When Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem after a few years away (chapter 13), there's a lot of dodgy stuff going on. As well as the fact that his enemy Tobiah is now living in the temple, the people have gone back on the 3 main things they publicly promised to do in chapter 10. They had stopped giving money to support the priests, the had started trading on the Sabbath and had married foreign women. Their intentions had been good when they signed the document, but they failed and it needed Nehemiah to come and knock a few heads together (literally).
No matter how good my intentions are and how hard I try, I will always fail in some area. And having Nehemiah come and beat me up and pull my hair out still wouldn't make me able to live up to God's standards or even the standards that I set myself. Thankfully, Jesus has already dealt with that and my relationship with God is not dependant on what I do.
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