Written by: Murray McBride
Nehemiah 13 v 14-18
Remember me, my God, for this. Do not ignore my love for the Temple and its service.
In those days I saw people in Judah working in the winepresses on the Sabbath day. They were bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys. And they were bringing loads of wine, grapes, and figs into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them about selling food on that day. People from the city of Tyre who were living in Jerusalem brought in fish and other things and sold them there on the Sabbath day to the people of Judah. I argued with the important men of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing? You are ruining the Sabbath day. This is just what your ancestors did. So our God did terrible things to us and this city. Now you are making him even more angry at Israel by ruining the Sabbath day.”
Notes
"TIME OUT OR BURNOUT"
Within our lifetime our world has changed to a 24-hour working culture. Nothing rests in a seven-day-a-week, all-night society, TV, on-line communications and even supermarkets. Doctors are concerned that this generation faces the real danger of physical and mental burnout. Heavy stuff!
So you might be wondering what on earth this has got to do with Nehemiah blowing a gasket with the people of God breaking Sabbath laws. Well, it all boils down to taking God's Ten commandments seriously. Nehemiah, like some of us, believed that these are the "Makers Instructions" for humans and ignoring them will eventually cause us serious grief. Resting from work with a Sabbath day sounds a bit oldie worldly "retro religion". But that's where we're wrong.
The Sabbath day is a brilliant act of genius on God's part to protect us from ourselves, we push ourselves so hard sometimes we forget that life is more than getting and doing. This "Sabbath Time Out" has been a distinguishing mark of God's people so they could make a holy oasis of worship in their tough and busy lives, it gives us time to remember God's faithfulness and calling for us to live lives that are deep and meaningful not just frantic. Nehemiah passionately believed losing this "Sabbath time out" robbed God's people of their ability to stop, and in this worshipping oasis to check out their perspective on life, to discern the important and precious things in God's world.
So perhaps God's Ten Commandments could be a life saver for a burnt out, stressed 24-hour generation. Something to pause and think about, or are you too busy?
Nehemiah 13 v 19-22
So I ordered that the doors be shut at sunset before the Sabbath and not be opened until the Sabbath was over. I put my servants at the gates so no load could come in on the Sabbath. Once or twice traders and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. So I warned them, “Why are you spending the night by the wall? If you do it again, I will force you away.” After that, they did not come back on the Sabbath. Then I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the city gates to make sure the Sabbath remained holy.
Remember me, my God, for this. Have mercy on me because of your great love
Notes
"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION"
"Indulge yourself with a ..." "..it's naughty, but nice" - adverts. Don't you wish we had an advert delete button on the remote control! A magazine article discovered that the adverts on TV often cost more than the programmes. Now we even have programmes about adverts revealing the pervasive psychology that tempts us to buy things we didn't want.
Nehemiah realised that was exactly what the traders were trying on loitering outside the walls of Jerusalem, tempting the faithful to break their Sabbath promise with God. That was the heart of it, it was a battle for the hearts of the people. On this holy oasis of the Sabbath the commercial industry was trying to tempt worshippers away from God with their own glittering money god of shopping. Nehemiah checked this shop-aholic pressure, but today the tables have turned.
Nehemiah might cry to see how materialism has become the god of our age who demands our customer loyalty. Today Nehemiah couldn't protect God's people being forced to break the fourth commandment and work on the holy Sabbath. Sunday working is now written into many job contracts, God's people are returning to slavery, not to Egypt, but as economic slaves to the money god of this age. As more Christians are enslaved by contract our Sunday worshipping communities will slowly be destroyed.
We seem to need the same far-sightedness as Nehemiah as we enter new work contracts, considering very carefully who we enslave ourselves to. The Ten Commandments are the birthright of all believers, they are there to protect our God-given freedom which can't be bought at any price...or has the money god tempted you to give up your birthright already?
Nehemiah 13 v 23-27
In those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Half their children were speaking the language of Ashdod or some other place, and they couldn’t speak the language of Judah. I argued with those people, put curses on them, hit some of them, and pulled out their hair. I forced them to make a promise to God, saying, “Do not let your daughters marry the sons of foreigners, and do not take the daughters of foreigners as wives for your sons or yourselves. Foreign women made King Solomon of Israel sin. There was never a king like him in any of the nations. God loved Solomon and made him king over all Israel, but foreign women made him sin. And now you are not obedient when you do this evil thing. You are unfaithful to our God when you marry foreign wives.”
Notes
PURITY DEMANDS NO COMPROMISE
Let's get one thing straight, Nehemiah was NOT a racist, a Christian perspective can never encourage or condone racism. In fact the Bible enshrines the hope that all people of every race and nation will be one in God. However, it's the "belief baggage" that we all bring with us that can be the problem. It's like someone said: - If you come to France, don't think you can cause chaos by still driving on the other side of the road like you do in England. Nehemiah was desperately trying to establish the faith of Israel that others could join, leaving some of their unhelpful traditions that would cause religious chaos.
Jerusalem was like our society, a wonderful mix of humanity, the problem for Israel was, how could it welcome people into the faith and yet not lose its unique God-given identity and role to the world. If Israel's faith was God's medicine for the world they had a responsibility to make sure it remained pure and uncontaminated, otherwise it would lose its healing property. Just like you demand purity from contamination in prescription medicines, we won't accept less so why should God ? Jesus reminds God's people that we are to be "salt and light" to our communities. (Matthew 5:13-16 ) It's really tough, as accommodating as we try to be as Christians there comes a point at which we cannot compromise any further, otherwise we contaminate and destroy what makes us uniquely healing "salt and light" for our world.
Nehemiah was out of order beating people up, but he was seeing God's salvation plan for the world disappearing down the plughole. It troubles me that my culture wants medical purity without compromise, and yet expects a compromised purity for Christianity.
Nehemiah 13 v 28-31
Joiada was the son of Eliashib the high priest. One of Joiada’s sons married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I sent him away from me.
Remember them, my God, because they made the priesthood unclean and the agreement of the priests and Levites unclean.
So I purified them of everything that was foreign. I appointed duties for the priests and Levites, giving each man his own job. I also made sure wood was brought for the altar at regular times and that the first fruits were brought.
Remember me, my God; be kind to me.
Notes
PURITY - YOU EXPECT IT WITH FOOD SO WHY NOT WITH YOUR FAITH?
Being British I seem to find it hard to make a complaint, I try not to make a fuss. However last year I almost cracked a tooth because some "foreign body" that found its way into my luxury Christmas stuffing, no joke, you don't expect broken glass in any product. So I was impressed when the store noted the problem and checked the whole batch because keeping their promise of clean & pure food is a priority Purity can seem "an out-of-our-reach dream" for extremists.
Perhaps we think Nehemiah was being too fussy, over the top about the purity of the religious community. I don't think he was. Like my scare with the glass in my food, purity is about maintaining the highest quality and delivering on your promises. I shudder to think what that sharp glass would have done to my body. Nehemiah was equally frightened about the dangerous consequences of absorbing impure things of other religions into the worshipping body of the Israelite community.
You may be thinking this is typical Old Testament tough talking, perhaps Jesus wouldn't be so forthright. Wrong. Jesus didn't want flowers and chocolates to prove that his disciples truly loved him, he challenged them and us to prove our love by obeying his commands. Jesus challenges us to maintain the highest standards of quality in our worship.
Nehemiah gave everyone in the worshipping community an active role, so we too are mobilised by Christ to maintain the purity of our faith by our lifestyles of loving obedience to God. Each one of us can play an active part in picking out that which is impure in our lives even the very small sharp things, if we don't someone's going to get hurt.
Mark 11 v 15-19
When Jesus returned to Jerusalem, he went into the Temple and began to throw out those who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves. Jesus refused to allow anyone to carry goods through the Temple courts. Then he taught the people, saying, “It is written in the Scriptures, ‘My Temple will be called a house for prayer for people from all nations.’ But you are changing God’s house into a ‘hideout for robbers.’ ”
The leading priests and the teachers of the law heard all this and began trying to find a way to kill Jesus. They were afraid of him, because all the people were amazed at his teaching. That evening, Jesus and his followers left the city.
Notes
JESUS CLEANS OUT THE HEART
We come back from holiday and the holiday photos are shown to our friends and family. We smile at the good one's and cringe at the photos that make us look like an angry John the Baptist, we shuffle them to the back muttering it is not like us.
For many people Mark's account of Jesus clearing the temple makes us cringe, this is not an image of Jesus we like, it's more like that fiery John the Baptist, some of us would like to shuffle this image of Jesus away, and yet like our photos it is a true picture.
Jesus goes to the spiritual heart of the nation, the temple, to symbolically purify the heart of the nation. Nehemiah's worst fears had come true. Temple worship had been corrupted by profiteering, the Temple had become a financial parasite preying on the pilgrims who came seeking God. Parasites poison. Jesus reacted to the grotesque poisoning that was killing true worship of the Living God, Jesus cleansing of the temple was a symbolic act of healing and purification of the heart of the nations worship.
The passion that Jesus displayed was not out of order, it wasn't even out of character, Jesus was on a life and death mission. His death would mean saving our life, his love cost him every drop of his blood, and these corrupt religious blood- suckers were violating that love of God. Jesus wasn't full of hot air, he was a man of action, the passion at which we cringe was the 100 percent passionate commitment to us that would lead to the cross.
Mark 11 v 20-26
The next morning as Jesus was passing by with his followers, they saw the fig tree dry and dead, even to the roots. Peter remembered the tree and said to Jesus, “Teacher, look! The fig tree you cursed is dry and dead!”
Jesus answered, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, fall into the sea.’ And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, God will do it for you. So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins.”
Notes
ROOTING OUT FRUITLESS RELIGION
These verses are described by one respected Bible commentator as without doubt the most difficult in the gospel! Like so much of what Jesus did there is much more going on than at first sight. As a road side sign warns you of something ahead so Jesus made this road side symbol to warn his disciples of events ahead of them.
In Mark's gospel the fig tree teaching introduces Jesus clearing the temple, then concludes it, masterfully Jesus is teaches his disciples about the temple through figurative language!
The fig tree was used by Old Testament prophets to symbolise the people of Israel
(Jeremiah 24) as an eagle can symbolise America today. The season was almost fig harvest, so where were the fruit? The temple, like the fig tree, looked impressive, full of promise yet on inspection both were fruitless. Jesus told another part of this parable about Israel - the "unfruitful fig tree" - in Luke 13: 6 -. Jesus explained that God had given Israel many second chances by sending many prophets, all of which proved fruitless. Eventually it was clear that the Temple, like this fig tree, was never going to bear fruit, so God was going to do a new thing in Christ.
As in Jesus' earlier fig tree parable the unfruitful things would be uprooted to make space for new fruitful life. Jesus stood in judgement of the huge temple set on mount Zion, the temple was a mountainous problem of unfaithfulness that would with prayer be uprooted to make space for the new life Christ offered.
So what about our religion, does it bear fruit of forgiveness, love and reconciliation or does it just look promising?
Mark 11 v 27-33
Jesus and his followers went again to Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of the law, and the older leaders came to him. They said to him, “What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
Jesus answered, “I will ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. Tell me: When John baptized people, was that authority from God or just from other people?”
They argued about Jesus’ question, saying, “If we answer, ‘John’s baptism was from God,’ Jesus will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘It was from other people,’ the crowd will be against us.” (These leaders were afraid of the people, because all the people believed that John was a prophet.)
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said to them, “Then I won’t tell you what authority I have to do these things.”
Notes
" AUTHORITY THAT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF"
Have you ever been challenged by an official like a teacher, police officer or shop security demanding you identify and explain yourself? They can simply be doing their job but sometimes you know it's not a real question, they're really trying to intimidate you.
Jesus was a marked man, the Temple authorities confronted him, demanding to know whose authority he had to challenge their religion in "their" temple. The institution was trying to intimidate this outsider into silence. This incident underlines the very heart of Mark's gospel message. Mark gives us a stark choice, who has God's authority to forgive, teach and save;
Jesus the Son of God or the religious institution ? Was Jesus a self-proclaimed hothead, a lunatic blasphemer or was the religious institution so corrupted it could no longer recognise God at work ? It's your choice. Your verdict on this is critical.
Jesus would not be bullied into silence by the institution, his authority from God had been proved in the real world outside the temple in the miracles of healing, evangelism and faith, which God had done through him. Jesus turned the tables and answered their trick question by pointing towards John the Baptist as his martyred herald. The ordinary people affirmed John as a prophet of God. Jesus was asking the Temple to recognise John as a prophet of God, if they did recognise John, who was the herald of Jesus, they would be forced to recognise Jesus as the Christ. The bully was silenced, the Temple wrapped up in its own world would not or could not recognise God's authority as the ordinary people had. In the end the religious institution had been silenced and God's authority spoke for itself in Jesus, the Son of God
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version
(Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes