Nehemiah 11: I'm Willing To Go

Nehemiah  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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The Leaders in Jerusalem

11 Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in the other towns. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

So, let’s pause here for a bit
One of the things about reading Scripture is that sometimes a thought will be started, then the author will pause, and kind of shift focus for a bit, and then come back and finish the thought that he had started with
Today, if we are writing out something and wanted to do that, we would use parentheses.
Those two curved lines above the 9 and the 0 on your computer keyboard
We use them to insert a thought into a different thought that you had already begun
And sometimes you find writers of Scripture doing the same thing
The confusing thing is, they don’t use parentheses. So sometimes it’s hard to pick up on these things
But I would suggest to you this morning that the Scripture which we have just read here in Nehemiah 11 would be the “other side” of a parentheses that was started all the way back in
At the end of chapter 7.
If you would like, I would encourage you to put your thumb in chapter 11 and flip back to the end of chapter 7
Look at what it says here:
Nehemiah 7:73 “73 So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their towns. And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.”
This is something that we already drew attention to a while back
The wall of the city had been finished, and the gates had been put in place
It was an incredible job that the people had done, to come together like they did and finish this wall
But, there were very few people actually living in the city. Why?
Because the city had been devastated—destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar many years earlier
2 Chronicles 36:17–21 “17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
Just an aside here:
That last sentence, verse 21, I find amazingly profound.
All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
There is some incredibly deep truth there that I would like to explore with you sometime
But anyway, this passage in 2 Chronicles gives us a picture of what happened to this city—the destruction that took place
And you can picture what the people found when they returned to rebuild the wall
Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the city, and the places that were left, had probably fallen into disrepair and ruin over the years
Jerusalem was probably NOT a very appealing place to live at this point.
One of the units of study in my Anabaptist History and Theology class was talking about the situation of Russian Mennonite refugees during WW2 in the city of Berlin
And the pictures that you see of the devastation that European cities saw during this war maybe give us a picture of what Jerusalem looked like
So, at the end of chapter 7, Nehemiah makes the point of saying,
“yes, the wall was complete. But as for the people, the vast majority of them were living outside the city wall.”
And for good reason
And then begins a parentheses in which Nehemiah describes the revival that takes place
And we have spent the last several Sundays on that
So now, as we come into chapter 11, he puts the “right-hand” parentheses on and continues with the thought that he started at the end of chapter 7
They are ready to begin the re-settling of the city
Now, I just want us to remember, or think about something here
I want us to think about what’s at stake here
Jerusalem is more than just a city that needs to be settled. It’s more than just a wall with space that needs to be filled or space to live available.
Jerusalem was the city of God
I think this passage is very intentional when in verse 1 it identifies Jerusalem as “The Holy City”
You could say that the Jews were God’s chosen people
The land of Israel was God’s chosen land
And Jerusalem was God’s chosen city
It was the home of the Temple
It was where God’s presence dwelt
It was the symbol of God’s glory, and power, and reign over His people
Psalm 132:13–14 says this about Jerusalem
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: 14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”
Zion was a hill in Jerusalem and it became synonomous with Jerusalem
And in Psalm 137:5–6 There is the call to never forget Jerusalem
“5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”
So, what the people are about to do here has tremendous significance to them
It has to do with their identity as people
And it has to do with proclaiming the glory of God
So, in a sense, we could look at this as a mission
They are deciding who is going to give their lives to be part of a long-term mission
This is not a “mission trip”, that you go on for a couple of weeks and come home again
This is a “I’m going, and I don’t know if I will ever come back” sort of mission
And it’s a mission trip in the sense that they are going help establish anew the center of worship and life for God’s chosen people
So that God’s name would again be made known to the people around them
And isn’t that the goal of missions anyway?
John Piper said this in a sermon that he gave years ago:
Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Missions is our way of saying: the joy of knowing Christ is not a private, or tribal, or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that’s why we go. Because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families of the earth included.
And this is the ultimate goal of re-establishing Jerusalem as the center of worship
And so, it says that they decide to cast lots in order to decide who was going to move into the city
Casting lots:
Not a lot is known about this practice of casting lots
But as I understand it, casting lots was a fairly common practice in those days, even by people who were not Jewish
They would use things like small stones probably labeled to reflect possible outcomes
a means of determining the will of God
They didn’t have the Holy Spirit at this time, so they said, maybe God can direct us this way
We see quite a number of instances in the Bible, Old and New Testaments , of decisions being made by casting lots
But, at any rate, they cast lots, and it was decided beforehand that one out of every ten people were going to leave their homes and fields and livelihoods behind, in the country
And they were going to come into the city and start all over again
And the rest?
Well, the rest were just going to remain where they were. They were going to keep living in their towns
They were going to keep doign what they were doing before
There were close to 50,000 people who had returned to this area from captivity so, if you do the math,
Life was just going to go on as normal for 45,000 people
But for about 5,000 people, life was about to get very interesting indeed.
I wonder how people were feeling as they got ready to cast lots
How would you be feeling if you knew that there was a 10% chance of those lots falling on you and that the community had decided that if this happened, you would need to uproot your life and move into the city
How would you be feeling at this time
Is there anyone here who thinks that they might like to live in the city?
Is there anyone here who is just kind of hoping that something outside of your control might happen, and you will be forced to move out of your home and start all over again
Anyone?
I imagine some hearts beating hard
I imagine some sleepless nights as this day is approaching
I imagine a lot of “what if” scenarios playing around in people’s heads
I imagine some knots in stomachs
I imagine some nervous excitement
Maybe some hopefulness, like “please let it be me”
Maybe there was some reluctance
But I want us to notice what is said about this whole experience
The group effort
I don’t know whose idea this was.
It doesn’t say that Nehemiah thought it up, or one of the leaders thought it up
It just says that the leaders lived in the city, and the rest of the people cast lots to determine
We’ve talked about other instances of when unity was shown in this book
For instance, how when the project to rebuild the wall was presented, the people just said, “Let us rise up and build”
I know that they probably had their issues with each other, but I continue to be impressed and challenged by their spirit of unity and cooperation
This was not just the decision of one or two people. It was a decision by the whole group
The people blessed those who were going to live in the city
I don’t know what form their blessing took
The Levitical blessing from numbers 6
Maybe they had a grocery shower
But the important thing is that they blessed those who were going to live in the city
You know, they could have taken the attitude of
Well, sucks to be you
I’m sure glad it isn’t me having to start all over again
Good riddance! I hope things go OK there in the city
But they didn’t. Rather, they blessed those who were going into the city
They gave them a proper send-off
Maybe it was like a commissioning service
When we have a group that is leaving to do some outreach like a mission trip, we like to pray over them.
It’s a way of saying, “No, we aren’t going ourselves, but we are with you in spirit. You aren’t going to be forgotten. And any way that we can bless you, that is what we want to do. May God go with you.”
We are doing this together
You are going
We are staying, but we are supporting you
The attitude of those who were going to live in the city
They willingly offered to live in the city
Now, it’s a little unclear if this is their attitude before they cast lots or after.
We don’t really know. But maybe it doesn’t matter that much
The important thing is that even though their lives were being uprooted and they were having to start all over again, they did it willingly
Why were they so willing? Well maybe it is because they saw the bigger picture
They caught the mission that they were part of something bigger
That this wasn’t just a project to repopulate the city
But it was an opportunity to be part of the story of God’s glory and part of the story of God’s fame
You know sometimes when a mission project or an outreach is planned, it’s easy to just see the details of the project
The logistical, the planning, the financial part of it gets in the way
And we get bogged down by the details
And we think, “Oh, how is this ever going to happen”
But think how our perspective would change if we could get excited and say, “Here is a chance to be part of the story of God’s glory and his salvation
There is always a bigger picture
And I think that these folks understood the bigger picture and they willingly said, “yes, I will go”
It’s like Isaiah, when he caught a glimpse of the glory of God, he immediately knew that he had no choice but to go. And he willingly said, “here I am LORD, send me”
Do you think it was easy for him to say that? I doubt it
Do you think there was a heart beating fast?
Do you think that there was a knot in his stomach?
Do you think that there were some clammy palms and sweaty brow?
I almost guarantee there was
But he went
Church, here is my challenge for us today
When is the last time that you allowed the Holy Spirit to upset your idea of a normal life?
When is the last time that you felt the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart to do something challenging? Something out of the box? Something that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense?
And you could just imagine all the ways in which this could end in failure
And your heart was racing, and your stomach was in knots, and you had sleepless nights
Yet, you knew that in some way, God was leading you
And so you lifted up your foot to move forward, not really sure if it was going to come down on solid ground
When is the last time that you did this?
I would suggest to you that this should not be an unknown experience to us.
I would suggest that all of us as followers of Christ should be willing to live like this
I believe that this is a vital part of Jesus’ call to be His disciples.
We sing that song,
So, I'll stand with arms high, and heart abandoned In awe of the one who gave it all So, I'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered All I am is Yours (we sing 'I'll stand')
Is that true? A heart abandoned is a heart that has given up everything for Him
We’ve sung that song,
I’m willing, Lord, to go
I’m willing, Lord to stay
I’m willing Lord to do your perfect will
If mountains I must trod to do thy will Oh God
I’ll walk them all, Ill climb the highest hill
Is that true?
Would you be willing to go anywhere, to do anything, no matter what the cost is?
You know, as I processed this passage, I had to think of this trip that we are preparing for
These feelings that I have described today are all from personal experience
Admittedly, there is not a lot about this trip that “makes sense”.
The logistics are a bit difficult
the dollars don’t add up
when we come back, we aren’t going to have any finished projects to show that this trip was legit
We aren’t going in response to a crisis or disaster
No orphanages or churches built
No food or clothes handed out
No VBS statistics
So, why? What is so important about this trip?
Recently I had a conversation with someone
And this person described spending about two weeks away from their home community and church, taking care of a family member who was recovering from surgery
And this person described feeling out of touch and lonely, and honestly hurt, because during that entire two week stretch, being away from church, not once did someone reach out to this person
Whether it was with a phone call or email or text message
And as I was talking to this person, something sort of clicked in my brain
You know, when it comes to “doing” missions, we are pretty good at catching the vision if it involves doing something.
Usually, anyway
We are pretty good at supporting projects that involve
Building something
doing a VBS
Packing shoe boxes
packing meals and distributing food
We do pretty good at sacrificing time and resources to “do things” for the poor, downtrodden people “over there”
But do we sacrifice time and resources for the sake of relationships
But, what if the poor, downtrodden people are the missionaries themselves
What if the biggest need is just for someone to
show up,
spend some time with them,
see where they live,
show an active interest in what they are doing,
Hear what is on their hearts,
Their struggles
Their victories
Their failures
And encourage them to be faithful
And let them know how much they are appreciated and loved
And what if through the face to face encouragement from folks from their home church, they remain faithful and they continue to stay and to serve and God uses them to change their community through the power of the Gospel?
Would that be worth an investment from the local church
Is that a worthy mission trip?
The trouble is, whomever does this won’t really have anything to show for it
There won’t be any finished building, or trees cleared, or a closing VBS program or anything like that.
Would an investment in relationships still be worth the sacrifice?
I believe that it would!
And that’s really why we would like to go to eSwatini to visit Melody and Fika
You know, as we were planning this trip
Melody and Fika asked us what all we wanted to do when we were there
We came back to them as said, we are coming there for you. What is important to you?
And they came back with two things:
They are really excited to show us some of the projects that they have been working on
They really like to play games in the evening
We said, both of those things we can do!
The other piece of the trip is that we were looking for lodging. So we asked them if they had any ideas of places we could stay
Melody sent us a link to an Air BnB that is right next door to them!
So I went on to book it and found out that they only take 4 people
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I finally asked Melody, hey would you happen to know the owner of this place and would you ask them if we could pull in another bed and have our family of 5 stay there
Melody said, “Oh yeah! IT’s our landlord. I’ll ask her.”
And sure enough she was more than willing to pull in another bed since we were friends of Melody and Fika.
So, we get to stay right next door to them and we get to play games in the evenings and don’t have to drive in a strange place in the dark!
That was such a cool thing that God has done for us.
And it’s for this relationship piece that we also purchased tickets to go to Portugal
Originally, we had planned to visit this missionary in Spain
But that just wasn’t working out.
And then we began to think about the church with whom we worshipped when we lived there
That experience is stamped on our brains
We arrived in a foreign land with two small children
Did not know the language
Didn’t know how we were going to get around
We were tired, jet lagged, kind of dazed, feeling overwhelmed
But God was so kind to us
Because he led us to a church where we could plug in, serve, and worship
Now, you have to understand how big of a miracle this is
Portugal is a country where over 80% of the people identify as Catholic
And in 2009, when we arrived, less than 1% of the population claimed any form of evangelical Christianity.
This church was a Jesus-following, Bible-believing, teaching, and practicing church
And not only that, but even bigger miracle, this church turned out to be a Mennonite Brethren church, one of only a very small handful in the entire country
And not only that, but even bigger miracle yet, this church turned out to be a short bus ride from our apartment. The bus stop was right in front of the building where this congregation met
You talk about a series of miracles, and such a blessing!
And in a sense, you guys handed us off to them and they were our home church for that 10 months that we spent there
And they cared for us so well
And today, the young people of that church when we were there are now helping to lead the church
Celma—married to the pastor Marques
Ines—member of the church council
And we’ve never gotten the opportunity to go back and thank them
They’ve never known the incredibly vital role that they played in our lives
And we began to think, “What if the point of the idea of going to Spain was actually to get us to Portugal and re-connect with this group and encourage them?”
And to thank the personally
And to bring thanks to them from you all
To let them know that even though life is difficult for them (and it is a bit difficult in Portugal, economically and spiritually), and they are focused on being faithful to God
That they are part of a story that extends far outside of Portugal, or even Europe and goes all the way to Mozambique and back to the States again
Would that be important?
Would that be worth an investment?
I believe that it would
And so that is why we have taken this huge step of faith
That is why our hearts kind of beat fast, and I have trouble sleeping some nights
And I wrestle with thoughts of feeling like we’re crazy
Yet, I sense that we must continue on
To lift up my foot and step forward, and allow God to direct where He wants it to come down.
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