Nehemiah 13:4-11
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, 5 and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers 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.
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How would you react if you went to your church next Sunday and found Osama bin Laden living in the pantry? That’s basically what happened to Nehemiah in today’s scripture passage.
Nehemiah had just returned from the huge task of building a wall around Jerusalem. He came home because he had to mediate problems and deal with some of the corrupt things that had happened while he was away. In short, there was a lot of drama for him to deal with.
One of the problems was that Eliashib the priest had given Tobiah a large room to live in that should have been designated for grain offerings, incense, temple articles and a whole bunch of other important stuff (v.5). This was a big problem because that room was meant to house offerings to God and Tobiah had defiled the room by using it for himself.
Let me explain why Tobiah was so bad. Not only was he a freeloader but he was an enemy of the Jews. He opposed the important wall building project (Nehemiah 2:10, 19; 4:3, 7) and had even conspired to injure and intimidate Nehemiah (6:1-14,19)! He was Nehemiah’s greatest enemy and had done the most offensive thing he could have ever done; he moved into Nehemiah’s church and seriously disrespected God.
Eliashib had done an “evil thing” by providing “Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God” (v.7) and Nehemiah was not afraid to do the right thing, even though it may have been unpopular at the time. He threw all of “Tobiah’s household goods out of the room” (v.8), restored order to the temple and purified the rooms (v.9). He was not afraid to rebuke the officials that had allowed the temple to become unclean and for their laziness by asking, “Why is the house of God neglected?” (v.11).
What will you do the next time God is disrespected? Are you afraid to stand up for what is right, even if it is unpopular? If you don’t you’ll never know what you’ll find in your church pantry!
Youth Department