More Sin and More Mercies

The setting.
1. The dedication ceremony had to wait until it could be genuine and very spiritual, not be merely a formal activity.
2. Their gratitude moved them to vow to separate from the people of the land (10:28; 13:1-3) to obey God (10:29), not to inter-marry (10:30) and to keep the Sabbath (10:31).
Nehemiah left Canaan for 7 to 12 years, and then returned to Canaan to find that all of the vows were broken.
1. “Why is the house of God forsaken” (11)?
2. “What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath” (17)?
3. “Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons or for yourselves” (25; 10:30).
The lessons.
1. We always need the Word of God, its being read and taught and preached.
2. That Eliashib opened the temple to the church’s opponent shows that he was not spiritually sensitive to God and instead sought to please men. No fear of nor gratitude to God.
3. The enemy of our spiritual life is to lose the Sabbath to materialism and personal pleasures.
4. With urgency God calls us to marry in the Lord so have a place to go when have troubles.
5. Learn not to be complacent, for the book ends with the harsh reality that sin is ever present without and within so the tendency to decline spiritually is always present, so must always be reforming.
6. Nehemiah’s prayers (14, 22b, 31b) shows he cherishes God’s cause and desires God’s blessing to make his efforts profit.