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Morning Message Texts: Nehemiah 13: 1-3, 15-16, 23-27
Nehemiah’s Final Reforms
1 On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,
2 because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)
3 When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day.
16 People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah.
23 Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.
25 I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.
26 Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.
27 Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”
Morning Message:
If you have been paying attention to the messages in the past several weeks you know that I have been leading us through the ten steps to spiritual renewal. It was my plan to take them two at a time and finish next week just before the start of Lent.
I changed my mind. Maybe God changed my mind. I think that steps 7 and 8 would have been a bit repetitive so we will touch on them just briefly.
Step 7 is, “Offering Themselves for Service.” We talked about the importance of giving last week, and offering ourselves for service is the same basic concept. Not only does everything we possess belong to God, but our very lives belong to him. So giving of ourselves in service should naturally be a part of our sacrifices to God.
Step 8 reminds us that we should give thanks for God’s goodness. As I look at these steps in my mind step 8 brings us to a natural conclusion of our journey to spiritual renewal. I think that will become clearer when we get to steps 9 and 10. When God brings to us a time of spiritual renewal, a refreshing of our souls, a revival of our faith, our response should be, “Thank you Lord. You are so good to me.” We so easily complain when things are going badly, but when God, the Creator of heaven and earth reaches down and touches your life, my life, “Who am I Lord that you pay attention to me?” Thank you Lord because you are good.”
Now the Hebrew people have been renewed in their faith. They have enjoyed a wonderful time of spiritual refreshment and found their way back to a right relationship with God.
Now comes step 9: Doing away with compromise. Just as sure as we work hard to get right with God, the devil is right around the corner saying, “Not so fast, what about this little thing that you enjoy so much, it’s not going to hurt anything if you keep this in your life.” What happened between step 8 and step 9? Nehemiah is called back to Babylon and you know how the saying goes, “While the cat’s away the mice will play.” Do you know what this reminds me of? When Moses went up on the mountain to receive the commandments. While he was talking to God the people fell into sin. The reconstruction of Jerusalem’s walls turned out to be child’s play compared to the effort to rebuild a people consistently faithful to God. Nehemiah saw firsthand how quickly people could forget their promises and return to disobedient ways. The final chapter of the Book of Nehemiah describes some of his efforts to do away with the people’s compromises regarding the ways of their neighbors.
Step 9 and step 10 work together. Step 10 is Confronting Sin. The only way to stop compromising is to see it for what it is and confront the sin. Nehemiah found that the people were guilty of four specific violations:
First, they forgot their vows of separation. This one can be difficult for us to understand. As Christians we want to be welcoming to everyone, and we like to feel like we can interact with everyone and be a positive influence for God anywhere. This can be true if you are a very strong, faithful Christian, well-versed in God’s word and prayerfully letting God lead you. The people of Israel were not very strong. God knew that their faith could not withstand the influences of unfaithful people, so they were strictly warned not to do things like intermarry.
Second, they forgot their vow of support. Remember we talked last week about the fact that the Levites and priests had no inheritance. God was their inheritance, and they were to be taken care of by the people through their tithes and offerings. While Nehemiah was away the people stopped giving to the church, so the Levites and priests were forced to go and buy and work their own fields in order to live. Selfishness had set in, and they had lost the spirit of giving and self-sacrifice. We must remember this because it is a trap that we fall into over and over again. It takes a lot of spiritual discipline to put God and others ahead of self.
Third, they forgot their vows of the Sabbath. So quickly they forgot about God and a need to dedicate time to him. Everyday was the same. If I can make a good living in six days, just think how much I can make in seven. All through scripture God sets an example for us to rest. From the very beginning God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Do you think that God was tired on the seventh day? Do you think that an infinite God needed to recharge his batteries. God rested to show us that rest, time away from work, time to commune with him was important. Jerusalem was open for business 24/7. We are never, as a society, going back to the blue laws and everything being closed on Sundays, but as God’s people we should make time for Sabbath rest. What is Sabbath rest? To me it is putting time aside that is just for God.
Fourth, the people forgot the sanctity of their vows. Promises made to God are sacred. We can play loose with the truth sometimes, but when we take a vow before God, we need to understand that God knows how sincere we are. Vows before God are different than promises we make to each other. The Israelites knew this. They had a long history of broken promises to God. God is so loving and forgiving. Honestly, when I look around this world, even sometimes in this nation, and see people actually shaking their fists at God, I wonder, in my humanness, how He can forgive so much. As Christians, God’s people, the standard is much higher for us. Unto whom much has been given much is expected. We are so blessed to have been claimed by God, that we should never take a vow before God that we don’t intend to keep. You can hear in today’s scripture that Nehemiah was so angry at his people. He was angry for the right reason.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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