30 November 2024
A not so happily ever after
Alex Prentice
Everyone loves a happy ending.
The good guy (or gal) wins. The hard work pays off. The mission is a success.
Sure, it can feel cathartic when a fictional story ends with tragedy or a cliffhanger – think of Shakespeare or Titanic – but in real life, we all want to experience that happy ending.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in the final stretch of the women’s 20km walk, Jane Saville looked like a sure thing to take home gold for Australia. Saville had dominated the race and was easily in the lead as she approached the tunnel into the Olympic stadium. Her happy ending seemed certain.
But suddenly, the chief race judge stepped onto the track brandishing a red paddle. Saville had received two warnings already in the race for technical errors, and with this third warning she was disqualified—only 120m from the finish line.
The cheers of the 80,000-strong crowd inside the stadium faded to silence. They stared at the big screen in disbelief as Saville crumpled over and staggered off the track. Instead of enjoying her well-deserved happy ending, Saville’s mistake resulted in crushing disappointment and defeat.
We love a happy ending. But sometimes life doesn’t give us that.
"We love a happy ending. But sometimes life doesn’t give us that"
You might have started out strong in your walk with Jesus, passionate about proclaiming the gospel and living it out—but as the years roll by, your love turns lukewarm as the attractions of this world shine brighter.
You might have raised your children in the church, shared family devotionals, and prayed for their budding faith—but as your children become teenagers and adults, they start to drift away from Christ.
You might have experienced the hardship of a long battle with illness, undergoing diagnostic procedures and treatment protocols that offered hope for cure and recovery—but the prognosis from your most recent doctor’s appointment is guarded.
Often, we don’t get a happy ending.
The story of Ezra and Nehemiah doesn’t have a happy ending either.
Ezra and Nehemiah appear as two separate books about midway through the Old Testament. But these books are actually one story, and chronologically, this is the final part of the history of God’s people before the birth of Jesus (at least, as recorded in the Bible).
After centuries of unfaithfulness to God, in 586 BC Israel was destroyed and sent into exile in Babylon. However, less than 50 years later, Ezra and Nehemiah record the beginning of God’s great restoration plan. Ezra 1–2 raise our hopes for this story, as we see God gloriously fulfil his promises to bring a remnant of Israel back from captivity. He restores his people to the promised land in an act reminiscent of the exodus from Egypt, so that they could rebuild the temple and the city and live life in his presence.
Near the end of the story in Nehemiah 8–12 it seems we’ve reached the fulfilment of all our expectations from Ezra 1. The temple has been rebuilt. The walls of Jerusalem are restored. The remnant community has experienced spiritual revival as they devote themselves to God’s word and pledge to live as his faithful covenant people. Surely, the hard work is done. Now, it’s just a matter of getting across the finish line and enjoying that well-deserved happy ending.
But Nehemiah 13 is the red-paddle moment. As we enter the final stretch of the story of Ezra and Nehemiah, our hopes of a happy ending are obliterated.
"As we enter the final stretch of the story of Ezra and Nehemiah, our hopes of a happy ending are obliterated"
After faithfully leading the people as their governor for 12 years, Nehemiah went back to Babylon, presumably because he had to attend to his royal duties in the king’s court (Neh 13:6). Some time later, Nehemiah then returned to Jerusalem to see how the people had fared in his absence. And it’s not good.
Nehemiah finds the remnant community living in faithless rebellion against God and breaking every promise that they had made only a few years and chapters earlier (Neh 10). In that part of the story, the people had just experienced revival. They loved God with a new passion and so, like a couple on their wedding day, they joyfully vow to devote themselves to God. This is expressed in three practical commitments, as they promise to:
- avoid intermarrying with the surrounding nations (10:30);
- keep the Sabbath (10:31); and
- support the temple (10:32–39).
This wasn’t just a random list of rules, but a covenant agreement that constituted the very centre of the people’s relationship with God.
- Avoiding intermarriage was about following God faithfully, being drawn to him instead of attracted to the religious practices of the surrounding peoples;
- Keeping the Sabbath was about relying on God for everything, not trying to keep up economically with the other nations, but trusting that God would give his people everything they needed; and
- Supporting the temple was about prioritising worship of God, delighting in their relationship with him instead of being distracted by other things.
Living out these promises would set the remnant community apart as God’s people, defined by their devotion to God, their reliance on him, and their joyful worship of him.
But in Nehemiah 13, it becomes clear that the people have systematically failed to keep every one of these promises. Just like their unfaithful ancestors, the remnant community has been utterly unfaithful to God. But this isn’t just a minor technical error, like Jane Saville’s Olympic disqualification—this is a sustained, stubborn failure to follow God.
On Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem, he witnesses the full extent of the people’s failure and attempts to make things right (Neh 13:6–29). Nehemiah commands, rebukes, warns, and curses the people—he even beats some of the men and pulls out their hair (Neh 13:25)!
We might be shocked by Nehemiah’s words and actions—especially his violence—but this forceful behaviour is proportionate to the gravity of the situation. Nehemiah acts like a prophet, appointed by God to warn His people of the consequences of their ongoing sin. Just like their ancestors were judged for their persistent unfaithfulness, the remnant community has committed the same kinds of sins, so that they’re at risk of repeating the catastrophe of exile (Neh 13:18).
While Nehemiah’s reforms are intended to protect the community’s relationship with God, we get the sinking feeling that they won’t last long. God’s people are just too addicted to sin.
"we get the sinking feeling that they won’t last long. God’s people are just too addicted to sin"
As the story ends, even Nehemiah has lost hope. He sees the harsh truth: God had restored a remnant, rebuilding his temple and his city from rubble and ashes, and reviving his people from sin and despair. But the remnant community has again rebelled against their Lord and Saviour.
The story of Ezra and Nehemiah began with such glorious hope, but it ends with a whimper.
Nehemiah’s final, desperate words sum up the despair he feels:
“Remember me, my God, for good.” (Nehemiah 13:31)
Just like in a Marvel movie, the scene fades to black as we realise good has been overwhelmed by evil; the main character lies defeated and apparently dead; all hope is lost. The story of Ezra and Nehemiah builds up our hope and leads us to expect a glorious happy ending for God and his chosen people. But all we’re left with is disappointment.
That’s because, while the events of Ezra and Nehemiah depict a real restoration of God’s temple, city, and people, this wasn’t the end of the story. The remnant community had to wait a little longer for their happy ending.
During the exile, God’s messengers, the prophets, had looked forward to an in-breaking, transformative work of divine grace. About 150 years before the events of Nehemiah 13, the LORD promised through Ezekiel:
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:24, 26)
God’s people who first read and heard Ezra and Nehemiah would have been acutely disappointed at the story’s unhappy ending. However, their disappointment encouraged them to lift their eyes to the horizon and to long for a day when God himself would come to restore them.
"their disappointment encouraged them to lift their eyes to the horizon and to long for a day when God himself would come to restore them"
How does this unhappy ending impact us in our walk with Jesus? Like the Old Testament audience of Ezra and Nehemiah, we are also living in that uncomfortable space of ‘now and not yet.’ We’ve seen God’s salvation in history as well as in our own lives, revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God himself has come to save us, restore us, and give us new hearts.
But just like the first readers of Ezra and Nehemiah, we still experience doubt, disappointment, sin, and suffering. We’re well-acquainted with an unhappy ending.
So, we also need to lift our eyes to the horizon and look forward in hope to the real happy ending!
Alex Prentice
SMBC PhD student, assistant minister at St John's Glebe
