"Remember Me, O My God" -- Nehemiah 13:1-9

The Twenty-First (and Final) in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Nehemiah served as governor of Judah for twelve difficult years.  Under his very capable leadership, the insults, plotting, and threats made by the Peoples of the Land (led by Sanballat, his lackey Tobiah, and Geshem) against the newly returned exiles had been thwarted.  Jerusalem’s walls and gates have been rebuilt in a mere 52 days.  Upon the public reading of the Book of Law and with preaching and exhortations from the books of Moses, a reformation broke out in Israel.  The people conformed their feasts (i.e., the Feast of Tabernacles) to biblical mandates.  They renewed their covenant with YHWH, and according to the testimony of Nehemiah 10:30-39, they swore on oath to separate themselves from the peoples of the land, to stop giving and taking pagan wives, to conduct no business on the Sabbath, and to support the temple and its sacrifices with their tithes.  As we saw last time (in chapters 11-12), the people dedicated Jerusalem’s walls and gates to YHWH in a joyful and emotion filled ceremony, which was so loud, the celebration was heard for miles away.  If the author wanted to go out on a high note, this is where the Book of Nehemiah should end.  But it doesn’t.

His work completed (or so he thinks), Nehemiah is recalled by the Persian king Artaxerxes and leaves Jerusalem behind for the Persian winter capital of Susa, only to return to Jerusalem “after some time.”  What does Nehemiah find in Jerusalem upon his return?  A people keeping all the promises they made to YHWH when Nehemiah had last been among them?  Does he find a people zealous to keep separate from pagan Gentiles?  Does he find a people working hard not to neglect the house of their God (the temple) as they promised in Nehemiah 10:39?  If we thought the great celebration in Nehemiah 12, was the conclusion to this wonderful story, we are sadly mistaken.

What Nehemiah finds upon his return to Jerusalem is a city and a people living very much as they did before God’s judgment came upon them in 587 B.C. when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar sacked and destroyed Jerusalem as an act of God’s judgment upon Israel because of their sustained idolatry and worship of false gods.  Nehemiah is angered by what he finds.  The Book which bears his name ends not with the celebration of the dedication of the city (chapter 12:43), but with an epilog in which Nehemiah exercises his righteous anger against those in Israel who have not kept the faith, nor their promises to YHWH.  In this we final chapter see the great lesson of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are intended to teach us–the Old Covenant, that national covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai through the mediation with Moses, cannot truly deal with human sin or the sinful human heart.  After spending much time studying these two books, one thing should be patently clear–Israel needs a sinless Messiah who can deal with human sin once and for all.  Until such a Messiah comes, short term “reformations” are the best the people can hope for or expect.  A new and better covenant must replace the old.

As we turn to our text (the closing verses of chapter 12 and the entirety of chapter 13) we pick up where the joyful celebration ends, with the planning and preparation necessary so that the people of Israel might continue to worship YHWH as brought about by and necessary to the renewed covenant.  We read in Nehemiah 12:44, that “on that day” i.e., the day (or shortly thereafter) the people of Israel rededicated the city and its walls to YHWH, “men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.”  Nehemiah wasted no time in ensuring that those things necessary (humanly speaking) for this reformation to continue be put into place. The people of Judah are said to rejoice at these arrangements.

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"For God Made Them Rejoice" -- Nehemiah 12:27-43

The Twentieth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

What comes next for Jerusalem and for the people of Israel after the Reformation which broke out in Israel in the days of Ezra-Nehemiah?  Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 587 B.C. by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer.  Most of the city’s inhabitants were taken captive and exiled to Babylon, until 537 when Cyrus, a Persian who captured Babylon, issued his famous decree for the Jews to be allowed to return home to Jerusalem.  Although the foundation of the temple was laid in 536, the temple was not completed until 516.  In 445 B.C. Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem to inspect the city’s walls which lay in ruins.  Leading the now-returned exiles in a massive rebuilding effort, the walls and gates of the city were rebuilt in the span of 52 days–a remarkable accomplishment.  But the city itself–that portion of Jerusalem lying within the gates–still lay largely in ruins with very few people dwelling amidst the rubble.  If Jerusalem is to function as Israel’s capital and fulfill its role in redemptive history, then the city must inhabited once again.  The future of Israel is inescapably tied to the fate of its capital.

As we work our way though the entirety of chapters 11-12 of Nehemiah, we come to a number of lengthy lists of family names, tribal boundaries, as well as a list of priests and Levites.  These lists serve to tie the people living in and around Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah to the great promises YHWH  made to his people in the days of Abraham, Moses, and David.  Everyone knew that YHWH had promised to make this people into a great nation dwelling in the land of promise–but how will YHWH accomplish this when the Jews are in such poor shape both as a people and a nation?  Their capital city is in ruins and uninhabited.  The people are vassals of a Persian king.  What happens next?  What does the future of Israel hold?

The eleventh and twelfth chapters of Nehemiah are the author’s account of what happened in the days after Jerusalem’s walls and gates had been rebuilt, and after the people had rededicated themselves to YHWH by renewing their covenant with him (chapters 8-10).  How was the city–which had been left desolate and largely in ruins–to be repopulated now that sufficient infrastructure was in place for the city to function as habitable space?  How does a ruined city like Jerusalem ever recover?

Before we answer that question, there are a number of chronological and historical issues to be found in these chapters, but any discussion of them fall well beyond the scope of our time.  But let me say by way of summary that the supposed problems raised by critical scholars have all been capably addressed, and there are good and plausible answers for all the supposed contradictions they find in these lists.  Those which do arise are those found by people combing the Bible only for any hint of error, while there are good and reasonable explanations which critical scholars conveniently ignore or otherwise overlook because the facts do not fit their theories–an attitude which is all too typical.

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"Observe and Obey" -- Nehemiah 10:28-39

The Nineteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

When the people of God’s chosen nation gather together to pray and repent of their sins (as Israel does in Nehemiah 9), what happens next?  Their prayer, which amounts to recounting back to YHWH all of the gracious things he has done for his people, is also a stark reminder of Israel’s perpetual sin and hard-heartedness.  As the people confess their sins and repent of them, the fruit of this repentance is the desire of the people to renew their covenant with YHWH.  YHWH has been faithful to his covenant promises, while the people of Israel have not.  The tangible sign of the people’s confession of sin and their desire to repent can be seen in Nehemiah 10, as Nehemiah recounts the covenant renewal ceremony which took place in Jerusalem, shortly after the people had completed rebuilding the city’s walls and gates, setting the stage for the course of redemptive history to follow–what we commonly speak of as Second Temple Judaism.

The covenant renewal ceremony which unfolds in chapter 10 actually begins in Nehemiah 9:38, where we read, “because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.”  The “this” to which Nehemiah refers is the prayer and confession of sin found in chapter 9:5b-37.  The law was read three times (including large sections of the Five Books of Moses with exposition and explanation so that the people are said to understand) and was followed by a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles according to the mandate in Scripture (Ex. 34:22 and Lev. 23:42-43).  After the feast had ended, the assembled people of Israel remained in Jerusalem and were led by the Levites pray to YHWH, recounting his many mighty and miraculous acts in calling and preserving his people Israel (despite their sin).  Aware of their repeated disobedience, the people confess their sins (both personal and national).  The celebration of the feast, the reading of the law, and the confession of sin are clearly the fruit of God’s Spirit working through the word, bringing about a genuine reformation in Israel.  All of this leads the people to seek to renew their covenant (originally made with YHWH at Mount Sinai), which is recounted in verse 38 of chapter 9 and throughout chapter 10.

When Nehemiah speaks of a “firm covenant,” he uses a unique word (ʾămānâ – “agreement”).  But the verb kārat used here appears many times throughout the Old Testament in reference to “making” or “cutting” a covenant (bĕrît), with YHWH.  Nehemiah is using similar language to that in the previous chapter (9:7–8) when the prayer of the people recounted Abraham’s faithfulness to YHWH using the same Hebrew root ʾāmān in relation to God’s covenant with Abraham.  As Abraham believed God’s promise, so too, the post-exilic covenant community of Israel must be faithful to YHWH–manifest in what follows in the renewal of Sinai covenant.

Nehemiah indicates that are three different classes of signatories on the sealed document in the list of names which follows; princes (the civil authorities appointed or approved by Israel’s Persian suzerains), priests, and Levities, whose names appear in verses 2-13 of Nehemiah 10, and then a number of heads of households are mentioned in verses 14-27.

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"They Made Confession and Worshiped the Lord" -- Nehemiah 9

The Eighteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

In Nehemiah chapters 8-10 we read of a dramatic covenant renewal ceremony which took place in Jerusalem, shortly after the people of Israel had completed the arduous task of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and gates.  In chapter 8:4-9, Nehemiah recounts the reading of Book of the Law to the people of Israel by Ezra, as well as a second reading of the law which followed shortly after (Nehemiah 8:12).  After the law was read again the people of Israel celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with renewed faith and zeal, this time as prescribed in the word of God, complete with the building of shelters and tents recounting Israel’s time of sojourn in the wilderness exactly as prescribed in God’s word.  A reformation was occurring within Israel–brought about by the Holy Spirit through the sustained reading and studying of God’s word.

According to Nehemiah 8:9, when the law was read the people of Israel who assembled outside the Water Gate were overcome with emotion and wept–this was certainly understandable.  This was after all a remarkable day in Israel’s history because the people present were former exiles who returned to the land after their forbears came under God’s covenant curse because of their prolonged disobedience.  On this day, they were celebrating the fact that Jerusalem’s walls were finally rebuilt and the city could now return to its former glory.  Add to this the fact that the demands of the law expose the depths of our sin and reminds us how deeply sin resides within each of us.  There were good reasons to weep.  

But this was not to be a day of weeping.  With the support of the Levites, Nehemiah exhorted the people to rejoice, because on this day God’s law was read and the people understood it as it was expounded and explained to them.  The people heard the account of YHWH’s mighty acts of redemption in creating the nation of Israel as his own covenant people, and as a consequence, the people’s sorrow now turned to joy.  This joy, in turn, became the basis for a renewed celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.  And it is the conclusion of the feast which sets the stage for the scene described in Nehemiah chapter 9.  This fits Nehemiah’s larger purpose in recounting that the reading of Scripture leads to true joy and creates a renewed strength in the Lord, as well as leading to the recovery of biblical practice.  This sets the stage for the covenant renewal ceremony recounted in chapter 10.  Before the covenant renewal ceremony takes place, the people of Israel become overwhelmed with the guilt of their collective sin, which they confess before YHWH–the theme of Nehemiah 9.

As we turn to our text, the entire 9th chapter of Nehemiah (so you will need to have your Bibles handy), the law will be read for the third time (9:3), and is then followed by a lengthy prayer of confession–which runs from the last part of verse 5 through to the end of verse 37.  The prayer and recounting of YHWH’s mighty acts in redeeming his people sets the stage for the renewal of Israel’s covenant with YHWH as recounted in the next chapter.

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"The Book of the Law" -- Nehemiah 7:1-8:13

The Seventeenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

If you know the history of Israel, you know that there are great turning points in redemptive history which determine the subsequent course of events for the people of God.  We find one of these turning points in our passage, when the people of Israel assemble for a covenant renewal ceremony outside one of Jerusalem’s gates just rebuilt by the Israelites, despite the sustained efforts of their enemies to stop the rebuilding process.  The covenant renewal ceremony brought about a revival within Israel and led to a desire on the part of the people to return to those biblical practices revealed to them by God in his word.  From this point forward, the Jews will be characterized as the “people of the Book.”

As we continue our series on Ezra and Nehemiah, we will consider, briefly, the opening section of Nehemiah 7, before moving on to spend the balance of our time in Nehemiah 8.  One thing is now obvious–the repeated attempts by Sanballat, Tobias, and Geshem to stop the Jews from rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, gates, and fortifications, have failed.  As we learned from our time in Nehemiah 6,  thanks to the capable leadership of Nehemiah, in just 52 days the Jews managed to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and gates, much to the chagrin of the enemies of Israel, who, out of disdain, stooped so low as to make death threats and threaten blackmail when their previous efforts had failed.

If the rebuilding of the city’s walls was the theme of the previous chapters of Nehemiah, and if the first generation of returning exiles rebuilding the Jerusalem temple had been key to the Book of Ezra, one very important element of Israel’s religion has remained somewhat in the background until now–the central role the law of God played in the life of Israel.  Now that the temple has been rebuilt, sacrifices resumed, priests and levites are once again performing their duties in that temple, and the city of Jerusalem finally has been made safe, the law of God now moves to the front and center of Nehemiah’s account. The focus of Nehemiah 8-10 shifts away from rebuilding walls to the renewal of that covenant which God made with Israel at Mount Sinai.  Once the city’s walls have been rebuilt it is time to seek YHWH’s blessing and favor, and this entails renewing Israel’s covenant with YHWH.

The opening verses of chapter 7 make several important points and set the stage for what follows, so we will consider them briefly before moving on to discuss chapter 8.  With the Sanballat saga seemingly at an end with the completion of the city’s walls, Nehemiah recounts his subsequent actions in verses 1-2 of chapter 7.  “Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.”  If rebuilt walls and gates were necessary for the safety of the people and for the city of Jerusalem to become a habitable place, Nehemiah reminds us that while this all may be well and good, the people of Israel must not forget the reason why Jerusalem is so important–it is in this city that God’s temple stands, and it is in the midst of this city where YHWH’s people are to worship him according to his word.  This is why in addition to those gate-keepers who stood guard and opened and closed the city’s gates (no small task), Nehemiah appoints singers and Levites to serve in the temple.  The one necessitates the other.

Once again, Nehemiah mentions his brother Hanani, who was the one who first brought Nehemiah the difficult news about the sad state of Jerusalem, news which set the events recounted in the Book of Nehemiah into action (as recounted in the opening chapter).  Nehemiah trusted his brother, as well as a man named Hanahiah, and so he placed them in important positions in the city’s administration.  The “castle” refers to the Tower of Hananel which stood adjacent to the temple mount–a defensive fortification and watch-tower.  These men were placed in charge so as to ensure that the city was properly defended, and its rebuilt gates function so as to bring order to daily life.

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"With the Help of Our God" -- Nehemiah 6:1-19

The Sixteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

If you cannot thwart your enemy’s efforts by mockery or by threats of invasion, you hope that internal strife will do him in.  If that does not work, then you can kill him–or at least you can threaten to kill him so that your enemy becomes so intimidated by the threat, he simply gives up and those under his leadership become lost sheep without a shepherd.  If threats like this do not work, you can take the less radical but equally desperate step of inventing falsehoods and then threatening to reveal these falsehood publicly.  You might even trick your enemy into doing something foolish which might even cost him his own life, if not his reputation.  The Book of Nehemiah has been full of twists and turns already, but things ratchet up greatly when death threats and blackmail become part of our story.

We are continuing our study of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and as we saw last time, the people of Israel faced a serious dilemma.  The walls of their city are in ruins.  They live under constant threat of invasion–a real and pressing danger.  No one is safe and everyone lives in constant fear of attack.  Under the capable leadership of Nehemiah, the entire population in and around Jerusalem, devoted themselves to the massive effort of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, gates, and fortifications so that the city is once again secure and the people safe from attack.  While everyone in the Jerusalem area benefits from this rebuilding effort, the price was very high.  The work which was required to rebuild the walls, took people away from their daily tasks of providing food and shelter and the necessities of life.  The longer this daily work was neglected, the greater was the crisis facing the people.
 
As we saw last time, Nehemiah chapter 5 recounts a troubling incident during the rebuilding process in which the people of Israel cried out to God because of growing and serious hardships.  The daily work required to provide food, water, clothing, and shelter was not being done because the men were working hard to rebuild the walls.  But they were not paid for this work, nor taking care of crops and fields.  Shortages were growing severe and many of the people began doing desperate things in order to survive.  Some were taking out loans on their small plots of land to secure enough money to buy the necessities of life.  Some were forced to become indentured-servants, or even worse, forced to deliver their children into service as laborers (in the case of girls, as concubines).  Just as they had done in their time in Egypt, when they labored under the cruel hand of the Pharaoh, the people of Israel cried out to YHWH for deliverance.  He heard their cries in Egypt.  He hears them in Jerusalem a thousand years later.

It was not just the shortages, but cruel injustice inflicted upon the poor and needy which lay at the heart of the crisis.   Those making loans to desperate people and forcing them into debt-slavery were their fellow Jews.  Some (like Nehemiah) made loans to struggling people with the intention of helping them endure the present crisis.  But such help wasn’t really help.  Once someone took out a debt they could not possibly repay, they would lose everything.  Jewish law required that all debts be repaid, forcing those borrowers who defaulted to become debt-slaves who then lost everything.  

This was a time of national emergency and it was out of desperation that people mortgaged their property, an especially difficult circumstance since the reason people could not repay their loans was because they were off working on the walls, labor for which they were not reimbursed.  But some of the wealthy among them loaned money, knowing in advance that the borrower could not repay the loans, and did so as a way to acquire the person’s property when they inevitably defaulted.  Some even stooped so low as to indenture those who defaulted, and were in turn selling these indentured servants to fellow Jews or even Gentiles.

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"In the Fear of Our God" -- Nehemiah 5:1-13

The Fifteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Fear and threat of disaster seem to bring out the best or the worst in people.  In Nehemiah 4 we read the remarkable account of the people of Israel coming together as one in their collective effort to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem.  With a Herculean effort–brought about, in part, by the decisive and capable leadership of Nehemiah–the Jews managed to complete the walls, gates, and fortifications surrounding the entire city.  The walls were but half of their eventual height and strength, but the work was done quickly in the face of threat of attack by the chief antagonist of the Book of Nehemiah, a man named Sanballat.  Sanballat was a Samaritan and the former governor of Judea.  If Sanballat’s threats did not succeed in keeping the Jews from rebuilding their walls, the human toll exacted by the nearly two months of difficult labor in rebuilding the walls leads to the scenario described in chapter 5; the revelation of terrible injustice wrought on the people of Israel by their own brothers, as well as serious shortages of the necessities of life.  Out of this very real distress arises a crisis in which the people of God cry out to YHWH and their leaders for relief, a cry which reveals deep troubles within the community of Israel.  If chapter 4 is about Israel’s defiant response to an external threat, then chapter 5 is about an even greater threat–the rise of internal dissent within the ranks of Israel.

We are returning to our series on Ezra-Nehemiah after a break of several weeks.  Recall from our time in chapter 4, Sanballat heard about the rapid progress the Jews were making in rebuilding their walls and defenses, and tried to stop the Jews through ridicule (which did not work), and then through the threat of attack upon Jerusalem by his own small forces.  Sanballat could not attack Jerusalem without the permission of the Persian king Artaxerses, who instead commissioned his own cup-bearer, Nehemiah, to do the job of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and gates–not only vital to the city’s defense, but also a major part of the city’s infrastructure.  Sanballat used a clever ruse, threatening to invade Jerusalem, hoping that panic would come over the people so that the work of rebuilding would stop, and the Jews would flee the city, leaving Jerusalem in ruins.  

It was through Nehemiah’s strong and decisive action that the Jews did not panic and instead prepared for war.  Nehemiah had the men work with their construction tools in one hand, and their weapons in the other.  He stationed reserve troops to respond quickly to any point of attack. He positioned weapons strategically around the city so that at the first word of attack, the wall-builders could immediately become soldiers.  While preparing the people for battle, at the same time, Nehemiah reminded the former exiles that success in battle was assured because YHWH always remembers his covenant promises and fights for his people.  Nehemiah’s message to Israel is that you prepare yourselves for battle, but you must trust YHWH to bring about a victorious outcome.

The fact that YHWH fights on behalf of his people directs us to one of the great subplots running throughout all the Bible–Christ (at this point in redemptive history, the promised Messiah) against the Antichrist, those human agents of Satan who seek to thwart God’s purposes, thereby delaying or preventing the coming of the Messiah.  Satan attempts this disruption by using two preferred tactics: external force, and/or internal strife or deception.  We see the first method used by Satan come into play with the threats made by Sanballat aimed toward stopping the rebuilding of the city’s walls and infrastructure.  Sanballat is doing this for purely personal reasons.  He’s mad that Nehemiah has replaced him as governor, and as a Samaritan, he believes the Jews are apostates, and the true temple of God is on Mount Gerazim (in Samaria), not Mount Zion.  So even though he has his own personal reasons to oppose the rebuilding of Jerusalem, his actions (along with Tobias, his lackey, and Geshem [i.e., Chunky]) ultimately serve the purposes of Antichrist.  If the Israelites flee, the walls of Jerusalem are not rebuilt, the city will remain in ruins, and more importantly, the sacrifices and offerings made by the priests in the temple will cease, or be seriously compromised.  This is Satan’s ultimate purpose.

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"Remember the Lord" -- Nehemiah 4:1-14

The Fourteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Nehemiah 3 is a “nothing but the facts” kind of chapter which reflects a genuine kumbaya moment in Israel’s history.  Virtually the entire population of Jerusalem joined together to repair the city’s walls.  But that sense of peace and unity was about to be put to the test when the city is suddenly threatened by Gentile neighbors and apostate Jews, who did not want to see Jerusalem rise from rubble and ashes and return to the great city it once had been.  The work of rebuilding continues in earnest in chapter 4 under the direction of Nehemiah, but with taunts and threats being directed toward the Jews from Israel’s neighbors, there is a new and profound sense of urgency to complete the walls because of threat of imminent attack.

We are continuing our series on Ezra and Nehemiah and now we come to Nehemiah 4, where we find a completely different set of circumstances from that described in chapter 3.  As we saw last time, Nehemiah pulled off the remarkable feat of organizing and mobilizing the inhabitants of Jerusalem to undertake the huge task of rebuilding the city’s walls, gates, and defenses.  There was a wonderful sense of unity among the inhabitants of Jerusalem as everyone from the high priest to perfume-makers and merchants join together to begin the laborious process of rebuilding the city’s fallen fortifications.  

But if unity of the citizens of Jerusalem was the theme of chapter 3, in chapter 4 collective opposition from Israel’s neighbors to the rebuilding project seems to come from all quarters.  There are the Samaritans to the north and west (i.e., a mixture of Jewish apostates and “the peoples of the land”– Gentiles relocated there by the Persians).  There are Arabian tribes associated with Geshem (“chunky”) which likely included the Idumeans, who were from the provinces immediately to the south of Judah, and while technically under Persian control, were only loosely so.  The Ammonites were located to the east of Judah (in what is now Jordan).  They too were under Persian administration, but they resented the people of Judah and certainly did not want to see Jerusalem rebuilt, its temple restored, or the nation of Israel prosper once again.  A new group of adversaries is mentioned in chapter 4, the descendants of the ancient Philistines (the Ashdodites).  They too have a long history of hostility toward Israel.  

The chief protagonist in the Book of Nehemiah (first mentioned in chapter two) reappears in chapter 4–Sanballat, who now launches into a prolonged and bitter diatribe against Nehemiah and the people of God.  There is really nothing Sanballat can do to stop the rebuilding process, yet that does not keep him from making threats and mocking the Jews and their efforts to rebuild.  Since Nehemiah is operating with the full authority of the Persian king Artaxerxes I, Sanballat has no legal authority whatsoever to interfere with the rebuilding project in Jerusalem.  Sanballat is very likely resentful of the fact that the king’s cupbearer has been appointed governor over a region (Judah) which, until Nehemiah’s arrival, had been under Sanballat’s control.  And as long as Sanballat was in charge, the situation in Jerusalem would remain as it had been–the city would remain in ruins even if the temple itself had been rebuilt.

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"They Consecrated It" -- Nehemiah 3:1-12

The Thirteenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Details, details, details.  Why would Nehemiah take us on a counter-clockwise, brick by brick, tour of Jerusalem’s walls and gates–beginning at the northeastern corner of the city?  Why does he mention so many of the workers, by name, by family, and by town.  Why does he mention so many sections of the wall-some of which remain unknown to us today?  Why would the Holy Spirit breathe forth God’s inerrant word through Nehemiah, and choose to include so many seemingly mundane details?  We will attempt to answer these questions by looking first at Nehemiah’s historical account, and then to that to which the earthly city of Jerusalem points, the spiritual temple of God (the church) and ultimately to the New Jerusalem.

We resume our series on Nehemiah as we come to what one commentator has described as one of the “least lively and stirring of the narratives of the Old Testament.”  Nehemiah 3 contains 32 verses of difficult to pronounce Hebrew names, as well as seemingly obscure details about the gates and walls of Jerusalem which archaeologists and biblical scholars love (lots of fodder here for Ph.D. dissertations), but which most Bible readers very likely skip over without bothering to read.  There is a reason why I asked that only twelve verses be included for our Old Testament lesson even though we’ll be looking at the entire chapter–imagine making someone read this entire chapter out loud.   I’d venture a guess that many of you who have read through the Bible and/or Nehemiah have skipped this chapter–or just skimmed it.  I’ll also venture to guess that no one here has memorized any of these verses, or ever claimed one of them as a life verse.
 
To understand why this chapter is here and why it is important, we will begin by looking at some of the details within the passage, before we consider the role which the passage plays in the big picture of redemptive history.  It is easy to bog down in a list of foreign names and long-forgotten places and overlook the fact that it was not long before, that Nehemiah arrived in the city and surveyed the damage to the city’s walls and gates under the cover of darkness.  No doubt, the dry as dust content of this chapter encourages many to allegorize this account, attempting to turn Nehemiah’s factual narrative of how the walls of the city were rebuilt into a metaphor about how Jerusalem’s fallen walls symbolize problems in our lives from which we must rebuild.  To do this is to turn Nehemiah’s detailed report about former Jewish exiles rebuilding their capital city into a story about us–something Americans crave, but which circumvents the whole point of the passage–God has ordained that his city be rebuilt.    

According to Nehemiah 2:16-18, the author eventually informed “the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work, that “the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.”  Their response was overwhelming.  “`Let us rise up and build.’  So they strengthened their hands for the good work.”  In a short period of time, Nehemiah has performed an extraordinary feat–getting virtually the entire population of the city of Jerusalem organized and mobilized to begin a massive reconstruction project.  This pretty remarkable in its own right, and explains the temptation to focus upon Nehemiah’s leadership skills (which are certainly apparent from the account) and not upon the bigger picture–the role the rebuilt Jerusalem and temple will play in redemptive history, especially in regards to the coming Messiah.

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"The God of Heaven Will Make Us Prosper" -- Nehemiah 2:1-20

The Twelfth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

In the winter of 445 BC, Nehemiah received word of the current situation in Jerusalem.  The Jewish exiles who have returned to Jerusalem are struggling.  The city’s walls and gates remain in ruins–after eighty years.  The ruined city now brings shame upon the people of God–they and their city are an object of ridicule.  Deeply saddened by this news, Nehemiah spent the next four months praying to “the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and is steadfast love,” pleading that YHWH will hear the prayer of his servant and keep his covenant promises.  YHWH hears his servant, Nehemiah, and answers his prayer in the most remarkable of ways.
            
After recounting his heartfelt prayer in the opening chapter, Nehemiah simply tells us,“now I was cupbearer to the king.”  The king’s cupbearer was the most trusted member of the royal servants.  He was the man responsible for the security of the Persian king Artaxerses, who was, arguably, the most powerful man in the world at that time.  The vast Persian empire extended from Asia Minor (Turkey), to the Black Sea (on the northwest) to the coast of Libya on the southwest, to the Indus River (on the East).  The Persian empire included remnants of famous empires now fallen, including the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Jewish kingdoms.  The book which is the object of our study, Nehemiah, was written by a man who was a Jew–a descendant of those exiled to Babylon in 587 BC.  Although far removed from the ancient homeland of his people, news came to him about the great difficulties faced by the Jewish exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon over the previous eighty years since the city fell to Nebuchanezzar and the Persian king Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return home.  Although a pious Jew, Nehemiah is perhaps the personal servant closest to the Persian king Artaxerses I, tasting his food and drink, and personally responsible for the king’s safety from assassins in his inner circle.

Our text this morning, Nehemiah 2:1-20, is divided into two parts.  The first ten verses deal with Nehemiah’s interaction with king Artaxerses, and reveal the first hint of on-going opposition to Nehemiah’s mission to rebuild the walls and fortifications of Jerusalem.  Verses 11-20 of Nehemiah 2 recount Nehemiah’s initial efforts to survey the city and its walls.  Despite the work which had been completed at the temple, the city’s walls and gates remain in terrible shape.  Nehemiah must survey the damage in order to formulate plans as to how to rebuild the city’s fortifications before a disaster occurs.  

According to Nehemiah 1:1-3, word about the state of Jerusalem came to Nehemiah while the Persian court was in Susa, where the king maintained his winter palace.  One of his brothers informed Nehemiah that “the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile,” were struggling, and that the “remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”  This news sent Nehemiah into a state of despair.  According to verse 4, Nehemiah explained that “as soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”  The balance of the opening chapter includes Nehemiah’s prayer of intercession for God’s people.

But it is the way the opening chapter ends–with what seems to be a innocuous throw-line, “I am the king’s cupbearer”–which actually provides us with the essential piece of information we need to understand how YHWH will answer Nehemiah’s prayer.  In the providence of God, it was Nehemiah’s personal relationship with Persia’s king (as his cupbearer) which becomes the means through which God will answer Nehemiah’s prayer for Israel, and open the door for Nehemiah to be the one who will go to Jerusalem and oversee the massive project of rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls.  This will ensure that the exiles who have returned from Jerusalem will be able to defend themselves from the “people of the land” (Canaanites), and from any possible attack from Persia’s enemies to the southwest, i.e., the Egyptians. 

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