Neh 13:23-24 | KingComments | STEP | Nehemiah perceives a new evil. Things don’t go well in the families of the Judeans. He notices that from the speech of the children of those families. He speaks to the Judeans about it and becomes so angry that he curses them, strikes some of them and pulls out their hair and makes them swear by God that they will not continue with this sin. His fierce reaction shows how great this evil is. Nehemiah points the company to Solomon. With all due respect to King Solomon, but he too has sinned greatly in this ( ). The fact that he is especially privileged by God has not saved him from this great evil. God does not conceal evil, not even from those closest to Him. By quoting Solomon as an example, Nehemiah shows that a privileged position is not a license for sin. It is precisely the evil that privileged people do that God will punish, because they should know better ( ). Nehemiah points to Solomon without regard for persons. Without distinction Nehemiah deals with the family of the high priest Eliashib. What began with the preparing of a large room for Tobiah ( ) ends in a marriage between the grandson of the high priest and the daughter of the enemy of God’s work ( ). And just as Nehemiah has thrown Tobiah out of God’s house with all his household goods ( ), so he drives away the man who made this horrible connection. We are dealing here with a priest. He has violated a clear precept. What applies to the whole populace, that a person may only marry one of his people, definitely applies to a priest (cf. ). He is someone with an exemplary function. If such a person goes wrong, he may under no circumstances remain in his position, but must be acted upon according to the example set by Nehemiah. If the real interest in God’s house diminishes, friendships with the world take its place. We may ask ourselves: Which ‘daughter of Sanballat’ has captured our love and robbed our hearts of our faithfulness to the Lord? Which ‘stranger’ or ‘foreigner’ has drawn us away from the Lord? Which ‘Delilah’ has taken away our spiritual strength ( )? We learn important lessons from the wrong commitments made by the children of families who belong to God’s people. We see a commitment to the world reflected in the language our children speak. The mother’s teaching ( ) has an important place in the child’s development. A child expresses itself as it learns from its mother. Nehemiah hears a mix of the language of Judea and language of Ashdod, where the language of Ashdod predominates. The language of Ashdod is the language spoken in Ashdod, a Philistine city under God’s judgment ( ). Philistines are a picture of confessors of Christendom, but without having new life. They are those Christians who occasionally produce a biblical sound, but who do not submit their lives to the will of God ( ). They live for here and now. Space is only given to God and His Word in so far as they can use it to impress and profit. The popularity of the (Dutch) New Bible Translation is a topical and disconcerting example of this. This book was launched on the market with a media spectacle that has never been shown before around the presentation of a Bible translation (2010). Everything breathes a worldly way of thinking and doing, while people say they want to promote the Word of God. Who raises our children? Do we do this ourselves, by means of and subject to God’s Word? Someone wrote: We are dealing with a first generation raised not by a mother and father, but by the media. Shall we allow the media to raise our children? Do you honestly face the following questions: Does your child know the twitter-language, street-language and sports terms better than the language and terms of the Bible? Does your child know the songs of the world better than the songs of God’s children? If you have to answer (one of) these questions with ‘yes’, it is high time to change this. Don’t you feel able to do this? Ask for help! But don’t let that situation continue. Call with all your strength to God for help. Confess your failure to Him and to your children. Then He will surely show you the way out. Share your need with others. Seek prayer partners to fight with you in the prayers for your children and also those of others. The alarm bell must be sounded. No more time must be wasted. Every second counts. It’s about the families of God’s children. Parents lose contact with their children. They seem to have to watch powerlessly as their children get stuck in the world wide web. I don’t mean to say that you should know as much about the Internet as your child does. The question is what your contact with God is like. It doesn’t get out of His control. Put your trust in Him again and be prepared to follow His instructions with all your heart. He says: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” ( ). We may take an example from Ezra and be encouraged by it: “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions. … So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty” ( ). Let us respond to the call of Jeremiah: “Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones” ( ).

‏ Nehemiah 13:23-24

The Evil of Mixed Marriages

Nehemiah perceives a new evil. Things don’t go well in the families of the Judeans. He notices that from the speech of the children of those families. He speaks to the Judeans about it and becomes so angry that he curses them, strikes some of them and pulls out their hair and makes them swear by God that they will not continue with this sin. His fierce reaction shows how great this evil is.

Nehemiah points the company to Solomon. With all due respect to King Solomon, but he too has sinned greatly in this (1Kgs 11:1-8). The fact that he is especially privileged by God has not saved him from this great evil. God does not conceal evil, not even from those closest to Him. By quoting Solomon as an example, Nehemiah shows that a privileged position is not a license for sin. It is precisely the evil that privileged people do that God will punish, because they should know better (Amos 3:2).

Nehemiah points to Solomon without regard for persons. Without distinction Nehemiah deals with the family of the high priest Eliashib. What began with the preparing of a large room for Tobiah (Neh 13:4-5) ends in a marriage between the grandson of the high priest and the daughter of the enemy of God’s work (Neh 2:10). And just as Nehemiah has thrown Tobiah out of God’s house with all his household goods (Neh 13:8), so he drives away the man who made this horrible connection.

We are dealing here with a priest. He has violated a clear precept. What applies to the whole populace, that a person may only marry one of his people, definitely applies to a priest (cf. Lev 21:7 ; 14). He is someone with an exemplary function. If such a person goes wrong, he may under no circumstances remain in his position, but must be acted upon according to the example set by Nehemiah.

If the real interest in God’s house diminishes, friendships with the world take its place. We may ask ourselves: Which ‘daughter of Sanballat’ has captured our love and robbed our hearts of our faithfulness to the Lord? Which ‘stranger’ or ‘foreigner’ has drawn us away from the Lord? Which ‘Delilah’ has taken away our spiritual strength (Jdg 16:16-21)?

We learn important lessons from the wrong commitments made by the children of families who belong to God’s people. We see a commitment to the world reflected in the language our children speak. The mother’s teaching (Pro 1:8) has an important place in the child’s development. A child expresses itself as it learns from its mother. Nehemiah hears a mix of the language of Judea and language of Ashdod, where the language of Ashdod predominates.

The language of Ashdod is the language spoken in Ashdod, a Philistine city under God’s judgment (Jer 25:20). Philistines are a picture of confessors of Christendom, but without having new life. They are those Christians who occasionally produce a biblical sound, but who do not submit their lives to the will of God (2Tim 3:5). They live for here and now. Space is only given to God and His Word in so far as they can use it to impress and profit.

The popularity of the (Dutch) New Bible Translation is a topical and disconcerting example of this. This book was launched on the market with a media spectacle that has never been shown before around the presentation of a Bible translation (2010). Everything breathes a worldly way of thinking and doing, while people say they want to promote the Word of God.

Who raises our children? Do we do this ourselves, by means of and subject to God’s Word? Someone wrote: We are dealing with a first generation raised not by a mother and father, but by the media. Shall we allow the media to raise our children? Do you honestly face the following questions: Does your child know the twitter-language, street-language and sports terms better than the language and terms of the Bible? Does your child know the songs of the world better than the songs of God’s children?

If you have to answer (one of) these questions with ‘yes’, it is high time to change this. Don’t you feel able to do this? Ask for help! But don’t let that situation continue. Call with all your strength to God for help. Confess your failure to Him and to your children. Then He will surely show you the way out. Share your need with others. Seek prayer partners to fight with you in the prayers for your children and also those of others.

The alarm bell must be sounded. No more time must be wasted. Every second counts. It’s about the families of God’s children. Parents lose contact with their children. They seem to have to watch powerlessly as their children get stuck in the world wide web. I don’t mean to say that you should know as much about the Internet as your child does. The question is what your contact with God is like. It doesn’t get out of His control.

Put your trust in Him again and be prepared to follow His instructions with all your heart. He says: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” (Psa 32:8). We may take an example from Ezra and be encouraged by it: “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions. … So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty” (Ezra 8:21 ; 23).

Let us respond to the call of Jeremiah:

“Pour out your heart like water

Before the presence of the Lord;

Lift up your hands to Him

For the life of your little ones” (Lam 2:19b).