Tag Archives: Nehemiah 13

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2024 Bible Study — Little “Wrongs” Quickly Grow Bigger

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

When Nehemiah left Jerusalem and returned to the Persian capital, the people of Judah allowed corruption to become the norm once more.  The man in charge of the temple storerooms turned over one of the largest ones to be used by Tobiah, who had previously tried to prevent Jerusalem’s walls from being repaired.  This resulted in the Levites not receiving their portion, which resulted in them leaving temple service in order to provide for themselves and their families.  In addition, some of the people of Judah had begun doing business on the Sabbath, both on their own account and with foreigners who had come to reside among them.  In addition, Nehemiah discovered that some of the men of Judah had married foreign women and were not raising their children with those women to worship God, this even included the grandson of the high priest.  We have a tendency to see each of these as separate incidents, but in fact they each represented a failure of the people to remain faithful.

If the people are buying from foreigners who bring their wares into the city on the Sabbath, why shouldn’t I sell my wares on the Sabbath?  First, if I don’t, I will lose some of my customers to the foreigners because it is more convenient for my customers to buy from them on the Sabbath than wait for a weekday to do business with me.  Second, even without the possibility of losing customers, it is more convenient for them to do business with me on the Sabbath, since otherwise they have to leave their own work to do business with me.  Then, if the people are doing business on the Sabbath, what is the big deal about the guy in charge of the temple store rooms making a little extra money by renting out space that is under utilized (which quickly makes more space “under utilized” so that he can make more money).  Of course that works both ways, if the guy in charge of the temple store rooms is renting out space in them, why shouldn’t I do business on the Sabbath.  So, the little dispensation we allow ourselves, (I mean really, its just a minor rule, it doesn’t make that much difference) soon grows into widespread disregard for honoring God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2023 Bible Study — Keeping The Sabbath Holy Is Fundamental To Serving God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

After Jerusalem’s wall had been rebuilt and dedicated, Nehemiah returned to the court of Artaxerxes, as he had promised when he first proposed going to rebuild Jerusalem.  Then after a period of time he went back to Jerusalem to discover that the Jews in Jerusalem had neglected maintenance of the temple in his absence and allowed nonbelievers to use the temple for commerce.  As Nehemiah looked around he saw that they had stopped being faithful to God in many other ways.  As I read this passage, Nehemiah realized that their failure to keep the Sabbath holy played a central role in their falling away from God.  In much the same way, I suspect that the failure of Christians in the United States to keep Sunday as a holy Sabbath contributed to their inability to take a stand against other sins.  The first step in bringing people back to God is for those who seek to faithfully serve Him to set one day a week aside purely for maintaining their relationship with Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2022 Bible Study — How Easy It Is To Fall Into Sin

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

Nehemiah left Jerusalem and later returned.  Upon his return he discovered that the Israelites had neglected the Temple, failed to continue to provide support so that the Levites could spend fulltime ministering to God, started to do business on the Sabbath, and married women from among the people’s around them who did not worship God (and who had not given up their idolatry).  All of these things were a violation of the covenant they had entered into upon completing the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  The covenant they were violating was not the one that their ancestors had entered into at Mount Sinai, even though it was a reaffirmation of that covenant.  This was something to which they themselves had agreed.  This passage should serve to remind us of how easy it is for us to fall away from following God’s commands when the spiritual high is over.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2021 Bible Study Being Willing To Call People To Faithfulness

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

I know what I want to write about from today’s passage, but I am not sure I am going to be able to make the point I felt as I read it.  The way the passage is phrased I am not quite sure what happened when here.  However, it looks like between the time Nehemiah returned to the king of Persia and when he once more was in Jerusalem the Returned Exiles became lax in their adherence to God’s Law.  Some of them began to intermarry with the people of the land and others began to follow the local example of doing business on the Sabbath.  Some went so far as to allow those who did worshiped other gods to do business out of the Temple.  The reaction when Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem and put his foot down about these practices shows us that the majority objected to these actions, but lacked the authority to do anything about it. We need to not be afraid to live faithfully, even if it appears that no one else around us is.  Also, we should not be afraid to step up and call people back to being faithful to God if we feel He is leading us to do so, perhaps there are more people who share our understanding of how the people of God should live than we realize.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2020 Bible Study It Only Takes One Corrupt Individual To Destroy Good Intentions

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 11-13.

Every time I read the Book of Nehemiah, I assume that the beginning of chapter 11 is a follow up to the beginning of chapter 7.  To refresh your memory, early in chapter 7 it is noted that when the wall was completed Nehemiah discovered that few people lived in Jerusalem and that he registered all those that did.  Chapter 11 begins with what appears to be how he, and the Jewish people living in the area, solved the problem.  The people living outside of Jerusalem selected, by lot, from among themselves those who would move into Jerusalem.  Those who moved to Jerusalem were honored by those who did not.

As the final part of the plan which Nehemiah had made to restore Jerusalem, he appointed men to manage the offerings and their distribution.  Shortly after appointing these men, he returned to the court of the king of Persia.  Unfortunately, while Nehemiah was in the Persian capital some of those who had been put in charge of Temple storage allowed it to be used by those who had opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls.  The passage does not say so outright, but I understand this to mean that Temple storage was being used for smuggling and/or to otherwise avoid taxes.  The result of this change was that food was not getting distributed to many of the priests and Levites who were intended to work in the Temple.  We see here the difference a single strong leader can make.  There were other leaders who could have confronted the actions of the corrupt individual, but they all looked the other way until Nehemiah returned and held their feet to the fire.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2019 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 11-13.

Earlier in the Book of Nehemiah, when the wall around Jerusalem was first completed, Nehemiah had noted that few people lived within the city and most of those who did were government officials.  At no point does it explicitly address this, but the implication was that there were not enough people in the city for it to be economically viable.  Today’s passage begins with the solution Nehemiah came up with to this problem.  He had the Returned Exiles living in villages outside of Jerusalem all draw lots for a few from each village to move to Jerusalem.  Those who remained in the villages provided support so that those who moved to Jerusalem could afford to do so.  This provides a model upon which much modern missionary work is supported.

The Book of Nehemiah ends with what appears to be a hard-line approach to Jews marrying non-Jews, or even to non-Jews joining and becoming part of the Jewish people.  When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and resumed his governorship over Judea, he expelled all of those of foreign descent from the assembly.  However, this took place after it was discovered that the priest put in charge of the Temple storerooms had made one of the larger storerooms available to Tobiah for storage.  Tobiah was one of the non-Jewish local officials who had opposed Nehemiah’s restoration of Jerusalem.  The storeroom turned over for Tobiah’s use had been intended as a storage room for offerings given for the support of priests and Levites working in the Temple.  As a result of its misappropriation many of the Levites had been forced to leave Temple service in order to support themselves.  In addition, in Nehemiah’s absence many of the leaders of the Jewish people had resumed doing business on the Sabbath, despite having signed the “confession of faith” where they stated they would not do so.  So, overall, this hard-line stance came in response to the fact that rather than demanding that those who wished to join with them in worshiping God abandon all of their pagan practices, the Jewish people had begun adopting some of those practices.  I want to note that it is likely that Tobiah wanted a room in the Temple to store his goods because by doing so he could bypass taxes on those goods.  

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2018 Bible Study — Doing the Work of the Lord Is More Than Just Preaching and Teaching

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 11-13.

    When the walls of Jerusalem were finished the people realized that not enough people, aside from their political and religious leaders, lived in Jerusalem to sustain it as a city. So, it was decided that lots would be drawn among the Jews living in the surrounding area to select who would move to Jerusalem. While those who moved to Jerusalem were selected by lot, it appears that actually moving to Jerusalem was voluntary. The passage does not spell it out explicitly, but it appears to me that those who stayed in the outside villages provided support to those who moved to Jerusalem until they could establish themselves there. All of this shows us that the people recognized that if the Temple in Jerusalem was going to be the centerpiece of their religious life, Jerusalem needed to be economically viable as a city. That is, there need to be people present to provide for the non-religious needs of those who served in the temple. The same thing goes for the work of the Church today. There need to be people to build and repair the structures, to raise and prepare the food, to make and launder the clothes, and all of the other tasks which those who preach and teach the Word of God need done.

    While Nehemiah was in the Persian capital, The priest in charge of the Temple storerooms had converted one of those storerooms from its intended purpose. The priest made it available for Tobiah to use to store his goods there. It is possible that Tobiah was just using this storeroom as free warehouse space, but when we consider his earlier actions (anger over Nehemiah being appointed governor of Jerusalem and opposition to the rebuilding of the wall) it seems likely that these goods were illicit in some manner. In any case, when Nehemiah returned and discovered what was going on, he threw Tobiah’s goods out of the room and dismissed the priest. In addition, Nehemiah discovered that the Levites had been forced to abandon their Temple duties in order to feed themselves because those in charge had stopped providing them with the share of the offerings prescribed by the Law. Reading between the lines of what was written, it reads to me like part of the reason the Levites were not receiving their share was because the room where it was supposed to be stored was being used by Tobiah. It probably never occurred to the priest who re-purposed the room for Tobiah that doing so would have these results. My point is that sometimes our sins may seem minor, but have much larger consequences than we realized.