Serious Agent of Radical Change

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I purified them from everything foreign and appointed duties for the priests and the Levites, each in his task, and I arranged for the supply of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. (Nehemiah 13:29-31)

Nehemiah executed the eviction of the man named Tobiah without notice. Other actions concerning mixed marriages and Sabbath observance got his attention and he attended to the situations. To rebuild a wall without rebuilding lives was fruitless in the mind of the man of God. Nehemiah courageously saw the wrong and began to make it right. The man of God today can take a lesson here. Some things don't need committee action. Some things and some people are out of place. When that happens, something has to be evicted. But the empty place cannot remain vacant. Nehemiah restores the right things to the Levites. The commitments that God's people made were put to the test with a man who was determined to do what he said. Nehemiah may have encountered resistance to the exclusion of foreigners from the community experience. He may have been opposed by running off someone who was shown favoritism because of family relations. He may have been inclined to shrink back from enforcing the observance of the Sabbath with the merchants. But in his statement of being willing to use force, he was not intimidated by the economical price that obedience often brings. It is costly. People's lives and livelihood are disrupted. God always shakes us up before He irons us out. The marriage of foreigners had corrupted even the language of God's people. It was serious enough that Nehemiah was physically able to carry out spiritual admonitions. The last phrase for God to remember him for good should be our prayer when restoration is called for. We need God to help us because restoration of God's people is often dangerous and difficult. It takes people who care primarily about God's name and reputation to be effective agents of change.