Nehemiah 13:31 …Remember me, O my God, for good
There seems to be two ways to respond to the world as it now is. One is to ignore it and the other is to be absorbed by it. The one might be characterized by the idea “ignorance is bliss.” If I just ignore it, I will be blissfully happy because if I don’t think about it or see it, then it really does not exist. See no evil; hear no evil; think no evil. The idea is that it is not my problem, worry, or responsibility. The problem with that is if you really know something but pretend that you don’t, then your conscience should tell you that is not right or good.
The other extreme might be to act like the hall monitor you had when you were in elementary school. If you were talking when you weren’t supposed to be, the monitor would point his finger at you, cover his mouth, and say something like, “Oooohhh, you were talking!” Then he would tell the teacher and you would get in trouble. So, is there some medium between worrying about everyone and everything and pretending like none of it exists?
That is a question that Nehemiah had to grapple with in Nehemiah 13. In fact, the entire chapter is essentially Nehemiah seeing and observing problems everywhere he looked, pointing them out, and trying to make them right.
For instance, in Nehemiah 13:7 he says, “And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah.” We won’t get into what the evil was, but there was an evil and after some absence from Jerusalem when he went back to the court of Persia, Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and saw this problem. What Nehemiah found was that they had a wall to keep enemies out, but there was an enemy within. They weren’t just shutting out the evil; they were keeping it in. A lot of times our greatest problems are internal problems.
Later on, verse 10 says, “And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them.” So, he saw and then perceived. Verse 15 says, “In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath.” He goes on to talk about the problem he had observed. Verse 23 says, “In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod.” Nehemiah saw each of these problems, was concerned about them, and tried to make them right. You can read Nehemiah 13 and wonder if you even like Nehemiah. Every time you see him in this chapter, he is covering his mouth and pointing at someone and saying, “Ahhh, you disobeyed God.” Was that all it was?
If you go around life observing all the evil in this world, it will crush you. You can’t ignore it. So, what do you do? The only way to avoid being crushed by what you see is to remember what God knows. You read or listen to the news in the morning and think, “What a mess we are in!” Then you go to work, see your coworkers, consider about your own propensities, and think, “What a mess we are in!” Then you come home to your family, the best people you know, but even they have problems and you think, “What a mess we are in!” How do you avoid being crushed by that? Well, you remember what God knows.
Every time Nehemiah noted a problem, there is almost an equivalent prayer to God about the same time. In verse 31 the book ends by saying, “Remember me, O my God, for good.” He says this four or five times in Nehemiah 13. In other words, he is saying, “Here is a problem. This is not right. I am going to take my responsibility to fix it, but God please don’t forget me. Please remember me in mercy. Remember what these people are doing, and don’t let us get away with evil.”
Nehemiah was quick to confront people about what they were doing in sinning against God. He knew God would judge them. He personalized the problem to the extent that he saw people not as disjointed from him, but realized that together they were the group of God’s people that God would chasten or bless for their rebellion or obedience. So, you see Nehemiah bring to God the problems he saw and ask for the mercy he needed. That is the only way to avoid being crushed by what you see. Remember what God knows.
First, God knows issues and hearts. I can’t know anyone’s heart, but all of us can know God’s law and that is the way the chapter begins. Verse 1 says, “On that day they read in the book of Moses.” It goes on to say that they knew God’s law and the consequences of not keeping it. In verse 18 Nehemiah says, “Did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.” He is saying, “God judged us before. Are you going to keep sinning against God? Don’t you know there is a consequence for that?
So, God knows the issues and God knows our hearts. It is God’s job to judge people’s hearts. I can’t do that, but I do know what God has said. I can judge the conduct of myself and those around me in relation to God’s Word. You may be discouraged, overwhelmed, or outnumbered, but there is a God in Heaven who knows issues and hearts.
Second, God knows you. In verse 14 Nehemiah basically says, “God remember my deeds.” In verse 22 he says essentially, “God remember Your mercy. Please give me mercy.” Nehemiah was not some self-righteous blowhard who just saw the problems with everyone else. He saw himself as part of them, therefore he was saying, “Look, we have got to do right because there is a consequence for this.” He had a heart for people, but he realized that God knew him.
God knows your issues and the issues of the world. God knows you, so be sure to see God in your world. Recognize your responsibility versus God’s. It is very easy today to know more than we would have known even ten years ago. Nehemiah knew only what he could see personally, second-hand, or written somewhere. For us, when it comes to social media, either you will be overwhelmed and have a breakdown by all the nonsense and wickedness you can see there or you become dead and callused to it and think, “Everyone is doing it, so it’s ok.”
What is the middle ground? The middle ground is to ask God for wisdom to know what is your responsibility and what is not and to do what you should but leave to God what you cannot do. You cannot know hearts, but you can know God’s Word. The only way to avoid being crushed by what you see in the news, in yourself, and in your world, is to remember what God knows and give Him His place in your life.