To make matters even worse, the specific Ammonite whom they had built a tomb for in the temple was for Tobiah, who as you remember was an enemy of the reconstruction of Jerusalem and also had corrupted the nobles of Jerusalem.  So this is about as big of a betrayal as can happen and has to baffle Nehemiah.  On top of that they haven’t been allotting the tithes to the priests, so they had to leave the city.  And they are not honoring the Sabbath, but are working instead.

I think that every single person who ministers (not necessarily in a paid position) will face this kind of let-down at some point.  For some reason, probably sin, men are going to fall back into their old sinful habits (Proverbs 26:11).  I think that very often that this is devastating to people who have poured so much time and effort into discipling and teaching just to see little results.  It’s times like this that God’s sovereignty is important to me, because I know I can’t change hearts but I am just called to go preach the Word and make disciples.  God is the one who changes hearts.

The majority of believers that I encounter, do not have radically different lives from the non-believers I encounter.  I think that Nehemiah is seeing this and trying to make the people understand the eternal weight of the decisions that they are making.  I know its not very acceptable to question people’s salvation today, but I think there is great value in individuals wrestling with their salvation and wondering why if they are saved, why does their life not look in the least bit like more mature believers?

It is encouraging to see the entire population supporting the priests and ministers with material giving.  It is encouraging for ministers to not have to worry while doing what God has called them to.  It is also shows a true commitment by the people since they are backing up their promise with action.  You’re never truly committed to something until you are sacrificing finacially.

One thing that I didn’t realize until this chapter is that this population of Jews was only comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.  This is because the northern kingdom of Israel was so dispersed by the Assyrians that they never really returned in significant numbers to their homeland.  So when we are talking only about the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, along with the Levites who were dispersed amongst all the tribes so that they could lead worship throughout the nation (see Joshua 21).  I read that the estimated population of Jerusalem was only about 4800 to 8000.

It is interesting to think that there were very few significant figures from this point on for the other tribes of Israel.  If you think about the two biggest figures from the New Testament they are Jesus who is from the tribe of Judah and Paul who is from the tribe of Benjamin.  I wonder which tribes the disciples were all from…I’ll have to check into all this.

I was underestimating the size and scope of what this revival that was happening.  This is the entire Jewish nation (at least the part that had returned from exile) confessing their sin and completely rededicating their lives back towards God’s original plan.  This is a pretty big deal.  The first thing they start with is promising not to intermarry with Gentiles.  It took me a while to accept this practice, because as believers we are supposed to “be in the world.”  But its just marriage that he is asking them not to do, not to avoid any contact at all.  I still don’t quite understand how a believer could get married to a non-believer.  Your ultimate hope is found in completely different thing and it tends to make me question the salvation of the believer.

They make some pretty big commitments that aren’t commanded in the Pentateuch, such as giving a third of their income.  My guess is that this was to help get the temple up and running again, but you have to wonder if they really thought that was sustainable.  I wish it was, but people are greedy.  I also thought about how they gave their best as a tithe to God and I wondered if we were as focused on that today as we should.  I’ve always like CS Lewis’ quote that we should be forced to deny ourselves some luxury by tithing, otherwise we aren’t giving enough (paraphrase).  I wonder what (if anything) we are giving up by tithing and if it is valuable enough to us to be considered a “firstfruit.”

This one chapter gives us an entire summary of what God has done since the beginning of time.  I think that this is a very important exercise because it helps you understand where you are in that plan as well as what God is doing at that time.  If you cannot summarize what God has done from the beginning in Genesis up to today, then you may want to look into it.  It will also help you get a better grasp on where God is going and might provide some clarity into the end times.

One last interesting note:  in the ancient Greek texts it credits Ezra as dictating this prayer in verse 9:6.  This is not present in the Hebrew texts, which are older.

The crowds initial response was the natural one.  They recognized their sin in light of what they were hearing from the Book of Law.  I think that recognizing your own sinfulness is a very important part of the gospel that we downplay in modern times.  We know that we make mistakes but our standard is usually those around us instead of God.  Since we aren’t as bad as that other guy, then we must be pretty good.  The problem with that sort of thinking is that the Bible (especially Jesus) is very clear that the standard is God who is perfect and holy.  In comparison to him we are traitors and our deeds are as filthy rags.

While it is good to remind yourself of why you need God (i.e. your sin), it is not good to dwell on forever, because that is no longer who you are.  Since you are a redeemed child of God, you can dwell on His beauty and find joy in the fact that He has saved you.  Nehemiah and Ezra both agree that this is a time for joy, so they encourage the people in that.  They also charge them to serve others.  It seems that the overflow of joy that comes from the Lord is service.

The feast of booths is a funny one.  Basically the Jews all make little huts out of tree branches and they go camp out in them.  The purpose is to remember how God led the people in the wilderness where they lived in these little huts.  I can’t think of a parallel for us today.  I wonder if we are lacking in opportunities to remember who we once were before God delivered us?

Nehemiah wants to begin organizing the people probably to focus on repopulating Jerusalem or perhaps it was more necessary for property rights.  This list is almost identical to Ezra 2.  You’re not going to find a huge amount of application out of the rest of this chapter, but I get two things out of it.

1. God gifts certain people in certain ways and I am glad He does

Someone thought it would be important to write down all of the names of the people who were returning from exile.  I would not have been that person.  It was probably important that it get done and it was definitely useful to Nehemiah.  If God had gifted everyone like me then something like this never would have gotten done.  But God made someone who had the foresight and diligence to take on this very tedious task.

2. God is faithful to the children of Abraham

God promised Abraham he would make them into a great nation. God promised David that the Messiah would come from him. God has been committed to Israel through these two unconditional covenants. Even though they were not faithful to Him and consistently broke the Mosaic covenant, leading to their exile, God remains faithful to his unconditional promises. If you study the history of the Jewish nation, it is amazing that it still exists today. Multiple times groups have tried to wipe them from the face of the earth and every time they fail. There is something special about a group of people who have faced genocide on multiple occasions, but continue to flourish. For me the phenomenon of the continuance nation of Israel is enough to attest to the existence of God but also it speaks to His unending faithfulness.

Since the wall had apparently been completed in only 6 months, the surrounding areas were getting nervous that Israel’s God would also build them up into a great nation quickly. So they try to publicly accuse Nehemiah of leading the Jews in this direction. They are even able to pay off a priest to give a fake prophecy to Nehemiah. I’m not entirely sure how much this could have negatively portrayed Nehemiah, but if a leader who has been confident in God’s leading all of the sudden started hiding, it would probably harm his credibility. Fear in this situation would have been the opposite of faith in God. I think that in many instances in our lives, fear represents a lack of faith. Fear to me seems like another version of worry and who by worrying can add another hour to their life. As I sit here writing this on a plane, I wonder how does it reflect on my faith in God if I am scared of it crashing? Do I really believe that to die is gain? Do I believe in the sovereignty of God, because if He is sovereign should I really always be afraid of risk and try to only put myself in situations where I’m in control?

In the last section of this chapter, the wall is finished but we also are told how deeply the nobles had betrayed Nehemiah.n they had been secretly reporting back to Tobiah about everything he was doing. To me this means it was definitely God’s doing if the wall could be completed so quickly with such influential and extensive opposition. This probably gives Tobiah even more reason to fear the Jewish nation.

Atheism has been specifically advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead.  It is a scandal there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.

God set it up in such a way that the world would see how we lived and see that it is better than how they were living.

The nobles responded positively to Nehemiah’s condemnation which seems very contrary to how we respond today.  We are scared to call out our brothers today because we don’t want to come across as judgmental or, more often, because we know that that person will probably respond negatively (if not hostile) towards us.  It could help in this situation that Nehemiah includes himself as one who needs to change.

I am starting to gain a lot of respect for Nehemiah now as I see how he handles the new problems.  He started out just overseeing and organizing this construction project, but now he has to become a general of sorts.  The way he organizes the men and uses trumpets for communication is pretty genius for a guy who didn’t seem to have previous experience in military.  He also asks the men to stay for the night within the city.  I wonder if that is for fear of them deserting or for fear of them facing the opposition alone.

The last thing that has bugged me from the beginning is that the king gave this project the OK, so why is he facing so much opposition?  The commentary brings up a good point that the king was over 1000 miles away.  So by the time word got to him it would be too late.  It is an interesting parallel to the our situation.  If God didn’t seem so distant to many, would they so willingly defy Him?  Probably so…it’s our nature