I don’t think that there is any doubt that the events of chapter 13 took place quite some time after the end of chapter 12. It is thought that Nehemiah had been back to Persia and then returned to Jerusalem and found that things had deteriorated.
In chapter 10 the people had promised to be careful in their relationships, to keep the Sabbath day and to support the work of The LORD. We see that within a few years they had gone back on all three, and Nehemiah had to deal with them. Nehemiah still had much work to do in setting up order among the people as things had slipped into disorder. Carelessness, tolerance and disobedience had taken its toll, and the place was in a mess, spiritually, morally and practically. Something needed to be done so Nehemiah started with the priority of reading God’s Word.
It was clear that on that day they read from the Book of Moses, the Law, the first five books of our Old Testament (v1,2). It was read that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God’s people.
When the Children of Israel were returning from Egypt after the exodus, People of Ammon and Moab refused them access to pass through their lands and had to do lengthy detours and were refused supplies even though Moses had offered to pay them for it. As a result (Deuteronomy 23) they were barred from coming into the assembly of God’s people. They worshiped idols and not the true God and therefore could only come into fellowship if they forsook their idols and came to worship the One True God. An example of this was Ruth who came from Moab with Naomi, her mother-in-law and made that wonderful statement of commitment recorded for us in Ruth 1:16,17 and became part of the line of The Lord Jesus.
Balak the king of Moab had hired Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned it into a blessing (Numbers 22-24). Many years before that, God had made a promise to Abraham: I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you (Genesis 12:3). Abraham was considered to be the father of the Jewish people.
The people heard the law and obeyed and separated the mixed multitude from Israel (v3). It was evident that there were people from the other nations who had joined them, or more likely, were already there when they returned. These people wanted to join them but had not made a commitment to follow the One True God and were still worshiping their foreign gods.
This was a radical step because there were evidently a good number of them, and they may have thought they could overlook some discrepancies. After all it was a long time ago and maybe they thought they could compromise.
The people of Israel obeyed and even though they may not have been popular with their decision, they obeyed.
We must obey God’s Word today and sometimes it may very well cause problems in our churches and communities. We hear of churches going against God’s Word on things like marriage, we have come to tolerate anything, but God’s Word is clear and must be obeyed.
It has been said that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. When you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. Everything must be run past God’s Word, otherwise it, and we, will fall. We must not imitate the world in an effort to witness to the world.
In verses 4-9 we find that Eliashib the priest who had authority over the storerooms of God’ house was a close friend of Tobiah. Remember him from earlier in this book? He was a friend of Sanballat, and they opposed the work of God in rebuilding the walls. Tobiah was an Ammonite (2:10) and should not have been allowed in. Not only was he in but had rooms there. Eliashib had prepared a room for Tobiah whilst Nehemiah was in Babylon so that he was unaware of this. It is thought that this was when Nehemiah had returned to Babylon and was away for around ten years and this had taken place whilst he was away. On discovering this Nehemiah was grieved and he threw all Tobiah’s household out and commanded them to cleanse the rooms, a bit like fumigation, and returned the rooms to their original purpose, storing the sacred things of the temple. Reminds us of Jesus cleansing the temple which had degenerated into a market.
Nehemiah also discovered that the tithes had not been given for the Levites. As a result, the Levites and singers had to go back to their secular work. Nehemiah called the leaders together and confronted them that they had forsaken the house of God (v10-14). He put them in their place and the people resumed their tithes. This time Nehemiah set faithful men as treasurers over them to ensure this was done and distributed to the temple workers.
It had meant that the house of God was not operating properly because the Levites and singers had had to go back to work to maintain themselves. The lack of giving was affecting the worship of God and thus was disobedience to God Himself.
Not only that but they were doing work on the Sabbath, trending winepresses and gathering in grain with their animals and bringing their produce into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day and selling them (v15-22). They were even getting fish from Tyre on the coast of the Great (Mediterranean) Sea and other goods, and they were being sold on the Sabbath. Nehemiah spoke with the nobles of Judah about this and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
This was in disobedience to the fourth commandment, and he reminded them of the disasters which had befallen their fathers for contravening. Nehemiah’s solution was to close the gates of the city at dusk before the Sabbath and ordered that they should not reopen them until after the Sabbath and posted guards at the gates to prevent goods being brought in on the Sabbath day.
It was apparent that the merchants were still coming and camping outside the walls. This they did a couple of times, but Nehemiah warned them that he would deal with them, probably with some violent means, accordingly they ceased coming. He commanded the Levites that they should guard the gates against this in future.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with buying and selling but it must not be done when God should be given first place. Our priorities are important, and we should honour and worship God first and foremost particularly on His day. For us who are not under the Old Covenant the same still applies and if we say we love God, we must give Him first place. Note the order of the Ten Commandments – our first priority is God and God alone (1 and 2), reverencing His Holy Name (3) and then honouring His Day (4). Honouring our God must come before things, whether money or possessions.
He then moved to relationships (v23-31). Some of the Jews had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, so much so that half of their children spoke different languages and couldn’t speak the language of Judah. Marrying those of the pagan nations was forbidden by God. Nehemiah had seemed to be a gentle but firm man, unswerving in his loyalty to Almighty God, but again, here we see another side to his character, he cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair. It is apparent that this was the most serious of their disobedience to God as Nehemiah resorted to violence.
Sometimes words are not enough, and action is required, and this was one of those occasions. They had acted in blatant disregard for God’s commands in intermarrying with pagans. He reminded them of King Solomon, the wisest king, beloved of God, but he made the same mistake of marrying pagan women. His actions caused him to sin. This happens when we disobey God’s Word. Another example was a son of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib, mentioned earlier for giving Tobiah rooms in God’s house. Jehoiada had married one of Sanballat’s daughters. So not only was Eliashib the high priest friendly with Tobiah but also with Sanballat, the two main opposers of the rebuilding work in Jerusalem. Eliashib’s actions had led to his son compromising by marrying one of the enemy.
How careful we who are parents must be in our associations. We must set them an example. By all means seek to win the lost for Christ but how careful we must be to set godly examples. We can go so far but there is a limit as to how far we go. To be faithful to God, sometimes means we have to be ruthless in our obedience to Him and it is only by obedience will we win anyone to Christ.
Nehemiah closes his book by asking God to remember him,” O my God, for good!” (v31)
Nehemiah pleads with God to remember him for good. In fact, he asks God three times in this chapter to remember him. In humility, he asks God that what he is doing will be in line with God’s will. God has promised that He will if we come to Him. He was a man of prayer and prayed for his people. He had a love for them just as Jesus has for us. He led the Israelites into a respect and love for God and His Word and wanted to see God honoured. How vital it is for us to read, study and obey God’s Word.
They had made promises and rules had been set, but they were unable to overcome sin. The law and keeping it cannot save us. We need the power of God and His indwelling Holy Spirit to enable us to defeat sin. If we could do it by our works, then the death of Jesus on the cross was worthless. God knew that we couldn’t and that was why he sent us His Son to suffer the awful death of the cross to take away our sin. How we need to come by faith in repentance before God and claim the promise that He will cleanse us from sin and save us and make us into new creations with the old life passed away.
At Pentecost the Apostle Peter preached. Remember, he had been a failure in denying His Lord, but God restored and used him to reach three thousand souls that day. His message was “Repent and be baptised and you shall receive the remission of your sins and you shall receive The Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
Nehemiah was a man of strong convictions and there’s no doubt that he was a forceful character. He was certainly a hard worker and dealt strictly with all who came his way, whether for or against him. He had a love for God and His Word. How we need people like that today.
This book, together with Ezra and Esther, conclude the history of the Old Testament.
