Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 2: Nehemiah
Nehemiah was a wonderful man, if for no other reason than that he has a book in the Bible named for him. That's an honor for anyone!
The Lord blessed him wonderfully; everything he did was a success. It was his job to direct the rebuilding of the broken down walls of Jerusalem, walls that the Babylonians had broken many years before when the Lord's people had been punished for their idolatry and exiled to Babylon.
Tobiah and Sanballat were Nehemiah's enemies who opposed him relentlessly. Nehemiah stood firmly for the law of the Lord, no compromise. He led the people in the straight path of obedience to the law of the Lord. He was successful in leading them to re-build the walls of Jerusalem; he re-instituted the Feast of Tabernacles that had not been kept by Israel for hundreds of years since the days of Joshua the son of Nun.
And Nehemiah clearly perceived the deceit of those enemies of Israel. Nehemiah begged the Lord repeatedly not to forget how wonderful he (Nehemiah) had worked. For example, "God, remember this to my credit, and do not wipe out of Your memory the devotion which I have shown in the house of my God and in His service!" (13:14, The Revised English Bible). He ends his book with this plea to the Lord, "God, remember me favorably!" (vs. 31, REB).
Nehemiah worked so hard for the Lord. And the Lord was "not unrighteous to forget [his] work and labor of love, which [he had] shewed toward His name" (cf. Heb. 6:10). The Lord gave him a book in His Bible! We are inspired by his devotion.
A thoughtful view of Nehemiah's story demonstrates Old Covenant thinking. He desperately desired to bring about revival and reformation in Israel's experience. But he presided over an Old Covenant revival. He never recovered New Covenant justification by faith. He was sincerely blind to the faith which Abraham had experienced. The problem was not that they had an "organization;" it was their heart-alienation.
Nehemiah in his devotion to the Spirit of Prophecy--zealous in following every detail as he knew it--especially Deuteronomy. Nehemiah meticulously obeyed the written word.
Like Nehemiah, is it possible for us as Seventh-day Adventists to think we are super-loyal to "the Spirit of Prophecy" while at the same time rejecting its living demonstration? That actually happened in 1888; our brethren were replaying Nehemiah's example. In rejecting that "most precious message" "sent from heaven" they imagined they were loyal to Ellen White's past writings while setting aside the Lord's living message. [1]
Are we replaying Israel's Old Covenant revivals and reformations? Sober reflection forces an answer: as a body we are as lukewarm now as we were a century ago. When "we" "in a great degree" and "in a great measure" rejected that "most precious" New Covenant truth that came in the 1888 era, "we" locked ourselves into "many more years" of an Old Covenant detour as surely as did Israel at Sinai. [2]
The faith-experience of the New Covenant was the main focus of leadership-opposition to the 1888 message. While they opposed Jones and Waggoner, they actually preferred the essential motifs of the Old Covenant. Ellen White was shown in vision that these revered leaders were wasting their time trying to urge a view different from Waggoner's, for she was "shown" that he was right. [3] Especially in 1890 and on until 1907 the opposition to the 1888 Good News view of the two covenants won the day. [4]
Old Covenant ideas have continued to predominate in our experience. Our revivals and reformations have followed the pattern of those of Israel, including the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Not yet have we as a church body truly recovered the New Covenant message which "we" largely rejected a century ago. The famine predominates alike in both orthodox and "independent" ministries.
Who can estimate the confusion and tragic apostasies that have come because of the unsatisfied hunger within the church (and the world) for that "most precious" gospel?
When that New Covenant message is rescued from the oblivion of the archives, God can feed it like heavenly manna to our famishing world.
We are blessed by the knowledge of the New Covenant: we are not even thinking of any reward the Lord will give us; we don't beg Him like Nehemiah to remember all our "good" works; we are constrained by the love (agape) of Christ "henceforth" to realize that if Jesus died for us "all," then we all died "in Him," so that we can claim nothing for ourselves but to share that grave with Jesus, and then in sheer joyous gratitude devote all our lives to Him. If some angel someday should try to give us a crown of glory, we will throw it at Jesus' feet.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] See, for example, Uriah Smith's and G. I. Butler's letters to Ellen White of Feb. 17, 1890, and Sept. 24, 1892; Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis 1888, pp. 152-157, 206-212 (Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1988). The Lord not only sent "prophets" to Israel, but "messengers" also (2 Chron. 36:16).
[2] See Letter 184, 1901; Evangelism, p. 696.
[3] See Ellen White Letters 30, 59, 1890; also George Knight, Angry Saints, pp. 75, 76, 92, 93.
[4] See Sabbath School Lessons, Third Quarter, 1907; letter of A. T. Jones to their author, R. S. Owen, Feb. 20, 1908.
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvT8SmAmU18
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
