Nehemiah 13:1-3 – Being God’s consecrate people

On that day when the Jews dedicated the wall of Jerusalem, they also had the Book of Moses read. They then were made aware that God had disallowed the Ammonites and Moabites from being part of their assembly with Him. The enmity Israel had with the Ammonites and Moabites went back into their history. Ammon and Moab as we know were the incestuous children of Lots, who was the nephew of Abraham. They were born to Lots by his two daughters, who got him drunk and then had him sleep with each of them by turn over two nights. Each of them became pregnant by him and bore Ammon and Moab.

When Israel was on their wandering journey during the time of Moses, they sought the descendants of Ammon and Moab for bread and water for their sustenance.  Though they were distantly related to the Israelites, they flatly refused to help. Besides, at one time, the Moabites even engaged a prophet by the name of Balaam to pronounce a curse on the Israelites. But God made the prophet speak blessings instead of curses. Balaam, however, was able to teach Balak, the Moabite king, how to get the Israelites to fall out of favor with God. Read Numbers 22-25 for more details.

Having heard and became aware that God had banned the Ammonites and Moabites from their assembly, the Jews then sought to obey and separate from these people. They put all of them out of their assembly.   The Israelites were expected to be separated and consecrated to the Lord. Over the course of time, they had allowed themselves to be influenced by foreigners. On reading the law, they again realized that they were called to be a people holy unto the LORD. However, we need to know that the reason was not so much about ethnicity as it was about spirituality. God did not want them to be contaminated with wrong worship. This can be seen in the example of Ruth. Though she was a Moabitess, when she wholeheartedly accepted and acknowledged Jehovah, she was even given the privilege to become an ancestor of Jesus our Lord.

God still wants us to be wholly consecrated unto Him. These verses bring us back to Romans 12:2 where we are told not to be conformed to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God still wants us to live according to His acceptable and perfect will.

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