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.

If we have grown up in church or been in a community that is saturated with Christian influence, we most likely have an understanding of the word “revival” that brings to our minds larger church gatherings in the evenings of a particular week that involve an evangelist or guest preacher that has the intention of producing large altar calls. Perhaps our minds move to recent events happening on college campuses where thousands of students gather to sing Christian songs and social media causes the news of it to spread like wildfire so that celebrities and people from all over the country show up for weeks to see what is going on. The concept of revival is found in such passages as Psalm 85:6 which asks of God, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” The context of that Psalm is the psalmist remembering the sin of God’s people, how He has forgiven them, and a call to speak His Word to them so that they might be turned from their sin and restored. The Psalm provides a good working biblical understanding of revival. Nehemiah 13 is a fitting chapter to close out the book. Nehemiah 1-12 are about God restoring His people from where they had fallen because of their sin. He does so by calling a man, Nehemiah, to go and lead them to resettle Jerusalem and another man, Ezra, to lead them in obedience to His Word. After the people have committed themselves in obedience, Nehemiah keeps his word and returns to the king of Persia (Nehemiah 2:6), only to return to Jerusalem at a later time and find that the people have broken their promise to be obedient to the Lord (Nehemiah 9:38). They were in much need of revival. What does Nehemiah do?

Last week, we learned that the people had defiled themselves by intermarrying with Moabites and Ammonites, two groups they were specifically forbidden to marry (Deuteronomy 23:3-6) and they had also broken the law because Eliashib, the high priest, allowed Tobiah, the Ammonite, to live in one of the chambers of the temple used for storing the offerings that the people had neglected. Nehemiah threw Tobiah and his things out of the temple and had the temple cleansed of its defilement. The first aspect of revival that Nehemiah 13 teaches us is that God desires for our worship to be holy. Trying to serve Him, as Eliashib did in Nehemiah 3, while living a compromised life is unacceptable. It is not worship. We must first have our temple cleansed and present our bodies to God as holy. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that this is our “reasonable service” (our most basic act of worship).

We also learned in verses 10-22 that the offerings that the people had promised to give had been nearly completely neglected. It was to the point that the Levites were no longer able to carry out their services and had to return to their homes, fields, and businesses in order to support themselves. As a result, the work of the Lord in the temple was almost totally neglected. Further, the people greedily returned to the practice of neglecting the Sabbath and carried out business every day of the week just like the Gentiles around them. Nehemiah responded to the issues by appointing “treasurers” who would monitor the giving and storing of the offerings of the people. He closed the gates of the city, set up Levites to guard those gates, and threatened those that were setting up just outside the city to do business on the Sabbath Day. The people had neglected their commitment and their priorities of giving to support the work of the Lord that they had set back in Nehemiah 10:31-39. Revival is about God’s people giving Him and His will the proper place in our lives. Christ is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all in our lives. We must “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Him and His will must be our highest priority.

The final aspect of revival that Nehemiah 13 serves to teach us is in regards to the situation first mentioned in verses 1-3 in regards to intermarriage. When Nehemiah arrived back in Jerusalem, he found that, not only were the people intermarrying with the Ashdodites (one of the former cities of the Philistines), Moabites, and Ammonites, their children were speaking the languages of the Gentiles around Jerusalem and did not even know “the Jews’ language.” Nehemiah takes a radical, but necessary approach to correcting the people. He “cursed them” (meaning condemned them for their actions), struck some of them, and pulled the hair off of others (Nehemiah 13:25). He reminded the people of the sin of Solomon’s many wives and the consequences that came from those relationships. All of Israel was led into idolatry for years to come. We also learn that Eliashib’s compromise with Tobiah in the temple was rooted in his grandson’s sinful relationship with the daughter of Sanballat, the enemy of the Jews from Nehemiah 1-6. Eliashib, as the high priest, was supposed to set the example for the people and help lead the people in obedience to all that God had commanded and all that the people had promised to do in Nehemiah 9-12. Despite all of his hard work in leading in the rebuilding of the wall in Nehemiah 3, he had compromised with the enemies of God’s people and, with his compromise, led the entire city into sin. The temple was defiled, the city was defiled, and the people were defiled. Nehemiah took the measures that Eliashib should have taken as the high priest and went about to set things right among the people. He “cleansed” the people “from all strangers” and reestablished the priests and Levites in the temple to collect the required offerings of the people. God’s great desire for Israel was to be His holy people (Deuteronomy 7:6), set apart for Him alone. He desires the same for us in Christ Jesus today. He tells us today to be rid of all compromise and sin in our lives and live as His children, “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” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). Holiness is not just an Old Testament calling for the people of God, it is a basic calling of being a Christian. Hebrews 13:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”  Before Christ, we were in “darkness” like the rest of the world, but now in Christ we are “light in the Lord” and we are called to “walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). God desires for His people to be holy. Revival is about God’s people being cleansed in our daily walks of all the things in our lives that do not belong.

God loves His people too much to leave us in our sin. While Nehemiah had to take harsh and drastic measures to cleanse the people of their sin, they were necessary because Nehemiah knew what God desired for His people. He wants our worship to be holy, without compromise and hypocrisy. He wants our priorities to be holy, giving Him His proper place. He wants us to be holy, set apart from sin to live in a way that honors Him. Passages such as Matthew 10:32-39 and Luke 14:25-33 lay out the cost of discipleship in following Christ. They call for total allegiance to Him above all else. Sometimes, commitment to Christ and His purposes can feel like a lonely road to travel. In following Christ, we have to be willing sometimes to go where few are willing to go. Though all the world around us may be headed in a different direction, we must pursue Him and His will at all costs. One of the great invitation hymns of the faith is “I Surrender All.” We have perhaps sung the words over and over without fully committing to their meaning. We have to be willing to adopt the attitude of the verse of that song that says, “Tho none go with me, still I will follow.” Nehemiah has taught us much about doing “God’s work, God’s way.” God’s purpose on earth is to call out a people for His name. He is doing that work today through His people in the world. Are we a part of His work? Are we doing it His way?