Explaining The Book

And that brings us into chapter 10. This chapter consists entirely of the Jews’ promise to God in light of their disturbing cycle of disobedience. Verses 1 through 27 give the names of each leader who was signing his name to this resolution. And here’s what they agree to. Verse 29 – they would keep the Law of Moses. What does that look like? Verse 30 – they won’t intermarry with pagans. Verse 31 – they won’t buy wares from pagans on holy days. Neither will they harvest their crops on the 7^th year or collect on debts from their Jewish brothers. Verse 32 – they’d give 1/3 of a shekel for the Temple service. Verse 34 – they’d bring wood to the Temple for the sacrifices. Verse 35 – they’d bring the firstfruits of their produce to the Temple. And verse 36 – they’d bring the firstborn of their sons and animals to the Temple. They say more in verses 37 through 39. But the gist of it is at the end of verse 39. They would not forsake God’s house, the Temple. And that’s actually what the promises from verse 32 to the end of the chapter aim at – not forsaking the Temple. So in summary, the people promise to not forsake God’s word or his place of worship. That was the Jews’ New Year’s resolution.

So how can we apply this last scene to making God-Honoring New Year’s resolutions? If you’ve been following whole-heartedly this message then you’ve already resolved to understand God’s word and then live it out, even in the seeming insignificant or inconvenient parts. And I think this is kind of reflected again in the Jews’ promise to not forsake God’s word. They were going to understand it and live it. So what’s the new emphasis in this section that we haven’t seen thus far? How about the part about the Temple, God’s place of worship? It’s excellent to be seeking and practicing God’s word. But remembed that in God’s word he specifies that we should gather with his people and not forsake that assembly. But it’s not as if we should just file into the building and leave without being an influence on our brethren for good. We’re supposed to provoke one another. No, we’re not supposed to be provoking each other to anger, but to love and good works. So would you resolve to not take our assembling together lightly? Would you resolve to appropriately and tastefully be more involved in the lives of your brethren? To be more attentive to their needs? To encourage and up-lift? To pray for one another? And to live your life in such a way that we could all come together and truly worship our great God together in a spirit of unity and harmony?

So would you think this is an appropriate and God-honoring News Year’s resolution? I resolve this year to make every attempt to understand and live God’s word, even when it seems insignificant or inconvenient, and to not forsake God’s people or our assembling together.

This last scene takes up two whole chapters. Let’s start by reading 9:1-3.

Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. ² And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.

Nehemiah 9:1-3

So this last scene starts on the 24^th day of the 7^th month. We’re still in the month of the Jewish New Year. And the Feast of Booths would have started on the 15^th and ran 8 days to the 22^nd. Then the people take a break maybe to convert their temporary booths into firewood or something else. And the day after that they’re all together again back in Jerusalem ready to do spiritual business. I’m going to again just express my surprise. I didn’t know these people were so inclined toward biblical spirituality. This really seems to be something of a genuine revival wherein the people are just delighting in God alone. And what caused this? Well, the wall around Jerusalem was just rebuilt. The fact that these people are now separated from the bad influence of the world outside may have something to do with it. Besides that, I do really wonder if the fact that it’s a new year has anything to do with it.

So the people are still on the crest of a New Year’s spiritual wave. They gather to Jerusalem after having separated themselves from all foreigners. Apparently the foreigners – the evil ones, not the ones who converted – these foreigners were still among God’s people until this time… Beyond this spiritual step in the right direction, the people are confessing their sin. They’re not apologizing. Allow me to advocate for you never saying, “sorry” and thinking that’s a true confession – whether its directed toward God or toward your fellow man. “I’m sorry” describes how you’re feeling. It tells no one that you’re owning up to the fact that what you did was wrong. Love means never having to say you’re sorry. On the other hand, it means having to say, “I’ve sinned and done evil in God’s sight. Will you forgive me for sinning against you?” OK, I’ve been waiting to be able to address that in one of our times here. So, these Jews confessed their sins and their fathers’ sins and also worshipped for a 4^th of the day. They also read the word for a 4^th of the day.

Then the Levites start praying out loud. What do they say? Let’s read verses 5-7 to find out.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ ¶ Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. ⁷ Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham.

Nehemiah 9:5-7

These Levites begin their confession and worship by acknowledging how perfect and excellent God is. He made everything. He’s all-powerful and all-wise. But despite being a high and lofty Creator, they recall in verse 7 that he stooped in order to know man, namely, he chose Abraham, the Jews’ forebearer. The Levites go on to tell of how God promised to give Abraham the land in which the Jews were currently living once more at that very time. Watch for that theme of “the land” in this prayer.

Then the Levites basically start rehearsing Israel’s history where the book of Exodus begins. The Jews were being oppressed in Egypt. And God delivered them through the plagues he sent on Egpyt. And when the army of Egypt followed the Jews they were drowned in the Red Sea. God then led the Jews with a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day. The Levites recall God coming to the Jews at Sinai and giving them righteous ordinances. They remember that God provided bread for them. How good God was to the Jews! He is high and lifted up and yet he chose Abraham and was merciful to his descendants. How did the Jews respond to this wondeful love? Verse 16.

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments.

The next few verses flesh this out. The people built the golden calf and wanted to return to their bondage in Egypt. The Levites remind us that although God needed to deal with this rebellious generation by letting them wander 40 years in the wilderness, yet during that whole time most of his blessings he didn’t revoke – the cloud, the fire, the water, the manna, none of these things did God withold from these rebels… The prayer goes on to state that God gave these people a few kingdoms and lands of their enemies. God is so good.

He was good to Abraham. He was good to those who came out of Egypt led by Moses. And he was good to the sons of this latter group. He was so good to them – that like cattle, they ate and grew fat. They reveled in God’s goodness. But the Levites’ prayer goes on to tell us that even these sons rebelled against God and wouldn’t obey his word. Then we’re reminded of the time of the judges, where the people would sin against God, he would give them over to their enemies, they would cry out to him, and he would deliver them through a judge. That cycle continued for decades. After that the Lord needed to seriously deal with the people. God patiently endured the sins of the Jews. But finally he had to send them into exile. And yet God didn’t utterly forsake them even there. How did they know that God hadn’t forsaken the Jews? Well, they were back in the land, weren’t they? They are back in the land. But the picture isn’t rosey. Let’s read verses 36-37.

Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it: ³⁷ And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

The Jews were in quite a predicament. Again they mention the land. The Jews were back in their land, yes. But they were back as slaves who were subservient to a foreign king.

And because of this discouraging and alarming situation, they don’t want to continue the sins of their fathers. Read verse 38.

And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.

They’re making a New Year’s resolution, so-to-speak. Now, the resolutions we might make – like to eat healthier or to read the Bible or whatever – usually we don’t do anything more than just keep those in our minds. Not so with the Jews here. They’re going to write this resolution down and have their leaders all sign it, swearing to keep it. They need to. They don’t want to experience any more of God’s opposition to them.

We have 3 main scenes in chapters 8 through 10. The 1^st scene begins in 8:1 and ends in 8:12. The 2^nd scene spans from 8:13 to the end of the chapter. And the 3^rd and longest scene covers all of chapters 9 and 10.

Now, what’s the 1^st scene about? The people ask Ezra to come and explain God’s word to them. What happens from there? Let’s read 8:2-3.

And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. ³ And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

There’s a word I want to point out. It’s found once in each of these verses. It’s the word “understand(ing).” These people gathered together and wanted to understand God’s word… Later Ezra stands at an elevated podium to read aloud to the people. And when he opens the word – he doesn’t read it yet, he simply opens it – the people rise out of reverence. Ezra blesses God and all the people respond in approval and bow to the ground to worship the Lord.

Next, a number of Levites assist Ezra in teaching the people individually. They were explaining God’s word to the people. And let’s read verse 8 to see what exactly they were doing. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The Levites were helping the people to what? Understand the reading. The Levites gave the sense of what they were reading. It wasn’t enough for them to mindlessly, liturgically chant God’s word. They explained it. They read it distinctly. They translated or interpreted the word. They were exegeting and expositing God’s word… I was reading a preaching magazine at the library the other day. And my eye caught an article about expository preaching. The author points to the apparent anemia in the worship of the evangelical church. He then asserts that the reason for this anemia is because of a dearth of expository preaching – the kind of reading of God’s word and explaining it that we see in Nehemiah here. The author even references this portion of Nehemiah as a model for our teaching and preaching! And I think the author is right. What in the world are we doing gathering together every Sunday if it’s not to read and understand God’s word? There’s more to our gatherings, of course. But preaching is and ought to be central. God’s word needs to have a preeminent place in our lives both corporately and individually.

Now something interesting happens next. All the leaders, including Ezra and Nehemiah, suddenly feel that they need to tell the people to not be grieved. Why? Because the day was holy. It was the Feast of Trumpets, after all. But why were the people grieved? You understand how that could be the case, I’m sure. God’s word is sharper than a two-edged sword and it cuts us sometimes. And these Jews were cut when they read the Law. And this is a good response on their part. Only, not today. You wouldn’t know it, but today was a day on which God wanted the Jews to be happy, not grieved. So the leaders already helped the people understand God’s word. This in turn made the people weep. So the leaders then needed to explain the word a little bit more – “according to God’s word you shouldn’t be sad today. Today’s a day for celebration.” The joy of the Lord was to be their strength.

And how does this scene end? The people go away to celebrate with all their heart. Why could they celebrate? Because – look at the last phrase of verse 12 – …they had understood the words that were declared unto them. A partial understanding of God’s word is better than no understanding at all. But better yet is a full understanding. And that’s what the Jews received on this 1^st day of the 7^th month – their New Year’s Day.

So we’re talking about God-Honoring New Year’s Resolutions. How about this as a suggestion based on what we’ve seen so far? This year, with God’s help, I resolve to understand God’s word better and to live based on that understanding. What would it take for you to do this? I’ll give a few suggesstions. Come to church. And when you do, listen to what’s being taught. Take notes. At home, read the Bible daily. Read some books on how to accurately read and interpret the Bible. I’d strongly and heartily recommend the book “How to Read the Bible as Literature” by Leland Ryken. This man is an English professor at an evangelical institution. His book has been very helpful to me in interpreting the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. I think it would be helpful for you, too.

So that’s the 1^st of 3 scenes. The 2^nd scene starts in verse 13 and runs through the end of chapter 8. What happens here? Let’s read verses 13 and 14 to find out. And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. ¹⁴ And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. Again we see people gathering to a man who knows God’s word and can teach it to them. These people again desire to understand God’s word. But who are these people? The people in the last scene were whom? Verse 1 says “all the people.” So everyone was there for that scene. But now the group narrows a bit. Here in this second scene we have only the leaders gathering to Ezra to understand the Law. And what do these leaders find in the Law? They discover that the Jews as a nation should celebrate the Feast of Booths every year in the 7^th month. Why, that’s the month they were currently in! And this text say that it was the 2^nd day. I assume that’s the 2^nd day of the 7^th month. But the Feast was to be held on the 15^th day of the 7^th month. They only have 13 days to prepare! They better hurry. And they do! They proclaim throughout the region that everyone should go and cut down branches to make booths to live in. The people obey this order. And then they live in those booths for 8 days, just like the ordinance prescribed.

Now let’s read verse 17. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Can you believe what you’re hearing? The sons of Israel really hadn’t celebrated the Feast of Booths as they ought to have from the days of Joshua! Yes, in 2^nd Chronicles 8, Solomon is shown offering sacrifices during the Feast of Booths. But it doesn’t say he built temporary structures like the ordinance required. We see a similar situation in Ezra 3. The people who returned with Zerubbabel are said to have offered sacrifices for the Feast of Booths. But it doesn’t say they lived in booths. So Israel hadn’t practiced this Feast in a completely orthodox way for hundreds of years before the time of Nehemiah the governor. Fascinating! And then this scene ends by telling us what we already have been led to believe – that the Jews kept this ordinance exacty as prescribed in the Law.

Now again, we’re talking about making God-honoring New Year’s resolutions. What do we learn from this 2^nd scene in our text? Might a God-honoring resolution look somethng like this? I resolve not only to understand and live-out God’s word. But I resolve – with God’s help – to do this even in the most inconvenient or seemingly-insignificant parts of the word. The Feast of Booths had been overlooked for hundreds of years. Why? The Jews apparently thought it was insignificant. “I mean, what’s the big deal? We’re offering sacrifices! Why waste a bunch of tree limbs and live outside on the dirt with a leaky roof over my head?!” This may be one reason the Jews had avoided practicing this Feast for this long. Or maybe they thought it was inconvenient… Some of us like camping. Others really don’t. I don’t mind a few days in the woods. But 8 days, like this Feast required? And, as I’ve hinted at before, these Jews wouldn’t have been in a nice sealed water-proof tent. They’re just throwing a bunch of sticks together to make booths. And they have to live in those booths for 8 whole days… Now, what is there in your life that you know to be God’s will from his word, but it isn’t convenient? In fact it’s extremely inconvenient to you. Or maybe you think it’s pretty insignificant. “I mean, most other Christians I know don’t bother with it. Why should God want me to do so?” Would you resolve with God’s help to do what his word commands, no matter how inconvenient or insignficant it seems? You will – just like the Israelites did – you’ll experience “very great gladness” if you do.

So that’s the 2^nd of 3 scenes. And at this point that’s the good news. The bad news? We’re only half way through the text! So let’s move along to the 3^rd and final scene of our text today.

Nehemiah 7 KJV: This is the 14^th week of our study of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Today we’ll plan to cover 4 chapters. I know, you don’t think I can do it. But with God’s help we will!

We’re in the 7^th chapter of the book of Nehemiah this morning. And this chapter begins the 2^nd of 2 main sections in the book of Nehemiah. The first 6 chapters that we’ve been studying in the past few weeks prepared us for this point in the book. Those earlier chapters dealt with a few things. First, Nehemiah learned that his people were in distress – perhaps because of their sin. Then Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and led the Jews in rebuilding their wall, in the face of opposition from both without and within. But finally in the 6^th month the Jews completed rebuilding the wall and the enemies were stunned… Now what?

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Verses 1-5

Let’s read 7:1-5.

Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed, ² That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many. ³ And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house. ⁴ Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded. ⁵ ¶ And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein,

So Nehemiah hands the keys of the city over to one of his siblings and another man. This other man “was faithful” and “feared God more than many.”

And Nehemiah gives them a few tasks. The only thing keeping those old enemies out of the midst of God’s people was the wall and its locked gates. So these two needed to keep those gates locked as much as possible.

And there were only two of these guys. They needed assistance. So Nehemiah tells them to appoint guards from among the people who live in Jerusalem. And these guards can be stationed by their respective house.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Two Problems

Now, there are two problems with this situation.

First, Nehemiah says in verse 4 that there were very few people living in this large city. So how would these two guys find others who live in the city to help them when there was practically no one else living there?

Second, though the city was large and expansive, most of the houses weren’t built yet. So Nehemiah appears to be telling these two guards that they need to appoint assistant-guards from among the people of the city – who don’t live there – and these extra helpers can keep watch outside their houses – which don’t exist.

Do you see the potential for failure? Nehemiah did, as well.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Genealogical Census

So Nehemiah says that God put in his heart to enroll the people by genealogy. That’s interesting.

The first time we saw God put something in Nehemiah’s heart it was back in the early chapters of Nehemiah where he said that God put on his heart to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. And we know what happened there. The wall got rebuilt in quick order.

And now what God put on Nehemiah’s heart is to take a census of the people. We’ll see what happens from here!

Nehemiah 7 Ezra 2

Now right after Nehemiah declares that he wants to enroll the people by their genealogies, he finds the record of those who came to Jerusalem from the exile. Remember the folks who originally came with Zerubbabel and Jeshua back in Ezra chapter 2? Well, Nehemiah recounts this list in detail here.

We need to do a few things with this passage before we can move on.

First I want to point out something that can be alarming to folks like us who believe that the Bible is without error. Can I ask us to do something? Can we keep our hand both in this section and back in Ezra 2?

I want to compare a few things in these two citations of this one list of people… I’ll just come out and state that these two lists are not identical.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Children of Arah

Look at Ezra 2:5. The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five.

And now look at Nehemiah 7:10. The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two.

Well, which is it? How many of the children of Arah came? 775 or 652?

And this isn’t the only place where the numbers are different. I counted 19 instances in these two lists where the numbers differ from one another.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Word Differences

In addition, we have certain words included in one list that may not appear in the other. We have names that are featured in one list and not mentioned in the other.

So what if you’re witnessing to an atheist friend and he claims that the Bible contains errors and contradictions and he points to the differences in these two lists? How would you respond?

Again, I’ll mention the differences in numbers. I think this is the most troubling thing for us in this regard.

Let me offer a way to think about that.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
“Which Came with Zerubbabel”

Look at Ezra 2:2 — Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah.

And we’ll stop there.

How many names of men do you count there including Zerubbabel?

I count 11.

Now read Nehemiah 7:7 — Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.

Now I count 12 people.

Nahamani is added in Nehemiah’s list.

In addition, do you see the second-to-last name is each list? Nehum and Rehum? Maybe this is the same guy. But maybe they’re different.

So here’s what I’m led to believe. We’re talking about the same thing generally in both books – it’s a list of people who came to Jerusalem from Persia. But the list in Ezra has a few different names than the list in Nehemiah.

Neither list is fabricated or in error. They simply record a few different people.

I mean, if Nahamani brought some folks with him and he and his people are recorded only in Nehemiah, then the list in Nehemiah can be expected to have different numbers of people than the one in Ezra.

That’s one explanation that should set our mind at ease over this apparent discrepancy. But let me point out something else that should comfort us and strengthen our faith in the trustworthiness of God’s word.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
How Many Returned?

Look at Ezra 2:64. How many people total came to Jerusalem?

The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore.

If counting with scores is a little foreign to you, that’s 42,360.

Now look at Nehemiah 7:66.

The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore.

Again that number is 42,360. It’s the same number – the same total number of people came back according to both Ezra and Nehemiah.

But you know what? When I go through these two lists I don’t get those numbers. In fact the list in Ezra gives me a total of 29,818. And in Nehemiah I get 31,809.

So here’s what I think we learn from this. The purpose of these lists in the minds of their authors is not to give us every single detail of every single person who came with Zerubbabel.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Purpose of the Lists

The lists are a representation of all those 42,360 folks who did come. So if you’re looking for two identical lists that enumerate every single person who came, you’re going to be disappointed. Because that’s not the purpose of these two authors.

An atheist can claim this represents an error. It does not represent an error. Plain and simple.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Returning to Jerusalem

Now, I want us to look one last time at Ezra. Look at Ezra 3:1.

And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

So after this list in Ezra we’re told that the people gathered to Jerusalem. At that point they come together to rebuild the altar and to offer sacrifices.

And – wouldn’t you know it? – something similar happens in Nehemiah. Let’s read Nehemiah 7:73 and on into 8:1.

So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities. 8:1 And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

So here in Nehemiah—similar to Ezra—we see the people gathering together to Jerusalem. But it’s a little different this time. This time when the people come to Jerusalem the altar is already built. So is the Temple and the wall. And now they want to hear God’s word.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Spiritual Renewal

At first I wondered why all the Jews wanted to hear God’s word. Why this sudden enthusiasm about spiritual things? Was it a combination of the wall being rebuilt and the census being taken that ignited some nationalistic fervor among the people?

Nehemiah 7 KJV
Rosh Hashannah

Maybe. I do have another idea. Now, maybe it’s just the season of year we’re in right now that’s kind of coloring my understanding of this passage. But I’d like to think that’s not the case. What month are we in here in Nehemiah? The 7^th month. And actually we’re on the 1^st day of that month. What happens on the 1^st day of the 7^th month in the Jewish calendar? It’s the Feast of Trumpets. This is also known as Rosh Hashannah, which is Jewish for “the Head of the Year.” It’s the Jewish New Year’s celebration.

Imagine my shock when this realization dawned upon me – we’ve just entered a new year. And in our passage so have the Jews! Incredible timing.

So in the absence of the text plainly telling us why the Jews were suddenly so enthusiastic about God’s word, I’m going to suggest that perhaps the hopes of a new year spurred them on to a renewed interest in the Lord and his word.

Nehemiah 7 KJV
New Year’s Resolutions

Surely you’ve known something of this kind of dynamic… For example, why do people make New Year’s resolutions? Ever wonder about that? I think it indicates that we as a race tend to have some renewed hope with the dawn of a new year.

Now, does anyone here have any New Year’s resolutions? Well, if not, it’s not too late to develop some!

So let’s go through the rest of chapters 8, 9, and 10 and try to make sense of what we see. Perhaps we’ll gain some pointers on how to make some God-honoring New Year’s resolutions.

That’s what I’ll entitle the message – God-Honoring New Year’s Resolutions.

Nehemiah 6 Summary: We’re just finishing up the section in Nehemiah that started in chapter 2:9. Do you remember way back then? That’s where Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem after he heard of the Jews’ plight and after he petitioned King Artaxerxes to be able to come and rebuild Jerusalem and help his Jewish brethren. Then he arrives in Jerusalem. And immediately we heard about the opposition Nehemiah faced. And yet despite that opposition, Nehemiah took his secret midnight ride around Jerusalem surveying the wall. Then he came to all the Jews and told them his plan for rebuilding the wall. And they agreed to his plan and started the work. But in 2:19 we again hear about opposition. But the Jews just go ahead with their building project. In 4:1 the enemies mock the Jews and again the Jews continue the work. In 4:7 the enemies plot to attack Jerusalem and to stop the work that way. But Nehemiah catches wind of this development and leads the Jews to be constantly vigilant against the enemy. And when the enemies heard that the Jews learned of their plot to attack the city, the enemies kind of backed off for a little while.

And that led us to chapter 5, which we covered last time. And admittedly the placement of that chapter is a little confusing. Do you remember the content of chapter 5? That’s where the trouble wasn’t coming from outside the Jews’ camp. The trouble was actually coming from Jews oppressing other Jews. And so we saw how Nehemiah the godly leader dealt with internal conflict among God’s people. We saw that he feared God and loved God’s people. And this fear he had caused him to be completely just to God’s people. He didn’t allow them to oppress each other. And he himself wasn’t involved in any such oppression. Why, again? Because he… feared God. Keep that in mind. Because I’m wondering why chapter 5 is where it is. It almost seems to be just kind of thoughtlessly slipped in where it is. Why do I say that? Well, our lesson for today covers chapter 6. And in chapter 6 we again see external opposition. You can see the names of the opponents in 6:1 – Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, etc. So think of this – 2:9 to the end of chapter 4 we see external opposition. Chapter 6 also deals with external opposition. And chapter 5 is just kind of sandwiched in the middle there – not dealing with external conflict but with internal conflict. Why did Nehemiah decide to insert chapter 5 where he did and then continue with the theme of external conflict in our chapter for today? Look at 5:9. Nehemiah confronts the rich among God’s people who were oppressing the poor among them. And he says “ought ye not walk in the…” Fear of our God. Look at 5:15. Nehemiah wasn’t making full use of his liberty and position to live at the expense of the Jews over whom he was ruling. Why did he not make full use of this liberty? Look at the last six words of this verse. “Because of the…” Fear of God. Nehemiah then feared God and loved his people. And we should, too. And that’s great to know. But how does this relate to chapter 6? We’ll you’ll just need to follow along through the rest of the message to find out! OK, so let’s start into this last message in this section dealing with the opposition that Nehemiah faced.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verses 1-2

Let’s read 6:1-2.

^KJV Nehemiah 6:1 ¶ Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) ² That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.

So Nehemiah is setting the scene for us. The cast of characters includes the three enemies he mentions in verse 1. These three aren’t new. We’ve seen them before. He also mentions “the rest of our enemies” – again giving us the idea that there was a list of these fiends which was too numerous to keep writing about. So we’ve got this great band of enemies of God’s people. And they hear something. They hear that Nehemiah rebuilt the wall. There was no breach left in it. And that’s what they heard. But the reality was that Nehemiah actually had yet to install the doors in the gate ways. So the gates were still open. And yet what the enemies heard was that the wall was rebuilt. So they change their tactic. They no longer are going to attempt to attack the city. No – with the wall in place that wasn’t advisable. They couldn’t easily enter the city. But they could draw people out of the city. And that’s why Sanballat and Geshem send a message to Nehemiah. They tell him that they’d like to have a meeting in the plain of a place called Ono. This was an area in Benjamin that was northwest of Jerusalem. Actually – you know me, I had to check – this is a real place currently in modern-day Israel. And if you type Ono, Israel and Jerusalem, Israel into any online map service you’ll see that today a car ride from one area to the other would take about 50 minutes to traverse the 41 miles between the two. We humans tend to walk at an average speed of 3 miles per hour. And at this rate a journey from Jerusalem to Ono would take over 13 hours. This then was a significant journey. I guess in a way Nehemiah would have been on his own turf, so to speak. Ono was in Benjamin and it seems that the Jews owned that land at the time. And yet such a long journey suggested by such avowed enemies as Sanballat and Geshem didn’t sit well with Nehemiah. And somehow – probably based on past incidents with this adversarial group – Nehemiah knew that they intended to harm him. And that’s not hard to picture. Imagine Nehemiah going off to Ono on his 13 hour trek. The enemies could have been waiting in ambush near the city and once Nehemiah left they could have just entered the city without much of a struggle. Or the enemies could have set ambushes along the way to Ono to kill Nehemiah. Or they could have waited until he got to Ono and then sprung their attack. Whatever their plan was, Nehemiah wasn’t buying into it. So with all this in mind, Nehemiah rejects their offer to meet.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 3

Let’s read verse 3.

³ And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

So Nehemiah’s response is predictable. He rejects their offer. He’s busy doing God’s great work. Why should he stop this work to come down and talk with these enemies? And really, have you pondered that? Why would Nehemiah want to meet with them? Why would the leader of the Jews who is building the walls of Jerusalem – why would he want to meet with the enemy? It’s not like they could or would contribute anything to him. He knows they’re up to no good. What could Nehemiah possibly stand to gain by meeting with them? So he rejects their offer. He says he’s not going to come down to them. Come down? I thought Ono was northwest of Jerusalem. Shouldn’t he say, “come up?” Actually Jerusalem is highly elevated so that no matter where you go from Jerusalem, the direction you go is typically “down.” So he’s not going to come down to them. How do the enemies take this rejection? They’re desperate. They know this is their last chance.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 4

Let’s see their response in verse 4.

⁴ Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

The enemies don’t get the hint. Three more times they send the same old message to Nehemiah and three more times he responds similarly to how he responded at first. So you can imagine after this that the enemies would get the hint.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verses 5-7

And they do in verse 5. Let’s see how they respond.

⁵ Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand; ⁶ Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. ⁷ And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.

So Sanballat can tell his overtures to Nehemiah aren’t being well-received. So he sends a fifth message. This time he sends it with his own personal servant. And the servant has an open letter in his hand. I think this indicates that others would have known the contents of the letter – like an open letter today. Today these open letters usually are published on the internet for all to see. The addressee is named, but whether that guy actually reads it or not, everyone else has the opportunity to read it. And I’m not sure how the servant would circulate the letter to other folks, but somehow I imagine that he did. So when we read the contents of this letter remember that not only is Nehemiah reading it. All of his fellow-Jews are reading it as well. And what does the letter say? The letter is making unsubstantiated claims about the leader of God’s people and threatening to report these claims to the king of Persia. There are these supposed reports from the nations (heathen). Further Gashmu is willing to substantiate these reports. Before we go on, who is Gashmu? It’s Geshem the Arab. It’s sort of like the difference in English between William and Bill or James and Jimmy. Geshem can be called Gashmu. And these reports claim that the Jews are planning to rebel. And this is why they’re rebuilding the wall. And Nehemiah furthermore wants to be their king within their walled capital. At least that’s what these trustworthy reports claim. And actually, according to these Gashmu-certified reports Nehemiah is appointing prophets to proclaim his kingship! And Sanballat is threatening to send these reports along to King Artaxerxes. And so Sanballat ends with this renewed appeal to meet together in Ono. You can imagine how Nehemiah and his people may have reacted to this letter from Sanballat. How would they feel? Lies are being circulated about their leader and their work. They’d want to defend themselves and their leader. They really were doing nothing wrong. The king himself had authorized their work. And yet, would the king believe the Jews or their enemies? Well, Nehemiah at least doesn’t let on that this letter from Sanballat swayed him at all.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 8

Look at his response in verse 8.

⁸ Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.

I love it. This should be our theme verse for 2014. There were some foundational facts used in this letter that were true – the Jews really were rebuilding the wall and Nehemiah really was their leader. But Sanballat took these facts and cast them in the worst light possible. So the wall is being rebuilt, yes. But it’s being rebuilt SO THAT the Jews can rebel against the king. And Nehemiah is the leader of the Jews, indeed. But really he intends to usurp authority from Persia and be the king of the Jews! And Nehemiah has stirred up the prophets to proclaim this to everyone! And you know what? Sanballat can find other enemies of God’s people to substantiate this claim – remember old Gashmu, for instance? He’s willing to substantiate these claims and even to put his name to these reports. The rest of the witnesses – well they’ll just remain anonymous under the label “the heathen” or “the nations.” Who knows who they are? Does it even matter? In light of Sanballat’s false attack I love Nehemiah’s response. You might want to make that your life verse if you’re constantly facing false accusations by people opposed to God’s work through you. “Sanballat, nothing of what you say is true. You’re simply inventing all this stuff in your mind.” And that’s all Nehemiah says. Nehemiah outright denies the verity of Sanballat’s reports. And he frankly states that Sanballat is just imagining these things. That’s it. This isn’t the only way we can respond to false accusations by our enemies but it is one way – “what you’re saying simply isn’t true. You’re making it up.” Now, what motivated Sanballat to insinuate this falsehood against God’s people and their leader?

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 9

Read verse 9.

⁹ For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

This was Sanballat’s desire – that all the Jews, not just Nehemiah, would become frightened. Then hopefully the Jews wouldn’t have the strength to continue God’s work. So perhaps by now with the sending of messengers and such, the enemies knew that the Jews didn’t yet have the doors up in the gates. So the Jews still have some work left to do. Let’s stop them, thought the enemies! It’s our last chance!

So the enemies of God’s people wanted Nehemiah and the Jews to fear them. After all the enemies had the power to give this damaging evidence – these reports – to the governing authorities. Ah – do you remember the question we were seeking to answer from earlier in this message? How do chapter 5 and chapter 6 relate to one another? Chapter 5 is about fearing God – Nehemiah did it. And now in chapter 6, who are the enemies wanting God’s people to fear? God? No, them. The enemies wanted God’s people to fear men. And yet, we already know that Nehemiah feared God. And therefore he would refuse to fear men. And this consideration brings us finally to the title of this message and I think the message of Nehemiah 6 — To accomplish God’s work you must overcome the fear of man. And this is what Nehemiah did. And how did he avoid fearing man? Chapter 5 – He feared God first and foremost and loved God’s people.

Now, Sanballat accused God’s people and their leader of a few things. One was that they were planning to rebel. The other was that Nehemiah planned to be their king. And do remember what Sanballat said Nehemiah was doing to promote this notion that he was their king? Nehemiah was having prophets proclaim that he was the new king in Jerusalem. Let’s keep this in mind as we look at the next scene from verses 10 through 14.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 10

We’ll read verse 10.

¹⁰ ¶ Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.

So Nehemiah apparently is visiting a shut-in named Shemaiah. The name of his father and grandfather are given, but they don’t really help us establish this man’s identity. And why is he shut-in at his home? We don’t know that either. He’s kind of a mysterious man up to this point. It’s possible he was experiencing some disability – whether temporary or permanent. One Hebrew lexicon suggests he was perhaps ceremonially unclean or fulfilling a vow. Whoever this man is and whatever his situation, we at least know that he has a dire warning for Nehemiah. Shemaiah urgently proposes that he and Nehemiah enter the temple together and hide themselves there. Why? Because Shemaiah apparently knows that the enemies are coming to kill Nehemiah and they’re going to do so at night. But wait. If this guy is a shut-in how does he know what the enemies’ plans are? We’ll find that out in a few verses.

Now, how do you think Nehemiah would respond to this warning from Shemaiah? Let’s think about Nehemiah’s situation. Let’s just assume Shemaiah is absolutely correct and the enemies are coming to kill Nehemiah at night. Would hiding in the Temple help? Remember – the doors in the gates aren’t installed yet. The enemies can come right into Jerusalem through those gates. What good would hiding in the Temple be to Nehemiah? What would keep the enemy from entering into the city and going right into the Temple to slay him there? No, Nehemiah’s only hope if the enemy were to attack would be to arm his fellow Jews and keep a constant watch just like we saw them doing a few chapters ago. So how does Nehemiah respond to Shemaiah?

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 11

Let’s keep reading verse 11.

¹¹ And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

So Nehemiah refuses to go into the Temple. Fleeing is not an option for this man. Going into the Temple would not save his life. In fact it would endanger everyone for him to run away and hide. There are many times where God’s people simply cannot afford the luxury of fleeing their situation. They need to face the enemy head-on. So why did Shemaiah give such bad advice?

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 12

That’s what Nehemiah discovers in verse 12. Let’s read it.

¹² And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Nehemiah didn’t need to think at all whether Sanballat was trying to harm him earlier in the chapter. He would have expected threats and danger from Sanballat. But Shemaiah was a fellow-Jew. Nehemiah should have been able to trust him. And look – he’s actually a prophet – that’s how a man who’s shut-in could apparently know of the enemies’ plans without needing to go outside of his home. So this prophet utters a false prophecy against Nehemiah. Why? The end of verse 12 – Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. But why? What were these two enemies trying to accomplish by hiring Shemaiah to give a false prophecy against Nehemiah?

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 13

Nehemiah explains that in verse 13.

¹³ Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

Now it’s all coming together! Do you remember Sanballat’s original false accusation of Nehemiah? Nehemiah was supposedly having prophets proclaim that he was the king of Judah. But of course Sanballat had no proof of that whatsoever. So he hires a shut-in prophet to try to lure Nehemiah into the Temple. The Temple is the site where at least once that I can recall a king was installed in Judah. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine what might have happened if Nehemiah would have accepted Shemaiah’s offer. He and Nehemiah would have entered the Temple. Just then Shemaiah may have burst back out through the door of the Temple with a shofar proclaiming that Nehemiah was the new king. Nehemiah of course would have been baffled as to why Shemaiah was doing this. I’m sure he would have tried to stop Shemaiah. “Wait, no, stop that. I’m not a king!” But it would have been too late. The witnesses would have seen and reported to whomever had hired them. Nehemiah would have been set up. The enemies would have an evil report against him and would reproach him. And did you pick up on the fear factor again? The enemies wanted Nehemiah to be afraid of them. And if Nehemiah did fear them this whole string of events would occur – he would enter the Temple, etc. But this godly leader never let that ball get rolling. He feared God as we saw in chapter 5 and therefore he didn’t fear man and what the enemies could do to him. And Nehemiah’s refusal to be afraid saved his life and saved God’s work in Jerusalem. So Nehemiah refused to fear man. Instead he took this concerning issue to the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 14

Let’s read about that in verse 14.

¹⁴ My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

I think this is amazing. Not only does Nehemiah need to call God’s attention to Tobiah and Sanballat and their evil deeds. And furthermore it’s not just Shemaiah that’s trying to sabotage God’s work through God’s leader. Actually Shemaiah is joined by a whole company of so-called prophets who are doing what? Trying to frighten Nehemiah! It’s unbelievable. Here’s a godly man like Nehemiah trying to help God’s people. He didn’t need to leave his comfortable job in the capital of Persia to come to dusty old Jerusalem to help God’s pathetically weak people. But he did this so selflessly. And some of those among God’s people who should be the most mature and helpful and on-board with the plans of God’s leader actually turn out to be his worst enemy. Brethren, let this be a warning to us. The most spiritually knowledgeable among us are still liable to fall. We need to take heed lest this happen. We each need to be striving to be a help and a blessing to the leader God has given us here in this assembly. Let’s not any one of us be found joining hands with the enemies of God’s people. Let’s not destroy the work that God is doing in this assembly.

Well you know, with all this talk of opposition you’d think there wasn’t much actual work getting done on the wall.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 15

If that is what you think, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear the news of verse 15!

¹⁵ ¶ So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

Let’s just quickly talk about the chronology of Nehemiah up to this point. The only other reference to a specific month we’ve had thus far is from chapter 2 where Nehemiah makes his request to Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem. That happened in the month Nissan which is the first month in the Jewish calendar – it overlaps our March/April. Then Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem which would have taken about 4 months. So then we should be in about the 5^th month in the Jewish calendar. Nehemiah then started the work on the wall sometime early in the month of Av which is indeed the 5^th month. Av overlaps our July/August. And 52 days later in the month of Elul Nehemiah finished the wall. So this is sometime around our August/September – the 6^th month in the Jewish calendar. So the chronology that Nehemiah presents to us is accurate. And it’s fun to be able to trace.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly impressed with this sequence of events. I mean, 52 days to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem is pretty amazing if you ask me. Personally, I’m struggling just trying to figure out how to replenish the mortar between the stones on the exterior of my house! So for me, to complete the restoration of a whole wall made of stones in 52 days causes me to take notice. And I’m not alone in my sense of astonishment.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 16

Let’s read verse 16.

¹⁶ And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.

The enemies of God’s people were greatly disheartened. All along these 52 days they thought they could thwart Nehemiah’s plans. They really didn’t think the work would get done. They thought they had the upper hand and that they could discourage God’s people and their leader from finishing the work. But the enemies were wrong. And what disheartened these enemies in particular? They saw that this work was brought about by the God of the Jews – the only true and living God. I guess they hadn’t planned on the Jews having a real God who can see and hear and act on behalf of his people. It’s easy for the enemies of God’s people to discount us. We’re weak. There aren’t many wise or noble in our ranks. We don’t have many political elites in the church. God has chosen the foolish and the base to receive forgiveness and to enter into his kingdom. And because these are the kind of folks that make up God’s people you can understand why the enemy thinks little of us. We are weak. And nothing we might attempt to accomplish should naturally succeed from a human point of view. But that’s why God gets all the glory whenever he does some mighty work through us. It’s evident when God’s work is accomplished amongst God’s people through their leaders that God is ultimately the one behind the work.

What a happy ending! God’s people overcame their enemies. They did God’s work, led by the man God would have to lead them. And the result is two-fold – the enemies were disheartened and some from among the enemies as we’ve seen joined themselves to the Jews and their God… But you know what? Nehemiah isn’t much for happy endings. He’s a realist and the reality is that in this life, reality does not often include a happy ending. So we heard that the enemies lost heart. But that doesn’t end their animosity to God’s people and in particular to their leader.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 17

Let’s read about it in verse 17.

¹⁷ Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.

Now I’m not sure what “in those days” means. Is Nehemiah saying that this all happened before the wall was rebuilt? Is he saying this happened after the wall was rebuilt? I’m not sure. But what I do know is this. Nehemiah intentionally put this account of Tobiah after he mentioned the wall being rebuilt. So whether Tobiah and the nobles were in cahoots before and/or after the wall was rebuilt – Nehemiah wants us to get the sense that he faced relentless opposition – even after the wall was rebuilt. It just didn’t stop. The enemies of God’s people can be tenaciously persistent in their opposition.

And does this not frustrate you? The nobles were in league with Tobiah. The nobles – those who were supposed to be noble, like their label would indicate – those who were probably more well-to-do than the average Jew – those who were strongly confronted by Nehemiah in chapter 5 for charging usury to their brethren – those folks who seemed to repent and agree to do right – who even took an oath that they’d do right –  these folks were corresponding with the enemy. Why? Why were they corresponding with Tobiah?

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 18

Read verse 18.

¹⁸ For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.

So Tobiah had some family connections with the Jews – and the nobles in particular. Now this wouldn’t have been the case if the Jews would have simply obeyed God and stopped intermarrying with foreigners who were hostile to God and his people. And this reminds me of when Ezra came to Jerusalem. Remember how the people reported that the Jews were marrying pagans? What did they say? They said that the higher-class folk were among the worst offenders. And this unhappy “marriage” – pardon the pun – was one result of the nobles’ disobedience to God’s word – this strange mixture of God’s people and their enemies. So Tobiah married a woman who happened to be Shechaniah’s daughter. Shechaniah was the son of Arah. And Arah was a man who apparently returned with Zerubbabel back in Ezra chapter 2. Furthermore, Tobiah’s son married the daughter of Meshullam. We saw this guy working on several places on the wall of Jerusalem. But he gave his daughter in marriage to the son of an enemy of God’s people who would like to see that very work stopped. And usually the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. So I imagine that Tobiah’s son shared many of the beliefs of his father and was probably antagonistic to the idea of the Jews following God’s commands.

Can we just step back and think of how bizarre this situation truly is? The Jewish nobles stood to gain a great deal from Nehemiah’s leadership. With Nehemiah they had a man who was working to strengthen them. Nehemiah was paving the way for reforms that would see the Jews following God and separated from their enemies. The enemies – Tobiah included – on the other hand wanted to see the Jews weak and unable to defend themselves. The enemies wanted the Jews to continue to sin against their God and thus be continually on the receiving end of God’s chastening. Nehemiah wanted to free the Jews from this. And yet to whom do these nobles turn? To their godly leader Nehemiah? No. They apparently miss Tobiah. They feel obliged to write to him. “Dear Tobiah, We sure miss you since our oppressive new leader came to town. We hope to see you soon. Love, The Nobles.” Maybe the Nobles think that Tobiah could still have a place in Jerusalem. Maybe they think that Nehemiah is too hardline in distancing himself from God’s enemies and not allowing them a place in the religious and social life of God’s people.

Nehemiah 6 Summary
Verse 19

And I think maybe this is why we see the Nobles do what they do in verse 19.

¹⁹ Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

The Nobles tell Nehemiah about all the good that Tobiah has done. I’m guessing this is an attempt to influence Nehemiah to allow Tobiah back into their lives. But what kind of effect might this situation have on Nehemiah? Can you imagine this godly leader’s struggle? He knows the Jews need to stop being influenced by Tobiah and folks like him. At the same time he understands how they’re connected to Tobiah because of unlawful intermarriage. And furthermore Nehemiah can recognize that Tobiah is still made in God’s image and isn’t as completely evil as he could possibly be – he does have some good works to speak of. And yet Nehemiah as the leader ultimately before God needs to prevent Tobiah from influencing the Jews in any way, shape, or form with his ungodliness. This was an unpopular stance for Nehemiah to take. But it was necessary… In our present situation sometimes it’s those of us who know the most who want to advocate for some of the most ungodly things. And praise the Lord if God’s people have a godly leader who will put his foot down and risk being despised and betrayed by his own people in doing what he knows to be right. God help us to accept the instruction and scriptural limitations our own godly leaders place before us.

And how does this story end? Tobiah hears of Nehemiah’s words relayed to him by his buddies the nobles. And Tobiah sends letters to Nehemiah… in order to do what? To frighten him. Sometimes the enemies of God’s people and their leader – they just don’t quit. Praise the Lord for a leader who won’t bow under the pressure to fear man. Praise the Lord for a man who will lead God’s people to do right. God help us to not discourage such men. And God help us to personally overcome the fear of man to accomplish God’s work.

Nehemiah 5 Summary: Today we’ll be studying Nehemiah chapter 5. So let’s briefly survey how we got to this point in the story.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Chapter 1

The book of Nehemiah starts by describing the circumstances that brought Nehemiah to Jerusalem. Chapter 1 starts with Nehemiah discovering that Jerusalem was desolate and that the Jews were greatly distressed. So Nehemiah humbled himself before God and prayed. And we read his prayer. And based on the tone and content of that prayer I have a suspicion that Nehemiah thought that God may have been sending the Jews out of the land once again for their unfaithfulness.

Well maybe you say – how could that be? What did the Jews do that made Nehemiah think that God was sending them out of the land for their sin?? Throughout the the books of Ezra and Nehemiah it seems like the Jews are never far from total apostasy. For example, remember when Ezra came to Jerusalem just a decade or so before Nehemiah arrived? He found that the people had been engaging in sinful inter-marriage with the enemy! We saw the peoples’ propensity to slide back into sin in the time of Zerubbabel and Jeshua. Even at the end of the book of Nehemiah we see that when Nehemiah leaves for a little while the people go right back to their old sinful ways. So, we’re not told exactly what the people did to make Nehemiah think that they were being chastened by God. But given the Jews’ track record, you can imagine why Nehemiah might have feared that this was the case again.

At any rate, Nehemiah formed a plan to return to Jerusalem and to help God’s people. Artaxerxes approved that plan. And Nehemiah was off to Jerusalem!

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Stopping Sin

Now how would you help God’s people to stop slipping into sin if you were Nehemiah? Do you see a pattern to the Jews’ sin? I think we see that often the Jews are influenced to sin by the ungodly pagans around them. They intermarry with the pagans. We’ll see later that some of them have an alliance with an influential pagan. At the end of this book they let one of the pagans back into the city – into the Temple actually. So it seems like the Jews just couldn’t resist forming partnerships with their enemies. And unfortunately when this was happening it wasn’t the Jews who were influencing the pagans. It was the pagans who were influencing the Jews to break God’s law and adopt ungodly practices. Can you see now why the first thing Nehemiah does is to build a wall of separation between the Jews and their enemies? It’s as if he knew that keeping the ungodly influence out was essential if these people were going to have a chance of keeping themselves undefiled and clear of God’s anger and chastisement.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Walls Rebuilt

So Nehemiah started rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem with the Jews’ help. He hoped this would help keep the ungodly enemies out of God’s holy city. Now, how do you think the enemies felt about this? Well we don’t need to guess because we already saw the opposition that immediately met them as they tried to erect a barrier of separation between God’s people and the ungodly world around them.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Enemy Opposition

And the opposition was fierce. You remember all the enemies – Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and really all the nations surrounding Jerusalem. They were all ready to attack the poor weak Jews. And at this point the wall is still not fully re-built. So these enemies are still threatening to enter the city. Let’s see their next attempt to attack the Jews. Read 5:1… “And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against SANBALLAT AND TOBIAH… no — their brethren the Jews.”

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Internal Opposition

Whoa, that may have caught us off-guard! I wasn’t expecting this change of conflicts. I’m used to God’s people experiencing conflict with external opponents. But you just don’t expect it from internal folks who should be on the right side. But whether we expect it or not, that’s exactly what we have here – opposition: not from the external enemies but from folks who are among God’s people.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Fear God, Love His People

And so originally I thought that this passage was mainly focused on godly leaders dealing with internal opposition as opposed to what we’ve seen before with godly leaders facing external opposition. But I don’t think that’s the main point of chapter 5. And so I’ll give you the title of today’s message and see if it bears out throughout chapter 5 — Godly leaders fear God and love his people. I think this chapter is yet another opportunity for Nehemiah to showcase his actions as a godly leader. So let’s learn all we can from this godly leader. I think every husband, parent, teacher, and really everyone else who has some sort of influence over others – I think we all have something to learn.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Jew vs. Jew

So Nehemiah the godly leader is faced with internal strife. And this was a big deal. It was a great outcry. The people and their wives took issue with their Jewish brethren. It’s Jew versus Jew. And that’s all we know so far. Well what’s the big cause for the disturbance? Let’s read verse 2.

For there were that said,

We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.

So here’s some of these people who were crying out.

And they were saying that there was a number of them. There were a good number of Jews in the land at that time. And for the most part it seems that each family had a number of children. So there were a lot of these people.

Well, that’s good. Part of God’s blessings to his people are that they would be abundant. So what’s the problem? The problem comes in the last half of that verse. They indicate that they don’t have anything to eat.

Let me clear up a few translation issues here. First, “corn” is a translation of a Hebrew word that can also mean “grain.” So these people need grain or food of some sort.

The second issue that needs explanation is the phrase “therefore we take up.” In the Hebrew text this verb communicates that these people are saying something like “therefore let us take up or get grain.”

These people are all together confirming the fact that there are many of them and that they are hungry and need some food!

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Why No Food?

Well, I don’t get it! Why don’t these people have food? Are they lazy or something? Let’s read verse 3.

Some also there were that said,

We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

So we’re presented two problems that are contributing to the Jews going hungry.

First they’ve mortgaged their property. Here’s what they did. They had a need for food and apparently their last option was to give up the only property they owned as collateral for a loan so they could buy some food.

The second issue brought up is this business about the “dearth.” This of course is a word that simply means a “lack” of something. Lack of what? Well, in the context they’re lacking food. And this is a widespread issue, at least in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. What do we call a widespread lack of food? Yes, a famine.

So we’re getting a more complete picture of what’s going on here. The people lack food because there’s a famine in the land. They don’t have enough money to buy food so they get a loan from their Jewish brethren to buy it.

The only problem is that they need to put their fields and homes up as collateral to get these loans. So they’re just on a downward spiral.

And really, some things are worth getting a loan for – like buying a house maybe or something that may increase in value. But food? Food just gets eaten and then it’s gone. It’s not as if the people who are getting these loans are going to be able to pay these loans off. Especially if they don’t have their fields anymore. How else would they have made money to pay their lenders back if not for their produce?

Do you see the hopeless downward spiral these Jews have descended upon? The situation is bleak. That’s how we ought to feel for these folks. Sympathize with their plight.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Taking Their Children?!

In modern times this would be akin to you having to put your grocery bill on the credit card and never being able to get enough money to pay off your credit card balance. Interest piles up. Bills go unpaid. Collection agencies start calling. Repossessing your stuff. Taking things that are valuable to you – maybe even your own children!

Well but that doesn’t happen in modern-day America!

You’re right. It doesn’t.

But it did in post-exilic Judah. Let’s read verses 4 and 5 for more details.

There were also that said,

We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

So in addition to the famine that’s causing the Jews to mortgage their fields, there’s also this matter of paying the king’s tax on those fields. And the Jews are finding themselves unable to pay this tax.

So the result of this is not pretty. The Jews are starting to sell their children back into slavery in order to get some money to pay this tax – a tax on land that they don’t even own anymore!

Why don’t they own it? Because other men own that land now.

Well, who owned the land? The poor Jews allude to the answer as did Nehemiah in verse 1 of this chapter. The Jews say that they are just like their brethren and their children are like their children. Except now they are needing to sell their children… to their Jewish brethren.

But why? Because the wealthy Jews are doing something evil that’s leading the poorer Jews to need to start selling their children to them.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Verses 1-5

So here’s a summary of this situation.

Most all of the Jewish families would have owned land at that time. And they would live off the produce of their land typically.

But there’s a famine. And their fields aren’t producing like they usually would.

Add to this that the king is still taxing their land.

And so some of the poorer Jews are borrowing money from richer Jews to get grain and to pay this tax.

But the poorer Jews need to hand over their land as collateral.

And because their land is basically someone else’s they’re starting to resort to selling their own beloved children to try to make ends meet. And in fact some of them have daughters in particular who are already slaves – slaves to their own Jewish countrymen!

Nehemiah 5 Summary – His Reaction

So Nehemiah hears about this. How do you think he reacts? Let’s read verses 6 and 7.

⁶ ¶ And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

⁷ Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them,

Ye exact usury, every one of his brother.

And I set a great assembly against them.

So Nehemiah was very angry. This is the same word (charah) that’s used of Sanballat’s feelings when he heard the Jews were succeeding in the work. Isn’t that interesting? The enemies are angry when the Jews are succeeding and Nehemiah is angry when the Jews are failing.

Nehemiah then consults with himself. And the picture I initially got of that was Nehemiah muttering to himself like a crazy guy. That’s not the picture we’re to have in our minds. The sort of mechanical way of translating this would be – “my heart took counsel upon me.” His heart counseled him or vice versa. What would that look like? He’s mulling this over. He’s carefully thinking about this situation and what he ought to do.

And he eventually figured out exactly what to do. He rebukes the nobles and rulers. Ah, so there’s the group that’s taking advantage of their poorer Jewish brethren!

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Usury

And what does he accuse these nobles and rulers of? Exacting usury. What is that? Usury is exorbitant interest. Like you see those credit cards out there and if you read the fine print some of these cards charge around 20% interest. This is in my estimation a modern-day example of usury.

Well, what’s the big deal? I mean, business is business, right? The poor Jews didn’t need to go to the rich Jews for loans. Well, maybe they did. But I mean, surely it’s not as if the poor Jews didn’t know the conditions of their loans with the rich Jews. Why is Nehemiah so upset? These poor Jews should just work hard and pay off these loans.

Well, do you remember what I think is Nehemiah’s mindset for coming to Jerusalem in the first place? Remember, the Jews are scattered out of Jerusalem for the most part. And I think Nehemiah is fearing that another exile is coming if these Jews don’t do right.

But by what standard can Nehemiah judge whether they’re “doing right” or not? What was the equivalent of the Jews’ national constitution? The Law of Moses, right? And wouldn’t you know it? The Law has something to say to Jews about charging interest to their Jewish brothers. Let’s turn to Leviticus 25. And we’ll read verses 35 through 38.

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

God’s command to Israel was to not lend to their brethren with interest. If a Jewish brother became poor his neighbors needed to help him. They could lend to him. But it would be a 0% APR, Free-Financing type of loan – no interest! His fellow Jews were not to become rich off their brethren.

In fact, if the poor Jew needed food, the rich Jew was commanded to not make a profit off of that. The purpose was so that the poor Jew would be able to regain his bearings financially and move on and keep the land that was allotted to him and his family continually throughout their generations.

What was the rich Jews’ motivation for doing this? He stood to gain nothing. He would have to lend his money and get nothing in return. What would motivate a man to do such a thing?

Look again at verse 36.

Take thou no usury of him or increase but… fear thy God.

That’s the key. And that alone is what would motivate anyone to do right despite financial inconvenience. The fear of God.

Remember that mention here as we move along back into Nehemiah. In fact let’s turn back there to Nehemiah 5:7.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Nehemiah Confronts the Sinners

So now we see why Nehemiah was angry.

The Jews were breaking God’s law. They were putting themselves in the cross hairs of God’s burning anger. The rich Jews were not obeying God and were oppressing the poor Jews. This could very well end in the Jews being deported once more by God.

And Nehemiah stood as the lone voice of reason – the one who would fill in the gap so to speak – and would try to divert God’s anger.

How would he do this? He would need to confront the ones who were doing wrong in a very public and solemn manner. And that’s just what we see at the end of verse 7.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – The Great Assembly

He calls a great assembly against the offenders. Can you imagine that? A GREAT assembly.

I’m not sure how many people we’re talking about attending this assembly. But I’m sure all the nobles and rulers were there. They were probably stationed in the middle where everyone could see them.

Then of course the oppressed poor Jews would have been there. This meeting was of special interest to them. Really, their lives depended on the outcome of this assembly.

Then of course Nehemiah was there serving as the prosecution and judge. And here’s what he says to the nobles and rulers. Verse 8.

⁸ And I said unto them,

We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen;

and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us?

Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.

Here’s Nehemiah’s first round of questioning.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Buying Back Slaves

He reminds the nobles and rulers that the Jews by and large had been sold to the nations. After the exile they were scattered and many apparently were sold off as slaves to Gentiles.

And Nehemiah and some of his partners – maybe even including some of these nobles and rulers! –  were active in buying back these Jews from the nations. We wouldn’t have known that unless he had just revealed it here.

Now, I’m sure that wasn’t cheap – buying back a person out of slavery. It’s something that Nehemiah didn’t need to do. No one was forcing him to buy back Jews from slavery. And yet he did it out of love for his fellow-Jews.

So in light of Nehemiah’s generous actions can you imagine how frustrating the actions of the rich Jews must have been. Now it wasn’t the Gentiles who were enslaving the poor Jews. It was the Jews themselves enslaving one another!

And here’s the most frustrating part of all. Nehemiah wouldn’t let this enslaving go on. He and his partners would buy back these Jews. And I’m guessing that some of these Jews Nehemiah had already emancipated from the Gentiles just a little while ago. And here they are again, needing Nehemiah to buy them back once more. Can you envision that? A Jew is bought back from slavery to a Gentile only to become a slave to a fellow Jew only to be bought back by Nehemiah. And the cycle continues. Isn’t that absurd?

Nehemiah 5 Summary – More Questions

How would these rich Jews defend themselves against this charge? Well we saw it already. They couldn’t find a word to say in their defense. They knew they had done wrong.

But that doesn’t stop Nehemiah from stating the obvious in verses 9 through 11.

⁹ Also I said,

It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies? ¹⁰ I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury. ¹¹ Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

Here’s Nehemiah’s second round of questioning.

He asserts very simply that what they’re doing to their poor brethren is not good. He asks rhetorically whether they ought to walk in the what? The fear of God. That should remind you of the passage we read earlier in Leviticus. You remember that the motivation for the people not exacting usury or interest from their poor brothers was that they should be fearing God.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Why Fear God?

And what’s interesting is that in this passage we see deeper motivation to fear God in the first place. So, why should they not collect interest on their brothers? Because they should fear God. Why should they fear God? Well, in this passage he says the motivation to fear God should come at least from the fact that they have enemies around them that are reproaching them. Not just the poor Jews but also the rich Jews are being subjected to this ridicule and derision from their enemies. It’s like Nehemiah is saying, “Don’t you understand that we as the people of God need to be unified? The enemies know that we’re weak. They’d love to see us fighting among ourselves. And you rich Jews who are claiming to be God-fearers and servants of God – if you oppress your brother, what kind of testimony is that to these unrighteous enemies of ours?”

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Stop the Usury

And the end of verse 10 and into verse 11 is Nehemiah’s plea to the rich Jews – please stop charging interest to your poor brothers. Lend them money without interest. Give them food without making a profit off of them. Restore the land that you took from them. And stop taking the money and food that you are continually charging them.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – The Rich Respond

Now, this is the moment of truth. These rich folks probably held quite a bit of sway in the Jewish community. This series of questions from Nehemiah may have been humiliating to them. They may not have appreciated being the focal point of this great assembly that Nehemiah called against them. How would they respond to this call to action? This is really the most tense part of this scene.

Let’s see how the rich Jews respond in verse 12.

¹² Then said they,

We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest.

Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.

Wow, the nobles and rulers humbled themselves and adopted Nehemiah’s plan. What a relief. Just what the Jews didn’t need was to be fractured any further in the midst of their hostile enemies.

And this shows again what we’ve seen already in this book – this tendency of the Jews after the exile to be pretty malleable when confronted with their wrongdoing.

And I’m sure Nehemiah was pretty relieved to hear their response. But he really wants to make sure they stick to their word. So he calls the priests to take an oath from the nobles and rulers that they would keep their promise.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Object Lesson

Then Nehemiah gives them an object lesson to help them remember to do right. Verse 13.

¹³ Also I shook my lap, and said,

So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.

Nehemiah takes his dusty old robe – a robe that had seen a lot of hard labor on the dirty wall – a robe that had been worn in the dusty, near-desert conditions of Jerusalem, spending numberless hours every day pulling dusty stones out of dusty piles of dusty rubbish.

Nehemiah takes hold of this dusty old robe and he shakes it. He shakes it hard.

I can imagine that when he did this, some dust probably just fell to the ground. The rest probably was launched into the air. Before that, that dust had settled pretty well on Nehemiah’s garment. But when he shook it out, some landed on the ground. The rest flew into the air. But none remained on Nehemiah.

And that was to be a solemn warning to those who would transgress this promise they made to not lend to their brothers with interest. They were settled in the land just like that dust was settled on Nehemiah’s clothes. But God would shake them out of the land if they disobeyed.

I think that got the point across. The people rejoiced that justice had been done. The nobles and rulers did according to their promise. Praise the Lord for a leader like Nehemiah. Godly leaders fear God and love his people. In this situation this godly leader was motivated to fear God even when those he was leading were not.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Love in Two Forms

And his love for God’s people took two forms.

How did he love the oppressed, disadvantaged, and offended among God’s people? He made matters right for them. He saw to it that they were no longer mistreated.

And how did Nehemiah show love to those who were doing the mistreating? He insisted that they stop their injustices against their brothers.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – More Love

And this isn’t the only instance of Nehemiah fearing God and loving God’s people. Let’s read verse 14.

¹⁴ ¶ Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.

Alright, what do we have here? Nehemiah is refusing himself and his brothers the bread of the governor.

Who was the governor? Well, the beginning of the verse says that Nehemiah himself was the governor.

So what is this “bread of the governor?” Apparently as we learn in the rest of this chapter the governor had a right according to Persian law to eat his food at the expense of those whom he governed.

Nehemiah did not claim any such right. He could have done so lawfully. But he refused.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – A Love That Refuses Luxury

I wonder why. Keep reading – verse 15.

¹⁵ But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people:

but so did not I, because of the fear of God.

So we see here that Nehemiah was acting in stark contrast to those who preceded him.

Who were these governors anyway? Well, we don’t know – at least I don’t. The Bible doesn’t say. Nehemiah surely isn’t talking about Zerubbabel. He had been gone for a number of decades by this point.

Well, whoever these former governors were they apparently liked to live at the expense of the destitute Jews. They took from the Jews. They took bread. They took wine. They took silver. And if that wasn’t bad enough even their lowly servants oppressed the Jews.

But Nehemiah was completely different.

And I just asked this before. But why was he so different? Look at the last four words of verse 15. There’s that phrase again! The fear of God. That’s what motivated Nehemiah to do right. This loving reverential fear of displeasing God. And whenever we’re truly fearing displeasing God, we’re bound to do right to his people. And this is what happened with Nehemiah.

Now really Nehemiah was in a pretty comfortable position. He could have just kind of coasted along at the expense of the Jews. But he didn’t. He testifies to that fact in verse 16.

¹⁶ Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work.

Do you see the singularity of mind that Nehemiah had? He was missional in his approach to life. He came to Jerusalem to work on that wall. And work on that wall, he did! He didn’t even busy himself with purchasing land.

And his servants? Well, they certainly weren’t slacking either. They were gathered to work right alongside this godly leader who feared God and loved his people.

Nehemiah 5 Summary – More to Love

And if these considerations haven’t made us love and admire Nehemiah enough we have the content of verses 17 and 18.

¹⁷ Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us.

¹⁸ Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine:

yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

Imagine packing 150 plus people into your house for every meal! And imagine cooking all the things that Nehemiah provided for his scores of guests every day! Oxen, sheep, birds, wine to flavor and disinfect their water. I imagine they also had some vegetables.

This would be costly to Nehemiah. This would require his servants – because I’m gathering that he didn’t have a wife – it would require that his servants clean and prepare for each of these meals. This would be a lot of work and a significant expense.

But you don’t hear a hint of complaint from this godly leader. He says he didn’t take the governor’s food allowance as he mentioned earlier. I mean he had every right to take it. He was feeding a number of his subjects. But he fed them for free. Well, it was free to them. It cost him quite a bit I imagine.

And yet he gladly bore the extra expense. Why? He says at the end of verse 18 – he sympathized with the people. The burden was already very heavy on the people. They were maxed out physically and monetarily. They had nothing else to give.

So Nehemiah, who feared God and loved his people, he took the extra burden upon himself.

Again, I am really put to shame by Nehemiah’s example. What a godly leader. Oh that each of us husbands were this kind of leader to his wife. That us parents were this kind of leader to our children. That we would appreciate our own godly leaders who exemplify for us Nehemiah’s fear of God and love for people. God help us!

Nehemiah 5 Summary – Humility

I want to point out one last thing. Have you noticed who’s been writing this book thus far? You see a lot of 1^st person personal pronouns – I, me, my, our, us. Nehemiah is writing this about himself.

Can you imagine being the kind of man that Nehemiah was and writing these glowing things about yourself? I personally do not doubt that I’d be lifted up with pride as I put my quill to parchment trying to describe what I did for God and his people.

But what’s Nehemiah’s attitude? What audience is he appealing to as he writes about these things that God had done through him? Let’s finally read verse 19.

¹⁹ Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

Is Nehemiah recording these things for his own vainglory? No. That’s not what’s in his heart. He’s not doing these things, he’s not writing this book, for the sake of having men praise him.

He’s doing it in God’s sight alone. If others see, that’s fine. But he must have God notice. He wants praise from him alone. That’s his sole focus.

God help each of us who are leaders in any capacity to fear him and love his people just as Nehemiah did.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon: Let’s think about what kind of writing the book of Nehemiah is.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Narrative Style

It’s a story or a narrative. And just like a well-written secular narrative, its author – ultimately God – desires to draw us into the story line.

He wants us to identify with the characters. He wants us to hear the sounds and see the sights and smell the scents as if we were actually there.

When someone – even God – writes a story, he wants to share an experience with us. And so let’s review the kind of experience that God through Nehemiah has been sharing with us these last few weeks.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Nehemiah Went to Jerusalem

First, recall how Nehemiah got to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Doing Fine in Persia

He was just going along with his life as an exiled Jew in the kingdom of Persia. He had somehow gotten into a pretty high position – one that required quite a bit of trust from the Persian king Artaxerxes. Nehemiah was his cup-bearer. He would taste his food and drink before it got to the king. That’s why I say that the king must have had quite a bit of trust invested in Nehemiah.

And because of the nearness of these two, Nehemiah very well might have acted as something of an unofficial advisor to Artaxerxes. So he had a privileged position in the greatest kingdom of the world at that time.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Concerned for God’s People

But he still had concern for his people and their holy city. And when his brother and a few of his companions returned from Jerusalem, Nehemiah asked how the Jews and Jerusalem were doing.

He was then shocked to discover that Jerusalem was desolate and its walls had been broken down.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Seeks How to Help

He humbly seeks God for months and devises a plan to return to Jerusalem and help his fellow-Jews turn to God with their whole heart so that God won’t scatter and exile them from their land again.

He approached the king with his request and amazingly Artaxerxes granted him all his desire. So Nehemiah journeys to Jerusalem and makes it there safely.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Opposition

We remember then from last week that he immediately was aware of opposition in the form of two villains by the names of Sanballat and Tobiah.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | So Wicked

I’ve had questions about these two characters from some of you. I think we kind of wonder who these guys are and why they’re so antagonistic. And I’ve considered laying out for us more details about them. But I think I’ll just kind of reveal what the book of Nehemiah reveals when it reveals it.

So we’ll get more information about Sanballat and Tobiah, but I won’t jump ahead of the narrative. If you really want to know anything more, you can read ahead in the story.

But anyway, these two guys are true villains. They’re bad.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | As Bad as Sandy Hook Murderer

I don’t want to minimize the gravity of a situation like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting of last year in Connecticut. Do you remember that? This was the situation where a very evil young man murdered his mother and then drove to an elementary school full of kindergartners through 4^th graders. He then proceeded to murder 6 staff members and 20 helpless, innocent little kids. He then shot himself in the head and – we have a solid basis in asserting – was immediately ushered into his eternal punishment.

But here’s what I intend to say about Sanballat and Tobiah in regard to that situation. They in some ways are just as bad as this Sandy Hook shooter.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Comparison to Sanballat and Tobiah

The elementary kids were helpless. So were these Jews.

The kids had done nothing wrong to this shooter. Neither had the Jews done anything wrong to Sanballat and Tobiah.

Some of us have marveled that Nehemiah doesn’t really tell us why these two are so opposed to the Jews’ well-being. And we might be tempted to find out the reason.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Why the Opposition?

We could guess that maybe these two were making some gain off these weakened Jews and so they stood to lose quite a bit if the Jews were strengthened and allowed to be a sovereign group. You’ll hear later in this message more reason to think this was the case.

Perhaps these two were kind of usurping authority over the Jews since the Jews didn’t have an official governor.

Maybe it’s like the enemies of the Jews today in the Middle East – the enemies simply do not want the Jews back in their home land. And they’re ready to prevent the Jews from living in the land at all costs.

We’re not told for sure why the enemies are so bitterly opposed to the Jews.  So I’m going to suggest that we’re intentionally not given a reason for Sanballat and Tobiah’s animosity.

Why?

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Senseless Opposition

Perhaps simply so that we get a feel for how senseless their hatred of the Jews was.

In other words, there was no explanation to the hatred. And so Nehemiah doesn’t provide us with one.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Building the Wall

Now despite this senseless but fierce opposition, Nehemiah goes ahead and starts building the wall.

I am so encouraged by this man’s boldness and courage to continue doing right in the face of opposition. And we’re going to see a great deal more of this courage in the face of opposition.

Why?

Because this opposition picks right up in chapter 4 verse 1 where we left off. This leads to the title of our message today. How a godly leader responds to opposition. Read Nehemiah 4:1.

We only hear about Sanballat this time. Great, maybe the opposition is waning!

Well, just hold on a minute. Sanballat isn’t by any means alone in opposing God’s work.

So Sanballat the Samaritan hears that the walls are being rebuilt despite his efforts to intimidate the builders. And this fills him with rage.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | The Opposition Mocks

The enemies of God’s people react in a number of different ways when God’s work is going on with power. We’ve seen anger from the opposition. We’ve seen the opposition think little of – or despise – the Jews.

What does the opposition do now?

Sanballat tries his hand at mockery. Let’s see what he says. Read verse 2.

Ah so here’s Sanballat’s audience. His brethren are there. This might be his siblings or simply some of his Samaritan countrymen. And then the army of Samaria is there, as well, to hear his mockery of the Jews.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Aggressive Opposition

The fact that the army is here should give us a clue that there’s some danger here for the Jews. What does an army do except wage war – either in offense or defense? But the Jews are certainly in no position to attack. So I think the mention of this Samaritan army actually forecasts some future aggression.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Mocking Weakness

Now what does Sanballat say to these folks? He highlights the weakness of the Jews.

They’re feeble, he says.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Mocking Questions

He incredulously asks these questions about them – Will they fortify themselves? Like, can they really re-build the wall? The answer Sanballat is expecting? No!

Will they sacrifice, he says? I’m guessing from this question that the Jews were in fact not sacrificing in their Temple at that point. The Temple was there. It was rebuilt. But the desolation of Jerusalem resulted in sacrifices ceasing to be offered in that Temple.

Further, Sanballat asks if the Jews can finish their work in a day. Well, of course they can’t. And he knows it. No one could. But I think by this question he’s intending a little psychological warfare. By bringing up this matter of how long it might take for the Jews to finish their work I think Sanballat hopes they might consider that this rebuilding might take them a long long time to complete.

To add to this wearying question, Sanballat asks if the Jews can revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish that were probably evident all over Jerusalem at that time. The Jews are in for a difficult process of taking all these stones out of these heaps of rubbish and making something of them. And to make matters worse and more humiliating to the Jews, some of the stones they were needing to pull out of the wreckage – they were burned with fire.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Taunting Opposition

Really, what Sanballat is doing here is taunting the Jews and trying to intimidate them by doing this.

And remember Sanballat has an audience – his brothers and the army of Samaria.

How do you think they responded?

“No, please Sanballat. Consider their feelings”?

Or what about “You know, Sanballat, these Jews are claiming to be God’s people. We should probably just leave them alone”?

No. I imagine these rough heartless fiends sitting together in the gate of one of their cities cursing the Jews and their God. I can imagine that Sanballat’s oration may have resulted in a round of applause. Maybe it was met with laughter that was deep, long, loud, and scornful.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Tobiah Takes his Turn

And if Sanballat’s sarcastic comments got a few laughs from this group of God’s enemies then just wait ‘til they hear from Tobiah. Let’s read verse 3.

Maybe Tobiah was encouraged on by Sanballat’s mockery of the Jews. Emboldened to put his evil wit on display, he delivers the one-liner we just read. Tobiah offers that perhaps the quality of the Jews’ work will be so shoddy that if a creature as small as a fox jumps on it, the whole wall will come crashing down.

Foxes typically don’t weigh any more than a two-year-old child. This was a real insult. And I’m sure the result was uproarious and hatred-filled laughter.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | The Real Object of Ridicule

But what were these fiends really laughing about? Whom were they mocking?

These villains were laughing at the Jews. The Jews were God’s people. These Jews were back in the land by God’s appointment. They were doing God’s work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And they had many obstacles to overcome. They were weakened.

And if Nehemiah wasn’t there, they’d be utterly hopeless and weaker than a new born baby in some ways.

And this is who Sanballat, Tobiah, and their comrades were laughing at. And as I said, I imagine they were all having a lot of fun with this round of mockery over the Jews’ progress.

Nehemiah 4 Sermon | Not Amused

Oh, except there was at least one person who didn’t think this was very funny. Let’s read his reaction to the taunt of the enemy in verses 4 and 5.

Nehemiah starts by invoking God to hear his people and particularly the rest of Nehemiah’s prayer. Why should God hear? Well, certainly the Jews are God’s people. God had made a covenant with them. He loves them. So he would certainly be inclined to hear them based on that fact. But beyond that, Nehemiah gives another reason. Not only do the Jews have a special relationship with God. But they are also despised. The enemies are thinking little of the Jews abilities and strength, yes. But where do those abilities and strengths come from? I think the idea here is that the enemies are ultimately thinking little of God’s power to help his people get his work done. So, Nehemiah is saying, “Please listen to us, our God. The enemies are despising you. Don’t let this stand!”

What does Nehemiah ask that God do in response to this despising of the enemies? He wants God to return the content of their own mockery right back on them. And more specifically he wants God to make them a weak group in a land in which they’re captive. Why? Because that’s exactly what the Jews were and exactly what the enemies wanted them to remain – a small abused oppressed minority in a land in which they weren’t sovereign – they were slaves. So Nehemiah asks that the enemies be put in the situation the Jews were facing. That’s palatable, I think.

But what about verse 5? Nehemiah asks God to – it seems – not forgive the sins of these people. How do we handle a request like this from a man we know to be godly? Is this a character flaw we’re seeing in Nehemiah – that he’s given to emotional rash overstatements? Is this godly man really asking that these enemies be condemned to everlasting torment with no possibility in this life of their sins being forgiven? I don’t think that’s the case. Read this statement in context. Nehemiah tells God that the enemies are thinking little of the Jews. That’s evident from the last few verses we read where they’re mocking the Jews all together. Nehemiah asks that the very belittling comments they made about Jews – that those be enacted not upon the Jews but upon the enemies themselves. Then Nehemiah asks God to not overlook the sin of the enemies – not to cover or blot it out. Well, what sin is he referring to? Every sin that these sinners have sinned their entire sinful life? I think not. I think Nehemiah’s referring to this particular sin they’re committing – despising God’s work through his people. And when Nehemiah asks God to not cover this sin of theirs I think he’s really communicating something like this. I hear of horrendous sin that a certain sinner might commit. Maybe it’s a mass shooting by some young troubled teen. Maybe it’s the repressive actions taken by a country like North Korea against our brethren in that nation. When I hear about these things, my heart cry is that these perpetrators would face justice. And that justice might not come in this life. A political ruler might abuse God’s people for his entire life and die comfortably in wealth. A mass murdered might take his own life before a court can render a just decision. Or he might live and a court might offer an unjust verdict. What I really want is to know that God will make things right. I do not want him to overlook their sin. I want him to take notice of it and not miss it when it comes time to render a verdict. That is the one thing that comforts me when there’s a miscarriage of justice or an egregious violation against innocent people – that God will judge rightly and not miss any evidence. And I think that’s what Nehemiah is crying for here – that God would not simply overlook this sin of theirs.

Finally, let’s notice one last thing about this scene. Why is Nehemiah so insistent on wrongs being righted in this situation? Is it because he was personally slighted and now wants the perpetrators to be punished for his own selfish reasons? No. It’s because the enemies of Judah haven’t simply offended man. They’ve provoked the God of heaven to anger. And yet there is an element of offense toward men as well. The enemies provoked God to anger where? In the sight of the builders. You didn’t know that, did you? The builders actually heard this mocking session that the enemies were having. And this fact is another reason Nehemiah prayed the way he did.

OK, let me state what I think we learn here. We’re learning how a godly leader responds to opposition. Here’s how. Godly leaders can get passionate when confronting the enemies of God’s work. That’s not wrong. But the passion certainly needs to be focused on God’s being offended, not us being personally offended. I think we also learn very basically that there’s a time for confronting ungodly opposition. But there’s also a great need to respond to opposition not directly back to the opposition itself, but to God. He alone can truly put down the opposition, even when we can’t. We need to fly to him when we’re experiencing difficulties and adversity while doing God’s work.

And here’s another lesson we again see from Nehemiah. Godly leaders don’t let opposition sidetrack them. They move forward with God’s work. And this is what we see in verse 6. Let’s read it.

Despite the enemies’ taunts that apparently were uttered within earshot of the Jews, the work continued. And the whole wall was joined together to the half of it. This probably means that the wall was built back up to be about half of its original height. And I think we’re supposed to be kind of awed by the speed with which they got to this point. I think that’s why Nehemiah feels the need to explain with that last statement there. It’s like he says, “Yes, I know this was quick and we did this despite the opposition. But the people really did have a mind to work. They really stuck with it.”

Let me point this out then. A godly leader needs to plan the work and delegate it. But the only way it gets done is when his people put his plan into practice. And the best situation is where the people “have a mind” to do this work.

Does this advance in God’s work thwart the opposition? No. It actually makes them more fiercely opposed! Read verses 7 and 8.

So we need to notice the growing legion of foes. Sanballat, Tobiah, Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites. Sanballat and Tobiah were apparently north of Jerusalem in Samaria. That was their base. The Arabians and the Ammonites were to the east and maybe south of Jerusalem. And Ashdod is on the Mediterranean coast to the west of Jerusalem. The enemies who were surrounding Jerusalem were all in league against the Jews. They heard that the repair went forward and that the holes in the wall started to be repaired. They could see that mere taunting wasn’t working. They needed to take action. So they all conspired to fight against Jerusalem. Their aim was to “hinder it.” What does that mean? Their goal in fighting is not necessarily to destroy the Jews. Isn’t that interesting? These enemies don’t want the Jews to not exist. They simply want the Jews to exist in an extremely weakened and vulnerable form – probably so that the enemies can continue to take advantage of them. This is likely Sanballat and Tobiah’s MO. This is why they’re so opposed to Nehemiah’s action to strengthen the Jews. These enemies are really parasites. They want to prey on their victim host while still keeping it alive enough to live off it. So the enemies just want to create a disturbance. They want to stop the work. Certainly if the Jews had to fend off invaders they’re not going to be involved in building up their walls. So this is the enemies’ plan… How do the Jews respond to it? Read verse 9.

First of all, some way, the Jews hear their enemies’ plot. And how do they respond? They pray to God. And then they set a watch against the legion of enemy forces. And they keep watch 24-hours a day.

But despite praying and setting a watch, the people of Judah are becoming weary. Read verse 10.

How’s this for a national anthem? Or the slogan for your church’s building project? Maybe we should have adopted this feel-good saying for our building renovation. Is it too late? Of course I’m being facetious. No, this is a terrible expression on the Jews’ part. They’re losing the will to continue the fight. Their strength is decaying. They’re looking all around and seeing all the work that’s left to do. And their faithless – though seemingly realistic – assessment is that they are not able to rebuild the wall.

But the Jews aren’t the only ones with something to say about their rebuilding project. Read verse 11.

This is what the enemies were boasting of. Their plan to hinder the work by attacking Jerusalem was sure to succeed. That is, unless the Jews acted quickly. Let’s read verse 12.

So Nehemiah gets word from the Jews who lived near the enemies that they were planning to attack Jerusalem. And apparently they came to Nehemiah 10 times and alerted him of the same danger. How does Nehemiah respond? Let’s read verse 13.

Nehemiah swiftly acts to fortify the most vulnerable places on the wall. Remember, the wall was still not fully rebuilt. And he put the people together with their families and gave them weapons. But even though they had weapons there was still some fear in their hearts. Nehemiah addresses that in verse 14. Read it.

What does this godly leader do for his fearing flock? He tells them to be strong  and not afraid. He tells them to get their minds off what they’re fearing and focus on God. He is great and terrible… And he’s actually on their side! So because of that the Jews could fight the enemies without fear. God was with them. Well, did they ever end up fighting the enemy? Let’s read verse 15 for the answer.

So there’s not fighting – at least not yet. The simple fact that the Jews are fortified and armed and that they heard the enemies’ plan before they were able to hatch it – all of that resulted in the Jews feeling free to return to their work on the wall. But the Jews were far from care-free, moving forward. Let’s read verses 16 through 18.

What’s the point here? Simply that everyone was armed while working. As if it wasn’t enough for the Jews to need to rebuild the walls. Now they needed to act as a standing army as well! But what other choice did they have? And it wasn’t enough that the people were armed. What if the attack came in a remote part of the city where there were only a few people? They needed some strategy as to how all the people might rally to the one place that was being attacked, if such an attack were to occur. Let’s read verses 19 and 20 for that strategy.

Nehemiah plainly says that the chance of attack occurring on some remote part of the wall was likely. So he would be monitoring the situation. If there was an attack he would be there with that trumpet player who was at his side. And the people would come and fight at that place. The story continues in verse 21.

OK, so rising of the morning – that’s morning. The stars appear when? In the evening. So the people were defended from morning until evening. What about the time between evening and morning? Read verse 22.

Apparently the people by and large were not living in Jerusalem. So at night the city was pretty vulnerable to a midnight attack. So Nehemiah has everyone live in Jerusalem for a while. Why? So that there was a night watch to defend the city during the nighttime hours.

And I mean this was pretty intense. We kind of read through the narrative thoughtlessly. But can you imagine the reality that Nehemiah communicates in verse 23?

These people were so consumed with the work of rebuilding the walls as well as defending themselves from these pernicious enemies that they didn’t even have time to change their clothes. Preservation of life came before comfort for these Jews.

So that’s the story. Godly leaders respond to opposition… with prayer and with action. They pray – as one man said – as if it all depended on God. They act as if it all depends on them.

We’re going to be studying Nehemiah 2:10 – 3:32. In this section I think we’ll see “How Godly Leaders Get God’s Work Accomplished.” The lessons we’ll learn apply not only to leaders like pastors, deacons, and missionaries. If you’re a Christian parent or a Christian peer with influence over other peers or if you’re involved at any level with leading a ministry of any size, then this has ramifications for you, too. And of course these wonderful lessons are packaged up for us in a story. So let’s try to unpack the story and arrive at the message God has for us today. 

Whenever God’s work is being accomplished you just know there’s going to be opposition. And this is what we see in 2:10. Let’s read it. 

Nehemiah says that these two enemies of God’s people heard “it.” Well, heard what? Remember last week? We studied Nehemiah 1:1-2:9. And in that section we saw “How Nehemiah Got to Jerusalem.” Do you remember some of the details? Remember how Nehemiah asked some Jews who came from Jerusalem how Nehemiah’s people and city were doing? Remember the response that shocked Nehemiah and brought him to his knees? Do you remember how Nehemiah was in prayer and fasting and mourning for maybe something like 4 months? All the while he was planning how he might return to Jerusalem and help his people turn back to God. Do you remember the tense scene in King Artaxerxes’ chamber? Nehemiah made his request to the king with fear and trembling. Do you remember the sense of relief and joy and anticipation as the king granted Nehemiah’s request? And then surely you remember how easily Nehemiah made it to Jerusalem – it only took one verse! And then he brought his letters of authorization from the king to the officials in the area around Jerusalem… 

So let’s return to this question — what did Sanballat and Tobiah hear? They heard at least some of what we’ve just reviewed since they probably were in some position of authority around Jerusalem. They also heard that Nehemiah was in the area. They heard he was there to help the Jews. He was there to rebuild the city and re-inhabit it with Jews. And so how did this make the enemies feel? 

Listen, I think as we read through the book of Nehemiah we sometimes want to be pretty merciful to Sanballat and Tobiah. I think we can read this book and get the idea that these two enemies were somehow the equivalent of the bad guys in one of our VBS skits, right? Like the Sherriff of Not-a-Ham and whoever the other guy was this summer – remember them? They were bad, yes. But they were bumbling and clumsy and … actually, kind of loveable in their own despicable ways. But here’s my question – is this how we’re supposed to think of Sanballat and Tobiah? 

I’m going to suggest that we do all in our power to view these characters as true villains. This narrative gives us no reason whatsoever to see any sort of redeeming quality in them. And here in verse 10 we see the first instance of this purely evil characterization of them. Think about this fact – these two were grieved exceedingly that someone had come to help the Jews. Let’s consider the import of that statement. Think about the Jews in Jerusalem. How were they doing at this time in their history? Were they strong? Were they doing well? What was the condition of their capital city? They were impoverished and extremely weak. Their city was vulnerable to any and all enemy attacks. They were in a pathetic condition. They needed help. And Nehemiah wanted to help them. And how do these two enemies respond? With grief – not joy or sympathy – grief! Sanballat and Tobiah are the kind that would steal candy from a baby. They would kick a man when he’s down. There is nothing in them that should cause us to lend them the slightest shred of sympathy. In fact, the way this story is written, we should actually be cheering for their defeat. Do you think that’s an ungodly thing for me to counsel us – to want these two men to fail? Then just wait until our next lesson where we see Nehemiah’s prayer to God regarding these two. So, these two enemies are to be regarded as pure evil. This is how they’re characterized throughout this book. 

And you know what? Somehow Nehemiah got word that Sanballat and Tobiah were not-too-happy that he was there to help his own people. Have you ever been in a situation where it was clear that you had opposition to what you were trying to accomplish? How do you react when that’s the case? With fear? Do you just pack up and go home? Here’s the first lesson we need to learn about godly leaders that we see in verse 10. Godly leaders take special note of opposition but they don’t let it sidetrack them. Nehemiah knew about the opposition. But he just moves on with his duties. And that’s just what we see happening in the next verse – Nehemiah moving on with God’s work. Let’s read verses 11-16. 

Nehemiah starts by resting in Jerusalem for 3 days after his four month journey from Shushan to Jerusalem. Then he starts his midnight journey. Did you notice the element of secrecy? Verse 12 starts the account by telling us that Nehemiah is under the cover of night. Only a few people are with him. He even limits the number of beasts they used. And then the trip ends with verse 16 reminding us again of how secret this journey was. 

But what are we supposed to do with the verses in between verses 12 and 16? Let’s try to figure out and reconstruct what Nehemiah is doing there. He starts in Jerusalem. We saw that in verse 11. He goes out of a gate called the Valley Gate in verse 13. This gate is on the western side of old Jerusalem. And verse 13 tells us Nehemiah took a turn to the south to the “dung port” or really the Dung (or Refuse) Gate. That was a gate on the south side of Jerusalem. In verse 14 Nehemiah gets to a gate on the southeast side of Jerusalem called the Fountain Gate. And it’s here that the terrain was pretty difficult to get around on. So Nehemiah leaves his beast and maybe the others that came with him and he looks at the wall on the east side of Jerusalem on-foot for a while. Now Nehemiah mentions in verse 15 going up by “the brook.” Which brook is that? Well, if you’re familiar at all with the geography of Jerusalem you know that Jerusalem is slightly elevated. And you would also know that there’s a “mount” on the east side of Jerusalem. What is it called? The Mount of Olives. And between the elevated Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives is a brook – the Kidron. So that’s where Nehemiah was walking to get a view of the wall on the east side of Jerusalem. But then it appears like he’s seen enough and so he returns to his traveling partners. Then they go back down south and then back west and north to enter from the gate that Nehemiah left – the Valley Gate. 

So let me get to the lesson I think we learn from these few verses. We know from our lesson last week that Nehemiah brought his plans to the Lord first of all, right? He didn’t consult anyone before he consulted the Lord. And now he still as of yet hasn’t consulted anyone. But now he’s not simply praying about this idea of his. He’s doing the leg work to see if and how his plan might work. And he’s kept all of this a secret still – remember that emphasis of secrecy? So here’s the lesson I gather from this. Godly leaders bring their plans to the Lord first and then do the necessary research before revealing their plans to men. 

But eventually Godly leaders do need to bring their plans to the people they lead, right? And that’s what we see in verses 17 and 18. Let’s read that. 

To whom is Nehemiah speaking? Verse 17 just says “them.” Who is “them?” It’s just the people mentioned in verse 16 – the Jews, the priests, the nobles, and those who would do the work. So now he’s finally addressing this group of individuals. And what does he tell them? 

First, Nehemiah gives the people an accurate picture of where they currently are. They’re in distress. Their city lies waste. The gates are burned. The wall is broken down. Godly leaders give a realistic picture of their people’s situation to them. They don’t hold back and make the picture rosier than reality. 

But godly leaders aren’t simply prophets of doom and gloom. They give an accurate picture of short-fallings, yes. But it is at this point that they reveal their plans that God has laid on their hearts. This is what Nehemiah does. He says, “let’s rebuild the wall!” What a simple plan! The wall is broken down. Hardly anyone lives in Jerusalem because the walls are down and the city is open for attack from any enemy. Enemies are coming in and influencing us for ungodliness. Let’s rebuild that wall! 

And we see this godly leader giving some hope to these people that this plan is going to work. He first helps them picture how better their lives will be if they follow this plan. At the end of verse 17 he helps them visualize a time when they would no longer be a reproach. They wouldn’t be a laughing stock anymore with their broken-down walls. That definitely would have sounded attractive to these people. And then Nehemiah gives the people reason to think his plan will succeed. He tells them how God had graciously led him thus far in his quest to execute his plan to rebuild the walls. The idea would be – if he’s led me this far, I can’t imagine he’ll let me fail now! And if it wasn’t enough for them to know of God’s support of this plan, Nehemiah can tell them about how even the highest human ruler on the earth at that time supports Nehemiah’s plan. 

So put yourself in the Jews’ place. You have nothing. Your city is ruined. The enemies are around you and you have no defense. You have a godly man come to help you. He’s backed by the God of heaven and the highest ruler of the known world. What would your response be? I think probably pretty similar to what the Jews respond – I can imagine them kind of looking around at each other, wondering if there’s a “catch.” And perceiving no such catch, they exclaim, “Let us rise up and build!” 

So I think what we learn from this section is this. Godly leaders eventually do bring their plans to men. And they give their followers sound reasons to follow their plans. If only everyone were to follow the godly plans of godly leaders. But alas, there are those who will persist in opposing God’s work through such leaders. And those godly leaders need to know how to respond to them rightly. Let’s read verses 19 and 20 for more details. 

So the Jews are trying to piece back together their broken city. They’ve heard Nehemiah’s plan and are ready to take action. But the detractors are right alongside them. And these folks don’t have an alternative plan for the Jews’ success or anything like that. No – they just want to see the Jews fail miserably. And so they hear that the Jews are excited and ready to re-build their city. And what do the enemies do? Well, first of all, recall that the ranks of the enemies are expanding. It used to be just Sanballat and Tobiah. But now they’re joined by another colleague – Geshem, by name and he was an Arab. And these three laugh the Jews to scorn. The enemies think little of the Jews’ efforts and abilities – that’s what it means to despise someone – to think little of them. And then the enemies ask if the Jews plan to rebel against the king. And be sure that these enemies are asking this barbed question to not only Nehemiah the leader. No, when the enemies use that 2nd-person plural personal pronoun, ye, they’re making a statement to the whole group of those who planned to rebuild the walls – laymen as well as leader. How would this insinuation have made the builders feel? The builders had just heard Nehemiah say that the king is with him on this project. Would they trust Nehemiah? Or would doubt creep into their minds as to whether Nehemiah was telling the truth and could be trusted? Well I’m not sure how they felt. But you can be pretty sure how the enemies wanted the people to feel – they wanted the people to loose heart and stop working on the wall. Perhaps in your early days as a Christian you were confronted with some real thorny theological question presented by someone who was opposed to the Gospel whose intention it was to shake your faith. I can imagine that you would have wanted someone who could have given a proper answer to this opponent of yours. Well, this is just the dynamic we have here. And in this case the simple builders don’t have to try to think-up an answer on the fly. They have a godly leader who actually has personal connections with the king. And did you catch his response? He didn’t even say a word about the king. Nehemiah knew the truth regarding the king. He had no need to defend himself against this ridiculous charge. In fact, Nehemiah had letters authorizing him to do what he was doing from that very king. So he immediately dismissed this lame charge of rebellion. So he instead got to the heart of the matter. God was on their side. And because he and his fellow Jews were the Lord’s servants, they were going to arise and do his will and build. But as for the enemies, they had already shown themselves to be completely unworthy of any sympathy. They had a deep-seated hatred for God’s people – and indeed for God himself. And so they have no right or portion or memorial in Jerusalem, God’s holy city. 

So how do you like Nehemiah’s response? As a builder I would have felt very comforted by Nehemiah’s ability to answer our opponents. So here’s what I learn from these verses — Godly leaders are capable of confronting ungodly opposition to their face in an appropriate manner. 

And with the ungodly opposition rebuffed, now the builders are ready to start building. And so in chapter 3 we see who did what on the wall. We’re eventually going to get to some interesting and I hope helpful facts that we see in this chapter. And we’ll get to that. But first I want to address how not to interpret this chapter. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this chapter taught as if somehow the individual gates are all meant to represent some aspect of the Christian life. That teaching is out there. And the method used in that kind of interpretation is called allegory or allegorizing – take a plain passage of Scripture and force it to take on some imported spiritual meaning that is far from its original purpose. And I think this way of interpretation is unhelpful at its best. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s walk through this unusual way of interpreting this chapter and see what you think. 

First, look at verse 1 of chapter 3. You see Eliashib and the priests building what gate? The Sheep Gate. Well of course sheep represent sacrifice and Christ was our ultimate sacrifice. He’s the beginning of the Christian life. That’s why Nehemiah mentions this gate first… OK? Let’s continue. Look at verse 3. What gate are we talking about now? The Fish Gate. Now of course once you come through the Sheep Gate and enter into the Christian life you are called to win others to the Lord… to be fishers of men. Yes, that’s the allegorical spiritualized meaning of the Fish Gate. Alright, what deep truth are we going to discover next? Look at verse 6. What gate do we find there? The Old Gate. One commentator said that he was originally thinking this might signify the Christian putting off the old man and being renewed in the spirit of his mind. But then someone else suggested to him that this signified finding the “old paths” like Jeremiah talks about. So as you’re winning people to Jesus you ought to be continually learning the ways of the Lord – the old paths. Isn’t this deep rich theological truth…? Well maybe you naysayers will be won over by the next allegorization. Let’s look at verse 13. What gate do we have here? The Valley Gate. This spiritually signifies the fact that you may have entered the Christian life and you may be soul-winning and trying to find the old paths, but… you might still experience a long dark “valley” time. You know – a very low point in your Christian life. Verse 14 then speaks of the Dung Gate. That’s supposed to signify the fact that these low points – or valleys – in our life are supposed to get the spiritual garbage out of our life. Then there’s the Fountain Gate, the Water Gate, the Horse Gate, the East Gate, and the Inspection Gate. But I think we’ve heard enough. I’ll only add that the Sheep Gate makes another appearance in verse 32 to end this chapter. And the allegorizers would take this to signify that Christ is the beginning and the end of the Christian life. 

So what do you think about that interpretation? Do you think that’s why this chapter was written in the Bible? Well let me ask – is there some truth to the content of this interpretation? Is Christ the beginning and the end of the Christian life? Do Christians need to be witnessing to the lost? Do we have some spiritually-dark “valley experiences?” Yes. But were these experiences what Nehemiah had in mind to teach us in this chapter? I sure hope not. Because if we’re supposed to allegorize passages like this one, I really do not understand how to interpret my Bible anywhere. How do I know when it’s safe to allegorize and when I should simply read the passage as if it were communicating something meaningful? What if my allegorical interpretation is wrong? How would I even know if it was wrong? What if I disagree with someone else’s allegorical interpretation? What authority could I possibly cite to prove my case? See, what happens when we interpret literal passages allegorically is – at best our hearts might be warmed with a truth that’s actually taught elsewhere in Scripture. At worst, we open ourselves up to being deceived.  

Let’s finish this consideration of how not to interpret Nehemiah 3 with a comment from Martin Luther. Here’s what he thought about allegorizing the Scripture: “But I have often declared that I greatly abhor allegories and condemn the fondness for them. For the examples and the footsteps of the fathers frighten me. By means of their allegories they obscure doctrine and the edification of love, patience, and hope in God when by those speculations of their allegories they divert us from the doctrine and genuine meaning of the words. Jerome and Origen are especially devoted to this. Indeed, Augustine, too, would have been brought to do so had he not been withdrawn from it by his controversies and disputes with the heretics. But because I admired these men as very great theologians, I followed the same course at the outset. When I read the Bible, I did not follow the literal sense; but according to their example, I turned everything into allegories. Accordingly, I urge students of theology to shun this kind of interpretation in the Holy Scriptures.” 

So we now know how not to interpret Nehemiah 3. But positively how do we interpret it? What should we gain from this chapter? Several things, really. First, just glance at the chapter. One thing that should immediately strike you is the number and variety of people involved in rebuilding the wall. You have priests. You have lay men. You have goldsmiths. You have apothecaries. It didn’t matter what the occupation was, everyone found something to do on that wall. And you have men from different geographic locations working on the wall – men from Jericho, men from Tekoa, and men from Gibeon. The men from Tekoa build the wall despite opposition from their own nobles. Most of the names here are names of men. But you know, one man actually worked with his daughters on the wall. We have Baruch in verse 20 earnestly or zealously repairing the wall! Can you imagine someone doing this zealously? How would you zealously repair a wall? I can imagine him enthusiastically slathering on some more mortar and then joyfully slapping another brick on top of it. So I think one lesson to glean from this passage is that in God’s work there’s a place for all of his people. We might not all have the same role. We might be on different sections of the wall, so to speak. But we do all have a proper place. 

But now, let’s discuss the real significance of the gates and the order in which they’re mentioned. Do you even think that there’s any significance to the names and order of the gates? There is actually. But it’s pretty mundane as opposed to the fanciful allegory method. Picture Jerusalem as a square. It wasn’t, but let’s just simplify things and imagine that it was. The Sheep Gate which we start out with is on the northeast side of that square. And what you have for the entire chapter is a progression from northeast to northwest to southwest to southeast back up to the northeast corner of Jerusalem. See? It’s simple. But now you actually know why the gates are mentioned in the order they’re mentioned. And I didn’t even need to allegorize anything to get there! I just had to look at a map of Jerusalem. 

Let me ask one more question of this chapter and then we’ll be done. Who’s name do you not see in chapter 3? Now this might be difficult since we didn’t read the whole passage. But the person we don’t see building anything is… Nehemiah. Why is that? Well, I imagine one reason is that he was supervising the work and didn’t want to be tied down to one part of the wall to the detriment of the whole project. But I think beyond that consideration we have one more lesson to learn about godly leaders. The leader’s job is to envision the plan. And to some extent he’s involved in the implementation of that plan. But he also lets the people do the majority of the work. His plan becomes theirs. 

So how do godly leaders get God’s work accomplished? They have a plan. Then they bring their plan to the Lord first and do the necessary research before unveiling it. When they do unveil it to their followers, they give them reasons to adopt the plan. They then let their plan become that of the people. And all the while they have an alert eye on the opposition and are ready to respond appropriately.