Sermon Tone Analysis

Soon after I finished high school at the age of seventeen I joined the U.S. Army.

It was an exciting time in life and I truly appreciate what being in the Army has done for me.

But at seventeen I did find myself in a very real situation, I was “in the Army now!”

Not even seconds after arriving for Basic and Advanced Infantry Training at Ft. Benning Georgia did I experience my first encounter with Drill Sergeants.

I’m sure you all know what I am talking about, though most of you will have never had to undergo such an experience.

These guys were brutal!!!

It was their job to break you down to nothing and then just leave you wallowing in the mire of your own self-pity; and they all loved their job!

There is not a single Drill Sergeant who knows how to speak in a soft voice.

All they know to do is holler and yell as loud as they can.

As soon as we stepped off the bus they yelled at us to pick up a duffel bag and run across this dirt lot so that we could line up in formation.

At the induction station we all received our allotted clothing and duffel bags that had our names stenciled onto them.

So it made sense to all of us recruits that we were to find and grab “our” bag.

But that is not what the Drill Sergeants told us, they told us that we were to grab “a” bag.

And that was our first mistake!

They all started yelling at us, kicking the dirt, we recruits would be trying to pick up a bag and they would pull the bag with great force causing us to fall to the ground.

They knew how to break us.

This went on for sixteen weeks, no mercy (ok, maybe a little after we transitioned from Basic Training to Advanced Infantry Training)!

They would be yelling at us at 3:30 in the morning and we all would have night mares of them at night when we tried to sleep.

Now what most people do not realize is that the Drill Sergeants were not there to teach us many skills, like how to fire a weapon, throw a hand grenade, or what the international rules of engagement were.

There were instructors who taught us all of that!

The Drill Sergeants responsibility was to break us down and teach us discipline.

They taught us how to March after which they would march us to training areas, ranges, or some classroom where we received instructions from the actual instructors.

I will never forget the day that we graduated from Basic Training (AIT), the relationship changed from darkness to light.

In the few hours that we had to interact with them, before we shipped out to our first duty assignments, they all became real.

They were proud of us and treated us solders with respect.

They are the ones who changed us from being recruits to soldiers.

This morning we will conclude our study of the Book of Nehemiah by trying to gain an overview of what is taking place in chapter thirteen.

Before we delve into chapter thirteen we need to set the stage so as to assist you in understanding why the events of chapter thirteen are actually taking place.

We will look a little at “what” is taking place, but I am more interested in helping you understand “why,” and then later you can go back into the chapter and dig deeper into the “what.”

There are two items we need to clarify, and the first will require us to flip over to Galatians chapter three, so turn there if you will.

In Galatians three Paul is trying to help the Galatian believers understand the purpose of the Old Testament Law and how that purpose interacts with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the latter part of the chapter Paul uses two different analogies to help the reader understand the purpose of the law.

The first centers on being confined and Paul draws the analogy from prisons.

The last time I taught I used a prison allegory to begin my message so let’s look at the second image that Paul utilizes for his illustration.

In Galatians 3:24-25 Paul uses a term that is translated in my Bible as “tutor.”

Some translations use the word “guardian,” others use a verb “supervision,” others “schoolmaster,” or “teacher.”

The closest translation would likely be the New Revised Standard Version which uses the word “disciplinarian.”

(Galatians 3:24-25 NRSV) The actual Greek word (παιδαγωγός paidagōgós) has no modern English or Tagalog equivalent, and the closest would likely be as I just mentioned, “disciplinarian.”

(The English “pedagogue” would be close but it has infused the concept of teaching, which was not a part of the work of the paidagōgós, plus it is a word that is no longer used outside of academia.)

The concept for whom we are talking about is derived from Roman culture and would entail a slave or household helper, usually male, to take charge of the young boys in the house and both “teach them discipline” and “oversee” them as they went about their daily affairs.

The paidagōgós would make sure the boys got up in time, got dressed and ate their meals, got them to school where others would teach or tutor them, and they would even whip the boy’s and yell at them to teach them discipline.

The paidagōgós was not responsible for the boys’ education, but was responsible for the boy’s mastery over all areas of their lives.

Once the boys were grown and became men, the paidagōgós had no more authority over the boys.

Conceptually the closest thing would be the Drill Sergeant that I described earlier.

(Note: A sergeant does always have general authority over those of lesser rank thus the analogy does break down.)

It is this concept of a disciplinarian, whom we can understand in the concept of a drill sergeant, is what Paul used to convey to the Galatians what the purpose of the Law was.

According to Paul, in Galatians three this was, and is, the purpose of the law – to break us down by means of discipline so as to allow us to be built back up.

For this time of teaching we will call the “Old Testament Law”… Sergeant Law!

Now the second item that needs clarity is the timeline for the events of Nehemiah thirteen.

Now it may surprise you to discover but Nehemiah thirteen is most likely the very last story to take place in the Old Testament era - chronologically.

Anywhere from two to ten years is the time span between Nehemiah chapter ten and Nehemiah chapter thirteen.

The story of the Book of Esther has already transpired, the ministry of Malachi has recently concluded, and this story concludes all of the stories of the Old Testament.

Knowing this will help bring insight into how we should correlate several difficult passages that have stumped many Bible students over the years.

With this in mind let us now turn our attention to the text and glance at some high points.

In Nehemiah 13:1-3 we discover that the Jewish people were engaged in a study of God’s word; and this is good!

In their study they came across, more than likely, Deuteronomy 23:3–6, which pronounces the judgment on two particular peoples, expressly for the way that they treated Israel when they came out of Egypt.

But notice after the study, when it came time to apply God’s Word, exactly how Israel responded.

In the latter part of verse three we discover that the Jews excluded all foreigners form Israel. Allow me to ask you Church, do you think that this was God’s perfect and revealed will?

That is, were the Jews in complete compliance to what God had already revealed in His word?

I do not believe so!

The nation of Israel should have already known the stories of Rahab and Ruth.

If you read the prayer of dedication for the Temple given by Solomon in 1 Kings 8:41-43, then you will see that it was assumed that foreigners would visit the Temple.

Even the Law expected foreigners to live in the land as derived from the passages that deal with how to interact with the “aliens” that live in Israel, such as those found in Leviticus chapters seventeen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-two, and twenty-five.

The Law acknowledged that aliens would live in the land.

The Law also prohibited Jews from marrying aliens as this was an inroad for false religion to influence the Jews.

Furthermore, the law prohibited the Ammonites and Moabites from living in Israel.

Yet the people stepped beyond what was prescribed in the Law and put all foreigners out here in Nehemiah thirteen.

This act will typify some of the acts that we will soon discover.

To go beyond the Law was a problem as much as disregarding the Law.

Verses one through three are a prelude to all of chapter thirteen, especially when we cross reference with sections of Ezra and Malachi, and how the Jews have been either underreacting or overreacting to God’s Law.

The bottom line is that they wanted to do things their way and did not pay close attention to what God was telling them.

Yet the wisdom of God will be demonstrated when we too see and understand the marvels of God turning curses into blessing, such as was proclaimed at the end of Nehemiah 13:2.

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The bulk of Nehemiah 13 deals with four broken promises, three of which are as follows; (1) The Jewish people abandoned the tithe, as seen in Nehemiah 13:4-14, which allowed the storehouse to be unutilized thus giving a place for Tobiah (an enemy of Israel) to reside.

As well the people were not storing the rations allotted to the Levities, thus forcing them to leave the Temple so as to gain livelihood as farmers.

This abandonment is in violation to their covenant made in Nehemiah 10:37.

(2) Then they broke the Sabbath as seen in Nehemiah 13:15-22, and were in violation to their promise made in Nehemiah 10:31.

(3) Then in Nehemiah 13:23-29, the Jews were inter-marrying foreign women, which was in violation of their promise made in Nehemiah 10:30.

Let’s look at the ancient premises for each promise that was made in chapter ten, then at the actual promise, and then at the failures to keep the promises as seen here in out text as well as in the Book of Malachi.

The first issue was that the people of Israel abandoned the tithe.

As we have studied several times before we know that the word tithe does have its origins in the number ten - but it is not talking about 10%.

Israel was a theocracy and the combination of civil and religious responsibilities required a taxation greater than 10%; this fact being drawn from an overall understanding of the Law.

We see that the tithing system was given progressively in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and that the purpose of the tithe was to sustain the priests, levities, and their families, as well as the central government which was at first comprised of judges but later included a monarchy.

At times the people were told to pay a flat tax, and other times a percentage, at times a one-time tax, and at times a yearly tax.

The tax base was also expanded during the times of the Kings.

Then in Nehemiah 10:32 we see the people committing to reinstate one portion of the overall tithe system, and that is a contribution that was designated in Exodus 30:13.

The Jewish leaders expanded the tax found in Exodus 30:13 into what did eventually become the Temple Tax that we see in Matthew 17:24.

Yet notice the discrepancies between the Law, which asked for a one-time tax, and is what theologians believe to be the basis for what is taking place in Nehemiah, found in Exodus thirty, and the recommitment found in Nehemiah ten:

“This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD."

(Exodus 30:13)

"We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God."

(Nehemiah 10:32)

So the Law told the people to pay a one-time tax of a half shekel; note that it states “half.”

In time, as mentioned, the nation of Israel transformed the Law into a temple tax.

During the time of Christ the tax became a half shekel.

The people of Nehemiah ten read the Law and it, like that Drill Sergeant, confronts them and screams “what are you going to do about it?”

So then in Nehemiah 10:32 they make a commitment to contribute a third of a shekel.

But is this what the Law required?

The actual law was a one-time tax, but, the amount stated in Exodus was higher than what the people committed themselves to pay in Nehemiah ten.

It was a noble gesture that the people were willing to pay a tax, but it could also become a burden.

As for only committing to a third of a shekel it would be easy for us to reason that the people have just returned to the Promised Land and that their income was insufficient to pay the full half shekel as they observed in the Law (but the Law was not actually requiring it of them).