This is the Truth Network. Forever thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119, verse 89. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to this special Wednesday in the Word Leader podcast, where we prepare and equip our leaders of this special Bible study outreach breakfast.
Every week to teach through the scriptures. Thirteen Dario locations. There's a men's group meeting and several of the Locations host the women on Thursday morning. Stay tuned. Be encouraged as we jump into this week's Wednesday in the Word.
Nothing takes the wind out of a great movie or a great book like a bad ending. Oh my. I just remember one of those. Big movies. With the Avengers at the end of the movie, you think that Thor's come back, you think they've beat Thanos, and with one snap of the fingers at the very end of the movie, Dr.
Horn, Thanos wipes out half the population.
Now that's That's obviously sci-fi, Hollywood. But We look at Nehemiah chapter 13 and it's just so anticlimactic. Dr. Horne, why couldn't the book of Nehemiah end it in chapter 12? They're worshiping, they're praising God, the sound of their joy is heard from afar off.
We hear in chapter 12, verse 43. But then Nehemiah gets away. And the mouse comes out to play when the cat is away, and they fall back into compromise and the sin, and he has to come back. And turn over the tables. Dr.
Horne, it's quite an ending of a book, but there's a whole lot in here, isn't there, for us to take heed of. Oh yeah, it's actually great because it really reminds us. that victories in this life don't mean there isn't more battle to be fought.
Sometimes we see a great work of God. We see God do something so unusual for which we've been praying and fasting and laboring. And finally, it comes to pass. You know, a building is built, a ministry is established. And it's as though we got here, we arrived, we got to the top of the mountain.
And then the next thing you know. We have to come down. And we have to keep living because the Lord hasn't returned. I'm reminded of what the disciples experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration. Remember, they go up there.
And here's Peter, James, and John, and they're with the Lord. And they have this stunning experience that no human being aside from them has ever seen. Nobody has ever seen Jesus yet in his glorified body, radiating with light stronger than the sun in his full strength, except these dudes, right? And what do they want to do? They're so amazed and so blessed.
And so incredibly moved. They say, let's build three tabernacles and stay here. That's what they wanted to do. If you just sat down with those guys and said, okay, what's the plan? They're like, There isn't any more plan.
We've arrived. We want to build a tabernacle for each of us, and we just want to stay here and bask in all of this beauty, and glory, and blessing.
Well, that's kind of how we felt at the end of verse of chapter 12. Man, we started out in chapter one with this. incredible individual, this servant of God, and he was downcast. Remember back in chapter one? He's in the capital city.
And he's there with the king of Persia, you know, after the days of Esther, and his face and his countenance. are are are disheartened by what he's heard about the city that he loved, the people that he loved. And from chapter one all the way through chapter 12, we have chased this man and we have watched as the faithfulness of God has chased him. Everywhere he's been, the faithfulness of God has been there. It's been there before him, behind him, above him, around him, ahead of him.
From the king giving him permission to go to supplying material for the amazing protection that he's enjoyed, the stunning work that's been done in 52 days to rebuild a wall, the establishment of the city of God, the reestablishment of the people of God. And then, on top of that, as we got past the middle of the book, Ezra shows up. And just like God used Nehemiah to rebuild the city of God. Ezra is used along with Nehemiah to rebuild the people of God. And the worship of God is established.
The Torah of God is taught. And people respond and the blessing of God is restored. And finally, by the time we get to chapter 12, the entire Levitical priesthood is established. It's in place. The choirs are singing.
Worship is happening. There is this amazing sense that God has come down and he's met with his people and he's accomplished a great thing. And it would have been great for the book to end there. Because that's what. you know, Peter, James, and John wanted, and that's what you and I want.
Uh we we want To end. on a high note, but when you go down. into chapter 13. What you discover is that there's a whole lot more work to be done. The revival that we saw.
in the book up to this point. has to constantly be renewed. It has to constantly be protected. It has to constantly be reestablished. Um, there is there is no such thing this side of heaven as arriving.
And never having to worry about our sin nature again, never having to worry about our propensity to wander from the way of the Lord or from the word of the Lord. And that's exactly what we see here. By the time we get to chapter 13, Nehemiah has gone back to the palace. Back in chapter one, there is this implication, whether it's stated overtly or implied, that king, I'm going to go down, I'm going to do a work. in my city and then I'm gonna come back.
And so he's gone back to the capital city, and we don't know how long he was gone. You know, certainly it wasn't a few weeks. You know, the trip itself was a few months. And so just getting there and back would have been the better part of a year.
So is it four years? Is it five years? Is it 10 years? We don't know, but there's a sufficient amount of time. to have passed for the people of God.
in the absence of Nehemiah to have wandered back to their old way. Yeah.
So the compromise. And we see is important because as we are walking with the Lord today, We're given A clear view, you know, hindsight is 2020 of what. caused them to fall, what they stumbled into. where they compromised, where they went sideways. And so there's some good warnings and some good.
Obvious reminders, and obviously, this all points to the one who would come. On down the line, the one who was prophesied about who would break the chain. of backsliding who would break the chain of compromise. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, Dr. Horn.
Fascinating. And I love it when you break down the chapter for us, 31 verses in this final. Chapter of Nehemiah. This will be the last revelation in the Old Testament. I know it's not sequentially in the Old Testament list of books at the end.
Malachi is. Ironically, Malachi prophesies during this time. probably between the time Nehemiah was gone. you know from the city Back to Persia. Yeah, and the people had drifted.
He prophesies against these very things they did. Could have been in this time era, but Nehemiah, this would have been the last historical. a narrative of the Old Testament before The man came on the scene and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, you know, John the Baptizer. Dr. Horn, you have one man.
on his face before God. Weeping, Mourning, and Praying in Chapter 1. And you have what we see in the next. 12 chapters is this just unbelievable revival. And then you have this one man joined by the whole nation.
Of folks that had come back to Jerusalem on the wall that God had miraculously through them built in 52 days. And they're on the wall, they're on the gates, they've got these big Thanksgiving choirs, and they're singing this loud joy to the Lord, and it's just miraculous. And then we get to chapter 13. Take us through 13, will you, Dr. Horne?
Kind of, if you would break it down, you mentioned those first three verses are interesting. Just as a note, because I read some commentators and they said, that these first three verses are really connected to the reform of chapter 12. into their dedication and their pledge. But others said that the three verses are more connected to chapter 13. You know, because you have, you know, it says on this day at the beginning, but then in verse 6 of chapter 13, Nehemiah says, You know, at this time.
And so I don't know it's something it's a hill that we die on, but it is all connected because it talks about the mixed marriages, which Nehemiah comes hard against later in chapter 13. But how do you break this down for our teachers, Dr. Horn, as they look at these 31 verses? And what, you know, what the kind of what the structure is in terms of teaching through all these different sections of different compromises and different ways, different pitfalls that hit these people in the compromise. It's almost as though it's a little bit like probably longer, like you said, a year, two, three, maybe a decade at most.
Nehemiah is an older man now. But it's almost like Israel gets out of Egypt. They are celebrating, man. There's fanfare. There's trumpets sounding.
They've crossed the Red Sea.
Now, Moses just goes up to the mountain. for forty days encounters God. But when he comes back down, Dr. Horn, it's not so pleasant in the camp of Israel.
So that's what Nehemiah comes back to. And here we have 31 verses kind of laying that out. And it's, man, it is rough. He's throwing, he's hawking furniture out in the street. It's almost like a, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a mess.
It's a train wreck. And he's radical, man. He's pulling people's hair out. He's, he's threatening to put hands on people if they if they quit messing around on the sabbath, you know, these merchants from Tyre. I mean, he's, he's a radical.
He is zealous for God. You know, one of the commentators calls Nehemiah has a volcanic temper. That's how this one commentator described me. But talk about these 31 verses and how we see his heart laid out and how we see this the sequence kind of work itself out. Yes.
So let's do a little time frame here. I think we can safely say that from the time Nehemiah left. the court of the king of Persia. In chapter two, and gets to Jerusalem to the time he goes back, and so during the time that he was the governor. And all these reforms took place, and this great revival, there was probably about 10 to 12 years.
Where he was away. And so, whether or not verses one through three. Go with the revival of chapters 8 through 12, or it's something new. In my mind, we can argue about it all day long. The point is that at the beginning of chapter 13, Nehemiah wants you to remember something that was really clear in the law of God.
And what we're going to find in the chapter is that these people. have actually gone back to directly disobeying things that God was really clear about in his word. And so by the time we get to verse 14, Nehemiah is going to deal with two of the big things. And so he starts off in verses one through three. By telling us There was something really clear in the law of God.
And what was really clear in the law of God. Was that no Ammonite or no Moabite should ever enter into the assembly of God? The word assembly there is a worship word. And it talked about the covenant nation coming together. in the covenant place of worship.
So nobody with no Ammonite or no. Moabi was ever to be allowed in as a formal. Uh, part of the worship of God, unless they repented and had become Israelites. through the process that God allowed in the Old Testament.
So that's what's going on here. And then there's a reason. And the reason is in verse two, because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but instead they hired the false prophet Balaam to curse them. And then there's a reminder. that that God turned the curses of Balaam into a great blessing for his people.
But we know from the book of numbers that The king of Moab and Ammon did not stop there. They actually figured out how to get. God's people disqualified, and they took their women and they brought them to the camp, and they tempted these men to commit immorality with them. And God brought a stunning judgment on the people, and many, many tens of thousands of them were slaughtered by the wrath of God because of their immorality and their idolatry.
So, on the basis of this, God had said, you can't do this.
So when they heard the law, they excluded all these foreigners from Israel.
So that's why many commentators wonder if this was back before Nehemiah went back to the Persian court. And I tend to think it was.
Now, beginning in verse four. And going all the way down to verse 8. We find a great violation has taken place, right? Eliashib. The priest who was appointed over the chambers of the house of God was related to Tobiah.
So we have met Tobiah in the book before. We know who he is. He's an Ammonite. He was the provincial governor of the region that the king of Persia had set up. He's the one that tried to get Nehemiah to stop.
He's the one that tried to see if he could come in and partner up with Nehemiah and seize control. And he's the one that wrote the letters to the king in an attempt to get the work stopped.
So this man throughout the book has been an opponent. He's been an enemy of God's people. He has not had the good of God's people or the glory of God in mind. And what we discover is that he is related to this priest. Eliaship.
He's related to this priest by marriage.
So immediately, we're going to find out something at the very highest levels. Of Israel in the priesthood.
Now, remember the function of the priesthood, the function of the priests. was to teach the people God's lost. And here was one of the highest of those men. whose ministry was supposed to be teaching the law of God, and he had violated an immense. One of the key commands, right?
So he has allowed his daughter to marry into Tobias' family. And not only that, he had prepared a large room for him. That they used to put the grain offerings in, and the frankincense, and the utensils, and the tithes of grain that was prescribed for the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. And in verse 6, Nehemiah says: This all happened when I was not in Jerusalem, I had gone back to King Artaxerxes. But after some time, I asked leave and I came back to Jerusalem and I saw the evil.
That word is important. That word. gives an assessment from God's perspective of what's happened. I saw the evil that Eliashib the priest had done for Tobiah by preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. And it was displeasing to me.
So he takes this radical action. I just almost laughed when you were talking about he's chucking furniture out in the street. But that is exactly what you see. He is hurling. The word through isn't just like, let's move it gently and take care of it and put it up on the side so nobody runs over it.
It's like grab it and hurl it and do as much damage to it as you get it out of the house of God. It's like what you would do if you saw something horrifically rotten and offensive. You would throw that as fast and as far and as hard as you could out of your house. And that's exactly what Nehemiah does. Because this has been a great offense.
in God's eyes against God's law. And so here is this. This man, and you know, here's, you know, I was thinking about this on the way over here this morning to where we're recording. And my thought was: you know, here's Nehemiah, 12 years. of hard back breaking spiritual labor.
all the attacks all the difficulties all the the the disappointments and yet All of the faithfulness. And finally. There is this great work of God, and he comes back 10 years later. And they're going right back. to where they were before he came.
It's like This had to be immensely discouraging. This had to be. Devastatingly discouraging. And I wonder how many times as spiritual leaders, those of us who pastor, those of us who teach, those of us who minister to God's people, We work and we pray and we labor. And we see God bring a flock or bring a Bible study or bring people to a certain point.
And then two years later, the very people where God has worked this wonderful deliverance, you look for them and they're not in church. You look for them and you wonder where they are. I, for years, had a ministry where I would go and preach. In different places from time to time, and I would sometimes go back to places where I had preached, and I would ask about certain people, and the pastor would just put his head down and say, Well, brother. they um you know they did well for a while and then they went back this is a huge huge issue and always has been in the people of God.
We have a propensity to wander back and we wander because we don't guard the word of God. What happened here is somebody made a decision. that the word of God that was so clear about the Ammonite and the Moabite. um we we can set that piece aside You know, Tobiah is a good man. his daughter is married or my daughter is married to his daughter what however that uh relationship maybe it was tobias son and and the priest daughter or vice versa but but he had made his way into the family of a priest and the priest decided that family was more important than bible You know, sometimes we live that way, right?
Blood, many times, is more important than the Bible. I remember being in a church years ago. And there was a family, an extended family. We used to call them the Klan. And they ran the church.
Everybody that was in major leadership on the deacon board was related. And what we would say, the rest of the pastors would often say, it was blood was thicker than Bible. It didn't really matter at times what. uh what the bible said uh these people were going to do whatever they wanted to do now obviously we're not talking about committing immorality or or or those kinds of things but they certainly were willing to put key instructions that the Spirit of God gave about how he wanted ministry done, the spirit in which ministry was to be done, the manipulation, and instead of putting those aside, those became tools that they used to get their way. And you can trace, you know, some of those people have been involved in other ministries where the same thing has happened.
And it literally has been a way of life for them. And so this is not. An ancient problem that stays in Nehemiah. It's there. Remind us that we're going to encounter this problem in current ministries.
We're going to find it in ministries all around the world. And the reason this is important is because while we look at Ministries like I just described, God wants us to actually look at our own life. You know, are these things happening in my life? Where are the small compromises I've made? Where have I set aside something clear in the Word of God because it's more convenient for me or my family's involved or there's something happening here?
And this is exactly what's going on here in these first nine verses.
Well, it reminds me of this quote. I think Vance Habner once said: the devil doesn't avoid churches, he joins churches. And he gets in there. And he, you have this high priest, this religious leader. who was part of the revival just a chapter before here.
Eliashib Putting this evil guy, this man Tobiah, this guy who had been an absolute thorn in Nehemiah's flesh, who challenged them all the way. And dogged him the whole way through the whole book. He puts him inside the temple. That close. I mean, so the compromise.
And like you said, Dr. Horn, how do you get there?
Well, it's slow. It's through an un. God honoring, a non-God honoring marriage, an unequal yoke. And the next thing you know, It's a little bit like Psalm 1. First, you're listening to the counsel of the ungodly, right?
Then you're then your You're standing in the way of sinners. Then, the next thing you know, before you know it, you're sitting in the seat of the scorners and you're bringing people right in.
So you have that. I guess that's really the first nine verses, but then he gets after them because they stopped supporting the Levites. I guess after this, and then the Sabbath, keep on trekking. This is a pattern here. All the things that they prayed, they repented of in chapter nine.
All the things they signed. In ink, And committed in chapter 10, and all the things they worship God. And and praised God for Know that they would stop doing in chapter 12, they just revert right back into them, don't they? Yeah, right.
So, you have two big violations in the first half of the chapter related to the priests. And then you have two big violations that show up in the lives of the people. In this chapter.
So you have this violation that Eliashib has just committed in bringing an Ammonite, Tobiah, into the very temple of God and giving him a permanent place there. But in verse 10, and going all the way through verse 14, you find out that not only have they been bringing in A prohibited person and giving them a place in the temple, they have been neglecting. to take care Of the priests, the way God commanded. And that's what you find in verse 10. I discovered the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to their own field.
In other words, they could not maintain the worship. In the house of God, because they had to go home and take care of their families. And the reason they had to go home and take care of their families and tend to their fields was that the method that God had commanded for them to be provided for, the priests and the leaders of the people had not insisted on, right?
So verse 11, I reprimanded the officials and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered the priests together, restored them to their posts, and all of Judah brought the tithes of grain, wine, and oil into the storehouse. And then he pre-appoints people to make sure this is happening. And so, in verse 14, as he finishes this, you know, he's cleansed. The temple from the Ammonite.
He's restored the Levi to the worship. And then he says this in verse 14, remember me for this. The word remember is not a memory word. It is a word appealing to God to act on his behalf. Act on my behalf, on account of my commitment to you, to your word, and to your worship.
And do not blot out my loyal deeds. which I have performed for the house of my God. And its services, okay.
So now, now, by the time you get to verse 14, this is the first time. uh nehemiah Uh, utters the statement. He's going to utter it two more times in the text, right?
So there are two great sins. that have happened in the priesthood.
Now he's going to turn to two great sins. that have been happening among the people. And you can see beginning in verse 15. that that there is a great violation. by the people and the merchants.
On the Sabbath day. And so in those days, I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the Sabbath. They were bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys. And they brought them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.
So I admonished them on the day they sold food. Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish. and all kinds of merchandise. And sold them to the sons of Judah on the Sabbath, even in Jerusalem. And I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, Why is this evil thing you are doing, or what is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the Sabbath?
Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are abiding, you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning to the Sabbath.
So. He looks at the priests. And they have been sinning greatly against the clear statements of God's word. that were given by God to his people. And then he looks at the people.
And they're doing the same thing. What the priests are doing in the temple, the people are doing in the city. And they are buying and selling on the Sabbath day in express disobedience to one of the main commandments that are in the list of commandments that God gave to Moses, right?
So, in verse 19, it came about just as it grew dark. At the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut. and that they should not open them until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my armed servants at the gates.
so that no load would enter in on the Sabbath. And then in verse 20, once or twice the traders and the merchants of every kind spent the night outside of Jerusalem. And I warned them and I said, Why are you doing this? If you do it again, I will use force against you. And from that time on.
They did not come on the Sabbath.
So here here is the third.
sort of big idea there has been a disobedience when it comes To the house of God, there's been a disobedience when it comes to providing for the priests of God, and now there is a great disobedience when it comes to the Sabbath of God. And all of this was done. In every case, because somebody wanted convenience. It is It is going to be better for me if I give Tobiah a room in the temple. It's going to go better for me.
It's going to go better for the people. He's the governor for crying out loud. Let's give him a place in Jerusalem. Let's give him a place in the temple. It'll go better for my family.
It'll go better for the people. Hey, if we don't have to bring tithes and those Levites can go and take care of their fields, it'll be better for us, right? Hey, what is wrong with buying and selling on the Sabbath? People have been doing this for years. These merchants are here.
And pretty soon you have violations, major violations that are going on.
So there is a violation against the house of God, against the priests of God, and against the Sabbath of God. And so when you when you come to verse 22 He cleanses all of this, right? He says, I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves. and come as the gatekeepers to sanctify the Sabbath day. Whose job was it?
to make sure the Sabbath day was kept holy. And the answer was: it was the job of the temple guards, the Levites.
Well, where were they?
Well, they were back in their village tending to their flock because they had to take care of their family. And they were there because the people of God hadn't brought the tithes. And the reason the tithes fell down is because the priests had no moral authority to insist on it, because they had built a room for Tobiah. And so there is this domino effect that is happening, right? And so here comes Nehemiah in verse 22: I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the Sabbath day.
For this also remember me, O God. and have compassion on me according to the greatness of your loving kindness.
So God, remember me. And don't let my loyal deeds. fall to the ground verse 14 and now remember me and have compassion according to the greatness of your kindness So that's the first violation of the people. We got two violations of the priests. And now we have this great violation, the first of two, that the people have done.
And then you can see the main violation in verse 23. In those days, I saw the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And as for their children, half spoken the language of Ashdod. And none of them was able to speak the language of Judah. the language of his own people.
So I contended with them. The word is very strong there. It means I went to war. And cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God: you will not take your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. And then he says, I want to remind you of something.
What happened to Solomon when he did this? Did not Solomon, the king of Israel, sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by God, and God made him king over Israel. But nevertheless, even in spite of all of God's love and favor, the foreign women caused him to sin. Here's the application.
What has God been doing for the entire book of Nehemiah? He has been blessing. This nation, he has been restoring this nation, he has been favoring this nation. I mean, the Ammonites, Tobiah, right? The Moabites, Sanbala, they were all coming against.
this nation. And God gave this nation favor over them in the eyes of the king of Persia.
So, God has been favoring this nation. God has been blessing this nation just like he favored Solomon, just like he blessed Solomon. Just as he elevated Solomon in the eyes of all the nations, he has taken this little group of people. And he has blessed them. He has rebuilt their city.
He has reestablished their worship. And he has given them great favor in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the Persian king. And Nehemiah comes back. And Tobiah is in the temple. There's a great sin against the temple.
There's a great sin against the Levite. And then there's a great sin against the Sabbath. And now there's a great sin by marrying idolatrous people who are bringing their worship into Israel again. And Nehemiah says, I gotta go to war here. because this is going to ruin you just like it ruined Solomon.
In verse 27, do then we hear about you that you have committed this great evil by acting unfaithfully against the God who has been so faithful to you? Even one of the sons of Jehoidah, the son of Elias, the high priest. Was a son of Sanbala the Horonite.
So I drove him away from me. I mean, this had gone to every level, even the high priest. was guilty of this.
So there has been a great revival, and then there has been a great regression. in the space of 10 years. We should not be surprised at this. You know, there was a great establishing of the church of Ephesus in Paul's day. And by the time John wrote Revelation, there had been a great falling away in that same church to the point that God wrote to that church a second letter and said, I'm about to destroy your candlestick.
And it isn't because of the doctrine. And it isn't because of the deeds, it's because you've left your first love.
Well, that's exactly what's going on here. How did we get? to from a great worship celebration in chapter 12. to these four acts of disobedience. And the answer is their love for God had cooled.
This is always how disobedience comes, right? It always comes when our love for God cools. And our love for the things that we want increases. And so in verse 29. God says, remember them.
He's been saying, remember me in verse 14. He says, remember me in verse 22, but now he says, remember them. God, you need to act on my behalf, but you also need to act. in judgment against these leaders that have have done this to your people Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I purified them from everything foreign.
and appointed duties for the priests and the Levites each in his task. And I arranged for the supply of wood at the appointed times and for the first fruits. And then he ends by saying, remember me, oh my God, for good. And so here's how I think we should end this, and that is number one. Revival is a wonderful gift from God, but it is never permanent.
We should never assume that yesterday's revival guarantees tomorrow's obedience. Tomorrow's obedience. may spring out of yesterday's revival but it depends on today's obedience And so, what's been going on over time, day by day by day, there have been small compromises that have resulted in massive areas of disobedience. And so, as we look at our lives and we come to a book like Nehemiah and we see the great moments where God has acted for us. We need to remember that those moments do not guarantee future blessing.
Future blessing is conditioned on present obedience. And the question we have to keep asking ourselves is. Am I obeying today? Not did it obey yesterday. Praise God for that.
But am I obeying today? The second great lesson is this. Every leader has to restore Obedience to the word of God generation after generation after generation. There is no way that a leader who wants to please God can tolerate compromises. That destroy the very people that he's called to serve.
And that's what we see here with Nehemiah. Nehemiah is going hard. after the people Who are leading God's people astray.
So expect and prepare for spiritual drift, but courageously confront the compromise. no matter who it involves or what it costs, right? And then engage carefully in the worship of God. This book ends with a very interesting thing: I arranged for the supply of wood. And for the first fruits, like, what in the world is that about?
And the answer is it's about worship. It's about making sure worship happens and worship is supported. And then guard. Guard your own heart. Nehemiah could easily have been discouraged and walked away.
And he didn't. He re-engaged. Over and over and over. And he did so depending and in utter dependence on God to remember him. And that's really what you and I have to do.
So, this is actually a great way for the book to end, in my opinion.
Well, it shows the scripture, the authenticity of scripture, because the Bible shows the warts and all, right, of what's going on. It's not just a glamorous, and they all lived happily ever after. But we know that in redemption, in Christ, we do all live happily ever after, right? There is great hope in the gospel. This points to that.
Dr. Horne, so many implications and applications. Of all these different areas that I want to encourage leaders, pastors, to look at the importance of the sacred day of the Lord, the importance of not being unequally yoked with unbelievers, the importance of taking care of our pastors, our leaders, our modern-day Levites, and making sure we're supplying and we're generous in our giving. These things they fell off and are things we need to do.
So there's a lot of that. There's also, I love how you talked about this radical reformer of Nehemiah. I mean, he was zealous for God, he was zealous for the worship God. He put hands on people. I mean, he threatened that.
He was throwing stuff out in the streets. He was. He was pulling people's hair out and he was radical. A lot of folks compare that to Jesus in John 2, and then later on in John, where Jesus entered the temple and he made a cord of whips and he whipped his way through and he turned the tables over. Because zeal for God's house consumed him.
This book opens in prayer with a man of God on his face before God, weeping, mourning, praying, fasting. It closes. In a prayer, a man of God asking God for his continued favor. Dr. Horn, I know you want to pray us out of here.
I just can't help but think. of no matter how often we fall down. And get back up. No matter how often revival happens, then we go from the mountain to the valley. there would come a one Not too long after this, after this intertestamental period and some quiet, there would come.
Who would truly take away the sin of the world, who would break the curse, who would break that reckless cycle. Who would give us a heart of Flesh and replace that old heart of stone, make us new creations. Jesus Christ, we can rededicate to him. These people kept rededicating and rededicating, but thank God that he. is dedicated to us.
Thank God that though we're faithless and though we stumble, he is faithful, that he who began a good work in us will complete that work until that final day. And we can't help but look at Nehemiah. He's, we don't want to be like Nehemiah, we want to be like Jesus because Jesus Christ. will take us Everywhere we need to go, and He'll complete us. And He's the one that the Holy Spirit of God that we become zealous because there's a zeal in our hearts.
To be radical against sin, I mean, this is nothing to trifle with and to really go after sinners and love them and bring them back in. Dr. Horne, I'm going to pray for us this week because I'm going to pray for you. You've been struggling with your voice, you've been traveling a lot. We're just so glad to have you back with us.
Lord, thank you for. what you're doing today in your church. I pray that we would Take seriously the word of God. and that we would learn. The rich lessons from Nehemiah.
13 chapters. Shown your mighty work. that the joy of our love for you would be heard from afar. And that we wouldn't focus on trying to be more like Nehemiah. We would focus on being.
with Jesus. And that we would look to him because he is the redeemer, he's the chainbreaker. He's the one who came. to save us, to permanently revive us and reform us. And to prepare us for heaven.
So we thank you. We thank you for this conviction this man had, even as he got older, to go in and to call his people back to the true God. And I just pray for all of our pastors, leaders, teachers working their way through the Word of God. You'll quicken their minds, illuminate them to your scriptures. And use them in a mighty way as they teach in their pulpits, as our different leaders of Wednesday in the Word lead.
And we just pray for Dr. Horne. Strengthen him as he pastors, as he leads his church. As he shepherds, as he travels, he's speaking in a lot of camps and strengthened his voice. strengthen his body.
Give them just good energy. And thank you for how you're using him in such a mighty way. And for everyone that's been a part of our wonderful ministry here at Winsley and the Word, all of our friends at Dario, their support every week, Lord, all the different leaders, we thank you.
so many who volunteer. to meet and connect every week. And we just pray you'll bless. Bless them and bless everyone, Lord. As they listen, they'll be encouraged by these words.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Finally. Thank you, Dr. Horn, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast. Learn more at wedintheword.com.
Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and all social media, including in Stu Graham. And be encouraged, stay in the Word, read it. Share it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on God's Word. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
Proverbs 30 verse 5.
