_THE RIGOUR OF THE REFORMER._
NEHEMIAH xiii.
There is no finality in history. The chapter that seems to be rounded
on with a perfect conclusion always leaves room for an appendix, which
in its turn may serve as an introduction to another chapter. Ezra's
and Nehemiah's work seemed to have reached its climax in the happy
scene of the dedication of the walls. All difficulties had vanished;
the new order had been greeted with widespread enthusiasm; the future
promised to be smooth and prosperous. If the chronicler had laid down
his pen at this point, as any dramatist before Ibsen who was not bound
by the exigencies of prosaic facts would have done, his work might
have presented a much more artistic appearance than it now wears. And
yet it would have been artificial, and therefore false to the highest
art of history. In adding a further extract from Nehemiah's memoirs
that discloses a revival of the old troubles, and so shows that the
evils against which the reformers contended had not been stamped out,
the writer mars the literary effect of his record of their triumph;
but, at the same time, he satisfies us that he is in contact with real
life, its imperfections and its disappointments.
It is not easy to settle the time of the incident mentioned in
chapter xiii. 1-3. The phrase "on that day" with which the passage
opens seems to point back to the previous chapter. If so it cannot be
taken literally, because what it describes must be assigned to a later
period than the contents of the paragraph that follows it. It forms an
introduction to the extract from Nehemiah's memoirs, and its
chronological position is even later than the date of the first part
of the extract, because that begins with the words "And before
this,"[254] _i.e._, before the incident that opens the chapter. Now it
is clear that Nehemiah's narrative here refers to a time considerably
after the transactions of the previous chapter, inasmuch as he states
that when the first of the occurrences he now records happened he was
away in the court of Artaxerxes.[255] Still later, then, must that
event be placed _before_ which this new incident occurred. We might
perhaps suppose that the phrase "at that day" is carried over directly
from the chronicler's original source and belongs to its antecedents
in that document; but so clumsy a piece of joinery is scarcely
admissible. It is better to take the phrase quite generally. Whatever
it meant when first penned, it is clear that the events it introduces
belong only indefinitely to the times previously mentioned. We are
really landed by them in a new state of affairs. Here we must notice
that the introductory passage is immediately connected with the
Nehemiah record. It tells how the law from Deuteronomy requiring the
exclusion of the Ammonite and the Moabite was read and acted on. This
is to be remembered when we are studying the subsequent events.
[254] Neh. xiii. 4.
[255] Neh. xiii. 6.
When Nehemiah's extended leave of absence had come to an end, or when
perhaps he had been expressly summoned back by Artaxerxes, his return
to Babylon was followed by a melancholy relapse in the reformed city
of Jerusalem. This is not by any means astonishing. Nothing so hinders
and distresses the missionary as the repeated outbreak of their old
heathen vices among his converts. The drunkard cannot be reckoned safe
directly he has signed the pledge. Old habits may be damped down
without being extinguished, and when this is the case they will flame
up again as soon as the repressive influence is removed. In the
present instance there was a distinct party in the city, consisting of
some of the most prominent and influential citizens, which disapproved
of the separatist, puritanical policy of the reformers and advocated a
more liberal course. Some of its members may have been conscientious
men, who honestly deplored what they would regard as the disastrous
state of isolation brought about by the action of Ezra and Nehemiah.
After having been silenced for a time by the powerful presence of the
great reformers, these people would come out and declare themselves
when the restraining influences were removed. Meanwhile we hear no
more of Ezra. Like Zerubbabel in the earlier period, he drops out of
the history without a hint as to his end. He may have returned to
Babylon, thinking his work complete; possibly he had been recalled by
the king.
It is likely that some rumours of the declension of Jerusalem reached
Nehemiah at the Persian court. But he did not discover the whole
extent of this retrograde movement until he was once more in the city,
with a second leave of absence from Artaxerxes. Then there were four
evils that he perceived with great grief.
The first was that Tobiah had got a footing in the city. In the
earlier period this "servant" had been carrying on intrigues with some
members of the aristocracy. The party of opposition had done its best
to represent him in a favourable light to Nehemiah, and all the while
this party had been traitorously keeping Tobiah informed of the state
of affairs in the city. But now a further step was taken. Though one
of the three leading enemies of Nehemiah, the ally and supporter of
the Samaritan governor Sanballat, this man was actually permitted to
have a lodging in the precincts of the temple. The locality was
selected, doubtless, because it was within the immediate jurisdiction
of the priests, among whom the Jewish opponents of Nehemiah were
found. It is as though, in his quarrel with Henry, Thomas à Becket had
lodged a papal envoy in the cathedral close at Canterbury. To a Jew
who did not treat the ordinances of religion with the Sadducean laxity
that was always to be found in some of the leading members of the
priesthood, this was most abhorrent. He saw in it a defilement of the
neighbourhood of the temple, if not of the sacred enclosure itself, as
well as an insult to the former governor of the city. Tobiah may have
used his room for the purpose of entertaining visitors in state; but
it may only have been a warehouse for trade stores, as it had
previously been a place in which the bulky sacrificial gifts were
stowed away. Such a degradation of it, superseding its previous sacred
use, would aggravate the evil in the sight of so strict a man as
Nehemiah.
The outrage was easily accounted for. Tobiah was allied by marriage to
the priest who was the steward of this chamber. Thus we have a clear
case of trouble arising out of the system of foreign marriages which
Ezra had so strenuously opposed. It seems to have opened the eyes of
the younger reformer to the evil of these marriages, for hitherto we
have not found him taking any active part in furthering the action of
Ezra with regard to them. Possibly he had not come across an earlier
instance. But now it was plain enough that the effect was to bring a
pronounced enemy of all he loved and advocated into the heart of the
city, with the rights of a tenant, too, to back him up. If "evil
communications corrupt good manners," this was most injurious to the
cause of the reformation. The time had not arrived when a generous
spirit could dare to welcome all-comers to Jerusalem. The city was
still a fortress in danger of siege. More than that, it was a Church
threatened with dissolution by reason of the admission of unfit
members. Whatever we may say to the social and political aspects of
the case, ecclesiastically regarded, laxity at the present stage would
have been fatal to the future of Judaism, and the mere presence of
such a man as Tobiah, openly sanctioned by a leading priest, was a
glaring instance of laxity; Nehemiah was bound to stop the mischief.
The second evil was the neglect of the payments due to the Levites. It
is to be observed again that the Levites are most closely associated
with the reforming position. Religious laxity and indifference had had
an effect on the treasury for which these men were the collectors. The
financial thermometer is a very rough test of the spiritual condition
of a religious community, and we often read it erroneously, not only
because we cannot gauge the amount of sacrifice made by people in very
different circumstances, nor just because we are unable to discover
the motives that prompt the giving of alms "before men"; but also,
when every allowance is made for these causes of uncertainty, because
the gifts which are usually considered most generous rarely involve
enough strain and effort to bring the deepest springs of life into
play. And yet it must be allowed that a declining subscription list is
usually to be regarded as one sign of waning interest on the part of
the supporters of any public movement. When we consider the matter
from the other side, we must acknowledge that the best way to improve
the pecuniary position of any religious enterprise is not to work the
exhausted pump more vigorously, but to drive the well deeper and tap
the resources of generosity that lie nearer the heart--not to beg
harder, but to awaken a better spirit of devotion.
The third indication of backsliding that vexed the soul of Nehemiah
was Sabbath profanation. He saw labour and commerce both proceeding on
the day of rest--Jews treading the winepress, carrying the sheaves,
lading their asses, and bringing loads of wine, grapes, and figs, and
all sorts of wares, into Jerusalem for sale; and fishmongers and
pedlars from Tyre--not, of course, themselves to be blamed for failing
to respect the festival of a people whose religion they did not
share--pouring into the city, and opening their markets as on any
weekday. Nehemiah was greatly alarmed. He went at once to the nobles,
who seem to have been governing the city, as a sort of oligarchy,
during his absence, and expostulated with them on their danger of
provoking the wrath of God again, urging that Sabbath-breaking had
been one of the offences which had called down the judgment of Heaven
on their fathers. Then he took means to prevent the coming of foreign
traders on the Sabbath, by ordering the gates to be kept closed from
Friday evening till the sacred day was over. Once or twice these
people came up as usual, and camped just outside the city; but as this
was disturbing to the peace of the day, Nehemiah threatened that if
they repeated the annoyance he would lay hands on them. Lastly, he
charged the Levites, first to cleanse themselves that they might be
ready to undertake a work of purification, and then to take charge of
the gates on the Sabbath and see that the day was hallowed in the
cessation of all labour. Thus both by persuasion and by vigorous
active measures Nehemiah put an end to the disorder.
The importance attached to this matter is a sign of the prominence
given to Sabbath-keeping in Judaism. The same thing was seen earlier
in the selection of the law of the Sabbath as one of the two or three
rules to be specially noted, and to which the Jews were to
particularly pledge themselves in the covenant.[256] Reference was
then made to the very act of the Tyrians now complained of, the
offering of wares and food for sale in Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.
Putting these two passages together, we can see where the
Sabbath-breaking came from. It was the invasion of a foreign
custom--like the dreaded introduction of the "Continental Sunday" into
England. Now to Nehemiah the fact of the foreign origin of the custom
would be a heavy condemnation for it. Next to circumcision,
Sabbath-keeping was the principal mark of the Jew. In the days of our
Lord it was the most highly prized feature of the ancient faith. This
was then so obvious that it was laid hold of by Roman satirists, who
knew little about the strange traders in the _Ghetto_ except that
they "sabbatised." Nehemiah saw that if the sacred day of rest were to
be abandoned, one of his bulwarks of separation would be lost. Thus
for him, with his fixed policy, and in view of the dangers of his age,
there was a very urgent reason for maintaining the Sabbath, a reason
which of course does not apply to us in England to-day. We must pass
on to the teaching of Christ to have this question put on a wider and
more permanent basis. With that Divine insight of His which penetrated
to the root of every matter, our Lord saw through the miserable
formalism that made an idol of a day, and in so doing turned a boon
into a burden; at the same time He rescued the sublimely simple truth
which contains both the justification and the limitation of the
Sabbath, when He declared, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the Sabbath." In resisting the rigour of legal-minded
Sabbatarianism, the modern mind seems to have confined its attention
to the second clause of this great utterance, to the neglect of its
first clause. Is it nothing, then, that Jesus said, "The Sabbath was
made for man"--not for the _Jew_ only, but for _man_? Although we may
feel free from the religion of law in regard to the observance of days
as much as in other external matters, is it not foolish for us to
minimise a blessing that Jesus Christ expressly declared to be for the
good of the human race? If the rest day was needed by the Oriental in
the slow-moving life of antiquity, is it any less requisite for the
Western in the rush of these later times? But if it is necessary to
our welfare, the neglect of it is sinful. Thus not because of the
inherent sanctity of seasons, but on our Lord's own ground of the
highest utilitarianism--a utilitarianism which reaches to other
people, and even to animals, and affects the soul as well as the
body--the reservation of one day in seven for rest is a sacred duty.
"The world is too much with us" for the six days. We can ill afford to
lose the recurrent escape from its blighting companionship originally
provided by the seventh and now enjoyed on our Sunday.
[256] Neh. x. 31.
Lastly, Nehemiah was confronted by the social effects of foreign
marriage alliances. These alliances had been contracted by Jews
resident in the south-western corner of Judæa, who may not have come
under the influence of Ezra's drastic reformation in Jerusalem, and
who probably were not married till after that event. They afford
another evidence of the counter current that was running so strongly
against the regulations of the party of rigour while Nehemiah was
away. The laxity of the border people may be accounted for without
calling in any subtle motives. But their fault was shared by a member
of the _gens_ of the high-priest, who had actually wedded the daughter
of Nehemiah's arch-enemy Sanballat! Clearly this was a political
alliance, and it indicated a defiant reversal of the policy of the
reformers in the very highest circles. The offender, after being
expelled from Jerusalem, is said to have been the founder of the
Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.
Then the social mischief of the mixed marriages was showing itself in
the corruption of the Hebrew language. The Philistine language was not
allied to the Egyptian, as some have thought, nor was it
Indo-Germanic, as others have supposed, but it was Semitic, and only a
different dialect from the Hebrew; and yet the difficulty persons from
the south of England feel in understanding the speech of Yorkshiremen
in remote parts of the county will help us to account for a practical
loss of mutual intelligence between people of different dialects,
when these dialects were still more isolated by having grown up in two
separate and hostile nations. For the children of Jewish parents to be
talking with the tones and accents of the hereditary enemies of Israel
was intolerable. When he heard the hated sounds, Nehemiah simply lost
his temper. With a curse on his lips he rushed at the fathers,
striking them and tearing their hair. It was the rage of bitter
disappointment; but behind it lay the grim set purpose in holding to
which with dogged tenacity Ezra and Nehemiah saved Judaism from
extinction. Separatism is never gracious; yet it may be right. The
reformer is not generally of a mild temperament. We may regret his
harshness; but we should remember that the world has only seen one
perfectly meek and yet thoroughly effective Revolutionist, only one
"Lamb of God" who could be also named "the Lion of the tribe of
Judah."
The whole situation was disappointing to Nehemiah, and his memoir ends
in a prayer beneath which we can detect an undertone of melancholy.
Three times during this last section he appeals to God to remember
him--not to wipe out his good deeds,[257] to spare him according to
the greatness of the Divine mercy,[258] and finally to remember him
for good.[259] The memories of the Jerusalem covenanters had been
brief; during the short interval of their leader's absence they had
forgotten his discipline and fallen back into negligent ways. It was
vain to trust to the fickle fancies of men. With a sense of weary
loneliness, taught to feel his own insignificance in that great tide
of human life that flows on in its own course though the most
prominent figures drop out of notice, Nehemiah turned to his God, the
one Friend who never forgets. He was learning the vanity of the
world's fame; yet he shrank from the idea of falling into oblivion.
Therefore it was his prayer that he might abide in the memory of God.
This was by itself a restful thought. It is cheering to think that we
may dwell in the memory of those we love. But to be held in the
thought of God is to have a place in the heart of infinite love. And
yet this was not the conclusion of the whole matter to Nehemiah. It is
really nothing better than a frivolous vanity, that can induce any one
to be willing to sacrifice the prospect of a real eternal life in
exchange for the pallid shadow of immortality ascribed to the "choir
invisible" of those who are only thought of as living in the memory of
the world they have influenced enough to win "a niche in the temple of
fame." What is fame to a dead man mouldering in his coffin? Even the
higher thought of being remembered by God is a poor consolation in
prospect of blank non-existence. Nehemiah expects something better,
for he begs God to remember him in _mercy_ and for _good_. It is a
very narrow, prosaic interpretation of this prayer to say that he only
means that he desires a blessing during the remainder of his life in
the court at Susa. On the other hand, it may be too much to ascribe
the definite hope of a future life to this Old Testament saint. And
yet, vague as his thought may be, it is the utterance of a profound
yearning of the soul that breaks out in moments of disappointment with
an intensity never to be satisfied within the range of our cramped
mortal state. In this utterance of Nehemiah we have, at least, a seed
thought that should germinate into the great hope of immortality. If
God could forget His children, we might expect them to perish, swept
aside like the withered leaves of autumn. But if He continues to
remember them, it is not just to His Fatherhood to charge Him with
permitting such a fate to fall upon His offspring. No human father who
is worthy of the name would willingly let go the children whom he
cherishes in mind and heart. Is it reasonable to suppose that the
perfect Divine Father, who is both almighty and all-loving, would be
less constant? But if He _remembers_ His children, and remembers them
_for good_, He will surely preserve them. If His memory is unfading,
and if His love and power are eternal, those who have a place in His
immortal thought must also have a share in His immortal life.
[257] Neh. xiii. 14.
[258] Neh. xiii. 22.
[259] Neh. xiii. 31.