Nehemiah - Scriptural Dossier

The book of Nehemiah is about a man named Nehemiah who played an important role in rebuilding Jerusalem. There is little information about Nehemiah's personal life, but he was the son of Thehalia and had multiple brothers, including Hananiah. Nehemiah was likely from the tribe of Judah. The book of Nehemiah is only 13 chapters long, and it describes how Nehemiah approached King Artaxerxes for permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. With the king's support, Nehemiah gathered the community and began the rebuilding process. They faced opposition from enemies but continued their work. Nehemiah also addressed issues of injustice among the people. Nehemiah is a book that is fairly short and generally not well known. In fact, the man himself is not very well known. But the events that happen within the book of Nehemiah and the man himself are actually very important and very inspiring coming back to the Torah and the ways and obedience to Yahweh. Learn more about Nehemiah and what happened during his time coming up in this episode. So this teaching or episode is going to be another episode in our Scriptural Dossier series and this particular teaching is going to be about the prophet Nehemiah. Now if you would like the notes that we took for this, you can go to our website, click on the post for this teaching and right there in that article post you'll be able to find the on-demand video, you'll be able to see the draw slides that we have for you here on the screen. You'll also be able to find the notes and the transcript for this episode if that so happens to be of use for you. Now if you don't want to go to the website, that's fine too, go down in the description below and we have conveniently provided a link for you and it should be down there in the description whether you're watching on a video platform or listening through one of the various audio podcasting platforms, it should still be down there in the description all the same. So go check it out, the article post or this draws on Nehemiah and find the notes and slides, all that good stuff. Now the first mention we get of the prophet Nehemiah is actually in the book of Ezra. Ezra actually comes before Nehemiah. We find Nehemiah's name first mentioned in Ezra chapter 2 verses 1 through 2. And these are the sons of the province who came back from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the sovereign of Babel, had exiled to Babel and who returned to Jerusalem and Judea. Each to his own city who came with Zerubbabel. Yeshua Nehemiah or Nehemiah as it's pronounced nowadays. Saraiah, Realaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mishpar, Biglay, Rehum, Ba'anah, the number of the men of the people of Israel and then it goes on with other people too. But this is the first mention we get of Nehemiah or Nehemiah in scripture and that's in the book of Ezra. Now if you remember from our previous episode we actually let you know that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were at one time just one book. It wasn't until later on that it separated them out into two different books that we have now. The book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. But moving on the name Nehemiah means Yahweh comforts or he whom Yahweh comforts. Here is your outline of biblical usage from blueletterbible.org as well as your Strong's definition. Here is your Brown Driver Briggs entry for Nehemiah and that Strong's number is H5166 for those of you who like that kind of stuff, my fellow nerds. Now some things that we know about Nehemiah, very little in fact. Identifying information is few and far between because there is really not a lot of information contained within scripture about Nehemiah especially his personal life, family life, things like that. Basically just what he did at a certain point in his life which was instrumental granted but we know very little about the actual man himself. We're actually not sure how long Nehemiah lived. It doesn't say he lived for this many years and then slept with his fathers like he does with other people. We don't know. We don't know how old he was when he started the particular portion in the book of Nehemiah. We don't know any of that. It's not recorded in scripture. So sorry about that. We're not even sure if Nehemiah was married or if he had children. He very well could have been because the exiles in Babylon, in Persia, they still continued with their lives. They continued running their shops, having businesses. They continued having children and family life. But we don't know about Nehemiah. Scripture just simply does not say. We do know that he was the son of Thehalia and that is from H2446 and you'll find all the full entries and more information in our notes and that's all on our website by the way. But he was the son of Thehalia and Thehalia actually means darkness of Yah. It's kind of strange for a meaning but anyways that's what it means. According to Yosef Nehemiah's Hebrew lexicon, the name also means whom Yahweh disturbs. Kind of makes you wonder about what went on in that man's life. But moving on, we know that Nehemiah actually had multiple brothers because it speaks about Nehemiah's brothers in the plural but it only mentions one by name and that's the name of Hananiah and that is from H2607 for my fellow nerds out there. But Hananiah actually means gracious or favorable something like that which is much more pleasant meaning in my opinion. And we don't know exactly which of the tribes that Nehemiah was a part of but more than likely judging from the evidence that we find in the book of Nehemiah he was most likely from the tribe of Judah or Yehudah. There is a list in the book of various priests where Nehemiah is listed at the top but considering that he was the de facto prince or leader during the time of history it kind of makes sense to list him at the top of that list regardless of which tribe he's from. But he's not actually listed as a priest just amongst priests. So we think he's actually from the tribe of Judah but we don't know for certain. Like we said there's very little about Nehemiah's personal life that is listed and given to us in scripture. But speaking of scripture let's go ahead and get into it. The book of Nehemiah is not very long it's only 13 chapters and actually each of those chapters aren't very long themselves. There's a handful that gets a little long when you get into the genealogies but all in all it's a pretty quick and easy read and it's a fairly inspiring read too. I would invite you to go and read that as soon as you get a chance it won't take you that long and it's very beneficial. So given that there is very little information about the man Nehemiah we're going to go over a quick summary or overview of the book of Nehemiah. Starting with chapter 1 we find Nehemiah in the city of Shushan. Do you remember that place? Perhaps you remember that as part of the exile where Esther and Mordecai were living. The city of Shushan. But we find him during the month of Kislev. You remember Kislev right? That's when Hanukkah takes place. But the events of Hanukkah are after the events of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was in Shushan and during Kislev and he was serving as the cupbearer of Artaxerxes. Now during my research I really couldn't find out for sure if it was Artaxerxes I or Artaxerxes II. It's really a minor point but there are differing views on which one he was serving under. We'll just call him Artaxerxes. But he starts out in chapter 1 also finding out that the remnant who are left of the captivity in the province are there in great evil and reproach and the wall of Yerushalayim is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. And this actually moves Nehemiah. We find that upon hearing this Nehemiah cries, he mourns, he fasts and he prays for several days, asking for forgiveness on behalf of the people and for success in approaching the king to help restore Yerushalayim which he is about to go and do. Then in chapter 2 we find Nehemiah approaching Artaxerxes during the month of Nisan. He prays to Yahweh and then asks the king for permission to return back to Judea and also for unrestricted free access through Artaxerxes' kingdom. Nehemiah also asks for various resources that are going to be needed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and reset Yerushalayim like it's supposed to be. So Artaxerxes grants everything that Nehemiah requests, a free passage, timber, resources to rebuild, all of that stuff. And then Nehemiah travels to Yerushalayim, he inspects the walls at night of all things and informs those who are there what he plans to do. Now before he inspects the walls and when he goes to Yerushalayim at the beginning, he actually doesn't tell anyone why he's there, what he's planning on doing. It's not until after the inspection that he then informs everyone of what's going to be happening, what he wants to do and what pretty much has been laid upon his heart. Then in chapter 3 we find Nehemiah starts the rebuilding process and in doing so he enlists the entire community, everyone pitches in. He gets the workings and the help of various people who you would not even think of building a wall. People like priests and goldsmiths, merchants, perfumers, even civil leaders such as district leaders or people who are over half districts or various council members, mayors, what have you. But he employed people from all walks of life to help rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim. Then in chapter 4 we see the rebuilding efforts offend the enemies of both Nehemiah and the people of Yerushalayim and their enemies actually start ridiculing them and mocking them and they actually end up conspiring to start attacking them but they don't yet. Anyways, Nehemiah and the people keep on building the walls even despite the mocking, even despite the ridiculing, they don't let it bother them, they just keep trucking on. People pray to Yahweh and they set guards due to the conspiring of their enemies and actually they set half of the people to building the walls and the other half they set as guards standing around and being ready to fight at a moment's notice. And even the builders they had that were working and building the walls, they had them armed. Their swords were on their side and they were ready to fight and stop building if need be. Then in chapter 5 the people inform Nehemiah of their travails, the things they have been going through during the time leading up to Nehemiah coming to Yerushalayim. The things they had to do, take out these loans, had to sell their sons and daughters into servitude, had to sell off their ancestral lands, their vineyards, their crops and things like that. And this really affects Nehemiah and he goes on to enact various reforms after that. He enacts things like not charging interest to each other, cancelling various debts, he tells people to give back the lands and the crops that may have been sold to them or taken from other people. So restoring everything back to the way it should be all according to the Torah. And then Nehemiah and the people continue building the walls. Now remember this is not just craftsmen, architects, engineers, people who are used to building walls. These are people of all different walks of life that are pitching in to rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim. Then in chapter 6 we see their enemies once again scheme against the Judeans that are building the wall. The enemies try and get Nehemiah himself to come out of the city alone. And the purpose of them doing that is to try and kill him. To stop this process of fortifying and rebuilding Yerushalayim. They even try to get Nehemiah to hide himself out of fear inside the Holy of Holies in the temple. But he won't do it. He knows that's a sin because he is not a priest and not even the highest priest. And it's not the time of Yom Kippurim so even if he was a high priest it would not be right for him to go into the Holy of Holies. And finally the people finish rebuilding the wall in 52 days. Think about that. The walls are burnt, they're tore down, they're destroyed. There's gaping holes, the gates are down and they rebuild it. They clear away the rubble and they build it back up in only 52 days. To take a project today that only takes 52 days it's unheard of. From the start to the finish. 52 days. It's not going to happen nowadays. Apparently back then in the good old days they didn't have bureaucrats standing in the way. So they got things done a lot more efficiently back then and a lot quicker. Then in chapter 7 Nehemiah places his brother Hananiah in charge of Yerushalayim. He takes a census of all the people that are there. People were working, living there, things like that. And he also starts collecting donations for the work of the rebuilding. Then in chapter 8 we see in the seventh month the people themselves actually requested that the Torah be brought out to them. Ezra, the prophet Ezra, which you may remember from previous episodes. He reads the Torah to the people from morning until midday. That's the first day of the seventh month. The Torah was taught to all the people, the priests came out, various people and they taught it to them. In a way that they would understand it and this really had an effect on the people. The people started to feel bad for the way that things had been done up to this point. They started to cry and things like that because of their convictions at hearing and understanding the Torah probably for the first time in a long time. But Nehemiah commands the people to not be sad about this but instead to eat and to drink and to be joyous and send gifts to the poor, charity to the poor, to send food to people who food was not prepared for previously, to be generous. But to be that love which is what the Torah is all about. Loving Yahweh and loving each other. And then on the second day the people are still learning the Torah and they learn of this Feast of Satot. And like I said they've been moved by hearing all this. And once they learned about the Feast of Satot, which hadn't been celebrated in a long time, they immediately are convicted to go out and prepare and start celebrating Satot. So they celebrate Satot for the seven days and then have the great day. And it's a wonderful joyous time. And you see all these people returning back to the Torah and returning back to obedience to Yahweh and his ways. In chapter 9, we see the people separate themselves from the foreigners who are there and confess their sins. They pour out their hearts. They are so convicted by basically the return of the Torah to the people. The people continue in the Torah and recounting from creation through the kings, exalting the compassion of Yahweh and Yisrael's disobedience to Torah. This is an absolutely beautiful passage. If you don't read anything else in Nehemiah or the book of Nehemiah, I would suggest you go read the whole thing. Like I said, it's only 13 chapters. But this one particular passage right here in chapter 9 is absolutely beautiful. Exalting the works of Yahweh and his compassion and how the people backslid. And even though they did things like make the golden calf, still Yahweh had compassion on them. It's so beautiful. I highly invite you, if nothing else, go read Nehemiah chapter 9. It's gorgeous. Then in Nehemiah chapter 10, we see the people and the leaders recommit themselves to the Torah and obedience to Yahweh. There are contributions made to the temple. And these contributions were established as more of an ongoing thing than just a one-time thing. Lots were actually cast to determine who it was that would be bringing various things like the wood offering, fruit offering, grain offering, things like that. And also commitments were made to not neglect the temple again as it had been in the time leading up to this. Then in chapter 11, 10% of the people are selected and chosen to resettle back in Yerushalayim and inhabit the city, while everyone else, the other 90%, stayed and dwelt in the villages and the cities and the various areas surrounding Yerushalayim. In chapter 12, we see the rebuilt wall is rededicated. Actually, rededicated the wall itself once it was rebuilt. And they did so with a lot of celebration and slaughtering. And by slaughtering, I mean of animals and things like that, offering sacrifices, whatnot. They're rededicating this wall back to Yahweh, just like much of what was done to dedicate and rededicate the temple. And then the people are appointed to various positions. Well, apparently within the wall, there are various areas where there are storehouses and all sorts of things. So, certain people are appointed to various positions to oversee these various functions of the wall. Then in chapter 13, the final chapter, we see the Ammonites and the Moabites are forbidden from entering Yisrael, from being amongst the assembly. Nehemiah returns to Artaxerxes, because back in chapter 1, when he first goes in front of Artaxerxes and requests permission to go through his kingdom and to rebuild and all that stuff, Artaxerxes asks him for a time frame, and Nehemiah gives him a time frame. So, now he's going back to Artaxerxes, keeping his word. But after he returns to Artaxerxes, he then goes back to Yerushalayim, and he learns of various evils that have been done during his absence. Things like taking the holy utensils out of the temple and being places they should not be, but he returns them all, he cleanses various places, all that good stuff. Nehemiah then contends with those who are breaking Shabbat. Now, remember, various aspects of the Torah had not been kept or adhered to for a long time up until the point of Nehemiah. Not only do people not know about various aspects like Shabbat, other people who may not be of Israel are actually not even caring about the various aspects. So, when Nehemiah is there, he contends with those who are breaking the Shabbat and does everything he can to try and set them straight. He commands that the gates be closed from the start of Shabbat even until after Shabbat. This is to prevent commerce from going on, and the traders from coming in and going out and various things like that on Shabbat. He even drives away those who are waiting outside the gates on Shabbat to sell their wares. Once these people, these merchants, found out that Nehemiah was going to prevent them from coming in on Shabbat and instituting or commencing in commerce, well, they couldn't get in anymore, so they figured they'd just sit outside and wait at the gates until he opened. But Nehemiah didn't like this, so he goes out and he drives them away. And then Nehemiah concludes by chiding the people for marrying foreign wives. And this is even, we covered this back in our polygyny series about King Solomon, and one of the most important things comes from the book of Nehemiah in chapter 13, where he recounts to the people the fault of Solomon was marrying foreign wives. And so, he's reminding them of the downfall of Solomon and why it was. And advising them, or commanding them rather, the Torah precepts to not marry foreign wives. Now, Nehemiah is actually not referenced in the rest of scripture. We found that one reference in the book of Ezra, but we don't find it anywhere in the Brit Hadashah. But we do find Nehemiah referenced in the book of 2 Maccabees. 2 Maccabees chapter 2, verse 13. And the same things were related both in the public archives and in the records that concerned Nehemiah and how he, founding a library, gathered together the books about the kings and the prophets and the books of David and letters of kings about sacred gifts. So, what Nehemiah did during his life was very important. But overall, we don't get any more mention of Nehemiah, what he did, what kind of person he was throughout the rest of scripture. That's okay. Nehemiah was a very important person that we should read and learn about. And like I said, if nothing else, go read that beautiful passage there in chapter 9. I absolutely love it. And anyone who loves Yahweh, who wants to be obedient to Yahweh and his Torah, I'm sure you will find it just as beautiful as I found it. So, in summary, like I said, there's very little contained about the life of Nehemiah other than what he did in rebuilding the walls. So, this drash was inevitable to be rather short. But anyways, in summary, Nehemiah served as the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. He was instrumental in rebuilding Yerushalayim's walls and reforming the Judean community after the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah exemplified godly leadership through prayer, strategic planning, and unwavering commitment, even in the face of oppression. Remember, their enemies were ridiculing them. They were mocking them and even tried to get Nehemiah to sin and come out and be killed. But he didn't let it bother him. He kept on building the wall, doing what he was supposed to do. Every major action, if you read through the book of Nehemiah, every major action of Nehemiah is preceded by prayer, demonstrating reliance on Yahweh for wisdom and strength, just like we should be doing in our daily lives. The rebuilding of the wall, it was a communal effort, showcasing the strength of unity and achieving a shared goal. Because remember, it wasn't just construction workers and engineers. It was people like priests and goldsmiths and perfumers, various civil leaders who nowadays wouldn't lift a finger to rebuild a wall, something like that. So it really was back then a community effort. And personally, I think that's also another beautiful aspect. Everyone's pitching together to rebuild the wall to protect this beautiful city. Nehemiah's model of servant leadership, adaptability and resilience provide valuable insights even for leaders today. And the story of Nehemiah's life illustrates the importance of returning to Torah, obedience to Yahweh and the benefits and glory of doing such things. And that's just the God honest truth. So thank you for joining us for this drash on Nehemiah or Nehemiah, as it's pronounced nowadays. We do hope that you got something out of it. And if you did, go down below and let us know what it was that you got out of it. 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