Let Us Rise Up and Build (Part - 3)

LET US RISE UP AND BUILD (PART – 3)

So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build” (Nehemiah 2:20)

In this section, we will see what was the state of Jerusalem when Nehemiah started to build the ruined Jerusalem wall and also about the people who built the wall.

State of Jerusalem:

1.      The wall of Jerusalem was broken down, and its gates were burned with fire (Nehemiah 1:3)

2.     The survivors left from the captivity in the province were there in great distress and reproach (Nehemiah 1:3)

3.     There was famine and they had mortgaged their lands and vineyards and houses, to buy grain (Nehemiah 5:3)

4.    They had to pay tax to the Persian king for their land and vineyard. But they were without any money, so they had borrowed money to pay tax (Nehemiah 5:4)

5.     Their sons and daughters were forced into slavery in their own land, their parents having no power to redeem them (Nehemiah 5:5)

6.    The former governors laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants bore rule over the people (Nehemiah 5:15)

7.     The city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt (Nehemiah 7:4)

 

Why did Nehemiah rebuild the wall first?

Rebuilding the Jerusalem wall was first of the many reformations carried out by Nehemiah including teaching the Law of God to the people (Nehemiah 8:1-8), observance of festivals (Nehemiah 8: 14-18), sanctification (Nehemiah 9), Reestablishing their covenant with God (Nehemiah 9:38 to 10^th chapter), repopulating Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11) and separation from gentiles (Nehemiah 13:23-31). Isn’t it essential that people are sanctified before building of the wall? So, why did Nehemiah rebuild the wall first?

Protection – Protection of Jerusalem became easier after the wall was built. After Nehemiah rebuilt the wall, he gave the in-charge of Jerusalem to his brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of the citadel, for they were faithful men and feared God more than many. Nehemiah told them not to let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stood guard, they had to shut and bar the doors. They had to appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house (Nehemiah 7:1-3).

Sanctification – After Nehemiah ensured protection of Jerusalem, his next step was to sanctify the people, which wouldn’t have been possible without the wall. There were many from outside who were influencing the people to break the law. Sabbath was an integral part of Jewish life but without the wall there was no control on it. We can understand about it from Nehemiah 13: 15 & 16. In those days, there were people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Nehemiah warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. 

The men of Tyre also dwelt there, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Nehemiah had to stop this trading on Sabbath and restitute the observance of Sabbath. Nehemiah commanded the gates to be shut, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then Nehemiah posted some of his own servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. But the gentile merchants were not ready to lose their business on the Sabbath day. The non-observance of Sabbath, spiritual state of Jerusalem or desolation of Jerusalem definitely did not bother them. The merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice and spent the night there. Hence, Nehemiah had to warn them (Nehemiah 13:20,21). This way Nehemiah could significantly reduce the influence from the outsiders.

Separation from Gentiles:

As a part of purification of Jews, Nehemiah separated all the gentiles from them. If seen from a worldly point of view, Nehemiah’s actions look arrogant and exhibit a feeling of superiority over other nations. But the actions of Nehemiah have got deep spiritual significance when seen from God’s salvation plan. After God challenged satan that a woman’s seed is going to crush his seed. It was satan’s mission to find out who the woman’s seed would be and to destroy him or the family line he was about to be born.

At the same time God was preparing a holy nation for Himself for the revealing of the messiah. Abraham was called for that purpose and the Israelites were given Special Commandments and Law to preserve them as a separated, sanctified and holy nation, so that the Messiah could be revealed through them. But this is the exact thing satan was against and he tried to corrupt the Israelite nation in many ways so that God’s anger could burn against them and they would be destroyed. When that didn’t happen, he tried to defile Israel by mixing them with the nations around them, so that they would stop following God’s ways. This is what happened during the days of Nehemiah.

 Nehemiah saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people (Nehemiah 13:23,24). This is exactly what satan wanted, when the jews mixed with the gentiles, their children stopped learning the jewish language. Without knowing the language, they could not understand the Law of God and they could be easily defiled. That’s why Nehemiah had to take these drastic steps. More than anything, Nehemiah was preparing the way for the birth of the Messiah.

 Who built the wall?

Nehemiah organized the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall, but there were so many others who stood with him and built the wall. We saw the state of Jerusalem and the condition of the people living in it. Despite their suffering, they came forward to build the wall. When Nehemiah shared his burden for the city of Jerusalem and sought help in rebuilding the wall, they said in unison, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to that good work. But who are these people? Learning about the people whom Nehemiah trusted to rebuild the Jerusalem wall, gives an insight into what an extraordinary leader Nehemiah was! There were so many people involved in this building project, but I am going to highlight few of them!

  1.      Eliashib, the High Priest (Nehemiah 3:1) – The first to start account in rebuilding the wall was Eliashib, the High Priest. This should not be surprising, since being the High Priest, that was expected of him. But not so much, if you knew his relationship with Sanballat and Tobiah! After rebuilding of the wall, Nehemiah had gone on a short trip back to Persia and within that time, Eliashib had prepared a room for Tobiah in the courts of the house of God (Nehemiah 13:7,8). And that’s not all, one of the grandsons of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat. When Nehemiah found about that, he was driven away (Nehemiah 13:28,29). Whatever Eliashib’s ideas and opinions were about Nehemiah, Eliashib came forward to rebuild the Jerusalem wall and the Sheep Gate was built.

 2.     The men of Jericho (Nehemiah 3:2) – Who are these men of Jericho? Long ago, when the Israelites were about to enter the promised land, during the conquest of Jericho, Joshua pronounced a curse on the city and said, “Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.” (Joshua 6:26). But during the days of Ahab and Jezebel, may be to provoke the Lord, the city was rebuilt. It was built by Hiel of Bethel, and the curse was fulfilled on his sons (I Kings 16:33, 34). But who would dare to live in such a city? We don’t know! But we know that they too were captured by the Persian King and they had just returned from captivity (Nehemiah 7:36) and they volunteered to rebuild the wall and they were accepted to be a part of the building project.

 3.     The Tekoites (Nehemiah 3:5) – What was special about the Tekoites was that, they made repairs of the wall even when their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord. Nehemiah had beautifully recorded it. The nobles of Tekoa did not care to work for the Lord, but that did not stop the people of Tekoa from involving themselves in the Lord’s work.

 4.    The men of Gibeon (Nehemiah 3:7) – Who were these Gibeonites? During the days of Joshua, when the Israelites were conquering the Canaanite lands, the Gibeonites had deceived Joshua. Joshua placed a curse on them saying they have to remain as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of God and they will never be freed from being slaves (Joshua 9:22,23). Being slaves is worse, now that Israelites themselves were slaves, Gibeonites would have been slaves of the slaves. We don’t know their exact living condition. But it is recorded that they too were taken into captivity by the Persian king, and they had returned to Jerusalem along with Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 7:25). They rebuilt the wall till the area under the authority of the governor of Trans-Euphrates.

 There is an important lesson for the children of God, a lesson on forgiveness and unity! Gibeonite slaves working to rebuild the Jerusalem wall, where they were being held as slaves! These days we can see so called Christians and children of God filled with hatred and vengeance refusing to work together for the Kingdom of God holding onto grudges accumulated over centuries.The Kingdom of G od suffers! Any vengeance has to be handed over to God, the righteous judge. It is not for us to repay (Hebrews 10:29-30).

 5.     Shallum and his daughters (Nehemiah 3:12) – In the 3^rd chapter of the Book of Nehemiah, the list of all those who rebuilt the Jerusalem wall is given. But this is a rare instance, where a special mention is made about a man and his daughters who helped him to rebuild the wall. Shallum was the ruler of the half-district of Jerusalem. Even in those days when not many women concerned themselves with affairs outside their house, there had been women like Shallum’s daughters who considered it important to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem along with their father. Nehemiah considered it appropriate to make a special mention of them.

 6.    Baruch (Nehemiah 3:20) – He carefully repaired the section taken by him. Didn’t others repair the wall carefully? Definitely they would have done it carefully. But Nehemiah found something very special about his repair work, that he wanted to make a mention of it.

 7.     People from diverse backgrounds – Jews from various backgrounds came forward to repair the wall

 

·        Eliashib (the High Priest, Nehemiah 3:1)

·        Uzziel (Goldsmith, Nehemiah 3:8)

·        Hananiah (Perfumer, Nehemiah 3:8)

·        Shallum (Ruler of Half-district of Jerusalem, Nehem 3:12)

·        Rehum & Others (Levites, Nehemiah 3:17)

·        Men from the plains (Priests, Nehemiah 3: 22)

·        Shemaiah (son of the Keeper of the East Gate, Neh 3:29)

·        Merchants (Nehemiah 3:32)

·        Daughters / sons (Nehemiah 3: 12)

·        People from Jericho (Nehemiah 3: 2)

·        Gibeonites (Nehemiah 3: 7)

·        Tekoites (Nehemiah 3: 27)

The names of so many other leaders and people are given. But these names are listed to show the diversity of their backgrounds. What stands out from this list is that, despite their backgrounds, none of their work was exaggerated or belittled, all their work was equally acknowledged and appreciated.

8.    People with varied abilities – The other thing that becomes clear is that, not all the people built equally. There were some who built the gates, consecrated it and hung the doors (Nehemiah 3:1); there were some other who built as much as thousand cubits of the wall (Nehemiah 3:13). There were many others who made repairs of the portion of the wall which were there, just in front of their house (Nehemiah 3: 23, 28, 30). All of them have been gratefully acknowledged.

 

So, who were the people who built the wall? No single label would fit them. They were all different people from diverse backgrounds, individuals with different abilities who were brought together by a leader with a single goal – to repair the ruined wall. How was he able to bring them all together? How was it possible? The answer could be found throughout the Book of Nehemiah - because the good hand of His God was upon him and the God of Heaven helped him to succeed (Nehemiah 2:18, 20).

  (The Book of Nehemiah doesn’t end here. Nehemiah is a holistic book on Biblical Leadership. There are so many other facets of Nehemiah’s life that could be deeply studied 1. The measures he took for the maintenance of the city and the wall 2. How he led the people for sanctification 3. How he led the people in prayer, in celebration, in sanctification. Anyone interested can do a study on this. But I am ending this series here as of now. God bless you!)