Nehemiah 13:1 - Meaning and Application

It was a great honor for Israel, and a major protection for their holiness, that they were God’s special people. Because of that, they were meant to keep themselves separate, not mix with the nations, and not let any of them become one with them.

Here we have, first, a law that fit this purpose, which happened to be read that day before the people (Nehemiah 13:1). It was, as it seems, on the day they dedicated the wall, because they joined the reading of God’s word with their prayers and praises. The later problems mentioned here were not all fixed until Nehemiah used his authority, but the issue of the mixed crowd may have been dealt with then by the people themselves, as it appears in Nehemiah 13:3. Or it may have been read on the yearly remembrance of that day, some years later, and therefore called “that day.” They found the law that the Ammonites and Moabites were not to be brought in as full members among them, nor allowed to settle among them or join themselves to Israel (Nehemiah 13:1). The reason was that they had been hostile and cruel to God’s people (Nehemiah 13:2). They had not shown ordinary kindness, but had tried to bring about Israel’s ruin, even though Israel had done them no harm and had been told not to harm them. This law, with its reason, is found in Deuteronomy 23:3-5.

Second, the people obeyed this law at once (Nehemiah 13:3). This shows the value of public reading of God’s word. When it is truly listened to, it shows us sin and duty, good and evil, and where we have gone wrong. We profit from that discovery when it moves us to separate ourselves from the evil we had taken up with. They separated from Israel all the mixed crowd, which had once been a trap for them, since the mixed crowd had grown greedy and caused trouble (Numbers 11:4). They drove these people out as intruders and a danger.

Third, there is the special case of Tobiah, an Ammonite. The writer likely had him in mind already when mentioning the law (Nehemiah 13:1) and its reason (Nehemiah 13:2). He had shown the same hatred toward Israel that his people had always shown. His old spirit is seen in his anger at Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:10) and in the resistance he gave to Nehemiah’s work (Nehemiah 4:7-8). Notice how Eliashib the high priest acted very wrongly by giving Tobiah lodging even in the temple courts.

Eliashib was related to Tobiah by marriage, and then by friendship as well (Nehemiah 13:4). His grandson had married Sanballat’s daughter (Nehemiah 13:28). Probably another member of his family had married into Tobiah’s family too, and, can you believe it, the high priest thought this connection was an honor. He was proud of it, even though it was really his shame. The law had clearly said the high priest should marry from among his own people, or else he would bring dishonor on his offspring among the people (Leviticus 21:14-15). For Eliashib to make an alliance with an Ammonite, a servant, and to think it something fine, likely because Tobiah was clever, fashionable, and praised as a gentleman (Nehemiah 6:19), showed deep disrespect for the honor of his holy office.

Because he was allied to Tobiah, he wanted to keep Tobiah close. Tobiah, as a man of business, often had reasons to be in Jerusalem, and likely not for any good purpose. Eliashib was pleased with his new relative and wanted him near. He did not have a room grand enough for him in his own quarters, so he took several small rooms that had been used for storing supplies, tore down the walls between them, and made one large room for Tobiah in the temple courts (Nehemiah 13:5). This was shameful in several ways. Tobiah the Ammonite was treated with respect in Israel and given a fine welcome. The high priest, who should have taught the law and set a godly example, instead broke the law and used his authority as overseer of the temple rooms to help Tobiah. He lodged him in God’s house, as if to challenge God himself, almost like setting up an idol there, as wicked kings had done before. An Ammonite was not even allowed into the congregation, and yet one of the worst Ammonites was being invited into the temple and honored there.

Worse still, Eliashib threw out the temple supplies to make room for Tobiah and so left them open to loss and misuse, even though they belonged to the priests. In this way he corrupted the covenant of Levi, as Malachi complained in that same time (Malachi 2:8). Nehemiah rightly adds, “But all this time I was not at Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 13:6). If he had been there, the high priest would not have dared to do such a thing. The enemy who sows weeds in God’s field knows how to do it when the servants are asleep or absent (Matthew 13:25). The golden calf was made while Moses was on the mountain.

Nehemiah then acted boldly as governor and threw Tobiah out, along with all that belonged to him, and restored the chambers to their proper use. When he came to Jerusalem and heard from the faithful people who were upset about it how close the high priest and the chief enemy had become, he was deeply grieved (Nehemiah 13:7-8). It troubled him that God’s house had been defiled, that God’s enemies were being favored and trusted, and that the cause of God was being betrayed by the one who should have protected it. Nothing grieves a good man, or a good ruler, more than seeing the ministers of God’s house do evil.

Nehemiah had authority, and he used it for God. Tobiah had to go. He did not fear offending him, nor did he fear Tobiah’s anger or Eliashib’s. He did not excuse himself by saying the matter belonged to the high priest alone. He acted with zeal for what was right and cast out the intruder by throwing out all his household goods. He did not keep them for himself, but removed them so that Tobiah would have no comfort waiting for him when he returned. In the same way, our Lord cleansed the temple so that the house of prayer would not become a den of thieves. And in the same way, those who want to drive sin out of their hearts, those living temples, must throw out its “furniture” too, all the things that feed it. They must strip it, starve it, and take away the things that nourish sinful desire. That is how sin is put to death.

Then the temple supplies were brought back, and the vessels of God’s house were put in their proper places. But the chambers first had to be sprinkled with cleansing water and made clean, because they had been defiled. In the same way, when sin is driven out of the heart by repentance, let the blood of Christ be applied by faith, and then let the heart be filled with the graces of God’s Spirit for every good work.