Nehemiah completed rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem in a record fifty-two days. All the breaches were closed in, and the gates were hung. The fact that Nehemiah and the Jews did this work in the face of ongoing opposition makes it all the more remarkable.

But it was, after all, the work of God. This meant two things. First, that the workers had to give it their best. They labored from early morning until the stars came out with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, often depriving themselves of the comfort of their own homes and rarely changing their clothes. We should also serve God with our best. And since we serve God in everything we do, this means that we must do our best at work, at home and at play. Second, the fact that this was God’s work meant that Nehemiah could count on God’s blessing to get the job done. Nehemiah was not presumptuous, as though he took God’s blessing for granted; rather, he trusted God’s promises. The Lord promises us his blessing as well. When our first priority is seeking the kingdom of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God will make sure that we have everything we need.

The seventh chapter of Nehemiah seems like it gives a bunch of unimportant historical information. In fact, a few commentaries skip it altogether. Apparently, they follow a maxim of Dwight L. Moody, who once said that he reads his Bible like he takes his chicken: he eats the meat and leaves the bones. Aside from the fact that this violates what Paul wrote in II  Timothy 3:16, viz., that all Scripture, being itself the very breath of God, is profitable for instruction and righteousness, Nehemiah 7 is hardly dry bones. To the contrary, it contains a wealth of theology. Without it there are certain things about the book of Nehemiah that are incomplete, including all the history thus far. Why was Nehemiah so concerned about rebuilding the wall? Why was the wall so important? This chapter answers these questions.

The Purpose of the Wall

The first three verses of this chapter describe three things that Nehemiah did as soon as the wall was done.

To begin with, according to verse 1, he assigned the porters and the singers and the Levites to guard the gates. But who were these people? The word translated porters is translated elsewhere as doorkeepers or gatekeepers. These were the people whose job it was to guard the entrance of the temple. The singers and the Levites were directly involved in the temple worship. Thus, all three groups were affiliated with the temple in one way or another. But Nehemiah took them away from their normal duties and stationed them at the gates. Why did he do this? Did they have some special expertise in guarding the gates?

Most of the commentators assume that he did this because of the threats of Sanballat and Tobiah against the city. The risk was high, and is called for special care in guarding the gates. But this does not explain why Nehemiah conscripted God’s ministers for this particular work. Surely, there were others who could do it. What about all those who had helped to rebuild the wall?

The reason why Nehemiah appointed the porters, the singers and the Levites was to demonstrate that the significance of the temple was bigger then the temple itself. The service of God was not limited to what took place at the temple, although the sacrifices that were offered there were central to everything else. Rather, the entire Jerusalem community was to worship the Lord and it was to worship him continually. The temple-servants let in those who worshiped and served God. This whole scenario, in other words, was a preview of the worship that God’s people will give him in glory. Revelation 22:3 speaks of this. It says, And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.

In the New Testament, it is no longer the walls of a city that circumscribe the worshiping community but the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. He is our temple, having offered himself body and soul to satisfy for our sin. Thus, the writers of the New Testament often use the language of the temple to describe the church. The church, both as a corporate body and as individual believers, is called the temple of God (I Cor. 3:16–17; 6:19; II Cor. 6:16). Our service of God is also temple-service. We see this, for example, in numerous passages. In Romans 12:1 Paul wrote, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Hebrews 13:15 instructs us to the temple-singers. It says, By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. And in Philippians 2:17, the apostle compared his death to drink offering when he wrote, Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

Now what does all of this say about your service to Jesus Christ? It tells you that you must serve your God wholeheartedly, sacrificially and joyfully in everything you do.

The next thing that Nehemiah did after completing the wall is mentioned in verse 2. He appointed his brother Hanani and another man named Hananiah to take charge of Jerusalem. It’s possible that Nehemiah did this because he had to return to Persia to report to the King. However, the reason is not given and it’s not important. What is important is the character of those he appointed. Hanani his brother was the one who originally brought the condition of Jerusalem to his attention, which shows that he was also interested in it. Hananiah had already demonstrated his faithfulness as the ruler of the palace and also had a reputation as one who feared God above many.

 Considering that Nehemiah viewed the whole Jerusalem community as temple-like in its service, it was necessary for Nehemiah to choose men who were primarily known for their faithfulness and piety. Likewise, the officers of Christ’s church must be blameless in character, having a reputation that is suitable to the gospel itself.

And finally, Nehemiah gave instructions to those who were in charge of the gates about opening and closing them. He told them not to open the gates until the sun was hot, i.e., about midday, and of course they were to be shut by nightfall. The gates were also to be opened only when the guards were present.

This is quite different from what was practiced in most cities in the ancient world. City gates were usually opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. Nehemiah limited the hours that the gates were open to about half of this. The question, then, is, Why? Here this practice was adopted for the physical safety of the citizens of Jerusalem. Note that it is mentioned along with the fact that everyone in the city was responsible for maintaining a watch over part of the wall.

Here the important thing is that Jerusalem’s physical safety is mentioned last. This shows that the wall was not meant to protect the city. The people in Jerusalem worshiped and served God, and God himself would protect them. The Lord provided a righteous government for his people to watch over them. These things were of far greater importance than the wall itself. Remember that the wall did not protect Jerusalem when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar raided Judah and 586 BC. Nor would the wall protect Jerusalem when the Roman armies laid siege against it in AD 66. In both cases, righteousness failed in the city was conquered. But how could it be any other way, since righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people?

A city wall, an alarm system for your home, medical and life insurance and a 20 gauge shotgun all have an appropriate use. But if we trust these things for our protection and not the Lord, we might soon discover how little protection they offer when it pleases the Lord to bring calamity into our lives. True safety comes from God alone. Psalm 4:8 says, I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Exiles Who Returned to Jerusalem

Once the wall was finished Nehemiah wanted to repopulate the city, but there were two problems with this. The first problem is mentioned in verse 4. Jerusalem, though only about half its size under Solomon, was still a large city by the standards of the day. But very few people actually lived there since there was a shortage of housing. Either the old houses had not been rebuilt or there was no new construction to satisfy the needs of a growing population. The second problem is that Nehemiah had to determine who should live in the city. It wasn’t large enough for everyone. So, Nehemiah proposed to reckon people by genealogy, i.e., according to ancestral inheritance.

Although the census that David made in II Samuel 24 the sinful because he did it out of pride, here God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to do this simply to decide where each family should settle. And that, according to verse 73 of our text, is exactly what happened: 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. More of the details of this resettlement are provided in chapter 11.

Nehemiah started by consulting a genealogical register that was made when Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews back from exile almost a hundred years earlier. At first, this register may not seem theologically important, but the fact that the Lord preserved it in two places (here and Ezra 2) suggests otherwise. There are at least three reasons for its importance:

1. The register resembles the censuses recorded in Numbers and Joshua. Just as the Lord took note of his people when he formed them into a covenant community following the exodus, here, having brought them back from another exile, he re-creates that community again.

2. The register shows that God cares for each person in the covenant community. He knows their families by name, their history and where they will do well. In fact, he appointed these very things for them. There is no one so great that he does not need God’s attention, nor is there anyone so lowly that he escapes his notice.

3. The register preserves the pedigree of God’s people, which was necessary to determine that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of the tribe of Judah and of the seed of David.

Again, the temple provided the structure for the register. There were five distinct groups. Verses 6 through 38 list the men of Israel. Some were listed by family. These were probably the ones who settled in Jerusalem. Others were listed by the city in which they settled. Verses 39 through 42 register the priests. The Levites, including the singers and doorkeepers, are listed in verses 43 through 45, followed by the Nethinim and the servants of Solomon. The Nethinim and the servants of Solomon were originally prisoners of war that worked his royal servants. Later, they were transferred to temple duty. And finally, in verses 61 through 65 we have a list of those who returned to Jerusalem from exile but could not prove their family ancestry. Because they lacked proof, they were not counted as citizens although they were permitted to live among people. The priests who could not prove their lineage were excluded from serving as priests as if they were ceremonially unclean.

The genealogical register is also problematic. I mentioned earlier that it also appears in Ezra 2:3–35. An apocryphal account can also be found in I Esdras 5:7–43. Each of these three accounts gives the total census as 42,360. We can be sure that that is the number of people who came back with Zerubbabel. The problem is that the censuses of the individual families are not the same, and none of the three accounts adds up to the total that they all agree on. Ezra’s total is 29,818. Nehemiah’s is 31,089. I Esdras has 30,143.

There have been numerous attempts to harmonize these accounts, none of which is anything more than speculation. Some commentators claim that Ezra’s numbers are those who signed up to return to Judah, while Nehemiah lists those who actually made the trip. But why, then, do they give exactly the same totals? Others think that the individualized list include only the southern tribes, only men or only men over a certain age, while the total number also includes a remnant from the northern tribes were women and children. Neo-orthodox writers escape the problem by simply claiming without any evidence that the scribes who copied the Old Testament Scriptures over the years were not very careful, but of course they do this at the cost of calling into question the integrity of the Word of God.

In the end, we don’t know what’s going on with these numbers. We can affirm, first of all, but for some reason the individualized lists are incomplete because none of them had up to the total. Secondly, we can also affirm that the registers given by Ezra and Nehemiah were either taken at different times or were counting different things. But since we do not know what they were doing, we can go no further with this.

One number that is the same, at least in Ezra and Nehemiah, is the census for the priests. Both books give the total as 4289.[1] It makes sense that the priests would have been counted the same. Ezra himself was a priest, but even more importantly an accurate register of priests was critical to the ongoing ministry of the temple, which, of course, was the center of life for the temple-city that they were building.

The Collection

In the last few verses of this chapter, we have the record of a collection was taken for the treasury. Remember that this collection is recorded here is part of the historical genealogical register of names. So, this was not a collection that Nehemiah took, the one that was taken a long time before Nehemiah ever came along. It was taken ninety years earlier in the days of Zerubbabel.

Verses 70 through 72 give the details of this offering. The Tirshatha gave a thousand drachmas of gold and fifty bowls. Tirshatha is the Persian word for governor. Nehemiah calls himself the Tirshatha in Nehemiah 8:9 and 10:1. Here the Tirshatha was one of the earlier governors, probably Zerubbabel himself. The text also says that the Tirshatha gave 530 priestly garments. There is a possibility, though, that this might not be the correct reading of the text. The Hebrew uses an unusual word order for the number. Some commentators believe that the verse should be translated “thirty priests’ garments and five hundred,” i.e., five hundred of something else. In this case, the five hundred would probably be five hundred minas of silver. This brings Nehemiah’s numbers in line with those given by Ezra in Ezra 2:69.

Some of the chiefs of the fathers also gave to the work. Their contribution was 20,000 drachmas of gold and 2200 minas of silver. The rest of the people offered an amount roughly equivalent to that given by the chiefs of the fathers, except that they added sixty-seven priests’ garments.

Although Nehemiah doesn’t say exactly what this offering was for, Ezra says that it was to rebuild the temple on its former foundation. He wrote, And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place (Ezra 2:68). Note that even here the temple was front and center in the lives of the people. It was where they worshiped. It was where they brought their sacrifices. It represented their worship and service of God.

Our giving should be no less noteworthy. The focus here, of course, is on monetary giving. We should give sacrificially, like the widow who contributed to the treasury not out of her abundance but out of her poverty (Mark 12:42–44). We should give generously, not letting our left hand know what our right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3–4). Why? Because the ministry that we support is a ministry of life — everlasting life for those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What dollar value can we place on a ministry that builds up the body of Christ and calls sinners to repentance? When the Lord blesses us so richly in spiritual things, how can we be so miserly his material gifts? We can’t take these things with us when we leave this world. Why not do as much good as possible with them now while we can?

Whereas the temple was the center of Jewish ministry, service and life in the days of Nehemiah, so that the whole community became a “temple community,” the church of the New Testament is a “gospel community.” Our ministry, service and life are founded on the work of the triune God: God the Father elected us to everlasting life, God the Son by the sacrifice of himself made a full and perfect satisfaction for our sins, and God the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ by his sovereign power and preserves us in the faith of the gospel.

This morning’s text shows how Nehemiah and the Jews who were with him worked together, rejoicing in God’s goodness, serving him in all their ways and trusting him to meet all their needs. We should have even greater confidence now that the God of heaven himself was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

What is your service like? Do you grumble and complain or do you take up the challenge joyfully? Do you seek out opportunities to serve the Lord or do you wait for them to fall into your lap? Do you use everything that God gives you to serve him? Is the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of your life?

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[1] I Esdras reports the number of priests as 4288, only one less than Ezra and Nehemiah.