Forum Class August 29, 2004
Notes from Ray C. Stedman [1989], http://pbc.org/dp/stedman/nehemiah/
THE SHINING LIGHT
In our studies in the book of Nehemiah we have seen how Nehemiah
accomplished in a very remarkable way the task assigned to him to rebuild the
walls and gates of Jerusalem. The point of this history, as we have already
noted, is given in the Apostle Paul's word to the effect that these things
happened to Israel as samples, or types, for us "upon whom the ends of the
ages have come," (1 Cor. 10:11). These events picture the rebuilding of a
life that has been damaged by sin or invaded by enemies.
Chapter 8 highlights the fact that after reconstruction there is a great
need for reinstruction. We must learn to see life from God's perspective. We
need to change the way we think about ourselves and about life. All of us have
been greatly affected by the philosophy of the world, much more than we are
aware. We have picked up from the media ideas and attitudes that we are hardly
aware of as being wrong. We need to be reinstructed about those matters.
In Chapters 1-7 of this book we saw that certain words of the Apostle Peter
described what corresponds in our lives to the building of the wall: "make
every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to
knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance,
godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness,
love..." (2 Peter 1:5-7). Adding these qualities deliberately as we live
is the way to rebuild the walls and gates of a life.
The New Testament verse that corresponds to what we learn in Chapter 8 is
Romans 12:2: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The instrument of that
renewing is always the Word of God. If you need to change things in your life
(or you are praying for someone else who does), then change must come through
the knowledge of the Word of God, through the understanding of truth that was
unknown before. It is not surprising, therefore, that Chapter 8 opens with a
manifestation of a great hunger for the Word among these people in Jerusalem.
When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their
towns, all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate.
They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the
LORD had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra
the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and
women and all who were able to understand. [That
would probably include teenage children, perhaps even children as young as 8 or
9 years of age.] He read it aloud from daybreak till noon [Let's hear no more criticism of long services!]
as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women
and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the
Book of the Law. (Nehemiah 7:73b-8:3)
Notice that this seems to be a spontaneous gathering. These people come
"as one man." No invitations were sent out. No public notice was
given. People were hungry for answers to their problems, for guidelines from
the word from God, and with one accord they gathered in this great square
before the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the priest to bring the Law of the LORD
and to read it to them. This would undoubtedly be the entire Pentateuch -- the
first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. This indicates the tremendous desire of these people for truth.
They listened, while standing, from daybreak until noon! Certainly this long
attention indicates how deeply they were aware of their ignorance about life
and how much they needed answers from God. They were simply crying out for the
word.
Notice that the date of this great assembly was the "first day of the
seventh month" on the Hebrew calendar, which would be October 8th in 445
B.C. Notice also that Ezra the priest, the author of the book of Ezra, appears
for the first time in the book of Nehemiah. Thirteen years earlier he had led a
return from Persia to rebuild the temple and to teach the Law of God.
Apparently he had been occupied in that task all through the time of rebuilding
of the wall. But now when the people have finished their work, they are
desperate to hear from the Word of God so they sent for Ezra to lead them in this.
Mark also that they gathered before the "Water Gate." You remember
from Chapter 3 that this gate was the symbol of the Word of God -- the water of
the Word. This is surely an appropriate place for this gathering to assemble.
As I have already pointed out, the congregation included not only men and women
but also children who were able to understand.
It seems to me that we have come to such a time as this again. The prophet
Amos predicted that there would come a famine in the world for the Word of God.
People would actually be starving for answers to the problems of life. Surely
we have come to just such a time in our own century. I find everywhere a deep
hunger among non-churched people to hear the Word of God. Wherever it is taught
with any degree of understanding, they are immediately attracted to it.
In Singapore a few years ago I was invited to speak to a group of young
Chinese professionals. Some 40 or 50 doctors, lawyers, engineers and others met
in one of the high-rise apartments in the city. As I opened up the Bible to
them I quickly discovered that they were absolutely fascinated with it. When I
had to leave for another appointment, many of them crowded into the elevator
with me, and others came on other elevators down to the lobby, asking questions
all the way. I got in the car and as we were driving off they ran alongside,
still shouting questions through the open windows. I have never forgotten that
display of hunger for God's word among people who had not yet been taught the
Scriptures.
As some of you know, I have been serving recently as the chairman of the
Committee On Biblical Exposition, and we have put on two large congresses in
the last three or four years. At a congress in Houston less than a year ago
between 4,000 and 7,000 people gathered every night to hear the Word of God
expounded by capable Bible teachers. Among them were perhaps two thousand
pastors who came because they wanted to learn what could make their ministry a
success. Many of them wrote us afterwards describing how that congress opened
their eyes to the power and the attractiveness of the Scripture.
When the word is opened up, people begin to understand themselves. This is
the great thing about Scripture. When you know God you begin to understand
yourself, because you are made in the image of God. These people in Jerusalem
were soon growing in self-knowledge as they began to hunger for the Word of
God. The great tragedy of our day is how few churches seem to understand this
power of Scripture. Across the country and around the world there are thousands
of churches in which there is little life. The services are dull and dreary
because the Word of God is not central. The next verses demonstrate the
centrality of the word in this gathering.
Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion.
Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and
Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Misael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah,
Zechariah and Meshullam. [You need a
seminary education to pronounce these names!] Ezra opened the book.
All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he
opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and
all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then
they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
(Nehemiah 8:4-6)
Clearly this is an eyewitness account of this moving assembly. I have often
wondered if this has set the pattern for worship in some of the churches of
Scotland. They, too, have high pulpits, at times with 20 or 30 steps leading up
to them. I have preached in some of these, and it is a remarkable thing to look
out at a congregation spread out below you like that. They have a ceremony
there that is unique. An officer in the Church of Scotland (he is called the
Beadle) comes marching down the aisle with an open Bible in his hand and all
the people stand up. As he places the Bible on the pulpit they say, "Amen!
Amen!." They probably learned that from this account in Nehemiah. Then we
learn how careful these people were to make clear what the meaning of Scripture
is:
The Levites -- Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah,
Masseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah [God never forgets a name!] -- instructed
the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the
Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the
people could understand what was being read. (Nehemiah 8:7-8)
What a marvelously clear statement of how a church service ought to be
conducted! The primary business of Christians is to understand the Word of God
so as to think God's thoughts after him -- to learn to think like God. Some of
the scholars have suggested that the Levites were translating from the Hebrew
language to Aramaic. But these languages are very similar. I do not think there
would be much trouble in that respect. What they are doing, I believe, and some
scholars feel is the case, is that they were breaking into small groups where
people could ask questions and have them answered. They would listen to the
reading of Ezra from the high pulpit and then they would gather in small groups
and the Levites would spread out among the great congregation and give an
explanation of the passage. Then people would ask questions about it and
discuss it. It seemed an excellent way to instruct them so they clearly
understood what the Word of God meant. It is not only important to know what
the Scripture says, it is even more important to know what it means! In Verse 9
there follows a description of the impact of this upon those who heard.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites
who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to
the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been
weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. (Nehemiah 8:9)
Why were they weeping? It was because the effect of the Word of God is to
show us what is wrong with our lives, what is creating the ruin and the
disaster around us. As they listened to the reading of the Scriptures they saw
that the cause of their destitution and ruin lay in their own thoughts and
attitudes. They saw the beauty of God and the ugliness of man. This is always the
ministry of Scripture to the human heart. They saw that the evil in society
came from the pride and arrogance of their own lives. God always lays the
weakness and folly of the world at the church's door, for it is we who ought to
be instructing the people. When the church does not understand itself then
folly reigns in society. This is exactly what Jesus stated in the Gospel of
Mark, Chapter 7:
"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from
within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and
folly." (Mark 7:20-22)
All these things come from within. But until you hear the word you do not
realize that. That is what made these people weep. They saw their own
complicity with evil. I have been noticing recently that some of the secular
commentators of our day are growing extremely frightened and disturbed about
the conditions of life in America. For example, Richard Reeves, a New York columnist,
wrote recently:
I can barely stomach the newspapers here in my hometown. In the tabloids,
day after day, the first four or five pages are routinely filled with stories
of parents beating or starving their children to death, of children plotting to
kill their parents, of people being killed by random gunshots, of people
chopping up other people, of cyanide being put in yogurt at the supermarkets. America,
I think, is out of control in some very weird ways. I don't know how bad it
really is or exactly why it is happening. There are obviously many, many
reasons, beginning with the unrelenting pressure of living in an open and
competitive society... I don't know the answer to any of this. I suspect that
things will get worse before they get better.
Observe the mood of bewilderment there, the lack of understanding of why
things are going wrong. Richard Estrada, who writes in the Dallas Morning News,
describes something very similar, and then comments:
More than anything else, this ugly social breakdown
threatens to desensitize us as a nation. Wild West shoot-outs that kill
innocent bystanders have become commonplace. Drug dealers and gang members have
taken to using children as murderers. Executions of entire families by drug
dealers are not unknown. Sweeps of whole communities by police bent on stopping
the killing are now routine in Los Angeles.
Numbed by it all, we as a people, shrug our
shoulders. Something is disastrously amiss. This is not the America most of us
grew up to revere...We are demeaned as a people by this retrogression. We are
less and less civilized.
Those words are not written by Christian writers. Those are the thoughts of
secular commentators who see the results of rejecting the wisdom of God but
they do not know to explain it. They do not know the cause of the terrible evil
they chronicle.
It is only when you open the Book of God that you learn the reason for these
kinds of conditions. We learn from the Scriptures that as individuals, and as a
nation, we have turned our backs on God's ways and wisdom. We have ignored his
laws. We have missed the glory of his plan. We have messed up the beautiful
world that he gave us. When we see the sad results and hear them poured into
our ears continually by the media, it makes us weep, doesn't it? It makes us
sorrow for all the fine young people who are being destroyed by these terrible
practices.
Of all that is happening today, the most frightening thing is the lack of a
sense of sin in society. People are doing terrible things -- murdering one
another, raping one another, hurting each other right and left -- but they do
not feel they are doing anything wrong. They have no sense of the wrongness of
it. That is what the Word of God is given to correct. It awakens afresh an
awareness of what is causing the wrong. But though weeping is necessary and
important, it is not the final message God has for us. To show this Nehemiah
and Ezra speak up and correct the people.
Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send
some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not
grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." The Levites calmed all
the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not
grieve." Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions
of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words
that had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8:10-12)
What a powerful statement of the effect of the Word of God! When people
understand it, it brings joy. "The joy of the LORD is your strength."
What a great word for grieving people who see the evil in their lives and the
lives of those around them, and mourn over what it has produced! The word that
brings joy is that of forgiveness. God can forgive! He does and he will
restore. That is what Jesus meant when he said, "Blessed are those who
mourn, for they shall be comforted," (Matt. 5:4). I don't think you will
ever be comforted until you learn to mourn. When you see the hurt, pain, and
despair which sin can produce and you grieve over it, then you are ready for
the comfort of forgiveness. That hurt is what is reflected in the prayer
requests in our bulletin this morning, listing all those painful things that
people have asked us to pray about. If we mourn over them, then we shall be
comforted. We shall realize, as this passage so beautifully states, "the
joy of the LORD is your strength."
What does "the joy of the LORD" mean? It is the fact that God has
found a solution to these problems of sin. He has found a way back to sensible,
sober, wise, helpful, wholesome living. How? By learning to think like he
thinks. Begin to see the world from his point of view. Listen no longer to the
clamoring voices of the media. Do not take your philosophy of life from what
people are saying or the advice others are giving. Listen to the Word of God.
That is the answer. It will heal your life. "You sent your word and
healed them," writes the psalmist (Psalm 107:20). The ministry of the Word
of God is to heal us and create in us a desire to share that healing with
others.
Notice how Nehemiah urges the people to send portions of food to those who
had nothing prepared. This is invariably the result in those who find their
lives beginning to be healed by the Word of God. They start thinking of others
who are hurting and want to share with them what they have learned. That way of
health is dramatically demonstrated for us in the closing verses of this
chapter. God had anticipated the need of these people. Centuries before, he had
provided a most remarkable visual aid to remind them of the truth that would
keep them from further destruction.
On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with
the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention
to the words of the Law. They found written in the Law, which the LORD had
commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the
feast of the seventh month and that they should proclaim this word and spread
it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: "Go out into the hill country
and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles,
palms and shade trees, to make booths" -- as it is written. So the people
went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own
roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square
by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. The whole company that
had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua
son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And
their joy was very great. (Nehemiah 8:13-17)
This is the Feast of Tabernacles, a reminder that they were called as a
people out of Egypt. Their departure was sudden and precipitous. They were not
even to sit down when they ate the Passover meal. They had to eat it standing,
with their staffs in their hands, dressed in traveling clothes, ready to leave.
They went out at a word of command, and left Egypt in one night. When they got
into the desert, one day's journey out, and night fell, where were they to find
shelter? Moses had been told by God that they were to collect boughs and limbs
of trees, etc., and build booths for shelter. Then God ordained that they were
to do this once every year. Even though later they had homes to dwell in, they
were to build these booths and live in them for seven days. This was to teach
them that they were always pilgrims and strangers on the earth. This world was
not their home. All the great blessings of life would not necessarily be found
in this present time but were waiting for them in glory. Therefore they did not
need to be distressed if they did not have everything that those around them were
trying to get in this life. This is how the old gospel hymn puts it:
This world is not my home.
I'm just a-passing through.
My treasures are laid up
somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me
from heaven's open door,
And I can't feel at home
in this world anymore.
That is the truth that will deliver us from the pressures of the times. We
must hold things lightly. We must not think that houses, cars, money and
material gain is all that important. Even if we lack these things, the great
treasures of our life remain untouched. To strive constantly to gain what
everyone else has is a mistake. God teaches us to hold these things lightly. We
must never forget that we are in the world but not of it. We are never to
settle down here for good. I love the way C. S. Lewis has put it: "Our
kind heavenly Father has provided many wonderful inns for us along our journey,
but he takes special care to see that we never mistake any of them for
home." We are pilgrims and strangers, passing through this world. We are
involved in it, deeply sometimes, but we are never to see ourselves as a part
of it. What will enable us to remember that? Verse 18 gives us the answer:
Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of
the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth
day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly. (Nehemiah 8:18)
Every day they read the Scripture. Every day they saturated themselves in
the thinking of God. That is what makes for realism: When you think like God
thinks, you are thinking realistically. You are beginning to see yourself the
way you really are. You are seeing your children, your home and your nation the
way they really are. For the first time you are able to divest yourself of the illusions
and delusions of a mistaken, confused world. You are beginning to work toward
wholeness, healing, and strengthening of the things that abide.
A number of years ago I was asked to write something on What the Bible
Means to Me. Here is a portion of what I
wrote then:
The truth is not always easy for
me to hear. Sometimes it pierces me and convicts me. Sometimes I wish I could
evade it. And then I am reminded that it was sent to heal me. Often it
encourages me and heartens me. Sometimes it restores me when nothing else can
do so. It confronts me with paradoxes of revelation which intrigue me and
challenge me. It exposes the secular illusions of the day and reveals the
destructive ends to which they lead. It deals honestly with uncomfortable
concepts and opposes the strongholds of tradition, correcting them with the
authority of God.
I have learned to appreciate the
Bible most because it brings me face to face with my God! That is the reason
for Scripture. It is to reveal God to us. The relationship is so real and
personal that it seems to be a face to face encounter. My heavenly Father
becomes more real and close than any earthly father. I can all but see my Lord
and Savior standing beside me and talking to me as I read his words in the
gospels. Sometimes the words of Scripture become so vivid and luminous that I
feel like kneeling or even falling on my face before the majesty of God. No
other book has such power to transport me beyond earth to heavenly places.
If the churches of this land saw the Bible in that light, and listened
attentively and eagerly to what it was saying, and learned how to conduct their
lives according to the wisdom of this Word, do you think our world would be in
the condition that it is today? I am sure your answer is "No." We
desperately need the wisdom of the Word to instruct us how to live.
LET US BOW BEFORE OUR MAKER
The ninth chapter of the book of Nehemiah records the longest prayer in all
the Bible. Perhaps you do not like long-winded prayers and are nervous about
this one.
There is a great story about D. L. Moody who once asked a certain brother to
pray at a service in the Chicago Church. The man began to pray and was still
droning on after ten minutes had gone by. Finally, Mr. Moody stood up and said,
"While our dear brother is finishing his prayer, let's turn to number 342
and sing it together!" This prayer in the book of Nehemiah is not that
long, but it is a great model prayer which will teach us much for our own
praying.
The first two verses record the occasion when this prayer was uttered. It
follows the celebration of the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, which was
observed in Israel for the first time for many years, following the recovery of
the city of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the walls, the resetting of the gates,
and the restoring of order and some degree of prosperity to the city. That was
a time of celebration but this occasion sounds a different note, as we see in
the opening verses of Chapter 9:
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered
together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those
of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood
in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.
(Nehemiah 9:1-2)
This is clearly a time of sober self-judgment. It is a time when the people
expressed their feelings of shame and grief by refraining from eating, by
wearing burlap (sackcloth) and placing ashes on their heads to symbolize their
inner sense of desolation. They confessed their sins and their father's sins as
well. They were aware that the evil of one generation is often passed along to
the next. Many today have forgotten that this principle still applies. The
cause of this sudden change in the behavior of the Israelites is not given
until the end of this prayer. Let us look ahead to Verses 36-37 which tell us
what it was that caused them to mourn and fast, and to confess their sins.
Addressing themselves to God they say:
But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers
so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of
our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They
rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
(Nehemiah 9:36-37)
Here is a people that recognize clearly the connection between the evil in
their own hearts and lives and the terrible conditions of slavery and bondage in
which they exist.
As we have been noting throughout these studies, this is very similar to our
own times. Today's secular prophets are deeply disturbed by what is going on in
present-day American life. They seem to be saying the same things that these people
are saying. For instance, listen to these words from Brux Austin,
Editor-in-chief of the Texas Business
magazine:
"We are truly the lost
generation, huffing and puffing down the fast track to nowhere, always looking
to the dollar sign for direction. That's the only standard we recognize. We
have no built-in beliefs, no ethical boundaries. Cheat on your taxes, just
don't get caught. Cheat on your wife, just don't get AIDS. Simply use a condom.
Then he goes on to look back at the previous generation, as these people in
Nehemiah do.
"Where did I go wrong?"
is the traditional wail of parents of kids-gone-wrong. The eighties version
says, "We gave him everything -- clothes, a computer, a car, a college
education." Everything but a conscience. We are products of a high-tech
society; amoral automatons outfitted with calculating brains and sleek casings,
just like the computers with which we are so compatible. But they forgot to
give us souls.
He concludes by saying,
What good is lolling in your
Jacuzzi in the beautiful backyard of your breathtaking home if you feel an
aching emptiness in your innards -- a chronic pain that all the wine cooler in
the world can't numb?
Those searching words are descriptive also of what we see taking place in
this chapter of Nehemiah. It is of great relevance to us. Despite our high-tech
industries, our vaunted freedom from moral restrictions, our Rolex watches,
Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs, we are really slaves today in America. Slaves in the
land of the free and the home of the brave! What irony!
In this prayer of the Levites in Nehemiah 9 we learn how to recover from
that kind of a situation. What can we, the people of God (as they were the
people of God) do to help change this condition? As we read in these opening
verses, they gathered before God to pray: They fasted. They wept. They asked
for mercy. They kept it all strictly within the family of Israel. They did not
go outside it to involve foreigners. They did not blame others for their
plight. They looked to themselves and "confessed their sins and the
wickedness of their fathers." And they did one other thing, recorded in
Verse 3:
They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD
their God for a fourth of the day, and spent another fourth in confession and
in worshiping the LORD their God. (Nehemiah 9:3)
Three hours of confession and then three hours of praise! Thus they
presented their case to God. As we read on we will see that the Levites divided
themselves into two groups. Some were standing on the stairs leading up to the
Water Gate and others were on a platform on the opposite side of the square.
These groups were calling back and forth to the people, one group confessing
the sins of the people, the other praising God in language that fit the situation
at the time.
Standing on the stairs were the Levites -- Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel,
Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani -- who called with loud voices to
the Lord their God [these were the
confessors]. And the Levites -- Jesuha, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah,
Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah -- said: "Stand up and praise
the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting" [these were the praise leaders]. (Nehemiah
9:4-5a)
We have, then, a kind of antiphonal chorus: one group confessing sin,
another group answering them, extolling the glory, compassion and mercy of God.
The rest of this chapter, from Verse 5 through Verse 37, gives us the actual
words they employ. I want to read it through with you. We will let the text
itself teach us how to confess sin before God and how to praise him for his
mercy and grace. It begins with a great section of praise. Verses 5-15 are all
praise to God. First, God is praised as the Creator and Maker of everything.
"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all
blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the
highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it,
the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the
multitudes of heaven worship you." (Nehemiah 9:5b-6)
That is a great place to start when you are praising God. Begin with the
life he gave you. It seems strange to me that men who are dependent every
moment on life given to them by God, allow themselves so easily to forget that
fact.
We did not create ourselves. We did not fashion this intricate machinery
that sustains our bodies. Did you ever think of all the processes that are
happening in your body right now that are keeping you alive, over which you have
no control? That pacemaker in your mind that keeps your heart beating, for
instance. You do not control that. It would be awful if you had to, wouldn't
it?
The diaphragm that keeps you breathing in and out. Wouldn't it be terrible
if you had to lie awake all night and say, "Now dia, now phragm, now dia, now phragm, now dia,
now phragm!" God sustains us
moment by moment. We ought to be grateful for that. Let us never forget that
our very breath comes from him.
Then the next section praises God as the Caller and Chooser of men. He is
the One who gives undeserved blessings to those he chooses.
"You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of
the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and
you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the
Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites [These were the Canaanite tribes that inhabited the
land of Palestine]. You have kept your promise because you are
righteous." (Nehemiah 9:7-8)
God is the keeper of promises. He is the One who initiates the call of man
to himself. The New Testament tells us that not one of us would ever seek God
if he had not first sought us. It is he who awakens in us feelings and desires
to draw near to him and to find out the truth of where we came from. These
eternal questions that throb in the minds of men and women all over the world
are planted there by the Spirit of God. It is he who calls, chooses and draws
us to himself. Not one of us would be here today if it were not for that
merciful, sovereign call of God. Jesus said, "No man can come unto me
except my Father draw him." We are here today because the Spirit of God in
wondrous grace has drawn us irresistibly to himself. Then they praised God as
the Deliverer from sin and its enslavement.
"You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their
cry at the Red Sea. You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how
arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which
remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed
through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a
stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by
night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to
take." (Nehemiah 9:9-12)
This is a retelling of the history of this nation, beginning with the call
of Abraham and their deliverance from Egypt. Some of us are inclined to be
indifferent to history. We should remember the wise words of George Santayana,
the Spanish philosopher: "He who forgets the past is condemned to repeat
it." Many have done that. We have forgotten the lessons God taught us and
gone right back to do the same things over again, plunging ourselves once more
into rebellion and slavery. Let us never forget that we have been wonderfully,
even miraculously, delivered by the great hand of God.
Last Monday night I reminded my class about a young man who was subjected to
the mockery of his friends when he became a Christian. "Do you believe in
all those miracles of the New Testament?" they asked him. "Yes, I
do," he replied. "Do you believe that one about Jesus changing water
into wine?" they demanded. "Yes, I believe that," he said.
"How could he do that?" they asked. The young man responded, "I
don't know how, but I believe it, because at our house he changed beer into
furniture!" When God changes the heart, all kinds of wonderful
deliverances take place. So the Israelites praise God for his deliverance of
their nation. Then they praise him as the great Provider of wisdom and the
necessities of life.
"You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You
gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and
commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them
commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave
them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the
rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with
uplifted hand to give them." (Nehemiah 9:13-15)
Here is God's providential care of his own. He taught this people how to live
in the midst of great wickedness. He knew he was sending them into a land
inhabited by tribes who were morally degraded to a degree that is appalling to
us today. They openly indulged in lewd practices. They offered their children
to the god Molech by throwing them alive into a furnace of fire. It was among
this people that these Israelites had to live. Yet God taught them how to avoid
defilement and contamination from those things. He taught them how to be
friends with these people, but not be destroyed by their immorality.
It is exactly the situation we are called to live in today. God has given us
this wonderful book that teaches us the rules of life, health, salvation,
deliverance and the inner strength that can resist the temptations that abound
all around us. To neglect it is folly. God also supplied their needs. He gave
them bread to eat when there was none. He gave them water from the rock in the
middle of the desert. That is not only an account of meeting physical needs,
but it describes the meeting of spiritual needs as well. The New Testament
tells us these are pictures of Christ: He is the bread of life; he is the water
of life. As the Israelites learned the meaning of these symbols they began to understand
that there was coming One who would fully meet the need of the human heart.
Thus they looked forward and saw the coming of the Messiah.
Now, the confessing group takes up the theme and, in the rest of the
passage, we have an alternation between confession and praise. One groups cries out, confessing sin, and then the other answers with
praise to God.
But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not
obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles
you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion
appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. (Nehemiah 9:16-17a)
This is the direction rebellion always takes. When you rebel against God you
invariably want to go back to the evil that you once were involved in. That is
what Israel did. They actually wanted to go back to Egypt, back to beatings and
oppression by the heavy hand of Pharaoh, back to slaving all day, making bricks
without straw. They forgot all the bondage because they longed for the sensual
pleasures of Egypt. That is how rebellion deceives. But now there follows a
wonderful word of praise. It covers the history of Israel in three divisions:
First, the scenes around the Mount of Sinai:
But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger
and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast
for themselves an image of a calf and said, "This is your god, who brought
you up out of Egypt," or when they committed awful blasphemies. (Nehemiah
9:17b-18)
Where did the impression ever arise of God as a cruel, stern God, thundering
judgments upon people, demanding that they toe the mark or else be punished
severely and without mercy? God is always described in the Old Testament as a
God of loving care. He is compassionate and patient. He waits while people go
through their trials, hoping they will learn lessons along the way, that they
might return to him so that he can bless them. Even as these people blasphemed
God by creating this golden calf they called their god, he did not wipe them
out but spared them, as this account says. Verse 19 moves on to the desert and
the years of wandering:
Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert.
By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the
pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your
good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their
mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained
them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did
their feet become swollen. (Nehemiah 9:19-21)
Have you recently looked back on your life and counted up the providential
care of God in your experience? We tend to take God's blessings for granted and
concentrate our attention on what we do not have. The media teaches us that we
deserve far more than we are getting. They flash shiny cars before us and say,
"You deserve this. You are the kind of person that ought to have this. You
deserve to be the president of your company. You deserve to take annual cruises
on the Caribbean. You deserve to have a BMW or a Jaguar -- maybe two of them.
You deserve to live in a beautiful, well landscaped home."
But when you turn to the Scriptures you see the other side of it. There we
are brought face-to-face with what has actually gone on in our lives and in our
hearts. Hidden behind locked doors of silence are acts of cruelty, violence,
anger, thoughtlessness, immorality, child abuse, sexual abuse, and other ugly,
miserable, vicious practices. God has seen all that. When we face the full
picture as it really is, we learn that we do not deserve anything but death.
But that is not what we get! We do not get death. That is the point. God is
patient and longsuffering with us. He withholds judgment. He lets us experience
some judgment in order to get our attention, but he does not wipe us out. He is
a compassionate, merciful, caring, loving God. That is what these people are
reminding themselves of.
Then there follows another period of confession, gathered around their life
in Canaan, their conquests and achievements by God's hand.
You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest
frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country
of Og king of Bashan. You made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky,
and you brought them into the land that you told their fathers to enter and
possess. Their sons went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before
them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to
them along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as
they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took
possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug,
vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and
were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness. (Nehemiah 9:22-25)
It is an amazing story! These people had just come out of 400 years of
slavery in Egypt. They had no military training. They were not an aggressive
people, and yet they confronted armies of well-trained pagans who were used to
fighting, and swept them away. They took over great cities and won the land.
This is describing the book of Joshua. When they were finished, they recognized
that God had done this and they praised him for his marvelous goodness to them.
Have you ever thanked God for the victories you have achieved in your life;
your promotions that you did not expect to get; your achievements at work or in
your home? Have you stopped to revel in the goodness of God? That is the right
thing to do. Recognize that God is with you. God's hand is in what you do. Give
him glory for that. But the other group now comes in to give us the other side
of the picture.
But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law
behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order
to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. (Nehemiah 9:26)
How does God deal with people who treat him like that? After he has blessed
them abundantly and given them so much, what happens when they forget to give
him glory and turn their backs on him? The other group tells us:
So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when
they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in
your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand
of their enemies. (Nehemiah 9:27)
That is the book of Judges -- the story of Israel at last brought under the
rule of strangers for 20, 30, 40 years at a time. Then, as the people would cry
out to God, he would deliver them every time by sending a judge. But it is also
clear from Judges and this account that their rebellion led to ugly things,
among them murder and sexual perversion. Then the confessors come in again, in
Verse 28:
But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your
sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled
over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in
your compassion you delivered them time after time. (Nehemiah 9:28)
What a marvelous picture of the patience of God! This is the way God works.
He lets us taste the results of our evil. He gets our attention sometimes by
letting sickness come or disaster strike. But it is only in order that we might
hear what he is saying and be delivered. He warns us in order to keep us free.
One Sunday evening in the '70s we invited the president of the Gay People's
Union of Stanford University to come here and speak to our young people on the
subject: What the Bible says about Homosexuality. We extended to him the opportunity to defend the position that the
Bible endorses homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle. We told him he could
say whatever he liked and bring all the literature he wanted. If you were here
that night you will remember that, although this man was the president of the
Debating Club at Stanford, he struggled as he tried to present his case. He
would read a passage and then say, "It really doesn't say that, does
it?" and then he would turn to another passage. He went all through the
Bible trying to prove his cause, but he floundered and could not get anything
together.
We had made an agreement with him that when he finished one of our young
pastors would speak to the same subject. I remember well how graciously Steve
Zeisler opened the Scriptures and pointed out that when God forbids something
it is not because he wants to limit us or narrow our lives. It is because he is
protecting us from something that we cannot handle, something so devastating it
will eat away at the vitals of our life and ruin us. We heard from the Word
over and over again how homosexuality destroys human beings and turns them into
something God never intended them to be. Eventually they would be locked into
pain, hurt, misery, loneliness and death.
Out of that episode there came opportunity for us to reach out in compassion
to those who were struggling with homosexual tendencies. We have seen a great
number delivered and set free by the mercy and grace of God. That is what this
passage describes -- the tough love of God who will not let ruin overtake us
without adequate warning. We have the last dual presentation of confession and
praise,
You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and
disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man
will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became
stiff-necked and refused to listen. (Nehemiah 9:29)
Again they are confessing the mistakes of a previous generation. They see
clearly how much of their own agony and hurt has come from the mistakes their
fathers made before them. But then the praise group comes in:
For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished
them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over
to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to
them, or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. (Nehemiah
9:30-31)
There covers the rest of the Old Testament: the story of Israel's
subjugations, first by the Syrians, later by the Assyrians, and finally the
Babylonians. God allowed these enemies to come in to make his people see what
was happening; to wake them up to the damage being done.
The closing paragraph here, beginning with Verse 32, brings their history
down to their own time. Here we find a change of pronouns. They have been
talking about "they" and "them." Now we read about
"we" and "our" as they begin to look at their own
generation.
Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps
his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes
-- the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our
priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of
the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have been
just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong. Our kings, our leaders,
our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention
to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their
kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land
you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. (Nehemiah
9:32-35)
As we saw at the beginning, they acknowledge that they are slaves in their
own land and because of their own sins. This is where we find ourselves in
America today. Our cities are torn with violence, strife, and drug wars of such
intensity that people hardly dare go outside their homes. We are slaves in our
own land. The only recovery is to do as these people did -- confess our
wrongdoing to God and praise him for his compassionate mercy.
These Levites teach us how to confess. Notice how specific they are. "We
did wrong. You have acted faithfully but we did wrong. We did not pay attention
to your laws. We did not hear your words, etc." Some Christians think they
are confessing whey they say,
Lord, if I have injured any soul
today,
If I have caused some foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive.
But that is not confession. There is no "if" in true confession.
You do not say, "If I did this..." You say, "Lord, I did it. I
failed. I turned aside. I forgot your Word. I walked in my own willful
way." Then God hears, forgives and restores. That is his gracious nature.
That is what he wants to do.
This word needs little application. We are in the same place today. We see
the same two themes at work -- the rebellion and indifference of men, and the
gracious, loving patience of God until he is at last forced to take action. He
is waiting to pardon us when the wrong of our lives is faced. I am not going to
diminish the impact of this on individual hearts. I am going to give an opportunity
now for each of us to sit in quietness before the Lord and confess directly to
him the sins of our own life and to pray for forgiveness.
THE NEW RESOLVE
"All Scripture," says the Apostle Paul in his second letter to
Timothy, "is inspired [breathed-out] by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16
RSV). All of Scripture, therefore, has practical application to our lives
today. All of it, whether it be a list of names as dry as dust, or a beautiful
display of poetry from one of the psalms or the prophets, it all has great
value for us.
Perhaps we have felt this as we have been studying through the book of
Nehemiah together. We have been tracing in this book the steps to recovery from
spiritual ruin or damage:
The first seven chapters tell the story of the rebuilding of the walls of
Jerusalem. This teaches us how to restore our defenses -- how to rebuild the
walls and the gates of our lives -- to close the gaps where the enemy has been
getting at us, either through some outward practice or an inward attitude that
has been destructive and damaging in our relationships with others.
Then, beginning with Chapter 8 and on through the middle section of the
book, we have been looking at the need for a change of outlook: How to renew
our minds, to be reinstructed in the truth, to correct our thinking so we begin
to think as God thinks. That involves a careful hearing of the Word of God.
Remember the great scene of all Israel standing before the Water Gate and
listening, hour after hour, to the reading of the Scripture. That is what
changed that nation.
As we apply this to our own lives, it also involves, as it did for them,
acknowledging our past error and failure and confessing to God and praising him
for his wonderful goodness. That brings us to the natural outcome of this,
which is commitment to a new lifestyle. We find this in Chapter 10, though it
actually begins with the closing verse of Chapter 9:
In view of all this, [i.e., their
confession and praise of God] we are making a binding agreement,
putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are
affixing their seals to it. (Nehemiah 9:38)
This is a wonderful display of the need which many people feel to put into
verbal form the new directions they want to take in life. There follows here a
list of the signers of this new covenant, or new agreement, that Israel is
making. They fall into four groups, who are identified for us in a rather
intimidating list of names. (I do not propose to read them all. I suggest that
if you have a newborn son in your home, you may want to look through this list
and pick out a name for him. Perhaps a name like Shebaniah or Hashabiah will
make him distinguished among his peers!)
First of all Nehemiah himself, the governor, signs this, and with him a
company of the priests whose names are given. Then a group of Levites, those
who serve the temple, sign this agreement. Then there is a group of the
leaders, the rulers or nobles of the land, who sign it. Finally, in Verses
28-29, we have the common people. I propose to look at this paragraph in
detail.
The rest of the people priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple
servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the
sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and
daughters who are able to understand all these now join their brothers the
nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God
given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands,
regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord. (Nehemiah 10:28-29)
That is a list of what might be termed the company of the committed. These
people see a need for preserving and perpetuating the changes in their
lifestyles so as to keep in step with God; thus they sign this agreement to
bind themselves to that end. This agreement represents a kind of universal urge
found among humans to publicly and seriously pledge themselves to be loyal to a
cause they feel is right. There are many instances of this recorded in history.
For instance:
When the Pilgrims were about to land at Plymouth, they formed what they
called the Mayflower Compact. They drew
up rules for living in the new land and they all signed it as an agreement to
live by these principles and laws.
Probably the most famous document in American history is the Declaration of
Independence. Our forefathers signed that great statement setting forth the
reasons why they felt God was leading them to establish a new nation upon this
continent. Recall the closing words of that document:
For the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
History records that most of those signers of the Declaration actually did
have to give up their lives. Those who did not lost their fortunes. But all of
them retained their sacred honor. Perhaps you have done something like that in
your own life. There came a time when you realized you needed to make some
changes in your behavior. Some of the greatest saints of the past did this.
They drew up for themselves rules for their own conduct practices they felt
would help them to walk with God and to grow in grace and favor before him.
I was reading the life of Abraham Lincoln not long ago, and was interested
to read that in 1862, at the very height of the Civil War, Lincoln said to his
cabinet:
"When the rebel army was at
Frederick I determined, as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, to
issue a Proclamation of Emancipation such as I thought most likely to be
useful. I said nothing to anyone; but I made the promise to myself, and
[hesitating a little,] and to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I
am going to fulfill that promise."
That was the background of the great Emancipation Proclamation which freed
the slaves for the first time in this country.
In the remainder of the chapter, beginning with Verse 30, we find the
specific commitments that these Israelites made. I would like to summarize them
for you first and then we will look at them a little closer. There are six of
them:
First, they committed themselves to avoid the unequal yoke in their
marriages. Second, they promised to observe anew the seventh day (the Sabbath),
and the seventh year, (the Sabbatical). Third, they promised to provide money,
grain and animals for the offerings of the temple. Fourth, they promised to
bring the first fruits of their crops, their herds, their flocks, and their
firstborn sons, to God. Fifth, they promised to pay ten per cent (the tithe,)
of all their income, their crops and wealth to the temple. Sixth, they promised
to attend faithfully the house of God. Now let us look in more detail at these
commitments. First, their promise to avoid the unequal yoke.
We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us
or take their daughters for our sons. (Nehemiah 10:30)
That may look discriminatory, but there is an excellent reason for that. The
peoples among whom Israel was called to live were unusually degenerate. They
practiced public lewdness. They worshiped sexual organs. Their immorality had
spread diseases among their people. They killed their children by throwing them
alive into furnaces of fire in worship to their god, Molech. To protect the
Israelites from these dangerous practices God had told them not to intermarry
with these peoples. Though intermarriage might look right and proper to us, it
would introduce into Israel attitudes and concepts that would ultimately
undermine their faith and destroy them and their nation. This is what actually
happened. Though Solomon, David's own son, was said to be the wisest man who
ever lived, he nevertheless contracted over a thousand marriages with foreign
women, who brought their gods with them and eventually introduced pagan
practices into the worship of Israel. By the time Solomon's son came to the
throne, the nation was so divided they could no longer exist as one but were
separated into two. So this was a very wise pledge to make.
What we are concerned about, of course, is the practical application of this
to us. This command is actually repeated in Paul's second letter to the
Corinthians, not concerning racial distinctions, but religious. He says,
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers, for what does a believer have
in common with an unbeliever, or what agreement is there between the temple of
God and idols?" (2 Cor 6:14-16). Many Christians have ignored that to
their own detriment by intermarrying with others of a different faith. They
have thereby so undermined their own faith that evil in many ways has
ultimately crept in and destroyed their marriages. Now there is no guarantee
that if you marry a Christian you are going to have a happy marriage because
there are other principles involved. But it is much more likely to happen
because there are principles and practices taught to us in the Word that make
for happiness in marriage. It is certain that if you disobey this command,
however, you are opening the door to much heartache, struggle and misery. There
are passages designed to help people who have already done that for God is very
practical and merciful. He recognizes that for various reasons intermarriage
may occur. There are guidelines to help handle those situations. But by and
large this is practical wisdom that needs to be adhered to today. Marry those
who share the same faith you have, because faith is the basis for all of life.
The second thing the Israelites promised is to observe the seventh day and
the seventh year.
When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the
Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every
seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.
(Nehemiah 10:31)
This is a rather amazing commandment. God had said, "Six days shall you
labor but on the seventh day you shall rest." The seventh day is Saturday,
not Sunday. In the last century many Christians mistakenly carried the
restrictions of the Sabbath over into Sunday. They even called Sunday the
Sabbath. If you have seen the movie "Chariots of Fire" you know that
that is a central factor in that story. But Sunday is not the Sabbath. Sunday
is the Lord's Day. It is a day for rejoicing, witness, rest and celebration. It
still preserves the idea of rest for the body. The Sabbath and the seventh year
are both a picture of rest. What God is teaching us is that we need rest in the
midst of our activity. It is still an easily demonstrated fact that if you do
not rest periodically your body will begin to deteriorate. You cannot maintain
health by constant activity. We need a repeated period of rest. So the seventh
day is still a very wise thing to observe. But spiritually it is a picture for
us of learning to rest in God at work. The Sabbath followed the pattern of
creation. In six days God created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh
day he rested. He no longer created. He stopped working. There is a wonderful
verse in Hebrews that says, "He that enters into rest has ceased from his
own work even as God did from his" (Heb 4:10).
What this wonderful visual aid from the Old Testament is teaching is: We are
to work. We are to make decisions. We are to act. We are to make choices. But
we must not forget that our activity will never be enough to accomplish what we
hope to achieve. It cannot do it by itself. God must be at work in it as well.
He will back up our labor and use it in ways that we could never anticipate.
That is what this verse describes. We do not have to worry about doing it all
ourselves. We are to do what we can do and then expect God to use that. This is
the repeated lesson of Scripture all the way through the Old and New Testament
alike. God will take our simple effort and use it in ways we could never
imagine. That is the story of the feeding of the five thousand. God took a
boy's simple lunch of loaves and fishes and, as Jesus prayed over it and
blessed it, multiplied it until it fed five thousand people. That is the
picture of one who rests in the working of God. That is the teaching of the
seventh day.
But the seventh year teaches us to rest in the supply of God. God promises
to supply his people's needs. We see this in the 25th chapter of the book of
Leviticus where the LORD says to Israel:
"Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live
safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your
fill and live there in safety. You may ask, 'What will we eat in the seventh
year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?' I will send you such a blessing
in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you
plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue
to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in." (Lev.
25:18-22)
Again, that is God's way of teaching his people that we cannot do enough to
supply all our needs, but he can and will. One of the great lessons taught to
us again and again is that God will supply.
I remember as a boy reading the thrilling story of Hudson Taylor. That
enterprising young missionary went out to China and threw aside traditional
approaches to the native population and began to preach and teach. He learned
great lessons about God's ability to supply. Eventually he came up with what
has become a perpetual slogan of the China Inland Missionary, now called the
Overseas Missionary Fellowship. It is: "God's work done in God's way will
never lack God's supply."
Peninsula Bible Church has tried to operate on that basis through all its
years, and we can say with great thanksgiving, it is true. God supplies our
needs if we are careful to see that the work is done in his way.
I recall how excited I was a few years ago when we were planning the first
Congress on Biblical Exposition. We needed a huge amount of money. It was in
the early days of our planning when he had not developed any kind of a support
list. We realized that unless we came up with at least $200,000 in cash within
a week the work would fall apart and we could not go on. We would have to
cancel our meeting and close out our effort. Several of us gathered at Mount
Hermon and set this before the Lord. We said, "This is your work. If you
want it to succeed, you must supply." At a meeting that night, although we
never made any mention of money, to my great astonishment and thanksgiving, I
was handed a check for $50,000! Others began to call in and by the end of the
evening we had the promise of $200,000 in cash. This was God's supply. This is
what he is teaching us: that we are not left to our own efforts. It is not up
to us to do all the planning, programming and arranging and to supply
everything. That is what the world believes. But our God is a God of supply.
That is what the sabbatical year means.
The third thing they undertook was to provide the money, the grain and the
animals for the sacrificial offerings.
"We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands to give
a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God: for the
bread set out on the table; for the regular grain offerings and burnt
offerings; for the offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moon festivals and appointed
feasts; for the holy offerings; for sin offerings to make atonement for Israel;
and for all the duties of the house of our God. We -- the priests, the Levites
and the people -- have cast lots to determine when each of our families is to
bring to the house of our God at set times each year a contribution of wood to
burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law. (Nehemiah
10:32-34)
They recognized the need for offerings and sacrifices, and that they had to
continue from year to year. The history of Israel clearly reveals that the
primary character of this nation was an emphasis on shedding the blood of
animals and offering up their crops and grain to God. By so doing they were
never allowed to forget the cost of redemption. Blood shed means a death has
occurred. God is teaching his people that their problem with sin within was of
such a serious nature it cannot be solved by merely instructing the mind. Only
death can cure it.
These bloody offerings prepared the way for the death of Jesus and even our
remembrance of that death at the Lord's Table. We ought to meditate on this
every day. We should never allow ourselves to forget the cost of our
redemption. It took all that God had to open a door that we might return to
him. As Peter put it, "We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot," (1 Pet 1:18-19).
The fourth thing, and very closely related to the foregoing, was the promise
of these people to bring the first fruits of their crops, herds, flocks, and
even their sons to God.
We also assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the LORD each
year the first fruits of our crops and of every fruit tree. As it is also
written in the Law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle,
of our herds and of our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests
ministering there. Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of
our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings,
of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil. (Nehemiah 10:35-37a)
Why did they do this? Why was God so concerned about getting the first of everything dedicated to him? God tells us in his
original command found in the book of Exodus.
After the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to
you, as he promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over
to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your
livestock belong to the LORD. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if
you do not redeem it, break its neck. [You
have no right to have it unless you will redeem it.] Redeem every
firstborn among your sons. In days to come, when your son asks you, "What
does this mean?" say to him, "With a mighty hand the LORD brought us
out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to
let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This
is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and
redeem each of my firstborn sons. And it will be like a sign on your hand and a
symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty
hand. (Exodus 13:11-16)
What they are doing, of course, is recognizing the ownership and rights of
God in their lives. A corresponding truth for us today is written across the
front of this auditorium: "You are not your own; you are bought with a
price," (1 Cor 6:19b-20a). God owns us. We do not own ourselves. I have
made sure that in the refurbishing of this building these words will not be
taken down because they form the central element of our Christian faith. The
world says, "You are your own. If you are pregnant and you do not want the
baby, you can kill it, because you have a right to do what you please with your
own body." But the Bible says, "No, you are not your own. You do not
have a right to do anything you like with the body God gave you."
This is true in other aspects of life as well. We are not our own. We have
no right to determine what we are going to do with our lives, or even whom we
are going to marry. We have certain choices granted to us, but not all choices.
One of the important aspects of becoming a Christian is to recognize the rights
of God, and to live our lives within the limits he establishes. That is what
this great passage is teaching. It is the way by which Israel recognized
frequently and continually that their lives were not their own. They too
"were bought with a price." They belonged to God. He has the right to
direct their affairs and make many choices for them. The fifth thing is the
matter of the tithes, or the tenth part of their wealth.
And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the
Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest
descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes,
and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God,
to the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites,
are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and oil to the storerooms
where the articles for the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering
priests, the gatekeepers and the singers stay. (Nehemiah 10:37b-39a)
It was about this time that the prophet Malachi was saying to the people,
"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now herewith, saith
the LORD, that I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing
such as you are not able to contain," (Malachi 3:10). This promise to pay
the 10% is the response of the people to that appeal. God ordained that the
tithes would be used for the support of the temple and the ministry of the
Levites and the priests, in order that there might be spiritual guidance among
this people.
When you come to the New Testament the tithe is no longer laid upon
believers as a requirement, despite the fact that many churches teach that we
are to pay the tithe today. The New Testament teaches that Christians are to
give a proportion of their wealth to the Lord to recognize that it all came
from him. You are permitted to determine that proportion yourself,
"according as God has prospered you" (1 Cor. 16:2). Chapter 16 of
First Corinthians, and Chapters 8 and 9 of Second Corinthians, are devoted to
this subject. There we are told to choose ourselves how much we can give to
God. The motive is God's primary concern. We are to give as a response of
gratitude for the blessings he has given us. God pays careful attention to the
motive. Offerings do not mean a thing in his sight unless they are given with a
cheerful spirit and from a thankful heart. They are to be used for the support
of the ministry, but they are given as an expression of thanksgiving on our
part.
God has ordained this as the way by which the ministry, the spiritual
guidance of the church, would be supported. You give because God has first
given to you. If you feel grateful for that; if your life has been changed; if
you know that God has poured out blessing abundantly into your life; or stood by
you in time of trial; or granted you unusual advantages; or opened doors of
service and opportunity for you; or healed you when you were hurting and
broken; then, of course, your heart becomes filled with gratitude, and out of
that gratitude you are to give as freely as you can to the Lord. Some people
can only give perhaps as little as 5%. I knew a man who gave 90% of his wealth
to God all of his Christian life, and God used him greatly. But that is
something we are freely to determine. The final promise is given in the last
phrase of the chapter:
"We will not neglect the house of our God." (Nehemiah 10:39b)
This is the commitment of these people to faithfully attend the worship
services of the temple. All through the history of Israel the temple, or the
tabernacle before that, was called "the house of God." God signified
his presence there by the Shekinah Glory that was located in the Holy of
Holies.
Today, under the New Testament, no building is ever to be called "the
house of God." This has been ignored by the churches throughout the
centuries, and temples, cathedrals, tabernacles and church buildings have all
been called "the house of God." If you look to the teaching of the
New Testament, however, you will find that it is not a building but the people
who are the house of God. When David Roper was here with us he led us into
changing the sign out in front. Where it says "Peninsula Bible
Church," he suggested we add the words "Meets Here." Thus it is
not the building that is Peninsula Bible Church -- it is the people who gather
here: They are "the house of God." It is wonderful to contemplate
that. Where the people of God meet together, there you have the house of God.
On Easter Sunday, when both our congregations meet together at the Shoreline
Theater, while they are there, that secular auditorium becomes the dwelling
place of God!
What this is teaching us is that we need the ministry of the saints to us
all. The Apostle Paul prayed that the Ephesians may come to know "with all
saints, what is the height and depth and length and breadth and to know the
love of Christ which passes understanding," (Eph 3:18-19 KJV). You cannot
do that without the ministry of other people. This is of God. Hebrews has a
specific admonition to that end: "Let us not give up meeting together as
some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the
more as you see the Day approaching," (Heb 10:25). The writer is referring
to the return of Jesus. As we see it nearing, we need all the more to gather together
be cause we need each other's support.
Last week I heard of two of our members here, men widely different in
temperament, who are working together. Normally they would not get along very
well. They might not even like each other. But they work together and both bear
witness to the fact that having to work with someone you do not particularly
have affinity with has been a blessing to them. They have learned how to
appreciate someone different from themselves. They have learned how to be
tolerant and patient with one another. Though it has been a struggle, and they
have had their moments, they both agree that God has used this to teach them
how to grow. So even those in "the house of God" who irritate us can
be of benefit to us -- but especially, of course, those who delight us,
encourage us and hold us up.
There, then, are the goals for successful living. That is what both
Testaments teach us. Let me review them quickly for you:
Marry in the faith. Do not choose a mate who does not know the Lord. Learn
to work and live out of rest. Learn that God will pick up what you do and use
it far greater than you were able to do. Expect him to do so and rest on that
fact. Do not strain or worry, and feel it all depends on you to produce success
in a ministry. Frequently remind yourself of the cost of your redemption. Do
not forget the precious blood of Jesus. We are all sinners by nature. We have
not done anything that can make us acceptable to God, but we have acceptance
because of the blood of Jesus. We are all sinners by nature. We have not done
anything that can make us acceptable to God, but we have acceptance because of
the blood of Jesus. Daily remember that you are not your own. We are
responsible to the Lord to follow his guidelines, to obey his words, and to
honor him. Support the ministry out of gratitude -- do so out of a sense of
blessing and thanksgiving. And, finally, do not neglect meeting with others for
mutual support, worship and prayer. That is the way to make a success of the
Christian life. How wonderfully practical it is!
Granted that it takes discipline. You will not do this casually. You cannot
just shove your hands in your pockets and sing a few hymns and this all happens
to you. You must decide and stick with that decision. It is not wrong to do
that. Some people say that is putting yourself under law. No, it is not. It is
merely recognizing the goals and the principles God has given you. That is what
a disciple is -- one who disciplines himself or herself.
But there is one other very important point here. We do not want to leave
this without referring to it. Ultimately, these people failed to follow through
with their commitment. Subsequent history reveals that all the old habits
returned. All the old sins were revived among them. The nation once again lost
the blessing of God upon it. Why? We discover the key in Verse 29. They said,
"all these now join their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a
curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses." (Nehemiah
10:29). They were depending on their own efforts to obey. They bound themselves
with a curse and an oath. They were saying, "We will do this or
else." They were relying upon their own self-determination, their own will
power. They were gritting their teeth and swearing to perform properly. There
is no expression of any need of help from God or of any provision for failure
and return.
That is what the New Testament adds. It is right to vow. It is right to
write it down for your own benefit and remind yourself frequently of your goal.
But we must always add the words that Paul uses of himself,
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
That is what makes the difference. Job went through some painful experiences
of discipline until he learned this lesson. This is what he said: "Blessed
is the man whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty,
for he wounds, but he also binds up! He injures but his hands also heal!"
(Job 5:17-18).
Who is going to teach this generation how to live if we do not do it? That
is why God calls his people to be obedient to the things that he teaches. When
we do, health begins to spread over the land around us, in the community, in
the family and in the home, as once again we change the circumstances of our
lives in dependence on the strength of God.