Nehemiah 13:26
Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel--yet foreign women drew him into sin.
Sermons
SolomonIsaac Williams.Nehemiah 13:26
Solomon's RestorationW. F. Robertson, M. A.Nehemiah 13:26
The Blessing of God on an Active Life Founded Upon His WordR.A. Redford Nehemiah 13:1-31
Personal Purification of the BelieverW. P. Lockhart.Nehemiah 13:7-31
The Devoted PatriotM. G. Pearse.Nehemiah 13:7-31
The Religious ReformerW. Ritchie.Nehemiah 13:7-31
Unholy AllianceW. Clarkson Nehemiah 13:23-31














(a lesson for the young). Beside the forsaking of the house of the Lord consequent on the neglect to pay tithes, and the disregard of the sabbath, Nehemiah had to lament another grave evil which had grown up during his absence in Persia. In these verses we have -

I. A CASE OF ALARMING DEFECTION. "In those days" of his return some of the Jews had married "wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab" (ver. 23). Ezra had encountered the same evil, and vehemently and vigorously resisted it (Ezra 9., 10.). But it had broken out again, to the sorrow and dismay of the faithful leader and "governor." It was an alarming defection because

(1) it was an act of downright disobedience. God had said by Moses, "Thou shalt not make marriages with them (foreigners); thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son" (Deuteronomy 7:3 and ver. 25). The Divine law was therefore deliberately and openly defied. What but the Divine anger could they expect to reap? More especially when so prominent a man as a grandson of the high priest had wrought this sin in the eyes of the whole people, thereby "defiling the priesthood" (ver. 29). And because

(2) it was surely conducting to fatal consequences. The great, the main mission of the Jewish nation was to be a sanctified or separate people unto the Lord, to preserve his name and truth intact; but the result of these marriages was a mongrel race, speaking a corrupt language: "their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod (Philistia), and could not speak in the Jews' language" (ver. 24). Not only would their national language be corrupted, but their national morals and religion too: they were on that downward course which led Solomon himself, "beloved of God" as he was (ver. 26), to sin and sorrow. The purity of their faith and the integrity of their national morality were seriously at stake.

II. AN INSTANCE OF VIGOROUS CORRECTION. Nehemiah

(1) contended with the delinquents (ver. 25). He expostulated and reasoned with them (vers. 26, 27); he also

(2) solemnly invoked condemnation and suffering on them in the event of impenitence: he "cursed them" (ver. 25); he even

(3) caused some of them to be punished with bodily chastisement: he "smote certain of them" (ver. 2,5); he

(4) summarily dismissed the high priest's grandson: "I chased him from me (ver. 28); he

(5) caused them to put away the strange wives and to take an oath not to continue the offence (vers. 25, 30). Nehemiah felt that the danger was so deadly that not only energy and vigour, but even vehemence and passion, were justified in putting it away. It wrought in him "indignation,... vehement desire,... zeal,... revenge," that his countrymen might "be clear in this matter" (2 Corinthians 7:11). Here is a very serious lesson for the young. They who are members of the Church of Christ find themselves, like these Jews at Jerusalem, under a temptation to an unholy alliance. The Church and the world are very closely intermingled, locally. They meet in the same street, in the same shop, under the same roof. They who would not choose to associate intimately with those that are servants of sin and sources of evil, come involuntarily into contact with companions who are devoid of Christian principle, but who are by no means wanting in other attractions. It may be personal beauty, or charm of disposition, or fascination of manner, or wealth, or some other worldly advantages which appeal to tastes and ambitions that are net of the highest order Here is temptation to intimate friendship or even to lifelong alliance. But let the young remember what is

(1) the will of Christ concerning them. Is there not an application we should make to ourselves in the injunction of the apostle, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers"? (2 Corinthians 6:14). And is there not an inference to be drawn from the same writer to our conduct when he speaks of marrying "in the Lord"? (1 Corinthians 7:39). It is surely not his will that one who has taken his vows upon him should enter into closest and even lifelong intimacy with another who has no interest in his truth, no love for himself. Let them also remember what are

(2) the inevitable consequences. The result to themselves must be spiritual decline, So was it with Solomon, leading him to the verge of utter ruin, if not over the edge, and into the gulf of it; so has it been with many thousands of the children of men. The result to others is moral and spiritual deterioration. The children "speak half in the speech of Ashdod" (ver. 24): they inevitably catch something of the tone and strain of both parents. Their spirit and their language, themselves and their life, will not attain to perfect purity; they will bear about with them the mark of worldliness. The consequences of such union are evil, and they are irreparable. The choice of our intimate friends and of our one lifelong companion is much too lightly regarded. On our wisdom or folly here hangs our weal or our woe for life, and the future of others too, even of those in whom we shall be most deeply interested. If there be one step which, more than any other, should be taken with profound and protracted care, with devout and religious thoughtfulness, it is this step of choosing our friends, most particularly the friend of the heart and for the life. If we let humour speak on this subject, as we commonly do, it should only be on sufferance. We should make it speedily retire, that sound sense, and solemn consideration, and religious duty may utter their voice, and be obeyed. - C.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?
1. It may appear remarkable that one who fell so grievously should contribute at all to the Book of God, nor is there any other instance of the kind; but his sad history adds a peculiar weight of warning to his words; nor are there any books more strongly marked by the finger of God.

2. Solomon was chosen of God, and afterwards rejected as Saul had been; he was full of wisdom and understanding, and what is far more, of holiness and goodness. There is perhaps no one of whom the early promise of good seemed so decisive.

3. It has been said, as by St. , that Solomon was more injured by prosperity than profited by wisdom. Yet we may observe that his falling away is not attributed in Scripture to his wealth, his power and honour.

4. We cannot conclude that Solomon himself did not at last repent, but this has always been considered by the Church as very doubtful, to say the least. All we know is that Scripture has fully made known to us his falling away from God, but has said nothing of his repentance. The very silence is awful and impressive.

5. What more melancholy than the fall of one so great — so wise! What words could have been spoken to him more powerful than his own! What eloquence could describe his fall with more feeling and beauty than his own words! What could more powerfully paint the loveliness of that holiness from which he fell? what the overpowering sweetness of that Divine love which he has consented to give up to feed on ashes! Who can describe the temptations to those very sins by which he was ensnared in a more searching manner than he has done? It is very awful to think how God may use men as instruments of good that His Spirit may teach them, and through them teach others, and guide them to the fountain of living waters, yet they themselves at last fail of the prize of their high calling. What a warning for fear!

(Isaac Williams.)

I. THE WANDERINGS OF AN ERRING SPIRIT. "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?"

1. That which lay at the bottom of all Solomon's transgressions was his intimate partnership with foreigners. "Did not Solomon sin by these things?" — that is, if we look to the context, marriage with foreign wives. The history of the text is this — Nehemiah discovered that the nobles of Judah, during the captivity, when law and religious customs had been. relaxed, had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab; and then, in his passionate expostulation with them, he reminds them that it was this very transgression which led to the fall of the monarch who had been most distinguished for God's favour. Exclusiveness was the principle on which Judaism was built. Everything was to be distinct — as distinct as God's service and the world's. And it was this principle which Solomon transgressed. The Jewish law, shadowed out an everlasting truth. God's people are an exclusive nation; God's Church is for ever separated from the world. This is her charter, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," etc. We are to be separate from the world. Mistake not the meaning of that word. The world changes its complexion in every age. Solomon's world was the nations of idolatry lying round Israel. Our world is not that. The world is that collection of men in every age who live only according to the maxims of their time. The world may be a profligate world, or it may be a moral world. All that is a matter of accident. Our world is a moral world. The sons of our world are not idolaters, they are not profligate; they are, it may be, among the most fascinating of mankind. No marvel if a young and ardent heart feels the spell of the fascination. No wonder if it feels a relief in turning away from the dulness and the monotony of home life to the sparkling brilliancy of the world's society. The brilliant, dazzling, accomplished world — what Christian with a mind polished like Solomon's does not own its charms? And yet now, pause. Is it in wise Egypt that our highest blessedness lies? Is it in busy, restless Sidon? Is it in luxurious Moab? No. The Christian must leave the world alone. His blessedness lies in quiet work with the Israel of God.

2. The second step of Solomon's wandering was the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. And a men like Solomon cannot do anything by helves. No man ever more heartily and systematically gave himself up to the pursuit. There are some men who are prudent in their epicuresnism. They put gaiety aside when they begin to get palled with it, and then return to it moderately again. Mere like Solomon cannot do that. No earnest man can. No! if blessedness lies in pleasure, he will drink the cup to the dregs. But let us mark the wanderings of an immortal soul infinite in its vastness. There is a moral to be learnt from the wildest worldliness. When we look on the madness of life, and are marvelling at the terrible career of dissipation, let there be no contempt felt. It is an immortal spirit marring itself. It is an infinite soul, which nothing short of the Infinite can satisfy, plunging down to ruin and disappointment. That unquenched impetuosity within you might have led you up to God. You have chosen instead that your heart shall try to satisfy itself upon husks. There was another form of Solomon's worldliness.

3. It was not worldliness in pleasure, but worldliness in occupation. He had entered deeply into commercial speculations. He had alternate fears and hopes about the return of his merchant ships on their perilous three-years' voyage to India end to Spain. He had his mind occupied with plans for building. The architecture of the temple, his own palace, the forts and towns of his now magnificent empire, all this filled for a time his soul. He had begun a system of national debt end ruinous taxation. Much of this was not wrong; but all of it was dangerous. It is a strange thing how business dulls the sharpness of the spiritual affections. It is strange how the harass of perpetual occupation shuts God out. There are writers who have said that in this matter Solomon was in advance of his age enlightened beyond the narrowness of Judaism, and that this permission of idolatry was the earliest exhibition of that spirit which in modern times we call religious toleration. But Solomon went far beyond toleration. The truth seems to be, Solomon was getting indifferent about religion. He had got into light and worldly society, and the libertinism of his associations was beginning to make its impression upon him. He was beginning to ask, "Is not one religion as good as another, so long as each man believes his own in earnest?" There are few signs in a soul's state more alarming than that of religious indifference; that is, the spirit of thinking ell religions equally true, the real meaning of which is, that all religions are equally false.

II. GOD'S LOVING GUIDANCE OF SOLOMON IN THE MIDST OF ALL HIS APOSTASY. In the darkest, wildest wanderings a man to whom God has shown His love in Christ is conscious still of the better way. In the very gloom of his remorse, there is an instinctive turning back to God. It is enumerated among the gifts that God bestowed upon Solomon that He granted to him "largeness of heart." Now that. largeness of heart which we call thoughtfulness and sensibility, generosity, high feeling, marks out for the man who has it a peculiar life. You look to the life of Solomon, and there are no outward reverses there to speak of. His reign was a type of a reign of the power of peace. No war, no national disaster, interrupted the even flow of the current of his days. No loss of a child, like David's, pouring cold desolation into his soul — no pestilences nor famines. Prosperity and riches, and the internal development of the nation's life — that was the reign of Solomon. And yet, with all this, was Solomon happy? Is there no way that God has of making the heart grey and old before its time without sending bereavement, or loss, or sickness? Has the Eternal Justice no mode of withering and drying up the inner springs of happiness while all is green, and wild, and fresh outwardly? We look to the history of Solomon for the answer. The first way in which his aberration from God treasured up for him chastisement was by that weariness of existence which breathes through the whole Book of Ecclesiastes. Another part of Solomon's chastisement was doubt. Once more turn to the Book of Ecclesiastes. "All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not." In this you will observe the querulous complaint of a man who has ceased to feel that God is the ruler of this world. A blind chance, or a dark destiny, seems to rule all earthly things. And that is the penalty of leaving God's narrow path for sin's wider and more flowery one. But the love of God brought Solomon through all this to spiritual manhood. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." In this we have the evidence of his victory. Doubt, and imprisonment, and worldliness have passed away, and clear activity, belief, freedom, have taken their place. It was terrible discipline, but God had made that discipline successful. I speak to those who know something about what the world is worth, who have tasted its fruits, and found them like the Dead Sea apples — hollowness and ashes. By those foretastes of coming misery which God has already given you, those lonely feelings of utter wretchedness and disappointment when you have returned home palled and satiated from the gaudy entertainment, and the truth has pressed itself icy cold upon your heart, "Vanity of vanities — is this worth living for? By all that, be warned. Be true to your convictions. Be honest with yourselves. Learn from the very greatness of your souls, which have a capacity for infinite agony, that you m in this world for a grander destiny than that of frittering away life in usefulness. Lastly, let us learn from this subject the covenant love of God. There is such a thing as love which rebellion cannot weary, which ingratitude cannot cool

(W. F. Robertson, M. A.)

People
Artaxerxes, Balaam, Eliashib, Hanan, Israelites, Joiada, Levites, Mattaniah, Pedaiah, Sanballat, Shelemiah, Solomon, Tobiah, Tobijah, Tyrians, Zaccur
Places
Ammon, Ashdod, Babylon, Jerusalem, Moab
Topics
Account, Beloved, Cause, Caused, Dear, Evil, Foreign, Led, Loved, Maketh, Nations, Nevertheless, Outlandish, Regarding, Sin, Sinned, Solomon, Strange, Wives, Women, Wrong, Yet
Outline
1. Upon the reading of the law, separation is made from the mixed multitude.
4. Nehemiah, at his return, causes the chambers to be cleansed.
10. He reforms the offices in the house of God;
15. the violation of the Sabbath;
23. and the marriages with the strange wives.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Nehemiah 13:26

     1085   God, love of
     5120   Solomon, character

Nehemiah 13:15-27

     5345   influence
     8466   reformation

Nehemiah 13:23-27

     5374   languages
     7525   exclusiveness

Nehemiah 13:25-26

     5732   polygamy

Nehemiah 13:26-27

     6213   participation, in sin

Library
Sabbath Observance
'In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. 16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The True Manner of Keeping Holy the Lord's Day.
Now the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things--First, In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life; Secondly, In consecrating that rest wholly to the service of God, and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life. For the First. 1. The servile and common works from which we are to cease are, generally, all civil works, from the least to the greatest (Exod. xxxi. 12, 13, 15, &c.) More particularly-- First, From all the works of our
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Two Famous Versions of the Scriptures
[Illustration: (drop cap B) Samaritan Book of the Law] By the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, on the coast of Egypt, lies Alexandria, a busy and prosperous city of to-day. You remember the great conqueror, Alexander, and how nation after nation had been forced to submit to him, until all the then-known world owned him for its emperor? He built this city, and called it after his own name. About a hundred years before the days of Antiochus (of whom we read in our last chapter) a company of Jews
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

The Last Days of the Old Eastern World
The Median wars--The last native dynasties of Egypt--The Eastern world on the eve of the Macedonian conquest. [Drawn by Boudier, from one of the sarcophagi of Sidon, now in the Museum of St. Irene. The vignette, which is by Faucher-Gudin, represents the sitting cyno-cephalus of Nectanebo I., now in the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican.] Darius appears to have formed this project of conquest immediately after his first victories, when his initial attempts to institute satrapies had taught him not
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9

The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
[Sidenote: Israel's literature at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ] Could we have studied the scriptures of the Israelitish race about 400 B.C., we should have classified them under four great divisions: (1) The prophetic writings, represented by the combined early Judean, Ephraimite, and late prophetic or Deuteronomic narratives, and their continuation in Samuel and Kings, together with the earlier and exilic prophecies; (2) the legal, represented by the majority of the Old Testament
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

Questions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath.
AND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.' London: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1685. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our observations
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath Day and Defends his Act.
(at Feast-Time at Jerusalem, Probably the Passover.) ^D John V. 1-47. ^d 1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [Though every feast in the Jewish calendar has found some one to advocate its claim to be this unnamed feast, yet the vast majority of commentators choose either the feast of Purim, which came in March, or the Passover, which came in April. Older commentators pretty unanimously regarded it as the Passover, while the later school favor the feast
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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