expository meditations on the book of nehemiah

WHEN Nehemiah arrived back in Jerusalem after a long stay in Babylon attending to his obligations to King Artaxerxes, he found things had become rather bad in Jerusalem. He found that Eliashib, having become far too friendly with Tobiah, had succumbed to the influence of the heathen world around through Tobiah, and had departed from living for the Lord with a true and single heart. The result was that he had given Tobiah the use of a room in the courts of the temple, where Tobiah was carrying out his own agenda, which was not in accordance with the ways of the Lord, and the temple had become defiled by Tobiah's presence and activity.

Nehemiah had the difficult task of the purification of the temple. When we read how he set about it, it all seems straight forward, and perhaps it was more straight forward in Nehemiah's day, but in the 21st century things are not quite so straight forward. However purification, when the church of God has become defiled by the world, is important, and it needs to be tackled, and for this reason we can learn much from the way Nehemiah handled the situation, even though we need to be careful as we apply things to our own day and age.

A CONCERN FOR GLORY OF GOD.

In verse 8 of the passage we are considering we read that Nehemiah "was greatly displeased" when he saw how the temple had become defiled. It was because of this concern for the purity of the church, and the glory of God, that Nehemiah perceived the problem, and made the effort to remedy it.

The purity of the church depends on God's people having a deep concern for the glory of God, so that whenever and wherever the church seems to be tarnishing that glory, we are deeply concerned, and hurt in our souls, for unless we have this concern, when there is a decline in the spiritual life of God's people we will not be bothered very much.

Having said this, our concern for the glory of God must be true, and it must come with a deep humility and love also, or else our concern for the purity of the church will become judgemental, pharasaical, and superior.

When we have a concern for the glory of God we must be sure that it is God that we wish exalted, and not ourselves, or any particular group in the church which we have leanings towards. We need to be careful of our motives.

Do we really care for the souls of others, and how the decline in spiritual life in the church may be hindering the gospel being preached in fulness and power. Do we really care about the glory of God only, and his image in the world, or is our concern for purity somehow tied up with the glory of ourselves or some party to which we belong. We can be deceiving ourselves so easily in this direction. Because we want to be recognised and applauded, we may well seek to engage in action, and maintain we are concerned with Christ's glory, when all the time we are seeking to build up our own image, and are seeking praise from others.

We need to be careful that we are humble enough to know and take to heart that we may not be seeing things entirely in the right way, and so in love be prepared to talk and share with others with whom we disagree, and not simply judge and condemn them, and lay down ultimatums. I know Nehemiah acted with authority and unilaterally, but we are not rulers, nor do we have the supremacy over others in the church.

Then we need to act in love as we seek the glory of God. We love God first, but this means we show a Christ-like love in all our dealings with others, and this means taking time to understand exactly where others are, and why they act as they do. The position they are taking with regard to proper activity and practice in the church, which seems so wrong to us, we may find is motivated by pure motives and the glory of God. Then even if we do not altogether agree with them in the matter, we must not cast them out and separate from them, but rather seek to work with them to obtain a better understanding of where the problem lies.

Much more progress would be achieved in the purifying of the church today, if those concerned over moral and spiritual decline acted more in love and humility, and ceased to be judgemental, and ceased to deliver ultimatums. Separation from others can only be a last resort, and should be engaged in with great reluctance if in the end it may seem to be necessary. Usually it is not, and when separation has taken place in the past, some very godly people have not agreed with it, and not separated. This should cause us to pause before we advocate separation over what is deemed to be error or wrong in the church.

NEHEMIAH'S ACTION.

When we come to Nehemiah's action, everything seems to be so simple. He sees Tobiah using the temple for unholy purposes, which even may have involved heathen religious practices though we are not told this, and he turned Tobiah out and all his goods. He then ordered the rooms to be purified. This was not simply cleaning the rooms, but ceremonially cleansing the rooms from evil, and evil influence. He then returned the rooms to the holy use for which they had been used before. The evil was expelled, the rooms purified, and then put back to their holy use.

This seems very straight forward and simple, but although the principles behind Nehemiah's action are to be learned from, the way he approached the realisation of these principles may not be the way forward in situations today.

Nehemiah was dealing with rooms in the temple. We may have to deal with attitudes that have grown acceptable over time, or with doctrinal error which has been so long in existence, that the error has become the accepted norm. We may be dealing with social and moral issues that we think are very clear cut, but when examined in the light of God's word, and the situations which exist in our society, are not so easily set to rights. One example of this is the marriage in church of divorced people. The Bible makes it clear that sexual intercourse between couples establishes a marriage bond, regardless of whether a marriage ceremony has taken place. The two have become one flesh in the eyes of God. In our day so many people have engaged in sexual intercourse at a very early age. Strictly speaking the first time constituted marriage, and so making any marriage in the future wrong. Can this be enforced? How can any such discipline be enforced?

Then on some moral issues, the way Scripture is interpreted and used, when more closely examined, often is seen to be too much of a simplification, and not truly getting at the teaching which God has given.

Then there is the moral principle which is clear, but the way we tackle the enforcement of it is not so clear. This is illustrated in the case of divorce. The Pharisees came to Jesus to test him on this subject in Mark 10:1-12. Jesus again clearly teaches the sanctity of marriage, and the truth that to divorce and re-marry is to commit adultery, but Jesus also recognises that in the time of Moses divorce was permitted. Jesus makes plain that this was because of the sinfulness of peoples' hearts, but in the complicated situation it was permitted. It did not make the action right, but this permission was needed in the situation at that time.

Relationships become so complicated in modern society that it is impossible to unravel them, and although the moral rules of God must always be clearly taught and maintained as the goal to be achieved, it is not always possible to achieve them, and so we need to be humble and not be judgemental towards those who have difficulties in a direction in which have no problems.

BIBLICAL PRIORITIES.

This whole subject of purity in the church is a very difficult one. The truth is that absolute purity is impossible in this fallen world, although we should always aim at it. What we need to do is to have our priorities molded by the Bible.

When I read the Bible, and see the accounts of the lives of the saints in the Old Testament, there is one thing that is very noticeable if we are prepared to see it. It is that spiritual decline, or as it is often called - spiritual adultery, is far more serious and important than moral decline. We should never be complacent and unconcerned about either, but with regard to the lives of God's servants in the Old Testament, moral sins like more than one wife, and sexual intercourse with prostitutes, and other moral wrongs, though never condoned, are not castigated. When we come to issues which are concerned with God, and his glory, and giving worship to idols rather than to God, God makes his displeasure known clearly and strongly.

An example of this is with Gideon. We are told without comment in Judges 8:29,30 that he had several wives, and not content with these, he also had a concubine in Shechem. However when Gideon encouraged the Israelites to idolatry, even though it was unintentional, when he made a gold ephod which the people venerated, we are clearly told in Judges 8:27 that it became a snare to Gideon and his family, and that the people prostituted themselves spiritually by worshipping it.

Where all this is leading us is this. The way of spiritual and moral purity within the church is best promoted and maintained by the spiritual life of God's people being healthy and true. When God's people are filled with the love and grace of God in the Gospel, and when the Gospel is a power in the land and community, so that people are being brought to faith in Christ by new birth, and the church is spiritually alive and growing in numbers and, much more, in love for God, and in the desire to please him, then the church almost automatically begins to set right the other issues which have suffered from decline. Further the church becomes an influence in the society, not so much by criticising and condemning others, but by the example of a holy life. Christians will be taking up places in all walks of life, and by the way they live will be influencing society. Further where wrongs need to be righted, these Christians will have Nehemiah's zeal for God's glory, and will set about seeking to bring about change. However there action will be taken in a humble spirit, and with much leaning upon God. It will be action promoted by and carried out with love, which will win acceptance gradually, and not just create animosity.

CONCLUSION.

What is needed today, I believe, is preaching that builds up God's people in the glory and wonder of God's love in redemption, so that as we realise and feel more of God's grace and love, we shall conform more to the image of Christ. From this will shine a testimony which wins people, and glorifies God. Let us be concerned with evils around us, in the world and in the church, but let us seek to overcome these not so much by attacking them, but by presenting in our lives and our teaching, a much better way, and a more attractive way of life. Evil is not overcome by law, but rather by the expulsive power of a new affection, which is the joy of the Lord.