It’s Time to Get Violent Nehemiah 13 By violence I’m not talking about like the Muslim terrorists are violent. I’m not talking about how some movies are rated R for violence. I’m talking about a holy righteous indignation against sin. That’s the story of Nehemiah 13 and I want to use it as a launching pad and as an example for us to get violent. A mother would get violent against a poisonous snake that got into her baby’s bedroom. She’d chop that snake’s head off. Sin is more dangerous than snakes. Its bite is deadly and it needs to be dealt with by violence. Nehemiah led the third wave of returning refugees from Babylon to Jerusalem. First, Prince Zerubbabel led 50,000 back to rebuild the Temple; then Ezra the Priest led about 600 back to rebuild the people. Then came Nehemiah back to govern the Persian colony and rebuild the wall. After building the wall he had to go back to the capital for a while (v.6) and when he came back things were a mess. Ezra had previously led a revival (a return to the Word) but we find out that people need more than to learn the Word of God, they need to live it. Well, the folks in Judah were not living it, and Nehemiah is furious. He grows increasingly violent as the chapter progresses and he deals with one sin after another. I. Nehemiah was violent The Temple always had these storerooms to keep animals and grain for the Levites, who had no other provision in the Land except what was brought to them by the people who tithed. That’s why Malachi (a contemporary of Nehemiah) said what he did in Mal.3:10 about the tithes: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house…” Well, the man in charge of these storehouses had put the Levites’ things out and gave at least one of the rooms to Tobiah, an Ammonite enemy of Judah (2:10). “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.” (v.7-8) Picture Nehemiah grabbing Tobiah’s stuff and without regard to its value throwing it with vigor out of that room into the courtyard. “Get this stuff out of here! This room belongs to the Levites!” Then he discovered that the people were not even tithing to the Levites, a thing the Law of God commanded. Nehemiah simply writes, “So I contended with the rulers, and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?” Obviously the people had not been attending the services of the house of God. (I have discovered that when the attendance is low at any given service, the offering is usually down.) To contend means to fight. A boxer is a contender. The momentum is building for Nehemiah. He is getting angrier and angrier. Next he saw the people bringing their goods through the city gates to buy and sell on the Sabbath - a blatant violation of the Fourth Commandment of God. “Then I contended with the nobles and said, ‘What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath? Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.’ So I commanded the gates to be shut and posted some of my servants at the gates. Then I warned them, ‘If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!’” He’s getting worked up. Lastly he discovered that the citizens had begun to marry foreign idol worshiping wives. It’s ok to marry a spouse of a different nationality or ethnic group – if she (or he) converts to the truth of God’s revelation. We know this because the most honorable man in Bethlehem (Boaz) married a Moabite woman by the name of Ruth! But only after she had said to her mother-in-law from Judah, “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16) Nehemiah reminded them that Solomon had brought the wrath of God upon their forefathers because of this very thing. “So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair…” (v.25) That’s getting violent. There comes a time for people to get violent. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.” II. Jesus Got Violent, in the House of God “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” (Mt.21;12-13) That’s pretty violent. They didn’t crucify Jesus because He acted like Captain Kangaroo or Mister Rogers. He squared off against the very leaders of the house of God and upset everything. Imagine Him turning over the tables, and coins scattering everywhere over the pavement; and opening the cages to let the animals free and birds fly off into the sky. They probably went through the house of God screaming and wings flapping. What a scene. Then Jesus called them almost every name in the book. “Fools and blind! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Blind guides. Blind Pharisees! Serpents, brood of vipers!” (Mt.23:17-33) He called them a bunch of snakes! That’s pretty violent. III. What do we need to get violent against? SIN! Sin is the terrorist in our midst, and somebody better get violent or it will take us out. Sin is the snake in the bedroom, the wasp flying around our head. Jesus died to get rid of our sins! That’s pretty violent. Are we not willing to go to war against it? War is violent. IV. What do we need to get violent about? How about the house of God? When the disciples saw what Jesus did at the temple they remembered that it was written, “The zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (Jn.2:17) How is your zeal for the house of the Lord? Are you as zealous for that as you are for your own house? “Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins? Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1:4-5) Are you as zealous for God’s house as you are your own job? How about getting as violent in your commitment to the Father’s house as Jesus was? I never miss church. “Sure, you’re the pastor.” I was that way back when I was a normal person! If Jesus shows up, I’m going to be there. And He never misses. Are you violent about the well-being and success of your church? You may find yourself kicked back in front of the TV every Tuesday night without even trying, but you’ll never find yourself at church on Wednesday nights without a fight. Neither the world, the flesh nor the devil wants you involved in church, the house of God. But Jesus does. Let’s get violent up in here. Esau was rejected and lost everything because he profaned his birthright. He thought so little of it he sold it for a bite to eat. Sometimes people sell their birthright for even less than that. V. Cautions: A. When I say violent with sin, how about starting with your own sin. That’ll keep you busy for a lifetime. My momma used to say, “Clean up around your own back porch before you take the broom to somebody else’s.” Turn the big guns on yourself instead of others. Be more concerned about the log in your own eye than you are the speck in someone else’s. Take the fight to your own sins. What Jesus said in Matthew 5:29-30 is pretty violent. Gouge out your own eyes and cut off your own hands, before you start looking to dismember others. Get violent against your own sins. They are your real enemy and they’re out to kill you, and your family, church and world. B. Remember, demons are our real enemies. I don’t suggest you literally do what Nehemiah did. He was the governor, over people in the city and in the Lord. We are nobody’s governor. We are fellow believers who, like everybody else, are in need of mercy and grace. Ephesians 6:10-18 tell us plainly that people are not our enemies. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world.” We need to get violent against the devil and his legions of demons who continually seek to wreak havoc in our lives, and in our families and in our churches, and world. He’s the real enemy. Get violent against them. In 46 + years of marriage Linda and I have had many “intense times of fellowship.” And every one of them has ended with a new reminder that we are not each other’s enemies. That is the way every argument we have ever had has ended. We recognize the foe and then we do battle against him. Try that.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 18:50:39 +0000
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