Nehemiah 13
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we finish Nehemiah – actually, Ezra-Nehemiah – and we leave the post-Exile Jews in an unfortunate condition that we have seen before. Nehemiah has returned to his Persian king, and having been gone for twelve years he comes back to find that his countrymen have again backslidden into their old ways.
The first (and biggest?) issue to Nehemiah was the high priest preparing a chamber for the outsider, Tobiah, the Ammonite. We remember Tobiah as one of those foreigners who tried to stop Nehemiah from building the wall. (See Neh. 2:10, 19; 4:3, 7; 6:1, 12, 14, 17-19) Nehemiah is livid; he throws out the household furniture and orders the chamber to be purified. Then he finds that the Levites have not been given their portions; that people were working and trading on the Sabbath; and that some Jews had married foreign women.
We shake our collective heads – won’t they ever learn! Then Jesus’ words echo in our ears: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7b)
Blessings.
See also: October 1 (2023) / Nehemiah 13; Psalm 92.