The God Who Remembers


Sermon by Ed Hartman on July 25, 2021 Nehemiah 13:4-31

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I’d invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 13. If you’re using the Bible in the rack in front of you it’s on page 409. We’ve been studying the book of Nehemiah on Sunday evenings since April, and this is our last study in the series. And before we read the passage, I would simply like to say that if it were up to me, chapter 12 is where we would have ended because in chapter 12 the wall is complete, the temple is done, the reforms are enacted, everyone is celebrating – it’s great! And then you get to chapter 13 and the wheels fall off and it’s a mess. And so we’re left asking the question, “Why does Nehemiah include in his memoir chapter 13? Wouldn’t it have been so much more encouraging to finish on a high note with chapter 12? Why does he include chapter 13?”

The answer, I believe, is at least hinted at in Romans 15:4 where Paul writes, “Everything that was written in the past” – and that includes Nehemiah 13 – “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of Scripture, we might have hope.” Nehemiah 13 is about endurance, encouragement and hope. Anybody here need any of that this evening? I surely do. So here’s the thesis for our study this evening. In spite of all our great intentions and even our miserable failure, God remains faithful. He remembers us. And I’d like us to take time to think about exactly what does that mean as we read and study this evening. Let’s pray together before we read.

Father, Your Word is alive and powerful. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and it’s able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. Would You please show us what is true of our lives, what normally remains hidden from our gaze, and encourage us, fuel us for endurance, and flood us with hope. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

So Nehemiah 13. We’re reading verses 4 through 31. It’s a long reading. Here is your assignment:  As I read, I would like for you to consider, “What is Nehemiah feeling? What is his core emotion as he writes this record?” Nehemiah 13, beginning in verse 4:

“Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. So I confronted the officials and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?’ And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.

In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.’

As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, ‘Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.’ From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, ‘You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?’

And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits.

Remember me, O my God, for good.”

This is God’s Word.

I’d like us to unpack that chapter under 3 headings. First, the commitment. Secondly, the failure. Third, the promise.

The Commitment

The commitment, first of all, goes back to chapter 10 which I had the privilege of preaching on almost a month ago. Chapter 10 is the high point. The temple is complete, the wall is secure, the gates are built, the reforms have swept through God’s people, they’re celebrating, everything finishes so well, and Nehemiah says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Things are good. The people made tremendous commitments, eight of them actually. I won’t detail all of them, but they cover commitments that assure one another that they will live lives distinct from the surrounding peoples, that they would offer complete obedience to God’s Word, they would observe and do all that was written there. They promised there would be no mixed marriages. Remember we said that this wasn’t a racial prohibition; this was a religious commitment to purity. They promised that the Sabbath Day would be kept holy. They promised that they would pay the tithe and the temple tax because the work of the temple was expensive. They promised that they would supply the wood for the altar. Remember we said that the altar was massive. It wouldn’t fit on this platform up here. And it burned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – continuously. That took a lot of labor before the days of chainsaws and pickup trucks. But they promised, “We’ll make sure that the fire does not go out and that we will provide the wood.” They promised that they would not neglect the house of their God. Nine times toward the end of chapter 10 they repeated, “The house of our God…The house of our God…The house of our God…The house of our God. This will be our highest priority.” That’s the commitment.

The Failure

But then we come to the failure which we’ve just read in chapter 13. There’s a gap in time that, if you’re not reading carefully, you’ll miss it. It’s talked about in verse 6. It works like this – Nehemiah comes from the capital city of the Persian Empire, Susa. He comes all the way to Jerusalem when he hears that the wall is broken down. He comes with orders from the emperor, Artaxerxes, and he brings letters and supplies and he builds. He serves as a governor for 12 years and he accomplishes everything we have read up through chapter 10. And then, he goes back to Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire. We don’t know how long he stays back in Susa. We know for certain that it cannot be more than 8 years before between the year that he left, the year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, and the year we know Artaxerxes died, was 8 years. So it had to have been less than that amount of time because he requests permission from the king to go back to Jerusalem on a second trip. So he’s gone no more than 8 years, probably a significantly shorter amount of time.

Why? Well for this small detail. It’s about 900 miles from Susa to Jerusalem and there’s no asphalt. The scholars tell us that it took roughly 4 months to make that journey on foot or with a horse. Treacherous, brutal journey. Can you imagine? Nine hundred miles is Chicago – an afternoon’s drive, sort of? Four months you’re traveling, and he made that journey at least three separate times. And it’s while he is gone that this failure occurs and you discover that the failure hits every area of their personal and religious lives – that they have vowed to commit covenant loyalty promises in chapter 10. Every one of them they fail in chapter 13. Vows with regard to space, how they’re going to use the holy space in the temple, time, resources, even relationships. It strikes me that they talked about “The house of our God. The house of our God. This will be our highest priority,” and the failure begins when Nehemiah discovered that a man by the name of Tobiah has made his way into the holy place; a place set aside for the worship of God.

You read Tobiah’s name – Cory talked about him beautifully earlier in the series – but he shows up 5 times in the book of Nehemiah. Chapter 2 is the first time he shows up and there he’s really disrupted by the fact that the Israelites are starting to build the wall. He doesn’t want anything that promotes their welfare. In chapter 4, he’s ridiculing the work of the Israelites. Later at the end of chapter, 4 he’s involved in terrorist activity against them; in chapter 6 he’s involved in a plot to murder Nehemiah, to lure him away from the city to kill him. And then the next time you hear about Tobiah, chapter 13 verse 4, he’s actually living in a sacred room within the temple courts. God’s people had allowed an enemy of God’s people to make his way into a place that was to be kept holy for God alone.

There’s all kinds of applications we could make about our own lives – about this being God’s temple and He has claimed ownership of it. “We are no longer our own; we have been purchased with a price, therefore honor God with your body, your temple.” What have we allowed in? What enemies have we allowed to take up residence in the place that ought to be kept holy to the Lord? That’s not the application that we’re going to make right now but I just thought I’d throw that question out. Time, the Sabbath, they had violated that. The resources that they had promised to give for the ongoing work of the temple; they had stopped providing that – money, food, oil, even firewood. Relationships. This is where it becomes really threatening. I mean, verses 23 through 29, God’s people had discovered that maintaining religious purity did not bode well with regard to community relationships. And they discovered that things just went better with the peoples around you if you let your daughter marry their son or your son marry their daughter. And so they said, “Well, what’s the harm?”

I went back in our record of sermons online to see, “When did we last preach a series on Nehemiah?” and it was back in 2009 when Derek Thomas was preaching on Sunday evenings. And I read his treatment of this passage. I should have listened to the sermon because I would have loved to hear him say what the manuscript wrote. It said, “Nehemiah came back and he threw a hissy fit!” Can you imagine that in his accent? “Nehemiah threw a hissy fit!” You read about the anger, starting in verse 8 – “I was very angry and I threw out all the household furniture.” Verse 17, “I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this evil you are doing, profaning the Sabbath Day?’” Verse 21, “I warned them and said to them, ‘Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.’” He obviously doesn’t detail what that means, but we can presume it meant he was going to get personally physical with anyone who camped outside the gates waiting for daybreak on the first day of the week – Sunday; their Sabbath was on Saturday. And then in responding to the intermarriages, verse 25, “I confronted them and I cursed them and beat some of them and I pulled out their hair.” Now some theologians say that Nehemiah brought about a new revival in Jerusalem, but as I read the text, it doesn’t look like a change of heart kind of revival. It looked pretty much like the coerced, forced obedience that didn’t really affect the heart and certainly didn’t last.

The Promise  

Great intentions, absolute failure, and then silence for 400 years. You understand, of course, Nehemiah, while it’s before the Psalms in your Bible, chronologically it’s the end of the story before that intertestamental period. Malachi, which appears last, was a contemporary of Nehemiah’s and Malachi probably wrote his prophecy during the time that Nehemiah was back in Susa for that undetermined amount of time because he writes about the people’s failure to bring the tithe. But here we are with that failure, and I’m left wondering if the apostle Paul lived in that day if he might not have quoted Romans 7 to them. That passage rings in my head so often because it describes so much of my life – “The good that I want to do, I don’t end up doing that. No, the evil I don’t want to do, that’s what I keep on doing. Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Only for Nehemiah it would have stopped there, right? “Who will rescue me?” And for 400 years the question rang, “Who will rescue us? Who will rescue us? Who will rescue us?”

So what does Nehemiah leave with the people of God that rings in their ears for the next 400 years? What’s the promise? What gives them endurance and encouragement and hope as they keep seeing their failure over and over again, their ongoing inability to walk with God and please God the way down deep they say they want to please God? Well that comes by way of a promise, which doesn’t really show up as a promise. Where you see it is in Nehemiah’s prayer. Three times Nehemiah prays the same thing. It’s really his last utterance in chapter 13. He prays, “Remember me, O my God, for good.” Verse 22, he prays it again, “Remember this also in my favor, O my God.” And verse 14, “Remember me, O my God, concerning this.” Remember me. Remember me. Remember me. Now of the 11 prayers that Nehemiah prays in this book, including chapter 9 which is the longest prayer in the Bible, out of 11 prayers, 6 of them are those words – “Remember.” “Remember me.” Or, “Remember them.” “God, remember.”

Now what does that even mean? Does it mean that God tends to forget? That He has lapses in memory? Does it mean that God was like me during my years as a student – whenever I came to an exam the prayer was the same, “O God, please help me remember the things that I studied”? I prayed that because I was forgetful. I would always forget so much of what I had read and studied. “God, please help me to remember.” Is God that way? Does He struggle to – “Oh yeah, what’s his name again? It’s on the tip of my tongue; I can’t remember!” I’ve told some of you that Tim Keller was my faculty advisor during my years at Westminster Seminary. That may mean more now than it did back then. Back then he was just a professor at Westminster. He was my advisor, my professor. I was often in his office. I was in his home. I knew him and enjoyed being with him. And then we parted ways. He planted a church in New York and I went to Mississippi. And years later we were at a General Assembly and I saw him having a cup of coffee; he was by himself. And I walked over and said, “Hey, Dr. Keller. So great to see you again. How long has it been since we’ve been together?” And he looked at me and he says, “I am so sorry but I have no idea who you are.” Is that, is that how God is? Do we have to say, “God please remember me. Please don’t forget me.” Is there a danger that He will?

What is Nehemiah asking when he prays, “God, remember me. Remember me. Remember me”? It’s actually a prayer that you find throughout the Old Testament 235 times. God’s remembering is referenced 235 times, 50 of which in the Psalms. And what you discover is every time that the Biblical writers speak of God remembering they are referring specifically to God taking action on behalf of His people in light of His character and His promises. Every time, God takes action on behalf of His people in line with His character and His promises. The first time we read about God remembering is in the story of Noah, Genesis chapter 8, where it says, “God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark.” This is after a year of rain and floating on the waters over the earth, over a year. “God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and He sent a wind over the earth and the water receded.” A few chapters later, as the people whom God has created go from bad to worse and you get to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and God prepares to wipe out these cities, it says, “God remembered Abraham and spared Lot on his behalf.” Genesis 30, when Rachel is unable to get pregnant, it says, “God remembered Rachel and she conceived.” At the beginning of the book of Exodus as God’s people are languishing in slavery for 400 years in Egypt, we’re told that, “God remembered His people and sent Moses to deliver them.”

You go to the Psalms and you find it over and over again. A couple of examples. Psalm 25, “Remember, Lord, Your great mercy and love. Remember me and deliver me.” Psalm 74, “Remember the nation You purchased long ago, the people of Your inheritance, and deliver them.” Psalm 106, “Remember me, Lord, when You show favor to Your people. Come to my aid when You save them.” Remember me. Remember me. Remember us. Remember Your people. And then you come to the New Testament and Mary sings the Magnificat and you remember what she sings? She praises God who, “remembered His mercy promised to Abraham.” And then at the end of Jesus’ life, as He’s hanging on the cross, the penitent thief next to Him, what does he say to Jesus? “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom.” Not once are they saying, “I’m worried You’re going to forget. I’m worried You might not recognize me when You see me drinking a cup of coffee.” No, they’re saying, “God, remember Your promises, act in line with Your character, deliver Your people. We need You.”

It’s the last thing Nehemiah writes in his memoir, and then 400 years of silence. And God’s people read the record, the story, and it ends with this – “Remember us, Lord. Remember us. Act on our behalf. Deliver us. Act in a manner consistent with Your character and Your promise. God, please, please.” These are the words that rang in the ears of God’s people. Is it really a poor ending to end with chapter 13 or is it an absolutely necessary ending if you recognize what your character, what your heart is really like? If the song we sing pretty often here, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above,” if that’s true of your heart, you need Nehemiah 13, “Remember me, O Lord. Act on my behalf in line with Your character and Your promises. Do what only You can do.”

Remember the Cost by which He Remembers You

Two practical applications. They both deal with remembering. God does remember us, and in so doing He acts in line with His character, but He also invites us to remember. Here’s the two applications, very simply. Number one, remember the cost by which He remembers you. Don’t ever let that slip your attention. Remember the cost by which He remembers you. Jesus’ words as He gave up His life on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” could also be said, “Why have You forgotten Me? Why are You not remembering Me?” The Father forgot His Son, abandoned, forsook His Son, to ensure us that He would never forget us. It’s a blood-bought promise. Remember the cost by which He remembers you.

Remember the God Who Remembers You

Secondly, remember the God who remembers you. It’s really rather simple. Remember the God who remembers you. It’s the first thing I forget. I think I’ve quoted Chuck Colson who once said, “Every morning I wake up an atheist all over again till I drink my first cup of coffee and remember, ‘O yeah, but God – He was here waiting for me this morning.’ And I have to reorient my mind to Him all over again, every day.” Remember the God who remembers you. Here’s how Nehemiah puts it in chapter 4 verse 14; we studied this weeks ago. Nehemiah writes, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your families, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Remember the Lord who remembers you. Remember the Lord and fight.

The Christian life is a fight, but it’s a fight of faith. It’s a fight to remember, because the most important things in your life are the quickest ones to forget. You and I forget quickly that there is a God in heaven, that our Redeemer lives. He is risen, ascended, and He sits at the right hand of the Father reigning and praying for us right now. And I forget that every day. I think it’s on me and I think it’s all about my intentions and my doing my best to follow through on them. And Nehemiah says, “No, remember the God who remembers you.” Remember the cost by which He remembers and remember the God who does remember, who acts on your behalf in line with His character and His promises. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight. Fight the good fight of faith. Fight to remember. Fight for joy. Fight for gratitude. Fight to be a man or a woman who daily clothes himself or herself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Who pleads with the Spirit to live through him or her, through us, bearing fruit of the Spirit. It’s a fight. It’s first of all a fight to remember. Secondly, as Billy reminded us this morning, it’s a fight to believe. It’s the work God requires to believe. But you can’t believe what you don’t remember. Right? Fight to remember.

Really, what it comes down to is what the brother of the Lord Jesus wrote at the end of his letter. Jude, he puts it this way. We’ll make this our benediction. Would you stand? It’s actually a doxology but we’ll use it as our benediction. Jude writes these words, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory, with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.”

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