Join us in this enlightening episode as we navigate the inspiring stories from the book of Nehemiah, with Dr. John Kyle. Learn about the extraordinary achievements of Nehemiah, whose leadership and devotion to God led to the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s walls amidst adversity. Witness how God’s sovereignty enabled this transformation, which also facilitated a profound spiritual renewal among the people, highlighted by their celebration of feasts and national repentance. However, our exploration doesn’t stop with triumph. We address the reoccurrence of spiritual lapses during Nehemiah’s return to Babylon, understanding how easily godly foundations can face threats from complacency. Dr.
00:00:08 Introduction to Expository Truths and Nehemiah
00:00:56 Nehemiah’s Leadership and Israel’s Repentance
00:03:27 Significance of Nehemiah’s Return to Babylon
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we are called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know the truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, powerful, and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Let’s join Pastor Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the book of Nehemiah, an incredible book showing us how God sovereignly used the faithfulness of Nehemiah to lead the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the midst of many mighty and powerful enemies.
SPEAKER 01 :
Please turn your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 4 through 14. Nehemiah 13, 4-14. Now remember, God led Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem and to rebuild the ruined walls of the city, which was an absolutely remarkable task, but even more, God led Nehemiah, along with Ezra, to be the catalyst in bringing the people back to repent in faith in the living God. At this point, the wall has now been finished, and it’s been an amazing month since then, as the people have been celebrating corporately at both the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles, and then as they gathered together to observe a national day of repentance, followed by the signing of a covenant where together they committed themselves to honoring and obeying God once again out of their great love for Him. They then made the necessary plan to move 10% of the people into the city of Jerusalem. And then, as we saw, they had a corporate worship service where they celebrated and dedicated the month-old rebuilt wall of the city. Last week, we discovered a problem that the people became aware of as they were reading the Bible. And the good news is that they responded to the Word of God and they obeyed Him, which is always the right response, even when it’s not convenient. Now what? More problems. All right, let’s look. Verse 4. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah. And he had prepared for him a large room where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers and the offerings for the priests. But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. And then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me bitterly. Therefore, I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms. And I brought back into them the articles of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense. We’ll stop here for now. And before we look at the next problem, please note something very important that’s pointed out to us there in verse 6. That Nehemiah had to go back to Persia for a while. And that’s very significant because Nehemiah was a strong leader. Nehemiah was a godly leader. And while Ezra was also a great leader, Nehemiah was a necessary catalyst for the spiritual well-being of Israel at this time. And this all shows you what a single person can do with the good hand of God upon him, right? He can change a nation. He can have an eternal impact. He can make a true difference. He can greatly glorify God with the short time that God gives to him. Now think about that, right? Because of Nehemiah, the wall is finished. The people are now bold in the face of opposition. The enemies of God’s people clearly see God’s good hand upon His people now. And the people are intent on diving into God’s Word and on living it out in their own lives. It’s amazing. One man. One man. One man. But look, Nehemiah had to go back to Persia, specifically to Babylon. And more specifically, to the capital city of the empire, Shushan, also known as Susa. See, Babylon was part of the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire is considered to be one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world. At the height of its power, prior to what we see going on in Nehemiah, just prior, the empire controlled more than 2.9 million square miles of land. and it spanned three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe. It’s been estimated that about 50 years before what was taking place here in chapter 13, at its height, that the empire had 50 million people living under its control, which was roughly 44% of the world’s population at that time. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king of that empire. Now according to the numbers, Nehemiah first came to Jerusalem in the 20th year of the reign of King Artaxerxes, king of Persia, which was in 446 B.C. Here in verse 6, we find that it was in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes that Nehemiah left Jerusalem and returned to Babylon to the capital city of Shushan to report to the king and to probably return to his previous duty as the king’s cupbearer in the king’s court. So Nehemiah was a governor of Jerusalem for 12 years. Chapters 1 through 12 cover less than a year of that. And so there are 11 years in which Nehemiah continued to be the governor in Jerusalem that we know nothing about. Well, after certain days in Persia, Nehemiah was able to go back to Jerusalem. So how long was Nehemiah gone from Jerusalem? We don’t know for sure, but many believe that it was over a decade. So just to be clear, and I didn’t know this, this is really interesting. Nehemiah left Babylon the first time in chapter 2 and he came to Jerusalem. He had the wall rebuilt and he also restored the people back to a vital faith in the Lord. And that all happened within one year. And then Nehemiah was a governor in Jerusalem for 11 more years. He then went back to Persia, probably because that’s what he and the king had agreed upon. And Nehemiah was in Babylon for probably, perhaps, 12 more years before coming back to Jerusalem. So a lot of time has now gone by between verses 3 and 4 of chapter 13. So at this point, Nehemiah has been gone for well over a decade, but now he has returned. But look, things aren’t going well, no. Things have reverted since Nehemiah has been gone. How does that happen? How do people go from being so on fire for the Lord, chapter 12, to reverting and giving way to sin and giving way to compromise? How does that happen? It happens a little bit at a time. And it seems that once Nehemiah left, that little compromises then began to set in. And as we all know, little compromises don’t stay little for very long. No, little compromises grow. As one said, collapse in the Christian life is seldom a blowout. It is usually a slow leak. And that’s true. Warren Wiersbe said, most Christians don’t jump into sin and get away from the will of God. No, instead, they gradually decline spiritually, and then they find themselves in trouble and wonder how it happened. They leave their first love over time, and they start living for the flesh and not the Spirit. When we least expect it, the germ of sin can enter the system. And he’s right. And that’s why we must always, always, always be on guard today. Note that for most of us, the threat isn’t so much that we should plunge into disaster and sin, but that we should drift into it. See, there are few people who deliberately run into sick, wretched sin, but there are many who day by day drift farther and farther and farther away from the Lord. and it can happen without you even being aware of it. That’s why you need to be constantly on guard. That’s why you need to take heed and remember that compromise always brings loss, and compromise never ever pays. For when we compromise, we lose something valuable in exchange for something temporary and fading, and it’s never ever worth it. Look, Nehemiah left And no spiritual leader filled that gap. And soon the little compromises set in and no one seemed to care that much. But they should have cared. Someone should have cared. Even if no one else cared, someone should have cared. Someone should have spoken up. Someone should have had the courage and the love for the Lord to say something and to do something. But no one did. Where was Ezra at this time? We don’t know, it doesn’t say, but enough time has gone by that Ezra very well could have been in glory by now because Ezra, I believe Ezra would have certainly done something for sure. Some commentators actually come down on Nehemiah for not raising up some good and godly leaders to take his place. But how do they know that Nehemiah didn’t do that? I found that… You can invest in people and you can train them up and you can pour your life into them and you can do your very best to raise up people to be bold and strong in leadership. But it’s only when the hard times come that you really see what people are truly made of. And sadly, many people are cowards who give way to the pressure of the crowd. And while they follow well, they lead poorly because they are scared of the consequences of taking a stand for God. And they’re scared of the consequences of taking a stand for truth. So perhaps Nehemiah did indeed raise up leaders to replace him. He did his best to do that. Leaders who look like good and true spiritual leaders, but who caved when the compromises came. Perhaps. But the compromises did come. And now, Nehemiah is back in Jerusalem. Now what do you think? Is Nehemiah going to remain silent when he sees sin in the camp? with what we know of nehemiah i don’t think so look as nehemiah came back to jerusalem after being gone for over a decade he discovered a couple of serious problems first he found out that elijah had made a room for tobiah in the courts of the house of god now please understand that is not good note that verse 4 says before this before what I mean, if before this means before what happened in verse 3, then our timetable is going to be all out of whack. So before what? Well, it’s interesting. Before this in the Hebrew has to do with the faiths. Very interesting. The phrase literally means in the face of this or in the presence of this. So it’s talking about circumstances and not a time frame. In other words, before this means something like in the face of it all. So in light of Nehemiah being gone and in the face of everything that’s going on in Jerusalem, what happened? This, Elisha made a room for Tobiah in the courts of the house of God. And Nehemiah came back and discovered this very serious issue. So who was Eliashib? Well, he was a priest, verse 4 tells us. That’s interesting because Nehemiah 3.1 and 12.10 tells us that a guy named Eliashib was a high priest when Nehemiah first came to Jerusalem some 25 years before when the wall was rebuilt. So the question is, is this the same Eliashib? Now, we don’t know for sure. Some say yes and some say no. At the very least, this guy was a priest and he also had some authority in the temple, authority that the high priest at the time certainly would have had. So I personally think this is the same Eliashib. This is the high priest. And I think he’s taken a spiritual fall these past couple of decades, especially the past 12 years since Nehemiah has been gone. Look what he did. He made a room for Tobiah in the courts of the house of God. Okay, well, who was Tobiah? We know Tobiah, right? Tobiah was a guy who had previously done everything possible to frustrate the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. Remember that? We met him in 2.10. Nehemiah 2.10 says, When Samballot the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official… Do you see that? He’s an Ammonite. As we saw last week, unrepentant Ammonites weren’t supposed to be allowed to come into the assembly of God because of the way the Ammonites and the Moabites treated Israel when they were trying to come into the promised land. But Tobiah is an Ammonite. But look, when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard it, that Nehemiah had come to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, look, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. See, Tobiah isn’t a friend of Israel, right? Tobiah isn’t a friend of God. 2.19 says this, but when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they were now set on rebuilding the wall. Look, what did they do? They ridiculed us and they despised us. And they said, what is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king? See, Tobiah is not a good guy. Nehemiah 4.3 says, Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, Whatever they build, even if a fox goes up on that wall, he’s going to break down their stone wall. So Tobiah is trying to discourage the people of God from honoring their God. He’s mocking them. Nehemiah 4.7 says, But it happened that when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the wall of Jerusalem was being restored and that the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry. And all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. So again, Tobiah, he’s not a good guy and he’s certainly no friend to the people of God. In Nehemiah 6.1, Tobiah and the other enemies of God and his people tried to trick Nehemiah so that they could kill him. Later on, another guy tried to scare Nehemiah into compromise and thus lose all his credibility with the people because godly men shouldn’t compromise. And look, Tobiah and Sanballat were the ones who hired that guy to trick Nehemiah. Tobiah’s not a good guy. Later on in chapter 6, we find that Tobiah’s trying to cause more trouble for the man of God, Nehemiah, and for the people of God as a whole. See, at the end of chapter 6, we find that Tobiah and some nobles of Judah are corresponding. That’s not good. This is where it gets interesting, because come to find out, Tobiah had some family connections with some important people in Jerusalem. You might remember that. See, Tobiah had married among the nobility of the city, for chapter 6 tells us that Shekiniah was his father-in-law, and that’s mentioned because he’s a bigwig. As one said, his wife is part of the in-crowd, the hoity-toity of Jerusalem. On top of that, it seems that Tobiah was related to the high priest Eliashib, Did you catch that? Probably by marriage. And then on top of that, his son had married the daughter of Mesulam, the son of Berechiah, which shows us that Tobiah’s son had also married into the in-crowd of Jerusalem. So, there’s a lot of family ties going on. And also, since Tobiah was likely the governor of Ammon, there’s an economic advantage to being nice to Tobiah. But here’s a question. What about what God thinks? What about what God thinks? That doesn’t seem to be a consideration. No, family comes first over God. And economy is more important than honoring and obeying God. How unbiblical is that? Better to lose every member of your family than turn against the Lord. And better to lose all your money than to dishonor the Lord. But compromises don’t feel that way, sinfully so. So Eliashib says, as Nehemiah is away, I can hear it. Hey, Tobiah, we’re living in a new day, and Nehemiah is in Babylon, and his old style of hard-nosed leadership is a thing of the past. What we need today is some compromise, is a building of bridges, a way for all of us to be friends. We want to be relevant. We want to get along. How about I make a place for you in the temple? Makes sense, right? This is repulsive. This is absolutely horrible. See, surrounding the temple were storerooms. And these rooms were used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles along with the tithes of grain and new wine and oil that had been prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, along with the contributions of the priests. These rooms could also be set aside to be used by ministering priests, gatekeepers, and singers who lived elsewhere in Judah, but who regularly visited the city and the temple for work assigned to them at different times during the year. So clearly these rooms were special rooms. Clearly these rooms were used for the work of God, and they were to only be used for the work of God. I mean, it’s right there in the temple area. But Eliashib didn’t seem to care about that, and As he somehow had power over these rooms, look, he let Tobiah, a prominent, unrepentant Ammonite and a sinister and outspoken enemy of the work of God and of the people of God, he let him have a room for himself in the courts of the temple. Think about that. Nehemiah knew what Tobiah was all about, and so Nehemiah kept him out when Nehemiah was around. But now Eliashib not only lets him into the city, but he lets him stay in one of the rooms in the temple, a place which gave him a base from which, as one said, to ferment intrigue and to increase his bad influence. This is very serious. Think about it. Tobiah now had a room that was supposed to be set apart for holy use. But he has it for his own self-promotion and he has it for his own self-glory. And he’s a very sinful man. It’s clearly a blasphemous disregard for the holiness of God. What’s worse is it seems that Tobiah was a Jewish man himself. A Jewish man who had turned. His name actually means Yahweh is good. But he certainly doesn’t believe it. Most think that Tobiah was a Jewish man who made his home with the Ammonites, among whom he rose to high office. He then put his career above all else, and so as someone intent only on advancing his career, he sided with Sanballat and Geshem in ridiculing the efforts of his fellow Jews at building the wall, and also at them getting right with the Lord. Why? Because he feared that his future career was in jeopardy. But Nehemiah made sure that wicked Tobiah couldn’t sinfully influence the people when he was around. But once Nehemiah left the city, Tobiah pounced and Elisha seems very glad and very happy to help him out. That’s how sin works. That’s how sin works. It always pounces when we give it an opportunity, right? It’s always lurking and waiting and watching and looking for that open door. That’s why we must not give sin an open door. That’s why we must always be spiritually alert, watching and praying and repenting often and making sure that sin doesn’t implant itself in our minds and in our hearts because if it does, then it’s going to take up residence gladly. Don’t we know it? Think of this. as Christians today, we are the temple of God. Right? In other words, God, God Himself, takes up residence in us. He lives in us. God the Spirit indwells us. Think about that. But look, like Tobiah set up in his house in the temple in Jerusalem, sin will gladly sneak in and take over one of those rooms in our mind and in our heart if we let it. Let’s just think about that for a second. 1 Corinthians 3.6 says that as Christians we are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in us. 2 Corinthians 6.16 says that we in Christ are the temple of the living God. And then 1 Corinthians 6.19 says that as a Christian, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. And look, you are not your own. And that’s very significant for us, that God Himself is dwelling inside every Christian today. After Solomon’s temple was finished and the Ark of the Covenant was put into the Holy of Holies, 1 Kings chapter 8 tells us that the cloud then filled the house of the Lord, the cloud representing God’s manifest presence. So think of this. When a person becomes a Christian, what happens to him? Who comes in and fills the new believer? God the Spirit, right? The presence of God, God Himself. And so as Christians, we are indeed the temple of the living God, right? And if God is living in us, don’t you think that ought to affect the way we live our lives? Anybody? Right? I mean, don’t you think that ought to affect the way we live on a daily basis? See, the Bible says that the temple was to be a house of prayer, a place of worship, a place that glorified the Lord God Almighty. And as people who have God dwelling in us, let me ask you, what kind of house have you prepared for God to dwell in? Is his house, your life, a place of worship and prayer and adoration of the one true God, or has it been defiled by a Tobiah? Is his house a place that brings glory and honor to him, or is it defiled by sin? Look, in 1 Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul tells the Christians in Corinth to flee sexual immorality. It’s then that he goes on and says that your body as a Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And then he says that you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. In other words, as a Christian who has God’s Spirit living inside of you, every act of sin that you do is committed in the presence of God. Yes, He’s here. Yes, He sees all. And yes, He knows all. But it goes deeper than that. It’s as if the sin that you do was committed right there in the Holy of Holies where the manifest presence of God dwelt. See, in the literal temple, you have the court of the Gentiles and the women’s court and the men’s court and the priest’s court. You then went up the stairs and into the holy place. And then you went through the curtain and on into the Holy of Holies. where the Ark of the Covenant was, where God’s presence was. And as Christians, when we sin, it’s as if we were to walk right there into that temple and right there through the curtain and into the Holy of Holies and commit that sin, whatever that sin may be, right there in front of the watching eyes of God, every sin that we do. And while we as true Christians are saved and justified before the Lord by grace through faith in Christ alone, look, Unrepentant sin in our lives has major ramifications. Harbored and cuddled sin in our lives has major ramifications and it ought never to be taken lightly. May God speak to our hearts today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Pastor John is the preacher. of Preaching Pastors Overseas Join for services at Faith Community Church Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s 707-451-2026. Or visit vacavillefaith.org.
