Page 92 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

said in Exodus 2:14. “Who made you a leader and judge over us?” Notice the words of Stephen as he was about
to be stoned to death in Acts 7:51 for his preaching. “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and
ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your
fathers not persecute? They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One,
whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. (HCSB) This is why the apostle Paul wrote to young
Timothy and instructed him on how preachers should respond to resistant people. 2 Timothy 2:24-26 And a
servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those
who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that
they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his
will. (NKJV) Thankfully, the word fell upon receptive ears, but the word often falls upon hard hearts and ears
that are dull of hearing.

The first issue they realized that they must deal with was marrying improperly. They committed that they would
(30) not give our daughters in marriage to the surrounding peoples and will not take their daughters as wives
for our sons. This was an ongoing problem that Ezra had previously dealt with in Ezra 7-10, and it will surface
again before the end of this book in chapter 13. This commitment was to serve primarily to keep the Jews
spiritually pure. Throughout their history, the allure of foreign practices continually gotten them into trouble. For
example, Solomon was one of the worst examples of marrying the wrong person. Solomon married many
different women for economic and political stability. But in the end, 1 Kings 11:3 tells us that his 700 wives, who
were princesses and 300 concubines, turned his heart away from the LORD. Therefore, this commitment to
separate them from marrying the surrounding people was seen as a safeguard for the distinctive life to which
God had called them.

How do we make an application of this ancient text to today's culture? First, I want to emphasize that this
prohibition was not against interracial marriage, but it was a prohibition to preserve spiritual purity. God's word
strictly prohibits those who are his children from marrying those who are not his children. The prophet Malachi
words it this way. Malachi 2:11 Judah acted treacherously, and a detestable thing was done in Israel and
Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s sanctuary, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a
foreign god. God looks on people with other beliefs as children of another God. The Hebrews were first of all
united to God through his covenantal promises. Because of this, they profaned the holy pledge when they
joined pagan peoples.

Paul applies the same principle in First Corinthians 6 about sexual immorality. He goes on to say in Second
Corinthians 6:14-16. Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between
righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? I Corinthians 7:39 teaches us
to marry “Only in the Lord” or marry only believers. The issue has never been racial but spiritual – and it is a
principle that should guide us today. The Christ-Centered Commentary words it this way. “The returnees had
begun to intermarry with the peoples of the land. We saw that intermarriage was not a racial problem but a
holiness problem: they were intermarrying with idolaters. So Ezra addresses the situation, and all who had
married unrepentant, idolatrous foreign wives put them away to seek the purity of the returned
community.” 208

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The second commitment that the Israelites made was their determination to honor the Sabbath. When the
surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from
them on the Sabbath or a holy day. We will also leave [the land] uncultivated in the seventh year and will
cancel every debt. They realized that they had not honored his day as they should. From this verse, they were
more interested in commercial gain than they were in honoring the Sabbath day. Therefore, they committed
that when the surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will
not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day. The word Sabbath literally means cessation. Therefore, they
also realized that they would leave [the land] uncultivated in the seventh year and cancel every debt.

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