Nehemiah's steps for taking care of compromise

Step one is kinda obvious.

You have to know what the problem is, in order to resolve it, no?

Let's check out verses six and seven:

Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.  (Nehemiah 13:6b-7)

It's a bit of a "no-brainer" as they say today, but we have to discover and point out the problem first. After all, why had the leaders of Israel not figured out that something was wrong? Why hadn't they discovered it and dealt with it? 

Wasn't it obvious?
Nehemiah saw what others did not see. And the reason for this is he compared what he was seeing in Jerusalem with what he knew from the scriptures.

Verse seven says he "learned" about the evil . . . he didn't try to be diplomatic.

Well, Eliashib, I see you have come up with a creative alternative use for the temple storerooms. What an innovative mind you have . . .

Nope.

He called it evil.

Don't guess that made him too popular to apply that word to the high priest, but Nehemiah didn't tone it down, because he was certain of his knowledge of the scriptures.

If we continue through the chapter, he says he "discovered" that the Levites had not received the tithes (v. 10). Then he "saw" the violation of the Sabbath (v. 15). And he "saw" that the Jews had married foreign women (v. 23). Each time that he observed something, he compared it to God's standards for the people and the religious leaders. 

They came up WAY short.

That brings us to step two: he got upset.

We've seen all through the book of Nehemiah that he is a man of action. He heard of the troubles in the city of his ancestors, and he asked the king for a furlough so he could go and help. He came up with plans to rebuild, and he carried them out. He met opposition, and he prayed and worked and prevailed. This will be no different; we will see that.

Let's re-read some verses and look for the "action" words. (My elementary school teacher called verbs "action" words; her terminology is very apt here!)

I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense. (v. 8-9)

He was "displeased," and not only that, he "threw" Tobiah's things out!

So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts. (V. 11)

Some translations say "reprimanded," and the NIV above says "rebuked." I kinda think the decibel level went up a notch there.

I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day?" (v. 17)

There it is again -- Nehemiah rebuked them.

In verse twenty-five, he kicks it up a notch again:

I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves." (v. 25)

The scholars say that he did not use profanity, but instead used verses that pronounced a curse on those who willfully broke God's standards. And that the hair pulling was a traditional thing, probably pulling from their beards.

This graphic display of disappointment and righteous anger was probably powerful to those who saw it. Ezra's seeming breakdown years earlier over his grief at the people's sins was hugely effective. I expect that Nehemiah's explosive "shock treatment" for the religious leaders in this situation was pretty effective, too. 

Both of those situations bring to mind the Lord's reactions to encountering evil. 

Jesus lamented over Jerusalem in much the same way that Ezra had, many years earlier.

 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37)

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. (Matthew 21:12)

John's gospel records His work there in even more vivid words; His actions were shocking to some, but they were the result of His righteous anger. Nehemiah's "action words" reveal the same kind of righteous anger regarding the permissiveness of the leaders and the people in Jerusalem.

To apply this to our lives today, when we see sins or false teachings that are damaging to God's people, it's wrong NOT to be angry! To put it another way, if we are complacent in the face of evil, we are NOT being like Jesus. And isn't that what we are striving for? To be more like Him?

Now, let's slow down a minute and make sure that I get this clear: we need to be truly careful with righteous anger. We need to be discerning and use wisdom even as we are angry at the sins or the false teachings. It's awfully easy to cross the line and excuse sinful anger as being righteous. Thank the Lord that we have some guidance in our Bibles:

 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Righteous anger is the kind of anger that God has.

But there's a danger when we humans try to have righteous anger. For humans, since we are sinful, and sometimes selfish, and because we don't see and know everything as God does, righteous anger is extremely difficult to maintain. Maybe even impossible for most of us. Even if we start out with righteous anger, it usually morphs into unrighteous anger. It degenerates. It becomes sinful anger. The kind that Paul warns us to get rid of.

When anger gets away from us, it can exact a terrible price. It can burn out of control. It can burn up relationships, and burn up our fellowship with Christ. We must be super careful to immerse ourselves in the scriptures, as Nehemiah did, and to follow his lead . . . we will see what his next steps were, and how he avoided sinful anger.