Nehemiah 13:15-31
In spite of the commitment which the people had made (Nehemiah 10:31), the sabbath rest was no longer respected. Nehemiah takes the most energetic means to remedy this situation.
Ought not we, dear children of God, to attach at least as much importance to the Lord’s day as Israel to their Sabbath? To be sure we are no longer under the law. But it is sad that Sunday can be considered by some Christians just like an ordinary day of rest and leisure, or used for homework which could have been finished the day before!
When we read of these gates, which needed to be shut during the night for protection against the dangers of the outside world, we are reminded once more, by contrast, of the holy city of which it is said: "And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there . . . And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie" (Revelation 21:25; Revelation 21:27).
The curtain of history falls, for the time being, on Israel. It will only be raised four centuries later (four hundred and forty years to be exact) upon their Deliverer and Messiah on the first page of the New Testament.