That slippery slope

We are beginning to study the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah today. I hope you will find some time to sit down and read it, or if you have an audio program that you will listen to the chapter.

I expect that whether they have been our own kiddos or someone else's, we have all had the experience of reading stories to children. Often they end with the words "they lived happily ever after." Wouldn't it be nice if that is how Nehemiah ended? After all, look at all of the wonderful things that have been accomplished . . .
We started this study with Nehemiah, who heard sad news of the city of Jerusalem from his brother, and took a leave of absence from his position of cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. When he'd arrived in the old city, he led the people to rebuild the walls in record time.  When the walls were up, the people, led by Nehemiah and Ezra, experienced a spiritual renewal. They even took personal responsibility and signed a spiritual covenant. They agreed to obey God's law as it applied to them personally, and also as it applied to corporate worship. The (noisy!) climax to this is the dedication in chapter twelve, since it says:

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. (Nehemiah 12:43)

Wouldn't it have been nice to end the story there? And to be able to say, "they lived happily ever after"?
Yep.
That would have been nice.
But as they say, "let's get serious."
After his twelve years as governor, Nehemiah had returned to Persia. We don't really know how long he stayed there, but it was long enough for permissiveness and spiritual compromise to set in. Apparently, the reforms were short-lived. Hedonism, casual attitudes toward sin, and permissiveness had accelerated the slide down "the slippery slope" into immorality.
When Nehemiah got back to Jerusalem, he found that permissiveness was rampant in the very same areas that the people had signed on to stand against! The very sins that they covenanted to stay away from were the areas where they fell. It's interesting to note that the sin sneaked in through the spiritual leaders that were supposed to be in charge of the people and leading them to obey their covenant.

A lesser man, a man that was not as well grounded and as principled as Nehemiah, might have thrown up his hands and said, "I give up!" But Nehemiah, the man that we've seen is a tremendous warrior in prayer, strongly confronted the problem of permissiveness.
I'd like to ask that we all read the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah and then join together across the miles to study this chapter this week.
Join me, won't you?