Nehemiah 13:23-29 - Homiletics

Forbidden marriages.

This chapter might have been written to bring into pointed contrast the promises of the people ( Nehemiah 10:1-39 .) and their subsequent practice. In nearly every particular the covenant so solemnly made was broken. We have recorded in this paragraph—

I. A GREAT EVIL .

1. Marriages with foreign women. It is probable that the Jews referred to here lived near the territories occupied by the peoples from whom they took wives. Marriage with such was expressly forbidden by the law ( Exodus 34:16 ; Deuteronomy 7:3 , Deuteronomy 7:4 ), and tended to destroy the distinctive character of the people as "holy to the Lord," and to frustrate the purposes of their national calling. Some of the marriages in this case were specially criminal, since Jewish wives had been divorced that heathens might take their place ( Malachi 2:11-16 ).

2. The effect of these upon the children. They learned the language of their respective mothers, and were ignorant of the Jewish tongue. Or the meaning' may be that they spoke a corrupt dialect compounded of the languages of father and mother.

II. THE COURSE TAKEN BY NEHEMIAH TO SUPPRESS IT .

1. He rebuked the offenders, pronouncing a curse upon them.

2. He administered to them an oath not to continue the forbidden practice.

3. He reasoned with them.

This he showed by the example of Solomon, who, although so great and so beloved of God, was led into idolatry by his foreign wives. Enlightenment and conviction on these points would be more effectual in putting a stop to the practice than chastisement, or even the oath forced on them.

III. NEHEMIAH 'S SPECIAL TREATMENT OF AN OFFENDING PRIEST ( Nehemiah 13:28 , Nehemiah 13:29 ). Although he was grandson to the high priest, yet because he had married a daughter of Sanballat, who was not only a foreigner, but a bitter enemy of Israel—

1. He banished him from his presence, perhaps from Jerusalem, or even the Jewish community.

2. He appealed to God to punish him and his supporters or companions in sin. The tone of this appeal seems to favour the view that, owing to his high connections, or perhaps because the civil governor did not think it expedient to interfere with the internal discipline of the priesthood, Nehemiah felt he could only forbid the offender's presence near himself, leaving his due punishment, and that of his favourers, to God. That they merited severer punishment than others who had similarly broken the law, Nehemiah intimates when he says, "They have defiled the priesthood," etc.

Lessons:—

1. The evil of marriages between such as are and such as are not God's people.

"Thou shalt lower to his level day by day,

What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathise with clay

As the husband is, the wife is: thou art mated with a clown,

And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down."

2. The use to be made of the falls of others (verse 26). Some quote the sins of such men as David, Solomon, Peter, etc. as excusing or palliating their own. The very opposite is the fact. With such beacons our guilt is increased, if we fall in like manner.

3. The greater guilt of some men's sins (verse 29). Professed special consecration to God increases guilt. Sins in ministers of religion are not only more injurious to others, but more wicked in themselves.

4. The certainty of the Divine punishment of sinners, though they escape the human (verse 29).

5. The worth of those who are zealous in opposing and suppressing sin. They are among the best of patriots and philanthropists. For the perils of states, and the miseries of men in general, arise mainly from sin. How surpassingly worthy then of all praise and love is the Son of God, who "was manifested to take away our sins" and "destroy the works of the devil" ( 1 John 3:5 , 1 John 3:8 ).