How do you feel about New Year’s Resolutions? Some people make New Year’s Resolutions every year, while others view them as a pointless tradition. After all, they think, no one ever really keeps their New Year’s resolutions. Three weeks into the new year and that new diet is traded in for the same old habits. Making and breaking resolutions can be extremely discouraging! It is the same when we make spiritual commitments to God. When we make and break those commitments, we may be tempted to simply not bother making any more commitments at all.
This is the discouraging circumstance in which we find Israel in Nehemiah 13. While Nehemiah had returned to the Persian palace for a span of time (some commentators say he was gone for 10 to 12 years), the children of Israel violated the three specific commitments they had made to God in chapter 10. When Nehemiah returned, he found Israelites unequally yoked with unbelievers. He found the people buying and selling on the Sabbath. And he found that the Levites had left the temple and returned to their fields because the people had neglected the house of God. Nehemiah’s response to their failure was an act of love. He was trying to spare them from God’s judgement because of their return to the sin that made them captives in the first place. From Nehemiah’s response, we can learn three keys to keeping our commitments to God.
The first key to keeping our commitments is cleaning out the clutter. Nehemiah had left a people who were on fire for God. They had restored the temple and the rituals that went along with it. They had rebuilt their city and committed to live the way God had intended for them. Imagine Nehemiah’s dismay when he returned to find Tobiah—a member of the opposition to the wall-building—living in the temple! Eliashib the priest had made an alliance with Tobiah and even made him comfortable living quarters in the courts of the temple. Nehemiah 13:8-9 says, “And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and frankincense.” Much like Jesus did with the moneychangers in the temple, Nehemiah threw Tobiah along with all his stuff out of the house of God. The temple was supposed to be a holy (clean, set apart to God) place but it could not be holy with unclean and worldly stuff cluttering the space. Nehemiah did not beat around the bush. He cleaned out the clutter.
If we are going to keep our commitments to God, we will need to clean out the clutter in our lives as well. As God’s children, we are the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells (I Corinthians 3:16). With such a wonderful privilege comes a great responsibility. We are to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:16). Our bodies must be set apart to God (Romans 12:1). This means that we will need to declutter our lives from time to time. As it did Nehemiah, does it grieve us when sin is cluttering the way between ourselves and the Lord? Is there any stuff—possessions, activities, entertainments, hobbies—that are hindering our holiness and cluttering the way between ourselves and our Lord? As the hymn goes, “Keep the way clear. Let nothing between.” In order to keep our commitments, we need to take stock of our lives often in order to clean out any clutter and keep the way clear.
Another key to keeping our commitments to God is guarding our hearts. Nehemiah saw that the temptation to buy and sell on the Sabbath was too great for the people because the gates of the city were wide open on the Sabbath. This allowed merchants to enter the city and bring business to the Israelites on the sacred day of rest. Nehemiah solved this problem by eliminating the influence. Nehemiah 13:19 says, “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.” Nehemiah shut the gates in order to keep the wrong influence out of Israel. He even posted guards at those shut up gates as assurance that the gates would remain shut.
Similarly, if we are going to keep our commitments to God, we need to keep the gates of our heart shut to wrong influences. Proverbs4:23 says “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The word “keep” means to guard. Just like a gate guards a city, our ear-gate and eye-gate can guard our hearts. Just as Nehemiah was intentional about what he let through the gate to Jerusalem, we must be intentional about what we allow through our ear-gate and eye-gate and into our hearts. Perhaps we know that at a certain time and place, there will be a certain temptation. We can post a guard, like Nehemiah did, at those times and places in order to makes sure our gates remain shut to those influences.
The third key to keeping our commitments is being careful about your alliances. Earlier in the chapter (v. 4), Nehemiah noted that Eliashib the priest had “allied unto Tobiah”—one of the ungodly men that had scorned the wall-builders. Such an alliance had not reformed Tobiah but had defiled the house of God. Not only had the religious leaders of Israel made alliance with unbelievers to defile the house of God, but the men of Israel had married pagan women. Because of these unequal marriages (II Corinthians 6:14), their children had grown up mixing the religion and customs of the Jews with the religion and customs of their pagan mothers (Nehemiah 13:23-25). The issue here was not the “mixed race” of the children, but the “mixed religion.” Nehemiah says in verse 26, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.” Like Solomon, the people had made intimate alliances with unbelievers who were stealing their hearts from God. Not only were they being drawn away from God, but their children were being handed down a diluted, perverted faith. Their children’s faith was syncretistic—mixing Jehovah-worship with paganism. When people seek to mix Jehovah-worship with anything else, they are no longer worshipping Jehovah at all. Jehovah is a jealous God because He alone is God, and He will not share His worship or His position with anything else.
As Christians, we must be careful about our alliances with unbelievers or even wayward Christians. This does not mean that we should not be friends with unbelievers or wayward Christians. In fact, we should form relationships with such people in order to share the love and gospel of Jesus Christ with them! However, there are certain levels of alliance, or partnership, that we can have with such people. While it is fine for us to partner with unbelievers for a common cause (such as the pro-life cause), partnering with an unbeliever in spiritual work or in the sacred union of marriage would not be wise. For example, a born-again Christian should not ask a Catholic priest to pray at a revival meeting or church function. Allowing a Catholic friend to think that there is no real difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Catholic church by inviting him to help lead a Christian service would not be the loving or neighborly thing to do. Likewise, marrying an unbeliever would be unwise because marriage is the most intimate level of alliance or partnership on earth. Like the children of the Jewish fathers and pagan mothers, the children of an “unequal” marriage may become confused about the “faith” that is being passed down to them. In order to keep our commitments, and our children, we must be careful about our alliances. We must pray for discernment to know what level of alliance we should be making with unbelievers.
The children of Israel had experienced great revival and made a grand commitment to God. The problem came in keeping that commitment. Their backsliding probably did not happen as soon as Nehemiah left. Most likely, the backsliding was gradual. It probably began with allowing little things, clutter, to hinder their relationship with God. As the stuff piled up, their motivation to keep their hearts waned. Before they knew it, they had not only allowed merchants in their gates on the Sabbath, but they’d also allowed pagan spouses in their hearts. All of this conspired to bring Israel right back where they started before their captivity. As a result, they were ashamed when Nehemiah returned from Persia.
As Christians, we don’t have to be ashamed when the Lord returns for us. We can avoid this vicious cycle by the choices we make every single day to clean out the clutter, keep our hearts, and be discerning in our alliances. These choices will come naturally if we are abiding in Christ. I John 2:28 says, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” In this passage, “abide” simply means to remain, to tarry, or to continue to be present. We need to remain with Jesus. We need to linger in our conversations with Him. We need to continue to be present with our Savior. Of course, Jesus is always present with us (Hebrews 13:5 ), but we can choose whether or not to be present with Him. For example, have you ever been “talking” with a friend and they accused you of not being present with them in the moment? Maybe your eyes had wandered down to your phone, or your own thoughts had distracted you and your glazed-over look betrayed your absent mind. The same can happen in our relationship with Jesus. We must consciously choose to be present with Jesus when we open our Bibles to read or listen to a sermon at church. If we are staying in close relationship with Jesus, we will be able to make the choices necessary to keep our commitments to Him.