Cutting Out the Cancer

Sometimes surgery is the only option. Sometimes cutting out the cancer is the only road to recovery. Slicing open the patient is never pleasant. But here in Nehemiah 13:28-29, we read of the governor becoming a spiritual surgeon. It seems that a malignancy is growing deep inside the spiritual leadership of God’s people. The grandson of a former high priest has married one of Israel’s sworn enemies. His in-laws are the outlaws. When it’s clear that this dude refuses to acknowledge his sin, Nehemiah’s only option is surgery. The sole hope for the longtime health of God’s people is to carve him out and kick him out. It’s time to cut out the cancer. 

Nehemiah’s been super busy since returning to Jerusalem from his full-time job as the cupbearer to the king of Persia (Neh 1:11; 13:6-7). King Artaxerxes gave him a 12-year leave of absence to serve as governor and rebuild, restore, and repopulate God’s holy city (Neh 2:5-8). What would make a pagan dictator not only give his slave the time off but pay for the entire project? Well, that would be God. As the governor likes to say, our God has a firm grip on him and this project (Neh 2:8, 18). Despite tons of opposition both inside and outside Jerusalem, God uses Nehemiah to lead His people to get the job done. 

At some point, the governor gets the idea to make 1,000-mile trip back to Judah and see how things are going. What he finds is a four alarm hot mess. Nehemiah personally evicts a known terrorist from actually using a temple storeroom as an apartment (Neh 13:7-9). He restocks the empty pantry with supplies for those serving at the temple who’ve left to look for second jobs (Neh 13:10-13). He shuts down the flea market local vendors have set up on the Sabbath as they distract God’s people from His gift of a holy day off (Neh 13:15-22). The governor goes all one-man wrecking crew on a slew of Jewish dudes who are sleeping with local pagan hotties and fathering children (Neh 13:23-27).

Nehemiah then describes one specific and very painful example of a Hebrew man hooking up with a heathen family. “And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite” (v28). Yup, you read that right. A member of the priestly line has actually married the enemy’s daughter. Think of Billy Graham’s grandson walking down the aisle with Osama bin Laden’s little girl. That’s jacked up! 

Just in case you’ve not been keeping track, let’s quickly review Sanballat’s rap sheet. The Horonite is the archenemy of God’s people and a chronic pain in Nehemiah’s backside. Sanballat wasn’t a happy camper when the governor hit town to help the Hebrews (Neh 2:10). He laughed at Nehemiah when he planned to rebuild the city walls (Neh 2:19; 4:1-2). This thug plotted terrorist attacks to stop the project (Neh 4:7-8). Sanballat and his toadies tried five different times to lure the governor away from the worksite to assassinate him (Neh 6:1-5). He started a whisper campaign against Nehemiah by spreading false rumors that the rebuilding of the walls was a thinly veiled plot to secede from the Persian empire (Neh 2:19, 6). He even greased the palm of a prophet in order to ruin the governor’s reputation (Neh 6:10-13). And now this guy will be hosting a priestly grandson at Thanksgiving. I’m telling you, this is jacked up!

But this kid comes from a family that puts the funk in dysfunction. There’s little doubt that these are the consequences of poor spiritual parenting. His grandpa Eliashib set a horrible example for his family. Paw Paw actually gave away one of the holy storage units in the temple to Sanballat’s buddy Tobiah the Ammonite to use as his deluxe apartment in the sky (Neh 13:4-7). Nehemiah’s already had to evict that evil from the temple. If that’s not bad enough, here’s one of the high priest kids marrying the enemy. Talk about looking for love in all the wrong places.

This is a clear rejection of God’s rules for marriage for His people (Ex 34:15-16; Dt 7:3). Over and over in His law, the LORD tries to protect us from our own sinful selves. This has been a long-running problem for God’s people. Ezra the scribe had to put his foot down on such goings-on just a few years ago (Ez 9-10). Nehemiah made folks serving at the temple break up with their lovers before he left town the first time (Neh 10:28-31). This is the same sin that took down King Solomon (1Ki 11:1-8). God knows that intimate relationships with folks who don’t worship Him will eventually lead us away from Him. That’s why the Apostle Paul tells his Corinthian friends that the followers of Jesus should avoid being “unequally yoked with unbelievers” (2Cor 6:14). This has nothing to do with racial, cultural, or religious prejudice. It has everything to do with protecting our relationship with Jesus.

Once Nehemiah realizes the depth of the cancer, he gets out his scalpel. It’s time to do some spiritual surgery. It’s the only hope of survival for both the priesthood and the people of Jerusalem. “Therefore I chased him from me” (v28). The governor didn’t just politely ask Eliashib’s grandson to leave the room. The Hebrew verb here is barach, which means run away, drive out, cause to flee, or banish. Nehemiah ran this knucklehead out the door in a big hurry. He beat feet. He had probably already seen the governor kick butt and take names with some of his buddies (Neh 13:25). My guess is that he didn’t let the door hit him where the dog should have bit him. 

Once again, the governor turns to God in prayer after this crazy confrontation. “Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites” (v29). After each of his reforms here in chapter 13, Nehemiah prays to the One who laid it on his heart to come to Jerusalem in the first place (Neh 13:14, 22, 29, 31). One of the things that breaks his heart is the damage done to those men who should know better. The priests have completely trashed their privileged position. If you want more on this dumpster fire at the holy temple, flip over and read what God had to say through the prophet Malachi (Mal 2). It gets so bad that the LORD promises to give these sinful priests a fecal face wash (Mal 2:3). I’m telling you, you really need to read your Bible. There is some wild stuff in the pages of God’s Word.

Nehemiah demonstrates how a leader must take radical measures when faced with radical problems. Like a surgeon removing a cancer, a leader must sometimes cut out those causing the problem. You might think that Jesus would never kick anybody to the curb. Well, you might want to read what He has to say to His crew in Matthew 18:15-17. We’re to do everything we can to lovingly show them where they are wrong and restore them. But if they don’t, they must go. Paul talks about the need to protect the church from blatant sin (1Cor 5:6). The goal isn’t simply to kick somebody out. The ultimate goal is their ultimate restoration (Gal 6:1). But there are times when a leader must do surgery. There are times when they must cut out the cancer.