15

“Hi,” I said to Nehemiah. “It’s been awhile.”

“I’m always here,” he said.

I smiled at him. “I know. I’m grateful. Were you worried that I wouldn’t follow through on my promise a couple weeks ago?” I had taken some time away from our weekly conversations. I had said that I would be back, but we humans often struggle with doing what we know we ought to do.

“No, I knew you’d be back. But I also knew that the sooner we started our conversations again, the better. When we take a break from our routines, there is always a risk that we won’t start again.”

“You are talking about what happened after the people made all their promises in chapter 10, aren’t you.”

He nodded.

“Do you mind if we connect those promises to what happened in Chapter 13?”

“No,” he said. “As long as you aren’t trying to hurry me out of your life.”

“That will never happen,” I said.

“That’s exactly what the people promised,” he said. “They made vows and invited a curse. But vows and curses run into how people are.”

“We call that human nature,” I said.

“Whatever. I call it frustrating and I call it the reality of leadership.”

“Do you mind if I try to summarize what happened? And then you can correct me?”

Nehemiah sat back. “Go ahead.”

“I want to start back at the reading of the Law in chapter 8.  Ezra reads, the people feel convicted of their bad behavior, and the Levites lead in a time of confession and commitment. Starting in Chapter 9, they review the history of God’s involvement with his people. At the beginning of Chapter 10, a group of political and spiritual leaders sign a document that promises they will return to obedience.

“The document specifies the actions that will be taken. It’s the kind of declaration that is still made by gatherings of God’s people. There is a confessional component and a covenant component.”

“It’s what I did in my prayer,” Nehemiah said. “Way back in chapter 1.”

“Exactly.” I replied. “So everyone made these promises in chapter 10. If I can simplify them, there were three: to marry within the faith, to give regularly, and to preserve the Sabbath.”

“That’s good,” Nehemiah said.  “There was much more detail in those promises, about how much to give to whom, but that’s a good overview. We summarized them at the end by promising ‘we will not neglect the house of our God.’”^[1]

I went on. “It was an appropriate summary of everything that had happened up to that time in history. You and your colleagues and contemporaries were saying, in essence, ‘We know our forefathers messed up. But starting today, we’re making a new commitment, a fresh start with God. We’re not going to fall into the same traps that ruined previous generations and caused all our problems.'”

Nehemiah nodded. “That’s exactly what we were doing. After all I had been through, after all the work and prayer, after Ezra’s work and the Levites’ work, we were together in this solemn assembly.  It was an exciting and humbling moment.”

“And then time goes by.”

“Right,” Nehemiah whispered.

“During the next few years, the people settled back into daily life. Many people settled into the villages around Jerusalem. A select few stayed. There was a big dedication of the walls. And then you went back to Susa.”

He shrugged. “After 12 years, it was time to go back and report in with the king.”

“Was that really your first time back? In that conversation with the King where you laid out your plan, did you tell him that you would be gone for 12 years, and he let you go?”

He smiled at me. “You know that’s not important. If it were, we would have recorded it. And don’t ask me how long I was gone, either.”

“All of us guess that it was awhile. Long enough for Malachi to speak about some of the things that concerned you.”^[2]

He just looked at me. He knew I was fishing for details.

“Okay. Never mind. So when you came back, whenever that was, things had gotten out of control. There were problems with marriages. There were problems with the offerings. There were problems with the Sabbath. The key things you identified had blown up. It really frustrated you, didn’t it? I mean, you pulled out guys’ hair.”

Nehemiah held up his hand. “I know I said we could talk about this, but can we go into those details later? Or not at all?”

“Okay. But give me a summary of guidelines for keeping spiritual promises.”

He thought for a bit. “Let’s try these:

1. When you make promises, make them about the things that matter. At least that way, when people wander, they are wandering from what is important, and when you call them to repentance, it’s a call that is a call back to God.
2. When you are a leader, remind people of the promises that they made. Our job is to keep people focused on what we all committed to. It’s why we have been called by people and by God. More than anything else, calling people to faithfulness matters.
3. When you are a servant, you have to follow God, no matter what. I left Jerusalem and things slowly fell apart. I could have said, ‘God, if you had left me here I would have kept them from disobeying.’ But that would have been giving myself too much credit.
4. People struggle to obey. That’s how it is.”

He stood up. “You are lucky,” he said. “You have the Holy Spirit to keep reminding you of what God wants and means. I bet you never have people getting off track.”^[3]

It was my turn to just look at him.

His eyes widened.

“You mean God’s people aren’t all perfect now?”