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This really is not about Neil exclusively but more so about his approach. Ezra and Nehemiah need each other.
Well, I wanted to talk about a topic that I've talked about before on this channel. It's a topic I think about a lot, so I think it's worth addressing again. Plus, I always have new subscribers, and so I want to make sure I address it for everybody.
And I thought about it afresh this morning when I saw this tweet from Neil Shenvey. I'm going to go ahead and like this real time, because I do like this tweet. And here's what it says. Persistently disdainful sneering, graceless criticism is both immoral and dangerous.
Immoral because it violates numerous biblical commands about our speech, Ephesians 4 .29, Colossians 4 .6, etc. Dangerous because it hardens people against legitimate criticisms that they need to hear.
Now this is an interesting tweet. Before I get into the point of this, I want to talk about two men from the Bible that I've been fascinated by over the last few years. I preached a sermon series when I was a pastor through the book of Ezra.
And through my studying of the book of Ezra, I learned a lot about Nehemiah as well. Because these two men were active, and they were used by the Lord. God commends them. God says that they're both motivated out of love.
God blesses both of their work. But they really could not be more different than they are. Ezra is sort of this very pious, sort of irenic teacher. You know, it says in the Bible that he seeks to study God's law, to know it.
He seeks to do it. That's very important. And then he seeks to teach others the law of God. And Nehemiah, I don't want to say he's not a teacher, and I don't want to say he's not studying the law of God, but what characterizes his activities, at least the way it's presented in the book, is he's a man of action.
He's a man of action. He's got zeal, but he's a man of action first and foremost. And that's something that I really appreciate about Ezra and Nehemiah, because they're very different, but they're both used by God to accomplish his purposes.
If you could compare Ezra to a scalpel, where you make very precise incisions, and you have a goal in mind, and that's how you do it, to accomplish your goal, he's kind of like a surgeon. Nehemiah, he's more like a construction worker.
I would compare him more to like a sledgehammer. He beats you over the head, and that's how he accomplishes his goals. Anyway, here's the reality. I think that we all should really, this is something that I think is important.
We should commit to not disdaining one or the other. If you're more of a Nehemiah, if you're more of a brute, more of a sledgehammer kind of thing, don't disdain those who are more precise, making those precision incisions.
Even if they're not completely on board with what you're promoting, because here's the thing with Neil Shenvey. I like Neil Shenvey. I've said this many times publicly and privately, all that kind of stuff.
I remember one time I said to somebody that I liked Neil Shenvey, and the response that I got was, who don't you like? Anyway, the point is that we have to commit to not disdaining one or the other. I see a lot of shade thrown my way and towards people like me that are a little bit more brutal with their critiques at times, who are a little bit more direct, who are a little bit more maybe, I don't want to say brash, but more willing to shock and awe you with their arguments, as opposed to this ironic sort of very measured kind of argumentation.
A lot of shade gets thrown towards people like me, my way, people like me, but vice versa too. Let's just be honest. A lot of shade gets thrown people who are willing to be a little bit more winsome. In fact, winsome is a word that I make fun of all the time, but I recognize though that winsomeness is not necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, I think God uses both. Here's the reality. I want to read from Ezra and Nehemiah. I want you to compare these two, and I want you to think about, in your mind, what sounds more Christian to you?
What sounds more godly, more zealous to you? Here's from the book of Ezra. Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month during the seventh year of the king, King Artaxerxes. Here's what it says about Ezra.
Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, to obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel. Obviously it says a lot more about Ezra, but this is what Ezra did. He prayed all the time, and he asked God to help him, but this is what characterized Ezra.
He studied the law, he sought to obey it, and then to teach it. That's Ezra in a nutshell. Here's an example from the life of Nehemiah. This is in the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes' reign, so a little bit later.
Presumably, Ezra had been teaching the people of God all about God's ordinances, all about his statutes and his law, and Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem, and he discovers that people are working on the Sabbath, profaning the Sabbath, people are intermarrying, people are neglecting the house of God, and stuff like this.
He sees people treading wine presses on the Sabbath, all this kind of stuff. Here's what it says he does. This is Nehemiah. He says this, what is this evil you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Didn't your ancestors do the same, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and in this city?
And now you are rekindling his anger against Israel by profaning the Sabbath. Here's what it says he does. When shadows began to fall on the city gates of Jerusalem just before the Sabbath, I gave orders that the city gates be closed and not open until after the Sabbath.
I posted some of my men at the gates so that no goods could enter the city during the Sabbath. Once or twice merchants and those who sell all kinds of goods camped outside of Jerusalem, but I warned them, why are you camping in front of the wall?
If you do it again, I will use force against you. After that, they did not come again on the Sabbath. Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves. It goes on. Listen to this part. This is the part I wanted to talk about.
He says, this is about the people that were intermarrying with pagans. He says, I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men and pulled out their hair and forced them to take an oath. This is a man of action.
So clearly Nehemiah knows the law as well. He knows that you can't profane the Sabbath. He knows that you can't intermarry with pagans, but he doesn't just teach the people this. Nehemiah is a little bit different than Ezra.
He doesn't just teach the people this. No, instead he starts taking action. He starts setting up postmen, soldiers, at the gates and he says, look, if anyone comes in here to sell on the Sabbath, try to tempt us into breaking the Sabbath, well, we're going to use force against you if you try it again.
Try it again and see what happens. That's what Nehemiah said. And I think what we have to do is we have to, and then the scene of course with him beating some of the guys that are intermarrying, right, pulling out their beards and stuff like that.
We got to put flesh and blood on this, guys. I have a problem when I read the Bible. It's too clean. You know what I mean? It's more like Star Trek. Everything's neat and clean. It needs to be more gritty like Star Wars.
What do you think this scene was like when Nehemiah posts some of his soldiers at the gates and he confronts these people that are trying to sell on the Sabbath? What do you think that was like? Do you think that that was very ironic?
I don't think so because he's threatening them with force. What do you think the scene was like when he gets the people, calls down curses on them, rebukes them for intermarrying with pagans, and then he pulls out some of their hair after beating them?
What do you think that scene was like? I think it was messy. I think Nehemiah probably got criticized. Well, Nehemiah, maybe you should have submitted that in writing first. Maybe you should have thought out of a well-reasoned syllogism.
And look, I'm not saying there's no place for reason. Of course there's a place for reason. But the reality is that we need to understand that God uses different people for different purposes. Neil is right here.
I mean, first of all, let's break this tweet up into two sections. First of all, the immoral part and the dangerous part. Yes, I mean, obviously, if you're sneering at people, naysaying, you have no grace, yeah, that's immoral.
We all agree with that. But what I'm more interested in here is the dangerous part, right? Because the dangerous part, harden people against legitimate criticism if you're too sneering, right? If you're too aggressive.
What's really being said here is you can't be too aggressive. And I challenge that, because if you look at how the prophets speak, you look at how Paul spoke, you look at how Christ himself spoke, there was aggression there when necessary.
I think that Neil understands this. That's why he puts the word persistently. And I agree with that. If you're if you're flamethrower all the time, even with like little grannies and stuff like that, yeah, obviously, you've got a problem, you can't be flamethrower all the time.
But if you're never flamethrower, I think likewise, you have a problem. But again, we need to we need to consider that people are used for different things. I think Neil's approach will work with a certain kind of person.
Neil's approach will work with a certain kind of person. But the reality is not every person is that kind of person. Sometimes people need to a little shock to their system. Sometimes people need to be rebuked directly confront confronted directly threatened sometimes.
I think I think about this all the time, because some people will jump all over me when I say stuff like, like this, effeminate men need to be taught how to be less effeminate. Otherwise, they need to be church disciplined.
Or when I say something like this, look, if you're pro abortion, you're a new vote for democrats consistently, and you don't care that they're gonna, they're gonna make abortion a fundamental human right.
And that's just something that's not even on your radar. You need to be taught how to vote and be a Christian in politics better. Or you need to be church discipline. And something like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's too aggressive.
That's too aggressive. And I'm saying, well, no, first of all, it's not too aggressive. It's 100 accurate. And second of all, some people need that shock to the system. If you're pro abortion, you cannot be in the Church of God.
You cannot be in the Church of God. Some people need that. Some people need to hear that like that. Some people respond to, you know, you know, very carefully constructed arguments. Well, you know, babies bear the image of God and, and just because you're in the womb doesn't erase the image of God.
And so therefore, we should discourage abortions and things like yeah, some people might respond to that. But not everybody responds to that. Oh my goodness gracious. Sorry about that. And so the point, the point here is that, that Neil Shenvey, I appreciate a lot of what he does.
I appreciate a lot of what Neil Shenvey does. But the reality is that Neil Shenvey and his approach isn't enough. It's not enough. Because if you look at how the Bible speaks, and you look at how the Bible teaches, and you look at the examples that we have in the Bible that we're supposed to be emulating, what you'll get is some examples like Neil Shenvey.
But you'll also get some examples that are a little bit more like I am, or other people are. And then, and that's, that's okay. That's okay. And again, I want to just make sure to provide a little balance here, because I'm not disagreeing with this tweet from Neil Shenvey.
In fact, I like this tweet. It's important. You have to consider, am I persistently disdainful, persistently sneering, always graceless, you think things like that. There's some quibbles I could have with the way he's worded some of this.
That's fine. I have no problem with that. But if you have no grace for people, that's a problem, obviously. But I don't want to allow this to characterize anyone who's a little bit more aggressive, because it's just simply not the case.
You see, Nehemiah, if we look at the book of Nehemiah, we see when he, when he threatens the people that are going to sell on the Sabbath. Here's what Nehemiah says. He says, remember me for this also, my God, and look on me with compassion, according to the abundance of your steadfast love.
Certainly in Nehemiah's perspective. And again, this is the word of God here. He thought that that was the right thing to do. Remember, this is after he beats those people. He says, remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood, as well as the covenant of my priesthood and the Levites.
And he says, remember me, oh God, with favor. Listen to this as well. This is right before he tells us about threatening the Sabbath sellers, beating the intermarriage. This is what he says. He says, remember me for this, my God, and don't erase the deeds of the faithful love.
Don't erase the deeds of faithful love. I have done for the house of my God and for its services. He says that he threatened these merchants because of his faithful love for God. He says that he beat people, threatened them, rebuked them, called curses down upon them, and pulled out their beards because of his faithful love.
And so when I say this, and I need you to understand this, when I sit here in front of this camera and I say things like, people that are pro-abortion can't belong to the church until they repent. They should be church disciplined.
They should be excommunicated. When I say things like, Jamar Tisby, because you lack forgiveness, I don't believe your profession of faith. I think you're an unbeliever. I think you need to examine yourself.
When I say things like effeminate men should be taught how to not be effeminate anymore, but if they refuse, they should be excommunicated. I do that because of love. And if you say, well, that's impossible.
How could you criticize someone out of love? I've heard this before. People have told me, you can't not be loving because we know love is patient, kind, all this stuff, and when you criticize someone, you're demonstrating that you're not patient.
You're not kind. Again, I say to you, yes, love is patient. Love is kind. Love is all of these things that we remember from the song, of course, right? We remember that stuff from the New Testament, but we need an explanation for Nehemiah where he talks about his threats, his rebukes, his beatings, pulling out beards, and he talks about that as a demonstration of the faithful love that he has for God.
We need to have a category for that. We do. And I don't deny that Neal Shenvey is doing what he does out of love. I don't deny that. But I want to defend those who don't, who aren't, you know, Ezra's like Neal.
I want to defend those. And this is self-serving because I consider myself in that category as well, but there are many others who get the same criticism. And I reject it. I reject it every time that just because someone sounds a little bit aggressive means that they don't demonstrate grace.
Just because someone asks direct questions and is willing to maybe throw the sledgehammer around a little bit when necessary does not mean they are not motivated by love. In fact, someone who refuses to throw the sledgehammer around when necessary, who never, ever demonstrates any of that kind of zeal, I think should examine their heart.
I think should examine their heart. And so, again, I've said it before. I'll say it again. We need Ezra's and we need Nehemiah's. We need Ezra's and we need Nehemiah's. Anyway, I hope this is helpful.
God bless. By the way, this doesn't mean that I agree with everything Neal Shenvey says or does. I think Neal is very helpful in some ways. I think he's very unhelpful in other ways. There's just no question about it.
I don't agree with everything Neal says. I think he's very sympathetic to some of the social justice woke nonsense. I think he's got a lot of sympathy where he should not. But in the areas that he criticizes the critical theory and all this kind of stuff, I think he does it very well at times.
I think he's a gateway drug to people like me. Let's just be honest. You like Neal. Well, you're going to love me. Anyway, Neal, I love you. That's all there is to it. And anyway, God bless.
