Download 11340U END OF YEAR STUDY - 1984 NEHEMIAH

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11340U
END OF YEAR STUDY - 1984
NEHEMIAH - LET US RISE UP AND BUILD
Speaker:
Bro. J. Martin
Study #5:
Reconstructing the Ruins of Thy people
Reading:
Nehemiah 9 and 10
Young people! When we were together last time with Nehemiah, we had, of course, that
thrilling experience to have also in our presence through the Word, b&s, that wonderful
bible student, Ezra. And we saw, did we not, b&s, the tremendous enthusiasm that that
man was able to generate by his presence among those people. And you might recall
that they kept that feast of Tabernacles, as recorded in the 8th chapter of Nehemiah,
which carried us forward to the 22nd day of the 7th month of that year. The 7th month,
of course, was the 7th month of the religious year, but it was really the 1st month of the
civil year, and you might say their New Year that they were celebrating with the walls
being completed.
The 22nd day you will remember, b&s, was what the last verse of the 8th chapter called
'a solemn assembly'; I'll remind you about that because there's a point to be made here
in connection with chapter 9. Because that being a solemn assembly and there were
only two, you'll remember, under the Law of Moses, (7 holy convocations or 7 ecclesial
fraternals if you like, but there were only 2 great closing days as I mentioned) and this,
of course, was the 2nd of them, which was the 22nd day of the 7th month. Now that
should have, b&s, concluded the ceremonies of the 7th month; but it didn't, and that
enthusiasm that was generated by Ezra, was no small enthusiasm. Those tears that
were shed were joyous when expressed, b&s, were for the moment, very genuine tears.
And the enthusiasm continued and brethren and sisters never forgot the exhortation the
following Monday morning (as it were), but they went on and on and on for days with
that enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, that enthusiasm climaxed in the 12th chapter of
Nehemiah, and I intend, b&s, to get that far this evening. We planned to divide the
chapters evenly in the last two studies, but I don't want to do that, because I feel it
would be rather disjointed. As so with the purpose of getting to chapter 12, we have no
need to panic, because I'm going to generalize these chapters and give you an
overview of what they're saying, perhaps that might be better, considering the host of
details that is there. But I do want to carry us forward to that 12th chapter to see how
that this generation of spirituality was accomplished by Ezra and Nehemiah, in the
reading and the understanding of the Word, climaxed in a glorious ceremony, of which it
would ring in our hearts today, if we could only picture in our minds, the great climax to
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which it came.
But first of all, b&s, in chapter 9 the people were still in a very mournful and very solemn
state of mind that the Word of God had generated within them. And it's not always a bad
thing to feel like that! and quite often some of the best exhortations we ever hear, are
those exhortations that send us away in a very solemn and sometimes sad frame of
mind. That's good! the Word of God says that's good, sorrow, b&s, is good for the heart,
and when we're complacent and just travelling along as if the kingdom of God belonged
to us by divine right, it's sometimes good to be shaken out of our lethargy or apathy and
indifference, that we might come to see ourselves for what we really are, and
sometimes it takes a brilliant exposition of the Word, to really shake us up to that. And
you know, b&s, I find, and I'm no different than most people, that solemn exhortations of
a brother that points out the everyday events of life, that really stir me; but anyone can
do that, anybody can tell you about little moral issues. But when someone expounds
that book and it opens up its brilliance and glory, that's when I really feel hurt, because I
know this, I know the great ideals in which I've failed, b&s, and I feel, b&s, that solemn
sadness which comes over me; AND IT'S GOOD because it drives one to that book, so
that we might appreciate the more what is there.
And we read in that 9th chapter, 'on the 24th day', so the 22nd day had come and gone,
and the required ceremony was over, and the day passed and then the following day,
two days later, the people were back again. When they knew more of what Moses had
commanded them, b&s, there was no more specified that they could come back on the
24th day, but they did! and they came back with fasting, with sackcloth and earth upon
them, because you see, b&s, it took a while for the power of exhortation to sink into their
minds, and they could see, that all was not well among that congregation even yet! But
because of the wonder of the book, that fired their imaginations and their hearts, now
they saw themselves for what they were. And it says in verse 2, 'And the seed of Israel
separated themselves from all strangers', you see, they were mixing with the world,
b&s, they were mixing with the world and the very presence of Ezra was a sharp
rebuke to them, because if ever a man stood for the principle of separation, he did! As
we find out in one occasion, he went so far as to separate husband and wife; you know,
we talk glibly about those things, but that was a perilous thing, a relationship that carried
with it the greatest emotions and infinity, and he went so far in a dangerous situation, it
could have formed the ecclesia .... of Israel and the total extermination of them as a
separate race, and knowing that he separated husband and wife. The Jewish brethren
and their strange wives, no one's advocating the separation of husband and wife, b&s,
we don't do like Ezra did, and we're not told to do it, let's remember, this was a special
occasion because if they had not been separated, and intermarriage had been allowed,
and children half of the seed of Ashdod and half of the seed of Judah had been born, it
wouldn't have been too many generations before they would have disappeared as a
people. And yet, b&s, the principle applied, if we advocated or allowed or encouraged
our young people to marry outside the truth and said it really doesn't matter, how long
do you think a Christadelphian community would stand up against such a barrage as
that?
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And because they knew he stood for that principle, they come back again, his vow, b&s,
and the seed of Israel, what an expression! The seed of Israel, and Ezra in great prayer
later on, is going to mention about the seed of Abraham, now the seed of Israel
separated themselves from the family of 'nekar' (the son of the foreigners) (1121 +
5236), and they came, b&s, in verse 3, 'and stood in their place' and that would have
been in the great square that was before the Water Gate, 'and they read in the book of
the law of their God, one fourth part of the day; and the other fourth part of the day they
confessed, and worshiped Yahweh their God'; 3 hours of study and 3 hours of devotion.
The power of that man's words were almighty indeed! 3 hours bible research, and then
3 hours personal research. 3 hours and 3 hours = 6 hours and during the course of
those last 3 hours of their devotions to God, as they confessed and worshipped their
God, b&s, and by that means they saw themselves in comparison with His Almighty
presence and power; they didn't compare themselves with themselves which the
apostle Paul says is not wise, but seeing the greatness of their God, they became ever
so small in their own estimation. That's a very good exercise! and in the midst of those
devotions, we read from verses 4 and 5 how a company of the Levites came and stood
upon the stand. Seems to me, b&s, obviously the stand is way up on a platform upon
which Ezra stood; and now another group of Levites stand up and they cry with a loud
voice unto the people, and they exercise a public prayer. And you'll notice at the end of
verse 4, 'they cried unto Yahweh their God, and then at the middle of verse 5 they ask
Israel to stand up and bless your God. And you can see what is happening, this little
group of Levites, who were in themselves bible students or most of them, rush to the
stand and stood there as a little group and they made their own prayer to their God to
our God, and in doing that, b&s, they were setting an example, and the prayer was very
simple.
It was a wonderful prayer, very simple, and when they had made their devotions to their
God, they called upon the people in verse 5, to stand up and bless your God for ever
and ever. And in blessing Him they were to bless His glorious name, which is exalted
above all blessing and praise. And they were to dwell, b&s, upon the characteristics of
that Name. Now we don't want to go into detail about the characteristics of that Name,
but it isn't sufficient, b&s, to dismiss it by saying the Name is made up of the character
of God being justice and mercy! That's all very well to say that, that really doesn't tell
you very much at all; what you've got to ponder, and this is what the Word of God, if we
had another session I'd show you, it's absolutely wonderful, what the Word of God is
trying to tell you about those characteristics, b&s, that they are seen as separate
virtues, two opposites. Justice and mercy, and here is a God whose character is made
in essence of those characteristics, and who is perfect. Now if we were given the divine
right to judge and to execute justice, and at the same time given the divine right to
show mercy, for every brother and sister that went away from this place, enpowered
with those two characteristics, there is not a man or woman alive, who would exercise
them perfectly. Because, somewhere along the line, b&s, we would err either on the
side of justice or the side of mercy; we'd have to think about that! Zechariah the prophet
had said 20 years earlier about this Name, and he called upon the Jewish people to
emulate the characteristics of that Name, and he said, 'execute true judgment AND
show mercy and compassion every man to his brother'. David said the same thing, b&s,
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'he that rules over them must be just, ruling in the fear of God'. And if you want a verse
of scripture that brings it down to ourselves, that we shall sing unto our God through the
Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, 'thou hast made us unto our God kings
AND priests'. It was the king's job to execute judgment, it was the priest's work to have
compassion on them that are out of the way; so when we talk about the divine Name,
b&s, we're talking about those two superb characteristics which Yahweh and His Son
both exercise PERFECTLY.
How do you do it? Ah, we've just got to try and work that out in our lives, and so when
the Levites called upon them to express His glorious Name, my word, there was an
enormous amount of principle involved in that! Simple though it is, it's terribly profound,
but God in Jesus Christ our Lord, putting to death, to show that God was just, that in
Adam all would die; and the antithesis of death is life! it's the very opposite and God
brought Him out of the ground to show that He was just yet merciful, and in Him who
both lived and died, we see, b&s, those two principles beautifully and perfectly
balanced. In death and in life, who else could ever dream up a scheme like that? let
alone enact it, 'bless His glorious Name which is above all', and so it is. In a word we
could say it's the Psalm 85, 'mercy and truth have kissed each other', they're compatible
principles, God has made them so; mercy and truth have kissed each other! they can be
compatible, but you and I, b&s, could never do that perfectly; 'bless His glorious Name',
that's all we need to say, we need to dwell upon it because all flesh need to pray. The
Levites go on to mention that He is Yahweh aone; He has made the heaven of heavens,
with all the things that are therein; He's made the earth and the seas and everything that
therein is; and He's preserved them all', and among the glorious angelic beings in
heaven He is worshipped', that was a very profound judgment.
Now, b&s, we come to verse 6, and it would seem that verse 6 is a continuation of the
public prayer of those Levites, but I don't believe that it is, because the following prayer
which is a very long one, is a prayer it seems, of a singular person not of the plurality of
voices. And in deed, the Septuagint Version, that is, the Greeks version of the Old
Testament, opens up verse 6 and says, 'And Ezra said' of which the RSV follows, that
there is no evidence in the Hebrew for that, except that that prayer would seem to be
the words of one man, not a group of men because it is beatuifully worked out and could
not have been worked out spontaneously by a group of people, and it would appear to
me, therefore, from verses 6 right through to verse 38, we have the great prayer of
Ezra, I believe, as he prayed on behalf of those people. Now I'm going to generalize
about this prayer, it's a very simple prayer, b&s, it's a long prayer, but you see, but what
it does, it sets forth in a great drama this prayer does, in 3 acts the way that the pattern
of history has always been consistent, both with man and with God. It's as simple as
that, and all Ezra does in this prayer is to tell his heavenly Father on behalf of His
people, that they are repeating history. Now you follow this with me, and we'll just show
you that pattern!
It goes like this, b&s, there are 3 stages in each pattern, and there are 3 stages to that
drama. So it's divided into 3, and these are the 3 periods of history spoken of that follow
the pattern of 3. For example, from verses 1 to 19, he talks about the history from
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Abraham to Mount Sinai. Then from verse 22 to verse 28, he's talking about the history
from Sinai to the Land; and the latter part of the prayer, he talks about their own history
which is now before them. Let me say that again, he talks about the history from
Abraham to Sinai, from Sinai to the Land, and the history which they are now facing as
they return from the Babylonian captivity. He says if you look at those three periods of
history, there's a consistent repetition of history.
It goes like this! That God was very gracious to His people; they consistently refused
His goodness; and He consistently showed mercy. Now let me show you that pattern!
For example let's take that first section from verse 10 down to the 15th verse and you
see the consistency that God gave His people wonderful things, He's very gracious to
them. In verse 10 we read at the beginning of the verse, 'He showed them signs and
wonders upon Pharaoh; in verse 11 He divided the sea before them, and the end of the
verse, He threw their enemy into the sea as if a stone. In verse 12, He lead them by
the cloudy pillar day and night; in verse 13, He came down upon Sinai and spoke to
them. In verse 14, He made known His laws; in verse 15, He gave them bread, and at
the end of verse 15, He promised them the Land, and verse 16 says, 'BUT they and our
fathers dealt proudly, hardened their necks, hearkened not to thy commandments, and
refused to obey'. Now he says, that's the consistent pattern of Israel; but God, b&s, in
verse 19, 'YET Thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness'. So
there's your pattern: God gave them everything, they showed faith in gratitude and He
forgave them.
So we take up the history from Sinai to the Land: it's no different, so we go over it again.
Verse 20 says, 'He gave them good spiritual instructors; verse 21, He sustained them
for 40 years in the wilderness, in verse 22 He gave them kingdoms and nations. In
verse 23, He multiplied their children and brought them into the Land; at the end of
verse 25, they delighted themselves in His great goodness. And what was their
reaction? verse 26, 'NEVERTHELESS, they were disobedient and rebelled against thee
and they cast the Law behind their backs, slew the prophets and wrought great
provocation. HISTORY REPEATED ITSELF! that's what he tries to tell them in that
prayer, oh, no, he's not talking to the people, b&s, he's talking to their God'; and he's
confessing to their God that they have sinned in the face of repeated history!
And he brings it right up to date in verse 32. And now we come to the age that they're
living in, b&s, and in verse 32 he's bringing it up to date and he says, 'NOW
THEREFORE, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible El, who keepest
covenant, and mercy, lt not all the trouble seem little before thee that has come upon us'
What a wonderful appeal that is, b&s. You know, I wonder sometimes, I don't want to be
critical, b&s, although I sometimes enjoy doing it, but people are pretty critical of me,
and I suppose I'm a public figure and should expect it, but sometimes I wonder if our
chairman could find something to say, a little different, not because we want to be
different in our prayers, b&s, but I think we ought to say more about our God and the
greatness of Him and always thank Him for things, and we ought to stand in awe of
Him. And you get sometimes the repetition of words, and I well remember, b&s, feeling
the lack of sincerity, because we can't think of something to say; if you can't think of
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something to say, take time to look at some of the prayers in the bible; look at that
prayer! You see what Ezra was saying, that despite history repeating itself, God will go
on being good, He is the great and mighty and the terrible El, and awe-inspiring power.
Now he doesn't say that, b&s, to frighten anybody but he says that because He keepeth
covenant, God has made promises and has the power to perform them. That's simply
what He's saying! God makes a wonderful promise, and there's the unlimited power of
the universe, and HE CAN DO IT, whatever He promises, He can do it! That's Ezra's
point!
And not only that he says, the One that has power to perform a covenant, doesn't have
to do it, it's MERCY. So He's a terrible El who keeps covenant, and has power to
perform His promises, but they're based upon mercy; He's not obligated to anyone!
B&S, He doesn't have to give us the Land, He's not obligated to anyone and therefore,
though the covenant is steadfast and sure, and He will perform it, He is not obligated.
You have on the one hand, a terrible El who has the power to perform, and on the other
hand you have a merciful, loving heavenly Father who is not obligated to perform but
nevertheless will. If we've thought on that and thought things our properly and put the
Name and the titles in their proper perspective and use them intelligently, how
wonderful those prayers would be, b&s. And that's how Ezra saw it, very simple. And he
doesn't come to God with a plea for all the enormous troubles that have come upon the
people and to bring before God a massive problem; he says, 'I hope our troubles don't
seem too little before Thee', you know, when our troubles loom large, b&s, it's because
we loom large, but when we're like this, and we've got the Almighty in His proper place,
filling the immensity of the universe, with enormous strength and power, then the
danger that He might be our trouble, oppose the difficulties; they're not worth taking
notice of because we're not worth taking notice of, and that was a genuine and sincere
prayer of Ezra; he was frightened that God might just slip by and not worry about the
problems, because they weren't worthy of consideration! AND THEY WEREN'T
WORTHY OF IT. It's all very well to stand up and say we're humble, but this man was
humble, he was frightened that God would look down upon them and say, 'Huh! why
should I be worried about a disobedient people like that who repeat history?' It's one
thing, b&s, to sin, it's another thing to go on doing what your fathers had been doing,
with the lessons of history behind you; and history has forever been repeating itself, and
will go on repeating itself until Christ comes. And in these last days, we could put our
own little epistle in there, and attach it to Ezra's prayer and pray to God and tell Him
from the bottom of our hearts, how really wonderful He was! that in a world of abymsal
ignorance and superstition and greed, and awful power, He brought forth the pristine
glory of His truth!
And He raised up men, they may not have been prophets, they weren't inspired in the
sense that these men were inspired; but as one brother said to me on one occasion, 'if
there'd been a better man, God would have chose him!' And out of the rubbish of
Christianity, bro. Thomas with a magnificent super human effort, resurrected the truth
for our consideration, and it was embellished by the works of bro. Robert Roberts and
carried on by faithful men, and we in our day and generation, have dealt proudly,
hardened our hearts, refused his commandments, and won't listen. But God will be
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merciful if He has to! and we hope that all our troubles won't seem too little for Him, in a
world where He will mould in the international affairs until the earth may be made
glorious by the presence of His Son; and a few Christadelphians in this age and
generation won't make any difference one way or the other, whether they're all there or
whether they're all not there. That's how we ought to think, and not intrude ourselves
into heaven's port as being personal favourites, that God owes us a favour, or that we
should be saved, or that we will be saved, but we HOPE that He won't think that our
troubles are too little, to pass consideration! Those are the words of a very great man,
and I don't doubt that if we beheld his reputation, they would scarcely be our words!
He said in verse 33, 'that God was just and we have done wickedly', that wasn't
pseudo humility, b&s, those were sincere words, God was just and they had done
wickedly. And he points out in verse 34 that 'neither their kings, princes, priests nor their
fathers kept the Law'. If we'll notice he only exempted the prophets from that
condemnation, do you know why? because you see, b&s, kings, princes, priests and
fathers were all appointees of the Law, they were all given assignments by the Law. He
were all part of the judicial and legal systems, all bound up in what God had set forth in
the Law and because the whole thing went wrong, because of mismanagement,
because of total mismanagement, there had to come into the world, men called
prophets. They weren't part of the legal system, they weren't part of any organization,
except they ..., of course, and it had nothing to do with Law; They were a separate
group who were watch dogs of that society, and with all the condemnation that came
upon the people, kings, priests, princes and fathers and all, the prophets were separate
because they had a least tried to do something and stood off as separate from that
institution and tried to correct it but they couldn't correct it. If that system had of run,
something like it should have, b&s, I'll tell you something, there never would have come
into the world, a prophet; there never would have been a need for a prophet, if that
system had been functioning properly. But it didn't! and so there we are, we can see the
difference.
And it says in verse 35, 'and they have not served Thee in their kingdom', you know,
b&s, we're serving God hoping to be in the kingdom. They were in it, and didn't serve it!
for Israel was the kingdom of God, and if we can't serve God now in the ecclesia as if
we were in the kingdom, we will never serve in the kingdom actual, there's no doubt
about that! and they were in the kingdom and they hadn't served Him.'
But you know, Ezra finishes on a classic note, I want you to notice this! In verses 36 and
37, now you listen to what he says, he says, 'Behold, we are thy 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. And it yieldeth much increase unto the whom
Thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies
and over our cattle, at their pleasure, oh, we are in great distress'. You know what he's
saying, because the next verse is attached to it, 'And because of all this' (now that's
wrong, b&s, the Hebrew doesn't say that, the Hebrew says, and yet for all this) we say
'amen', and that's what he meant by the word 'sure', it's a Hebrew word, very closely
related to 'amen' and it's the word for 'covenant'; in other words this is what he said, you
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listen to the words of Ezra and you'll see the words of intelligence there, b&s. This is a
man who thought about his God; now the spirit-type thinks here, this man thought about
what he was going to say, he had a message in his mouth for his heavenly Father and
he wanted it to enter into the chronicles of time and this is what he said; 'we're in this
Land, God, and we're the servants to the king of Persia. It's the Land that you gave to
our fathers, and it brings forth much fruit; but we don't get it. We'll deal with increase,
but we have to pay taxes with that, and we know it's the Land that you promised to our
fathers, but we give ... it now and we don't own it! If we used it we would and we have to
pay taxation to these kings; as rightly we should because we've sinned against you and
deserve that! BUT we still believe the promises. Amen, he says, Amen! What a
wonderful faith that is, b&s, and ii's alright for you and I to say, 'oh, well, the promises
to Abraham had to be fulfilled because Abraham was in the grave', but these are the
seed of Abraham, that is the Land of Promise, they're back there, they're brought out of
captivity according to the prophet's words, why hasn't He given them the Land? And
there would have been many that would have said, ' .... here we've come this far, we're
identified with the seed of Abraham, there's the genealogy that Ezra's got; this is the
Land, there's no doubt about that this is the Land where Abraham walked, there are the
promises which said God will give it to us, and here we are working our fingers to the
bone, yes, it's a fruitful land and what for? To pay taxes! 'It bothers with the truth!' that's
what Ezra would have said, b&s, and Ezra stood there and said, 'And despite all this, I
say concerning your promises, Amen'. He wanted a set of men to come forward and to
seal with their signatures that covenant; the covenant was 'amen', but despite
appearances to the contrary, God would certainly fulfil those promises! it doesn't matter
what the situation looked like, that's what he wanted, b&s, he wanted them to come and
seal that covenant!
So chapter 10 is all about the sealing of the covenant. They came forward and drew up
a covenant and signed it. You'll notice there was an order of signing; in verse 1, the first
one that sealed, of course, no else, Nehemiah. From verses 2 to 8, the priests added
their signatures; from verses 9 to 13 the Levites add theirs, 14 to 27 the chief of the
people and in verse 28 the rest of the people. They all come forward in order of their
occupations and positions and they signed that covenant with Nehemiah first, b&s.
There are two men, b&s, (I suppose there were many who didn't sign!) but there are two
notable absentees from voting, and the first of them was Eliabshib, he didn't sign the
covenant, the high priest. Why didn't he? because verse 30 says 'that they promised
they'd never give their daughters unto the people of the Land', how could he sign? How
could he sign? he had already done that; and Tobiah had ingratiated himself through
other families in the family of Eliashib, and he had a whole .... with Tobiah right through
the whole stratum, and Tobiah was related to Meshullam and to Eliashib with marriage
that held the whole little group together. The finest people in the Land, so called, were
all bound up under the marriage covenant, so he didn't sign it. Thick as blood, b&s,
verse 36, b&s, blood was far too thich for him to sign back!
And the other one who didn't sign it was Ezra, and it would have been utterly
incongruous for him to sign, because he was already sealed; he was a walking
covenant! If he had put his name there, b&s, it would have been nothing, he had no
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need to write his name to a document like that, any more, I suppose, than Nehemiah
did. But Nehemiah was the governor of the people that he repesented, and Ezra stood
apart, and he was sealed of God; nobody had to ask Ezra to put a signature to a
promise, I believe, it would have been, b&s, I believe, an insult for that man to do so. So
two very significant men are missing from that list, among others.
And these people made promises of what they were going to do; it was a very, very
solemn covenant, b&s; and we've made promises of what we're going to do, and as we
run down through these promises, perhaps we may be able to exercise a little bit of
poetic licence, and perhaps make some modern applications which might help, of all the
promises that we've made. You know, the people who made those problems, and who
did separate themselves in verse 28, we read in the end of the verse, 'All they that had
separated themselves from the people of the Land, (who were they?) well they were the
ones who said at the end of verse 28, 'having knowledge and having understanding,
and that clave to their brethren, the nobles and rulers. There was an appeal for ecclesial
unity; you know, we don't want to push any boundaries or ride any hobby horse, but
there are people that still believe, that men make stand today in ecclesias, because
that's the way they want to stamp their authority upon the people. Please don't think that
b&s!
Look, here was a group of people that had understanding, and they had knowledge and
they cried to their brethren the nobles ....That's not a political ploy, b&s, that's the facts
of the word of God, and brethren and sisters who could fall through the wholesome
scenes of Jesus Christ, when we try to disciplne people, both young and old, that as we
appear to the world, we might appear to be decent, honourable, law abiding and sincere
people, not that we want to elevate one's self, but bring honour to the name we bear,
that's why standards are made, and people who have understanding and knowledge
cleave to their brethren in those matters. And idiots don't! that's what the Word of God is
saying there, b&s, I'm not saying that; those that have understanding and knowledge
clave to their brethren, and they entered into that oath, to walk in God's law. And they
spelled out what they would do! sometimes that's necessary. You know, tragically, b&s,
that's missing, as it was on this occasion; but you know, the aim of the truth is to get to a
situation in ecclesial life where spelling out these matters won't be necessary. It was the
apostle Paul who told Timothy that in 1 Timothy 1 verse 9, 'the law is good, if a man
uses it lawfully, knowing this, what? that the law is not made for the righteous but for the
disobedient'. And when ecclesias have to spell out to their members, and be specific
about points of detail in standing, it's tragic! because we'd love to get to a situation
where we so love our God and our brethren and sisters, that whatever our personal
whims and fancies might be, b&s, we would conform with matters that have no
consequence, that we might be a powerful influence in matters that are of a mighty
consequence, and to heck with laws with people like that, you don't need them. For the
laws are only made for the lawless and the disobedient, and the law is lawful to use as
long as you know that! And so as long as we have to go around telling people to do this,
or to do that, it is an absolute indictment upon that ecclesia that it has to be said; and
unfortunately, this had to said. They had to write down matters which should have been,
every day accepted as common fundamental principles among them.
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What were they? Verse 30, 'that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the
land, nor take their daughters for our sons'. In other words, we wouldn't let them marry
outside the truth; now in our day and generation, young people choose their own
partners. I suppose that's the best system, I really don't know what we could do about it
anyway even if we believed otherwise, but that wasn't the system in those days. Fathers
and mothers had a big influence on their youngsters when they married and because of
that, a marriage outside the truth was not just an accident, where some young brother in
the truth, or sister in the truth, ran into a pair of blue eyes that didn't belong there, and
fell in love. It didn't happen quite like that, and when marriages were contracted,
invariably the parents had power to do something about it, but they didn't. And it was the
Lord Jesus Christ that said, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of
the coming of the Son of man; for they were married AND given in marriage', in other
words, they were marrying a multiplicity of wives outside the truth and parents went on
giving their consent for every marriage, and the Greek is in the present continuous
tense; they were marrying, and marrying, and marrying, and marrying, and the parents
were giving in marriage, giving in marriage, giving in marriage. Sometimes it has to be
spelt out! otherwise we're going to have disaster. Marriage outside the truth, b&s, isn't
just simply against ecclesial rules, it isn't only simply a breaking of a commandment
although that is terrible, it is a personal tragedy, where a person handicaps themself in a
race for life, where we're going to need every help we can get to get into the kingdom.
Now, that had to be written down as a thing that had to be done!
Verse 31 says that they promised they would not buy or sell if anyone came to
Jerusalem, they wouldn't buy or sell with them on the Sabbath or on a holy day.
Business, business, b&s, would never, ever intrude into ecclesial life, that's what that
is saying. Amos said the situation had come in his day, this was before Nehemiah's
time, when even the Jews among themselves, when the Sabbath came they were
looking at the day and wishing it would go quickly because they couldn't wait to
commence business on the next day! And even though they might not have bought and
sold on the Sabbath day, and to all external appearances might have seemed to be
obeying the Sabbath day, they were eating their hearts out with business, and I wonder,
when you listen to people's plans and schemes, it seems that we're going to be here
forever! You hear that sometimes in the midst of our communal worship, 'we're going to
do this, and we're going to do that, and when we get this we'll do that, and when you
work it out it'll take about 20 or 30 years, but it ought to be done', and you think to
yourself, 'that brother thinks we're going to be here forever'. They promised, b&s, that
business would never interfere with the truth: they would leave the seventh year and the
exaction of every debt. We know what that means, the Law of Moses called the seventh
year, the Sabbatical year, and the exacting of every debt, the year of release, they
coincided together because when there was a Sabbatical year and people couldn't reap
down their crops, and of course, no one had any income for that year, they had to be
released from debt, otherwise, people couldn't pay it. And they promised to do that, b&s,
they had already done that, they had already given up their creditors and they'd given
their money back, they'd done that! But I wonder, sometimes, what it would mean to us,
would we forego opportunities for personal gain in order that the truth might be helped?
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Have we ever had plans, b&s, that we must continue with even though the work of the
truth is to be done? Oh, I'd have liked to make up the studies for the brother but I was
doing this or that; foregoing things of personal gain, b&s, for the sake of the truth,
sometimes isn't easy when those things are very, very, very dear to our hearts! They
promised to do it!
And they were so spontaneous with their promises, that in verse 32 they said, 'we will
impose upon ourselves a matter over and above the Law'. We will make an ordinance,
we will charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the
house of God; now b&s, every time the people were numbered or took a census they
had to pay 1/2 shekel to the sanctuary; that went into the sanctuary, of course, and was
a contribution towards the work of the sanctuary (there was a reason for that, which we
won't go into now) but they were already paying that every time the people were
numbered. But they said, 'Look, we're so sincere in this promise that we will charge
ourselves, we will go .... we'll give the 1/3 part of a shekel every year, never mind
about a census, every year we'll give it (and a census wasn't taken every year). So we
will pay the 1/3 part of a shekel for the work of the house of God. I wonder sometimes,
b&s, in times of hardship, or when in times when opportunity comes to buy something,
do you want it? where those types of promises are conveniently forgotten? This one
certainly was! But they promised it! and they outlined all the wonderful things for which
they would contribute: the showbread, the continual meat offering, the burnt offering of
the sabbaths, new moons, the set feasts, the holy things, the sin offerings and so on.
And we'll all do it, the end of verse 33, 'for the work of the house of our God', that's what
we'll do it for! We'll all do it for the work of the house of our God, that's what we say,
b&s, and you know, sometimes, (and I don't want to criticized anyone unnecessarily, but
it's time that we had a good long look at ourselves). You know, sometimes we plunge
into ecclesial life, and you build up your small ecclesia (as we did in ours) we get to a
certain number and you feel it's time you had a simple home; you're sick to death of
halls that smell of beer and cigarettes and sweeping all the rubbish out of it. You're fed
up of being put off by men by saying you can't do that, and you decide to build an
ecclesial hall. And you ought to hear the voices! that get up on the platform and exhort
that we should be very careful about how we do this ......... and you ought to see the
homes of those people that know that! oh, dear! and it may not be the house of our
God, b&s, but it's a place at least where we can say this factually, we all congregate
there to worship and none of us own it! It's at least got that going for it! So when we
contribute to whatever, either materially or the spiritual well being of that ecclesia, the
money goes to God, in one way or another, and sometimes I shudder to hear the
criticism and the wonderful powerful words of exhortation about not putting our trust in
material values, and ....... No trouble is spared for private dwellings and they said, we'll
do all this the house of God! ...... because we're going to get word later on that they
broke every single one of them; and history repeated itself as Ezra said it would.
In verse 34, they were going to go and cut wood for the fire; they had what is called a
'wood offering', you don't read about that wood offering under the Law of Moses, b&s,
it's not in the Law but there was also a feast which commemorated it on the 15th day of
the 5th month, but in Jewish tradition it had a feast to commemorate the wood offering.
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It wasn't only that brethren and sisters went out and gathered wood, the fact of the
matter was, that that wood ignited the sacrifices that were upon the altar. And because,
b&s, sacrifices that went upon the altar were all positive, and nothing never, ever went
on God's altar that was negative, you prove to me if that's right! and you won't find it!
therefore, that wood which ignited that sacrifice had to be wood, as Jewish tradition tells
us, and I can well and truly understand this as it was in concert with the Law, had to be
without bores, without disease, it had to be a piece of timber that was virtually perfect.
That wouldn't have been easy to find, because that fire under that altar, b&s, was not a
fire to destroy: there are two words for fire in the Law of Moses, one which consumes
the sacrifice and translated terms of flesh into an odour of a sweet smelling savour,
which was called 'olah' (5930) which means 'to cause to ascend' and the other fire
which was used outside the camp to burn the offal and the carcase of the sin offering
and all that was filthy which was called 'saraph' which means 'to destroy' (8313). They
didn't collect wood for that one, they collected wood for the one on the altar; and
because it was extremely difficult, remembering this that during the course of the
standing in those temples, that fire never went out. It would consume quite a deal of
wood (you see them up at Glenlock .... taking your showers ... we can't guarantee that
the wood's without grub, but it's not a bad job keeping that going for the period of that
camp, and that's only four days) you think, b&s, that was a very, very powerful promise
to keep. They had to cast lots to get that wood because they knew that it would be a
very, very difficult thing to get. They had to cast lots at times appointed, year by year;
Jewish tradition tells us that they had nine occasions during the year when they got
together and collected sufficient wood to keep that fire going, so somewhere during the
course of the year, nine times the group got together and they cast lots, and they got
together to collect that wood. It would be a little bit harder than cleaning the ecclesial
hall once in a while, and they made that promise.
They said in verses 35 onwards that they would bring the first fruits of their ground, the
first fruits of their children, the first fruits of their herds and their flocks. The children, of
course, would be redeemed naturally, but those children nonetheless would be
presented to God as holy children, and if our belief in the truth, said the apostle, is
sincere, our children are holy; which doesn't mean they're in the truth, it doesn't mean
they're baptized, it doesn't necessarily mean they're saved, but it does mean a
difference! And those children were presented before God, all the firstborns and they
were dedicated to God's service, and although the child would be at an early age when
they dedicated, they would not have understood that, b&s, but the parents did. And they
took those vows about those children and they would do their best to bring them up in
the nurture and admonish of the Law.
And they said they'd bring all the first fruits of their ground, and the first born of their
cattle and herds, what for? At the end of verse 36, 'for the priests that minister in the
house of God'. So the priests had to be kept, b&s, they didn't work! The priests weren't
put to work, they worked for God! the same as the Levites, and of course, they had to
tithe the people for the Levites. But you see, there were gradations among the
congregation whereby God was seen to be supreme; the priests who served Him
represented Him, the Levites were a lower congregation who went out and taught the
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Law that the priests were to administer, and the people, of course, were the people. And
what they did as this chapter tells us, that they tithed the people and then they tithed the
Levites, and so Nehemiah called it a 'tithe of the tithe', in verse 38 about half way
through the verse, and there was only one class in all Israel who never paid tithes, and
that was the priests. The Levites paid tithes, b&s, they had to, Numbers 18 points that
out; so you pay 1/10 of your income which goes to the Levites, and he pays 1/10 of his
income which goes to the priests, and he pays nobody, because he represents God.
That's how the system works! Now you can just imagine what would happen if the
people never paid the Levites, and the Levites can't pay the priests, and there's nobody
to represent God, and God goes out of the nation, simply because people are greedy.
That's what they promised to do! They promised to do always!
And they said at the end of chapter 10, b&s, the last words of chapter 10 were words
which would be ringing in Ezra's and Nehemiah's ears, 'we will not forsake the house of
our God'. And a few years later, Nehemiah was back and he said, 'why have you
forsaken the house of God? and everyone of those promises were broken, absolutely
tragic! But any rate, for the moment everything is very positive and the people have
made those wonderful promises of what they're going to do and what they're not going
to do!
In chapter 11, b&s, we come to a chapter that deals with Jerusalem. There is a problem
in Jerusalem that has to be solved, it's a population problem. You see, we've got to
have a population in the city, bearing in mind, that the people are dwelling outside the
walls, the Samaritans are still there despite the walls are up, and the fact is that now
the city is a fortified place, it has to be protected and watched and there's not enough
people in the city. So we read in chapter 11, 'The rulers of the people dwelt at
Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten (a tithe) to dwell in
Jerusalem, (and then, b&s, we have this expression), the holy city'. That's rather
beautiful really, the holy city, one in ten to dwell in the holy city. Jerusalem was never
called that to this point of time, that is, to the book of Nehemiah; but now it's got walls
around it, b&s, and it's called a holy city, what makes Jerusalem 'holy'? That wall made
it holy! do you think that's what I think about it? listen to this! Joel says in chapter 3 and
verse 17, 'Then shall Jerusalem be holy, for no stranger shall pass through her any
more', that's what makes Jerusalem holy. The last words of Zechariah the prophet are,
'even the pots that shall cook the food shall be holy unto Yahweh; the bells upon the
horses that bring the offerings of the nations to Jerusalem, even those little tinkling
bells, right down to minutest things will be holy, and he said, 'there shall be no more
the Canaanite in the house of the LORD'. That's what makes it holy, b&s, and when that
wall was broken down, the city was unholy; it never progressed to being the holy city
until that wall went up. Now it is! Then shall Jerusalem be holy, for strangers shall pass
through it no more, that's rather wonderful!
So then we find that there was a tithe of the people; and these people that were tithed
that lived in Jerusalem, are spoken of in verse 2 as being 'willingly offering themselves',
'And the people blessed all the men, that willingly offered themselves to dwell at
Jerusalem'. As well they might bless them, b&s, that was a sacrifice to come and dwell
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in that urban society; things were no easy in Jerusalem. The walls there, true, produce
would not have been easy to get in and out of that city; danger was always there, they
lived among the Samaritans, they weren't a separate nation, they dwelt among those
people, rubbed shoulders with them every day, they were in the world but not of it! And
they still were seen, as we know full well what the 13th chapter of Nehemiah says, that
there were still those who wanted to pull those walls down. And people who are
prepared to live in a dangerous existence in that city, who gave up their own homes and
their own land holdings for a different part of life, a life which perhaps didn't agree with
them, it wouldn't have agreed with people of a agricultural nature, truly they willingly
offered themselves. Much the same, b&s, of those brethren and sisters who are always
busying themselves, when we're all thoroughly enjoying ourselves at all the big shows
we have, the ecclesial fraternals and the bible schools; and there are a willing group of
workers who work before that occasion, during that occasion, and long after. They don't
have all the comforts that we have, and are prepared to forego their personal time and
energy, that we might enjoy those matters. They are to be blessed! and they do a
wonderful service in the service of their God, there's no doubt about it!
And when you come to the 11th chapter, you find that what happened really was that
Nehemiah organized the whole business; you know what he did, as I hold you, (as far
as all the details, there's too much for us to go into) but he organized Jerusalem into a
civil administration and an illiterate administration and they went parallel with one
another. He had sort of a cabinet and governments that ran the city and he had sort of
a group of people under the priests and Levites that ran the spiritual side of the city. So
the city was really well and truly organized and populated that it might seem to be the
heart and vital centre of that nation. That's what chapter 11 is all about.
Then we come finally, b&s, to the dedication of the wall. Ah, what a scene that was! and
this is where it all climaxed that I was telling you about! When you come to chapter 12,
there's another .... all the people that came up from Babylon with Zerubbabel and with
Ezra. And the whole list is given again and the register is all written up freshly and new,
because there's going to be a new start; there's a new Jerusalem, it's a holy city.
Everything is wonderful, people have new promises for the new year, everything about
it, b&s, is ..... swollen with great promise and joy. And we're not speaking ironically here
at all, because we're talking at the moment that it was like this! despite the fact they had
broken from it (let's forget about that until we come to it Saturday night), let's think that
they were genuine, and they were! People that break promises are not necessarily
insincere when they make them; it's circumstances of life and it's the will of the flesh,
b&s, when we've got to build walls around our nature, is when things go wrong and
promises get broken. And that's when brick and mortar means little, and when our
nature gets out of control and then we are out of control despite walls, and that's what
happened with the people.
But for the moment, there is joy and happiness. And what happened on this occasion
was truly wonderful; you see, Nehemiah organized two groups of people, (you won't see
the details of it again, but I hope you can discern on that transparency, those of you who
are close enough) for we have shown on here a green line and a blue line which begin
15
at the Valley gate and goes together at the temple over there at the top right hand
corner. And that green line, b&s, represents a group of believers of the people of Israel,
who walked on that wall; they walked on that wall in procession and went around that
way to the temple. And this group here, walked on the wall around this way and they
met the other group at the temple. (Now that comes out beautifully in my bible, I've got
that drawn around the margin, and it just so happens that the very door that they walked
through, that the verse right over the door says, the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem.
It represents almost the exact spot where the temple use to be, just a happy
coincidence in our bible. If you draw that up and you see it as a picture in your margin,
you picture that wonderful scene! Let me paint that scene for you!
First of all, in chapter 12, b&s, notice what Nehemiah said, in verse 31, he says, 'Then I
brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of
them that gave thanks', now you'll notice that that expression has a lot of words in
italics. The reason being, b&s, that there's really only one word in the Hebrew there, 'he
appointed two 'yadah' and the word 'kadah' is a Hebrew word which means 'to praise
God with extended hands and with a voice; to lift up one's hands and sing praises to
God, that's the real meaning of the word 'kadah' and it's one of the many words used in
the Psalms for the word 'praise' or 'thanksgiving'. There's about 7 or 8 of them used in
the Psalms, different words meaning different things; and 'kadah' was nearly always
used when there were choirs involved, and these choirs would lift their hands as they
would express themselves with their voices, they would be very demonstrative with their
hands as many Australians are, and they'd try to illustrate what they were trying to say
with their hands. That's the idea of the word 'kadah', and so what Nehemiah did really,
was to get two great choirs and they got on top of those walls and they were to march
around to the Valley Gate, and you'll notice that it's exactly the place where he started
his nocturnal journey around that city. And now the great Nehemiah, b&s, is going to
start there again, not riding an ass now, not riding over rubble in the darkness of night,
but standing atop the broad wall in the brilliant sunshine of that day, and to march in
triumph around those walls, from the very place that he began that lonely, sad and
almost dispirited ride, if it hadn't been for his faith.
But you know, ah, look, it's glorious when you see this, it's glorious when you read it in
words; you know what he did? You see, there were two groups, and concerning the one
he said in verse 38, 'the other company, kadah, choir giving thanks went over against
them, and I after them; and back at the end of verse 36, the other kadah or choir and
Ezra the scribe before them'. And you can see the scene, can't you? they met over
here, the people are all together. Nehemiah separated them into two great choirs and
they're going to sing praises to Yahweh; and he's got this group going around the world,
blowing with the trumpets, the priests blowing with the trumpets and the people singing
the psalms of David, and here comes us. And he gets this group going, all those priests
playing the trumpets, the people singing the psalms, and Ezra's in front. And the thing
you see, and the thing you see as they come to the East gate, is that Ezra's group will
arrive there first because it describes their journey there first, and Ezra would walk
before them, b&s. The aged scribe singing as he walked before them with his grey
head, with his long flowing beard the symbol of his maturity, his hardened face full of
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wisdom with the Ancient of days, a walking bible. And Nehemiah would have stood at
the end of the crowd and watched him, as the ancient scribe walked through the portals
of that courtyard of the temple. Everyone taking it in, and Nehemiah bringing up the
rereward; and that's the last we ever hear of Ezra in the bible, it's almost as if he walked
into immortality.
We never hear of him again, we never learn of his death; he walked into eternity. Ah, he
died, I don't believe in the immortality of the soul anymore than you do, b&s, he died but
God deemed it unsuitable to tell us that he died, and we saw him go into his city of
Jerusalem on top of those walls, with all those trumpets ringing in his ears and the Word
says, 'and Jerusalem rang afar off' (verse 43) and Ezra went out of history! I love that
man, I think he's the most wonderful character of that period, and I think it was
absolutely just and right, that Nehemiah put him up at the front, and bring up the
rereward. The God of Israel shall go before you, and Yahweh shall be your rereward!
and there at the beginning and the end of those two choirs are the two men, b&s, and
between them, everyone utterly depended upon them!
It was a marvellous and wonderful occasion, it truly was a wonderful occasion! We pick
up some of the joy in verse 40, 'the two companies or the two choirs gave thanks in the
house of God'; I would have loved to be there, b&s, and heard those choirs. We have
our ecclesial choir, our combined weekend, and I'll tell you absolutely, I can't
understand anyone criticizing singing of that nature! It's glorious to hear our brethren
and sisters, with all their endeavours to put forward, all which they do in the name of
their God in all sincerity. It's glorious to hear that, b&s, and we're not professionals, you
know something, they were! not professionals as this world calls them professionals, but
they were players on instruments that were originals; David invented them and there
was no music like that in the world! They were invented in Israel and there were men
appointed, b&s, who were brilliant singers; Heman was the best singer in Israel, the
grandson of Samuel. He was the leading singer, imagine that voice! and Asaph the
collector of songs, who put forth a book of songs that he might be the leader of the
choir, the man whose name means 'to gather together' (623) 'to collect together', and
here they sing the songs of Asaph. The people are all collected together, aren't they?
and there's an intelligent appraisal of the situation, they understand the meaning of
people's names, they see the glory of it all, and they sing those songs, and they had
stacks of them to sing. They had the psalms of David, b&s, they had all those psalms,
history says that Jewish tradition is ingrained with this fact, b&s, and has been
established as Jewish tradition, that it was none else but Ezra that gathered most of
that together. And when he walked through the portals of those doors, he left behind
him a permanent record of all that he stood for, as a collector of much of the chronicles
of the history of the nation. And they could have had all of David's psalms-walk about
Zion, consider her bulwarks; they had that psalm, b&s.
'Jerusalem is a city compacted together! whither the tribes go up, even the tribes of
Yahweh', Psalm 122; and the word 'tribes' means 'shoot off' (7626) and as the 12 tribes
shot off in every direction, it was Jerusalem that combined them together, because as
they came down from the north or the south and they came through the desert in the
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south, all through the winding valleys of Samaria, the closer you got to Jerusalem, b&s,
so the hills hedged you in and in and in until by the time you got to the city, the little
separate family groups who were miles apart in Samaria are now crowding together
shoulder to shoulder because Jerusalem would compact them together. They couldn't,
couldn't separate, the very compository of that place crowded them in, one to the other.
'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem', they would have sung, and anybody who knows
anything about the bible, know it no use praying for peace if it's not in Jerusalem, the
point is and this is the point, 'pray for the peace OF Jerusalem; it doesn't mean that
Jerusalem had peace but the peace which belongs to that city, that's what they're
praying for. Listen to Haggai the prophet, 'In this place, I will give peace', listen to the
Lord Jesus Christ as He considered the city 'if only you knew the things that belong unto
your peace', what's that peace, b&s? There was a King in Salem? ..... first mentioned of
Jerusalem as Salem; back in the Old Testament the Genesis record, Melchizadek,
Jerusalem's peace is when there is a sovereign of righteousness and He'll never be
King until there is. And when they prayed for the peace OF Jerusalem, that's what they
were praying for. And that Psalm 122 where those wonderful words are found, b&s, it
says concerning the pilgrims that each one went up individually and they were glad to
go to the house of God. Our feet are standing in the within thy holy place (present tense
even though they were not there yet). Such was their .... to get there. And the psalm
finishes by saying 'for my brethren's sake, for my companions' sake, I say, Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem', and if we love our brethren and sisters, we will pray for
Jerusalem's peace. With righteousness, b&s, will establish that for ever!
And as they sang that in the choirs, each brother and sister, shoulder to shoulder,
watching the great choirs of the priests, Levites and the rest of the people following as
they crowded around those walls, every Israelite would have known that they were
singing on account of each other, that's how much that city meant to them; not only as a
spiritual centre but their very physical defence as it was then, but more than that as they
saw in Ezra, the spiritual defence that that city offered, in all that it stood for in principle,
and for my brother's sake, my companions' sake I say, 'Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem'. Those are some of the things that would have been said on that day, b&s.
Ah, look, it was glorious! 'They blew the trumpets in verse 41, the singers in verse 42
sang loud with their voices, and it says in verse 43, 'also that day, they offered great
sacrifices'. There's something you need, b&s, the word 'great' doesn't mean a multitude
of sacrifices, they were great sacrifices. why would they do that? what was so great
about those sacrifices. There weren't any others sacrifices other than what the LORD
specified! Why were they great when they certified originally by the Law?(1419) Well,
you see, it was David who said this in Psalm 51, and you all know what Psalm 51's
about! it's about his confession, b&s, because God had been good in his life, but he had
been rebellious and had taken Bath-sheba, another man's wife, and had acted
constantly not with his own life but with the lives of Israel? ......, and God had been very
good to him too and had forgiven him. And David, b&s, no longer came to his God and
offered all these wonderful offerings and made wonderful promises, but He said this,
'build thou the walls of Jerusalem, then we shall offer burnt offerings and whole burnt
offerings upon your altar. And they did!