Yesterday we were standing on the wall worshiping. The joy could be heard far away. The wall was finished, the people were back, and it felt like we had finally reached the good part.
Then I opened chapter 13.
And Tobiah has a room in the Temple. Yes. That Tobiah. The same man who mocked the builders. The same man who worked against Nehemiah and tried to stop the wall from going up. He couldn't stop what God was building from the outside, and now somehow he had been given his own room inside the house of God.
And it made me angry. Why? Becaise I know what it is to fight hard for something God is rebuilding. To pray through it, cry through it, obey through it and keep going when quitting would have been easier. But this chapter reminded me that just because we've won a battle doesn't mean we can stop guarding what God rebuilt.
The enemy couldn't knock down the wall. So he got comfortable inside it. And they just let him. And I started thinking about how easily that can happen in my own life. God deals with something in me. I surrender it. I heal. I grow. I learn better. I finally stop carrying something I've carried for years. Then time passes, I get comfortable, and without even realizing it I start making space for something God already helped me get out.
Old thinking. Old habits. Fear. Pride. People pleasing. Bitterness. The need for approval. Things that don't belong in the place God has been rebuilding. And I don't want to give any of it a room. Nehemiah certainly didn't. So when he saw what had happened, he didn't stand there debating whether Tobiah could stay as long as he behaved himself. He didn't rearrange the furniture and try to make the situation work.
He threw Tobiah's stuff out.
And I love that part.
There are things we don't need to learn how to live with. There are things we don't need to make more comfortable. There are things God has already told us don't belong, and when we recognize them trying to move back in, they need to go.
Then Nehemiah finds another problem. The Levites hadn't been receiving what they needed, so they had left their responsibilities at the Temple and gone back to working their fields.
Nehemiah asks “Why has the Temple of God been neglected?”Nehemiah 13:11
That question got me too.
Nobody tore the Temple down. They just stopped tending it. And neglect doesn't always show up bug. That's probably why it's so easy to miss. You don't wake up one morning and decide you're going to neglect your relationship with God, your family, your calling or the people He's placed in front of you. It happens little by little. We get busy. We get tired. We get distracted. Something that once mattered deeply starts getting whatever is left of us.
And I'm a builder. I love the next idea, the next project, the next thing God puts in front of me. But Nehemiah 13 is reminding me that starting something isn't the same as stewarding it. I don't want to keep asking God, What are we building next while neglecting what He already trusted me to build.
Our relationships with Him need tending.
Our familes need tending. The people God has placed in front of us need tending. Our churches and ministries need tending.And our own hearts definitely need tending.
We've spent thirteen days carrying stones, finding our section, fighting battles, returning to the Word, making room for people and worshiping on the wall. And part of building is learning to take care of what is already standing.
So today lets check the rooms.
Not everybody else's.
Our own, in our own hearts and lives.
Lets pay attention to what we've allowed back in and what we've stopped tending. I don't know about you but I don't want to fight this hard to rebuild something with God and then become careless with it once it's standing.
Nehemiah walked in, threw out what didn't belong and restored the house to its purpose.
I think that's a pretty good picture for Day 13.
Tend what God has trusted you with. Guard what He's rebuilt. And don't give Tobiah a room in the house.
Tomorrow we'll finish up the last half of this chapter and the book of Nehemiah.
Love Pastor Mandy
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
Nehemiah 13 1-14
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