Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 188 - Nehemiah, God's Builder - Part 10 - Desolation and Renewal (Nehemiah 13:4-11 NKJV) Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah. {5} And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests. {6} But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, {7} 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. {8} And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. {9} Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. {10} I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them; for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. {11} So I contended with the rulers, and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered them together and set them in their place. Nehemiah went back to the courts of Persia to serve Artaxerxes and stayed there some months or years, (the time is not indicated), then he takes leave and returns to check on Jerusalem - and the place is desolate! His arch-enemy Tobiah has set up rooms for himself in the very temple courts - and displaced the articles of God. Not only that the priests and Levites and singers had not been paid and had been forced to go back to farming. In Tobiah we have a type of the intrusive evil of Satan. Satan is an intruder and a pretender. Satan wants worship, he wants to displace God and enter into the temple courts. Where there is weak leadership he will take over and bully his way into the very center of things. What had Eliashib the High Priest done by giving way to Tobiah? Eliashib was the high-priest (Neh 3:1,2) The very person who was supposed to be in charge of the things of God! Yet he was allied to Tobiah and related to Sanballat (Neh 13:4,28) He had built worldly relationships of prominence, which led him to neglect holiness and defile the sanctuary. As Nehemiah says of them later: (Nehemiah 13:29 NKJV) Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. When church-leaders give way to the world and to pomp and importance the devil is soon installed. In Jesus day the worldly and corrupt clergy let the money-changers enter the sanctuary. True holiness is uncompromising. James says it well: (James 4:4-5 NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. {5} Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? Nehemiah enters the situation with authority and Tobiah (alias Satan) and all his baggage is cast out and the things of God are put back in their place. The leaders are rebuked and the priest, Levites and singers are again paid their dues. Nehemiah uses godly strength and direct action to correct the defiling of God's Temple - just as Jesus also did 400 years later. There comes a time when forceful action is needed to reform a corrupted church - such as in the time of the Borgias and the corruption of the Papacy, when Martin Luther arose with his blunt, direct confrontation of the numerous Tobiahs, Eliashibs and Sanballats of his day. Satan is not cast out by wimps. Satan and all his baggage must be stood up to and firmly thrown out of the church of God. Those who do exorcisms will tell you that asking a demon to leave does not work. They just sit there and mock you. Demons must be rebuked and commanded - and this is true of all forces of evil. Nehemiah did not graciously ask Tobiah to leave and Jesus did not request the money-changers to kindly change their location - He used a whip! There is a place to "be strong with the strong" and to be forceful with well-entrenched evil. What does this mean for the church today? It means that the people of God should firmly rebuke those who turn the church into a marketplace or a social institution. We should demand holiness and insist on having men of God as pastors who honor God in all things. This may even go as far as having to dismiss worldly or liberal clergy. One place Satan loves to intrude into is the halls of theological training. We must be very careful about the selection of bible college lecturers - and their doctrine and lifestyle. Similarly denominational officials, senior pastors and bible teachers should not be selected on appearances or status alone but on godliness and what they have to impart to the body of Christ. Finally the financial aspect - the installing of Tobiah coincided with the non-payment of the servants of God. When worldly people are put in power in the church, the true servants of God are frequently short-changed. Satan hates the things of God and the servants of God and as soon as he weasels his way into church structures he denies them their rightful support. The room Tobiah had taken is where the supplies for the priests were kept. The large room, which had contained more than enough for God's service, was now squandered on an enemy and a worldling. Forcing ministers to work in secular jobs for a living and withholding from them their due support, is becoming increasingly common. Churches are saying "We want you to be our pastor but we cannot (or will not) pay you." This is wicked. If you want a plumber you pay for one. If you want a pastor you must pay for one also. The worker is worthy of his hire. The people of God should appropriately honor people who work hard in the word and live holy lives. (1 Timothy 5:17-18 NKJV) Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. {18} For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages." Summing up - worldliness soon leads to Satan setting up in the church and stinginess leads to injustice towards the workers of God. If the church is to be renewed the twin (and connected) evils of worldliness and stinginess need to be rebuked and corrected by strong men and women with a holy passion for the honor of God. Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph