And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
Some how the thought of Nehemiah chasing someone because they were corrupting the Temple brings a smile to the face. The entire book of Nehemiah is about the need to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the Temple worship and the act of worship from the heart. As the book draws to a close these last chapters are about the leadership and the people coming together to worship God from the heart. The main theme of these chapters is that they did the work with thankfulness. The word, or a derivative, thanks appears almost ten times in these last chapters. The Holy Spirit is teaching us how this work was done, but also how the heart had changed from fear and bitterness to praise and thankfulness. However, at the end of the book we still see some of the “squatters” from the beginning of the book, (those who did not want the work to succeed), present. Sanballat was a man in the beginning of the book who opposed Nehemiah. Just as Nehemiah had grown an army of obedient leaders and people, so, too, had Sanballat fostered his own followers who would both halt the work and take advantage of the work for personal gain. From the beginning to the end Nehemiah was resisted. But, as the book draws to a close, we see Nehemiah so emboldened, that he chases the man out of the Temple/City. That is a bold and righteous man. That is how we are to be in regard to the work that God has given us to do:
The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
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