Today’s reading: Nehemiah 13; John 14
Nehemiah 13 is a really important reminder of how much of an influence one person’s choice to live faithfully for the Lord can have.
The fickleness of the human heart is no new concept in the story of the Bible, and there are a number of passages we could point to to have this same conversation, but the reality is that we are so easily swayed, even from our genuine desires and convictions, when we don’t have people around us helping to keep us on the right track.
Our chapter today though is so egregious that it would almost be comical if it wasn’t so serious. Rather than leading the people to be faithful to the Lord, the leaders among them are performing the most heinous acts of faithlessness themselves! One of the head priests, Eliashib, cleared out the offerings of the Lord from the temple to set up an apartment for Tobiah, one of the local governors who was opposing and trying to attack them when they were rebuilding the wall! Then, one of the sons of the high priest married the daughter of Sanballat, Tobiah’s co-conspirator in trying to destroy the Jews in Jerusalem! In what world would these things seem reasonable at all?? But given that this is how the priests are operating, it’s no surprise that the people have also gone back to ignoring the Sabbath and marrying foreign women, despite the giant debacle that Ezra just had to clear up only a generation ago from them doing the exact same thing!
When Nehemiah shows back up, spiritually speaking, Jerusalem has completely lost it.
But I want us to remember that Nehemiah was not a priest, scribe, prophet, or a religious authority of any kind. Nehemiah was an average Jewish man who cared deeply about the Lord and His people, and was willing to put his neck on the line in faithfulness to the Lord. And there will be people with us in eternity, who would otherwise be condemned, due to the faithful choices of Nehemiah and many others just like him.
This is the immense value of Christian leadership. And I don’t just mean people in positions of technical church leadership, like pastors, teachers, missionaries, etc., but average Christians willing to stand in the gap and call the people around them to continued faithfulness to the Lord. I’m talking about fathers who will continuously point their family back to the Lord; friends who are willing to speak a hard word to one another to keep each other moving in the right direction; volunteers in youth and children’s ministry thanklessly investing in kids so they grow up knowing the love of Christ; and so many others. Running the Christian race well, through to the end, is a communal effort, and we need the people in our lives who will, like Nehemiah, stand up and call us to something better when we start wandering off course. And then, at other times, we need to be like Nehemiah ourselves for others.
When things are moving in the wrong direction, we don’t sit back and wait for a spiritual authority to show up and right the ship. Nehemiah’s example shows us just how important it can be for us to be willing to be the voice of correction when it’s needed ourselves.
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