When The Cat’s Away The Mice Will Play

Nehemiah 13:1–22
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

Have you ever heard it said,  “When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” If you like stories with happy endings you probably will not like Chapter 13 of Nehemiah. You will probably feel that the prophet should have quit with the great celebration, recorded in Chapter 12. This closing chapter is the story of a backward movement on the part of these people while Nehemiah was gone. Some may be disturbed by this apparent case of racial discrimination on the part of Israel. Why should the Ammonites and Moabites be excluded from their assembly? Many Ammonites and Moabites are found in the congregation of Israel. They got there because Israelite men married the daughters of the people, something which God had strictly forbidden in the Law of Moses.

The Ammonites and Moabites were forbidden to come into the assembly of God because they had refused to give food and water to Israel and had hired Balaam to call down a curse on them (vv. 1-3). Following the reading of the Law of Moses, the people of Israel started sending away anyone who had any foreign ancestors. Nehemiah tells how Eliashib the priest, who was  related [by marriage] to Tobiah, let him live in one of these rooms of the Temple storehouse (vv. 4-6). When Nehemiah returned and found out about this he became very angry and threw Tobiah and all of his furniture out. He then ordered the room to be cleaned and the temple utensils, the grain offerings, and the incense to be brought back into the room (vv. 7-9). He then called the leaders together and told them to start bringing the tenth of their wine, grain, olive oil etc. back into the store room (vv. 10-14). The people were also working and selling on the Sabbath. He put a stop to that and commanded the Levites to come and guard the gates to keep the Sabbath day holy (vv. 15-22).

Application

The story reveals clearly the way evil works. It invades us quietly. Before we are aware of it we have compromised ourselves and gone along with standards widely accepted around us. Lord help me to not compromise my witness for you and allow evil to take root in any shape or form in my life.