Then the rest of the people…joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath. They swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey the Law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord. [Nehemiah 10:28-29 (NLT)]
In the years following the exiles’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple, adherence to the Law grew lax. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depended on knowing the commandments of the Torah but the people had drifted away from God and His word and were committing the same sins that got them exiled! More than fifty years after the Temple’s rebuilding, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. As a priest and teacher of the law, Ezra was shocked to find such disobedience. He tore his clothes and pulled his hair in sorrow before kneeling in prayer. He led the people in prayers of confession and repentance after which they swore a solemn oath to follow the Lord’s commands.
A decade after Ezra’s arrival, Nehemiah arrived and rebuilt the city’s wall. When the wall was completed, all the men, women, and children (old enough to understand) assembled in the square by the Water Gate. Ezra stood on a high platform and read to them from the Torah. After Ezra read, the Levites went among the people to help them understand each passage. The next morning, after further study, they found directions for the Feast of Booths and immediately reinstituted the celebration. Realizing they’d broken their covenant with God, the people assembled again to hear the Book of the Law. After confessing their sins, they again rededicated themselves to following God and keeping His law. They specifically pledged to faithfully observe both the Sabbath and the seventh Sabbath year, to pay their Temple tax and tithes, and not to neglect the Temple or marry pagans. Their vows were recorded and the document was ratified and signed by the leaders, Levites, and priests.
Good intentions aren’t enough and remaining faithful to God’s word requires daily vigilance. Nehemiah was called back to the Persian court for an unknown amount of time and, in the years between signing that covenant and his return to Jerusalem, the people managed to violate every promise they made. It was during this period that the prophet Malachi rebuked the priests and people for their willful disobedience.
Nevertheless, despite Malachi’s warnings and their good intentions, when Nehemiah returned, he found the people blatantly disregarding God’s Law. Tithes and offerings weren’t being made, provision hadn’t been made for the Levites, trade and work were being done on the Sabbath, intermarriage with pagans had resumed, and wood hadn’t been provided for Temple offerings. Many of the children couldn’t even speak Hebrew! Worse, in direct violation of the Torah, an Ammonite was given a room at the Temple. In his anger at finding God’s house despoiled, Nehemiah cleared the Temple (as Jesus would again nearly 400 years later). “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city?” asked Nehemiah. [13:18]
The city’s walls may have protected Jerusalem from attack, but they couldn’t prevent sin from entering the people’s lives. They’d done more than neglect bringing wood for the fire at the altar—they’d allowed the fire in their hearts to die! Despite their good intentions, they took their eyes off God and His word. The flame of faith needs more than good intentions; it needs both fuel and tending. Gen. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, told his followers “Bear in mind that it is the nature of a fire to go out; you must keep it stirred and fed and the ashes removed.” The exiles had failed to keep the fire going. The book of Nehemiah closes with him making sure there was a supply of wood for the altar. Just as the fire on the altar was never to be allowed to go out, the fire in our hearts must burn continuously, as well!
Take care of giving up your first zeal; beware of cooling in the least degree. Ye were hot and earnest once; be hot and earnest still, and let the fire which once burnt within you still animate you. Be ye still men of might and vigor, men who serve their God with diligence and zeal. [Charles Spurgeon]
Even without knowing what a petard is, we probably know that when someone gets “hoisted by his own petard,” he’s been foiled by his own scheme. When Shakespeare’s audience heard this phrase spoken by Hamlet in 1600, they knew a petard was a bomb. In the bard’s day, hoisted had more than one meaning. Along with lifted, it meant removed or taken out. Taken literally, Hamlet’s phrase meant that his enemy would be blown up by his own bomb!
In a classic Peanuts comic (drawn by Charles Schulz), the meek Linus asked his bossy big sister Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” She answered, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other peoples’ faults.” When Linus queried, “What about your own faults?” Lucy replied, “I have a knack for overlooking them.” Along with her over-sized ego, Lucy has what psychologists call “fundamental attribution error.”
Since we both attended liturgical churches as girls, my friend and I were trying to recall the terms for the various parts of a traditional church building. We knew the foyer is called the narthex and the congregation sits the church’s nave. We also knew the altar rail usually separated the nave from the chancel in the front. It’s from the chancel that the service is conducted and where the altar, pulpit, and lectern are located. We even recalled that the sacristy was the room holding Communion supplies and linens. Since we were worshipping in a park that morning, my friend asked the location of our sanctuary. In historic usage, sanctuary and chancel were synonymous but, in modern usage, a sanctuary consists of the entire worship space of a church. With no building, we had no narthex, nave, or chancel but we did have a worship space; our sanctuary was a gazebo in a county park.
As we settled into our pews in the sanctuary, people talked loudly, called out to one another, laughed raucously, visited other pews, and checked their phones even after the organist started his beautiful prelude. It wasn’t until the pastor stood at the pulpit and started speaking that they eventually quieted down and put away their phones. As I wondered what became of the awe and reverence that should accompany us into God’s house, I again thought of the time Israel brought the sacred Ark of the Covenant into battle with them. Putting aside their idolatry, consider the lack of respect given to this religious chest designed by God and representing His presence among His people.
During the time of the judges, the Israelites were at war with the Philistines. Following their loss of 4,000 men, they questioned why God had allowed their defeat but never bothered asking Him. Instead, they decided that carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle would guarantee a future victory. Perhaps they remembered the story of Israel entering the Promised Land—how the Jordan River stopped flowing when the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched the water and the entire nation crossed the dry riverbed into Canaan. They may have recalled Jericho’s defeat when Israel’s priests carried the Ark around the walled city for seven days and the city’s seemingly invincible walls collapsed. Maybe they thought it was the Arks’ presence that caused those miracles; in any case, they brought the Ark to their camp in Ebenezer.
Devotions of the Heart 