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Nehemiah | Overview

                                                                        Nehemiah: Jesus the Master Builder 

      Chp. 1-6 Construction 

      Chp. 7-13 Instruction   

Chronologically the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther happen in reverse order, than they appear in our Bibles. During the captivity of the Jews, God raised up Esther a beautiful young lady to become Queen of Persia. Her husband is known by various titles Ahasuerus is a title that means “venerable father” Artaxerxes means “the great king” those aren’t different kings they are different titles. 

But the Artaxerxes in the book of Nehemiah is not the same as the Artaxerxes of Ezra but he is the same fellow that Daniel in Daniel 5:31tells us is called “Darius the Mede” and “received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old”.

The book of Nehemiah fits within the reign of Artaxerxes I which would make Esther Artaxerxes stepmother and the appointment of Nehemiah as cupbearer something that her influence may have played a part in. Nehemiah himself writes in chapter 2:6 something quite revealing as he says, “Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him” (that would have been Queen Esther). As cupbearer to the King Nehemiah held a very important and trusted position as it was his responsibility to taste the king’s wine to protect him from being poisoned and would have placed him in a position of confidence and council to the king.

 The return of Nehemiah takes place in 444 B.C. 13 years after the return led by Ezra and 94 years after the return led by Zerubbabel.     There are two divisions in the book that span a time of 21 years:

  • Chapters 1-7 Construction: Nehemiah concern for the people leads him to inquire about the condition of the people who have come back to the land of promise only to find out that the walls and gates of Jerusalem still remain destroyed. He secures permission to finish what had been started 94 years earlier but not completed. Although Nehemiah faces stiff opposition both from without and from within the work is completed in 52 days to the glory of God even by those who opposed the work (6:15-16).   

  

  • Chapters 8-13 Instruction: The construction of the walls is followed by a consecration of the people led by Ezra the priest reminiscent of his reforms 13 years earlier. This rebuilding will take more work and a lot more sacrifice to repair and restore the wall and gates of the relationship with God that had been destroyed.    

                                                                              Chp. 1-6 Construction

The work of God in the servant Nehemiah is of greater value than the historical rebuilding as we see a five-step process God worked in Nehemiah that led to the rebuilding of the walls in 52 days:

  • 1:2-5 Concern: In Neh. 1:2-7 we are told that Nehemiah asked “Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah…concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.” He was told that “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire Folks we will never have the walls of our lives rebuilt if we don’t first take stock of the damage that living apart from God has done! 
  • 1:4-10 Confession: Upon hearing those words Nehemiah, “sat down and wept, and mourned for many days” and then fasted and prayed saying “Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You.

 Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.” Concern led to a prayer of confession. Have you examined what possibilities your life could experience if only you lived regularly surrounded by his loving protection? Listen up friends, Nehemiah didn’t view the desolation as an opportunity to “GIVE UP” he viewed it as an opportunity to “GET UP”.  

  • 1:11 Commitment: Notice that even while Nehemiah was praying the Lord was putting a plan on his heart, “O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.” 

Concern led to confession which led to commitment to the plan God has revealed. Far too often we see that we have concern over our condition, confession over our condition but no committed action in prayer for our transformation in grace. Now remember that the Lord had already placed a Jewish Queen on the throne and a king who because of her was sympathetic to God’s people.     

  • 2:9-10 Courage: Yet with that said it still took courage for Nehemiah to ask the king to go and to stand up to Sanballat and Tobiah once he arrived. Folks you can always expect resistance to God’s work in driving you back to His arms of love. It will take courage for you to ask the King as well as courage to trust the king in your transformation. Whenever you say in your heart arise and build (2:20) you can bet that the enemy will arise to destroy! Satan will always place roadblocks and obstructions on the road to our spiritual reconstruction!       

 

  • 2:11-16 Caution: Nehemiah didn’t just run off trying to get everyone else on board he went out stealthily to check out the condition of things firsthand. A cautious hand is a well-thought-out plan my friends and it always pays to do the research. Jesus spoke of this in Luke 14:28 where he said, “Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it”  

With this five-step approach, Nehemiah told them in Neh. 2:18-19 “the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.” And he found because of this they responded by saying, “Let us rise up and build.” And these folks weren’t mere talkers, no “they set their hands to this good work.” 

In chapter three we are told of the work upon the 10 gates of the city:

  1. 3:1-2 The sheep gate: This is the gate by which the sacrifices were brought into the city. This of course speaks of the “Lamb of God” and there for the cross. Folks the first entrance that needs to be rebuilt in our lives is always the place of the Cross where we celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice recognize our indebtedness and die to our self-centeredness. You can not serve two masters one has to go, my friend.
  2. 3:3-5 The fish gate: This represents our witness, as Jesus called His disciples to be fishers of men. Interesting that our witness is restored after our comprehension of the cross has been hung in its place. 
  3. 3:6-12 The old gate: This speaks of absolute truth which we have abandoned for contemporary worldly wisdom. 
  4. 3:13-14 The valley gate: This gate speaks of humility, how important that this gate gets placed back on its hinges as more enemies come through this gate than all the others combined. 
  5. 3:14 The dung gate: This is the gate by which all refuge would leave the city to be burned. This gate speaks of confession and repentance! Oh how important is this gate so that we can discard the spoiled rotten things that would corrupt our lives. 
  6. 3:15 The fountain gate: Notice that this gate came right after the dung gate as times of refreshing always come after a time when the junk of our lives has been discarded. 
  7. 3:26 The water gate: This gate represents the word of God and was the only gate that was not destroyed as His word endures forever. It is never the word of God that breaks down or comes unhinged it is only we who break down and come unhinged by not spending time in His word. 
  8. 3:28-29 The east gate: This gate faced the rising sun and as such spoke of hope. This gate needs to be rebuilt as to show us that no matter what His Son is coming up tomorrow. 
  9. 3:28-29 The horse gate: This gate speaks of spiritual warfare that we will need to be prepared against.
  10. 3:31 The inspection gate: This was the gate where judgment was conducted and it reminds us that we need to come in this gate to weigh our hearts before His throne.             

Chapters 4-6 shows us the opposition that came against the rebuilding:

  • 4:1-6 Ridicule
  • 4:7-9 Threat
  • 4:10-23 Discouragement
  • 5:1-13 Extortion
  • 6:1-4 Compromise
  • 6:5-9 Slander
  • 6:10-14 Treachery 

Yet with that, we are told in 6:15-16 that the work was completed in “fifty-two days”. And “when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.” 

                                                                              Chp. 7-13 Instruction

With the work of construction done now, it was time for the work of instruction to the people to begin. In 7:5 we are told that “God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return, and found written in it”; Thus the preparation began with gathering the people to serve in the temple. Then in 8:2-3 “Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.”

 Ezra began to instruct the people with the outcome in 8:6 that “all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” The outcome of this was 9:2-3 “Those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day, and for another fourth, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.” 

The covenant was renewed, listen to part of this in 9:33, 35 “You are just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, But we have done wickedly.” “For they have not served You in their kingdom, Or in the many good things that You gave them, Or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works.”

 The covenant is signed in the 10th chapter and plans are made for further settlement in the 11th chapter. With the dedication of the wall coming in the 12th chapter. The book closes with Nehemiah calling the people to separate from the things of this world, to commit to supporting the ministry, keep the day of rest, and to keep from mixed marriages. Yet with this said it was a short-lived revival to which Malachi a contemporary of both Ezra and Nehemiah would write in the final verse of Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” 

So for 400 years the nation didn’t hear a word from the Lord while in the land until John the Baptist came, who came heralding the fulfillment of Daniels’s prophecy in 9:25-27 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

 The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week, He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”