Nehemiah 13:4-22
“In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys; and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I warned them at that time against selling food.” (Nehemiah 13:15)
Bad habits are hard to break (but easy to start).
Good habits are hard to start (and easy to break).
If you ever needed proof that sin is real and impacts all people, the truth of those two above sentences should suffice. I mean, why is it that I started biting my nails at six years old and still do it to this day (bad habit!), but at 30 I was running 2-3 miles 3-4 times a week, but definitely wasn’t doing that by 32 years old? Ugh! This is what both the poets and philosophers call “the human condition” and – good grief – is it annoying!
Well, the human condition is definitely at work in our Nehemiah reading today. For context, both Nehemiah (a politician) and Ezra (a priest) are known as the “Reconstruction” books. That is, they detail Israel’s life after they returned from Babylonian exile. You may remember that Israel resides in the Promised Land, but then the Babylonians conquer them and destroy the Temple. Some 80 years later, the Persians (led by King Cyrus) defeated the Babylonians. At this time, King Cyrus ordered all the exiled Israelites back to Jerusalem and gave them the freedom to rebuild the Temple. But, of course, 80 years had passed and they had lost all their good Temple habits.
Our reading today is but a little slice of the human condition plaguing them at that time. Nehemiah, as a political leader, is flexing his power to make sure that the Temple is regarded as a holy space. He restaffs it with the necessary priests and musicians; he kicks out those who are living in it as if a residence for anyone other than Yahweh; he makes sure that the merchants – all of whom had been used to working and selling on the Sabbath – know that this is no longer permitted. Basically, he’s helping Israel break A LOT of bad habits and hoping to inspire some good habits in their place.
I’ve been grateful that the Ezra-Nehemiah texts have been appearing in the lectionary readings over the last couple of weeks because we, as a church, are in our own “reconstruction” season. COVID inevitably broke a lot of good habits (and, likely, inspired some bad ones as we sought easy comfort in the face of such great uncertainty). And, to be clear, COVID isn’t over. But we’re all learning to readjust around it more and more. Part of this readjustment, then, is learning what it means for each of us to break bad habits and renew good habits.
It’s impossible for a devotion that goes out to a few hundred people to provide any concrete guidance that will fit everyone’s life. There may be very good reason that, for example, the habit of in-person worship is not fitting for you at this moment, even if it is fitting for another at this moment. So, no blanket injunctions or encouragements can really be made here. Instead, I want to encourage each of you to remember that the people of God have faced similar challenges in the past, that God is faithful and patient, and that reading Ezra and Nehemiah (especially reading it metaphorically) can be a good place to challenge yourself in this readjustment season. Indeed, thanks be to God and our forebears of faith for preserving these sorts of stories to help guide, challenge, comfort, and mold us. Amen.
