Nehemiah 7-13 • Rebellious Hearts Spurn God’s Grace

We live in a world today that continually woos you away from serving God wholeheartedly. In fact, the culture encourages halfhearted obedience to God because it makes you feel good about yourself when you do good works. The sad thing is that rebellious hearts spurn God’s grace. They want the blessings of God—long life, happiness, and financial success. But they don’t want God! Have you recognized this? In the last blog, we learned from Nehemiah chapters 1-6 how to trust God while dealing with lies, dangers, and a really hard job to do. This is post #10 in the Ezra to Malachi blog series. In this post, we will learn from Nehemiah chapters 7-13 how rebellious hearts spurn God’s grace even when they know better.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study covering the last 7 written books of the Old Testament.

The walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt through a cooperative effort by many Jews in spite of the threats being made against them. Nehemiah stood strong as the leader God provided for this monumental task. The doors were set in place in the openings where they belonged. The Levitical gatekeepers were assigned their posts at the doors to open them each morning and shut them at night to protect the residents of Jerusalem.

But there were very few people living in the city. Though the Jewish people from all the towns had come to build the walls, the houses inside Jerusalem itself had not been rebuilt. God knew that His city needed people to make their homes there. So God put it into Nehemiah’s heart to encourage the leaders to settle in Jerusalem. Many of them did so. And the rest of the people cast lots to determine who would join them. Rebuilt houses. Restored population. Now they needed to recommit themselves to worshiping God wholeheartedly according to the Law of Moses. Who else would be the one to lead them in this way other than Ezra?

Listening Attentively to God’s Word

Ezra read

Remember Ezra? He had dedicated his young life to studying the Law of Moses and preparing to teach it to his fellow Jews in Israel. Ezra traveled to Jerusalem 13 years earlier along with a group of returning exiles. He helped to restore proper temple worship. But he had not been able to teach the complete Law of Moses to the whole assembly of Israel—until now. Six days after the wall was completed, all the people assembled together as one united group in a city square. They had worked together for almost two months, side-by-side. There was a desire to keep this united identity as the people of Israel. So, they told Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses. How exciting this must have been for Ezra! This is what he wanted to do with his life, what he had prepared to do. His fellow Jews wanted it!

Well, this is how it happened.

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 8:5-6)

This was an intense emotional and spiritual experience for those present. It was like an Easter service—full of tears and joy.

The people listened

The Bible describes what happened next in Nehemiah chapter 8:

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. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon 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 8:2-3)

I love this. They listened attentively for 5-6 hours to Ezra’s reading of God’s Law to them. Men and women and all who were able to understand, probably referring to older children and teens. They longed for God’s Word enough that they were willing to listen to it. Intermingled in the crowd were Levites who were explaining to those nearby the meaning of what they heard. This likely included some translation as well as application.

The people responded

As they listened, the Jews began weeping. As a nation, they had failed to keep God’s Law and suffered the consequences of their sin. But Nehemiah told them this in chapter 8,

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

This was a special day for the Lord. It was dedicated to Him. There are times for mourning and weeping. Let this day be one of rejoicing. Did the people follow their leader’s advice? Yes, they did.

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 8:12)

They feasted and shared with those who had nothing prepared. That would have to be the ones who traveled from far away, wouldn’t it?

They kept learning

The Jews finished this great gathering by celebrating the Feast of Booths representing their sojourn not only from Egypt but also from Babylon. Their joy was very great. And while they were celebrating, they kept learning from God’s Word for a whole week.

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. (Nehemiah 8:18)

They experienced great joy because they finally understood the Law of God. Their covenant with God, they understood it. They learned how to be faithful to God through it. And the joy of the Lord would be their strength to stay faithful to Him.

God Is a God of Joy

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Did you know that joy is one of the attributes of God? God is a God of joy. When we seek Him and trust Him, He fills us with His joy. When we learn His Word and obey it, He fills us with His joy. When we go through times of weeping and sorrow, He fills us with His joy as we trust His goodness to us. And worship contributes to our joy.

God gave the Jews His land. God gave them laws that would make living in His land joyful. God gave them great leaders in Nehemiah and Ezra. God gave them His grace in every way so that as a people they could be successful. Why would anyone reject that?

I ran across some verses in Isaiah several years ago that absolutely stunned me. Isaiah chapter 26 says this,

When [God’s] judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:9b-10)

Through consequences of sinful behavior, people may learn what is right and wrong. But for those who have wicked hearts, they do not desire to be righteous when they experience the grace of God. They ignore God’s grace and His commands of how to live life His way. They find ways to keep doing evil.

That is so sad to me. I have such an appreciation of God’s grace for me. I cannot imagine ignoring it and treating it like dung. But some of the Jewish people did just that.

Rebellious Hearts Spurn God’s Grace

Agreeing to obey

A few days after the Feast of Booths ended, the people assembled in Jerusalem once again. After confessing their sins and those of their forefathers, they were led in worship through a public prayer that reminded them of their birth as a people and all the grace that God had shown them through the years in spite of their failures. The prayer emphasized their God as the only God, that He was a forgiving and compassionate God, and that He had been good to them throughout the years. At the end of the prayer, the people made a binding agreement to do this in Nehemiah chapter 10:

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 10:29)

That agreement included not giving their daughters in marriage to the unbelievers around them. It included honoring the Sabbath. It included bringing all their tithes and offerings to support the temple worship and the priests and Levites who served there.

Forgetting the agreement

Just a few years later, Nehemiah left town for a couple of years. The strong leader was gone. Who was left? Ezra must have been gone by then. Whoever it was did not lead well.

While Nehemiah was gone, some of the people forgot their oath to God, including the priests and leaders who lived in Jerusalem. Food had not been brought to the temple storehouses to care for the Levites. The gates of Jerusalem had opened on the Sabbath for outside merchants to easily enter and sell their wares. The people were once again intermarrying with the pagans living amongst them. And Tobiah who was the enemy of both God and Nehemiah had been given choice residence in the temple courts of God! They let him move in! Can you believe that?

The sad truth is that rebellious hearts will always find ways to ignore or circumvent God’s way of living life. What Isaiah said is so true!

When grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness [with good laws] they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.

We live in a world today that continually woos you away from serving God wholeheartedly. In fact, the culture encourages halfhearted obedience to God because it makes you feel good about yourself when you do good works. Be loving to each other. Isn’t love for your fellow human greater than obeying what someone says is the command of God?

Rebellious hearts spurn God’s grace. They want the blessings of God—long life, happiness, and financial success. But they don’t want God!

Faithful Hearts Act on God’s Behalf

Cleaning house

How do you stand up to something like that? You do as Nehemiah did when he returned.

We read in Nehemiah chapter 13 verses 7-9,

Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense. (Nehemiah 13:7-9)

I love that! No mild mannered “please leave.” No looking the other way. He walked right into that storeroom on the side of the temple and threw the man’s stuff right out of that room. Then, he purified that room probably with lots of Lysol and restored it to its original purpose. He made it useful to God again.

But Nehemiah was not finished cleaning house. Nehemiah chapter 13 continues …

I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts. (Nehemiah 13:10-11)

The people broke their agreement to provide for the Levites serving at the temple and leading them in worship at every assembly. Hungry Levites left Jerusalem to go back to their farms. Nehemiah rebuked the officials. These were the Levite leaders. He not only put them back to work to collect the tithes and offerings brought by the people, he selected two trustworthy men to be responsible for handing out the supplies to their fellow Levites. That reminds me of what the first deacons did in Acts chapter 6 in order to take care of all the widows.

Stopping flagrant behavior

Nehemiah also stopped the flagrant behavior of the merchants selling their wares in Jerusalem on the Sabbath by shutting and locking the gates for twenty-four hours. Those are intentional steps taken to end the abuse.

To those who had married pagan women, he rebuked them and punished them in such a way they would never forget. He pulled out their hair! Can you imagine that scene? Then, he made them take an oath in God’s name. I love his determination to honor God.

Nehemiah did not put up with blatant sinful behavior by people who knew better. God’s Word was readily available to them. They had likely heard it read just a few years earlier. Copies were evidently available. Yet, they chose to raise the high hand to God and not care what He thought. As Isaiah said,

When grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:9b-10)

Rebellious hearts spurn God’s grace.

Do not do this, dear reader. If you have been spurning God’s grace, confess your sin and choose to obey Him instead. Your God loves you greatly. When you follow His way, your life will be rewarded as you experience His love for you. When you follow His way, you can trust His goodness working on your behalf. When you follow His way, He will fill your heart with joy. What the world has to offer will never measure up to that!

In the next blog, we will learn from the book of Malachi that faithful hearts embrace God’s love.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with complete trust in Him so that you will follow His way of living life instead of the world’s way or your own way.

All of the above information is covered in the  Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study  covering the last 7 written books of the Old Testament.

Related Resources:

• Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study
• Satisfied Series 18 Podcasts (Ezra-Malachi)
• Profiles of Perseverance Study of Old Testament Men

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