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- [Don Carson] We come now to the last chapter of the book of Nehemiah,
Chapter 13. And by almost any accounting, you read this chapter and it feels
initially a bit like an anticlimax. In fact, in the history of reformation
and revival, one has to face the fact that almost every great movement of God has
spun off some downsides. I don't know what else to call them.
So, at the time of the evangelical awakening in this country,
under the leadership of men like Jonathan Edwards, there were powerful displays
of the spirit of God in late Puritan, New England. But at the same time,
there were some pretty off-the-wall experiences and phenomena too that were
sucking people in. And as a result, Jonathan Edwards himself felt it necessary
to write an entire book, trying to distinguish between what was
real and what was false. Between what was a genuine sign of the
spirit of God and what was fake and drummed up, and emotional,
but not necessarily spiritual. Likewise, in some of the Kentucky evangelistic
endeavours in the 19th century, people have studied these matters and
discovered that at the very meetings, where many people were
genuinely converted, they became the seed for a lot of other
things too. It's been pointed out that there were an awful lot of illegitimate
babies nine months later. And you can guess why.
That is the kind of intimacy, and warmth, and acceptance, and hugs all around that
might well characterise Godliness as people close with Christ and are being
reconciled can also generate a kind of intimacy that leads in a slightly
different direction. And it's not too surprising when you look
at the New Testament. There's Ananias and Sapphira in the very
heyday of the growth of the church, where there is revival,
breaking out the power of the spirit of God, genuine holiness.
And yet this pair come to want the reputation for holiness and generosity
more than they want holiness and generosity. And it leads them to horrible
deceit before the church and before God Himself. And therefore judgement falls.
So, when you start looking at history and the New Testament itself,
it becomes a little less implausible to think that the book of Nehemiah ends
exactly this way. If I had to give a title for the entire book of Nehemiah,
it might be "The Triumphant Failure of Reformation and Revival."
There are some glorious moments here, but there is a realism,
a brutal realism to the way this book ends up. There are several signs
of deformation, of failure, of contradiction to what has been
going on. The first in the first three verses is a new legalism.
When I was in university many, many moons ago, at the time, a lot
of university students went around carrying Karl Marx's little red book.
It was a sign of being sophisticated that you carried the little red book and
read it. I certainly read it. I wanted to find out what it had to say.
But in that matrix, I discovered that some Christian leaders were saying Christians
ought to plant their flag and carry Bibles, big, black Bibles. So, you know,
eventually all of us Christians, we started carrying our Bibles.
And then I noticed something interesting, some Christians carried very,
very big, black Bibles. In other words, it became a mark of almost legalistic
necessity to prove your credentials. So, God had forbidden that Moabites,
for example, should be able to join up with the family of Israel
for 10 generations. But now these people are trying to be more holy than God.
They forbid anybody from joining up. And after all, even though God had
given this law about the Moabites, He Himself made some gracious exceptions.
Ruth was a Moabitess and she was great grandmother to King David.
That's not 10 generations, do you see? And yet these people are now trying
to become more holy than God by instituting rules that are in danger
of substituting for genuine obedience to God and what His word actually says.
Then beyond the new legalism, pretty soon there is also a new nepotism.
That is when we read that the priestly family had some close relationships
with Tobias who was one of the scorners of the people of God. That expression "close
relationships" probably means they had joined together in marriage at some level
in their extended families. And now family ties are more important
than covenantal faithfulness. And then on top of that,
despite all of the covenantal renewal, Nehemiah has been away for a few years.
He comes back and he discovers the neglect of the temple. That is,
they're not providing the wood and the animals. They're not providing the income
for the people who keep the whole temple machinery going. The choirs have fallen
into disuse and so on. The whole thing has just become too
much work. And so, people have become, we would say, a little more secular,
a little less focused on the things that are of ultimate importance.
And that's because they're a little less concerned to be in a state of genuine
reconciliation with the living God. It's tragic. Reformation and revival has
drifted off into lethargy, and coolness, and spiritual indifference.
And then there's the rise of profit over purity. The Sabbath laws can be ignored if
you can make a few extra bucks on the side. And so it is all the way through.
It used to be then during the time of reformation and revival that the people
were being very careful about whom they married. They recognised that if you
married a faithful Israelite with a Pagan, then likely you would start compromising
in matters of faith and who knows where your children's allegiance would be and
so forth. But now mixed marriages are back too. So, the whole chapter catalogues one
failure after another, one failure after another.
And where is Nehemiah in all of this? Well, on the one hand,
he tries to restore righteousness. He exercises some discipline.
He insists on the purity of the temple. He tries to get the structures back
in place again. All of that is wholly admirable and it's part of his mark.
As a reforming leader, he knows that discipline must be imposed
and that's what he does. But there is another element that is
at least ambiguous. Here and there throughout the book of Nehemiah,
after Nehemiah has been through some terrible stress as he's tried to bring
about the next stage, he's prayed to God and a little
aside in words like this, "Remember me, O God, for these things that I've tried
to do before You." That can be understood in a very sympathetic way.
It's a bit like what Paul says at the end of his life reported in 2 Timothy.
He says, "I have run the race. I have finished my course.
Henceforth, is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," and so forth.
So, it's possible to read Nehemiah's dropped-in prayers. "Remember me,
O God for what I have done," as a mark of gentle rehearsal of what God has done
through Nehemiah. And Nehemiah looks forward to his accountability before the
living God on the basis of the faithfulness that he has displayed.
But when you come to Chapter 13, you find Nehemiah saying this sort
of thing four times. Now that might be innocent.
I'm not quite sure, but it begins to make me feel nervous. Because sometimes when
you find old men coming to the end of their ministry, their self-identity begins
to be too tightly tied with their own service. And they feel they should have a
special inside track with God precisely because they have served so well.
And that's the way the book of Nehemiah ends up. It's narrative.
There's nothing in the text that specifically condemns Nehemiah,
but it is a little troubling. One remembers the words of the Lord Jesus
in Luke Chapter 10, when his own disciples returned from a training mission,
and they're overjoyed that the demons are subject to them in Jesus' name.
And Jesus says, "Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you in my name,
but rejoice that your name is written in heaven." Now, perhaps Nehemiah still
preserved all of that, but he doesn't show it very well in this
last chapter. So, what do we learn from this? Today we ought to be praying
for reformation and revival. We ought to be taking the word
of God seriously. We ought to build the church as Nehemiah tries
to build Jerusalem. That's more than buildings. It's more than a wall.
It's building the community under the word of God. But even if God in His grace and
pleasure should bring about a new reformation and revival to the Church
of the living God in America today, as He is doing in many other parts
of the world, even if He should bring about such a thing, do not for a moment
assume that everything will therefore be hunky-dory. Everything will be peaches
and cream. Everything will be a bed of roses and we'll have only happiness and
integrity everywhere. Immediately, there will be some
false voices. The devil will get his foot in with some hypocrites.
There will be new standards of legalism. There will be new need for discernment and
calls for repentance a fresh. Because this struggle with sin is ongoing
until the very end of the age when Christ comes again. And in a new heaven and a
new earth, we are finally given resurrection bodies.
And we live forever in the home of righteousness, where there will never be
sin, or death, or despair, or defeat, or idolatry ever, ever, ever again.
We will gather around the throne. Him who sits on the throne, we shall see,
and the Lamb by His side, and we shall recognise that He is
our temple. We need no other temple. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are
its temple. But until then, we are in process and we beg God
for forgiveness of our own sins. And we ask for renewal of the Covenant and
we seek His face. And if in God's mercy, He gives us revival,
we shall thank Him for it. But do not think this is magic.
The ultimate transformation comes when Jesus Himself comes again.
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