“Dark devotions” (Ray Patchett and Steve Messer)
And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
Nehemiah 13:25
The basic themes of Ezra-Nehemiah (E-N) are that the people of God must return to rebuild the holy city and house of God in order that they live back under the rule of God by the law of Moses. The importance in E-N of the ‘people of God’ is that so far in the big picture of the Bible’s narrative the failure of Israel after the death of Joshua caused the rise of the Judges. However, the Judges could not keep the people faithful because everyone ‘did
was right in his own eyes’ (judges 21:25). Afterwards began the dubious introduction of kingship, where the overall sense was a rejection of the LORD’s kingship for a king like the nations (1 Samuel 8:5-7). Eventually, the kings failed as they failed to listen to the book of the law and to the prophets, which led to the exile (see the previous comments on 2 Chronicles).
Now in E-N if the return from exile is going to ‘work’ it must be the people as a whole who respond to God’s word with obedience. Therefore the emphasis in E-N is that pure Israel (Ezra 2:59-63) must be separated from the nations to live in God’s restored holy place (Ezra 4:1-5). Hence the function of the walls of Jerusalem was to keep what is unholy out of the holy city and the house of God. (Nehemiah 2:19-20). This also explains the repeat of the list of returnees from Ezra 2 in Nehemiah 7. The section between these chapters describe the
various external and internal obstacles to a return of pure Israel to the holy city and house of God, such as neglect of the temple, intermarriage with foreigners (Ezra 9), exacting interest and enslaving fellow-Israelite’s (Nehemiah 5).
Then in Nehemiah 8 the pure Israel in the restored holy city and rebuilt house of God can worship by hearing the book of the law and repent of their sin (Nehemiah 9) and re-covenant with their God (Nehemiah 10) and re-establish temple worship (Nehemiah 11-12).
Now, in chapter 13 of Nehemiah the whole thing has come crashing down, again! Failure to keep God’s holy place clean (13:6-14); failing to keep Sabbath (13:15-22); Intermarriage with foreigners, even effecting the priesthood following the example of Solomon before them (13:23-31). The disturbing reality reflected in the verse, Nehemiah 13:25, is that the return from exile is just a continuation of the failure of Israel to keep covenant.
Here we must understand that Nehemiah is not presented as a pattern of good ‘Christian’ leadership, rather, he is a godly man, deeply distressed and frustrated by Israel’s failure. Nehemiah has the last say in E-N with the phrase, ‘remember me, O God, for good.’ This phrase repeated 4 times in chapter 13 is a statement of exasperation.
The only answer too which is the one whose
beard was pulled out for the sake of our transgressions:
The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
(Isa 50:5-6 ESV)