Nehemiah 13:30-31

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; ² Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. ³ Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. ⁴ And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah: ⁵ And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests. ⁶ 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: ⁷ And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. ⁸ And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff to Tobiah out of the chamber. ⁹ Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense. ¹⁰ And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field. ¹¹ Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together, and set them in their place. ¹² Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries. ¹³ And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah: for they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their brethren. ¹⁴ Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof. ¹⁵ In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. ¹⁶ There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. ¹⁷ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? ¹⁸ Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. ¹⁹ And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. ²⁰ So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. ²¹ Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath. ²² And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy. ²³ In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: ²⁴ And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people. ²⁵ And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. ²⁶ Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. ²⁷ Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? ²⁸ And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me. ²⁹ Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites. ³⁰ Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business; ³¹ And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

At the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany, there is a museum that houses relics and photos from WWII. When a visitor exits, they pass a sign that’s next to the last door that reads: “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat its mistakes.” Unfortunately, this truth applies to God’s people from time to time. There are so many warnings and reminders in Scripture that call us to “remember” the good works of God and the failings of human beings so that we might learn to trust in Him and not repeat the same mistakes that those who have gone before us have made. The book of Nehemiah is about God restoring His people from captivity back in Jerusalem, the city where He had chosen for His name to be made known in the world. The temple had been rebuilt, but God called Nehemiah to lead the project of rebuilding the walls so that the people might be restored to inhabit the city and worship Him. The wall was built in just fifty-two days (chs. 1-6) and for the first time in over 150 years the people gathered to hear the Word of the Lord read to them (chs. 7-8). They celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles (ch. 8), confessed their sin (ch. 9), prioritized obedience to the Word of God (ch. 10), and committed themselves to serve by inhabiting the city and fulfilling all of the obligations necessary to establish worship in Jerusalem once again (chs. 11-12). After the work was done, Nehemiah returned home to Persia just as he had promised the king (Nehemiah 2:6). How would the work that God had done through him continue in his absence? Would the people follow through on their covenant to obey the Lord (Nehemiah 9:38)? Nehemiah returns after an undefined period of time to find that nearly every aspect of the covenant the people had made had been dishonored. As in Nehemiah’s time, so throughout history and in our day, God’s people are in need of revival. Revival is about God restoring and mobilizing His people to where they once were in their walk with Him. Revival is about repentance and obedience on the part of God’s people that leads to mobilization for His mission in the world. That is what we find in Nehemiah 13. God has one more work for Nehemiah and that is to use him as an instrument in His hands to bring revival to His people. This chapter teaches us three things about what revival looks like. We will begin to look at the first two this week and the remainder next week.

The first aspect of revival that Nehemiah teaches us is that God desires our worship to be holy. The first three verses of Nehemiah 13 reveal that when Nehemiah returned, he found that the Israelites had been intermarrying with the Moabites and Ammonites, two groups that Deuteronomy 23:3-4 specifically forbid them from marrying. These two groups stood out because they opposed and hindered the Israelites during their time in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership. The Moabites were the ones who hired Balaam to curse the Israelites which led to the Israelites suffering from partnering with them in sin during that time. It was during that period that a “mixed multitude” rose up and complained to Moses about meat in Numbers 11. It is impossible to live compromised personal lives and not negatively impact the body of Christ, even if we don’t realize it. The “mixed multitude” (those with compromised living today) always produce rotten fruit. Verses 4-9 reveal that even more was going on in Jerusalem. On top of the intermarriage, there was an Ammonite living in the temple. Eliashib, the high priest, had made a room for Tobiah in the temple in one of the storerooms for the tithes and offerings of the temple. He was the guy who set the pace for the workers in Nehemiah 3:1 and following, but here we find that despite his “hard work,” he was living a compromised life with the enemy. Eliashib had a family member that was married to Sanballat’s daughter. Just when it seemed that the “bad guys” had disappeared, the compromises that had been made way back when begin to become a plague to the people after the work is finished and the city settled. Sanballat and Tobiah played the long game. They couldn’t stop the wall, but they could defile the people and that’s just what they did. Tobiah was not only defiling the temple and making everything in it unclean; he was also stealing from the offerings that the people were bringing in good will to honor their commitments to the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul writes to the church to teach them that they (collectively) are “the temple of God” and that to defile God’s temple would bring judgment. In 1 Corinthians 5, he speaks to one of those “defilements” when he calls out an inappropriate relationship and calls for the guilty party to be removed so that the church might be purified. That would apply not only to a church, but to God’s people when we consider our worship and service to Him. To set the pace in activity “for God,” but live in hypocrisy as Eliashib did is deadly to us and those around us. Our worship must be holy worship or it is no worship at all. Is their compromise in your life? Are you trying to worship God with unholy relationships or commitments?

The next aspect of revival that Nehemiah 13 introduces to us is that God desires our priorities to be holy. In verses 10-22 Nehemiah addresses the people’s abandonment of their giving commitments and their Sabbath commitments. In Nehemiah 10:32-39, the people had committed to give all of the required offerings for the work of the temple. By the time of Nehemiah’s return, those offerings had largely been abandoned and the priests and Levites were unable to live off of the few offerings that were received. This meant that the work of the temple was largely abandoned as well. Such a situation is what Malachi rebuked the people of Jerusalem for in his day (Malachi 3:7-12). Also, in Nehemiah 10:31, the people had made the commitment to not carry out business as the Gentiles around them did on the Sabbath day. Verses 15-22 reveal that they had been doing exactly what they promised not to do. Nehemiah faithfully reveals in God’s Word that it was for their violation of the Sabbath that the allotted time of 70 years was given between the Babylonians conquering Jerusalem and a few exiles being allowed to return (Jeremiah 17:21-27). Nehemiah has the gates of the city shut so that no one could come in or out on the Sabbath and then he went to threaten any who would try to camp outside the city to conduct business. With both the offerings and the Sabbath, what we have represented are compromised priorities of the people. We find people throughout Scripture who compromised their God-given priorities and it cost them greatly. In Joshua 7, Achan greedily disobeyed God and kept goods from Jericho. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul kept animals, goods, and people from the victory over the Amalekites. In both accounts, the individual was judged, their families would suffer consequences with them, and the people of God as a whole were hindered. Is Christ and His kingdom the highest priority in our lives? Can people look at our lives and say that of us? Or, like the people of Jerusalem, would they say that we value other things more?

How can we discern when revival takes place or is taking place? Revival is not about a tent gathering or a spectacle at a church or school somewhere that attracts news cameras. Revival is found where the worship of God by His people is purified and where God’s people begin to prioritize in their lives around what He desires for them. When worship and obedience of God are given their proper place in the lives of Christians today, we can rest assured that God is working and bringing revival to His people. That can begin today in our hearts as we respond to the conviction brought by His Word through the Holy Spirit in our lives. The question is simply, “Will we surrender to Him?”