“Didn’t your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city?” (Nehemiah 13:18a).

Sanballat and Tobiah. Do those names ring a bell? (It would be totally understandable if they didn’t!)

These two showed up in Nehemiah 2 “…very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.” Shortly after that, they came to the work site to mock and ridicule.

Maya Angelou pointedly said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Early on Sanballat and Tobiah had shown Nehemiah and Co. who they were.

Nehemiah had believed them the first time. He gathered further evidence of their character later when they conspired to intimidate him (Nehemiah 6).

When we meet them again in Nehemiah 13, it is obvious not all had believed them the first time; if indeed that had been the first time. 

It turns out Eliashib, the priest in charge of the storerooms of the house of God, had been closely associated with Tobiah.  Furthermore, Eliashib had a grandson whose father-in-law was none other than Sanballat.

Tensions mount when Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem from Babylon only to find Eliashib had emptied a Temple storeroom so Tobiah could stay there.

Keeping Sanballat and Tobiah and their shenanigans in mind, let’s now visit Shelemiah, Zadok, Pedaiah and Hanon. These were men Nehemiah then chose to oversee the Temple storerooms and the distribution of supplies. They were chosen because “…these men were considered trustworthy.”  

The book of Nehemiah reminds us that character matters. 

We would all say “Amen” to that; however, we must acknowledge we humans are sometimes swayed by those we are related to or identify with in some way.  Sometimes we would rather take the accepted-though-misguided way than the right way if that buys us favor with others. Sometimes we find ourselves being manipulated without realizing that is happening.

If we are swayed by bad character; however, we can find ourselves facing the same question Nehemiah poses at the end of his book. Confronting the bad character demonstrated by Sanballat, Tobiah and Eliashib, as well as the people breaking Sabbath and marriage laws, he asks, “Didn’t your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city?” (Neh.13:18).

Lord, we know that character matters to You. May it matter just as much to us. Open our eyes to any ways we have chosen to side with the wrong rather than to side with You.