“I rebuked them and called curses down on them, I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: ‘“You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.’”
~ Nehemiah 13:25
Hi James and Ellen,
Is there a guy or a gal in the Bible who you would really like to be like when you are as old as your dad? Your grandpaa has some guys in the Bible who he would like to be like. Nehemiah is one of the guys in the Bible who your grandpaa would like to be like. Your grandpaa identifies with Nehemiah. Before God prompted your grandpaa to pursue a missionary vocation, your grandpaa worked totaling about seven years in four different loan offices. One of the loan offices that your grandpaa worked in is located in Springfield, Massachusetts. While your grandpaa managed the Liberty Loan office that is located in Springfield, your grandmaa, grandpaa and dad lived in Agawam. Your grandpaa – before being transferred by Liberty Loan to Massachusetts, had begun working about two years earlier in the Liberty Loan office that is located in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. After living for about fifteen months in Agawam, your grandmaa and grandpaa decided to relocate to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where your grandpaa began working in the Beneficial Finance office that is located in Sioux Falls. After your grandpaa had spent about two years working in the Sioux Falls Beneficial Finance office, your grandpaa was asked by Beneficial Finance to be the manager of the Beneficial Finance office that is located in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Your grandpaa learned a lot from working in and managing loan offices. Your grandpaa – when he was transferred by Beneficial Finance to Aberdeen from Sioux Falls, was not thinking at all about getting involved in a church – let alone being given a call by God to be a missionary. Your grandpaa is quite sure that Nehemiah never dreamed that he would be the guy who God would use to repair Jerusalem’s busted up, razed walls – and then to be the guy who God would use to stop merchants from selling their merchandise, fruit and fish on God’s ordained day of rest and who God would use to beat up and pull out the hair of guys who had married gals who were not Israelite gals.
Nehemiah 13 are the last entries from Nehemiah’s journal. Nehemiah spent a couple of terms in his lifetime being a cupbearer. Ask your dad and/or ma to tell you what a cupbearer’s responsibility was. If you are hoping that you can be a cupbearer when you get as old as your dad, you will not be able to get the chance as kings do not use cupbearers anymore. Cupbearers had to be really trusted. A cupbearer was the guy who had to taste the wine that a king was planning to drink. Poisoning a king’s wine – when Nehemiah was alive, was one of the ways to kill a king. Babylonian and Persian kings – like the Artaxerxes, used guys like Nehemiah to first taste their wine before they drank it. A cupbearer’s job did not lend to learning how to repair a wall that surrounded a city – let alone being used by God to keep His house in Jerusalem in order. Managing a loan or finance office was not a job that would lend to a guy being trained to serve God – let alone become a missionary but . . . Nehemiah communicates at the end of his journal that he was particularly upset with a guy by the name of Eliashib. Eliashib and Nehemiah met the first time when Nehemiah spent time in Jerusalem. Eliashib at the time when Nehemiah first showed up in Jerusalem was the high priest in the temple that Zerubbabel had rebuilt in Jerusalem. Eliashib was one of the first guys – if not the first guy, to help Nehemiah rebuild the wall that surrounded Jerusalem. Eliashib seemed like a good guy then. Eliashib came across as really wanting to help Nehemiah during the days when Nehemiah was in Jerusalem spearheading the task of rebuilding the wall that surrounded Jerusalem. When the Babylonian army overran Jerusalem – which was about 150 years before Nehemiah first went to Jerusalem, the Babylonians army tore down and burned the wall that surrounded Jerusalem. After Nehemiah took the lead on rebuilding the wall that surrounded Jerusalem, Nehemiah did what he could to ensure that God was being worshipped within Jerusalem’s walls.
When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem after his second term of being an Artaxerxes’ cupbearer, Nehemiah found Eliashib – who he had once trusted to help him, mixed up with a couple really bad dudes. Eliashib had given a room to Tobiah in God’s house. God’s house here was the temple that Zerubbabel had rebuilt in Jerusalem. Tobiah was one of the guys who tried in different ways to discourage Nehemiah from rebuilding the wall that surrounded Jerusalem. Tobiah was not one of God’s specially chosen Israelite guys. Tobiah was from the Ammonite people group. Tobiah – along with a guy by the name of Sanballat, were the leaders of a consortium of Arabs, Ammonites and Ashdod guys who did everything that they could think of doing to inhibit Nehemiah from repairing the wall surrounding Jerusalem. Nehemiah also found out that Eliashib had a daughter-in-law who was Sanballat’s daughter. Sanballat was from the Moabite people group. Your grandpaa likes to use Eliashib as an example of a guy or gal who starts out really wanting to serve God but for one reason or another, ends up instead serving God’s enemy. Nehemiah – on the other hand, was a slave living in a faraway country which should have limited his chances to serve God but . . . God uses the guys and gals who are willing to let their lives be used by Him. When Nehemiah got the chance to make the long trek to Jerusalem a second time, Nehemiah arrived to find that the guys and gals who were living in Jerusalem had rejected God. Nehemiah wrote what he did in his journal in verse 25, “I rebuked them and called curses down on them, I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: ‘“You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.’” Your grandpaa thinks that churches today are embedded with Eliashibs.
Nehemiah 13 (196)