PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

When the cat is away, the mice will play.  Apparently that is what happened when Nehemiah went back to the king that he had served earlier for a period of time.  With him gone from Jerusalem it looks like the people decide to create a space within the Temple for one of their favorite priests.  It would be almost as if God had a rival because a room was established within the temple, which was God’s house by the way, for another priest to have his space.  Nehemiah was not amused and threw out the guy’s stuff and had to reconsecrate the area.  There can be no competition with God.

But we also see that with Nehemiah gone that the Levites were not receiving a portion of the offerings as they were supposed to receive.  As a result they left Jerusalem to strike out on their own in the suburbs, or the surrounding areas.  Nehemiah called them back in and demanded that the people continue to give as they were supposed to so that these Levites could be supported.  

Another battle that Nehemiah fights, when he gets back and sees the erosion of what he had initially instituted, was the obeying of the Sabbath.  He closed the gates of Jerusalem for the Sabbath and did not allow anyone to enter because if they did they would be engaged in commerce.  So, the business folks waited and camped outside the gate.  But Nehemiah didn’t allow that either and berated them and made them leave.  He was pretty intense.

The common theme that we find repeating itself is that inevitably over time we will disobey God when we are left to our own desires and our own devices.  We are created in the image of God, God loves us, but that image is so obscured by our sin that it is almost as if we are born sinful.  We are not born sinful, but we do have a propensity for sin.  It is that propensity, that almost inevitable decline and failure, which produces sin.  We find this to be the case in Nehemiah.  We find this to be the case in all of Scripture.  We find this to be the case in our own lives.  Nehemiah is a good book to end our 90 Day Challenge.   The temple is back in working order, God is being praised, and the people are back in line.  Now to get to work.  Looking forward to our next challenge.

This chapter seems to be rife with references to the singers, or the choir which had a very special place in the life of Israel.  I guess the closest thing that I can think of are the choirs in the Russian Orthodox Churches which play a primary role in the entire liturgy of Sunday morning for those services.  I love the choirs that have been a part of the churches where I have served and often I have participated in them.  They provide a ministry which is crucial to our worship.  The role of the choir in the Orthodox churches is very different from the role which is played in our contexts.  In our contexts the choir is an integral part of the worship.  In the Orthodox churches it actually leads the worship.  

The clip below is the “Our Father” which is sung every service and is known by all the people.  It is not a piece sung apart, but it is part of every service.  So much of the liturgy is sung.

So where does that take us in this  Scripture?  Did you notice that the choir had their own cities and lived among themselves.  Can you imagine?  They were instrumental in the worship, the temple was primary in worship, and the walls were created to allow the worship to continue as it should.  As a result the choir, the singers, are picked out and mentioned over and over again because they were so central.  

We find also in this chapter the dedication of the wall.  It looks  like things worked out the way that God wanted them to work out with Nehemiah in charge.

There was a special appeal for people to live in the city of Jerusalem.  Remember, things were just starting to be put back together again, so they had to come in from the countryside where they were living and where they had their comfort and where they were used to living.  But people had to move into Jerusalem in order for it to be inhabited which would prevent marauders from coming in and taking whatever they wanted from the temple and from harassing the one who were working and living in the temple to keep it running.  If no one was around then no one would stop them from doing that.  

The process was that one out of ten from each of the twelve tribes were to move into the city.  Notice that there is a distinction at the beginning where they say in vs.1 that the leaders of the city lived in Jerusalem, but they cast lots so that they could be joined by a representation of the entire nation by having one out of ten come and join them.  It is much easier to lead when you are willing to be the one to take part in what you are asking others to do first.  If you just ask them to do something but you are not willing to do it, then why should they do it?

It reminds me of Judge Deborah’s general, Barak in chapter 4 of Judges, where he tells her: “If you go with me I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”  It sounds pretty insolent, and in fact Deborah said that she would go but that he would not receive the glory of the victory.  

This listing of the families reminds us of how numerous the tribe of Israel was that they could give up hundreds of people and that only represented one tenth.  But things seem to be in place for Ezra and Nehemiah to have Jerusalem under control as the city of God once again.

Well, this is nice.  We find here the content of the agreement that the people made with God.  The part that we hear about in chapter 10 is the part that says we will not neglect the House of the Lord.  So here we find the promise that the people make to take care of those who work in the house of the Lord, the priests, as well as to take care of the actual house itself, the temple.  The very first verses contain a listing of names and these names are the priests and those from the house of Levi who would have been involved in the work of the temple.  

After listing the names of the people who are going to be affected by this agreement, he then lays out the details of the covenant.  Keep in mind that these details are not new, they are already listed in the writings of the first five books of the Bible which was what God expected us to do.  This is crucial, these are not new commandments, but commandments that have been overlooked.  Nehemiah and Ezra want to be sure that they are carried out and not overlooked again.

Keep in mind that these commandments were followed in the OT and no longer today.  The Sabbath is one that we ought to keep, but we still buy and sell commerce on Sunday.  That is one aspect of the law that is mentioned.  We do not give back to the Lord one third of what we make, we give one tenth, but that is also mentioned.  We do not give our first child, male child to be specific, to the Lord, or our first fruits, but that is what was expected in the law of the Lord.  Notice, Jesus came and fulfilled the law and gave us a law of freedom to live so that all that we do and say would be pleasing to the Lord.  This is not the result of following a set of rules, but rather by free will we obey the Lord.  How are we doing with that?

There is an entire history of the people of Israel focused upon the disobedience and unfaithfulness of the people, and also focused on the mercy and everlasting love and patience  of our God.  Ezra is speaking here and he starts from the very beginning, because it is a very good place to start.  He speaks about how God was faithful to Abraham.  He then moves to Moses and the people in Egypt and how God led them out of that land of slavery, and yet they wanted to remain slaves.  Remember, this is not a few years before, this is thousands of years earlier and the prophet is recounting it so that the people would be able to see this cycle of unfaithfulness of the people which is matched by the grace of God.  Without fail God’s grace wins out.  

Ezra leads the people to make a covenant with God, a covenant where the people make a firm agreement.  We don’t know the terms of the covenant, we don’t see that yet in this chapter, but we do look forward to, as Jeremiah states, that covenant that is written upon our hearts.  Because when that happens then we don’t need a piece of paper to remind us of the faithfulness of God, it will be written on our hearts.

The law of Moses was rediscovered.  There are a lot of details in this chapter which bear mentioning.  Notice that Ezra is described as the scribe and Nehemiah as the governor of the land.  We consider them prophets, or people who are proclaiming the Word of the Lord.  Once the law of the Lord is discovered notice how there is a public reading of it.  There are also people strategically placed who can interpret or help the people understand what is being read.  

The reaction to what is being read is one of grief because they recognize that they are not following the law as they ought to follow it.  They recognize that in order to obey God they simply need to be doing things differently, and it makes them grieve because they know that they have let God down.  But the order from Nehemiah is that they not be grieved but rather go home and eat the fat off the land and drink wine and celebrate, because the joy of the Lord is our strength.  I love that song.  Find it below.

As a result of finding the law they also rediscover some of the festivals that they should be celebrating, like the festival of booths.  The festival of booths is that festival that they were celebrating when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, what we call palm Sunday.  You can read in this chapter why they would have branches available, because they were living in booths made from branches.  So the people of God were redirected in their lives because they were exposed once again to the law of the Lord.  See what happens when you read Scripture and take it seriously?

We now have an accounting,  a genealogical accounting of the people who are populating Jerusalem.  We have nearly 50 thousand people who are in Jerusalem, but no houses yet, according to vs.4.  Not sure how that works since in vs.3 we read about their houses and in the previous verses we find that each person repaired the wall outside of their house.  Anyway, maybe it means that no new houses had been built.  Maybe  it is just an indication that the houses that they were inhabiting were the old ruins of the houses where they had settled once they came into the city.  

The listing of all the families and the number of people with each family is fascinating.  There is a repetition which we find.  We hear again about those who came into Jerusalem but could not prove that they were priests, so they were excluded from performing priestly duties, but that does not mean that they were banned from Jerusalem.  In fact, they are still around.  We also see that the family with the most people is the family of Seenah which had 3,930 (vs.38).  They never show up again and this is the only time that they are mentioned in the Bible so don’t read into it (except for Ezra 2).

You will find a similarity to this chapter and Ezra chapter 2 as well.  We will find in many of the Old Testament books repeats of what has been mentioned with some of the details just a little off.  For example, in Ezra 2 the number of people that we find in the family of Seenah is 3,630.  It isn’t that big of a deal, if you don’t take the stance that either all of it correct or none of it.  I’m okay with a little bit of dissonance.

The wall is finished.  The neighbors aren’t happy.  In fact, their neighbors set up a false meeting with the now governor of Judah, Nehemiah, asking to meet with them so that they can iron out their differences.  Nehemiah understands that this is a plot in order to get him away from Jerusalem and do him harm.  The only thing remaining to do with the walls is to set the gates in their place.  

The story of the traitor in their midst is surprising.  The traitor, Shemaiah, who for some reason was confined to his house, told Nehemiah that he should run into the temple and hide because the neighbors who were looking to kill him, were about to overrun the city.  Nehemiah thought to himself that if his enemies are coming into the city that it would not be a good look to run and hide.  I should probably be on the front line and help defend with everyone else.  He then realized that this traitor was just saying that because it would make him look bad.  

I warned you that the nobles were about to get what was due to them.  So here was the problem, and to our 21st century ears it not only doesn’t make any sense, it sounds barbaric.  What was happening is that the noble families when they had moved back from being in captivity, had taken over the vast majority of the land and then made their own people work for them.  They then gathered the taxes and gathered the crops from their own people.  But it got worse.  They also bought and sold their own people. This was normal for that period of time, but Nehemiah says it is not what the Lord requires or wants.  

He gathers all the people together and tells them that this is not what the Lord would want from them.  The nobles listened and agreed to no longer charge interest, to no longer enslave their own people.  At the end of this chapter Nehemiah also calls attention to what a good person he is.  He had every right to demand the provisions that a governor was due.  But he did not because, he said, that he saw the plight of his people and it was not right that he took the goods from the land while they starved.  He asked the Lord to remember this and remember what a good a person he was.  A little humility might have been more appropriate.