(or Reading Between the Stories)
The book of Nehemiah is often read as an exciting story of hope in God against all odds. From it, many teachers and pastors have constructed leadership principles, mobilized congregations to take on new projects, and have called Christians to defensive postures against the world. But there is a story couched within its pages counterintuitive to the narratives we prefer to pull from it. You don’t have to read between the lines to find it. It’s the backstory woven throughout the book.
Foreign leaders Sanballat, Tobiah, and others from the surrounding regions stood opposed to the rebuilding Jerusalem's wall. These were influential, powerful men from other nations, governors carrying out the rule of Persia in their own allotted countries. They most likely lived off the people of their region under the provision of the “governor’s food allowance” (see Nehemiah 5:14), which was a tax upon the people they governed. In other words, they profited greatly from their appointment as leaders under Persian rule.
These men tried multiple times to discourage Nehemiah and the Jewish people from rebuilding. They sent threatening letters and declared open war. They also made appeals to diplomacy, launched a smear campaign, and even attempted trickery. Why was this project so threatening to them? Could it be that an independent Israel posed a threat to their own derived power?
If we think about it, they also stood to gain from the people of Israel. Israel's dependence upon the surrounding nations meant she was no threat to their power. And if Israel prospered, so would they.
Due to carefully arranged marriages, these nations were able to exert a powerful influence over the inhabitants of Jerusalem. We learn in Nehemiah 6:17-19 that Tobiah married the daughter of an Israelite leader, and Tobiah’s son had married the daughter of a Levitical leader. Additionally, Sanballat was related by marriage to the high priest Eliashib (see 13:28). The text tells us that these marriages allowed for a binding oath between him and the leaders in Israel. Under this oath, prominent Jewish leaders sided with these foreign leaders against Nehemiah.
But we also learn that the Jewish leaders, priests and Levites among them, had a stake in the game as well. Influence and protection came with political alliances. This meant mutual favors flowed both ways.
Here’s one thing that happened as a result, recorded in chapter 13:4-10. Behind Nehemiah’s back, Eliashib the high priest, Tobiah’s ally and in-law to Sanballat, emptied out the storeroom reserved for the tithes dedicated to the Levites and singers to make an office for Tobiah, right in the temple. Since there was no longer a place to store their appointed provisions, the Levites and singers set out to fend for themselves on their own lands instead of serving in the temple.
Looking at these relationships and actions, I think it’s possible to conclude that the leaders among the returning exiles relied on political alliances to provide for them. They made peace by marriage with power. This left them in a sad state, dependent upon the favor of the surrounding nations instead of their God.
I confess, this story makes me shudder.
Without much more commentary, I can only ask the question, “Have we evangelicals made apartments for worldly powers in our hearts and in our houses of worship, hoping that through these alliances we will be safe and provided for? Do we give our resources (time, talent, and treasure, trading in dollars instead of daughters) to curry the favor of those who have power to the neglect of those set aside for tasks of service?
Wherever any one of us stands on the political spectrum, my fear is that we are all guilty of seeking security according to worldly power.
While we fancy ourselves the ones with swords in one hand and bricks on the other, mobilizing people to accomplish the task of kingdom building, recent history should cause us to question whether we’ve written ourselves incorrectly into Nehemiah's narrative. Are we Nehemiah, or are we Eliashib?
We cannot work to win worldly power to our side thinking that that power will serve us to our ends. It won’t. Just like Tolkien’s Boromir, we can’t control the ring of power and make it serve us. It will ultimately enslave us.
I really can’t answer these questions for anyone else but myself. I pray that they shake me into a life of repentance and trust.
Comments