Nehemiah 3

Nehemiah 3 KJV (WS)

1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel. 2 And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri. 3 But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. 4 And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana. 5 And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. 6 Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. 7 And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, unto the throne of the governor on this side the river. 8 Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall. 9 And next unto them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem. 10 And next unto them repaired Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, even over against his house. And next unto him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabniah. 11 Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hashub the son of Pahathmoab, repaired the other piece, and the tower of the furnaces. 12 And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters. 13 The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate. 14 But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. 15 But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. 16 After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty. 17 After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah, in his part. 18 After him repaired their brethren, Bavai the son of Henadad, the ruler of the half part of Keilah. 19 And next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, another piece over against the going up to the armoury at the turning of the wall. 20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece, from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21 After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib. 22 And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain. 23 After him repaired Benjamin and Hashub over against their house. After him repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah by his house. 24 After him repaired Binnui the son of Henadad another piece, from the house of Azariah unto the turning of the wall, even unto the corner. 25 Palal the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king's high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh. 26 Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out. 27 After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel. 28 From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house. 29 After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate. 30 After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another piece. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber. 31 After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner. 32 And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.

Introduction

This morning I want to encourage our church with this passage.

We are blessed with many hard working volunteers and servants of God.

All of us from one side of the audience to the other have the propensity though to make excuses fro why we shouldn’t do one thing or another.

Nehemiah and the Jews would face the same issue.

Excuses would prevent them from accomplishing their mission faster than their enemies could.

This morning we will examine what kind of excuses the Jews could have offered and see if there is any similarity to our work today.

God’s work can be daunting.

As Nehemiah walks the people through the same process he had been through, we circle back to the third step of making a difference that we covered a few weeks ago.

Back then we said that it wasn’t enough to be moved and to seek God.

We agreed that eventually you will have to put feet to your faith.

Eventually faith must lead to works otherwise faith is dead.

In Nehemiah’s case, he had to take a great risk in speaking to the king about his desire.

Now is the time for the people to move from seeing the distress and agreeing that something should be done, to actually doing the work.

There was a lot of work to be done.

In this chapter, Nehemiah details the work that took place.

8 different gates needed to be repaired.

38 individuals are named along with 42 teams of workers.

This was obviously a difficult task, if it would have been easy, someone over the last 100 years would have already done it.

In this chapter, we get a record of what happened.

Nehemiah uses the word “built” 6x.

He uses the word “repair” 35x

Both of these words indicate that the people were to make the wall strong and firm.

There would be no quick fixes for distress they were in.

Anytime you start talking about work like that, the temptation starts to arise for people to make excuses why they cannot be involved in the work.

I like work, it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

-Jerome

If necessary work is going to happen, it will demand that people move beyond there excuses.

The wall was built by people who had excuses.

The priests (vs 1)

The priests were led by Eliashib, the high priest.

The priests made their physical work a matter of spiritual service to God.

They may have been laboring with trowels and stones, but to them it was a spiritual exercise.

Where is the excuse though?

Eliashib is mentioned here and we will talk about him more later.

Eliashib is not a friend to Nehemiah.

In fact, he will be one of Nehemiah’s greatest opponents.

Eliashib participated in the work even though he wasn’t in total agreement with the one leading the work

Tekoites (vs 5, 27)

These men from Tekoa are very interesting.

They had a valid excuse for not helping.

Their leaders refused to be a part of the work.

And yet they helped anyways.

In fact, they are actually credited with building two sections of the wall.

Not only did they rise above the example of their leaders, they also did a double portion of work.

That is impressive.

Men of Gibeon and Mizpeh (vs 7)

What was their excuse for not helping?

Simple, they didn’t live in Jerusalem.

They weren’t even in Nehemiah’s district.

And yet, they gave of their time and resources to come help the people of Jerusalem rebuild.

It’s one thing to invest in meeting the needs of the place where you live.

It’s another to go to a different community to try and help them.

Apothecaries (vs 8)

What is an apothecary?

The apothecaries were makers of spices, ointments and perfumes.

Does that sound like someone that is used to doing manual labor?

This sounds like the kind of person that cares about how they smell.

They deal in ointments, I’m thinking that they probably have smooth hands.

Yet, they are out in the son lifting rocks and working with their hands to rebuild the walls.

These folks may have paid one of the highest physical costs for the work.

Shallum and his daughters. (vs 12)

Why is he included?

Why do you think?

In a time where sons were sought not just for inheritance and legacy sake but also for their strength and contribution, we see Shallum.

A man that represented half the city of Jerusalem, but also a man that had only daughters.

He could have easily said, my house has too little to contribute.

Instead, he and his girls are out there on that wall.

Day after day week after week, I wonder how many men were put to shame by the work ethic of these girls.

Melchijah (vs 14)

Melchijah is another ruler of the people.

Look at the part of the wall that he repaired.

What do you think the dung gate was known for?

How many of us, if we were Melchijah would have volunteered to repair the dung gate?

This is a man with power and authority in the region.

He was looked up to.

He had the ability to choose his own assignment.

He didn’t hide behind his position.

He got to work in one of the worst locations of the project.

The dump, the sewer, all permeated the air.

Melchijah endured for the sake of the mission.

Baruch (vs 20)

Baruch is unique because he is the only one who is described in this way.

Nehemiah describes not only the place where Baruch worked but also the manner in which he worked.

Baruch is the only one who is described as working earnestly.

Why is this?

The general mood surrounding this project is that many hands make light work.

Most of the sections that we read about are being repaired by a team of workers.

Perhaps Baruch didn’t have as large a team to work with.

And, so, to prevent the work from falling behind Baruch had to work earnestly to keep up with everyone else.

How hard is it to keep working hard when it feels like everyone else is taking it easy?

Goldsmiths and Merchants (v 32)

These are the wealthy citizens of the city.

These are the people who could afford to hire someone to go do the work for them.

Others had refused to hide behind their positions, these men refused to hide behind their money.

They are out working on the wall just like everyone else.

They could have claimed a number of excuses.

I’m a business owner.

I have too many other responsibilities.

I’ll just pay someone else to build our part of the wall.

They claimed none of these excuses.

Nehemiah not only gives us a list of the workers that contributed to the repair of the wall, he also gives us a glimpse into the excuses they could have use but didn’t.

The wall of Jerusalem would be successfully built.

This would be due to the fact that the workers were willing to set aside their excuses and be engaged in the mission.

Application

God’s people have not run out of excuses in the 2500 years since this happened.

Many of you have overcome some of these same excuses in order to be involved in God’s work.

Many of us, are still struggling to set some of these same excuses aside.

Think back on what we’ve seen.

I won’t be involved because I don’t like the person in charge.

I won’t be involved because the people who are supposed to be leading the effort aren’t doing there part.

I won’t be involved because that ministry doesn’t effect me personally.

I won’t be involved because that sounds too hard for me.

I won’t be involved because we just aren’t that kind of family.

I won’t be involved because I’m to good for that place of ministry.

I won’t be involved because no one else is working as hard as me.

I won’t be involved because I’m too busy and we can just pay someone else to do that.

D.L. Moody noted that “A great many people have got a false idea about the church. They have got an idea that the church is a place to rest in. To get in a nicely cushioned pew and contribute to the charities, listen to the minister, and do their share to keep the church out of bankruptcy is all they want.

How sad.

I would assume that being confronted with this challenge has raised some excuses in your own hearts this morning.

Maybe some of the same ones that the people of Jerusalem could have used.

Will you allow your excuses to prevent you from participating in our efforts to accomplish our mission?

Or, will you get involved anyways?

Conclusion

Our mission is to evangelize and disciple.

It’s why we do what we do.

It takes a lot of work to be what we should be.

Just think how much more successful we would be if we had 100% involvement.

Just think how much easier it would be if we had higher involvement.

That will only happen when we stop offering excuses and get to work.