Sermon Tone Analysis

Nehemiah 13:1-31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2000

Keeping The Fire Burning

 

General William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, once said to a group of new officers, “I want you young men always to bear in mind that it is the nature of a fire to go out; you must keep it stirred and fed and the ashes removed.”

The last two Sundays we saw how Israel committed themselves to the Lord's service.

After renewing the covenant they dedicated themselves and the work to God. /Did they keep their promises?/

They did for some time.

But after twelve years Nehemiah returned to Babylon to report to King Artaxerxes as agreed.

While he was gone the enemy got to work and Israel broke their covenant again.

He was gone for perhaps a year.

When Nehemiah returned he found that the people had defiled themselves through compromise.

Nehemiah immediately began to act decisively to change the situation.

When we compare chapter 13 with chapter 10 we see that they failed to keep several of the promises they had made.

*I.

The Separation Promise    II.

The Support Promise    III.

The Sabbath Promise*

 

/Firstly  /The Separation Promise

 

/a.

Mixed Multitude/

 

1.

The People - Pagans Amongst The Assembly 

 

*13:1* /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 come into the assembly of God,/

 

Verse 6 informs us that 12 years had elapsed since Nehemiah had first sought the King's assistance to help his people.

According to *Nehemiah 10:28–29*, the Jews had willingly separated themselves from the people of the land.

They united with their Jewish brothers and sisters to obey the Law and walk in the way of the Lord.

But apparently their separation was incomplete, or some of the people formed new alliances; for they discovered that there were Ammonites and Moabites in their congregation, and this was contrary to the Law of Moses.

When Nehemiah returned to Babylon to report to the king they sinned again.

They didn't maintain their distinction of being God's holy people.

Instead they mixed with the pagans.

Years ago, Oswald Chambers wrote, /Today the world has taken so many things out of the church, and the church has taken so many things out of the world, that it is difficult to know where you are/.

*Vance Havner* said, /Today the world has so infiltrated the church that we are more beset by traitors within than by foes without./

Satan is not fighting churches, he is joining them.

When God's people bring pagans into their assembly they copy their evil ways.

2.

The Priesthood - Pagans In The Sanctuary

 

*Nehemiah 13:4-5* /Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah.

And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests./

Not only were some of the Jews married to Ammonites and Moabites, but also /an Ammonite was living in the Jewish temple!/

Unfortunately this compromise started with the leadership.

Verse 4 says that/ *before this*/ Eliashib the high priest made an alliance with Tobiah an Ammonite.

Tobiah the Ammonite had been given a room in the temple by Eliashib the high priest.

Eliashib is the first one named in the list of workers, and yet he had become a traitor.

/Why?/

Because one of his relatives was married to Sanballat’s daughter, and Sanballat and Tobiah were friends.

Eliashib had made an alliance with the enemy.

Instead of serving the Lord he was working with the enemy.

Instead of setting a good example for others to follow, he lead the people astray.

All this happened while Nehemiah was away at the palace, which suggests that those he appointed to lead in his absence had failed in their oversight.

/It doesn’t take long for the enemy to capture leadership, and too often the people will blindly follow their leaders in the path of compromise and disobedience./

It was bad enough that an Ammonite was living in the temple, and that a Jewish high priest had let him in; but this intruder was using a room dedicated to God for the storing of the offerings used by the Levites.

He defiled the temple by his presence and robbed the servants of God at the same time.

/b.

Nehemiah's Response/

 

/How did Nehemiah respond to Israel's transgressions?/

He acted swiftly and decisively.

/1.

Separation Of The Assembly /

 

*Neh 13:2-3* /Because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them.

However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

So it was, when they had heard the Law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel./

He had the Law read to the people, who then discerned their sin.

Israel separated themselves from their pagan neighbors.

This was the right thing for them to do.

It was Balaam that led Israel into sin through idolatry and immorality.

The Moabites had caused Israel to stumble in the wilderness and they would do it again unless Israel separated from them.

*2  Cor 6:17 says:* /Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you./

Although Christians live in the world we must not be part of the world.

We must not engage in the sinful practices of the pagans around us.     

 

/2.

Sanctification Of The Sanctuary/

 

*Nehemiah 13:7-9* /And I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God.

And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room.

Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense./

/ /

/How did Nehemiah deal with Tobiah?/

He lost no time throwing out both the man and his furniture, rededicating the room to the Lord, and using it again for its intended purpose.

Like our Lord, Nehemiah had to cleanse the temple; and it appears that he had to do it alone.

Nehemiah took a courageous stand against this sin, even though this meant overruling the high priests decision.

But God's people must separate themselves from all evil.

/c.

Mixed Marriages/

 

*/1.

The People/*

 

*Nehemiah 13:23-24* /In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people./

*/We will not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons!/* was the promise the Jews had made to the Lord; but they didn't keep it.

In his survey of Jerusalem, Nehemiah saw women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab married to Jewish men; and he heard their children speaking foreign languages.

/If these children didn't know the language of Israel, how could they read the Law or participate in the holy services?

If a generation was lost to the faith, what was the future of the nation?

/God’s people and the people of the world can be identified by their speech.

*/2.

The Priesthood /*

 

*Nehemiah 13:28a* /And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite;/

 

Again the nation's leaders had not set a good example.

A grandson of the high priest had married a pagan woman.

Eliashib consented to this.

Joiada married the daughter of their worst enemy Sanballat.

Not only had he betrayed his people, he also defiled himself from the priesthood.

There were strict laws concerning marriage for Jews.

The priests of all people had to keep the law.

Priests were strictly forbidden from marrying foreign women.

/d.

Nehemiah's Response/ /-  How did Nehemiah respond to Israel's sin of mixed marriages?

/

 

*/1.

Contention/*

 

*Nehemiah 13:25a*/ So I *contended* with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, /