Nehemiah 13 Devotional

Mercy After Every Reform

“Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this as well, O my God, and show me mercy according to Your abundant loving devotion.”Nehemiah 13:22 (BSB)

Nehemiah ends with a return visit. While he was away at the king's court, Eliashib the priest had given Tobiah, a longtime opponent, a room in the temple storehouse (13:4-7). The unpaid Levites had gone back to their fields (13:10). Goods were sold in Jerusalem on the Sabbath (13:15-16). Some men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and half their children could not speak the language of Judah (13:23-24). The people's promises in chapter 10 about marriage, the Sabbath, and the house of God have all slipped.

Nehemiah acts forcefully, throwing out Tobiah's goods, shutting the gates, even beating some of the offenders (13:8, 13:19, 13:25). Yet his refrain is a prayer asking God to remember him and show him mercy according to his great steadfast love (13:14, 13:22, 13:31). Reform could not hold the people's hearts. Through Ezekiel God promised to give his people a new heart and his own Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Lasting change is his gift, and his mercy is where you can rest when your resolve has failed.

To think about: Where have your own best efforts at change slipped, and what would it look like to ask God for mercy and a new heart there?