Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For a link to Ezra 11, click HERE.

For a link to Ezra 12, click HERE.

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.
Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.
In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”
When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.
Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”
One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.
Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits.
Remember me with favor, my God.

• Nehemiah 13:1-31

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Nehemiah 11 ‘recognizing gifts from God’: ”In chapter 11, we find the recognition of gifts among the people. There are the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, and various others who ministered in the temple. Similarly, in the New Testament, we are told to discover the gifts that the Spirit has given us and to put them to work. ‘Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you,’ Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:6). If you want to retain your strength, use the spiritual gifts God has given you.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 11:1 ‘cast lots’: “A method of decision making which God honored (Prov. 16:33). Nehemiah redistributed the population so that one out of every ten Jews lived in Jerusalem. The other nine were free to reestablish their family heritage in the land.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 12 ‘dedication of the walls’: ”In chapter 12, we find the dedication of the walls. The people gather and march around them with instruments, singing and shouting, playing and rejoicing, and crying out joyfully. Nothing will add more to your strength in the Lord than to express and celebrate His joy in your life.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 12:23 ‘book of the chronicles’: “Lit. ‘were written on the scroll of the matters of the days.’ This involved precise genealogical records kept in the administrative archives of Judah.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 12:27-43 ‘the dedication of the wall’: “In the same manner marking the dedications of the temple in Solomon’s day (2 Chr. 5-7) and the rebuilt temple several decades earlier (Ezra 6:16-18), the rebuilt walls were dedicated with the music of thanksgiving (most likely shortly after the events of ch. 9).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 12:30 ‘purified’: “See Leviticus 16:30 for the sense of moral purity in this symbolic act.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 12:36 ‘the musical instruments of David’: “This phrase could refer to the same kind of instruments David’s musicians used or the actual instruments constructed in David’s time, now being used centuries later. Cf. 1 Chronicles 15:16; 23:5; 2 Chronicles 29:26; Ezra 3:10. the man of God. See … Deuteronomy 33:1; cf Acts 13:22.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 12:43 ‘for God had made them rejoice’: “The God of all joy (cf. 1 Chr. 12:40; Neh. 8:10; Pss. 16:11; 33:1; 43:4; Gal. 5:22) activated their inner joy which brought corporate celebration. Though these may have been few and far between, moments like this characterized the life of obedience and blessing which God had set before Israel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:1-2 ‘On that day they read from the Book of Moses’: “Not surprisingly, as they read on the regular calendar cycle, they were confronted with areas in which their thinking and practice had wavered from the Scriptures. specifically with regard to the requirements of Deuteronomy 23:3-6.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:4 ‘Tobiah’: “See … 2:10. Eliashib had allied with Israel’s enemy for some personal gain and taken it to such an extreme as to desecrate the house of God.

”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:6 ‘I had returned to the king’: “Nehemiah returned to Persia as he promised (cf. 2:6) c. 433 B.C., in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes (cf. 5:14). It is unknown exactly how long Nehemiah remained in Persia, perhaps until c. 424 B.C., but in that interval, the disobedience developed.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:7 ‘resisting evil’: ”The book closes on the theme of resisting evil. You will remain strong if you adopt the attitude of Nehemiah. He was steadfast in saying ‘No!’ to the forces that wanted to destroy the work God was doing in his life. Observe what he had to do. In chapter 13, we find that Nehemiah leaves Jerusalem and returns to ‘serve King Artaxerxes in Babylon for a while. Then, with the king’s permission, he again comes back to Jerusalem. And what Nehemiah finds upon his return infuriates him.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 13:8 ‘Tobiah intrudes’: ”God’s priest Eliashib had actually allowed Tobiah, the enemy of God who had opposed Nehemiah, to move right into the temple!”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 13:9 ‘articles of the house of God’: “In order to accommodate Tobiah, they had moved the articles of the house of God from their rightful place and put idols in the temple courts.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:10 ‘gone back to his field’: “By neglecting the tithe, the people failed to support the Levites. Consequently, they had to abandon their responsibilities in the house of God and perform field labor in order to survive.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:14 ‘Remember me’: “This refrain is used three times here, once after each rebuke (cf. 13:22, 31).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Nehemiah 13:19-21 ‘more Sabbath day violations’: ”What did Nehemiah do? He tossed Tobiah out on his ear! And that’s not all. He found that the priests had been cheated, so he restored the money that belonged to them. Then he discovered that the citizens of Jerusalem were violating the Sabbath by bringing in merchandise and selling it in the streets.
“Nehemiah locked them all out of the city! Then he discovered that some waited outside the doors all night, hoping someone would come out and do a little business.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 13:25 ‘No room for the tolerance of sin’: ”Unfortunately, Nehemiah discovered yet another problem. The people were still intermarrying with the forbidden races around them. At this point, Nehemiah had simply had enough.
“Was Nehemiah too severe? Shouldn’t he have been more tolerant? Many people today feel it’s enlightened and virtuous to tolerate evil behavior. ‘We shouldn’t be too judgmental,’ they say. ‘We shouldn’t look at everything in such black-and-white terms. We need to recognize that there are moral shades of gray.’
”But we must never compromise with evil, with the forces that are opposed to God and His Word. That’s one of the greatest lessons that the Spirit of God can ever teach us, and Nehemiah had learned that lesson well.
“Significantly, the book of Nehemiah closes on the very same note that opens the ministry of the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem. He came into the temple and found it filled with money changers and merchants who defiled the house of prayer. He made a whip of cords and drove the defilers out of the temple. Jesus was not trying to build a reputation as a kind and gentle Messiah. He was not willing to tolerate those who defiled God’s house. He cleansed the temple, and did so with obvious anger, with sparks flying, yet with complete righteousness and full justification.
“Whenever someone makes a positive difference for God in the world, they do so by refusing to compromise with sin. They are people like John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, the Covenanters, Martin Luther, John and Charles Wesley, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
“The book of Nehemiah closes on a note of triumph. The walls have been rebuilt. The evildoers have been purged. The people have been reinstructed and renewed within. Strength and vitality surges once more in a city once dead and in ruins. Jerusalem has once more become a fit dwelling place for God.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Nehemiah 13:31 ‘Remember me’: “Nehemiah prayed this for the third time (cf. 13: 14, 22), desiring God’s blessing on his obedient efforts.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

Ten percent, same as the tithe, were required to inhabit Jerusalem.  Groups of people cast lots if people did not volunteer, but the volunteers were commended.

Nehemiah then lists the leaders that came with Zerubbabel, and then the genealogy to the leaders of his time.  These various genealogies were used to trace someone’s ancestry to a particular tribe and within the Levites, whether they were of a priestly tribe, but moreover, these genealogies could help in tracing the kingly line.

The dedication of the wall was done with much fanfare, singing, and shouting, heard from a good distance away, unlike Nehemiah’s original walk around the wall in secret at night.  Before the celebration, they purified themselves, then purified the gates and the wall.

While Rev. MacArthur’s chosen translation said that God made them have Joy, the NIV states that God gave them great Joy.  But I think the crustiest of curmudgeons would sing joyfully with the Holy Spirit bubbling Joy from his own depths.

They drove out the foreigners.

And before Nehemiah left, he set up provisions for the Levites, musicians, and gatekeepers.  The worship of God should have no need.

Nehemiah served the king, but he soon asked to return.  When he returned, he found a multitude of things wrong.

Tobiah, who had tried in vain to keep the wall from being built, had been given a lodging inside the temple where the provisions from the Levites had been stored.  Eliashib the priest had set this up.  Another thing that Nehemiah found was that the provision for the Levites were gone.

That raises a few questions for me.  Since that was the room in which this stuff was stored, did Tobiah steal it, sending the provisions to his people?  With the provisions not safe under the guard of a gatekeeper, did the people steal it themselves?  Or were the provisions consumed and then the people never kept up with the tithe?

In any rate, the Levites had left the city and gone to their fields so that they could make enough money and food for themselves and their families.

So, first Nehemiah threw out all of Tobiah’s home furnishings and Tobiah with them.

Then Nehemiah saw that the Sabbath was not kept.  Merchants from foreign lands entered the city and did business on the Sabbath.  Nehemiah locked the gates and then when the merchants stood at the locked gates trying to enter the city, Nehemiah said that if they persisted, they would be killed.  With that, the merchants did not return on the Sabbath.

Nehemiah was very upset, in that not keeping the Sabbath holy was what caused them to be exiled.

There were many sins of the people, but in Jeremiah 17:19-27, God told them through Jeremiah that they could not keep any of the Commandments, but if they could just keep from merchandise entering or leaving the gates on the Sabbath, they would not be exiled.  Forget the ten – not really, but as a test of faith – and remember just one.  And they could not do it.

Then, he noticed that the people had intermarried the foreigners among them.  For this abominable sin, Nehemiah pointed out the tragic life of Solomon, king of all Israel, but his downfall was marrying foreign wives.  In Nehemiah’s Jerusalem, the children of these families did not even know Hebrew.  Nehemiah beat some of Jews who intermarried, pulled the hair of others.

Zerubbabel to Ezra was a considerable time, yet Ezra saw the intermarrying and they put a stop to it.  Ezra was still there when Nehemiah showed up the first time, and maybe even the second.  Yet, Ezra was more of a teaching priest than a governor.  Even under Ezra’s gaze, the people strayed.

With Solomon’s sin, the kingdom became divided.  With not keeping the Sabbath holy, they were sent into exile.

And Nehemiah prayed, asking God to remember him.  Nehemiah had set things up and had the people taught.  And in less than a generation, they had been corrupted.

Being a thirty-year instructional designer, teacher, and training manager, I know that you can develop a fantastic training program and use great techniques in getting the knowledge and skill across, and if the workers do not care, their attitude will never change.

For example, I taught a class after an explosion.  One of their friends was in and out of the hospital and might never return to work.  I did a root cause analysis.  Since I did not give evidence in court, I can’t really call it a forensic study, but along the same lines.  I developed a training program.  I suggested a better procedure to prevent the mistake that had been made.  Then, when I trained the workers, they were more interested in videos on their phones instead of listening.  Their supervisors were in the room and said nothing about the lack of interest.  But to make it worse, they rejected the procedure that I had written to keep them safe.  A few years later, after the next explosion, I was asked to come out of “retirement” to teach them again – with the same results, but I am out of the loop, and I do not know if there have been more explosions.

But was Nehemiah over the top with regard to his hard line?  After all, the Pharisees and Sadducees probably got their start with the ultra legalized sets of rules.  But in questioning one little thing these days, the secular progressives chip away at the moral bedrock of many countries in this world to the point of people not knowing who they are and thinking they are a mere cosmic accident and God, if there is a God in their worldview, had nothing to do with it.

What Nehemiah wanted was a Judah and Jerusalem that would love God and enjoy Him forever.  But God does not make us follow His commandments.  And the people of Judah were stiff-necked even in their return … But not all.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Nehemiah 11: 1. ls the downtown ‘center’ of worship where you live attractive or unattractive? Why is that?
“2. Would you be willing to relocate to the inner city, maybe forsaking your chosen field or ancestral home, to be of greater use to God and his kingdom? Why or why not?
“3. What is your church doing to promote ministry to those who live and work in the heart of your urban ghettos? What would be the impact if 1/10 of your church families were set aside for this mission? What could your small group do to set an example here?
Nehemiah 12:1-26 Priests and Levites 1. If you had or have children—how would you like to be remembered by succeeding generations? What one thing are you doing regularly to help assure this happens?
“2. Are you a ‘traditionalist’ (loyal to the ways of your parents and their parents)? Or are you a ‘pioneer’ (charting a new course for future generations to follow)? Give one example.
Nehemiah 12:27-47 Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem 1. Review Nehemiah’s lonely walk around Jerusalem (ch. 2). How does that compare with the grand procession here? What ‘before’ and ‘after’ story could you write from Nehemiah’s diary? Have you seen or experienced anything like that in your life?
“2. How would you go about thanking God for shoring up the spiritual resources of your life?
“3. How are you, like Ezra and Nehemiah, finding, developing and using your gifts to build God’s kingdom? Where would your gifts have placed you in their winning team?
“4. What steps as an individual and as a community of faith are you taking to care for those who are serving the Lord as ‘priests, Levites, singers or gatekeepers’?
Nehemiah 13: 1. Which of the reforms addressed by Nehemiah needs attention in your society? Which has contributed more to your people drifting away from God: (a) Not regarding the needs, authority or integrity of clergy? (b) Not keeping the Sabbath holy? (c) Not marrying within the faith?
“2. How do you see clergy credibility and Christian marriages needing to have a ‘house cleaning’ today? Whose hair would you pull out: Your own (as did Ezra)? Or ‘theirs’ (as did Nehemiah)? Who has recently told you, ‘Clean house’: Your boss, parent, roomie or pastor? What would it mean for you to ‘clean house’ at work, at home, at church, in your heart?
“3. How are you like Eliashib, or like the mice who play while the cat is away? What is one way you take advantage of your privileged position or neglect the needy among the community of faith?
“4. What is the most important thing you learned from Nehemiah? What life-changing application are you making?
“5. What life application would you like God to favorably ‘remember’? How can the group help you remember to follow through?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions each for Nehemiah 11 and 13.  Nehemiah 12 is divided into two sets of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.