One common theme in the two books is also an indication of an overall unifying force: the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Another piece of evidence for their unity is the fact that several key words and phrases appear a symbolically significant number of times (7, 12, and their multiples) if both books are considered as one.
There are several techniques used throughout Ezra-Nehemiah to indicate that all is not as well as it appears. This theme is seen in (a) the presence of Aramaic in place of Hebrew in extended passages, and not just as part of official documents being quoted; (b) the use of both Persian and Hebrew calendars to order the book; and (c) another pattern occurring with the specific prophets mentioned.
TRUE PROPHETS
Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1)
Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14)
FALSE PROPHETS
Shemaiah and Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:10, 14)
Balaam (Nehemiah 13:2)
This downward trend sets the stage for the 400-year period of prophetic silence that would soon occur. Green asks: “What is the significance of this subversion? The reader rejoices that the restoration community has reached its goal but is left wondering how permanent that success will be.”
The Structure of Ezra-Nehemiah
I. Prologue (Ezra 1)
II. A House Built (Ezra 2:1-7:26)
III. Spiritual Wall of Separation (Ezra 7:27-9:15)
IV. Repentance of the People (Ezra 10:1-44)
III'. Physical Wall of Separation (Nehemiah 1:1-7:4)
II'. A People Defined (Nehemiah 7:5-12:26)
I'. Epilogue (Nehemiah 12:27-13:31)
The most important event is found in the center: the repentance of the people.
The parallelism of sections III and III' strongly reinforces the belief of several commentators that Ezra-Nehemiah is the story of building two walls, one spiritual (Ezra's) and one physical (Nehemiah's), both of which serve to separate the people of God from foreign influences.
One modern Jewish writer has said, “Assimilation and intermarriage will weaken the piety and the order of the community...It undermines the Covenant. It threatens the mission with which the Jewish nation has been entrusted. It offers to destroy us from within as we could never have been routed from without.”
The two walls were necessary to insure continued existence of the Jews and to maintain purity of the people. Do Christians need both of these walls today? Are we called to withdraw from the world to isolate ourselves from all outside contacts and influences?
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27) The 4th Cent. Roman emperor Julian said, “The Christians have shamed us. Not only do they care for their own poor, but they care for ours as well.”
“I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” (John 17:15-16)
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral persons—not at all meaning the immoral of this world...since you would then need to go out of the world.” (I Corinthians 5:9-10)
That is enough background before moving on to events in Nehemiah to bring us up to today's lesson.
Nehemiah 1:1-7:4
This section is an account of how the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. The story is cast in the form of seven cycles in which the actions of Nehemiah and his followers are matched by the increasingly violent reactions of their enemies. In each cycle, God's name is invoked to assure the reader that He is in control of all the historical events being portrayed.
Nehemiah 6 The first attempts to stop the building ended with the threat of physical violence to the workers. Many Christians in the world are presently facing such persecution. The cover story for one of Christianity Today's recent issues asks “Is this the end of Christianity in the Middle East?” We are presently safe from such physical attacks in the United States but shouldn't overlook the other ways we might be threatened.
Attempts to harass the builders failed so they next turned to their leader. We need to pray for our teachers and pastors regularly. We should be very suspicious of any leader, church or political, who indulges in fear-mongering since fear should not be a prime motivating factor for Christians.
Nehemiah 6:1-4
You can look at a map of the territory and identify the enemies of the Jews.
6:1 Sanballat is from Samaria in the north,
Geshem comes from Arabia in the south and southeast. From three ancient inscriptions with Geshem's name on them, it can be determined that he was a governor who controlled a rather large area of land.
Tobiah was descended from one of the first families to return from exile, and is mentioned in Zechariah. He is felt to be a large landowner who settled in the trans-Jordan area, in Ammon in the east. There is a burial cave with his name in it that was found in that area dating from the same time period (5th cent. BC).
The spiritual lesson for us today is that one's enemies can come from any and all directions.
If I were to ask each of you what you felt was the biggest threat to Christianity today, I think I would get many different answers: radical Islam, liberal politicians, scientific atheism, militant homosexuals, etc. In this regard, it is interesting to read C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. Junior tormentor Wormwood has been trying to keep his patient from the Enemy (i.e., God). His first attempts to encourage the man in his hedonistic lifestyle have failed and the man becomes a humble believer. He writes to his uncle Screwtape for advice and his uncle replies that now the man can be attacked to appeal to his self-righteousness. Satan can attack from all directions.
6:2 The first attempt is to get Nehemiah away from his area of protection. Ono was in the province of Yehud in neutral territory 19 miles away from the safety of Jerusalem. In an attempt to flatter him that important leaders wanted to include him in their talks, they pose a sort of a peace conference so that they could put aside their differences and work for a common goal. This would have been a real temptation for Nehemiah since the Jews faced an uncertain future if they tried to go it alone surrounded by enemies. Of course, they were not alone since God was on their side. Nehemiah labels these attempts for what they are – a distraction from God's important work and a real danger to himself, and he politely declines the invitations. This is a warning to the church today, which often gets sidetracked in its main mission on earth. Examples might include:
a. past efforts of the Ecumenical Movement, which led mainly to endless committee meetings and drafting of position papers that everyone could agree with: an appeal to the lowest common denominator.
b. Jerry Falwell attacking the children's TV character Tinky-Winky as being a spokesman for the militant gay rights movement.
c. The Moral Majority compromising their principles by partnering with Mormons and cynical politicians. This ended up by giving the Mormons credibility in the eyes of the world as being just another Christian denomination and got politicians elected who had no intention to pass the legislation needed.
Nehemiah 6:5-7
The second attempt ups the ante by sending a letter purporting to warn him about rumors that were circulating that he was trying to set himself up as a king/messiah. What are some first tip-offs that Sanballat was insincere? (1) It was an open letter, (2) it was unlikely that he would be inclined to help Nehemiah in any way, and (3) it was doubtful he would even agree to meet with a suspected traitor. At this point, if Nehemiah had any lingering doubts that he should have met with Sanballat earlier, they were laid to rest by this latest ploy. The enemy had clearly revealed himself.
Nehemiah 6:8-9
Nehemiah sends back a letter simply stating the truth of the matter. The best defense is the truth. He calls for God to strengthen him.
Nehemiah 6:10-11
This third attempt is to scare Nehemiah so that he would seek refuge in the temple. There are a couple of ambiguous statements in these verses. First, what does “a man like me” mean?
a leader of the people best fits first statement (in other words, he would lose face with the people). After a customer satisfaction survey in our church conducted by an outside business consultant, it was determined that what we most desired out of the church was Excellence: especially no hitches in the Sunday morning service. I have known pastors who felt they needed to be a perfectionist and exhibit no weaknesses for their congregation to see. We should not place our leaders on a pedestal so that we lose faith if they do not meet our expectations.
The fact that Nehemiah was a layman excluded from inner parts of temple. In addition, that he may have been a eunuch fits the second statement since Deuteronomy 23:1 barred eunuchs from the religious activities of the people.
You may be wondering why Shemaiah was confined to his house. Here are some possible options.
He was apparently under house arrest because he was suspected of helping the enemies.
He was in seclusion in a supposed prophetic trance.
He was holed up in his house pretending to be afraid of the approaching enemy.
He was ceremonially unclean.
This was an enacted prophecy indicating that Nehemiah should similarly seclude himself.
Finally, it may be an indication that he expected Nehemiah to come to him rather than him seeking Nehemiah out (a form of gamesmanship putting Nehemiah in an inferior position).
The bottom line is that we simply don't know the reason.
Nehemiah 6:12-14
Nehemiah meets this next challenge using discernment of spirits. I feel that this is one of the important gifts of the Spirit, especially for a leader like a preacher or teacher. Nehemiah has been accused of being vindictive in cursing his enemies but he actually shows great restraint, especially toward Shemaiah, whom he could have had executed as a traitor. He leaves it to God to avenge him rather than taking matters into his own hands. This is similar to 2 Timothy 4:14 where Paul says, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds.”
We don't have any more details on Noadiah except that she is only one of four prophetesses mentioned in the OT. Unfortunately she is a false prophet. Trivia question: who were the other prophetesses? Miriam (bad), Deborah (good) and Huldah (good. She was consulted by King Josiah even though Jeremiah and Zephaniah were active at the time). How about in the NT? There were the seven daughters of Philip. Also Acts 2:17 said that the people's sons and daughters would prophesy.
Nehemiah 6:15-16
The work is actually well timed between two important harvest times. And notice that now it is the enemies who were afraid. Since the perimeter of the wall was about 1 ½ miles long, it would have taken a real dedication of effort as well as the help of God to accomplish this in such a short time. Archeological excavations at the site reveal that the work was obviously done in a hurry. There is some doubt as to the timing: Josephus says it took 2 years and 4 months to complete the wall. Perhaps the 52 days only refers to the hanging of the doors mentioned in the first verse of this chapter.
Nehemiah 6:17-19
Just when things seemed under control, there was a fourth attack, this time to sow internal discord using influential people in Jerusalem who had ties with the enemy. One of these people, Meshullam, was actually, one of the leading wall-builders (Nehemiah 3:4,30). They acted as spies and tried to convince Nehemiah that the enemy was actually on their side. Sometimes the worst enemies of God are those inside the church.
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