Accomplishing the Impossible to the Glory of God-Nehemiah 6:15-7:73
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we prepare to continue our study in Nehemiah this, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Nehemiah 6, which is on page 508 in the Pew Bibles. While you are turning I will recap some of what we looked at last Sunday.
In last weeks message on the first 14 verses of Nehemiah 6- which was titled “Fear Is A Liar”, we looked at how Fear is Not Your Friend and You will either deal with it or it will deal with you.
That:
Fear is not meant to be managed; it is meant to be defeated.
We also discussed that:
Fear will never produce in your life the will of God.
Our 3 main talking points last week were the truths that our enemy, Satan, through:
Fears Desire is to Take You Out.
And through:
Fears Desire is to Make You Out to be something you are not.
And lastly that through:
Fears Desire is to Fake You Out and that there are times he may even use those who profess to be followers of God to accomplish that task.
We finished by looking at the life of Nehemiah and seeing that he was so laser focused on accomplishing the will of God that he wasn’t going to let anything sidetrack him from what he knew to be the will of God. So much so that when his enemies tried to fool him in to meeting with them so they could work together from this point forward, his response was;
“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
Nehemiah set an example of devotion to God that we need to follow, and as we do and as God begins to do great things through us, our fears will fade more and more each day.
Now, as we move forward this morning, go ahead and stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word. This morning we will be reading from Nehemiah 6:15-7:4.
“The Wall Is Finished
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. 17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.
7 Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, 2 I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. 3 And I said to them, “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.” 4 The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.”
To start with as we look at this mornings passage we see Nehemiah declare:
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Mission Accomplished! Vs. 15-16
In looking at verse 15; “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.” It is easy to undersell what has taken place here. Let me give you a picture of the significance of what had taken place here.
To start with, it is estimated that the total length of this wall is 4,018 meters, that works out to be right around 2.5 miles in length or from Liberty Chapel halfway down the road to New Richmond. Ok, so maybe your thinking 2 1/2 miles, I mean that’s fairly impressive but I mean I’m not necessarily wowed by that length.
Well before I am done I think your’e going to be wowed.
Let’s look at the width, the average width was 2.5 meters, or 8.2 feet. Now that is just the average width, archeological digs have discovered that there were some sections that were close to 17 feet wide.
So, are you with me so far? Roughly 2 1/2 miles of walls with an average width of 8.2 feet and some sections as wide as 17 ft thick. Now lets talk height. The average height of the walls was just under 39 feet tall. On top of that there were at least 6 towers that were significantly taller than the walls.
Let’s put this together now, a wall extending from here half way to New Richmond that was at least 8 feet wide, 17 feet wide in some sections with an average height of 39 feet which doesn't include the 6 or more towers. Oh, and did I mention that some believe that several of the gates also had towers?
This is a massive undertaking. Which was all accomplished in 52 days, 52! And let’s not forget that midway through the building program half of the builders had to stop building and stand guard and those that continued building had a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other hand.
Did I mention yet that they rebuilt this massive wall in 52 days?
And let’s not forget the construction crew. Perhaps you recall from our time in chapter 3 that not one of the individuals listed were contractors. There was jewelers, men than made perfume, priests and Levites, nobles, women. The point is this is not a work crew any of us would have selected, and they were led by Nehemiah, who was a cupbearer to the king. There is no indication he had any experience whatsoever in leading a construction crew, particularly a crew with no experience. And there is more, they had constant opposition and threats the entire time. Which included opposition from other Jews. Add to all this the fact that during this time they were facing extreme economic pressures that included a famine.
Here is the key for us to understand as we think about Nehemiah proclaiming “Mission Accomplished!” Next Slides
Mission Impossible. Vs. 16
The mission this motley crew accomplished was an impossible mission. It was impossible. Which is why we read in verse 16; “And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”
By now many of you have come to realize that I love the original languages that Scripture was written in. Verse 16 is no exception. You see the Hebrew word used for “fell greatly” means to fall prostrate. In other words when they looked at what had been accomplished they fell on their faces before the Nation of Judah and before the God of the Nation of Judah. And when it says they were “afraid” the Hebrew word means they were so filled with fear that they lost their mental capacity. This is deer in the headlight fear, only this deer is so afraid it falls down before getting hit.
By the way, this can be seen as an direct answer to Nehemiah’s prayer in 4:4 Next Slides
Nehemiah 4:4
4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.
Their enemies tried to bring fear upon them with their taunts, but instead of causing Nehemiah to fear, in the end they were the ones who experienced fear.
We will look at what is taking place here later, but what I do want you to understand here is, I believe that we frequently underestimate the powerful significance of what took place in the building of this massive wall in 52 days. Next Slides
You’ve Got Mail. Vs. 17-19
Moving forward in the passage to verses 17-19 we read:
Nehemiah 6:17-19; “Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.”
What we are seeing in these verses is: Next Slides
Nobles Trying to Walk with Their Feet on both Sides of the Wall.
We learned in chapter 5 that many of the wealthy and nobles of the land were driven more by power, possessions and money than by living a life of unswerving dedication to the God of Israel. This doesn’t end with the completion of the wall. When we see letters flowing back and forth between the nobles and Tobiah, a clear enemy of the work of God in Jerusalem, we are basically seeing that these men want to maintain their grip on the power, possessions and money they had received by their past relationships with the surrounding enemies of the Jews.
They wanted it both ways!
They wanted to keep the money from their ungodly alliances coming while giving the impression that they were all in with Nehemiah. If your interested in evidence, look at verse 18:
18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife.
Did you notice that Tobiah’s son had married “the daughter of Meshullam”? Back in those days most marriages were not marriages based on love between the man and the woman, they were arranged marriages based on financial or business agreements made by the parents. This is key because this isn’t the only place we see Meshullam mentioned in Nehemiah. We also see him mentioned in 3:4 and 3:30 where he is a part of the rebuilding process of the wall. So, on the one hand he is willing to work on the wall, but on the other hand he has formed an alliance with Tobiah, a sworn enemy of the Nation of Judah.
So if you think Meshullam and his crew were all in with Nehemiah and his desire to serve the God of Israel, think again, nothing could be further from the truth, based on what I am seeing, these men were not even half in with Nehemiah. Everything they did was motivated by what would improve the bottom line for them. So, as they see the completion of the wall, they start working behind the scenes with Tobiah, sending letters back and forth, letting Tobiah know everything Nehemiah said and did, while at the same time continually trying to persuade Nehemiah that really, Tobiah was a good guy, he was just misunderstood.
Keep in mind that this is the same Tobiah we see in Nehemiah 4:3 Next Slide
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”
Does this sound like a good, misunderstood guy to you?
You know there are times you and I are tempted to do the same thing. We try to straddle both sides of the wall. We profess to be followers of Jesus on Sunday’s, yet the rest of the week there is no evidence through the life that we live that we are any different than those around us who make no such profession. We use the same profane language, access the same garbage on our electronic devices, watch the same garbage on the TV and at the movie theaters. We can go through an entire week without ever cracking open the pages of God’s Word, except when we dust it off on Sunday mornings to bring it to church, if we even do that! Prayer is reserved for Sunday mornings or perhaps our small group Bible studies.
Oh if someone from church asked us if we are all in in our relationship with God, we’d emphatically say “Yes”, but based on life the rest of the week, we’re not even half in. This is what we see in the life of these nobles, and these nobles aren’t satisfied with living alone in complacency, here we see them trying to get Nehemiah to follow their lead, and when he refuses, they give Tobiah all of the details and he in turn has them serve as his curriers to deliver a letter back to Nehemiah to make him afraid.
Church family, this cannot be they way we live our lives. We must never be satisfied with straddling the fence and living lives of complacency. In looking at what Jesus did on the cross it is very clear, He was all in for us, and His all in sacrifice demands of us that we never be satisfied with only living half in for Him. We are to follow the lead of Nehemiah, who lived an all in life for God. Who refused to give in to the enemies attempts to get him to cower in fear, because he knew he was acting in obedience to God and as long as he was doing to work of God in obedience to God, he need not fear anything the enemy might attempt to do to hurt him. He was in the Hands of the Almighty God.
As we move in to chapter 7, we see that: Next Slides
Faithfulness To God Does Not Go Unrewarded. Vs. 2; Malachi 3:16
We read in 7:2 Next Slide
2 I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.
We see in this verse the opposite of what we see in 6:17-19. By all respects the nobles should have been given leadership positions in the city of Jerusalem. Instead Nehemiah’s brother Hanani as well as another man named Hananiah were given these leadership positions. But Nehemiah wants to make it very clear, these leaderships had nothing to do with family ties and everything to do living an all in life for God. These 2 men were faithful God-fearing men and as a result Nehemiah rewarded them with significant leadership roles in Jerusalem.
This reminds me of what we read in Malachi 3:16 Next Slide
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.
You know what I picture when I read this verse? I picture God watching everything we, His children do. Perhaps the scene is something like this, He sits there on His throne in heaven and He has countless angels sitting before him with blank books on their laps and a pen in hand. And He is not watching us, not because He wants to catch us in the act of messing up so He can call us on the carpet. No, it is actually the opposite. He is watching us wanting to catch us in the act of doing that which is pleasing to Him. And anytime He catches us speaking on His behalf, anytime He catches us sharing our faith with others, anytime He catches us doing that which is pleasing to Him, He speaks to one of those angels;
“Did you hear that? Did you see that? Write that down in The Book of Remembrance, that it may be read over and over again for all of eternity.”
Can I ask you a very important question right now? When was the last time God had one of His angels write down of something you did in The Book of Remembrance?
Right now, I want to stop for a moment and give us all a time to think over this question.
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When was the last time God had one of His angels write down of something you did in The Book of Remembrance?
Perhaps as you attempted to answer this question you are really struggling with feelings of guilt, because the truth is your having a hard time coming up with that last time that angel put pen to paper on your behalf. Please, don’t despair. My intent in asking this question was not to have us all walk out of church today with great sadness.
Next week we will move to chapter 8 in Nehemiah. In chapter 8 we see all the people gather before the Water Gate and there Ezra the Scribe begins to read out of The Book of The Law of Moses. As he is reading, the people begin to realize how badly they had violated the Law of Moses. Fearing God’s judgement on them they began to weep and mourn. And rightly so, they understood that their disobedience as a Nation was the very thing that brought them into the Babylonian captivity to begin with.
I love what we read in Nehemiah 8:9-12 Next Slides
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.”
12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
What we are seeing in chapter 8 is the people are given another chance. Yes they had blown it big time in the past, but today was a new day and they are being given the opportunity to seize this new day for the glory of God. I believe that same opportunity is being given to us today, to seize this new day for the glory of God.
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When was the last time God had one of His angels write down of something you did in The Book of Remembrance?
My intent in asking this question is that we would each walk out today with a firm commitment to bring about angelic carpal tunnel because from this day forward we are committed to giving them plenty to write about.
As we close out this morning, I want to go back to chapter 6:15-16
Nehemiah 6:15-16
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
As I mentioned earlier in the message this morning, I believe we greatly undersell what is taking place here! What took place here is nothing short of miraculous. That is why the enemies of the Nation of Judah fell prostrate in great fear.
Here is what I want you to understand in considering what was accomplished by this motley crew in 52 days.
So how big is this?
This is Sarah giving birth to Isaac at age 90 big. (Gen. 21)
This is Moses parting the Red Sea big. (Ex. 14)
This is Joshua and the falling walls of Jericho big. (Joshua 6)
This is David and Goliath big. (1 Sam. 17)
This is Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego and the fiery furnace big. (Dan. 3)
This is Daniel and the lions den big. (Dan. 6)
What we see these people accomplished could only be explained by understanding that God Himself was at work.
Church family, as we move through 2020, this is what I want for us to accomplish as a church. That as we look back over 2020 at the end of the year, a year where we individually and collectively yield to God so completely that He moves powerfully through us. That we will look back on this year and be blown away at what He did. Knowing that this had to be a move of God.
All to the glory of God.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, what a joy it is to study Your Word together. To see times like this where You moved in a miraculous and powerful way through Your people. Where You accomplished things that could only be explained by a moving of the Hand of God. Father, I pray that we would be imitators of individuals like Nehemiah, who sought to please you and live lives that were pleasing to you, and as a result watched as You accomplished the unexplainable through them. May we as a church do the same. We pray this In Jesus Name, and for Your glory.
Amen