Persian court according to the time that had been set before the king sent him to Jerusalem (cf.

2:6).

After he was there awhile, Nehemiah asked to go back to Jerusalem to continue the work that he had begun.

Verse 6 and 7 give no hint whatsoever that he knew what he would be going back to, but it wouldn’t take him long to find out.

He soon discovered that the high priest had betrayed the Lord’s work.

Nehemiah wasted no time addressing the problem, but he did so very carefully, as we see in verses 8 and 9.

First, he wept bitterly.

The word translated /grieved/ in verse 8 (וַיֵּרַע) comes from a root that means to tremble.

The sins that we see in others should make us weep and tremble before the Lord.

David wrote, /Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law/ (Ps.

119:136).

Nehemiah lived by this principle as well.

When his brother told him about the condition of Jerusalem, he /sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted/ (1:4).

Knowing that Jerusalem’s condition was the result of grievous sin against the Lord, he also confessed his sin and the sin of his fathers (1:6).

After weeping, Nehemiah went into the room where Tobiah had been staying and threw all of his possessions out into the street.