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Nehemiah’s Painful Work of Reformation
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Mingling with idol worshipers also led the people to disregard
the Sabbath. Nehemiah found that the heathen merchants coming
to Jerusalem had persuaded many Israelites to buy and sell on the
Sabbath. Some could not be lured into sacrificing principle, but many
dared to violate the Sabbath openly. “In those days,” Nehemiah
[238]
wrote, “I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath,
and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes,
figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem
on the Sabbath day. ... Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought
in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the
children of Judah.”
The Leaders Had Favored Wrong
A desire to advance their own interests had led the rulers to favor
the ungodly. “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you
profane the Sabbath day?” Nehemiah demanded sternly. “Did not
your fathers do thus ...? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by
profaning the Sabbath.” He then gave command to shut the gates
of Jerusalem “before the Sabbath” and not open them again till the
Sabbath was past.
“The merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside
Jerusalem once or twice,” hoping to do business with the people.
Nehemiah warned them: “‘Why do you spend the night around the
wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!’ From that time
on they came no more on the Sabbath.”
Now Nehemiah turned to the danger from intermarriage and
association with idol worshipers. “In those days,” he wrote, “I also
saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could
not speak the language of Judah.”
Some men who entered into unlawful marriages were rulers to
whom the people had a right to look for counsel and example. Fore-
seeing the ruin that would come to the nation if this evil continued,
Nehemiah pointed to the case of Solomon. Among all the nations
there had never been a king like this man, yet idol-worshiping women
had turned his heart from God, and his example had corrupted Israel.
“Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil,” Nehemiah