Nehemiah Chapter 13
Please read: Nehemiah 13 –
We read in chapter 10 that the people of Israel made covenants, promises to God that they would not sin but would follow all of His laws and commandments. Somehow you had probably guessed that these covenant promises would be broken. We could question humans when they make promises to God if they truly meant what they say. I think that yes, most truly mean what they say at the time they make those promises. The problem is we still live in our old sin nature, and we so easily give in to our flesh and do the things we want to do rather than listen to the Spirit of God.
Nehemiah had left Jerusalem to see the king of Persia (Babylon), the regime that had allowed him to go to his land and to rebuild the wall. He had been gone about 10 years and when he returned to Jerusalem, he found that the people were already breaking their covenant promises they had made to God. One such law that they were breaking was allowing an Ammonite or a Moabite to enter the temple of God. These groups of people had wronged the Israelites when Israel was travelling to the promised land. God had said they must not enter the temple. Tobiah was an Ammonite. Not only was he in the temple he had pulled the wool over the priest’s eyes so much so that he was given a room to stay in within the temple. This was the same man who had tried to stop Nehemiah and the building of the wall. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, he was angry to find him living in the temple and he threw him out.
Sadly, that was not the only sinful act being perpetrated in Jerusalem. Nehemiah asked God for his help and asked that God remember the good he had done in the city. Nehemiah was asking for God’s mercy for the people of Israel despite their sinful ways.
Let's Reflect
1. Eliashib was the priest that was responsible for overseeing the chambers in the temple. He is the one that allowed Tobiah to come inside and stay. What does the Bible say about Tobiah and Eliashib?
2. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and found Tobiah to be living in the chambers of the temple. In anger what did Nehemiah throw out of the temple?
3. Nehemiah also found that the Levites and singers had left the temple and were not performing their duties there. Why had they left Jerusalem and returned to the fields?
4. He also found the people to be working in the winepresses and making transactions at the city gates on the Sabbath. What did he do to stop the money transactions from happening on the Sabbath?
5. The sin that caused Nehemiah the most grief, anger, and despair was finding that the men had married outside of their people. Why did this make him so upset?
6. Nehemiah reminded them that Solomon who had been the wisest king that ever lived was brought down low by the same sin of marrying women of foreign descent and foreign gods. It is what brought Solomon down, so why did they think they would fare better than a wise king like Solomon? According to verse 25 what did Nehemiah make them do?
7. Even the son of the high priest had inter-married with a foreign woman. Nehemiah took these sins very seriously as God does. He refused to compromise and demanded that the people take responsibility for their sin. He had only been away from Jerusalem for some 10 years, but the corruption crept back in amongst the people very quickly. Nehemiah worked tirelessly to stamp out the evil and to especially cleanse the temple. He knew that the people of Israel deserved God’s punishment. What was his cry to God despite their works of evil?
