Tabor Baptist Church

• We all like a happy ending
• Chapters 1-3 are encouraging
• After v4 we discover some scary things
• Eliashib had given Tobiah the storerooms within the house of God
• The Levites are no longer serving
• The temple had been neglected
• The people are trading on the sabbath day
• There has been intermarriage with other peoples (to the extent that some of the children can no longer speak the Jewish language)
• This is a disappointing end to the book
• The bible is realistic
• What was the real cause of God's people back sliding?
• In part due to the failure of the spiritual leadership

The Reasons for Compromise

• Why did Eliashib give Tobiah a place in the store room?
• Tobiah had tried to kill Nehemiah
1. Eliashib was possibly related to Tobiah - 6:18, 4:13
• The nobles were often not in favour with Nehemiah - 13:28
• Eliashib became compromised through family connections
• The church of Christ can become compromised through unholy associations
• What is more important to you, the blood ties of your family or giving glory to God
2. Eliashib may have become unhappy with Nehemiah's leadership
• Nehemiah returned back to the King
• Perhaps he felt that Nehemiah had been too dominant and too strong
• Perhaps he felt overlooked and was upset with Nehemiah
• Perhaps he felt this was his chance to do things in his own way
• Humility is the first prerequisite for leadership
• Deacons within the church must be servants
3. Eliashib was backsliden
• He may have been the High Priest but he was back slidden
• The word of God was not important to him
• He self justifies his decisions
• Happens little by little, one small compromise leading to another small compromise
• We must be careful about keeping up appearances
• We must think of the consequences of our decisions and actions
• How does my compromise affect others?
• When we backslide we need to cast out all that is wrong

The Response to Compromise

• How do we overcome, how did Nehemiah overcome?
• God provided a solution, a man of strong convictions
• Nehemiah must surely have felt hurt and been deeply disappointed on his return
• Perhaps he was disillusioned with them
• Nehemiah does not leave them to their situation and return to his own life
• This was all the more remarkable given his personal hurt
• Paul was prepared to suffer hurt to glorify the name of God
• Moses was rejected nine times before Pharaoh relented
• Do we give up when we face discouragement?
• Nehemiah never gave up when the people said it couldn't be done and that they had no resources
• Nehemiah was concerned for the people of God and the holiness of God
• Nehemiah dealt harshly with the people
• He threatened the people outside of the gate
• He pulled out people's hair and struck people
• He casts out someone else's property
• Sometimes we must deal strongly with sin
• Nehemiah recognises sin for the evil that it is - 13:7
• God willing we will never face such a situation
• When there are things in our life that are wrong we must acknowledge this, repent of this
• We must not get entangled in the lives of non-Christians
• Do we tolerate sin or do we confront it?
• The room was cleansed and replaced with the articles of God - 13:9
• Bad leadership replaced with good leadership - 13:10-13
• Wise leadership will confront sin and bring solutions to situations
• You and I might have questions for Nehemiah
• Sometimes things happen outside of our control
• It reminds of us of the need for godly and prayerful leadership
• It is a reminder that the work is never done
• We must be careful about unhelpful associations