#6 in the Nehemiah series: Nehemiah chapter 13
Tobiah’s Junk
CHCC: June 8, 2008
INTRODUCTION:
This is the final sermon in the Ezra and Nehemiah series that we’ve gone through this spring. So it’s a good time for a quick review. The Book of Ezra told about groups of Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel. They resettled the area, rebuilt the temple, and reinstated Temple Worship under Ezra’s leadership.
Then, in Nehemiah we learn how the walls of Jerusalem were finally rebuilt. In chapter 1, we learned that Nehemiah had a high position in Persia as the King’s Cup Bearer. When Nehemiah’s brother told him that the walls of Jerusalem had never been repaired, Nehemiah asked the King for permission to take a new group of Exiles to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.
Nehemiah was appointed governor of Judea, and he served for 12 years. During that time the walls were rebuilt. Chapters 8 – 12 tell about the gathering of all the people to hear the reading of God’s Law. The people made Vows to follow God’s word. And then the city held a great celebration.
Nehemiah returned to his position in Babylon with the sounds of celebration ringing in his ears. Now, in chapter 13, Nehemiah is excited about returning to Jerusalem. It is likely that he is now ready to retire and he looks forward to living in the Holy City that he helped to build. But Nehemiah was in for a rude awakening.
In chapter 10, the Israelites had made 4 Sacred Vows.
They vowed to follow God’s Laws
• They swore that they would NOT intermarry with idol-worshipping nations around them
• They promised to carefully observe the Sabbath
• And they vowed to faithfully give the tithe so that the Priests and Levites could continue to conduct worship in God’s Temple.
Nehemiah returned to find that the people had broken all 4 of those vows. None of them probably set out to break their vows. It wasn’t that these people decided, I don’t care about keeping my word. I’m going to try to break every promise I made! So what went wrong?
We get some insight into what went wrong verses 4 and 5. It says that while Nehemiah was away … Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah …
If you recall, we met Tobiah way back in Chapter 1. He and Sanballot and a few others tried everything they could to stop Nehemiah from rebuilding the walls. Now Tobiah is at it again. He weaseled his way into the good graces of one of the Priests … and that Priest gave Tobiah the use of one of the rooms in the Temple.
This storage room was set apart to hold the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil. It was like the Bank Vault of the Temple. But instead of filling it with offerings, Tobiah filled this room with his own personal stuff … Which is where I got the idea for the title of this sermon: Tobiah’s JUNK.
I think Tobiah’s Junk is a good metaphor for why WE sometimes break our own sacred vows. We don’t break promises because we DECIDE to. We break promises when they get crowded out by the JUNK of life. So today, I want to ask this question: What kind of JUNK is causing YOU to break promises you have made to God and to others?
One kind of JUNK that messed up the Israelites was what we’ll call JUNKY FINANCES.
1. Junky Finances
When Nehemiah found out how the Temple treasury was being misused, the first thing he did was to throw all Tobiah’s JUNK out of the room. Then he purified the room … and put back all the offerings, incense, and Temple equipment.
But you have to wonder, Why was that room empty in the first place? If the room had been filled with tithes and offerings like it should have been, there would have been no room for Tobiah’s JUNK. The Temple was filled with JUNK because the people broke their Promise to Give.
It was probably a gradual thing. At first they probably made a big point of bringing in a tenth of their grain and their livestock. But gradually they got distracted. Maybe the harvest wasn’t as big as they hoped or their taxes were higher than they anticipated. Whatever the reason, they just sort of forgot to give the tithe. I’m sure they figured they’d get back to it soon. But meanwhile, the people who depended on their giving were suffering.
Those tithes and offerings paid wages to the Priests and Levites and singers and others who worked full-time in the Temple. It wasn’t long before the Worship leaders had to leave the Temple Duties and go back to their Farms. You see, when the people stopped giving, God’s Work fell by the wayside. And with the Temple Treasury empty, there was plenty of room for Tobiah’s JUNK.
Maybe this summer is a good time to look through your checkbook or your credit statements and see what kind of JUNK might be messing up your finances. Most of us waste a lot of money on stuff … money that could be put to better use.
Maybe it’s time to clear out Tobiah’s JUNK, and purify our budgets. The first step is always to keep our promise to give to the Lord’s Work the way we promised we would give.
Nehemiah was shocked to see that the people had broken their VOW to give their tithe. He soon discovered they had also broken their Vow to keep the Sabbath holy. Tobiah’s JUNK had made its way into the Temple Treasury, and now Nehemiah saw that the people also had JUNK in their weekly CALENDARS.
2. Junky Calendar
Nehemiah 13:15 says, In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day.
We don’t talk much about the Sabbath, but Sabbath-keeping is one of God’s most fundamental Laws. The 2nd of the 10 commandments says, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Nehemiah thought Sabbath-keeping was so important that he paid guards to watch the walls and keep merchants out of Jerusalem on the Sabbath.
We don’t live under the Old Testament Law, but the Principle of the Sabbath Rest runs all through the Bible. Genesis chapter 1 says that after creating the world … on the 7th day, God Rested. This principle of Resting is not meant to be a burden but a blessing. Jesus said, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
This summer is a good time to take a look at your CALENDAR. Is it full of Tobiah’s JUNK? A JUNKY Calendar won’t allow you any time away from your work-a-day world. You’ll find yourself running from sun-up to sundown 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, just trying to keep up with all your commitments.
It’s important to SCHEDULE time for worship, for rest, for relaxation and yes, just for plain old FUN… with your family and with your church family. That’s not always easy to do, is it? Especially when you’re in the middle of raising a family and earning the money to support them.
Like Nehemiah, you may have to set a guard over your worship time and your family time. You may have to be serious enough that you’re willing to sacrifice some career choices or even disappoint your boss. You may have to be serious enough to FIGHT for your worship time and your family time.
Nehemiah was serious about keeping the Sabbath Holy (which means keeping it “set apart to God.”) When some of the merchants tried spending the night outside the walls, Nehemiah basically threatened to beat them up!
In Verse 21 he warned them: "Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you."
Are you serious about scheduling time for rest and worship? Has your weekly calendar become crowded up with a bunch of Tobiah’s JUNK? Do you find yourself going through week after week without EVER getting away from your cell phone and e-mail and computer? How serious are YOU about guarding your time so that you regularly focus on God and on His people?
In Chapter 13 of Nehemiah, we see that Tobiah’s JUNK had found its way into the people’s Finances and into their Calendars. But the last problem Nehemiah addressed was the most detrimental of all. These people had formed JUNKY Associations with the idol worshippers around them.
3. Junky Associations
Back in Chapter 10, the people of Judah had made a solemn Vow that they would NOT let their children intermarry with the unbelievers around them. When Nehemiah found out they had broken this vow, verse 25 says, "I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their beards."
Every now and then some of you have complained that I “stepped on your toes” in a sermon. But at least I never went as far as beating anyone up and pulling out their beards. (I’ll let Ronnie or Jesus Castillo take care of that sort of thing!)
The point is that Nehemiah knew intermarriage with idol-worshippers would be the ruin of Israel. He saw that some of the children were being raised to speak the languages and follow the customs of their idol-worshipping mother or dad.
The same thing can happen in our homes when we compromise with the culture around us. The parents may keep their faith (sort of), but their children will reject it.
Years ago, Bill Gothard taught a principle I never forgot. He said, “What ever we tolerate in moderation, our children will indulge in to excess.” The visual picture that went along with that for me involved an Elder in the church where I grew up. He had an extensive liquor cabinet in his home. He drank regularly and sometimes allowed his underage son (who was a friend of mine) to drink. Years later, he bemoaned the fact that his son grew up to become an alcoholic.
That came to my mind when I first heard that statement: “What ever we tolerate in moderation our children will indulge in to excess.” How often do we sow the wind … and then get shocked by the whirlwind that inevitably comes our way.
The folks in Jerusalem didn’t break all their Vows the very day Nehemiah left town. But over the next decade or so they slowly slid down hill bit by bit … and Tobiah’s junk began to pile up … in the Temple and in their lives.
Conclusion:
I want to close by comparing what Nehemiah did in the Old Testament to what Jesus did in the New Testament. When Nehemiah saw the Temple filled with Tobiah’s JUNK, he cleansed the temple by physically throwing out the Junk. Then he re-consecrated those Holy Halls back to their original intent.
Almost 500 years later, Jesus came into the Temple Courts and saw them filled with the JUNK of commerce. Jesus cleansed the Temple 2 times … once at the beginning of His 3-year ministry, and once at the end. He drove the merchants out of the Temple.
I urge you then to throw Tobiah’s JUNK out of your finances and your calendar. Reject the compromises that are junking up your commitment to Christ. It is far better to see it for yourself and take care of it while you can make it right. Don’t wait for an angry Nehemiah or Jesus with a whip to come in and overturn your tables or throw your junk into the streets. Don’t wait for your beard to be pulled or to be driven away from the holy place. You need to see things for what they are while you still have the ability to do something about it yourself.
Throughout history God has always started his cleansing work among his own people first. He will not take action against an unbelieving world until he has first purified his own people. Just like the example of Jesus in the temple, we need to see the Lord with a whip in his hand looking for junk he wants removed from his holy place.
The message from Nehemiah is the same as the message from Jesus Christ. We need to wake up from our complacency. We need to clear out the clutter and the junk that is causing us to break our promises to God and to each other.
