Nehemiah 9 - 13

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Nehemiah 9 - 13

Nehemiah 9-13, explained by Steve Gregg, delves into the blessings and mercies of God, despite the continuous disobedience of the Israelites. The chapter highlights their failure to uphold the law and keep the commandments, leading to a lack of productivity in the land. However, amidst their shortcomings, the people willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem, supporting the spiritual needs of the Levites and the worship in the temple. Nehemiah also addresses the issue of outsiders working in the fields instead of contributing to the temple's support, reminding God to show mercy and remember their faithfulness.

Transcript

Okay, we come to chapter 9 of Nehemiah. This is still on the occasion of the 7th month, apparently. It said, On the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting in sackcloth, with dust on their heads.

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day. And for another fourth, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. Then Jeshua, Bani, Cadmeel, Shebaniah, Bani, Sherabiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, Cadmeel, Bani, Shebaniah, and Petahiah said, Now I don't know which of them said this, because obviously this is a long prayer, and probably one of them speaking for the rest said this. One was probably speaking, the other standing with him as he prayed on behalf of the people. First of all, they say, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.

Then this blessing is offered to the Lord, a very lengthy one which surveys the entire history of the Jewish nation. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord.

You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all things on it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve them all. The host of heaven worships you.

You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites to give it to his descendants. You have performed your words for your rights.

You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the sea. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against his servants, against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted proudly against them. So you made a name for yourself as it is this day.

And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land. And their persecutors you threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, you led them by day with a cloudy pillar and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the road which they should travel.

You came down also on Notsaniai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses, your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst and told them to go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks and did not heed your commandments. They refused to obey and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them. But they hardened their necks and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage.

But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, this is your God that brought you out of the land of Egypt and were great provocations. Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness.

The pillar of clouds you did not depart from them by day. You led them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go. You also gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts.

So they took possession of the land of Sion, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, the king of Bashan. You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to go in and possess. So the people went in and possessed the land.

You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might do with them as they would. And they took strong cities and rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself, and they worked great provocations. Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. And in time of their trouble they cried to you, you heard from heaven, according to your abundant mercies you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies and testified against them that you might bring them back to your law.

Yet they acted proudly and did not heed your commandments, but sinned against your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit and your prophets.

Yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercy you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them, for you are God, gracious and merciful.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let all the troubles seem small before you. That has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers, and all of your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. However, you are just in all that has befallen us, for you have dealt faithfully what we have done wickedly.

Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers, have kept your law, nor heeded your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them. For they have not served you in their kingdom, or in their many good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works. Here we are, servants today.

Probably meaning servants still of Persia in this case. He said from the time of the Assyrians until now. Of course, the Assyrians had taken the northern kingdom in captivity.

And then there was the Babylonians, now the Persians. They're still servants to this day. He says, here we are, servants today, in the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good things.

Here we are, servants in it, and it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us. So we have a productive land again, but we're not eating the fruits. It's producing benefit for those pagan rulers who have been set over us because of our sins.

Also, they have dominion over us, our bodies and our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it. And our leaders and our Levites and our priests seal it.

Now, the chapter division is somewhat artificial. It goes on and tells about who seals this covenant, the leaders and the priests and the Levites. Their names are given in chapter 10, verses 1 through 27.

We first have, in verse 1, it says, now those who place their seal on the document were Nehemiah the governor. And then it gives names of some other men who were priests in verses 2 through 8. We know that they are priests because at the end of verse 8 it says, these were the priests. So we have the governor and the priests first.

And then the Levites. And there are apparently two groups of Levites. In verse 9, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Benue the son of Hennadad and Cadmiel.

And then their brethren, who would also of course be Levites. I don't know why they're named separately, but the first group must have been leading Levites. And then it gives the names of several more Levites down through verse 13.

And then the elders of the people would be the leaders of the clans of the other tribes. Of the various tribes. These were not, you know, the priests and the Levites come first.

But then the other tribes have their own leaders as well. Who are given in the following verses. Verses 14 through 27.

And now the covenant they made is explained to us. What it was they agreed to is in verse 28 and following. It says, now the rest of the people, the priests and the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the methanim.

And all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands. To the law of God. Their wives, their sons, their daughters.

Everyone who had knowledge and understanding. They joined with their brethren, their nobles. And entered into a curse and an oath to walk in the law of God.

Now, entered into a curse means that they wished a curse upon themselves. If they were to break the oath that they made. To walk in God's law which was given by Moses the servant of God.

And to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God. The Lord our Lord actually. Yahweh our Adonai.

And his ordinances and his statutes. That we would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land. Nor take their daughters for our sons.

That if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We would not buy it from them on the Sabbath. Or on a holy day.

And that we would forego the seventh year's produce and the exaction of every debt. Also we made ordinance for ourselves to exact from ourselves. Yearly, one third of a shekel.

For the service of the house of God. For the show bread, for the regular grain offerings. For the regular burnt offerings of the Sabbath.

The new moons and the set feasts of the holy things. For the sin offering to make atonement for Israel. And all the work of the house of God.

Now, there were basically three things specifically. In addition to the general agreement they made. The general agreement they made was that they keep the laws that Moses gave.

But there's three things in particularly that they enumerated. One was that they remained unmarried to pagans. They would not intermix by marriage to pagans.

As they said in verse 30. And then that they would keep the Sabbath. Both the Sabbath day and the seventh year.

The Sabbath year and the Sabbath day they would keep. And then the last thing was that they would self-impose a tax. On a regular basis.

In verse 32. One third of a shekel of silver. From each man probably.

And this would go toward the general cost of running the temple day by day. The regular offerings and the show bread and things like that. It cost something.

Now, sadly, they didn't keep this up. And we will see that when Nehemiah comes back from being away. That they really hadn't done these things.

But they did take an oath. It says in verse 34. We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people.

For the bringing of wood offering into the house of God. Probably the wood for the fires for the coals on the altar. According to our father's houses at the appointed times year by year.

To burn on the altar of the Lord our goddess is written in the law. So someone had to bring in the wood. And they cast lots to decide who would do that among the Levites.

And we made ordinances to bring the first fruits of our ground. And the first fruits of all the fruit of the trees year by year to the house of the Lord. To bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle as it is written in the law.

And the firstlings of our herds and our flocks to the house of our God. To the priests who minister in the house of our God. To bring the first fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil.

To the priests, to the storerooms in the house of our God. And to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites. For the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities.

And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes. And the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithe to the house of our God to the rooms of the storehouse. Now these storehouse rooms were in the temple itself.

You know in Malachi, when he talks about the tithes, in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 10, it says bring all the tithes into the storehouse. That there might be food for my house. He means to feed the priests and the Levites.

The storehouse is not the local church. Many people have taught that the storehouse is where you go to get your feeding. And in the New Testament we get our spiritual feeding from our local church.

So you're supposed to bring the tithes of your increase to your local church, the storehouse. This is called the doctrine of storehouse tithing. Probably 9 out of 10 denominations teach it as an official doctrine.

And they use Malachi to say to bring the tithe to the storehouse at your local church. But the local church is actually not in any way something that corresponds with the storehouse at the temple. The temple storehouse was not where the people went to get their food.

It's not where they went to eat. It's where they gave to feed the priests and the Levites. And therefore it has no correspondence to where you personally go.

It's not your pantry. It's not the place where you go to get your food. The storehouse here is something very different.

It's in the temple. And it's where the tithes were stored yearly. They were stored all year because it was grain and it would last.

And the priests would eat from it all year long. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offerings of the grain, of the new wine and the oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are. And we will not neglect the house of our God.

Chapter 11. Now there was a bit of a problem because Jerusalem had a large area in it, but there were not very many people who lived in it. Most of the people who came back from Persia had settled in villages around Judah and their own hometowns that they had come from.

And there was a pretty small number of people living in Jerusalem. And yet Jerusalem needed a certain critical base population just to have it run as a city and also to defend it. And so they actually made an arrangement that one in ten people in Israel had to live in Jerusalem.

This would not have been the case at a much later date when, of course, the population of Israel was much larger. You couldn't probably put a tenth of the population in the walls of Jerusalem. But at this point in time, where there were not that many people, they did cast lots to decide who would stay there.

It says, Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.

Now there were some who – it may be that those who were selected by lot were seen as voluntarily agreeing to do this. Or it might be that there were some who willingly decided to do it even apart from the casting of lots. In any case, it's treated as if they're making a sacrifice of some kind to live in Jerusalem.

It's a sacrifice because they have probably ancestral lands in their villages where their ancestors were. And they have farmlands and homes that they're leaving behind to live in Jerusalem. They're giving up land, you know, working the land, which is what most of them did and probably enjoyed doing because they could prosper that way as God sent them rain and prosperity in the land.

And they had to trade their occupation for something to do as a city dweller, which would normally be an artisan, maybe a goldsmith or a blacksmith or a merchant of some kind. You know, getting involved in sales or something instead of farming. Most people farmed and probably most people preferred to farm, but those who willingly moved to Jerusalem had to change their profession, obviously, because they wouldn't have land to farm there.

And they'd have to take on an urban lifestyle. Now these are the heads, verse 3, of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem. It says, but in the cities of Judah, everyone dwelt in his own position in their cities, Israelites, priests, Levites, Nephilim, and descendants of Solomon's servants.

They didn't live in Jerusalem unless they were selected by the law to be one of the ten, one in ten. Also, in Jerusalem dwelt certain of the children of Judah and the children of Benjamin. And here's, I guess, the ones that were selected.

We first have people of the tribe of Judah in verses 4 through 6. In verse 6 at the end it says, these were valiant men. So they were there partly for the purpose of being valiant, that is for defending the city. Valiant would mean that they were militaristically useful in defending the city.

There were 468 of them from the tribe of Judah. Then in verses 7 through 9, we have people of the sons of Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin. And interestingly, although Benjamin was a much smaller tribe, there's twice as many of them that were picked by law to be there than of Judah.

The people of Judah were only 468, but Benjamin 928. So it's almost exactly twice as many Benjamins as Judahites. And then in verses 10 through 14, it talks about the priests.

Now the total number of priests was 1192, but they're divided into subcategories. For example, in verse 12, we read, the brethren, that is the priest brethren who did the work of the house. Apparently the work of the temple.

Now all priests did the work of the temple sometimes, but apparently those, maybe, it's hard to know how they worked it out. There were too many priests to really have them all working in the temple at the same time. And what David had done was divide them into 24 courses of priests and they would take turns twice a year for a week each.

I don't know if that's what they were doing in Nehemiah's time, or if they instead just took a portion of the priests to do that work in the house of the Lord all the time. And the rest would be just supported. It's really hard to know, but the ones who did the work of the house were 822 of them.

And then in verse 13 says, and his brethren, the heads of the fathers' houses, apparently the heads of the priestly fathers' houses, there's 242 of those in verse 13. And then there's, among them, there's mighty men of valor, 128 mighty men of valor, apparently among the priests as well. Now I'm assuming that all of these groups are among the priests, but it's possible that the heads of the fathers' houses and the mighty men of valor are separate categories than the priests or the Levites.

In which case, the number of priests is only 822. And then you've got 242 heads of clans and 128 mighty men of valor. Then you have the Levites in verses 15 through 18, and there's 284 of them.

Then you've got the gatekeepers mentioned in verse 19. There's 172 gatekeepers. Verse 20, then the rest of Israel, of the priests and Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his own inheritance.

But the Nephilim dwelt in Ophel, and Zihah and Gishpah were over the Nephilim. Now the Nephilim, of course, were those who cut the wood and carried the water for the temple. They were the Gibeonites who had made that pact with Joshua by deception.

And so they had someone overseeing them in their work here. Also, the overseer of the Levites, Ejrus Mut'uzi, the son of Danai, the son of Heshabiah, the son of Madaniah, the son of Micah, the son of Esau, the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. For it was the king's command concerning them that a certain portion should be for the singers a quota day by day.

Mephihiah, the son of Meshezabiel, of the children of Zerah, the son of Judah, was the king's deputy in the matters concerning the people. So this is the political structure within the city of those few who lived in the city, relatively few. And the Levites had their own overseer over them.

And then the Nephilim had an overseer over them. And then it was apparently another man, Mephihiah, was just kind of the king's deputy in all matters concerning the people. Now the king's deputy presumably means the king of Persia because there was not a king in Jerusalem.

And then it has the names of people and families that lived outside of Jerusalem, verse 25 through 36. And as for the villages with their fields, some of the children of Judah dwelt in Kirjah-parbah and its villages, Dibon and its villages, Jechrev-zeal and its villages, in Jeshua, Moladah, Beth-pehelet, and so forth, a lot of cities. And verse 31 says the children of Benjamin from Geba dwelt in Mikmash, Ijah, and Bethel, and their villages.

And then it gives villages. And verse 36 says some of the Judean divisions of Levites were in Benjamin. So this is not very important material to us to know these details.

These people are not famous. Well, I guess they are if they're in the Bible. More famous than I am.

But we don't know anything about them except their names and where they lived and why they lived there. And so we have one of these many lists that Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah, and Ezra are fond of. Now chapter 12 says, Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel in Jeshua.

And then it gives a long list. These priests came up a long time ago. And it gives all their names.

And it says, and it gives names through verse 7, then it says, These were the heads of the priests and their brethren in the days of Jeshua. And verse 8 says, Moreover, the Levites were. And then it gives a lot of names there too.

And then verse 12 says, Now in the days of Joachim, the priests, the heads of the fathers' houses were. And then it gives the priests, the sons of the fathers' houses and so forth all the way down to verse 21. And it says in verse 22, During the reign of Darius the Persian, a record was also kept of the Levites and the priests who had been heads of their fathers' houses in the days of Eliashib.

Joahadab, Johanan, and Jadua. The sons of Levi, the heads of the fathers' houses until the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib, were written down in the book of the Chronicles. And the heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherabiah, and Jeshua, the son of Camil, with their brothers across from them, to praise and to give thanks.

Group alternating with group according to the command of David, the man of God. And then it gives the names of the gatekeepers who were keeping watch over the storerooms and the gates. And verse 25 says in verse 26, These lived in the days of Joachim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Josedach, in the days of Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest, the scribe.

Okay, so we got a lot of names of people who lived at that time, of priests and Levites. Now we get some action again. And that is, it's time for them to dedicate the wall, the now-completed wall.

And this was done by having two groups of priests with musical instruments starting at one point and marching opposite directions on top of the wall until they would meet at the point at the other end. And so the entire wall was covered with praise. In other words, they would sing and worship God as they marched.

And much of this, of course, is not going to be, would not repay detailed reading for the simple reason it gives just the different points along the wall. It says, Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought out the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both the thanksgiving and singing with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. The sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophithites, from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba Asmaveth, for the singers had built themselves villages all around Jerusalem.

Then the priests and Levites purified themselves and purified the people, the gates and the wall. So I, Nehemiah, brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall and appointed two large thanksgiving choirs, one of which went to the right hand and on the wall toward the refuge gate. After them went Hoshea and half the leaders of Judah, and Azariah, Ezra, Meshulam, Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, and certain of the priests' sons with trumpets, namely Zechariah, the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mananiah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zechar, the son of Asaph, and his brethren Shemaiah and others.

With musical instruments of David, the man of God, and Ezra the scribe went before them. By the fountain gate in front of them they went up the stairs of the city of David on the stairway of the wall beyond the house of David as far as the water gate eastward. The other thanksgiving choir went the opposite way, and I was behind them with half of the people on the wall, going past the tower of the ovens and so forth.

It gives a long list in the next couple of verses of the places that they passed on the wall, different locations, the gates and so forth, and different points. So the two thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God, likewise I and the half of the rulers with me, and the priests with trumpets. Also Meaziah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehoahannad, Makaijah, Elam, and Ezra.

The singers sang loudly with Jezraiah as their director. Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

Now these long lists become, perhaps for us, tedious to read all these names. But one thing they testify to is that we're reading historical accounts here. This is not mythology.

A person making up a myth would not make up so many names just to fill space. The names are kept because there was a record of them. They had written down who was going to be going this direction, who was going to be going that way, so they have all their names.

And Ezra, for whatever reason, likes to include these lists. He is a priest himself. The priest did have a real love for lists of names and genealogies and things like that.

And one thing we can say is all of these names and these geographical spots, they do not make interesting reading. Which means that they would not be included if this was mythology, if this was being written simply as a heroic record of fabled exploits. We're reading real history about real people.

Their names, we know. Their faces, we don't know. But they have been memorialized forever, really, by being listed in the scriptures.

It says, and at that same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings of the first fruits, for the tithes, to gather them into the fields, etc. In verse 45, both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of purification. Verse 46, for in the days of David and Asaph of old, there were chiefs of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel gave portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, a portion for each day. They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron. This is just talking about how these people survived.

The children of Israel would give stuff to the singers and the musicians and the Levites, and the Levites would give part of that to the priests. We come then to the last chapter where there actually is some interesting storylines still remaining. Maybe some of you find the lists and such that we've covered interesting, but I imagine most of you would find the story more interesting, and that's what we have in the remainder of the book, this last chapter, 13.

It says, On that day they read from the book of Moses and the hearing of the people, and it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the congregation of God, because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing. That is, when Balaam was hired to curse them, God supernaturally overrode Balaam's intentions and caused him to bless Israel.

That's what it's referring to. However, the Moabites and the Ammonites were still held responsible for this, and God had said that they should not come into the congregation of the Lord. So it was when they had heard the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

Now, the part of the law they read about this is Deuteronomy 23, verses 3 and 4. It talks about these people, these races, not entering the house of the Lord until the tenth generation. In Deuteronomy 23, verses 3 and 4, it says, "...An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. None of his descendants shall ever enter the congregation of the Lord forever, because they did not meet with bread and water on the road when they came out, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor." So this is the passage they were reading in Nehemiah 13, verses 1 through 3. And they saw that the Ammonite and the Moabite were not to enter the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation.

Now, what does that mean? I've heard some people suggest it means to the tenth generation after Moses' time. That is, for ten generations after Moses' time, Ammonites and Moabites must stay out, but after that they can come in. However, the time that we're reading about in Nehemiah's time was many more than ten generations later than that.

And therefore, it must not mean that. What it probably means is that anyone who has Moabite or Ammonite ancestry anywhere in their generations ten generations back has too much Ammonite or Moabite blood in them and will be excluded from the congregation of the Lord. But this was violated even by God in that He chose David and Solomon to build the house of the Lord, even though they had Moabite blood in them a few generations back.

Ruth was a Moabite. But possibly because she was the mother, not the father, it might have made a difference. It may be that being a descendant of Moabite may mean from a Moabite man, because of course the genealogy is traced through the father, not through the mother.

So, it's hard to say. Apparently, there was a lot of compromise in this area among the exiles who had come back from Persia. It says in verse 4, Now before this, Eliashib the priest, having authority over the store rooms of the house of our God, was allied with Tobiah, one of the enemies.

And he had prepared for him a large room where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain and new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers. And the offerings for the priests. But during all this, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king.

Then, after certain days, I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah. Now, these store rooms in the temple were there for storing the grain that the Levites and the priests would live on for the year. But apparently, the priest Eliashib had done a favor for Tobiah, for whatever reason we don't know, had emptied out one of those rooms and allowed him to put his stuff in there.

Now, whether he was using that as a lodging place or a storage unit or an office, we don't know. But, Tobiah had somehow come to occupy this room. And it grieved me bitterly.

Therefore, I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms. And I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the frankincense.

Now, remember, Tobiah was an Ammonite. And an Ammonite was not supposed to enter the congregation. And here he was, having a room in the temple itself.

And so, this aggravated Nehemiah. He couldn't understand how this compromise was made. And he just goes and starts throwing stuff out of the room, out into the street, or out into the courtyard, to be hauled off.

I also realized that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them. For each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. That is, the people had stopped paying tithes.

And, therefore, the Levites had no food. So, they had to go back to find fields to till, instead of working in Jerusalem at the temple. So, I contended with the rulers and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place.

Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse Shalem I, the priest, and Zadok, the scribe. And of the Levites, Padiah.

And next to him was Hanun, the son of Zechariah, the son of Mennoniah. For they were considered faithful, and their task was to distribute to their brethren. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for its services.

In those days I saw in Judah some people treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Now, the people had sworn a covenant to not do these things. And he comes back, and that's what they're up to.

And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. Men of Tyre dwelt there also, and brought in fish of all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do thus? And did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.

So it was at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened until after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day. Now, the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.

So I warned them and said to them, Why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you, and I will arrest you. From that time on, they came no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should go and guard the gates and sanctify the Sabbath day.

Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy. Now, the policy of having the gates shut at sundown before Sabbath, and keeping them shut until after Sabbath was over, was the way to keep merchants from coming in from outside. Some still tried to come, but they tried once or twice, and you threatened them, and they didn't come back anymore.

It's probably because of this policy of the gates being shut on the Sabbath, that Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 24, when he was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, and he said, you know, when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Grace, you who are in Judea, flee from Jerusalem, flee across the river to the mountains. And he said, and pray that your flight would not be on the Sabbath day or on winter. Winter and the Sabbath day would both be very inconvenient times to travel, and particularly for Jerusalem inhabitants who were trying to get out on the Sabbath, because the gates would be shut.

And so it was probably because of this policy that Jesus said, pray that your flight would not be on the Sabbath day. And this policy appears to have been inaugurated by Nehemiah, and was not practiced previously. In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people.

So I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck some of them, and pulled out their hair. This would be, of course, the fathers who had given their sons and daughters to these people of other nations. And I made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters as wives to the sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.

Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God. And God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, pagan women caused even him to sin.

Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women? Now, you know, when they made this covenant back in chapter 10, one of the things they said they wouldn't do is they wouldn't intermarry. It says in chapter 10, verse 30, one of the things they covenanted was that we would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons. And they violated that while he was gone, back in Persia for a while.

In chapter 10, verse 31, they promised that they'd keep the Sabbath, but they violated that. And he found them violating that when he came back. And then, of course, in chapter 10, verse 32, they said they would support the Levites in the temple worship, and they'd stop doing that as well.

So everything they'd covenanted with God to do, they stopped doing. And Nehemiah was furious. And it's interesting how violent he is at times.

I mean, back in verse 8, he threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. And he just goes in and starts throwing things out the door. And in verse 11, he says, I contended with the rulers.

And then in verse 25, these guys who were giving their sons and daughters to the Ammonites in marriage, he said, I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair. And we'll find in verse 28, he chases another guy away out of the priesthood, as we shall see. But in verse 26, excuse me, verse 28, then one of the sons of Joahedah, the son of Eliashim, the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite.

Therefore, I drove him from me. I chased him away from me. This man was a priest, and yet he had married a daughter of Sanballat, one of the enemies of Israel.

And so he apparently drove him out of the priesthood and wouldn't let him stay. And then he says, remember them, oh my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant to the priesthood and the Levites. Nehemiah must have felt awfully frustrated after bringing these reforms earlier when they read the law and all the people were zealous to make an oath that they would keep all these things.

And he goes away for a little while and comes back and every one of these things they've broken again. And I'll tell you what, when someone's pastoring a church, he's got his hands full if he takes it seriously because there's so much compromise and so much sin. And the pastor's always hearing of new scandals in his own congregation, unless it's a very small church.

But, yeah, I mean, when you're an elder in a church, as I've been at times, it seems like every week when the elders would meet, there was some new scandal, some new sin. Someone was involved in that had to be addressed. It gets tired.

You begin to think, why can't these people just behave? What's wrong with these people? And it must be that they just don't really know God. You know, they keep trying to pretend to know God or pretending they keep trying to obey a God they don't know or don't think seriously about. They don't fear the Lord.

And it's awfully aggravating because usually a man who's a spiritual leader is someone who does fear the Lord, and that's why he's in spiritual leadership. He's a pastor or whatever. It's usually because he loves the Lord and he wants to serve God.

And it's awfully hard to understand these people who just slip right into disobedience and not under pressure. It's not like you have to give your daughters to a pagan to marry. You know, it's not like you're under some pressure.

People do that because they just don't care about God. And that's something awfully hard for a man of God to understand. Nehemiah was no doubt very perplexed by this.

He says, Thus I cleansed them, verse 30, of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites to his service and to bringing the wood offerings and the first fruits at appointed times. This is basically a summary of what he did for Israel.

He kind of set up the priests and the Levites in their proper duties, and he cleansed the city of its pagan activities. And he ends by saying, Remember me, O my God, for good. Well, God has remembered him.

I mean, we remember him, but God has made him memorable because there's a whole book about his activities. And in his day, he didn't know there would be. He didn't know that people would be reading this book 2,500 years later and say, Well, that Nehemiah, he was a good guy, you know, and he's remembered for good.

Because he was good, and he prayed that God would have him remembered. So this is the story of a guy who is just an ordinary Jew in a foreign land who just had a heart of permission, had a heart to see things change. And he made himself available to God, and he prayed a lot.

He was a prayer warrior, I'd say. And God used him and made him famous, made him famous for all time because of his zeal for God. He was a very practical man as well as a spiritual man.

He apparently didn't think that prayer and trusting God eliminated the need to do things that are wise and practical. Wisdom is part of God's guidance in our lives, according to Proverbs. And this man had practical wisdom and practical know-how, and he put his – he believed in hard work and trusting God.

And so I suppose one of the main lessons from Nehemiah is that a man who's intensely prayerful and a man of great faith in God also does not see any need to be slack in putting out work and skill and planning to make things happen that he's praying for to happen. Because we are laborers together with God. When we pray for something to be done, we should be prepared if God calls us to do something about ourselves in response to those prayers.