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Prophets and Kings
but promptly banished from Israel. “Remember them, O my God,”
Nehemiah prayed, “because they have defiled the priesthood, and the
covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.”
How much anguish of soul this needed severity cost the faithful
worker for God the judgment alone will reveal. There was a constant
struggle with opposing elements, and only by fasting, humiliation, and
prayer was advancement made.
Many who had married idolaters chose to go with them into exile,
and these, with those who had been expelled from the congregation,
joined the Samaritans. Hither some who had occupied high positions
in the work of God found their way and after a time cast in their lot
fully with them. Desiring to strengthen this alliance, the Samaritans
promised to adopt more fully the Jewish faith and customs, and the
apostates, determined to outdo their former brethren, erected a temple
on Mount Gerizim in opposition to the house of God at Jerusalem.
Their religion continued to be a mixture of Judaism and heathenism,
[675]
and their claim to be the people of God was the source of schism,
emulation, and enmity between the two nations, from generation to
generation.
In the work of reform to be carried forward today, there is need
of men who, like Ezra and Nehemiah, will not palliate or excuse sin,
nor shrink from vindicating the honor of God. Those upon whom rests
the burden of this work will not hold their peace when wrong is done,
neither will they cover evil with a cloak of false charity. They will
remember that God is no respecter of persons, and that severity to a
few may prove mercy to many. They will remember also that in the
one who rebukes evil the spirit of Christ should ever be revealed.
In their work, Ezra and Nehemiah humbled themselves before
God, confessing their sins and the sins of their people, and entreating
pardon as if they themselves were the offenders. Patiently they toiled
and prayed and suffered. That which made their work most difficult
was not the open hostility of the heathen, but the secret opposition of
pretended friends, who, by lending their influence to the service of
evil, increased tenfold the burden of God’s servants. These traitors
furnished the Lord’s enemies with material to use in their warfare upon
His people. Their evil passions and rebellious wills were ever at war
with the plain requirements of God.