What is wrong with Eliashib that he would provide a chamber
for Tobiah in the house of God? Why did
Tobiah need or desire such accommodation?
Every inch of the temple was according to God's design and for a
specific purpose. There was no place for
a man such as Tobiah, a man with no sacerdotal role in the temple, to have a
chamber. Tobiah was one of the chief
opponents of the rebuilding of the city, an Ammonite, and yet his relative provides
for him in the very heart of the temple.
Churches can do this very thing with lay leadership, bring the world
into the church. When we value worldly
success more than discipleship in our leaders we fail in just this way. The Levites were to subsist on tithes and
offerings, they were the tithe of the nation to God. Their labor was for Him and therefore they
were to be paid by the offerings of the people and Nehemiah finds that this was
not being done so they were out in the fields working rather than in the
temple. It is disregard for the Lord and
his service to fail to pay these men who serve Him. Nehemiah also finds complete disregard for
the Sabbath upon his return and is outraged.
It is truly amazing how quickly, in his absence, the nation returned to
business as usual. Strong leadership is
essential.
Why are the people so astonished at Jesus' teaching? Was He teaching anything other than the
truth? Was the truth inaccessible to
them without Jesus to teach them? The
Lord had given the Law as well as the nearly two thousand years experience in
living under the covenant and the prophetic words the Lord had spoken, so the
truth was available to them if they cared to hear it. It is, likewise, available to us and yet we
crave a teacher to interpret the word and divine its meaning for us. There is nothing wrong with great teaching
but it is never a substitute for personal study. Jesus came into the world at a time when it
seemed that there was great interest in the Word and in a life lived in accord
with the Word but the reality was that it was a legalistic righteousness that
had lost contact with the original intent.
It was performance-based rather than from the heart and therefore the
interpretation of the Word on a daily, momentary basis was lost in favor of
rules. Jesus' teaching restored the
reality that the Bible is a living Word not a rule book.
As the woman is preparing to give birth, to bring the savior
into the world, the dragon, or the satan, waits to devour the child and therefore
the hope of the world. The Lord is
prepared for this and whisks the child and mother away to a place specially
prepared for them for a season. That is
what satan wants always to do as we have seen in the parables of the sower and
the enemy who sows tares among the wheat, he wants to choke out the knowledge
of God and is willing to use any means necessary to do so, perverting the Word
of God and the worship of God from life-giving to dead religion. In Jesus, however, the threat is more
personal in nature and all that can be done there is to kill Him and yet, we
know that this didn't work in the end, because death wasn't final. Now, the satan, the accuser of mankind, is
thrown out of heaven, he can no longer accuse because Jesus has triumphed over
him. As Peter said in his epistle, our
enemy, the devil is roaming the earth looking for whom he may devour. Let us not allow him to kill the Word and the
Spirit in us.
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