Scripture: Nehemiah 13:1-14, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
When Jesus told us that He is the only way to the
Father and to life in His eternity (John 14:6),
He wasn’t suggesting, He wasn’t demanding, He wasn’t bragging – He was simply
revealing the fact that there is one and only one way to heaven, and that is by
faith in Him. We all realize that not
everyone will acknowledge and accept this gift from God, but that doesn’t make
it any less true!
Israel had been told that their beloved Jehovah God
was their only hope to receive a new land of their own, but what did it take
for them to finally believe it? Trial
upon trial, struggle upon struggle, test upon test, defeat after defeat after
defeat, and even more, and even now they still struggle with just who Jehovah
is for each of them.
And how about the Church? Our current denominational dilemma is over
nothing less than this same issue – is God really the only source of Way,
Truth, and Life? What about all of the
other ways that people have followed throughout the years? This has always been the drawback of “free
will”! Our choices are anything but
perfect – we are flawed beings, and our decision-making ability is just as
flawed. Our only hope is through faith
in the fulfilled teaching of Jesus and all who have carried on through the
years in His name and His truth.
But how about Israel during the leadership of
Nehemiah? Were they listening and
learning any better than the rest of us do?
Read Nehemiah 13:1-3
Israel was following the letter of the Law of Moses
perfectly (Deuteronomy 23:3-6). But the question that has to be asked is this
– would this be God’s desire for His people?
In John 13:34-35,
the Lord tells us “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you,
so you must love one another.” We also know that Jesus never invented any
command on His own. Everything that He
passed on to us had come directly from the Father. (John 12:48-50)
So how was Israel loved by the Father? He freed them from captivity to the
Egyptians, He led them faithfully, by day and by night, from Egypt into the
Land of Promise, during the 40 years of wilderness living, providing for all of
their needs along the way. And all of
this in spite of their continuous stream of complaints And this was just the beginning of both
Israel’s dalliances and God’s loving kindness – He never failed Israel and
never will.
And how
did they respond toward others? By
excluding from Israel all who were of foreign descent – not just the Moabites
and Ammonites, but all. But would God
have us exclude everyone from our church who had not already made a commitment
to Jesus? In Romans 5:8-9, we read “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been
justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s
wrath through him!”
Would we deny others the opportunity to be saved from God’s wrath? Guide their involvement in the church,
certainly, but never hold them back from hearing and learning the way of the
Lord for their own lives!
Israel was totally dependent upon the Law of Moses,
and not so much in the Grace of God.
Read Nehemiah 13:4-5
Instead of caring for the needs of the temple and
its spiritual leaders, Eliashib was enhancing his own position with Tobiah, a
man he may have even been related to, but most certainly, who was an associate
within the Persian occupation of Judah.
While there is no reference to the breaking of any law, the priest had
certainly put personal benefit ahead of caring for the nation’s relationship
with their Lord God Jehovah!
While we may not be given a definite reason as to
why this agreement was made and given to a member of the occupation, we can be
certain that this priest was working to put himself in a positive light with
Israel’s enemy.
And what was to be done about it?
Read Nehemiah 13:6-8
When Nehemiah returned from Susa after his meeting
with king Artaxerxes, the return probably being in part for the man’s promise
to the king before he was granted permission to return to Jerusalem for the rebuilding
of the wall. He would receive an
extension of the time he needed to spend in Jerusalem, and when he arrived, he
learned of Eliashib’s relationship building with Tobiah.
The Lord’s ways were being set aside in favor of
worldly desires, and Nehemiah evicted Tobiah from the quarters that he, in no
way, deserved to occupy, and would set about setting all of the wrongdoing
right once again.
Read Nehemiah 13:9-14
The issue of purification was important to
Israel. Any violation of the sanctity of
the temple required a cleansing and return to a focus on God and His ways. But
the violations went far beyond desecration of the temple. The priestly class, and all those from the
House of Levi, were to be cared for by the nation, so that the priest and
teachers could concentrate on their duties to God, and not have to work to
provide for their own needs, as well as those of their families. In a passage from Numbers 18:20-32,
the Lord calls for the care and needs of the Levites through the tithes that
the people give to the temple. And out
of these gifts, the Levites are also required to give a tithe as their gift to
the Lord’s work.
Their every day efforts were never intended to be in
the fields, but to be focused solely on the work of the Lord. And Nehemiah saw to it that the Levites once
again received recognition and restoration in their efforts to serve God. Once again, the ways of the Lord were
returned to primary focus for both the people and the servants of Jehovah.
Read 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Paul speaks against a division in faith that will
always demean and detract from honest obedience to the ways of God. When we belong to Christ, and assent to the
ways He has taught us, nothing else can take precedence in our life – and that
includes legalism. Jesus told us that He
never came to abolish the law or to denounce the words of the prophets, but to
fulfill them all (Matthew 5:17-18). His fulfillment of the law is for
clarification as to what the Law and the prophets had intended for us to know
about our relationship with God.
In the most recent edition of “Good News” magazine,
pg. 10-14, (September/October 2023), in an article titled “Finding
Life Between Law & Grace”, Rev. Caroline Moore writes
regarding the significance of the word “holiness”, that first of all, “Holiness
is meant to release us into the joys of the Kingdom of God.” And later that
“It is not meant to be an unbearable burden.
Instead, it is the ultimate form of freedom.” This is exactly what Paul was trying to tell
the church in Corinth – that true faith brings with it the joy and freedom that
comes from living in a righteous and Godly way, not through a demand to submit
to some set of rigid and restrictive rules.
Later in that same article, Rev. Moore writes “Far
from being restrictive and fun-sapping, holiness calls out the best in us and
causes us to glorify God. It is art, not
engineering. It is the good life.”
Quarreling, gossiping, divergent allegiances,
worldly impressions and perceptions of what the word of God is asking of us -
this is not what faith and “holy living” should be about. Let the word of God thrive to live and guide
each of us in service and caring on behalf of not only the faithful, but for
those who have yet to come to a true relationship with Jesus Christ.
We need to live and love in the way and word of
Jesus Christ, and any other will never get us an ounce of truth, love, or life
in the Lord God of all.
