Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers, and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat-offering and the frankincense. Nehemiah 13:9
Nehemiah was appalled at the condition of the temple when he arrived in Jerusalem. The high priest’s unwise friendship with Tobiah had actually resulted in Tobiah taking up housekeeping in the temple. He had a posh apartment set up in the area of the temple that was for assembling and storing all of the offerings that were to be brought by the people. As a result, the people did not bring any offerings to the Lord, and the priests and Levites, who depended on those offerings for a living, had to go find some other means of earning a living. This rendered the temple virtually useless as a house of God. That suited Tobiah just fine; he was an enemy of God and was completely devoted to the destruction of the Jewish people and their religion. Nehemiah put an end to that mess. He threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out into the street and had the temple swept and scrubbed. Then, as our text relates, he had the priests perform cleansing rituals to purge the place of contamination, and made it fit for the holy vessels. Then was the worship of God restored, just as it can be restored among us today.
It is interesting that the restoration of the temple in our text refers to the meat-offering and the frankincense. Among all of the offerings that are listed in the book of Leviticus, the meat-offering is the one that speaks of the sinless, perfect life of the Lord Jesus, and the frankincense speaks of the fragrance of that perfect life. This offering was missing when Tobiah lived in the temple. This reminds us of the many cults and religious organizations today who do not have any appreciation of the person and holy character of the Lord Jesus. Many of these deny His deity, reject His virgin birth, dismiss His miracles and power, and place him on the same level as any of the other preachers and teachers of His day. They are like the stuff of Tobiah that blocked the worship of God in His temple.
The temple does not exist today. But there is a house of God, which we find identified in 1 Timothy 3:15 – the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Assemblies that meet according to the pattern found in the New Testament, gathered in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, are the house of God. And it is incumbent on us to make sure that the enemies of God do not gain entrance to that holy place. When there is no room or time in God’s Assembly for the saints to bring their praise and worship offerings to the Lord, there needs to be a housecleaning. Anything that interferes with the Lord Jesus receiving all of the honour to which He is due needs to be purged. And when it is, the Lord Jesus will be appreciated as He should be.
Check to see what needs to be cleansed from our Assemblies in order to restore worship to its proper levels. -Jim MacIntosh