Some time later……

You know those makeover programmes where the work is completed and then they go back six months later to see how it all looks ‘some time later’? Well, this chapter of Nehemiah is like that. It’s like an epilogue. The story of completing the rebuilding of the walls ends in chapter 12 with a huge celebration. And then we have this chapter that occurs ‘some time later.’

Nehemiah has returned to his old life in the courts of the Babylonian king. His work in Jerusalem is done.

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem.  Nehemiah 13:6-7

Nehemiah did not like what he found –

• the priest had given Tobiah (not an Israelite) a room in the house of God
• the Levites had not been given the portions assigned to them
• they had therefore had to go back to their fields to make a living
• the house of God had therefore been neglected
• the people had started working on the Sabbath and buying food on the Sabbath
• the men have taken foreign women as their wives

His reaction would make great TV –

I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.  Nehemiah 13:8

I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair.  Nehemiah 13:25

Can you blame him? He must have been so disappointed and frustrated. All that hard work of restoration and here they were, slipping back into old ways as soon as Nehemiah’s back is turned.

He has one aim – to purify the people, the priests and the house of God and get the provisions sorted out again. And one motivation – to be right before his God.

Remember me with favour, my God.  Nehemiah 13:31

It’s so easy to compromise, isn’t it? To start out with the best of intentions and then slowly let our standards slip. To fall into behaving the same as everyone around us. It’s a slippery slope – it starts small and then escalates, and before we know it, we’re in far too deep. It’s hard to be different, isn’t it? Sometimes we just yearn to be the same and to fit in and not stand out.

But we are representatives of the one true God. We are here to shine as stars in the darkness. We probably don’t have a Nehemiah figure in our lives who is going to come back ‘some time later’ and assess what we have built in our lives and how we are maintaining it. We have to make our own opportunities to reassess, re-evaluate, check how we’re doing against God’s standard for our lives. The Confession in the Holy Communion Service is a great regular opportunity for this, for example. If not, set a time each week – like a spiritual weigh-in! – and ask yourself some questions….you know what those questions need to be for you. Not as a way to beat yourself up, but as a way to make sure you’re keeping on the right path.

We’re all changing all the time. Do what you can to make sure that change is the one you want it to be.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Romans 12:2