After the walls had been built and there had been some improvement with Israel’s spirituality, Nehemiah noticed something very strange: “And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people” (Neh. 13:24).
The people of Israel had married themselves to foreign peoples such as Ashdod, Ammonites, and Moabites. The Israelites were not to marry or mix with heathen people. But that wasn’t the only problem. Nehemiah noticed a change in the language.
Nehemiah observed the language change in the speech of the children. What caught Nehemiah’s attention was that the children were not able to speak the language of Judah. They couldn’t speak the Hebrew language, instead they spoke the languages of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. The people of Ashdod were a mongrel people. The Ammonites and Moabites worshiped Molech and Chemosh who worshiped their respective gods by sacrificing their children in fire. Ammon and Moab were the incestuous offspring of Lot and his daughters.
There is more than just nationalistic pride at stake with Nehemiah and Israel. What’s at stake is the Scripture. Holy Scripture is in the language of Judah, which was written in Hebrew. They needed to speak the Hebrew language in order to read and obey the Scripture. If the children couldn’t speak Hebrew, then they certainly wouldn’t be able to read and understand the Law and Prophets. Likewise, the Israelites were to be separate. But the compromise of their separation was identified by their speech. What they spoke was an indicator of their lack of separation.
The Israelite’s identity was vanishing and the main indicator was the type of language the children were speaking. Young people, you do not need to speak the language of the world. We have too many Christian students who can speak the language of Xbox, Fortnite, Snapchat, Instagram, and the gods of entertainment. However, they can’t speak the language of Scripture. Doctrine has been left to adults and preachers.
Beloved, let us keep speaking and transmitting the language of Pentecost and the Apostolic doctrine. We should teach our children the Scriptures. We should be consistently sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. The church cannot afford to be satisfied with our “four and no more.” The Apostolic church is a movement, not a memorial. Our churches are not to be a museum of what used to be, rather it should be a shining example and extension of what began on the day of Pentecost. The tombstones of some Christian denominations should be a grave reminder that compromise and forgetfulness are deadly. The Apostolic church has a responsibility to stay on the old paths, but those old paths need new feet.