SPEAKER_07: All right, we are in week eight of our of our session of our Sunday school session, which I'm saying again because I just hit the record, so I have that now for progeny.
SPEAKER_07: Uh we are in Nehemiah chapter seven.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, it is good to see you all.
SPEAKER_07: Coffee is ready.
SPEAKER_07: Um, Bia made it, so it's good, unlike anything I would try to make.
SPEAKER_07: Um let's dive into subscription.
SPEAKER_07: But some opening questions.
SPEAKER_07: Well, first of all, let's start with this.
SPEAKER_07: Uh we are now in really about halfway through the book of Nehemiah, a little more than halfway through our study together.
SPEAKER_07: Um, what has happened so far?
SPEAKER_06: Wall's built.
SPEAKER_07: Wall's built.
SPEAKER_06: Except the gates.
SPEAKER_07: Except the gates.
SPEAKER_07: And yeah, we're we'll get the gates up this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone is pleased.
SPEAKER_07: Not everyone is happy.
SPEAKER_07: That that that's not going to get fixed anytime soon.
SPEAKER_07: Um there's been some opposition.
SPEAKER_07: Where has the opposition come from?
SPEAKER_07: Inside and out, surrounding all around them, and then the enemies have come from within.
SPEAKER_07: They've had to deal with Senbalat, Tobiah, Geshem, the people to the south.
SPEAKER_07: And then what about the internal division?
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: Slavery.
SPEAKER_03: So slavery.
SPEAKER_03: Usury.
SPEAKER_07: Usury.
SPEAKER_07: In the middle of the famine, where we're selling the sons and daughters to pay for grain, and then we're charging loans to each other to make a buck, and then we've been redeeming the other people from slavery, but then the Jews out the other side have been selling the people back, only then to be redeemed by the other Jews to make money off the other Jews.
SPEAKER_07: And so uh Nehemiah came for a wall building project, and he's really has all this has started on you know, two months, under two months now, of just basic, you know, community restoration.
SPEAKER_07: And at some point you have to wonder if he's going, like, what have I gotten myself into?
SPEAKER_07: But that's the one thing he never says this entire time.
SPEAKER_07: I wouldn't blame him if he thought it.
SPEAKER_07: Um but as he says, he says, God has put this in his head to do all this.
SPEAKER_07: But the wall is the wall is going up in under two months.
SPEAKER_07: Um, if if if we believe some archaeological records, um it was nearly 40 feet high and nine feet, nine feet thick in some places.
SPEAKER_07: Constructed with the materials lying around, probably some rubble from the previous wall held together with some form of concrete mortar.
SPEAKER_07: You you can look up pictures of this thing in some places constructed where the the former kind of walls of David had been, maybe in some places extended, and then they have the gates go up.
SPEAKER_07: Um here people constructed the walls around, they had the daughters helping out, and then the opposition comes, that leaves that leads them to be end up sleeping around the wall, um, which possibly makes the wall go up even faster, so they don't have to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_07: More opposition comes, then uh the people get worn down, so they have to start going on shifts because half of them have to be on guard duty, so they get breaks, which makes perhaps the wall go up even faster.
SPEAKER_07: And then here they are, and everyone who opposed them looks foolish, and the Jews don't even have to say anything, and we come to Nehemiah 7.
SPEAKER_07: Now some Sunday school classes might just get Nehemiah 7.
SPEAKER_07: Some Sunday school teachers may have arranged their daughter to be married so they could be out in New Jersey so they didn't have to teach Nehemiah 7.
SPEAKER_07: I'm not saying that's what happened.
SPEAKER_07: I'm just saying some people could have done that.
SPEAKER_07: No, that's not what happened.
SPEAKER_07: Um because this is everyone's favorite read through a Bible in one year chapter.
SPEAKER_07: It's a chapter with a lot of names.
SPEAKER_07: A great many names.
SPEAKER_07: It's not all names, but it's mostly names.
SPEAKER_07: And some people may say, let's just get.
SPEAKER_04: No.
SPEAKER_04: I can't pronounce one of the names.
SPEAKER_04: So you're gonna have to read this chapter for it.
SPEAKER_07: Um I am going to read this chapter, unless someone really wants to volunteer.
SPEAKER_07: And Robin just volunteered.
SPEAKER_07: Ah, I have a change.
SPEAKER_07: Nathan's come back after some time off, and he's volunteered to do Nehemiah 7.
SPEAKER_07: No, I'm not gonna make you do that.
SPEAKER_07: Um Alan, you want to read it?
SPEAKER_07: Put some of that seminary degree to work, uh, that degree to work.
SPEAKER_07: Um but here's the thing on the larger point, why are we doing this?
SPEAKER_07: Um on a certain level, it's in the Bible for a reason.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, uh just you maybe tell us in the quote time, this is in the Bible twice.
SPEAKER_07: Nehemiah is quoting an earlier book of the Bible with this entire list.
SPEAKER_07: There are so many lists of names in the Bible, this one gets to be in the Bible twice.
SPEAKER_07: Because this is also mostly Ezra chapter 2, which is itself interesting and we're talking about this long list of names that Mr.
SPEAKER_07: Travis wants to skip.
SPEAKER_07: Um, I never told you.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Nor did I.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't graduate.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Nor did I, is so entangled to the Bible it's in a twice.
SPEAKER_07: And so there you are.
SPEAKER_07: Today we have the list of uh of names in the Bible that that makes a twice.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, actually, I was in my 60s when I went to the seminary, so there's certain talks I I decided I don't really don't need to know that.
SPEAKER_07: Well, I don't know exactly how you how you pronounce Sons of Nakota, but maybe Alan does.
SPEAKER_07: Uh yes, Richard.
SPEAKER_05: Uh years ago, is that someone over our way church in Birmingham pastor started that's Frank Barker?
SPEAKER_05: Remember him telling a story one time about one of his elders.
SPEAKER_05: He'd get up and rage in church and he'd just say hard word, hard word, hard word.
SPEAKER_04: That's such a bad idea.
SPEAKER_04: That's me.
SPEAKER_07: Um before I go on for telling funny Bible hard hard hard named stories.
SPEAKER_07: And I can do that because Al's not here.
SPEAKER_07: Um, because I don't have his funny stories.
SPEAKER_07: Like I I had you know a Sunday school class.
SPEAKER_07: I taught for many years at the Baptist church.
SPEAKER_07: I came from here.
SPEAKER_07: And and just to encourage some of them to just try to read some of the Bible out a lot of new Christians, I just told them like, look, I I tell them I don't exactly know how to pronounce it either when I do it.
SPEAKER_07: I'm just phonetically doing English.
SPEAKER_07: I'm I'm I'm faking it to a certain extent.
SPEAKER_07: I can just do it.
SPEAKER_07: You know, it's like it's like how I read Shakespeare, you know, with my English classes.
SPEAKER_07: I think I know, I maybe know how to say it, but I might be wrong.
SPEAKER_07: Um, you know, some professor may come in and say, actually, in the in the middle ages, they'd have said it like that.
SPEAKER_07: Um, but you know, I just say, you know, you don't know how to say if it's Zatu, you know, they would just say, just say Zachary.
SPEAKER_07: You know, it was like so that they'd read something like this, and they would just say, Oh, well, this one's Tom, that one's Harry, you know, Jill.
SPEAKER_07: All right, so take it away, Alan.
SPEAKER_03: All right, chapter seven.
SPEAKER_03: Now when the wall had been built, and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been upon me.
SPEAKER_03: I gave my brother Hanami and Hananiah, the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.
SPEAKER_03: And I said to them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is high.
SPEAKER_03: And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors.
SPEAKER_03: Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.
SPEAKER_03: The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.
SPEAKER_03: Then my God put it in my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the peoples to be enrolled by genealogy.
SPEAKER_03: And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it, these were the people of the prophets who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile.
SPEAKER_03: They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
SPEAKER_03: They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Rhimiah, Nahaman, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpareth, Big Bai, Nehem, Banah, the number of the men of the people of Israel, the sons of Karosh, 2,172, the sons of Shaphatia, 372, the sons of Arah, 652, the sons of Pahath Moab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818, the sons of Elam, 1,254, the sons of Satu, 845, the sons of Sakai, 760, the sons of Benub 648, the sons of Babai, 628, the sons of Azgad, 232, the sons of Adam Adonai, 667, the sons of Bigvi, 2067, the sons of Adam, 655, the sons of Ayer, namely of Hezekiah, 98, the sons of Hashem, 328, the sons of Bezai, 324, the sons of Heraph 112, the sons of Gibeon, 95, the men of Bethlehem and Nedpha 188, the men of Anathoth 128, the men of Beth, Azimab Beth, 42, the men of Kirath and Jira, Shifrah and Biroth, 743, the men of Ramah and Gebah, 621, the men of Mikmas, 122, the men of Bethel and Ai, 123, the men of other Nedo, 52, the sons of the other Elam, 1,254, the sons of Haran, 320, the sons of Jericho, 345, the sons of Lod Hadid and Ono 721, the sons of Sinnah, 3,930, the priest of the sons of Jediah, namely the house of Jeshua, 973, the sons of Emir, 1,052, the sons of Pasher, 1,247, the sons of Haram, 1,017, the Levites, the sons of Jeshua, namely Cadmel of the sons of Hodobah, 74, the Singers, the son of Asaph, 148, the gatekeepers, the sons of Shalom, the sons of Adam, the sons of Talon, the sons of Aku, the sons of Achitah, the sons of Shobai, 138, the temple servants, the sons of Dea, the sons of Hasipha, the sons of Tabal, the sons of Karas, the sons of Sia, the sons of Padm, the sons of Laban, the sons of Hagaba, the sons of Shalmai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Gidel, the sons of Gehar, the sons of Riyah, the sons of Reza, the sons of Makabah, the sons of Gaza, the sons of Uzah, the sons of Ghasta, the sons of Messai, the sons of Uh, the sons of Mathushia, the sons of Makbuk, the sons of Hakaphah, the sons of Har, the sons of Baza, the sons of Mahida, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Bark, the sons of Satura, the sons of Tim, the sons of Maziah, the sons of Hatha, the sons of Solomon's servants, the sons of Sotai, the sons of Sephiroth, the sons of Herod, the sons of Jal, the sons of Dark and the sons of Gilead, the sons of Shef Atih, the sons of Hatih, the sons of Hogarh, Hatham, the sons of Hammer.
SPEAKER_03: All the temple servants of the sons of Solomon's servants were 392.
SPEAKER_03: The following were those who came out from Tel Habash, Jura, Adam, and Amor.
SPEAKER_03: But they could not prove their father's house nor their descendants, whether they belonged to Israel.
SPEAKER_03: The sons of Goliath, the sons of Shemiah, the sons of Mecca in 642, also the priests, the sons of Hobiah, the sons of Hakaz, the sons of Barzillae, who had taken away from the daughters of Barzilli, Giladh, Giladh, Gilead, and was called by their name.
SPEAKER_03: They sought their registration among those involved in the genealogies, but it was not found there, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
SPEAKER_03: The governor told them that they were not to partake in the most holy food until a priest with the early should arise.
SPEAKER_03: The whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337.
SPEAKER_03: And they had 245 singers, male and female.
SPEAKER_03: The horses were 736, their mules 245, their cattle was 435, and their dogs 6,720.
SPEAKER_03: Now some of the heads of fathers' houses gave to the wood.
SPEAKER_03: And some of the heads of the father's houses gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 barracks of gold and 2,200 minas of silver.
SPEAKER_03: And what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 barracks of gold, 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 priests' garments.
SPEAKER_03: So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people of the temple servants, and all Israel lived in their towns.
SPEAKER_03: And when the seventh months, the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
SPEAKER_05: I've got the information study Bible maybe use, like you said, to go back to Ezra.
SPEAKER_05: And there's a footnote there.
SPEAKER_05: First, the Lord knows his people personally.
SPEAKER_05: The covenant relation between the Lord and his people is a bond of intimate friendship.
SPEAKER_05: Second, common people are viable in the accomplishing of God's redemptive plan.
SPEAKER_05: Not only the religious and political leaders, but also the common people are important in rebuilding the house of God.
SPEAKER_05: In fact, the rest of the people contribute more to the rebuilding that do the heads of the fathers' houses and the government.
SPEAKER_05: Third, enumeration resembles that found in Nehemiah 126 in Joshua.
SPEAKER_05: And the Lord formed the community after the exodus from Egypt.
SPEAKER_05: So he creates it after the return from Babylon.
SPEAKER_05: However, for the moment they remain the people of Province.
SPEAKER_05: In other words, you're still under the oversight of the Persian Empire to turn home, but they still don't have political freedom.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you, Richard.
SPEAKER_07: And yeah, maybe this is worth then jumping into uh, you know, chapter question three up there, then with that.
SPEAKER_07: Like I and there's a little to be said here kind of in the opening of seven.
SPEAKER_07: So um if you if we look at verse five and then verse six, so um yeah, Mary Nehemiah is basically represents to a certain extent the third return from uh from Babylon.
SPEAKER_07: We have a first group with Zerababel, a group with Ezra, and now a at least beginning a smaller, a smaller remnant after the first group coming with Nehemiah, which joins with a group of people who a smaller group who had never been exiled altogether.
SPEAKER_07: So what it says here is in five, he in the ESV, I found the book of genealogy.
SPEAKER_07: And then that's a I think a very clear he finds it.
SPEAKER_07: Like uh maybe personally, maybe not, but he finds it, which means it had been lost.
SPEAKER_07: And what he basically finds is, and then he spends most of the rest of the chapter quoting it.
SPEAKER_04: So I spent time in that area, and uh well, my nephew was a missionary in Germany, and I stopped to see him on my way to Bangladesh.
SPEAKER_04: And uh I said, I met my you know, my my nephew was my interpreter, and they asked me, what's a nephew?
SPEAKER_04: What is nephew?
SPEAKER_04: It's a meaningless word.
SPEAKER_04: When they interested in geology, and they they I was never introduced to somebody who was by that name.
SPEAKER_04: He is by the son of and related to, and he's you know, I got the history of every person that I met over there.
SPEAKER_04: Genealogy is tremendously important to them, and you know, it's it's like I I've almost quit using the word nephew now.
SPEAKER_04: My brother's love, you know.
SPEAKER_04: But it it's the genealogy is important to the people in that country or in Asia.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the culture over there, so and they keep intense record, and they find it.
SPEAKER_07: They had lost it, yeah, they had not kept up with it, which I think is partly telling of what have the attitude of the returns have been.
SPEAKER_07: So Nehemiah is quoting from verse six, and and depends on it depends on some commentaries.
SPEAKER_07: The the majority I've reads that he's quoting through verse 72, some stop at 69.
SPEAKER_07: It it it's it's ultimately a fairly trivial uh point.
SPEAKER_07: Um if if you ultimately want to go back and compare it to Ezra 2.
SPEAKER_07: I actually really don't do that right now, but it's um he's quoting from something that happened roughly about 90 years ago.
SPEAKER_07: Because even in Ezra, they're quoting from Zerubabel's original record.
SPEAKER_07: It's like here are all the people, God's fulfilling of the original promise, like like when they came back.
SPEAKER_07: And they get ordered again.
SPEAKER_07: Nehemiah is rebuilding them as a people.
SPEAKER_07: And it notes at the end of the chapter, they're back in their towns.
SPEAKER_07: Now they're not in the city, it's still really underpowered.
SPEAKER_07: There's gonna be plenty of problems in Nehemiah 8.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and really through the rest that's gonna have to be fixed from where we still are at the end of Nehemiah 7.
SPEAKER_07: Um, but they're starting to go back to their ancestral lands.
SPEAKER_06: I have a question.
SPEAKER_06: Is this list here is is it those who came back from Babylon, or is is this list from prior to the captivity?
SPEAKER_07: So the names?
SPEAKER_07: Alright, so this is my best understanding, Don.
SPEAKER_07: Because at a certain point I ran out of brain with this.
SPEAKER_07: These are the people of the province.
SPEAKER_07: They came up out of the captivity of those exiles.
SPEAKER_07: The king had Babylon had carried into exile.
SPEAKER_07: And so these came back.
SPEAKER_07: So these are the post-captivity.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: And so these are the returnees, the heads of the families, and all their progeny.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Um they fix it up later, is that they did not settle inside the walls.
SPEAKER_05: They will.
SPEAKER_05: That's part of the reason why.
SPEAKER_05: As we read further on when he brings that out, you know, that's part of the purpose of us to reinhabit the city, you know.
SPEAKER_05: Because think what all happened, you know, like you know, God warned his people in the end times don't do this, don't do this, don't do this.
SPEAKER_05: Well, they didn't end up taking captivity and everything.
SPEAKER_05: Look what happened while they were there 70 years, and they forgot almost everything.
SPEAKER_05: You know, uh the walls were torn down, all this kind of stuff, everything.
SPEAKER_05: And you read later on when you're in the next chapter, when uh Ezra read the law, they hadn't even heard it.
SPEAKER_05: So you know they were in horrible shape, really.
SPEAKER_05: The rebuilding is a lot more than just building the walls.
SPEAKER_05: It's it's it's almost rebuilding the whole culture, really.
SPEAKER_05: And the worst thing they did, they got away from the Lord, but even when they were in captivity, they didn't get they didn't draw near to it, with some exceptions, obviously.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, so but yeah, good.
SPEAKER_02: Also, they're also rebuilding building the purity of the people as well.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, you know, it was a bit little section where they had to search the ancestry to see if they were qualified to be priests, man.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, so and and what we're going to see that may seem like a harsh thing, and and honestly, it probably was like that's probably a very uncomfortable message to sit and tell these people, some of you is priests, but what we're also going to see, as you get in the back half of this book, is there were some problems with the priests.
SPEAKER_07: We there's a lot of people possibly with some internal corruption and maybe living off the doll being supported by the other ones, who really should not have been priests.
SPEAKER_07: And Nehemiah is going to have to deal with that.
SPEAKER_07: He's been there now under two months, and and the priests are the ones now, at least partly, who are inside the city, some of them functioning as gatekeepers, and uh just just to kind of push you, like where will be kind of Nehemiah 10, 11, 12, like like the the priests are not all okay.
SPEAKER_07: Um the there's going to have to be a reckoning.
SPEAKER_07: And and what's kind of gonna come out, and while it doesn't say explicitly, is how exactly have Sanbal and Tobiah been getting all these messages and rumors and problems into the city?
SPEAKER_07: Um, they got a few of them on the payroll, and it's not the farmers coming inside and the builders, they've got a number of the priests on on the payroll.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and and that that's what's kind of going to come out here.
SPEAKER_07: Um and so the the internal problems are are substantial.
SPEAKER_07: And so they have to figure out okay, who are actually appointed G Long, who are supposed to be the priests, and who are who have gotten mixed up in this.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and so they've got to try to figure this out.
SPEAKER_07: And they say, okay, you all, until we kind of verify this that you are supposed to be the family of the priests, you all are not supposed to eat the most holy food.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, and then until we figure this out.
SPEAKER_04: Um but I think, of course, if you if your family was a priest, you're a priest.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: You don't it's not because you study something, it's because your direct line of inheritance.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_04: So you didn't have to know what a priest did.
SPEAKER_04: But I would go to the priestly family because my grandfather was a priest.
SPEAKER_07: And think of that, I mean, those of you know, if you study the New Testament, because they're not going to have political independence, you know, you know, on.
SPEAKER_07: It's you have a governor appointed here in Nehemiah, but it's the priests who will become the unifying force holding this culture together that will continue until the time of Christ.
SPEAKER_07: They're also partly corrupt and tend to have some of their own little side projects going on.
SPEAKER_07: And like, uh like we have a lot of patterns, you know, that will continue for roughly the next 450 years.
SPEAKER_07: Um, so Xerobabel comes back with the first group.
SPEAKER_07: If you want to go, and if you if you want some deep homework over the next week, you you know, go read the small book of Haggai.
SPEAKER_07: You know, they get the second temple built.
SPEAKER_07: In the book of Esther, they start rebuilding the walls, but you have again sort of the outside opposition.
SPEAKER_07: They write the letters uh to then Xerxes saying, hey, they're gonna start rebelling.
SPEAKER_07: The letters come out from Persia, stop rebuilding those walls, all work on the walls and the city, stop at that point until we get Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_07: But but they also fragment.
SPEAKER_07: Um, they have the temple, but the temple is not being really used as a center of worship.
SPEAKER_07: We'll see later.
SPEAKER_07: It's also partly an area, area of commerce.
SPEAKER_07: The priests are using it partly for tobiah.
SPEAKER_07: Again, once again, shades of things, 450 years to come.
SPEAKER_07: You're gonna have to have Christ come in and freaking turn over the tables, going, stop this.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, Nehemiah is gonna try it once, and then um a lot of cultural patterns are one coming back uh out of this.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, and again, thank you all for that.
SPEAKER_07: I this is a good stuff out there, but but yes, they're bringing them back.
SPEAKER_07: Nehemiah is even continuing to note all the donkeys they had when they come back.
SPEAKER_07: And these people had a lot of donkeys.
SPEAKER_03: 6,720.
SPEAKER_07: Indeed.
SPEAKER_07: He notes the original giving.
SPEAKER_07: Now, I will say this some of you who are ridiculous Bible nerds, and some of you are ridiculous Bible nerds, there is, if you want to go back to compare this with Ezra II, one of the major differences is the money that is given.
SPEAKER_07: And is this a second giving by Nehemiah and the elders to match the people?
SPEAKER_07: Is this a slight scribal error over the years?
SPEAKER_07: And is Nehemiah re-quoting Ezra II?
SPEAKER_07: Because it's really close.
SPEAKER_07: It's like it's like one digit off in places.
SPEAKER_07: Um, if you want to go, very Bible narrow, exactly how much gold is 41,000 dericks of gold?
SPEAKER_07: In raw weight, it's a little under a metric ton.
SPEAKER_07: That's a lot of gold.
SPEAKER_07: Um I I I ran this through at least some modern GoPro Gold prices through AI.
SPEAKER_07: Al's at least knowledge told me that he thinks AI was well under what he thinks the price of gold should be.
SPEAKER_07: Um, but you know, you you we can trust where it is.
SPEAKER_07: But it comes out to on a conservative estimate, it just the gold before it, if we don't try to figure out what basins, garments, and and and the silver should be.
SPEAKER_07: On a conservative estimate, in 2026, this is 35 million dollars.
SPEAKER_07: Um, so million million, 35 million.
SPEAKER_07: Um, you know, this is quite a just, you know.
SPEAKER_07: I I now I actually think he's quoting from Ezra 2 because Cyrus and then Xerxes had told him to come back, take all the original gold with you.
SPEAKER_07: And um, you know, but this is a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_07: He says what was like originally there.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and so that's you know, if you want some Bible trivia, you know, that's you know, some of them had done well in captivity.
SPEAKER_07: Um but it also notes that all everything the people gave and everything they came back with.
SPEAKER_07: So uh, but let's note a few things here.
SPEAKER_07: So let's just jump, however, I don't want to miss off verses one through four here.
SPEAKER_07: Um, so first of all, he he's the doors get set up, verse one, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed.
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: So let's talk about this out loud.
SPEAKER_07: Um why appoint gatekeepers, singers, and Levites first?
SPEAKER_07: They're at least the because he'll list the precepts.
SPEAKER_07: They're at least the family and tribe of the priests.
SPEAKER_07: They're the temple and priestly uh care uh caregivers.
SPEAKER_07: And should be noted, they will be among the first to live in the city.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think he wanted to set up worship, yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, we may not have time to dive fully into this, but he points the singers.
SPEAKER_07: How much of this list really just emphasizes how much worship Nehemiah expects to be done in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_07: Like, he gets the singers appointed, and in this list he notes it in, I mean it comes from Ezra II, but there is specific noting in the Levites of all their sons and the temple workers, while the other people of Israel, while not unimportant, are mainly just listed by families.
SPEAKER_07: There is a lot of emphasis on the people who will be directing the worship, leading the worship, and being involved in the worship.
SPEAKER_07: And that's the first people Nehemiah makes sure are going to be inside Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_07: And they have to be because they mostly still this point don't have houses.
SPEAKER_07: They're in a pretty low house state.
SPEAKER_07: I know he was in a house last chapter, but that that's like there aren't a lot of those.
SPEAKER_07: And then the gatekeepers, okay?
SPEAKER_07: Now, watch this.
SPEAKER_07: Who gets to be the gatekeepers?
SPEAKER_07: The people that live there.
SPEAKER_06: People that are close approximately.
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: What kind of attributes are these people?
SPEAKER_07: As far as we can tell.
SPEAKER_07: They're tough?
SPEAKER_07: So he gave his brother Hanani and Hananiah, just in case you thought that everybody was gonna be named Harif or, you know, they had they had at least some poet, poet, you know, poetics to some of this name.
SPEAKER_07: Why is his brother, however, initially employed charge over Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_03: He was more faithful in God fearing than many in this.
SPEAKER_07: The qualities of leadership in this new rebuilt Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_07: It's not tough, it's not money, it's okay.
SPEAKER_07: You are fearing God.
SPEAKER_03: Now, and that's why I want to establish a pure descendants, uh, Jewish descendants, people who are in the Cabinet community.
SPEAKER_03: Because we want to rebuild the Cabinet community.
SPEAKER_07: And what is basically their first job after Nehemiah points, though?
SPEAKER_07: This is verse three.
SPEAKER_02: Open late, close early.
SPEAKER_07: Well, well, well, well, yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Well, well, Hanani and Hananiah can't open all the gates themselves.
SPEAKER_07: Well, well, yeah, they're gonna direct the gates.
SPEAKER_07: It's appoint the guards.
SPEAKER_07: You guys appoint the guards.
SPEAKER_07: Why is it important that Hanani and Hananiah appoint the guards?
SPEAKER_07: Multiple possible answers here.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you're a good judge of character.
SPEAKER_01: If you're God-fearing the city.
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
SPEAKER_07: We need the people running the gates of this city, one because of opposition, and two, this is the holy city.
SPEAKER_07: We need God-fearing people appointing the people under them.
SPEAKER_07: The guards need to know their jobs.
SPEAKER_07: Because the guards have to know their mission.
SPEAKER_07: We don't need people who just open doors.
SPEAKER_02: Well, they also knowing their enemies, don't want anybody that could be subject to barbs.
SPEAKER_02: You know, give you a little money, you forget to lie to home.
SPEAKER_07: So you need people who are actually committed to the job that know what this city is about.
SPEAKER_07: Or is that one commentary said you don't need yo-yos on the gate.
SPEAKER_03: This says Ananiya was the governor of the castle charge.
SPEAKER_03: What is the castle charge?
SPEAKER_02: That's the member of the fortress right now.
SPEAKER_07: I think he's in charge of security, if you want to know, but that's that's Jason's reading of the phrase.
SPEAKER_07: He is the guy with the keys.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: You're not in charge of the temple, but you're in charge of the civics around here.
SPEAKER_07: Now, why does Nehemiah have to okay, review?
SPEAKER_07: Why does Nehemiah have to appoint anybody at all?
SPEAKER_07: He's there.
SPEAKER_06: He can't do it all.
SPEAKER_07: One, he can't do it all.
unknown: And he has to return.
SPEAKER_07: And he's gotta go back.
SPEAKER_07: He already told Xerxes he'd go back.
SPEAKER_07: He's run out of time.
SPEAKER_07: He's gotta go back.
SPEAKER_07: And he can't do it all.
SPEAKER_07: And that's really important.
SPEAKER_07: Some leaders burn themselves out trying to do it all.
SPEAKER_07: And they try to expensive.
SPEAKER_07: He appoints somebody, he says, You all fear the Lord, you all are the best people to do this.
SPEAKER_07: I gotta leave.
SPEAKER_07: Now we know because of a previous chapter, he's gonna be appointed to come back at a certain point in time.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, if you follow the timeline very closely, when he gets back, Xerxes most likely tells him, Great, you're the new governor of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_07: And he's gonna serve that, he's doing that for 12 years and send them right back.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Actually, that's been a problem with the Jews.
SPEAKER_04: And the sepulchre at in Jerusalem today, there's five different Christian or groups that claim as the temple where Jesus is buried.
SPEAKER_04: But nobody can agree who can open the door.
SPEAKER_04: So there's an Arab who's got the key that comes and opens the door to the sepulchre every day.
SPEAKER_04: That's today.
SPEAKER_04: You can imagine what it was like back then.
SPEAKER_04: You know, if they if you can't get together, who's gonna open the door?
SPEAKER_07: That guy.
SPEAKER_04: You know, so it's it sounds, you know, the Jews are still dreaming very Jewish.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, put it this way.
SPEAKER_07: And but and thinking that like who needs to be, it's like the most important thing to Nehemiah is one, the people already living in the city, they're guarding the area, but it's like the people doing the roles around the tip of the garden city, they need to be on mission.
SPEAKER_07: We just don't put it's not the big boldest guys guarding the door, it's the people who know the mission.
SPEAKER_07: Because the boldest guys, at least partly, the best talkers in Jerusalem, I'll tell you right now, they're on the payroll.
SPEAKER_07: And I don't mean Nehemiah's payroll, they're on the same ballot's payroll.
SPEAKER_07: Um we'll see that in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_07: They're on the same balance payroll.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, so a few things then.
SPEAKER_07: Um, what does it mean that God put all this genealogy stuff in Nehemiah's heart?
SPEAKER_07: Like, like, like, what does that mean when we say that?
SPEAKER_07: God put it in my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials.
SPEAKER_07: One, it's giving God credit.
SPEAKER_07: What else, if anything?
SPEAKER_07: Certainly it's giving God credit.
SPEAKER_07: Nehemiah is constantly giving God credit.
unknown: Acknowledging God.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: Acknowledging God, yeah.
SPEAKER_05: You know, while the current theme of God's covenant that he made was, I will be your God, you will be my people.
SPEAKER_05: And he's just being very specific here and listing the people and reminding Nehemiah of the covenant promised to his people, not just to the elite, but all of his people.
SPEAKER_05: That's part of it as well, I believe.
SPEAKER_02: I think it goes back to the idea of purity for people, that uh he didn't want half-breeds or whatever those that might have divided loyalties part of the project.
SPEAKER_06: I want to make sure that there weren't any pagans coming into the mix.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, because they're not supposed to be intermarrying.
SPEAKER_06: But you well, is that the end of Ezra?
SPEAKER_06: Or are we gonna read here pretty soon?
SPEAKER_06: Where I think it's at the end of Ezra, where a lot of the some of the Levite priests and others, they were married to pagan women.
SPEAKER_06: They have to divorce.
SPEAKER_06: Oh, they're married to them.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and uh they were forced to divorce their wives and excommunicate their kids and everything.
SPEAKER_07: End of Ezra, and um not exact same outcome, but that's a thing.
SPEAKER_07: Uh what's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_07: Well, not that exact same outcome, but you're gonna have a similar problem at the end of this book.
SPEAKER_07: Um and so, but that all our good ideas come from God.
SPEAKER_07: And says Nehemiah prays.
SPEAKER_07: Remember, he just opened up as a guy in chapter one in distress.
SPEAKER_07: He prays for a long time.
SPEAKER_07: He doesn't know Xerxes is going to talk to him on that day.
SPEAKER_07: He's been thinking about it for a long time based on what he says.
SPEAKER_07: He has to do surveys, he has to go very slow, he's constantly praying.
SPEAKER_07: But that's also this idea.
SPEAKER_07: Nehemiah's idea of prayer, he has an open channel with God.
SPEAKER_07: Think about what you can tell he is living a life of daily reliance on God.
SPEAKER_07: He doesn't open his day with, what am I going to do?
SPEAKER_07: He's praying, God give me the right words, thoughts, and actions according to your word.
SPEAKER_07: He says, because on a certain level, you got me into this, but it's not blame.
SPEAKER_07: He's also like, if I do this outside the power of God, I am totally lost.
SPEAKER_07: He's like, because we are a people are lost.
SPEAKER_07: He says, you are doing this.
SPEAKER_07: Um now at the same time, I I I put this up on the board.
SPEAKER_07: Like, what does this not mean?
SPEAKER_07: And maybe I should explain this question, but I I also think it in this is a more because I have more of a low church kind of background.
SPEAKER_07: I I think I've had lots of people in my life say, hey, God has put this in my heart to do something.
SPEAKER_07: I really telling me I feel the voice of the spirit, and the thing that comes out of their mouth is you're like, oh, oh, you're like, oh, oh no, do not do that.
SPEAKER_07: It's like God has not told you to do that.
SPEAKER_07: Um, you like you, you, you had something really bad for breakfast, and you've gotten a funny voice in your head.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, no, no, you want to go do that, you know.
SPEAKER_07: Um, you know, Nehemiah can look back and see this in Ezra, and all this matches up with what God says in the Bible.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, how does Nehemiah know that God told him to do this?
SPEAKER_07: That God put this in his heart, because it matches up with the things that God has already been doing.
SPEAKER_07: You know, remember, Nehemiah knows the Bible, he knows God's promises.
SPEAKER_07: And so he knows this desire is from God.
SPEAKER_07: As opposed to I woke up having a funny feeling.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_07: I have spent a lot of time worrying.
SPEAKER_07: Should I do this?
SPEAKER_07: Is it from God?
SPEAKER_07: When I really should have prayed over a lot more stuff.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know.
SPEAKER_07: Anyone's thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_07: I'm accelerating somewhat because we have about 10 minutes left.
SPEAKER_00: That's always my first test.
SPEAKER_00: If I feel like the Holy Spirit's leading me to do something, does it line up with Scripture?
SPEAKER_00: He's not meant to tell me to go kill somebody.
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But like, I mean, I'm fully convinced that he put in my heart to homeschool my child, and it's um, you know, he's he's led other Christians in other directions, but um it's not I mean there's nothing in scripture that would contradict that.
SPEAKER_07: No.
SPEAKER_07: I I mean and sometimes I think it it's nehemiah out there.
SPEAKER_07: It's like we're presented with things we don't expect, and we're like, okay, God, I'm taking a step out in faith here.
SPEAKER_07: I've prayed over it, but we also have to understand the difference between I'm making a choice in which Bible, God's history, and what he says about himself would seriously point us in the opposite direction of this.
SPEAKER_07: It's like I'm not really examining my motives here.
SPEAKER_07: Um, I'm not, it's like I have other Christians speaking into my life here who generally seem to operate with God's centered motives.
SPEAKER_07: And they're telling me, hey, think about this for a minute, and I'm just shutting those voices out without really a clear reason.
SPEAKER_07: You know, it's um, you know, those are real warning signs that the thing you think God is telling you to do is probably not God.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_05: Years ago, uh, a long time ago, a lady came to me and uh for advice, and she said she's gonna divorce her husband.
SPEAKER_05: So I asked her why.
SPEAKER_05: And uh she said, Oh no, she said the Holy Spirit told her to divorce her husband.
SPEAKER_05: So I asked her why, and it turns out it had nothing to do with the biblical principles.
SPEAKER_05: I think that this illustrates what you're saying, you know.
SPEAKER_05: Nehemiah knew the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: And like Joe's saying, hey, we're not just sitting here, Lord, what should I do?
SPEAKER_05: You got a whole history of him leading us, teaching us.
SPEAKER_05: We got a lot of revelation from God that gives us a pretty good, you know, resource to fall back on.
SPEAKER_05: God doesn't change, his character is always the same, and the Holy Spirit of God never contradicts himself.
SPEAKER_05: So, yeah, it goes back to knowing God.
SPEAKER_05: If God is in your heart, that has content, it has history, and it has biblical content.
SPEAKER_05: It's not just what do you think?
SPEAKER_05: You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes signs are so clear, and you know exactly what you are supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: And then there are other times when you when God does not paint a clear picture.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking that prayer is the key.
SPEAKER_01: It is him drawing us closer in prayer to find the direction we're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_01: But Nehemiah knew God so well, but yet he continued to remain in prayer with God as to the direction, I think.
SPEAKER_07: No, I think so.
SPEAKER_07: I I think there's also, I speak only from my own life.
SPEAKER_07: There's also the Jonah test.
SPEAKER_07: Um, the other side.
SPEAKER_07: There's the um, because when I've not done the thing in life that God has told me to do, I tend to end up inside a giant fish.
SPEAKER_07: Um and that's another way to sometimes be, you know, God will also turn you around sometimes if you're like going in the wrong direction or acting out of, you know, if you're like, hmm.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, okay, acting out of my own actions hasn't quite worked.
SPEAKER_07: You're praying on this.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, maybe, maybe it's time to get out of this fish.
SPEAKER_07: Um and uh you know, and and actually think about what is God telling me to do here?
SPEAKER_02: Um I think verse four is instructive though here.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: So now the city was large and spacious, but people in it were few, houses were not built.
SPEAKER_02: So it's like, okay, we gotta fill the city.
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: And then, okay, he's in tune with God.
SPEAKER_02: Fill it with those who belong here.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's I mean, the modern-day equivalent is, you know, people come from California and say, so I hope you didn't bring to politics with you.
SPEAKER_02: You know, so he's looking for people, so it's a practical thing, but he's so tuned with God that, okay, we gotta fill it with godly people.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07: The other thing would be like, you know, well, we can't invite the California people to church, they might fill it with ideas.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_07: You know, or you know, instead, you know, how about we all fill ourselves with the gospel?
SPEAKER_07: You know.
SPEAKER_02: But he's not gonna fill it for filling's sake.
SPEAKER_07: No, he's gonna fill it with God wants to fill us with him.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: It's like we don't get to build the church that looks like us, nor did nor is Nehemiah building a city to himself or for his own pride.
SPEAKER_07: It's this is going to be for worship.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: But we do have standards of membership.
SPEAKER_07: Indeed, so do Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_04: That's that's that's what I get back to.
SPEAKER_04: The Jewish people have a very definite understanding.
SPEAKER_04: And then they worship that sub-secondary.
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, that's what he tells Sam Ballot, is it not?
SPEAKER_07: You have no part in this.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, we will take care of this, don't you worry about it.
SPEAKER_07: You you don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_07: You're over there.
SPEAKER_07: It's like, we got this, I don't have to listen to you until, and then it's when the internal problems happen that that this gets Nehemiah's attention.
SPEAKER_07: Hey, we're doing this to ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we just got a Jews for Jesus newsletter, and we're talking about what's it Yon Kugur that's coming up soon?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: But there's a phrase that they say even now, like a blessing that says, May you be in the book.
SPEAKER_02: You know, may you be in God's book.
SPEAKER_02: And they they refer it to it as kind of like, are you written in the book of life?
SPEAKER_02: But for the for the modern Jew, it's kind of may God bless you this year.
SPEAKER_02: And so you gotta do it next year, say, may you be in the book every year.
SPEAKER_02: But we're in the book of life.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to keep repeating it, but it comes back from here.
SPEAKER_02: Are you in the book?
SPEAKER_02: You know, and here's the book right here.
SPEAKER_07: Are you one of God's people or are you just pretending?
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_07: Which is, I think, a wonderful way, you know.
SPEAKER_07: You know, you you read something like this, and you're like, hey God, you know, I want to be the kind of person who could be appointed to be a gatekeeper.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, you know, I don't want to be one of those yo-yos.
SPEAKER_02: But it also begs to the question am I in the in in the boat?
SPEAKER_04: Well, my father was a gatekeeper, so I don't have to be a gatekeeper.
SPEAKER_07: I want to be a wall builder.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the good guy.
SPEAKER_07: Um, I don't have Al here for his uh iPad to make a noise, but I I think we've about hit the end of our time.
SPEAKER_07: Um let's pray.
SPEAKER_07: Heavenly Father, we thank you for being the same God who created the world, the God who has looked down so often when we have not followed your ways, when we've gone our own, when we've forsaken those things, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: You who bring us back together in your worship, Lord, just as you laid upon Nehemiah's heart to gather the people again under your covenant, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Gather us and renew our hearts, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Under your new covenant here today, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: We thank you so much for Christ, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Uh we thank you for redeem us from our sin, Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Uh renew our fire for you.
SPEAKER_07: Help us be on mission for you, Lord, and help us sing your praises all the more.
SPEAKER_07: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.