Nehemiah’s zeal for the Sabbath day is admirable. Nehemiah was so passionate about observing the Sabbath correctly that he even promised to “lay hands” on the merchants from other nations. In other words, he would have personally intervened if he had caught them in the city or by the gates on the Sabbath again. As a governor he had official responsibilities to make sure that this commandment was kept properly.

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“Nehemiah fearlessly rebuked them for their neglect of duty. ‘What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day?’ he sternly demanded. ‘Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath’. He then gave command that ‘when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath’, they should be shut, and not opened again till the Sabbath was past; and having more confidence in his own servants than in those that the magistrates of Jerusalem might appoint, he stationed them at the gates to see that his orders were enforced” – Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pages 671, 672.

Nehemiah’s warning about Sabbath desecration along with other warnings about violating it, had apparently echoed down through the ages even to Jesus’ time. We know this, because the Gospels time and again portray Jesus as struggling with the religious leaders over proper Sabbath keeping.

Read Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11, and John 5:5-16. What was the issue here, and how does an understanding of ancient Israel’s history help explain why the controversy arose?

In their zeal, however misguided, to make sure that the Sabbath was not “desecrated”, these religious leaders were so fanatical that they accused Jesus, the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5, NKJV), of violating it. Talk about taking a good thing too far! The irony is that while many of these men expressed great concern about the law, they forgot the “weightier matters” of that law: “justice and mercy and faith” (Matt. 23:23, NKJV).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Read Nehemiah 13:15-16. What is the issue that Nehemiah addresses here?

It is not easy to stand up for God when you are in the minority. Because God said that the Sabbath was to be a holy day on which no one was to do any work, Nehemiah intended to make sure that this command was followed in Jerusalem.

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No doubt he felt a moral obligation to take the position he did and then act upon it.

The Sabbath was created as the pinnacle of Creation week because it was a special day on which people were to be renewed and recreated by spending time with God in ways that they can’t when engaged in their occupations or other worldly pursuits.

It has been said that “More than Israel kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept Israel”. The point is that the seventh-day Sabbath was, and remains, a powerful means of helping keep faith alive in those who by God’s grace seek to observe it and enjoy the physical and spiritual benefits it offers us.

Read Nehemiah 13:17-22. What does Nehemiah do in order to stop the “buying and selling” on the Sabbath?

Because Nehemiah is the governor of Judah, he sees his role as the enforcer of the rules. Because the rules in Judah were based on the law of God, he becomes a guardian of that law, including the Sabbath. Maybe if the nobles of Judah had stood up to the corruption brought in by the High Priest, Nehemiah wouldn’t have found himself in this situation. However, the rulers and nobles perhaps already resented Nehemiah for making them give back to the poor earlier; thus, they didn’t seem to object to the changes Eliashib and Tobiah brought in, either.

Nehemiah rebukes the nobles first and then commands that the gates be shut and posts servants at the gates to guard them. When the marketplace simply moves from inside the city to the outside, he takes even more drastic measures and threatens to lay a hand on the merchants the next Sabbath. Nehemiah must have been a man of his word, because the merchants got the point and stayed away from then on.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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You can view an in-depth discussion of “Backslidden People” in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view:

You may download an MP4 video file, and audio file or a PDF lesson outline from the HopeSS site.

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Hymn 297, “God Be Merciful to Me” opens our singing for Sabbath School this week in the cleansing process learned in the Memory Text. Nehemiah 13:22 goes on to request that Sabbath be a sanctified day:
Hymn 381, “Holy Sabbath Day of Rest” and
Hymn 388, “Don’t Forget the Sabbath”.

Nehemiah came back to the people and asked them for commitment:
Hymn 634, “Come, All Christians, Be Committed”. The tithes and offerings were again put in place:
Hymn 639, “A Diligent and Grateful Heart”.
“We Give Thee But Thine Own”, Hymn 670 is our response in giving our tithes and offerings back to the Lord.

On Wednesday, Nehemiah again says
“Don’t Forget the Sabbath”, Hymn 388.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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1. Here’s an example of backsliding! Did your jaw drop an inch when you read the description at the opening of our lesson describing the backsliding of God’s people while Nehemiah had been away from Babylon? Imagine if this were your church–no more tithes or offerings, secular meetings held on sabbath in the church, young people encouraged to marry non-Adventists and even non-Christians, total disregard for Sabbath keeping–and all of this under the leadership of local members? Imagine how Nehemiah felt to see the fallen spiritual condition of God’s people. And all this after what God had done for them.
2. Tainted temple leadership. As if the backsliding mentioned above wasn’t enough, Nehemiah immediately learns of the total acceptance by God’s people of non-believing foreign leaders to the extent that the Jewish leadership had become corrupted by the assumption of control, pushing Nehemiah aside. Heart-broken prayer and weeping by Nehemiah must have taken over his spiritual life. Would you have advised Nehemiah not to pay attention to what was going on? To focus on living a godly life? How alarmed must Nehemiah been when he learned that one of his fiercest enemies, Tobiah, moved into the temple to live and rule the people of God. True or False: Seeing there was so little he could do, Nehemiah just wept, watched and listened. Discuss. 
3. Levites in the field. What did Nehemiah do when he saw that tithe-paying practices had been abandoned and that singers and other workers had left because they weren’t being paid for their time-consuming work as they had before? How did things change at the temple to correct the horrible, fallen state of worship there? What did Nehemiah do about it? Read Nehemiah 13:10-14 for details. Notice that one corrupt leader of God’s people was allowed to hold his position. Why do you think this was allowed? Can you see light at the end of the tunnel for the people of Judah under the leadership of Nehemiah? 
4. Tithes and offerings. What happened when God’s followers stopped giving a faithful tithe for the temple work? Our note for this question mentions that services stopped because the leaders who had organized the services didn’t have time to do so any longer without pay. Could something like this ever happen in your local church? Or the conference that oversees the finances for your church and others in a given territory? Is it less than ideal to return the tithe as evidence of our generosity? If so, what is a more acceptable motive?  
5.  Treading the wine presses on Sabbath. You probably don’t know any church member who presses grapes to make wine on Sabbath or any other day, but what if you did? “God’s people keep the Sabbath,” you might say. Or “the Sabbath keeps God people.” How is it true that the Sabbath keeps us together as God’s people?   
6. Keeping the Sabbath holy. What was Nehemiah’s responsibility in Sabbath keeping in the nation of God? Why? How was it possible that the Sabbath had been observed for so many hundreds of years? Isn’t it wonderful that God’s people never disagreed with each other about how the Sabbath should be kept? It wasn’t that important? Do you think that Sabbath keeping has weakened through the ages? What opportunities do you and I have to share our spirit of worship on the Sabbath with others–including fellow Seventh-day Adventists? 

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