Reading: Nehemiah 12-13, Psalm 52
And here we are again, at the end of a cycle. The people of Israel have a leader of exceptional ability, and who cares about following the laws of their God. They have rebuilt their temple and their city, they’ve survived numerous attempts to stop them from resuming their correct worship practices that are at the very center of their entire culture. They have dusted off the covenant books of Moses, read them aloud, and publicly sworn to follow them. It seems like a good time for some obedience. Some restraint. Some good behavior. Spoiler: That is not what we are going to get.
The book of Ezra-Nehemiah describes the return of the exiles. One might hope that, given the expressed reasons for their exile, the people who returned would be motivated to avoid those activities. The author who assembled the book makes sure the reader understands that they had every intention of doing so. But they simply cannot. Despite all their history and all the efforts by their leadership, good and bad, to pull them back in line, their hearts have not been made new. This restoration is not the restoration promised in Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. There is no new heart or new Spirit put on the returned exiles.
The story today opens with the dedication of the walls and a new dedication of the temple. It is greatly reduced from the splendor of Solomon’s day, but it’s still pretty magnificent. The whole population turns out for a giant sing-a-long and feast. Nehemiah plays the “king” role, though we have been told previously he has gone out of his way to avoid being thought of as such. He is the royal representative, nothing more. It goes great and there is such a clamor that they hear their celebration throughout the countryside. It is all going so well that Nehemiah feels he can return to Persia to make a report to the king.
What do we think will happen while he is gone? Things don’t go so well. Tobiah, one of the villains of the book, is given an apartment in the temple. The offering that were to go to the Levites are neglected. The people ignore the Sabbath and use it as a trading day. Those who have had children with locals do not teach them the language or customs of Israel, but let them learn those of the local tribes and people. Nehemiah comes back, and he is steaming mad. Our fantastic leader melts down. He starts out by chasing Tobiah out of the temple. He puts in new management in the temple. He tells off the traders who enter Jerusalem on the Sabbath, then makes sure the gates won’t even open to let them in. They crowd around the walls, a way of setting up an alternative marketplace, and Nehemiah threatens to beat the tar out of them if they don’t leave. Then he comes after the irresponsible parents, and he actually does beat the tar out of them. I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. Nehemiah has had it. He has been the effective leader for the whole book, but I think we can safely call this a meltdown. Finally, he finds another of the book’s villains, Sanballat, has managed to marry into the family of the high priest! The offending members of the family are chased off.
The closing chapter of Nehemiah is a meltdown. It is the dashing of hope that this is the restoration of Israel that God promised. It is the fall in Genesis 1-11 all over again. From the top to the bottom, human society cannot be observant or obedient to their God. They will declare independence in all circumstances. The best human leadership, with the best motivations, will eventually fall apart trying to hold it all together. The book of Nehemiah is the last narrative word in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is the last scene in Jerusalem before the opening of the New Testament. We have finished the Story so far, at least in the promised land. There is, however, another piece of the Story, going on in far away Persia, which we will turn to tomorrow. Because of the exile of the two kingdoms, there are now descendants of Jacob living throughout the ancient world. The returned exiles are not the only hope for the people of Israel.