Nehemiah 7:70-73

Nehemiah 7:70–73 KJV (WS)

70 And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work. The Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drams of gold, fifty basons, five hundred and thirty priests' garments. 71 And some of the chief of the fathers gave to the treasure of the work twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand and two hundred pound of silver. 72 And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pound of silver, and threescore and seven priests' garments. 73 So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

Introduction

I guess you’re probably wondering what we are doing here in this passage.

Don’t fret, I was kind of wondering that myself a few days ago.

I was trying to think through whether or not we should even consider this passage.

The more I read it, the more convinced I was that this passage holds some important truths for our church at this point in our history.

We are about to finish our own project here at the Baptist Tabernacle in a few months.

How exciting it is to think about the new spaces we will have to enjoy.

How exciting to think about not being in a building program like we have been for the last 2 years.

I mean once we are don with this, we will be pretty much set until Jesus comes back!

You don’t really believe that, do you?

I’ll explain this more in a minute, but Nehemiah looks to the future by digging up the past.

In a way that’s what we do every week.

We look to our futures by looking to the past for answers.

What kind of answers will we find this morning?

What makes chapter 7 special?

Chapter 7 is an almost direct copy and paste job from Ezra chapter 2.

Nehemiah and Ezra were contemporaries.

Ezra arrived in Jerusalem several years before Nehemiah.

Ezra will play a large role in chapter 8, which we will look at next week.

Before we get there, I thought it might be good for us to examine this section of chapter 7.

After all, God saw fit to include it twice in the Bible.

What are we being told in chapter 7?

Since we know that this is an excerpt from Ezra’s book, we also know that this report predates the work on the wall.

Ezra would return to Jerusalem shortly after the completion of the Temple.

He would be primarily tasked with restoring faithful worship in Jerusalem.

Though both Nehemiah and Ezra were faithful men of God, one built walls while another built lives.

When Ezra arrived, things were not good spiritually in the city.

There are a lot of problems that he will have to address.

No matter how many problems there are, there is always something good to build off of.

There were some encouraging signs that Ezra could hold on to.

One of those signs has to do with something that happened before he even arrived.

In the end of our passage, we see a record of how the people had gotten behind the efforts to rebuild the temple by investing their money into the project.

Jesus said that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The people may not have been where they needed to be yet, but their willingness to invest in the Temple project was a good sign that they were ready for change.

You don’t have to have it all together to begin heading in the right direction.

Change has to start somewhere.

Though change can work from the bottom up, it is expected that change would work it’s way from the top down.

We get a glimpse of this in Ezra and Nehemiah’s record of the Temple project.

The first person, according to Nehemiah, that gave to the project was the Tirshatha.

Don’t you love the Tirshatha?

Do you know who the Tirshatha is?

It’s the governor.

At that time, the governor was a man by the name of Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel set the tone for the rest of the nation by giving the first gift to the temple.

There are other valuable and needed gifts in this passage, but let’s just consider the gold.

1000 drams of gold.

This is the equivalent of 19 lbs of gold.

19 lbs of gold would be worth $700,000 in today’s market.

This is a significant gift, not just on it’s own but because of what it inspired.

After the governor, who was seeking to motivate the people, gave his gift, others began to step up.

Nehemiah records next that the chiefs of the houses of Israel followed suit and gave a gift of 20,000 drams of gold.

This is the equivalent of 375 lbs of gold.

The value of such a gift today would be around $13.6 million.

Finally, Nehemiah records that the rest of the people made a collection and presented it for the work.

The people were able to give an additional 20,000 drams.

That’s another $13.6 million!

That brings the total up to nearly $30 million!!!

The people may have had some hesitancy about getting behind the project.

They may have been unsure if it was really going to get off the ground.

They may have questioned if there was enough unity among the people.

Maybe their were individuals that felt like this needed to be done but they knew it would take more than just them to get it done.

Whatever it was, when the people saw their governor and the leaders of the families in Israel all participating, they did their part too.

The temple, though delayed, was completed before Nehemiah entered the city.

Now I want you to think about this for a second.

Zerubbabel leads the people to rebuild the temple.

Ezra leads the people to rebuild their faith.

Then Nehemiah comes along and says, alright y’all, about that wall…

The people have been busy with other projects personally and corporately.

They have invested their time and resources into making the city a better place.

You would think that they would have been a little put out by Nehemiah.

After all, Nehemiah has been living that cushy life in Persia while they labored to build the Temple.

Nehemiah been away while Ezra was pointing out their sins.

Then he just shows up and tries to tell them that after all they’ve done, now he needs them to help him rebuild the wall.

I think I might have said, dude we’re tired, don’t you know what we’ve been through?

If you want a wall so bad, you build the wall.

But they didn’t say that.

Do you remember the people’s response?

Nehemiah 2:18 KJV (WS)

18 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

From the top to the bottom, the people had banded together to build the Temple.

When asked to participate in building the wall, some of those same people gave again to see their city rebuilt.

They had a passion and a commitment that caused them to give and keep giving.

One project, two projects, three projects, it didn’t matter they were going to be part of the progress.

What can we learn from these last few verses?

We can see that it matters when leadership…I don’t know, leads!

It’s not that leadership is the only on that can do it.

It is supposed to be that leadership is one of the first to do it.

It makes a difference when people in leadership don’t sit on the sides and tell people what to do.

Being an effective leader requires you to be in the middle of what is happening.

We can also see that celebrating one victory does that mean we are done working.

Too many people forget that there is a war going on not a battle.

When a battle is won, you don’t celebrate the end of the war.

You regroup and you march to the next battle.

Israel had been losing ground for decades.

The reconstruction of the Temple, was just one step in the right direction.

Success is more than one step or one battle.

It is step after step; battle after battle until total victory is won and the race is won.

Application

So how can we apply this to our lives?

Leaders got to lead.

You are leading someone.

Even if you are an older sibling.

If you work around people, someone is looking up to you.

What kind of impact are you having on them.

Are you inspiring them to give their best?

Are you blazing a trail of how to get the job accomplished.

Are you showing them what a genuine Christian looks life?

How are you using your influence to better those around you.

Most importantly, how are you leading others to know and serve Jesus?

We have to keep pushing forward.

So much has been accomplished in the last 70 years at this church.

Are we satisfied with where we are and what we’ve done such that we don’t see a need to do anymore?

I sure hope not.

Jesus has not come back and our town just keeps growing which tells me it is not time for us to sit back and live off of yesterday’s accomplishments.

We need to stay in the fight for the souls of Collinsville.

The people of Jerusalem were ready to push ahead though they had already invested so much.

This church has already invested so much, but I am grateful that there are many who are still looking for the next battle.

Conclusion

We look to the past to learn how we should view our future.

God shows us in his story that the answer for our church is the answer for Jersualem.

We need leaders to lead.

We need to keep pushing forward.

I don’t know about you, but I am excited to see where God will lead us next, after this building is complete.