Guarding Our Treasury
- David Fairchild
- Jul 5, 2009
- Series: Nehemiah
TEXT
Nehemiah 13:1-13: “On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them--yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from
Catching Up
We’re in the championship rounds of Nehemiah as we finish this great book next week. In a boxing match, the most important rounds are the last two, and this is not only the case for where we are in the book but also for where Nehemiah is in his life.
Let me catch you up if you haven’t been here the last 21 weeks.
The city of
Yet because of their sin, the city was decimated. They trusted in themselves and their physical city, not in God. They failed to worship God in spirit and truth, and so, after many years of patience, God punished them by sending the Babylonians to destroy their false security so that they would cry out to Him once again. The walls which guarded the city are toppled and the gates which secured the city were burned and destroyed. And, like the walls and gates they trusted in, the people became toppled and broken. They were ruined and their city reflected physically what their hearts were like spiritually.
141 years of despair and hopelessness caused God’s people to move from shock and horror, to tears and sorrow, to regret and shame, until apathy and passivity set in.
Until one day God awakened the heart of a man named Nehemiah. God broke Nehemiah’s heart for His people and His city and called Nehemiah to move from this place of security and affluence to give himself away for the sake of God’s glory and to restore God’s people to love Him and worship Him again in spirit and truth.
Nehemiah was obedient to the call and moved to Jerusalem and was immediately met by two men, Tobiah and Ammonite and Sanballot the Moabite, who actively opposed his calling and work the entire time by mocking him, deriding God’s people, and plotting to kill him. Empowered by God’s Spirit, Nehemiah never looked back and within 52 short days, after 141 years of destruction, the walls of Jerusalem were restored and the gates were hung in place.
This was not the ultimate goal of God’s work however, and the book turns to focus on the real mission of God through Nehemiah, to restore the people of God and rebuild their love and passion for Him above all else.
God’s people began to move back to the city, and they held a massive gathering where God’s word was read and the people wept over their sin and turned again to the living God. They committed themselves by making an oath with God in chapter 10 to walk according the Law of Moses and to obey all the commands of God. They promised to read their Bible, to raise their kids to love God by not letting them marry unbelievers, and to give their tithes and offerings to God so that God’s work wouldn’t be hindered.
Everything looked amazing, God’s people were rejoicing. The walls were rebuilt and the people were responding to God’s Word and living out their calling. They threw a party in chapter 12 and their singing and praising were so loud that the joy of Jerusalem could be heard far away.
Everything Looks Great at this Point
Now, we would like for this story to end like all fairy tales: “God’s people loved God and lived happily ever after…” Chapter 12 would have made the perfect ending for this great story.
However, God is teaching us something about our hearts. Our hearts tend to leak His truth and the fire of our affections can quickly grow cold. This is chapter 13.
God is amazingly real with us. The romantic portrait of living happily ever after is absent from this story. In all of Nehemiah’s accomplishments, he tells us the truth about ourselves as he tells us the truth about
Good beginnings are no guarantee of happy endings. The Bible is filled with story after story of men we’d make heroes because of their accomplishments if they hadn’t failed so miserably.
Adam is lazy and abdicates his responsibility.
Noah gets off the ark after the flood and gets hammered and ends up naked.
Abraham attempts to pimp out his wife.
Sarah hooks her husband up with a mistress and then mocks God’s promise.
Jacob is a manipulative cheater.
Moses has a temper problem.
David commits adultery and murder.
Solomon marries 700 wives, worships their gods and has 300 Hooter girls too!
Jeremiah cries too much.
Isaiah has a filthy mouth.
Hosea had to marry a hooker.
Jonah is prejudice and runs away from God.
Peter lies and denies Jesus.
Paul hides in a basket and is let down and runs away.
Timothy is a fragile little flower.
James, Jesus’ brother, doesn’t even believe in Him until He rises from the dead.
Thomas has major doubts.
And so we turn to Nehemiah 13. Any temptation for us to idolize Nehemiah or to consider Bible stories as fairy tales should be lost. God is real and so His telling of our history is real and gritty. No fluff, no hype, just simple and plain descriptions of a people who made huge promises but failed to keep them because they failed to keep their hearts pure.
The People Failed to Keep Their Promises
How They Failed
Verses 1-3: “On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them--yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.”
Nehemiah begins this last chapter by first telling us what happened after these next events. He says that they read from the Book of Moses, and came across Deuteronomy 23:3-5 that instructs them to keep any Ammonite or Moabite out of the assembly of God. This was due to the Ammonite and Moabite disbelief and treatment of
Yet it seems as if the purity of worship that God desired had been all but forgotten and they allowed them in. This isn’t racial; it’s religious. Ruth was a Moabite and was welcomed into the family of God. This is primarily a separation of the men who took Jewish wives and were responsible for teaching and leading their families in worship of the one true God. Since they didn’t hold to the same truth about God, they would not be able to lead their families or take their place in God’s assembly as leaders.
They were supposed to be a distinct people that didn’t mingle believers with unbelievers for the sake of their witness of God as a pure people and their worship of God in spirit and truth.
Verses 4-7: “Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. 6 While this was taking place, I was not in
Before verses 1-3 happened, Eliashib the priest let Tobiah, Nehemiah and God’s enemy, move into a large chamber of the
Can you believe this? Nehemiah goes away and the guy that tried to have him whacked is allowed to move into the Temple of the God of whom he’s an enemy. This is like Superman going on vacation and coming back to see that Lex Luther has moved into his apartment because Lois thought he was a nice guy. No! You don’t let devoted enemies of God to live in a huge crib at the
How would you like it if we let Osama Bin Laden use our offices so he could continue his operations here in the states?
I’m sure this was much to the joy and delight of Tobiah. I’m sure that he was laughing and mocking Nehemiah behind his back as he flaunted his position.
The only problem was, Nehemiah wasn’t dead yet. He was probably around 60 or 65, but he came back to check on how God’s people were doing and found this total chaos when he returned.
Verses 8-11: “And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. 10 I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?’ And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.”
Nehemiah’s response is immediate and forceful. He doesn’t come and negotiate with Tobiah. He doesn’t comfort the inner child of Eliashib. Instead, he starts chucking all the furniture out of the chambers.
Can you imagine going to the Temple and seeing an entertainment center, couches, a copy of the Quaran, and Ikea chairs being thrown out by some old guy who looks like he’s going to bust blood vessels?
Needless to say, it would catch the attention of those watching. Then, in case they didn’t understand his point, he went to the officials and confronted them. “Why is the house of God forsaken?” He gathered them together and told them to go do their job. He didn’t offer suggestions and then ask them how they felt about it. He realized that God’s glory was at stake and he was not going to debate with anyone.
Not only was Tobiah living in the chamber, because of his living there the Levites were not given their support to perform their ministry, so they fled back to their hometowns so they could work their fields and eat. People stopped giving, there was no place to store what would have been given and it’s likely that Tobiah and Eliashib had some dirty dealing with the tithes and offerings.
The people and the
Verses 12-13: “Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. 13 And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers.”
The people had stopped giving, which makes sense if their giving was no longer supporting the leaders but instead going to support Tobiah Bin Laden! Yet when Nehemiah took action, God’s people brought their tithe and grain again into the storehouses.
Nehemiah then appointed guards and treasurers over the treasury. He got rid of those failing to do their job and appointed reliable men to take on that role.
We’ll see next week what else was happening that Nehemiah had to respond to. It’s pretty crazy. He starts pulling people’s hair out and tells others he’s going to “lay hands” on them, which doesn’t mean pray!
What is so sad is that many of us see this as too harsh and too forceful. What should break our hearts is not Nehemiah’s response, but the fact that Nehemiah had to act alone. He had to come and handle this because no one was courageous enough to protect God’s people and God’s glory. No one stepped up and led.
Sadly, this same spirit of passivity is common in the church here in
But why? We can talk about how we move from God’s truth and how we’ve failed, but it’s more important to talk about why this happens. Not only to leaders, but for all of us that stray from what God desires for His people He loves.
Why They Failed
I think the reasons for
1) Tolerance to overtake Truthfulness
Eliashib was very tolerant. So tolerant that he became intolerant of what God commanded.
We fail to guard our hearts when we allow subtle compromise or accommodate sin for the sake of tolerance. The chamber that Tobiah lived in is also a great metaphor for our hearts.
We slowly let things move into our hearts that are simply not true and then we blame God for why we feel so despondent. All along we’ve allowed ourselves to become tolerant of our pride, our lust, our need for others’ approval, our boasting in ourselves, our anger, our need for things to make us happy and yet we shake our fist at God and wonder why he won’t just come and change us.
The funny thing about despair is that if we don’t come to an end of ourselves and turn to our Father and cry out to Him in faith, then we really haven’t despaired enough. Despair is by definition coming to a loss of all your efforts. Yet we cling to the hope that we can fix ourselves and so we hold on to despair because it gives us an excuse to not really change.
We come to hate the consequences of our sin, but not the sin itself.
What is even more dangerous is when we disguise our sin as virtue. I’m sure Eliashib made excuses for his sin. He probably said, “I’m being hospitable by helping Tobiah,” or, “I’m trying to bring peace to Jerusalem.” But what is really happening is that he’s being hospitable to sin by welcoming it and he’s actually bringing destruction by his peace-making.
Nehemiah calls it what it is, and so should we. He said that what Tobiah was doing was “evil.” It isn’t a virtue; it’s an evil.
How many of us have compromised and accommodated and have used virtue as an excuse? How many of you right now need to simply call it what it is, evil?
Let me tell you how subtle this is. Some of you may have taken a promotion or a job that requires you to work more hours than is wise. You’re not able to be in community. You’re not able to lead your wife or raise your children effectively by teaching them about the Gospel. But, you make yourself feel better by telling yourself that it’s the virtue of providing for your family. When the fact is your family doesn’t want more of your money, they want more of you. It is an evil thing and needs to be called what it is.
Ladies, how many of you have slipped into the habit of gossiping about others and breaking their confidence as you’ve tried to tell yourself it’s the virtue of sharing your feelings or under the guise of praying for the person with others?
Young men, how many of you have let your temptation with pornography and lust be made into the virtue of not-fornicating? Since you’re not sleeping with someone, it should be ok if it helps right? No, it’s an evil thing.
When we flirt with sin and welcome it into the storehouse of our heart, it isn’t satisfied by staying in its chamber. It comes to spoil and destroy every other room of our heart.
Not only does it affect our lives, it affects others. V. 10 shows us that Eliashib’s tolerance towards sin caused others to suffer and leave their calling. Sin is never in isolation. We’re saved into a family and when we sin we affect our family. Eliashib’s idolatry caused others to starve. So does our idolatry cause others to spiritually starve and struggle.
Also, when we tolerate lies in our hearts about our identity and God’s love for us, we sow weeds of doubt that if not pulled up by truth, will choke what is healthy. Brothers and sisters, I know it is popular to admit you struggle with unbelief. Our culture loves to not be sure about anything, except that it can be sure that you’re not supposed to be sure! It’s considered a virtue to doubt. Simply, plainly, unbelief is sin. It is a cancer and will rot our soul. To think that we know better than God, to question God’s truth is basically to say to Him, I think you’re a liar and don’t trust you.
You have to fight unbelief with truth. You have to actively submit your doubts to the cross. You have to be ruthless, brutal, violent with it and fight it with all your might. Throw out the furniture and chuck out anything that will cause you to not trust in your Father, Creator, Redeemer, Savior and Sustainer.
Spurgeon says, “Sin will kill belief or belief will kill sin.” It’s that simple. The more you flirt with the virtue of unbelief, the more you will sin and the more you sin the more you won’t believe.
2) Our Feelings to become more important than God’s Feelings
3) Passion to give way to passivity
No one did anything
Malachi 1:10 (that one among you would shut the doors…I will not accept an offering from your hand)
When we accommodate for the sake of our own security and peace in this life, what we’re doing is declaring war on Jesus when He returns. If we’re passive now, we’re actually active in opposing Him. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Malachi’s rebukes the priests in Jerusalem during this time in Malachi 2. Malachi came between Nehemiah’s first governorship and his second. When Malachi came he saw the sins that Nehemiah describes in Chapter 13.
We are Eliashib. We flirt with sin. We make room for it. We take what is evil and call it good. We mask our sin by calling it virtue. We fail to guard the
We are a kingdom of priests, but sometimes we act as if were a priest from the line of Eliashib. Cowards, fearful, faithless, guilty and we bring Him our leftovers. We’ve profaned the sanctuary of our community, which He loves. We’ve turned aside from the way and caused others to stumble. We’ve failed to guard the knowledge of the Lord and speak it from our lips. We’ve forgotten that God is our Father and that He created us. And yet we weep bitter tears with no repentance. We hate the consequences of our sin, but not the sin.
Guarding Our Hearts
Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Repentance is turning in faith. Faith is turning away from sin through repentance. The two can not be separated.
We are to live lives of continual repentance.
Yet God made a covenant with us of life and peace.
We are all Eliashibs. We are priests, but we’ve failed to fight the accommodation of sin. We’ve failed to guard our hearts and the hearts of others. Our sin is masked behind virtue and we’ve failed to call it evil.
But there is a better Priest we can turn to. One who came and cleared the
Jesus, our High Priest. A better priest than Eliashib. A better governor than Nehemiah.
The high priest of Jesus’ day, Caiaphas, hated Him. He threatened his position. Just as Eliashib was a friend of the enemy, so Caiaphas was a friend to
Caiaphas represents all of us who want to get rid of Jesus, all who feel a cold tingle down our spine when Jesus is around because our façade of holiness is shown to be a house of cards.
The truth is, until we see and own our guilt with Eliashib, and until we recognize our part in Caiaphas’ plot to crucify the Son of God, we will never experience its freedom.
You see, Nehemiah’s anger over Tobiah is just and so is his response. Tobiah never belonged in
Jesus, many years later, as predicted by Malachi, came suddenly to His Temple. “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:1).
In John 2:13-16 we’re told:
John 2:13-16: “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.’”
In both instances, the problem was passivity. The people failed to remove Tobiah or Eliashib the priest, and the people failed to remove the money changers in
Nehemiah burned with passion for God’s glory and couldn’t stand to let the
John 2:17-19: “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’”
Psalms 69:9: “For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”
His anger was righteous and so was his response, but he could not transform anything permanently. Nehemiah was realizing that if he went away again, chances are the people would go back to their sinful ways.
Malachi 1:10: “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.”
God was looking for one that would rise up and shut the doors of the
Malachi 1:6-8: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, 'How have we despised your name?' 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, 'How have we polluted you?' By saying that the LORD's table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.”
We bring such pitiful and polluted sacrifices to God and expect that God will be pleased. We hope hat He’ll accept our lame and sick sacrifices.
Who will shut the doors of this defiled
Yes, yes, yes! Malachi’s promise came true. His prophecy has come to pass. His prediction is sure since it is from the mouth of God.
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