[Sunday School] Nehemiah 4

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Alright, so this is we're in week four of the study. We'll be in Nehemiah chapter three. You have a map here with you. Very thankful to Al here for producing these and bringing these. We've got a chapter of names today. And uh my understanding Jill was volunteering to read and pronounce them all in the original Hebrew. Oh, you want to read it? Alright.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

I can stumble through it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

You can stumble through it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Thanks, Nan. Okay. She's probably gonna read it. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Rebuilding the wall.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Alright, here we go. Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the tower of Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hemanel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zakur, the son of Imri, built. The sons of Hasana built the fish gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts and its bars. And next to them Merrimouth, the son of Uriah, son of Hakaz, repaired. And next to them Meshulam, the son of Erichiah, son of Meshaz of Bel repaired. And next to them Zadok, the son of Baana, repaired, and next to them the Tekolites repaired. But their nobles would not stoop to serve their lord. Joeda, the son of Hessea, and Meshulam, the son of Bessodaia, repaired the gate of Yeshana. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them repaired Melantia the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronithite, the men of Gibeon and Bizpah, the seat of the governor of the province beyond the river. Next to them, Uziel, the son of Harhiah, goldsmiths, repaired. Next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. Next to them Refiah, the son Hur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. Next to them, Jediah, the son of Horakh repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hatush, the son of Hashabneah, repaired. Melkaijah, the son of Harim, and Hashab, the son of Ahath Moab, repaired another section and the tower of the ovens. Next to him, Shalom, the son of Halahesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. He and his daughters, Hanun and the inhabitants of Zenoah repaired the valley gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the dung gate. Mokaijah, the son of Rahab, ruler of the district of Beth Hakaram, repaired the dung gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And Shalom, the son of Kol Hoseb, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the fountain gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the pool of Shema of the king's garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Bethzor, repaired to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the house of the mighty men. After him the Levites repaired. Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him, Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Kela, repaired for his district. After him, their brothers repaired. Babai, the son of Henadab, ruler of half the district of Kelam. Next to him, Ezer, the son of Joshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section, opposite the ascent to the armory of the buttress. After him, Barak, the son of Zabai, repaired another section for the buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib, the high priest. After him, Merrimouth, the son of Uriah, son of Hakaz, repaired another section from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliasib. After him, the priests, the men of the surrounding area, repaired. After them, Benjamin and Hashab repaired opposite their house. After them, Azariah, the son of Mehassiah, son of Ananiah, repaired beside his own house. After him, Benui, the son of Henadab, repaired another section from the house of Azariah to the buttress and to the corner. Palal, the son of Uzzai, repaired opposite the buttress in the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him, Hadiah the son of Parash and the temple servants living on Ofel repaired to a point opposite the water gate on the east and projecting tower. After him, the Tekoites repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ofel. Above the horse gate, the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. After them, Zadok, the son of Immer, repaired opposite his own house. After him, Shemiah, the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the S-East gate, repaired. After him, Hananiah the son of Shalemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zaloph repaired another section. After him, Meshulam the son of Barakiah repaired opposite his chamber. After him, Melkijah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants opposite the muster gate, and to the upper chamber of the corner. And between the upper chamber of the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants were here.

SPEAKER_06 6:27

Did you repeat that?

unknown 6:29

No, I don't think I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 6:38

That's just crazy. That's just crazy. All those names. All those names. Anybody notice any difference in this section, this chapter from the previous chapters? Any difference?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Nobody was doing anything earlier.

SPEAKER_06 6:53

Nobody was doing anything earlier? There wasn't any action yet? Except for inspecting the inspected the walls, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Maybe a quick review. So some of us were some of us were on vacation. Some of us it's been a week and we just don't remember. Um what's happened so far? If you just came in, we're in Nehemiah chapter three. What else? If anything.

SPEAKER_10 7:35

And he walked all the way around the wall.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

He does kind of a walking inspection, and then he gathers a group of people together and he says, you know, here is the shame we are in. Here's what we must do, and he rallies the people to this. And they get started.

SPEAKER_07 7:56

What's amazing is the Persian king actually funded some of it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Oh yeah, cupbearer, sad, sure. Go rebuild your home city. Fortify it even. Um gives him probably at least a year's leave to go do it. Uh, gives him an armed garb to go with him, gives him letters, and off Nehemiah goes. And he shows up to the city, he's got the stuff, he inspects it out, figuring the team, and here they are, they're getting started.

SPEAKER_12 8:42

Some people weren't too happy about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Some people were not too happy about it. We won't get them today, but uh definitely a few names to remember are Sandbalat and Tobiah. They're gonna pop up. Um chapter 3, verse 1, we also get introduced to Eliashib the high priest, just you know, remember old Eli here. He's gonna come up again. Um so alright. But I think back to Al's original question, like, you know, the narration kind of changes here. What seems to be different about chapter three? First of all, they're starting to work.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Well, it uses the word repaired a lot. Before we were kind of under the impression that they were gonna build it, and now we see they're just repairing it.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

Stark difference. End of chapter two is kind of like, hey, yeah, you guys have no heart. And what happens in chapter three? Boom. We are working.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Well, it's sectioned out, and I don't know if there's a reason behind who did what.

SPEAKER_12 10:00

There's a lot of next to him, next to him, next to him, next to him.

SPEAKER_06 10:04

It seems that way. But you notice in some of them that also talked about almost kind of they were living around that section as well, right? That seemed to be kind of a repeated theme. So the people got put in charge of places where they've lived. Yeah, so these aren't the only people working on the wall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

There's other people, these are the guys leading things, and they're like, like if you you live there, you deal with it, you've seen it, okay, you're in charge of putting it up. That's your part. Here's the materials. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

I had a note in my Bible that some of the sections of the wall were as thick as eight foot wide. I mean, and and not only men worked on the wall, but the women too. And I thought that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah, we see that in verse 12. Yeah. It's like not only this guy worked, but also his daughters.

SPEAKER_06 11:02

So, did you notice anything about the uh the difference in the people working on the wall? Any types of people?

SPEAKER_05 11:19

I was surprised that the Levites were working. I didn't think they could do anything.

SPEAKER_06 11:22

Well, what does it start with in the first verse? Priests. The high priests?

SPEAKER_05 11:27

Yeah, but I mean they're actually doing repairs. What the heck? Yeah, they don't own land or you know, any of that, so that surprised me. And also that the perfumer guy didn't work on the Delgate, but that's another thing.

SPEAKER_06 11:40

I thought the perfumer guy was gonna run around and make everything, you know, smell nice, but um apparently that's not the only thing. Yeah, so you had um the high priest. And uh also whatever there was also kind of a theme, too, of uh the sons of rulers and governors. I mean, these are kind of these are high officials all around there, too. And they had somebody and his daughters. You don't expect women to be working on the wall. Um I presume they did a good job just saying.

SPEAKER_10 12:13

They probably did better. Some of them didn't actually live in Jerusalem. That's what it's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, this is gonna come up in chapter four, also, and some of them have come to Jerusalem for the project, and there's gonna be polls for them to come back, like to stop. Um but this is a a to a certain extent a full community gathering. Now we have some people like the nobles of the Tecowites, you know, who are like they're like, I ain't gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06 12:42

But um I'm an elder, I'm never gonna let it know this is. Yeah, bang elders. Um, so those lower flat, yeah. I'm not doing that. Well, they're then they were taking instruction, they weren't gonna be beholden as nobody.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

We're like not like this cup bearer from out of town come in here and tell us what to do. He's just like walk, walk around holding the line. Now he's gonna tell us to build a wall. Uh no.

SPEAKER_06 13:05

Um just because it has King's letters and all the materials and uh in the plan. What was also I thought was funny about this. You notice the difference in the last verse of chapter two and the first verse of this? In the last verse of chapter two, did you feel that Nehemiah had a plan already?

SPEAKER_08 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:27

Oh the last chapter, he's walking around the gate, scoping stuff out, doing you might say, a reconnaissance work, building up a plan, coming up with a plan.

SPEAKER_10 13:37

He didn't even tell the people why it was there already.

SPEAKER_06 13:40

Yeah. Yep. I didn't get the feeling that he had a specific plan like this. Chapter three is like boom. Yeah, everybody is in on it and coordinated. Yeah, actually, this way around, I'm sorry. County clock. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. But else, uh but he did have a plan, he had to have a plan, I mean, but um did he come up with that plan in three days? But he was here three days and walking around.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

It strikes me, he must have at least have had he hasn't been able to physically see the city. This is his first time in the city, yeah. His brother, at least in the opening chapter, has at least told him some of the state.

SPEAKER_06 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Uh and he must, we know he's been praying about this for a while. He has at least some forethought when he asks the king, the king for the timber. The stuff probably he couldn't have sourced locally for whatever reason, as easily. They would have burned down a little area, but yeah. Um because he brings all that with him.

SPEAKER_08 14:42

How many trips to Home Depot are? I know.

SPEAKER_06 14:45

I read somewhere that everything you're gonna do that involves Home Depot, you're gonna make at least three trips. I never have the least three trips.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

They have the learning source and stuff right there.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

I have giant boxes filled with screws, and it's never, they never have one I beat.

SPEAKER_12 15:00

Um passed between checking two.

SPEAKER_06 15:04

It doesn't say it doesn't say the next day.

SPEAKER_07 15:08

It it sounds like it was very well planned, though. Very organized.

unknown 15:14

It does, absolutely, absolutely. Jerusalem was completely surrounded by enemies.

SPEAKER_06 15:21

I mean, they well they're kind of quasi. They're enemies that seem like quasi-enemies. They were there was a status quo that existed.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

In the end of chapter six, the entire process, they go from start of this project to the end, they do the they do the whole city in 52 days. Um and at least at this part, we know that it two to three can't have been very long, because in chapter four, well while they certainly could have been exaggerated, we're gonna be revisited by Sandbal and Tobiah. Like when you imagine them rebuilding the wall, because this is what I think they turn out to me is they don't get it initially very high because that they make fun of the Jews on on this very point. It's like this wall isn't going to keep out anything. Um, you know, because Tobiah wants to make fun of it's like a fox could jump on top of this thing they're building and knock it over. It's like a bully laughing at a little kid. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 16:21

You know, hey, you're not, you can't run a bike, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

You know, and more on that next week. And I think one of the things I think that strikes me, Al, before we dive into like any individual particulars about it, is versus if if you saw something like this, you know, uh drawn like a modern building project, is they have these teams, but they're basically building most of the whole thing at the same time. Um with various people in charge of various parts of it. There is no, we're going to start like, okay, we're gonna have the high priest and everybody, we're gonna start at the sheep gate, everybody. We're gonna build the whole thing all the way up and as thick as it's supposed to be, and that's gonna be our mock for the whole wall going all the way across the city. That we're gonna build out, we're gonna have towers going out about every 30 feet, and then we're gonna have some crinolations, and then about every 12 bricks, we're gonna stencil in the name of one of the tribes in there. It's like, all right, everybody, we are in shame. Let's get this wall up. The clock starts sticking, and let's start now. And I don't think a lot of modern projects go like this. It's like, okay, you perfumers, over there. The goldsmiths, you're over here. You with the daughters, you're over there. It's like you, you buy your house, you buy your house, okay, you can rebuild the gate. Fantastic, we're gonna write that down. Alright? Go. And they're not getting lost in the details. There is no uh, we are going to build the most beautiful wall the Persian Empire has ever seen. It's gonna be a good wall. But it's just I I don't think like, you know, you want to go start something, and everybody's like, well, is it going to have this? Is it going to have this? Is it going to have this? And Nia's mic, it's going to have what we put at it, but we start tomorrow. And it and it's like, the first thing we gotta do is build a wall.

SPEAKER_06 18:38

Yeah. It won't be complete until we start. We gotta do something. Let's do the maximum that we can with what we have, with the stuff I brought, stuff you have here. Let's uh let's get at it. Let's get at it.

SPEAKER_05 18:52

I'm kind of surprised too that I mean everyone seems like they have skills. You know, like there's a lot of gates that have to rebuild.

SPEAKER_06 19:00

That's not simple.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

You know? I mean, there's there's things you have to know to be able to do that kind of stuff, and it seems like everybody has this knowledge.

SPEAKER_06 19:07

They kind of yeah, they kind of specialized the people helping with that. So the both set it up might have been the guy leading the team, and hey, maybe some specialized stuff would be that. Think about like Amish building a barn. Everybody gets together, you know, they all kind of have some section and work together to uh get that barn done.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

See, I love that Gary says it though, because Nehemiah has this laid on his heart to go do this. Like, he's the cupbearer. He's not a wall builder. Yeah, he's like, like, do I think probably in my mind, does he have the knowledge to like reforge the gates and hang out? Maybe he can, I don't know. That's never gonna come up this entire book. But it's a point of like, God lays this on his heart, and he has to pray about time, but he's like at the same point, it it at some level it's God's project, and people come along the way. And I think for me, it's one of the reasons I think I'm particularly passionate, I think, about this book of the Bible. Because Nehemiah is a guy, he's doing something God's laid it on his heart to do, and he doesn't know how exactly this is all going to work out. Like, like he cannot by himself rebuild most of a city. Like that takes a lot of people. He doesn't have the skills for that. He's got to pray about it, you know, ask as things come along, do a survey. Just in the moment, he's got to be praying, worshiping God, then rely on God for the decisions and the people to kind of come along. And in this entire chapter, he doesn't mention himself.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

Yeah, there's no nothing about him. There's also um there's no dialogue in here. Yeah, there's not like uh, hey, uh unpronounced name, you need to get uh get Kraken. There's no there's no dialogue, there's no conflict recorded, it's just a simple, it seems like a government report. He's a government official. Oh, I'm gonna write it down. And he's not afraid to call out people. You know, it's the nobles of the techowites, it's recorded forever. These guys didn't these guys didn't. Oh, you don't mention me. Sorry, you didn't did you work on the wall? No. No, tech white, zero.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Well, some of them were out.

SPEAKER_06 21:38

Uh the nobles were out. Yes. Yeah. Without the nobles involved, they finished their stuff. Hey, we're gonna help with this other part. We're ready to roll, baby. We are.

SPEAKER_11 21:52

Yeah, we I read a commentary last night that said I didn't even realize that Nehemiah was like a wealthy, what an upper class person.

SPEAKER_06 22:02

Is that well he was the high official? Okay, so that was but he also had the supplies from the king.

SPEAKER_11 22:08

Well, yeah, that part, but I can think of he himself as you guys are not.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

You want them to be happy and well taken care of.

SPEAKER_12 22:22

Well, then it's not working directly for the king, it's a pretty job.

SPEAKER_06 22:25

And three wine, don't forget that.

unknown 22:28

Just a simple thing.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

Plonc is not poisoned. So these people. Oh, do you have something on my back? No, no, no, go ahead. So these people started working on the wall. They probably needed some supplies, but it's not clear they needed all the supplies. Why didn't they start doing this before? Why didn't they start working on the wall before you got there? Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

Well, they probably didn't know what the king wanted them to either.

SPEAKER_06 23:01

Actually, it's a trick question. It's a trick question. In Ezra, they started working on a wall. They started working on repairing.

unknown 23:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:12

And uh what happened? They didn't know it all. Somebody wrote a letter to the king that says, hey, hey, these guys are working on a wall. I don't authorize. You know what I mean? The history of all these people? They rebelled against all the rulers? I mean, are you are you are you crazy, Artie? I think that was the nickname, Artie. Um, and are you crazy about letting these guys build a wall? Like, what the? And Artie Zerse is like, well, hey, stop that.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

So you're saying I was right.

SPEAKER_06 23:47

Well through the construction because the temple's already there.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

It was real. The yeah, the king sends work word. This is Ezra 4, you don't have to necessarily turn there, but um Arta Xerxes had written, and this would have been about 12 to uh 15 years prior. Um the um at that time the troublemakers had written, it says, Hey, Artaxerxes, do a search for the history of Jerusalem and the Persian Empire. Will you not see that they are a particularly troublesome province? Um and they look and they say, Oh yeah, and they're like like the like Judah? That's actually a um, they're like like maybe we shouldn't let them rebuild their walls. And so he says, Um this city shall not be rebuilt. And so the the decree is made that they shall not rebuild the walls, but that doesn't apply to the temple. And so in his time, and so as when Haggai's time, they get the temple rebuilt, but the city is left in waste. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:57

Temple might not have been as nice as it was before.

SPEAKER_09 24:59

Yeah, there were a few people living in Jerusalem, most of them lived outside of Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_06 25:04

The city wasn't good for protection.

SPEAKER_09 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

No walls. That's and that's still going to be a problem.

SPEAKER_10 25:12

Um you can tell the ones that that were living in there because they mentioned that they're living right, yeah. But the rest of them are having coming in from the countryside.

SPEAKER_06 25:23

Living across from the gate. So then what's different about this time building a wall? It's a person near. And how did he approach it? So in the previous time, they're like, hey, let's go build a wall. But this time, what was different about building a wall? They didn't just say, hey, let's go build a wall. The kingdom's already they had uh they had a plan, they laid out the back of that too. Have you ever had something in a say your uh business or personal stuff where you just want to go do something? But you haven't actually discussed it with some of the bigger people that are involved with that. I found big people don't like that. Um I just let's just say I've had some friends who've been in that situation, and uh big people don't like that, they don't like when they're not consulted, even if it's pretty clear to you that that's okay, but if you haven't really discussed it with the others and the big guy, then you know you didn't talk with him. Uh I had a boss who uh uh if I send him, hey, here's what we're gonna do, hey, what are the details of that? And if I send him, well, here's the details of stuff. Oh, what's the summary of that? So I always had to do both. I had to send the summary and the details, and then he'd say, Oh, let's have a meeting. In all cases, he wanted to know what was going on and and the support for that. Otherwise, you're in trouble just because you did not communicate. Whereas Nehemiah was laid on his heart, uh, actually was on his heart, but remember the king observed this. Hey, what's why the long face, right? And um so then he got the backing for that. So the difference between Ezra and here is a huge one, is that he's done the background work, he's done, he's got the materials, he's organized, he's structured. Not just a hey, y'all watch this, it's uh let's let's manage it. Huge difference. Huge difference between those two.

SPEAKER_08 27:21

Could we say a word about the nature of scripture here? Because this is a marvel of detail. Look how it follows the whole outline of the actual gate that's there. So all every detail, every name remembered in order. And do we know when it was written down, when it was put on paper? Was it the same day? You know, was it on day 53? Or was it passed down orally? That's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 27:53

It is amazing. It feels like also that it was ordered and structured, right? So whoever had the whoever had the information, like, oh well, let's let's organize this in a way that we can see how that worked out. So that's a that's a really good point, is that the scribes who actually so they they must have gotten quotes from the Emmaya. Maybe the Emma wrote himself later on because he probably was an organized guy. So irrespective of who wrote it, uh, it is a it's a masterpiece. And you see that in a lot of books as well. Ezra.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Um think how much it it would have matched up with their memory of both like the Pentateuch and David and the record uh of his men. Nehemiah is also making the list of the people who have built the nation. And as they're still a conquered people here partly, they're going to be able to look back at this later for some generations and say, hey, my family, we were part of the wall builders. It was like we helped. And then there's going to be honor for these people who moved back into Jerusalem as we'll see later. Like it was financially not, it was more financially benefit to live outside of Jerusalem than to be inside the city. Um but but you know, and think about that like like they make sure they remember, like, if nothing else, as part of thanks of these were the people who took on the risk, you know, who left homes to come in and do this. You know, and we're we're going to remember what they did. Everybody from the goldsmiths, the perfumers, the guy and his daughters, even the priests, the really not good priests, but they consecrated that gate. That gate. And the techowites, the techowite bosses, they were horrible. We remember them. But um, all those people who worked under them, they were like, they were like, sorry about the bosses, uh, we're gonna come work on this anyway. It was like, so don't shame most of the techowites because of those guys. A lot of them came and helped.

SPEAKER_06 30:06

They're pretty big there too. So, what was their ultimate motivation to rebuild the wall? Safety was a factor. Safety factor, yeah. Pride? Pride.

SPEAKER_10 30:26

Also, maybe it's a building, but you put a wall around it, you've got a protection, you've got a enclosed area.

SPEAKER_06 30:33

Right, right. That's true. So they have a pride in the in this particular city. What's a what's a problem with that? Why would you be proud of Jerusalem? Temple. Temple? Whose city was it really?

SPEAKER_03 30:48

God's city.

SPEAKER_06 30:49

God's city, that's the Lord's city. That's where we talk about his presence.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Do you think some of them felt the obedience because they knew this was from God that this wall was to be rebuilt, and that that renewal of that feeling of who God was and their obedience to him back again?

SPEAKER_06 31:07

Yeah, you got a sense of unworking for God. I got a story about a guy at work. There was uh, he was, I guess, my grandboss. And um he had a way of asking for things that made me feel important to do that for him. His name was Bill. Sorry. Um, and uh and it's like he's like, hey, you know, um, wow, you know, this is this, I got this problem with leadership, and I got this, you know, and I could really, you know, there's is there something around, oh well, hey, yeah, Bill, I can I can help you. It was he's the the main person in my life I felt like if Bill wanted it, I really want to help him. And it I don't know, but what Nehemiah did have some of that with that. Hey, there's this the vision, the glory for God, you know, really, really could use you and your dog, you know, we gosh, we could we could do that. It felt like there was something involved that really motivated the people. I mean, I'm sure the the the glory for God as well, but you know, I just think about how what type of leader he must have been to get everyone.

SPEAKER_10 32:17

It wasn't like he came in and said, Hey Travis, you need he's not that this thing's gonna be done. Okay, I'll do it.

SPEAKER_06 32:27

Yeah, I think it's some of that motivation. It's it's you know, it's man, it's up to you. It's up to so it feels like I can't I didn't say that in here that I talked to so-and-so directly and said that that that specifically, but there's something at play about the interpersonal stuff about the MI that he can't really talk about and say that. My friend, my grandma's Bill would never have said that as well. But there's got to be something there about that that motivation, which makes me just feel like I like to talk to Nehemiah someday. Hey, tell me about yourself and how that how that worked out. And there was uh, as um as we mentioned before, there was nothing about in here about Nehemia participating. Remember, once I had my uh kids, uh my sons, we need to clean up upstairs, room, stuff like that. I had this big list of stuff. Hey, heart, do that, Robert. Okay, hey, you finish that? Okay, get that. And it finished, they got stuff cleaned up. And then they told me, you didn't do anything. What did you didn't do anything? What do you mean anything? You're sitting here with a list. Yes, it's kind of important that someone organizes and ascribes what to do and encourages people to get things done. And I had this funny look on their face, like, I don't think they believe me. They do now, but they I don't think they they believed me then. So even though Nehemiah did the work on the wall, just that that job is so important, it was so important to me.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

I I I think some of the also preps goes with what is going to happen in chapter four. There's going to be complications. They're going to need, you know, some eyes watching out what's going on beyond the wall. And and the MI is going to have to be organizing that.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

Yeah. And he has to use some of his other skills to uh to support that as well. That's where his his uh true light tends to shine as well. And uh even just writing out these names. So there's other times in script. What are the times of scripture where that lists like a bunch of names? Remember any of the times of scripture?

SPEAKER_07 34:37

The uh genealogies, the genealogies, the table of nations and Genesis.

SPEAKER_06 34:42

Genesis, oh yeah, yeah, Table of Nations.

SPEAKER_07 34:44

Matthew, I think. Is it Matthew? The genealogies?

SPEAKER_06 34:49

Yep, genealogies. Uh when uh Israel went into the land of Egypt, I mean the land of Canaan. And they had a list of all these people, then here's what the land they got and how that how that worked out.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

And Ezra was called.

SPEAKER_06 35:03

Oh, Ezra. Yeah. You talk about David and his mighty men. Boom, boom, boom. Here's the mighty men. These are better than the other men, but hey, these are almighty men. You don't want to meet them. Somebody killed a lion in the ditch. It's like, oh wow, that's that's crazy. Travis, you want to say something? Yeah, the look on your face.

SPEAKER_10 35:24

Having been in that area, in your I mean the nation. The way we interpret the Bible is not the way they interpret the Bible. For them, everything is community. We're individuals. You know, it's me. I did this, I did that. You go over there, it's not that way. It's us. I even got frustrated trying to get my airline take a change because no one would make the decision without talking to somebody else. Because it becomes a group. And this is the way what people think over there. It's not me, it's us. We're working together. And you know, we Americans, it's gotta be me. You know, look what I did over there. It's not, it's it's what we did. And it's it's and that's basically the way the Bible is written. It's written by them, not by us.

SPEAKER_06 36:32

It does come out that way as well. You notice also in this passage uh in the chapter three here, it doesn't talk about necessarily the individuals, that so-and-so is a son of and the son of, and it's spoken to the families. It's not just an individual thing, it's also a family thing. And how's the family?

SPEAKER_10 36:47

You know, I talk about my nephew. I talk about my nephew and nature, and they say, What's a nephew? What is a nephew? It doesn't mean a thing. No, it is my brother's son, or it's my wife's. You get the genealogy, and that's why the genealogy is important to them.

SPEAKER_06 37:10

Interesting.

SPEAKER_10 37:11

Because it's again, it's that different the way they we think just the way they think. And this is built by the way they think. It's not me, it's the us. And you see that all the way through. When you deal with people in in Asia, it's going to be that way.

SPEAKER_06 37:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_10 37:37

I mean, it frustrated me. I mean, we get frustrated over there because they don't think the way we think.

SPEAKER_06 37:45

There's a couple negatives to that, I get it.

SPEAKER_10 37:49

We gotta realize that our book was not written by Americans.

SPEAKER_06 37:54

Yep. Yep. I like it, I like it. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_11 38:00

About the priest. Sometimes he said Levite, sometimes he said priest. Are those, are they all, are all Levites priests?

SPEAKER_06 38:12

No. Some Levites are serve in temple, some have other functions. Okay. Um priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. Okay. Yep. About that as well. But he did mention both, and that's Levites were, you know, had a higher kind of calling there, but they did mention both of those guys. Mentioned priests and mention them. So it's that was uh that was pretty big. It was pretty big. So what do you think he starts with Eliaship? Did I say that right, Sarah? Eliaship? You don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_06 38:49

Why do you think he started with Eliaship? High priests, starting with, hey, we're we're we've got the big guys are in on this from the very beginning. Not just kind of sneaking up in here. It's like, well, that's um, and his brothers, the priests, there you go, Travis. Brothers, brothers, you know. They got that.

SPEAKER_10 39:09

And his fellow priests.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

Right. And then it said they consecrated the sheet cake. What does that mean to consecrate? They had ribbon cutting. They had a ribbon cutting. Had a what? Ribbon cutting. Ribbon. Oh, ribbon cutting. Maybe a little more than that. Was it been anointed with oil? What? Would it have been anointed with oil? Uh I don't know if they got a big uh power washer with oil, but um as far as like a spiritual or religious thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 39:43

I think that's you're at the temple.

SPEAKER_06 39:46

Dedication feels like this. So uh when Abraham Lincoln did the uh Gettysburg Address, we cannot consecrate kind of how this ground, we can't declare it to be sacred, to devote it to the Lord as well. We used to have that with houses. Catholics do that a lot. With a house. I see this in Europe all the time. There's some marking on the door that's a priest has come by, they got some numbers and letters and characters, and I don't know what they mean, but apparently they're significant. But fact is they have gone and consecrated that house. So these do that here some too. Um as well. So I think that's that's uh pretty big as well. Possibly the sacrifice, they didn't mention it, but um and they could have spread it with oil. I don't know, but they could have find some whole lot. Maybe the perfumers wouldn't make it smell good, so got that as well. Um, Eliaship, he was the high priest, he was the grandson of the high priest Syrians or Rubbabel, kind of the last kings there as well. So the lioness still kind of existed with the uh the high priest coming through at that time as well. Let's see here. What else would we want to cover, Jason?

SPEAKER_01 40:58

I got a couple more things, but I mean I th I think you know, I always on some level, you know, try to find the gospel in the Bible. But but also I think, you know, you know, for me, sort of part of a takeaway of this is you know, you you do have, and I I think Ms. Travis points well to this, you know, you have a community coming together, I think, to do this, and they're not getting lost in the details, you know, but they're making it happen. But the motivations are there. I mean, they have the realistic motivations of their day. This is from chapter two, like Nehemiah says, like, we don't want to still be in shame. There's the spiritual motivations, they're they're blessing the wall for God. They're inspired when Nehemiah says how much God has provided for him in Susa, and and that rallies them together. I mean, and then there's the future, there's the protection monetary concerns. Um I I do think though, you know, there is this point of it's like for Nehemiah, when you go about doing something God's way and and relying on God, it's like it's like things can happen that would not no one would normally expect based on present conditions. Like, most everything beyond beyond physically, beyond Nehemiah showing up with a lot of timber, um everything was there necessary to to rebuild this wall. There is the problem of political permission, um, but and everybody, and but the wreckage is just there. And they've all just gotten used to it. And how many things I I can think of like that are in my life or that I've seen in people's lives. It's just like the wreckage, uh, the trash, the the the detritus, whether that's spiritual, physical, you know, whether it's a a you know, my room is a teenager and it's been so messy. And just you said, and and and mom or dad walks in, they said, Jason, why don't you clean this up? And I'm like, what do you mean? It's fine. I know where ever I know where everything is. Um I I have an assistant principal in my school, she's famous for her piles in her office, our curriculum principal. And and you just go in there and you're just like, oh my god, like this bridge. She's like, What? I know where everything is. And she's like, tell me a document, and I'll say this pile, and she'll just reach over to like pile five, stack seven, and just it's on all unlabeled except in her head, and she'll just pull it out. But on on some level, she's just incredibly used to it. And and like, but it's it's not the best way. It's not what God would have. There can be something better, richer, a different life, a fulfillment of God's promises, but they have to rely on God offer it and for God's timing and God's way. And then look what they do can do when they get unified, lay aside their different tribes, different families, different professions, and and work on this together when they don't get bogged down in the I'm scared, I want to be in charge, you want to be in charge, you want to be in charge. It's like, no, no, this is worth doing, and then as and then all what Nehemiah really has to do is what he does in. Chapter 2, and we'll do it in four is then separate. Okay, who are the people who have a part in this and who are the people who do not? The people who want to work on it, you help work on it. The people who don't, you get out of here. Other thoughts around.

SPEAKER_06 44:50

I'll say the analogy of how the city looked. Think about your pictures of uh Germany after World War II, like 1945. Oh, yeah. So if you think about how beautiful things look in, say, Munich or Dresden or Berlin now, those are rebuilt. All those cities in Germany have been rebuilt. There's very few that were not just leveled and completely rebuilt. And they didn't do it like next day.

SPEAKER_10 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:18

You know, their first thing was survival, right? You gotta survive, you got food, you know, all this things of thing.

SPEAKER_07 45:23

But speaking of women, you mentioned what the doctors of whoever helped build the wall after World War II, for every one man, there's four women in Germany. So a lot of the women did a lot of the rebuilding. Oh, there or in or in the gulag.

SPEAKER_06 45:40

Yeah, yeah. You joined the war, that's true.

SPEAKER_07 45:43

Which is the same as getting killed.

SPEAKER_06 45:46

Yeah, just personal. The women did that. That's true. That's true. And besides all these others, too, there was mentioned one guy in here I thought that was interesting to me. Um, verse seven, Sarah members this, of course, uh, well out the other day, Gibeonite. Who remembers the Gibeonites? What were the Gibeonites?

SPEAKER_00 46:04

They were the um group of people who lied to the tribes of Israel about, oh, we're from a far land, uh, harbor us, give us safety. And when Israel found out that they were locals, uh, they said, Alright, well, you're gonna be indentured servants, you're gonna be our slaves for the rest of the time, but we're not gonna kill you.

SPEAKER_06 46:25

But they, yeah, so ultimately though, they became part of Israel.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:29

Which was, you know, they assimilated, even though he's he's still a Gibeonite, right? So I'm I'm still from Murphy'sboro, so people look at me down like that. So I get that. Um but uh you know, so they the Gibeonites, so wow, even these people who had been subjugated and you know, the water carriers and whatever they were, they're part of the community. They're building, they're making it happen. So it's uh truly, uh Travis mentioned, families, community, the whole community. So not just there's individual families, but there are there are layers over there. There are, but I was going to this different direction. That there's there's one big family here. One big family building together for the glory of God and the future and safety of his people.

SPEAKER_11 47:14

Did you say, did one of you say that there was somewhere written that when they finished some people finished up their stuff, they went to another area helped. Right, the Tekoites, right? Where is that? I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Verse 27. Yeah. It doesn't say, but they were all the Tekoites were previously working on another section and then they repaired and did another one.

SPEAKER_05 47:38

Verse 5, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:42

Yes, so because their nobles were working with them, they could do it faster. They're like, hey.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

That's also true in my workplace.

SPEAKER_06 47:53

If your principal does help, you're probably better shape. I am, yeah. I have to explain less orally if it's just me. Uh I think that's fair. Any other uh any other thoughts on the this whole section? It's an amazing chapter, really, just how the structure and all that works. Any other thoughts on the sections?

SPEAKER_11 48:10

I don't know if y'all said this before I came in, but so did who chose the groups? I guess he and I did.

SPEAKER_06 48:16

Who chose what?

SPEAKER_11 48:17

The groups. Who put people in groups?

SPEAKER_06 48:19

I guess probably combinations. Remember, some of the people worked around the areas where they lived, some are kind of coming in. So it doesn't say exactly how we organize them, how we organize them.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

I think that's that's a point though. I think even like because Nehemiah chapter two, I think it's the same part when he talks to Sobala and Tobiah, it's like uh the people were invested in the part of the wall around where they lived. Like, like I think that's there's a lot of applicability there. It was, you know, whether you're starting a ministry or fixing a problem, it's who knows the thing. It's it's it's like begin with the people where they are, and then you know, some people end up building a thousand qubits down to the dungate. They're really good at this thing and invested in, and for some people it's going to be fixing around their house, you know, that's what they can do, but they're contributing, you know, and and and Nehemiah honors all of that here. And I think whether that's in a church or a work setting or just personal life, you're gonna have differences with people, but where they can do it locally, the things they know, let them invest in it, but honor all willing and able, you know, contributions. Um, and and Nehemiah does. They record their names for posterity.

SPEAKER_08 49:56

Could we also we know that job in terms of the gospel? They're building a city, and we're gonna end up in a city.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

A city that's metaphorically represented by this city. Nice. Nice. Well, closing thoughts.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

I don't know if it had been said before last week, but I looked up what the distance around the wall was last week, and I think it said it was just over two miles just somewhere. Pretty big, pretty long wall.

SPEAKER_06 50:29

Good size, right. You also see the kind of the shape there. It's not necessarily like a huge amount of area, but it's also up and down. Yeah. Oh it is on a big hill, yeah. So that's true. That's true. Very good, very good.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

So we're gonna build a giant wall around uh Hickory Grove today. It's part of our afterclass activity. Yeah, thank you all for Travis. You got the creek.

SPEAKER_09 50:59

I was just trying to say on this, let's just go down the right side of this page, and that's all the kids are belly. That that wall there is hot. That's uh kid revelity comes right through here.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

That is okay. Don will need to dungate out of you about time about noon. Done and done. Done and done, all right.

SPEAKER_06 51:26

Oh no. Pray us out. I will. Father, Father, we thank you so much for this uh this record, this record of uh faithful men and some women and uh in the history of your uh great city. And uh, Father, we uh also uh thank you for the re uh recording the Nehemiah did. And Father, we just uh think in the future being included in the names in your book of life. And uh we thank you for the worship to come and pray for that. And everyone here in the name of Jesus, amen.