Nehemiah honors the Sabbath
In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. 16 Men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. 17 I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? 18 Didn’t your forefathers do the same things so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”
19 When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.
Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.
The violation of the Sabbath was especially shocking because it set aside one of the most basic commandments of God. How quickly the Jews were becoming just like their neighbors! Soon they would have blended invisibly into their heathen surroundings. Nehemiah again took strong action to restore the proper observance of the Sabbath. He reminded the people that violation of the Sabbath had been one of the basic causes of Jerusalem’s destruction, as the people had ignored God’s warnings through the prophet Jeremiah: “If you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses” (Jeremiah 17:27).
When admonition was not enough to do the job, Nehemiah used his police power as governor. He forcibly put an end to the merchandising on the Sabbath, especially that of the Phoenician traders from Tyre. Again Nehemiah prayed that the Lord would not forget his faithful efforts to reform the nation.