"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. 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. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why do you lodge about the wall? if you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day." (Nehemiah 13:15-22)
This lesson is called "Keeping the Sabbath," but it should rather be called "Breaking the Sabbath," for that is what it is all about.
In order to understand the acts of Nehemiah, it is necessary to put ourselves in his place. Therefore we must consider the Jewish State, and note the difference between it and nations generally. The great mistake that most people make in reading this account, is in supposing that his action is a model for rulers in these days. Let us see why it is not.
In the first place, Israel was not a nation in the ordinary sense of the term. When Balaam tried to curse Israel, God made him bless them, so that we know that whatever he said was directed by the Spirit of the Lord. Looking at Israel, he said, "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:9)
Then what did Israel constitute? Simply, "the household of God," (Ephesians 2:19) the church. It was never God's design that His people should be governed as other people are, but that He should be their sole ruler. If they had lived by faith in God, as Abraham did, there would never have been any need for judges or any sort of officers of the law. All these things came in solely as a result of that lack of faith which rejected God as ruler.
The family is the one institution which God has designed. The head of every family was to be the priest for the family, and each family, including all the dependents, would form a congregation, or what in modern language is erroneously called a church. That this family plan was to be perpetuated, is seen in the promise to Abraham, "In you shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)
In harmony with this plan God was bringing Israel out of Egypt--a great collection of families constituting God's great family, which was to be added to as others accepted the faith. That the family is still the unit of God's government, and that His people all form one family, is seen by the fact that we come into the kingdom of God only by a new birth. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
God's subjects are all His children, and His kingdom consist solely of His family. "The whole family in heaven and earth is named." (Ephesians 3:15) from Christ, who has been placed over it as Head. God is the "Father of all." (Ephesians 4:6)
When the children of Israel called for a king, like other people, God said that it was a rejection of Him. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto you: for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." (1 Samuel 8:7)
They wanted a king, that they might be like the nations, or, literally, like the heathen around them. "Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:5)
All the nations were heathen, and in fact the formation of nations is in itself heathenism,--the rejection of God as ruler. Although the people rejected the Lord, He did not reject them. He still claimed them as His children. He reserved the right to select their king, and the family idea was still maintained as far as possible.
We must remember that it was religion, and that alone, that made the people of Israel. The name itself signified victory over sin, the victory of faith. There were no different "denominations" in the kingdom, as in England, for instance, for the entire nation was simply the church of God, although they had deviated from God's plan for them.
At the time which our lesson covers, Nehemiah was at the head of this family government. Israel had returned from the Babylonian captivity, wither they had been taken because they kept not the Sabbath. "Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on his people, and on His dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years." (2 Chronicles 36:14-21)
Now that the seventy years of captivity were at an end, and the people were in their own land again, it was a terrible thing to begin at once to do that which had before brought such calamities upon them. It is not to be wondered at that Nehemiah was greatly aroused over it.
Remembering that the whole people were really one family, for Jacob was the father of all, we read the commandment concerning the Sabbath: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work; But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11)
There is no question that every man has the right to demand that the Sabbath shall not be profaned in his house, either by servants or visitors. It is his duty to do this. It is his duty to see that tradesmen do not deliver goods on that day. He has no right to enter into the homes of others and say how they shall do on the Sabbath, but he himself must keep the Sabbath, and that means that he must not allow the Sabbath to be profaned on his premises.
Nehemiah was, under God, the leader of this family. He was the leader of the church. As such it was his province to exhort all the members of the family, and to warn strangers that they must not come upon the premises for the purpose of doing business on the Sabbath day. But this no more gives the rulers of ordinary governments the right to legislate concerning Sabbath-keeping, than it gives them the right to say whether or not men shall be Christians. The two cases are not at all parallel.
It must not be lost sight of that it was the Sabbath, and not Sunday, that was in question here. It was the seventh day of the week, the day before the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday. The people in those days had no more thought of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, than they had of the fourth. It was not until long after the crucifixion and ascension of Christ, that Sunday began gradually, without any precept or authority, to take the place of the Sabbath of the Lord.
Remember that God does not change. His ways are equal. "Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? ... Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?" (Ezekiel 18:25,29)
He once punished Israel severely for violating the Sabbath--the seventh day of the week. This is well known. Now can anybody say that there would be equal dealing if He should now look upon labor on that day as a lawful thing, and should punish men for laboring on a day on which He then allowed and commanded them to labor? If God did so, how could He judge the world?
No; depend upon it, God does not change, and not one jot or tittle of His law has changed. The same day is now the Sabbath that was the Sabbath in the days of Nehemiah, and so it will be to all eternity. Do you think it is not a light thing to disregard God's commandments? If so, read: "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the Lord, He against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in His ways, neither were they obedient unto His law. Therefore He has poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart." (Isaiah 42:24-25)--Present Truth, November 23, 1899--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons--Nehemiah 13:15-22
E.J. Waggoner