Rebuild Your Life - Pick Youself Up Again
- Paul Downie
- 2 hours ago
- 15 min read
Nehemiah 13:14 NIV
[14] Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.
Several years ago, we went on a tour of Kotor in Montenegro from Dubrovnik in Croatia – both renowned and beautiful places. What we didn’t know is that we would be crossing across the heart of Montenegro and our coach would have to navigate down a single-lane mountain road with thirty hairpin bends.
It felt like one of the most precarious journeys we have ever done. Our driver was relatively sensible, but being in such a high vehicle and staring over the edge of a steep mountain precipice thirty times did not do wonders for our stomachs.
When we are picking up the pieces of lives shattered by sin, we would love our journey back to restoration to be straight and smooth. And sometimes it is:
Isaiah 40:3-5 NIV
[3] A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. [5] And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
But there are times when it isn’t. There are times when it’s rugged and rocky and twisty.
Sometimes it feels like we are heading in the wrong direction, moving as much backwards as forwards.
When that happens, God is not at fault. It is sin that causes this: our sin and that of other people.
These situations can be so disheartening, so discouraging.
Nehemiah encountered this too. The Bible tells us that he had to return to Persia for a while (Nehemiah 13:6). This isn’t surprising. He’d been away for twelve years.
That had been a long secondment!
Nehemiah had introduced reforms that were not just about building bricks and mortar, but about rebuilding Jewish society and religion – putting the Jews back on the right path.
However, the Bible is unflinchingly and uncomfortably clear about the nature of God’s people:
Judges 2:18-19 NIV
[18] Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. [19] But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
This issue continued all through the times of the kings, right up to the Exile. It was always the same. The people followed God when a good king was in charge, but when he died, they reverted back to the behaviours they had before.
Sad to say, though, that this is often not just a Jewish characteristic, it’s often a human characteristic. We just are not strong enough in the faith to stand on our own two feet.
When we have a strong Christian influence around, we grow in the faith and are strong in the Lord. When that influence goes, we fall apart and revert to how we were before.
That is precisely what happened in Nehemiah’s day. While he was there, the people followed the law. When he left to go to Persia, things immediately snapped back to how they were before.
The last chapter of his book is all about how he returned to Jerusalem and set things right.
Within these verses are principles that we can use to set things right in our lives after a disappointing setback.
The first of these is Remove the Bad.
Remove the Bad
Nehemiah 13:1-3 NIV
[1] On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, [2] because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) [3] When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
Influence is a powerful thing. We have noticed it. We sometimes put pictures online of a nice family holiday. We have friends who don’t like then, don’t comment about them and don’t react. However, a few months later you will see them going to the exact same place.
Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery.
I’m always astonished at how great some people’s level of influence actually is. I remember hearing of some YouTubers who made a soft drink that consisted of nothing more than water, flavourings, sweeteners and food dye. They marketed it aggressively on their profile. People bought it in droves, even though it was basically useless.
But that influence has waned.
Now you can buy it from discount stores.
Nehemiah in this chapter is a fully aware of the power of influence. This makes him do things that, at first glance, we might struggle with. However, we need to remember what he is doing here. He is not building a social network, he is building a nation. And he is building a nation out of people who have a long history of wandering off and going astray.
His actions here are as much about them as they are about any religious fervour.
What he is doing is removing not just the sin his people have been committing, but the influences that caused them to sin.
Here are the influences he removes:
Firstly, historical influences. He removes those who the law bans the Jews from accepting into their assembly because they committed a serious sin in the ancient Middle East. Instead of meeting their Israelite cousins with hospitality, they had met them with violent hostility (Nehemiah 13:2). They had then progressed to using their own women to tempt the Jews to worship their god (Numbers 25; Deuteronomy 4:3-4).
Now this might be tough for some of us to take in. After all, this, on the surface, looks like an ancient grudge.
But there is more to it than that.
Sanballat was a Moabite. Tobiah was an Ammonite. Nehemiah wasn’t just enacting an ancient law or enforcing an ancient grudge, he was also ensuring that his current enemies could not exert an undue influence over the Jews.
So yes, this was a prudent move.
That’s why the actions that follow of purifying the Temple should come as no surprise (Nehemiah 13:4-9).
Secondly, we see Nehemiah acting against cultural influences: that is, enforcing the Jewish culture and customs of keeping the Sabbath (Nehemiah 13:15-22). This was a serious issue: the Sabbath rest was both and commandment and a distinctive – it set them apart from the races around them:
Exodus 31:13 NIV
[13] “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.
So when Nehemiah saw both the Jews and the nations around them breaking the Sabbath rest, he had to take action. We might think to was a bit radical, but it had to be done.
There is some similarity to when Jesus cleared the Temple (Mark 11:15-17). There, once again, something that was set apart for rest and worship was being abused for financial profit. Jesus was furious, but His fury was righteous.
Nehemiah was acting to remove the influence of those who had zero respect for the Jewish way of life and were simply out for profit.
We too need to set aside those who use religion for financial gain:
1 Timothy 6:3-5 NIV
[3] If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, [4] they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions [5] and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Such people have a warped mind and care nothing for us. They just want to use us to gain from us.
Have nothing to do with them.
Thirdly, we see the removal of moral influences. It might seem surprising that Nehemiah has such a strong response to those who have raised mixed-race children (Nehemiah 13:23-27).
Speaking as the father of a mixed race child, I can assure you that we should not at all use this as a verse that aspires to racial purity. That is not what this verse is about.
Look instead at Nehemiah rationale for his actions:
Nehemiah 13:25-27 NIV
[25] 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. [26] Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. [27] Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”
The ban on marrying foreign women had nothing at all to do with maintaining racial purity. If it did, women like Rahab and Ruth would never have been able to become part of Israel or Jesus’ genealogy.
No, it was the fact that these women consistently led the Jews astray to worship their gods – as they had done since Baal Peor – that was the problem.
To me, the issue for Christians here is absolutely not the race of their husband or wife, but whether or not they are a follower of God. Better to marry someone from the most distant race to your own if they are a Christian than someone from your own race who is not.
Nehemiah’s anger here was based on the fact that these Jews had married women from races with a long history of polluting Jews with their religion. Ezra had previously confronted this issue (Ezra 9 and 10). It appears that the message had not sunk in.
So we see, then, that Nehemiah had targeted issues that were exerting a negative influence on the Jews and threatened to drag then away from their God: those who had been an problem in the past, those who were trying to manipulate their culture away from obedience to God and those who were keen to influence them to worship other gods.
All lessons we can learn from. If we want to recover from failure, we must isolate the cause that influenced us to fall and deal with it.
But Nehemiah didn’t just receive the bad, he also set out to Strengthen the Good.
Strengthen the Good
Nehemiah 13:10-11 NIV
[10] I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. [11] 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.
There is a basic principle in life that we should not ignore: it is never enough to simply cut off everything that is wrong, everything that leads us astray, everything that is a bad influence on us.
How do I know this?
Because Jesus taught it:
Luke 11:24-26 NIV
[24] “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ [25] When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. [26] Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
If we do not find something to take the place of the wrong things we used to do, if we don’t find a new habit, then guess what will happen?
We will sin again.
Having been very forceful and forthright in getting rid of the bad influences in his people – and he was absolutely right to do so – Nehemiah now turns to strengthening what was good.
What we see here is basically neglect – the same neglect that saw the Jews take so long to rebuild both the walls and the Temple. It is simply a prioritising of their own situation and their own affairs over the situation of the House of the Lord.
You see, over and over and over again in the law the Jews were commanded to do this:
Deuteronomy 14:28-29 NIV
[28] At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, [29] so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 26:12 NIV
[12] When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
The Levites were supposed to be ministering full time for the Lord. They did not receive an allotment of land because they were supposed to live in towns among the tribes of the Jews to teach them from the Word of God, to present their worship and sacrifices, to judge in their disputes, to basically be the backbone of their society. It was then who administered the Word. It was them to administered the Law. They were very important people.
But this passage tells us that they had been neglected.
The offerings that were supposed to be made so they could be released full time for the work of the Lord were no longer being made.
And so, likely with some reluctance, these Levites had no choice: they had to leave the service of the Lord and find a living elsewhere.
We understand that, don’t we? After all, they would have had families. They had to eat.
But the result of this neglect is that the backbone of Jewish society was greatly weakened. There was less teaching of the Law, less preaching of the Word, less settling of disputes, fewer sacrifices being offered, the choirs that offered worship were being depleted and the worship of God would slowly begin to fall into rack and ruin.
Again.
So Nehemiah puts that right. He sets it straight. He has to: if he doesn’t, the people of God will sink once more into the morass of sin.
Look at what God told the church at Ephesus:
Revelation 2:4-5 NIV
[4] Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. [5] Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
‘Do the things you did at first’. Get back to your first love, your first obedience, your first flush of enthusiasm and joy. That is essentially what Nehemiah is telling the people to do.
They have neglected the worship of God; he commands them to put that right.
If we find ourselves in a position where we have slipped and stumbled, absolutely we must without any doubt cut ourselves off from the influences that caused us to fall. That is a given.
But we must also strengthen the good things we ought to have been doing. We must not neglect the Word of God. We must not neglect His wisdom.
And we categorically cannot neglect His people:
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
[24] And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, [25] not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Get rid of the bad, absolutely, yes, but also strengthen the good.
But Nehemiah did not just remove the bad and strengthen the good. Here we also see modelled a recommendation to Guard Your Life.
Guard Your Life
Nehemiah 13:14 NIV
[14] Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.
Whenever you take on a big and demanding project, regardless of where it is, you must prioritise. Nehemiah was brilliant at doing this when it came to responding to threats (Nehemiah 6:3-4). He demonstrated here the art of saying ‘No’: the decision to choose your priorities and to say ‘No’ to anything that conflicts with them or tries to get you to change direction.
But it didn’t just govern his responses to his enemies.
It governed everything.
It underpinned every deed he did. It ruled over every conversation. It dominated every decision.
Put simply, Nehemiah was a driven man.
What drove him, what lay at the core values of this man, was one thing and one thing only:
His relationship with God.
As we will see in the next post, it was this that drove him, that caused him to leave his comfortable position in Persia to serve his people and his king in an unwalled city surrounded by dangerous enemies and to undertake a building project that seemed to be beyond his capabilities.
It was this that made the difference, more than anything else.
But I want to say something her that perhaps you might miss. In taking care of this key relationship, Nehemiah was also taking care of himself.
The best place for Nehemiah to be was at the centre of God’s will and in His care, wherever that took him.
The most important thing Nehemiah could do, and by far his greatest achievement, was to set the compass of his life towards the magnetic north of pleasing God. Everything else emerged from that.
Often, when we are younger, we have to make decisions that affect the rest of our lives, particularly regarding our careers, our prospective partners, where we will live. It’s hugely stressful for people who haven’t yet had to take decisions on that scale before. I know. Like everyone who reaches my age, I have had to make the same decisions.
But there is one decision that is more important than any other:
Proverbs 3:5-8 NIV
[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. [7] Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. [8] This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
Above any other decision we could ever take in our entire lives, this one changes everything. If we want to recover from being shattered by sin, we have to recognise where went wrong. We went wrong because we did not make our relationship with God our first priority. The way back begins when we change this and make it our first priority.
All other changes and decisions we need to make in our lives should be driven by this.
If we get this right, we will not go far wrong.
Conclusion
Romans 12:9-10 NIV
[9] Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. [10] Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
John 15:1-3 NIV
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Nehemiah 13:31 NIV
[31] Remember me with favor, my God.
Often the way out of a problem is easier than we think.
I’m reminded of the mischievous local who was asked by a tourist how far it was to his hotel. The local looked at the tourist, pointed in one direction and said, ‘Well, you could either go that way for 24,901 miles...’
The tourist looked at him in utter disbelief.
The local smiled, pointed in the opposite direction and said, ‘Or you could cross the road. It’s right over there.’
When we are trying to fix a life that has been broken and smashed by sin, we often look at the mess around us and weep because we see no hope.
And it’s even worse if we were on the road to recovery and stumble. Again. For the umpteenth time.
Nehemiah here enacts three very simple pieces of advice that help us to set this straight every time. When we realise what they are, perhaps we are shocked that we didn’t see it before.
These pieces of advice are:
Remove the bad – get rid of the negative influences on your life that got you into the situation in the first place
Strengthen the good – replace them with positive, Biblical habits that help you stay on the right path
Guard your life – take care primarily of your relationship with God, and use this as the compass to set the direction of your life.
As Solomon said:
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
[23] Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Firrt and foremost, above all others, our relationship with God is the one we must seek to repair through the blood of Christ and strengthen through prayer, the Word of God and obedience. It must be our north star. It must be our magnetic pole. It must be our plumb line and our standard.
At the heart of it lies the simple command to love God, our neighbours and ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). From this command flow all other commands and everything we could ever seek to God.
If it does not, then it is not obedience, it is duty, and the two are not always the same.
Nehemiah may have been a cupbearer; a wine waiter; a sommelier. But in the Lord’s hands, he became a builder.
He also became an architect. In his short book we see the blueprint for rebuilding our broken lives.
Let us seek to follow that blueprint.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I am so sorry for times when I forget what I am trying to achieve and stumble back into sin. I repent of that now. Help me to follow these three steps to pick myself up and grow once more. Amen.
Questions
What went wrong while Nehemiah was away in Persia? Why did this happen?
What did Nehemiah to put it right?
What can we learn from this when we stumble?
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