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Hickory Grove Presbyterian Church
[Sunday School] Nehemiah 5
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So here in week five of this Nehemiah study, and we'll be in Nehemiah chapter four. But you know, I've got students coming back real life high school on Tuesday. Um and so you know I I guess I have to practice now. And so you you always open with review because it's it's always good to assume that you know uh that my students forgot everything that I taught them, you know, about you know 24 hours before. And if they yeah, yeah, and if they remember anything, you just get to be pleasantly surprised. Um what you're saying about these guys? Um, I mean, I don't know. Well how about this? We'll find out. Um Alan, what happened last week?
SPEAKER_02Last week the wall was rebuilt, or work on the wall started back, and they went around and had different sections that different folks had uh responsibility for some of the things they rededicated first the sheep gate. So we start the uh chapter three with the sheep gate and we end in the last verse with the sheep gate. So there's some significance there. Do you remember what the significance is to that?
SPEAKER_01No, see, see, see, that see, yeah, yeah. Yeah, see, this is basically how it's gonna go with me and the students. I uh yeah, no, this is the opposite of how it's gonna go. They respond with the most embarrassing thing that could have happened the week before.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so they rededicated, they dedicated and looking at some of the stuff. The significance of that is it's rededication to God's covenant. It points to Christ, as we talked about in the gospel. Um, this topology of Christ being the gate.
SPEAKER_04Yes, gosh.
SPEAKER_02John 10.
SPEAKER_00Um words that was remember who built the sheep game?
SPEAKER_02The Levites, the priests. High priests. High priests did it. And what that shows is that the importance of the people there was to rededicate themselves to the Lord and the sacrificial system at the time that pointed them to Christ. Did they build the whole wall? No, it was halfway. But as we find out today, they they they were building all under a little arrest.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you're topping ahead, you're cupping ahead, right?
SPEAKER_02They had some pretty wild names.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Who all participated in the work? Um building everybody, yeah, just about everybody.
SPEAKER_02Even except women, even the women and with some women. Oh, the zoocycles or something like that. Takeaways. Take lights, take leaders. Their leaders did not help. They their people have take lights and help. So it is.
SPEAKER_01And they don't get no, you don't do the work, you don't get grades.
SPEAKER_00That's correct.
SPEAKER_01That's for this week.
SPEAKER_00Oh, did we turn that on? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I did. Okay. Hello. I don't always remember. Hello, anyone listen to the live stream later. You can go review it later, Richard. It'll be up on YouTube if you need. Um anything else? Anything stand out? So far, I go so the wall is going up. They're about halfway. This wall, it's about at least some archaeologists. It was probably about nine feet thick. It would reach in some places about 40 feet high when it was all done. Uh you know, it was it was quite a project. And the and they're putting it together. But it's also getting taller now. And and you gotta think, as we say, it's it's going to get harder to do. Um and it's also becoming, you know, the project is less new. Um, they've had this initial enthusiasm. Nehemiah says, look at the shame that has come upon us. He says, let us fix this wall. God has provided. They're all yes, they're all building around their houses, and then it starts getting hard.
SPEAKER_00The higher it goes, the harder it's going to get.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And the more concerns that there are going to be.
SPEAKER_00If it's like any iPhone project, the last 10% takes about 90% of the work. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Nobody's planning their crime today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that and that's a big point. People have come from outside in in this to uh to to help build this wall. Um you know, because remember a lot of not a people there's Jerusalem is still depopulated. Uh you know, it's there'll be a lot more on that kind of later in this book, you know, but I mean, one archaeology record, and and I, you know, we don't need archaeology to verify the Bible, you know, but you know, there was one source. I know when I were looking at it this week, you know, suggested that, you know, uh the population of Jerusalem at at this point may have dwindled to about 1,500 people, um, which would have been a fraction of a fraction from when the original exile would have been. Um, but you may have had, you know, just in the area of Judah itself, you know, could have been, you know, 30,000, um, which still would have been a fraction of a fraction of what the exile was. Um, but it kind of gives you a sense if that's even approximate to true. Uh you know, you know, Nehemiah has has a dedicated but also intimate labor force, you know, building this you know mile miles long wall. Uh everybody around their houses.
SPEAKER_02You said the wall was when it was completely finished was 40 feet high.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Nine feet wide. Yeah, so big, thick. It was 20 foot tall when it was halfway down. So that's still pretty substantial.
SPEAKER_01Yes. You think you know, and they're using probably a lot of the stones that got knocked over before. Um but it's go it's going to get harder. You know, you've got to get it taller, that means the stones have to be lifted higher, you've got to have scaffolding, and it's gonna get harder for the daughters uh to start pulling the stones up higher, higher, and higher. And so it's the work's going to get more backbreaking.
SPEAKER_02Um threat of uh physical harm in the midst of it. Working with your sword on on your end.
unknownOkay. Or in your hand.
SPEAKER_01Four or five-story building, that's pretty tall. I mean I mean, imagine a wall. I I'm not the greatest with eye measure, but I mean, I'm imagine a wall going from you know the base of the parking lot up to the top, covering these windows, you know, second floor over higher. It's a that's a big project, you know. And you know, and you know, and otherwise it's people out doing labor, you know, it's me doing it, Alan doing it, Don doing it, you know, Katie's doing it, Emma's doing it. Uh Casey's supervising. Um Travis is one of the guys with the sword and the iron mail. Um, so yeah. Uh you do you want to do any more of your opening questions for you, Daddy? Yeah, one.
SPEAKER_00So based on chapter two, what do we expect in chapter four?
SPEAKER_01Opposition.
SPEAKER_00Chapter two is kind of a let you know, hey, so in addition to being a history, it's it's it's actually a well-worth story, right? So he's kind of like he sets it up. So chapter three is a strange one, like, oh, just people work, people work, people work, yeah. There's a lot of lot of work as well. But um so yeah, we should expect some opposition to that from uh from Nehemiah's diary. Yeah, he should have open with Dear Diary. So they did that as well. Yeah. So good. Ready to read?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's read.
SPEAKER_00Okay, who wants to read uh chapter four? I can read. Ella? Thank y'all. Use a good voice, I would use the base, use your base voice there.
SPEAKER_02Now, when Sandbal heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews, and he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, Yes, what they are building. If a fox goes on it, he will break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. But when Sinbalat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem were blowing forward, and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. In Judah it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is falling. Failing. There is too much trouble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall, and our enemy said, They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop them. At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us, ten times, You must return to us. So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall and open places, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials, to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. When our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God was frustrated, had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall to each his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, and bows, and coats of metal. And the leader stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpets was beside me, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the walk, far from one another. And the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us there, our God will fight for us. So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day. So neither I nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon in his right hand.
SPEAKER_03You know, Al. That reminds me, yeah. Charles Spurgeon, yeah, the great Baptist preacher back in front of the 1900s, 1800s. Uh he had a publication that went out to know to whom thousands of people. He called the Sword and the Trout.
SPEAKER_00Sword and the Trout? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting, based on Nehemiah. Interesting. That's a good, that's a good combo. That's a good combo. So sort of that. So uh we start out in verse one. Talking about Sam Balot was a bit angry and greatly enraged. What are some reasons people get angry? What are some reasons that people kind of fly off the animal?
SPEAKER_05They don't agree.
SPEAKER_06They don't do what you want them to do. Sometimes they're afraid.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Who knows? I had a theory when I was working that there was a few reasons. Because I got I've been yelled at for stuff I didn't do right. You know, you know, you didn't do it right. And um and uh also getting caught out, you know, where you had some information and somebody should have known something but didn't know something, or it didn't go kind of the way, like you were saying, didn't really want them to. So um, so what's he doing here? Which one is he? Which one is Sam Bellot? He may be all those.
SPEAKER_02He didn't want the the people of Israel to come back and and reconstitute the city because they will be in the way.
SPEAKER_00Could be that there's we can reasons why why you would uh not want them to build it, but at this point, at this point he's uh he's really upset because he was threatening his position, his prestige, his authority, whatever else he had. He's the governor and told them, hey, you know, yeah, you know, I don't like this, and they're like, yeah. We're going to go ahead and do that anyway.
SPEAKER_03He knew enough about what everything represented. If he didn't, you who cares? Let him do it. He knew, so he had a good reason to be praying.
SPEAKER_07He wanted to be in control, and he wasn't.
SPEAKER_00So what do angry people do? They could lash out a couple ways, right?
unknownYeah. They burn cars. We'll talk about that coming up.
SPEAKER_00We have that in the in notes as well. Yeah, but they could get they could just verbal, they could get um they get physical, they can do that as well. What do you think about Sandball and the company? What are they gonna do? What's your anticipation based on this first part? What's this first um couple of uh first few verses here? What's what's your expectation that they will do? Attack and stop the work. Think they will? Talk for talk. There's two interpretations, right? One is because he talked about what do we have in verse uh one, two, yeah. We have a new player here, the army of Samaria. So he's making it look, how's he making it look?
SPEAKER_05He feels threatened, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Maybe. How many times have you heard parents say, you do that again one more time? You do that one more time. See this belt? You do that one more time. You do that one more time. See this belt?
SPEAKER_05I think Joe had hit the nail on the head. He wanted to be in control.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, who doesn't? Right.
SPEAKER_05What? Who doesn't? Oh that's power. It's all about power.
SPEAKER_01Power? Like that as well. Yeah, I mean, we'll see that Tobiah has, I mean, this club chapter 13, he has certain commercial interests inside Jerusalem. I mean, it's a serious threat. Like Simbalat is the reigning, even if Nehemiah has the blessing of the emperor, of the Persian king, uh Simbalat's the Horonite, and if that means he's in Horan, or even if he's in Samaria, archaeology, Horin was about 12 miles away from Jerusalem. Um he's he's potentially pretty close. Um, and you know, Xerxes is, you know, at minimum, you know, smooth traveling four months away.
SPEAKER_00Um it looks really serious though. I mean, yeah, I would I mean um if someone is threatening you, yeah, which uh how do you how do you play it? You're like uh there's no threat. Someone comes up to you or your car and says, hey, you know, I'm gonna attack your car. You gotta take it seriously. Even if they're not serious, you gotta take it seriously. And if you suspect them out of that being your um you're right, someone threatens your uh your family. Just gonna let that go to leave you, approve it, you know. So but how did the um how do they start denigrating the work? How do they start how they start doing that?
SPEAKER_06I mean they use mockery, it's like yeah, yeah, so you get this whole pile of burp rubble, a fox could knock it down, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. He also uh had personal insults, feeble Jews. You don't hear that often, by the way. So that phrase doesn't come up very often anywhere. Yeah, so he's um he's really uh he's really kind of letting them happen. Yeah, the Toby of the Fox guy and all that. So at least they're doing a good job at trash talking.
SPEAKER_01It's I mean, I think that there's something to be said here sort of about persecution because I it's it's often mockery is often, and I say this as someone who has who has problems with personal problems with mockery. Like like it's one of the first tools of opposition because it's cheap, it's all venom, you don't have to spend any any resources on it. And uh it's it also like what Sam Balad does here, it it attacks certain things that that would be core to the Jewish identity, and and and Nehemiah notes that he says this in the presence of of all his brothers and the army of Samaria, as in he says all this stuff and it's designed to spread out to the merchants and get back. Like I'm saying this, but I know it's going to go like quite beyond, you know. Um as if, you know, as if somebody goes out, you know, in a press conference and just you know happens to start talking about something and acting like, oh, I didn't know it was gonna blow up like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean that was the entire point. You you knew where people were gonna take this and run off with it. So it's like, you know, what are these feeble Jews? Okay, first of all, you all you all are too weak to do this. Okay, you all broken up, there's not too many of you, you all are too weak. Will you restore it? The job's too big. It's like you can't do it, the job's too big. Will they sacrifice? Uh, do you all think you all can just have a few little religious devotions that's gonna make this happen? Uh no. It's like whatever you all are doing, like it's not blessed enough. Will you finish it in a day? Do you think you all can actually do this really big project? It's way too bigger than you. Attacking a lot of very core assumptions here. Will you, it's like it's too broken. Do you think this thing is actually buildable? And so we revive the stones out of heaps of rubbish. Now, um, like most ridicule, they already have it up to about half its height. And and most ridicule is not based in facts.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00But this one has to lie.
SPEAKER_07You can plant seeds and discouragement.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah, but liars don't need facts. But that and a lot of persecution begins with um mockery. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, you use the term trash talk, and some of you guys know that basketball, the biggest trash talker probably in history. And I'm telling you what, he what what do you do? He got into their heads to get them out of their game. And that's what these guys are doing. That shows us how important leadership is and discipline.
SPEAKER_00And I think actually, if we look at the words of kind of exactly what he's saying, it's also striking at Nehemiah. Because Nehemiah comes out, comes in and says, I've got this thing from the king, I got a plan. And so he's like, Oh, well, you can't. So there he's actually also besides just the people, he's striking at Nehemiah and his edge of his leadership as well.
SPEAKER_03Well, you look at the history of the Jews from Moses up to this point and everything, you know, it's a good lesson for us. You know, one man can make a difference because they did face all kinds of obstacles. Really from Egypt all the way up through the uh, you know, through everything. But that just showed how important leadership is. You know, and we think of our own church. One of the things we better be doing is praying for you guys on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_00And the next group.
SPEAKER_03And what?
SPEAKER_00The next group coming up, too. The new future leadership.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_05Words are powerful. I mean, one side used it to discourage, and then Nehemiah came back and used his words. Hey, remember God's in control and encouragement. So discouragement and encouragement, you know, one builds up and one tears down. So you know, it's just uh we have to choose our words carefully.
SPEAKER_00Come on, it's my mind of one of the Beatitudes. You know which one.
SPEAKER_05I know all of them.
SPEAKER_00You know which one applies, honestly. Blessed are you with men revalue and persecute. Don't say all men are evil against you falsely. But thank you, thank you. Well, they're do the rest of them next week. So that's good. That's good. So um picking up in verses four and five, what so how did Nehemiah respond to those those threats and trash talk and and all that as well? He prayed to God, and you notice this is not in quotes, right? It's not necessarily that he prayed out loud, just he might have, he might not have. It's not in quotes that uh that he said that though. So uh what does he what does he say? Does he say, We're gonna we're gonna, you know, kick um kick uh kick body parts and take names?
SPEAKER_02Or could uh he asked the Lord to take care of it, ask God to take care of him.
SPEAKER_00He did that's pretty that's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing. Does it remind you of anything else in the Bible? Is there any other places in the Bible that has phrases like this? There's a certain type of psalm. In precatory, can you spell it?
SPEAKER_02M pre and I am P-R-E-C-A-T-O-R-Y. Very good. Very good.
SPEAKER_00Very good. Yes, of uh good. Um connection with read uh Psalm 123, 3 and 4. Have mercy upon us, oh Lord, have mercy upon us. For we've had more than enough of contempt. Our souls had more than enough. Of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud. It's possible Nehemiah had read the psalms, but they weren't all written actually, necessarily. I mean, they some of them were written in Babylon and brought back, but it's probable that he had access to a few things if he was that devout of a guy as well. And then um there's a bunch of other uh Psalms as well. I mean, um we could spend the rest of the class reading them all, but maybe we don't do that, but we do that. Um let's see here. It's uh yeah, Psalm, uh, if you want to read Psalm 60, not read now, but Psalm 69 has uh has a good summary as well. Pour out your indignation upon them, let your burning anger overtake them, let there can't be a desolation, let no one dwell on your tents. Um it's consistent with what we said. He didn't take and say, We're gonna do this, we're going to destroy the enemy. It's like, wait, we need to we need to wait on the Lord and do that. And it reminds you a little bit of David, perhaps, when Saul was chasing him, what he refused to do. Kill him. He refused to kill him. He had tons of opportunities killed. He refused to kill him. That was not his job. What did he do with the guy that claimed he killed him? Kill him. And kill him. Right. So, I mean, for Nehemiah to uh to say uh kind of stop and um and ask for this, I think it's really I don't know, it's um amazing guy to be able to uh to do this.
SPEAKER_01But I I think it's uh you know when dealing with persecution now, Nehemiah is going to have to take more action because they're going to that they've they've got to ramp it up to stage two. But initially, remember, he's already told them that they don't have any part in this. He's already set that for okay, we're the ones who are deciding to do this, we are doing it, you all don't have a part of it, you all are outside. Um, and it said, so you all don't have to be concerned with what's going on over here. And and so they make fun of it, but he's already told them they're outside of this, and so he's not worried about the negative voices from from the people outside. He's focused on doing the work. He's he prays and offers it to God, and then he goes about his business. He's like, their jeers aren't based in facts, he knows what God is doing, he has his plan, the wall's already beginning to go up, so he's not worried about the naysayers. He doesn't even feel the need to initially respond, which suggests their initial criticisms landed no blows. Um, sometimes in persecution, you know, maybe that's it, you know, occasionally you know, some of my students, you know, they throw some words at each other and it lands no hits, and they go find an easier target. But sometimes they're really mad. And if you're really mad and you can't take them on yourself, you go find other people who don't like them. And that's how we get fights in lunch in the courtyard. Um you get involved in those? Do I get involved in those? Um, when I'm lunch security, sometimes you have to go like, all right, you angry, you go over there, and you go over there. And if you're not, I'm gonna go find some people who can definitely do it. I really make sure you step in and mix it up yourself. Um in the movie in my head, maybe, but uh there was a word in verse four that we Jason had talked about that was really kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00What did he call these people? Turn back their tunnel their own heads, give them up to be plundered, in a land where they are captives. The land where they're captive. So that's uh what is that? It's kind of some extra extra thought about these people. Like, wait a minute, they're like, it's almost like he's calling them the uh the president of the HOA, you know. Often, not always, the president of the HOA is the one who's like, I'm gonna do these rules because I don't have that in my own life. I don't, you know, I can't, you know, I'm not really at home or work or whatever, but I got this as well. So uh Sambalet and all these guys were also captives in the land. It's under the the realm of the Persian king. I mean, they're the same situation as the Jews. He had a job, but they were also captives, and so he's calling that out. And he said, Well, they are captives. Jews are kind of captives too, but give them up to be plundered. What's the purpose of the wall? What's the purpose of the wall of Jerusalem for protection?
SPEAKER_05Because they were surrounded by enemies, right?
SPEAKER_00And so he's yeah, so he's he's contrasting these guys who are dwelling in land. We want to make sure we're safe. We're ready to make that happen. Oh, no, got you, gotcha. Perfect. Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead. Yeah, we'll do that. So he said, hey, we're we're captives, and I want these guys to be plundered, but we're going to um we're gonna do something a little bit different. It's actually almost like he believes the promises the prophecy that everyone is well and safe. Al, I give Al cred the map, but uh no, I thought you drew it, Wendy. Oh maybe I'm wrong about this. So after four and five, what what happened in six? So Nehemiah, he he does this imprecatory statement there. What happens where he goes back to work, keep going. He stops, he keeps on going. So, and then uh that got to half its height. And uh, why was it going quickly? Why did a wall go so quickly? Had a mind to work. I mean, that's really it'd be nice to say that about our children, but um or students, right? Or they had a mind to work and the work as well, and um so it's interesting that they they mentioned it's it's kind of a stopping point, like and the wall was joined together at half its height where they had a mind to work. So what does that kind of imply though? It's kind of like hey, look, half a wall is better than no wall, and half a wall is halfway to a full wall, and um you gotta start somewhere. I mean, you're not just so it's like, yeah, it's almost like we're we're on plan, we're we're making it happen.
SPEAKER_07When it's joined together, it's already 20 feet high, so it's gonna be hard to for anybody to get through it now.
SPEAKER_01We got we got more to work, and then after that, well, I I think at least because it's gone, there's still gaps in the wall. He's gonna say that on, and the gates don't get up in the the gates to stop people in. I don't it's chapter, uh, it's a couple more chapters until they get up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So the map that um actually found it online to send it up, didn't draw recently. So and there's even that's a reference here too. Talk to Ralph uh at uh full joyful heart. Um sounds like a happy church. Um so look at look at verse 7 and then look at the map and tell us where these people came from.
SPEAKER_01They're opposition.
SPEAKER_00Opposition, yeah, yeah. So Samaria, Sandala came from Samaria. Tobiah came from it was the Ammonite, right? And who else was in the picture? The Arabs were to the south, the south of Edomia, so Edomia was uh the Edomites. Um Herod came from that uh that that group. So south you have the Arabs, and then uh to the west, what do you got? Oh, it said the Ashtonites, those were the uh old Philistines. So uh what would you say about the opposition?
SPEAKER_02Surrounding us, they're completely surrounded.
SPEAKER_00So the mine mentions that specifically. All these guys are all around us, like, huh. Sounds familiar. It does sound familiar, yeah. Right. They were angry while because so it doesn't say all the bridges were closed, but they're beginning to be closed, and it's like, oh, the work is and they plot together.
SPEAKER_01That thing maybe that's and if if there's something else I think about Satan's use of persecution, it it brings people groups sometimes together just because sometimes they don't like scripture. You know, it's the these were all conquered people by the Persians. Many of them have history warring against each other, and but they come together like, oh no, here comes Judah again. We can't let this happen. You know, I I know it reminds me in Mark 10, you know, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians all come to question Jesus and trick him at the same time. The only thing those three groups of people have in common is they don't like the guy they're coming to question. Any other time they would have bickered like crazy. Um, and they wouldn't have wanted to be in the same room with each other. The enemy is my friend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's uh that's good. And verse eight was uh was fun too. They're they're coming together, but what does verse eight kind of give you a sense of this different from when Samlet was talking at the very beginning in the Army of Samaria? It says uh verse eight says and to cause confusion in it, and say, hey, we're gonna wipe it out. It's like, oh, we're gonna cause confusion. That's just sometimes just as good. It could be there's no it reminds me of the group that Richard talked about earlier. You didn't say it by name. We talked about Antifa, kind of he'll burn things and cause what's going on? Is it an open warper with army that we have out there in the streets of these big cities? No.
SPEAKER_01The your next stage mockery doesn't work. Move on to rumors and hinted criminality.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, low-level criminality.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, we can't openly march against them because of Xerxes, but uh wall's still down, we've got lots of people, it's depopulated, lots of people moving around.
SPEAKER_00Things happen.
SPEAKER_01It's like, yeah, industrial accidents. And this has some blows. I mean, uh, here Nehemiah has to start responding, and and I know Al, we're we're starting to run out of time here a bit, but yeah, um, you know, and so we get this verse 10 in Judah it was set, and so the whatever's going on here, these rumors come around from all sides. So here's what they start saying the strength of those who bear is failing, okay? So the people start talking, it starts getting hard. It's like, oh, we can't do it anymore. Our strength is failing. Um, we won't be able to do it by ourselves, or then our enemies are going to come. Um, and then they'll get us, we won't know where they come, they're going to kill us. So we start worrying about other people. And then 12, the Jews who live near them, as in the Jews outside, that this would be some relation, families, other claims, people, other tribe people say water candle. Yeah, it's like uh it's too dangerous there, you all need to leave and come back. We're worried about us, come take care of the harvest. You must come back. And it's and Nehemiah says, they said this verse 12, they said this to us ten times. Now that doesn't mean that Nehemiah said they literally came and delivered this 10 times. What this means is like they wouldn't stop. It was like all these other Jews that didn't come in, they were like, hey, all of you in there, you all need to get out of there. Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out. And so we have this everybody's failing, they're going to come get us, and then all the outside families saying, you all need to get out of there. All these plotting, all these rumor making, and all these, honestly, seriously worried about people coming in to hurt them. Now, what I find about this, and Alan and I had to talk about this, is I think this is sometimes an amazing thing about how God even uses persecution and the work of the enemy. Because what they do is a couple things. They all end up rallying together. Nehemiah takes half of them, he puts weapons in half their hands, and then the other half work on building the wall. And someone that we read suggests that, and then they just sleep around the exposed places in the wall to protect it, which means they're really incentivized to get this wall done. And all this persecution that San Balin's doing on probably is a really big incentive. The wall probably starts going up even faster and even better. And then they really get their organization and security put down. And then probably what they start doing, since half of them are building and half of them are now on guard, they probably take shifts. And so if your strengths are failing, building it, you're only building half the day, and the other half you're on guard for the attack that never comes. Because you're guarding all the exposed places, and Senbalat, Tobi, and Geshem are left to look at as the wall now continues to go up at an increasingly faster pace.
SPEAKER_00I thought we told him this. You know, looking at uh an arm populace within Jerusalem those were working. Yeah, well, yeah, if you're presuming that they were serious about attacking, then uh yeah, they felt like the guerrilla warfare type stuff, the Antifa stuff was that's that sounds probably serious. And so, but then that if I'm a bad guy looking to attack and I see a bunch of guys with swords, if they can they might not get all of us, but they might get me.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I don't want to they're not a lone target anymore. They seem very prepared, and you're like, okay, this is now involving it, and it's basically saying, all right, you all want to attack us, you're gonna have to come do it in the open. Yeah, we're already, and a lot of evil does not like getting exposed. It wants to be able to do things silently, to blame things at other places, but that's because they've gotten their organization and their duties and their focus down, and the wall goes up even honestly faster. And Nehemiah, where does he put himself in this? Right in with the middle people. He sleeps well. They all just wear their clothes all throughout the night. So they get up, wall, go to sleep, after wall, done. And then and then the whole thing is done in under two months. Miles of wall. And I I think, you know, it's and I realize like we're not sitting around here like building walls. But but I find like this is it's kind of like I'm reminded in Acts, like, you know, it's it's when the Pharisees and Sadducees that they send out Saul to go out and persecute the early church all throughout Jerusalem. And they're like, all right, we are just gonna kill this thing. It's like, it's like, it's like we kill Jesus, we just gotta, we gotta kill Peter, we gotta kill John, we gotta kill them all. It's like they start persecuting the church, and it ends up and they spread them outside of Jerusalem. And they're like, that's it, we did it, no more. And and then it then it just explodes. It's like the whole thing, just they got pockets, they got communities, they got churches going all over the place, and it's I I find an amazing thing. It's like if you don't think we serve it, so often God uses the in the works of the enemy, and that's just one more of his pieces. It's like he is not surprised. And he's like, Y'all getting tired? Don't worry. All the laborers, you're gonna get half the day off coming up here. Why? Uh, they're gonna threaten to kill you all. All of you are gonna break, and the wall's gonna get up even faster. You're all gonna be done even sooner. Um, all of you, and all of you all outside in the family who didn't come help, um they're gonna be back a couple months sooner now. And said ballots, like this. He was like, he was worried about his reputation before. Not not only like with Xerxes, maybe. Now he looks like now he's got the Ammonites, he looks like a fool, Samatopiah. They're all like, they couldn't do anything. That's not what we thought, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So um, yeah, I know we have like a couple minutes here, but yeah, at the uh yeah, so um it's interesting that you know he talked about we're talking about God protecting them, but they also had the the swords and the shields and all that as well. So it's like we're trusting our God to protect us, but he doesn't just necessarily want to let us stand there and do nothing. You know, when they took the land of Canaan, they didn't do nothing. God still protected and led them. So Still counting on God rather protection because you know technically they could have been overrun as well. Um, the one one thing they would also discuss was the uh the ending of this. So uh verse 23 uh so neither I nor my brothers nor my servants, the men of the guard who followed me. None of us took off our clothes, each kept his weapon uh at his right hand. Our our uh the version that we use at his right hand, many versions have it translated differently. They have each kept his weapon at the water, so that's the literal translation of kept his weapon at the water, and uh even when we go down to get water, we've got our weapon. Who in scripture does that remind you of? Having a weapon at the water?
unknownGideon.
SPEAKER_00Gideon. So, what did Gideon do? What was the story? They conquered an army against overwhelming odds, right?
SPEAKER_01This had like only 300 guys and tens of thousands of folks in the uh which I think you know, I mean, there's a lot of flash forwards, I think, to things that are present in scripture and things that back there surrounded just like they would at the exile. And you have Nehemiah with honestly a building force, probably uh close to what Gideon had to, you know, destroy the Midianites. But it, you know, it's the ready men and women um who are who are building this thing, even with while some of the rest of their nation is like, oh, you all can't do it, we're scared, you know. But you know, they do this for the glory and and shows God is fulfilling his promises. Um, now more things still have to happen. There's there's more persecution to come at in the end of chapter four, it's still not finished. Um, but you know, I I kind of like you know, and I'll just credit Al for the end of this notes, you know, you know, the people had a mind to work, they were dedicated to this, they were focused. Um, and they're also taking this a day at a time. And I and I think they're not getting too bogged down in the details, and they realize they have to kind of just keep putting one brick on top of the other. And that eventually, as you say, like as you kind of put here, if you don't start, you'll never finish on anything. Half a wall is still better than no wall, and half a wall is halfway to a full wall. And uh the idea is focus on what they need to do for God, what they are about, eliminate the distractions, but then when they have an actual problem, they do they pray about it and then they take action. They don't ignore it, they don't pray about it without taking action, and then they don't run around doing actions like like crazy, but at least coming together, praying about it, looking to some leadership about it, and then doing something with it. And I think there's something there for all of us, sort of in our daily Christian walk.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. I was gonna say, I was just sitting here thinking that in the face of persecution, in the face of the unrighteousness of the uh spiritual warfare, we have to keep building. We have to have that single-minded, single-mindedness as as uh church, as a family of God to continue to build, build his kingdom right here.
SPEAKER_01Ultimately, opposition is not the problem, it's it's on some level, it's our response to it through God's providence. Any other closing thoughts? I won't pray us up.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Father, we thank you so much for for your word, for these examples and scriptures, and we ask that we have the uh uh the faith of them, the diligence of uh of the people, that as we continue to build the walls of this church, the walls of your kingdom here, that you uh give us again faith and diligence and a mind to do the work. And Father, I'd also like to lift up uh family of Jason's friend, and that you give them comfort today and beyond the loss of their loved one. And uh just thank you so much that um he is down in the arms of Jesus. In the name Amen. Thank you.