Lesson 1 - Nehemiah Introduction

[Music] [Music] well as we begin our study of the book of Nehemiah today we're going to be examining the latest events occuring rather concerning Israel that occurs in the Hebrew and the Protestant Old Testaments but first I want to take a few moments to talk about the structure of the Bible Phillips let me get this get the proper PowerPoint up here for you there we go I also wanted to find some some terms for you now although Malachi is often said to be the final and the latest book of the Old Testament that claim is based on his order of placement and also when it's thought to have been first written down not on the date that Malachi actually lived in prophesied which was a little bit earlier and that was during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah generally it's thought that the editor of Malachi penned it not very long after Nehemiah was written so for those who began your study with me several years ago in Genesis then you've continued on you die hards through the remainder of the Torah and you've studied each book after that in order once we conclude Nehemiah in a few months you will have traversed every biblical age contained in the modern Old Testament beginning and creation that's an accomplishment so according to the Protestant Bible the ones you are all carrying or you have on your bookshelves the next book of the typical canon after the end of the Old Testament is the first book of the New Testament the book of Matthew which begins its story about four BC since Nehemiah leaves off around 400 or 410 BC and Matthew begins about four BC then it seems that we have a long 400 year long historical gap between Nehemiah and the days leading up to the birth of Christ for which the Bible provides no information however it only seems that way the 15 books of the Apocrypha with names of books like estrus Tobit Judith Maccabees these were at one time all included in most Old Testaments at other times the Apocrypha were included in Bibles but as a separate section altogether set apart from the new and the Old Testaments as a kind of series of truthful writings about the history of the Hebrew people but of a lesser level of divine inspiration than all the other biblical writings nonetheless it is the 15 books of the Apocrypha that covers that supposed 400 year time gap so when the books of the Apocrypha were eventually removed from the Bible by Christian leaders a 400 year vacuum of information was artificially created that widely separates the end of the Old Testament in the beginning of the New Testament now have after having told you all that I want to clarify a little and give you some details that I think thoughtful Bible students such as yourselves need to know it surprises modern believers to learn that the original King James Bible written in 1611 he still contained the Apocrypha all of it in fact the earliest known English translation of the Bible was actually written in 1382 ad and it also contained all the books of the Apocrypha Martin Luther who in the mid 1500s tried to remove the books of Hebrews Jude James and revelation from the Bible also eliminated the books of the Apocrypha from his authorized Canon primarily for the stated reason that all these books were just too Jewish and Martin Luther's anti-semitic mindset well sums up why the Apocrypha has been controversial in Christendom now originally and long ago the Apocrypha were made part of the Bible that all members of the early church used Jew and Gentile and they were written in Greek st. jerome edited and translated that same early Greek Bible into Latin about 400 AD and he of course retained all the books of the Apocrypha so even the early Roman Catholic Church used Bibles with the Apocrypha as a revered and relevant part of it but over the next several centuries as various church officials came and went in the church fragmented into more and more factions the Apocrypha were removed from the Christian Bible some of its books were put back in others of them removed again then all of them fully readmitted until finally in 1827 less than 200 years ago the British and American Bible societies and all their wisdom became a moveable in their view that these books just didn't belong in Protestant Bibles and so the Apocrypha have all but disappeared from the view of the church with most Western Christians having no idea what they are or that even exists how did the Bible Society explain away that sudden gap in Bible history that they created in 1827 well those who made the decision invented the concept of the silent period saying that there existed a mysterious 400 year gap of time in the Bible between the Old Testament and the New Testament of course it did they created it so in one sense the book of Nehemiah is the final book of the Old Testament Canon in that it covers the latest biblical historical era written down in the Hebrew Bible and that it is also the latest book in the Old Testament in of the Old Testament in the modern Protestant Bible but in another sense Nehemiah is not the latest biblical book available to us before we encountered the New Testament the 15 books of the Apocrypha merit that distinctions and they nicely cover that supposed silent period leading up to messiahs Advent you know everybody every book in the Bible has its own character the Bible was not written as an interconnected book series such as Tim LaHaye 's 12-volume Left Behind serial novel which by the way has recently expanded to 16 and Eve ago Nehemiah is essentially an extension of the book of Ezra it was written independently by a different author and thus has its own purpose and tone Nehemiah is a bit controversial as concerns who wrote it in roughly the same era does when the British and American Bible societies took it upon themselves to remove and discard that former bridge that existed between the old and new testaments the Apocrypha one which had been there since the earliest days of the church we also see a new approach to Bible Commentary arise called literary criticism and textual criticism and these two disciplines of Bible study are based on the investigation of the Bible as literature to determine its underlying composition and the outcome of the study is therefore meant to determine just how seriously we ought to take the authenticity and so the validity of the content of any particular Bible book and its most fundamental the concept is that noted scholars decide if a Bible book exhibits a consistency of style throughout or of rhythm if it's prose and even if certain words might have been in use at the time it was purportedly written if their personal criteria aren't met then they expressed doubts that the book itself or at least parts of it is still credible but what's their proof mostly it's their own opinions their expectations there are some positions but because of their high education levels and their elite status within the academic community their conclusions often become the new unchallenged standard if I'm sounding just a little bit skeptical and sarcastic and you're listening closely [Music] when you pull back the covers and you read the bios or the journal articles about the scholars of the higher critical school of Bible study as individuals usually you will discover that there are larger agendas involved in their conclusions and so their criticisms are intended to advance their particular secular or maybe theological viewpoints bottom line just as with almost all Bible the modern critical scholars have their doubts about the book of Nehemiah on a number of levels however the historical accuracy of the book has been proven to be true on many verifiable points and overall it fits hand in glove with the geopolitics of the day as recorded in ancient non-jewish records but make no mistake more than one hand was involved and the writing and editing of nehemiah which by the way seems to be the case with almost all libel books despite that the book claims its namesake Nehemiah as its primary author in fact much of it is written by Nehemiah in the first person that is I me Nehemiah is not a diary it's not a journal rather it consists largely of Nehemiah's memoirs no doubt written after the fact it has many direct quotes of Nehemiah it shows that addition of historical editorializing and it even borrows on earlier materials such as family genealogy lists of returned exiles that are close to identical with those found in the book of Ezra so if I already give this book a name the best expressed its nature and its purpose I call it the history of Nehemiah of course it is a history given to us in a very condensed fashion and it deals only with the most important matters as God sees it so overall we can view this terrific book as consisting of three parts part one is chapters 1 through 6 and it speaks of the reason for Nehemiah's journey to Jerusalem from Shushan the capital of the Persian Empire and that reason revolves around the urgent need at least in his mind to rebuild the broken-down walls of Jerusalem and repair its burned up wooden gates part 2 is contained in chapter seven through about two-thirds of chapter 12 this is about Nehemiah's determined efforts to improve the level of prosperity of Jerusalem's Jewish residents and then to repopulate this large but only sparsely inhabited city and his method of doing this was to first secure the city from thieves and murderers and invaders and second to insist on the Jewish residence faithfully complying with the law of Moses so they would have a good and common moral and ethical base from which the community could operate in a godly manner and then part three starts with about the last third of chapter 12 and goes to the end of the book which is chapter 13 here after living in Jerusalem for about twelve years then leaving Jerusalem for a while and now returning Nehemiah tries to clean up a large-scale backsliding and he attempts to make the reforms that first Ezra and now he had instituted more durable more permanent now before we begin to read this 13 chapter book I want to take a few minutes to preview it so we know what's ahead and we know what to look for in it essentially this story is about the Jewish Nehemiah who is living in the capital of the Persian Empire Shushan he holds a high and prestigious position in the royal court of King Artaxerxes long amana's as his royal cut bear now this position is not simply like a butler got a wine steward the cup bearer is a position of Honor he is close to the king a cup bearer is a supremely capable and trusted individual as traditionally this person handles the King's food and drank to be sure that it's not only properly prepared and presented but that it's safe from having poisons in it as with as in an assassination attempt it was usual that the cupbearer would literally take a bite of each food and take a sip of the wine as a human guinea pig what is also key to notice is that as we opened this book it's about 446 BC or it's about 90 years after the Babylonian exiles have been freed by the Persians so whomever among the Jews and boy this is important whoever among the Jews remains in their communities outside of Judah in other parts of the Persian Empire and by the way that accounted for well over 90% of all living Jews they did so as a personal choice nehemiah was not a slave he wasn't a captive he chose to live in Shushan and he chose to serve the person king being the king's cut bear was after all a highly sought after occupation with with lucrative pay and special privileges and rare fringe benefits well one day Nehemiah's brother Hanani returns from jerusalem he brings news that puts nehemiah into a state of despair it seems that even almost a century after zerubabbel led a group of zealous Jews with the Persian king Cyrus is blessing and support back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple in the city the city walls and its gate still lay in ruin nehemiah asked God to help him to do something about this and then as King Artaxerxes notices nehemiah sadness he inquires about the trouble so nehemiah tells it the king agrees to allow him to go to jerusalem to address this matter and in order to smooth the way he even sends letters of Nehemiah's authority as well as royal orders for building material acquisition this merciful monarch of persia even provides a troop convoy to assure Nehemiah's comfort and safety on his journey to Judah Nehemiah is after all a valued part of the royal court and he's a court of these kinds of honors well when he arrives he tells the local leaders the elders the religious and lay leaders of the Jewish community of Judah about his desire and this royal commission he has to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the analysts there he'll we get this extensive list of who volunteered and rebuilt certain assigned portions of the wall and along with her accompanying gates but all didn't go smoothly Nehemiah had to overcome a number of obstacles and enemies who did not want these fortress walls to be even constructed these foes forcibly hindered the reconstruction to the point that the Jews doing the work had to arm themselves for personal protection but then another problem surfaced seems that the poorer members of the Jewish community wanted help but they couldn't because the wealthier members of the community had made their lives nearly impossible the wealthy Jews were taking advantage by loaning money to the poor Jews at unfair rates and it was all they could do to feed their families donating their work on the city walls was a practical impossibility for them and besides even those who could had strong feelings against these rich aristocratic Jews who were supplying the labor of others well Nehemiah put a stop to all this but if this wasn't enough those who opposed the rebuilding project mostly foreigners who lived in districts adjacent to Judah and as usual spearheaded by the Sumerians well they threaten the amaya with his life Nehemiah showed great courage and dogged determination he ignored those three and the defensive walls were completed and the gates were rebuilt well now that the city was secured against Marauders criminals and even small armies his next task was to set up a security force to man the deeds and watchtowers but in ancient times just like today true security comes with numbers and even though Jerusalem was large in size relatively few people lived there because of its dilapidated condition and lack of a working economy so he said about to entice Jews to move into the city from the countryside and part of the way he went about doing this was to acquire the equivalent of an ancient mailing list and he summoned the people and the leaders for the purpose of creating a role of families by name and as he was going about this he discovered a list of those who had returned from Persia with Zerubbabel so now he had a better idea of which families were present in the land and he posts this list for the record and we have it in our Bibles well later as the seventh month of the year T Sheree approaches that people are summoned to the temple in Jerusalem and the Torah is read to them by Ezra and this concerns keeping the law of the new moon gross adesh and the feast of Sukkot and after celebrating Sukkot there is to be a day of prayer and fasting in which the Levites confessed their sin in the name of the whole congregation and make a vow to renew their covenant with you have a the vow and the covenant were put in writing they were sawed it was signed by all the chief Jewish officials including the high priests the Levites and the labor representatives of the people and it was sealed by Nehemiah as the official Persian governor of Judah it also seems that the house of God had not been receiving the ties do it in order for it to operate and this covenant included a provision that all would begin immediately to tithe appropriately well in order to expedite a population increase in Jerusalem a lottery was held and one out of every 10 families living in the district were chosen to move into the rebuilt city to repopulate it this was not a privilege it was a duty next we find a long accounting list of the Hebrew plans moods in Jerusalem and in the towns and the villages of Benjamin and Judah another list is discovered that enumerates the priests and the Levites who had returned many years earlier with zerubabbel after that the rebuilt city walls are dedicated next some instructions are given regarding proper worship and the law is read publicly well as the book nears its close we hear that after 12 years in Judah Nehemiah returns to Persia after he was summoned by the king after an undisclosed period of time back in Persia probably a few years he returns to Jerusalem to find the people have quickly backslidden Jewish men are once again marrying foreign pagan women the people of stop paying their tithe so the temple could operate the law is once again being ignored as people are now doing work as usual on Shabbat and and more Nehemiah takes decisive even violent action to stop this apostasy and to get things back in order so what we tend to see is this it is that while Ezra was mostly concerned with the temple and the priesthood and with spiritual matters and of ridding the Jews of their false doctrines and these new traditions that had come about during their exile Nehemiah was mostly concerned with practical everyday matters and all these matters revolved around security economics and population increase it's instructional I think that we see a godly priority of urgency established that a few centuries later Yeshua would form into an articulate principal but every follower of his is urged to accept but I think especially in modern times it's too often ignored it's one we've heard many times from Matthew 6 starting in verse 31 so don't be anxious asking what will we eat what will we drink how will we be clothed for it's the pagans who set their hearts on these things your heavenly Father knows you need them all so see first his kingdom and his righteousness then all these things will be given to you as well the formula is the same in the Old Testament as the new get right with God first repent and remove sin from your life first learn about anim his laws and Commandments trust in him be faithful to him first then afterwards worry about your economy your career starting a family making money all the other things of life that we all want need this Ezra returned and focused his attention on rebuilding the center of God worship and sacrifice he instituted strong reforms to dissolve sinful unions between Jewish men and heathen wives and he replaced strange religious customs and doctrines born up in Babylon with the true religion of God as defined by the Torah once accomplished then the Jewish routine returnees were spiritually ready to have the other things added to their lives by the Lord like secure homes a better local economy and increased personal prosperity the second part C that was nehemiah's task it's what he accomplished and what we're gonna see is that Nehemiah was anything but gentle or even-handed about it he advocated for his people Israel he drew a start line between the Jewish people and all others he made clear what was right is what what was from what was wrong and he demanded obedience he understood and he acted on the belief you can't be partly for the Jews and partly for the foreigners who oppressed the Jews as diplomatic and introspective was Ezra Nehemiah was a bold mover and shaker so we before we begin to study the first chapter of Nehemiah we need to acknowledge the Judah and Jerusalem were just tiny specks of a big Empire and they didn't exist in a vacuum they were definitely affected by regional politics and upheavals so it helps us to understand some of the main driving forces that caused some of the circumstances that Ezra and the Nehemiah faced I've always felt that if what we read in the Bible is set in the context of local and regional events then it makes so much more sense to our minds and therefore it's easier to remember and this is because we can identify with the reality that the world is heavily intertwined then just as now since early in King Artaxerxes reign there had been major rebellions by some of his provinces so that they could try to return to their own independence the middle part of a 400s BC were saturated in blood the first rebellion of Egypt had been put down but now a second one developed this time the Athenian sea power joined with the Egyptians to try to escape the rule of Persia but also to improve their own economic situation what made this all the more personal however to King Artaxerxes was that thus a trap over Egypt there was the Persian government authority over Egypt was his own uncle a key menace and he was killed in an effort to control Egypt's rebellion in response our exersice enlisted a fellow named mega biases who in for 56 BC used a vast army and a fleet of warships to crush the Egyptian and Athenian alliance seven years later the Athenians built a new fleet of ships and with the help of some local allies sailed 200 warships to accept to attack some forts in Egypt and Egypt behalf it was a bloody battle whereby neither side could declare victory afterwards the Persians and the Athenians Egypt's chief ally lost their wills to continue this expensive war of attrition and they negotiated a peaceful settlement so in 448 BC the so called peace of Peleus treaty was signed and the Athenians just agreed to allow the Persians to dominate the Mediterranean Sea but about the same time that Nehemiah was making his way to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls and gates mega biases turned against the Persian king and he led the Transjordan region nearby to Judah in a revolt oddly a force from Egypt percent against him although they were repelled Egypt's intents not entirely clear but probably they saw a moment of weakness they saw an opportunity perhaps to gain a hold in the Transjordan region of the large beyond the river province I tell you all this because this is the context of the times that Nehemiah came to Jerusalem this had much to do with King Artaxerxes meaning Judah to remain staunchly loyal to him and it is why he was so anxious his anxious is nehemiah to rebuild the walls of the large fortress city of jerusalem so he did all he could to appease the jews to fortify their economy and their friendship give them as much religious autonomy as possible even allowed them to have jewish governors and he was more than happy to send the super loyal and trustworthy nehemiah his own cup bearer who he knew so very well to oversee the construction and assure continuing loyalty to the persian throne there's reasons for these things and equally without doubt the sumerians other peoples in the region who had either leanings towards sympathy with the egyptians or perhaps even ambitions to gain their own independence back from the persians this is why they so much oppose the rebuilding of the Jerusalem fortress city because once it was accomplished Persia would have a formidable military stronghold in a very strategically important place Jerusalem so as we read Nehemiah and these various decisions that he and the King made the timing of it all and the otherwise unexplained hostility of these foreigners that were surrounding Judah now you know why and it makes sense so when ordered do we strike while the iron's hot let's read the first short chapter of the book of Nehemiah turn your Bibles if you have a complete Jewish Bible to page 11 31 11 31 Nehemiah chapter 1 the words of Nehemia the son of Hetalia it was in the month of Kislev in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the capital that Hanani one of my kinsmen came out of Yehuda was some men and I asked them about the remnant of Judah ins who had escaped the exile and about yerushalaim they answered me the remnant of the Exile left there in the province are in great distress they're held in contempt the wall of Jerusalem is in ruins its gates have been completely burned up and on hearing this answer I sat down and wept I mourned for several days fasting and praying before the God of heaven I said please out of the night God of heaven you great and fearsome God who keeps this covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his meets vote His commandments let your ear now be attentive in your eyes be open so that you will listen to the prayer of your servant which I am praying before you these days day and night for the people of Israel your servants even as I confess the sins of the people of Israel that we've committed against you yes I am my father's house of send we have deeply offended you we haven't observed the commandments laws or rulings you ordered your servant Moshe Moses remember please the words you gave through your servant Moses if you break faith I will scatter you among the peoples but if you return to me and observe my Commandments and obey them then even your scattered ones are in the most distant part of heaven nevertheless I will collect them from there and bring them to the place I've chosen for bearing my name now these are your servants your people whom you've redeemed by your great power and strong hand and I please let your ear now be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take joy in fearing your name please let your servant succeed today and win this man's compassion for I was the king's personal attendant the chapter book begins as Nehemiah is living in Shushan the capital of Persia it's about the year 4 46 or 447 BC we have no way of knowing Nehemiah is age at the time how long he'd been employed as king artaxerxes cub bear but we do know that when his brother returned from Judah with bad news it was in the winter of the month of Kislev roughly December and it was during the 20th year of artaxerxes reign now different Bibles will translate the relationship of this man Hanani who brought the bad news to nehemiah as either his brother or his kinsman the hebrew word here is off and it means brother but ah can mean an actual blood-related sibling or it can mean anyone of Israelite heritage sometimes it can even mean a very dear friend and here since there is no other family name that's been associated with honey it more likely means that this is neow - neow Maya's sibling his brother now verse 2 explains that Nehemiah inquired about the state of affairs of Judah most specifically about the former exiles who live there but also about the condition of the city of Jerusalem there's no reason given as to why he was so concerned about these matters or for how long he thought about it Nehemiah was as were all Jews completely free to move about they could return to Judah any time they chose so if Judah was so important to Nehemiah why was he still living up in Persia one has left to conclude the providential hand of God is once again at work unseen orchestrating circumstances and moving upon the mind and heart of an otherwise mostly satisfied and content man who was currently employed in one of the best and highest positions that anyone and the Persian Empire could ever hope for what possible reason could Nehemiah want for a change abruptly out of nowhere a concern for a place that so far as anyone knows he had never visited Judah suddenly Judah dominates his thoughts it propels him towards a life-changing decision the only words that come to my mind are unlikely illogical irrational it has this ever happened to you have you been simply moving along in life mostly content things are going well enough when suddenly out of the blue some kind of a thought comes into your mind the draws your interest in your attention in a direction you had never imagined for yourself let alone given it serious consideration have you ever disappointed in your life especially for those middle-aged or older look back and can now clearly recognize when that moment happened and how you are what you are and you you are who you are today is because of that not everybody can but I certainly do after retiring from the corporate world a third time world that have been very good to me to my family now relaxed having a lot of time on my hands I was called to a dear friend's home to visit him because he was retiring from ministry we talked and he talked I remember about his life as a as a counselor a Christian counselor as a pastor as a tremendous Bible teacher a radio personality and he was the founder of Youth for Christ in Florida and then he urged me to go through his personal library and help myself to any of the hundreds and hundreds of books he'd accumulated over the years all concerning some some subject or aspect of Christianity and upon spotting a burgundy-colored book spine pulling it out from among the other books and seeing the strange title the Jewish New Testament I took it home with me along with about a dozen other books I sat on my patio and I read the foreword to that book it was as as if lightning struck my wife my family and my friends will tell you that I'm anything but an impulsive person matter of fact I have to have a good plan in place before I go out buy a pair of shoes but suddenly thoughts I never had in my life came pouring forth curiosities I had never considered sent me on research projects about the Bible in Bible History and Israel and Judaism and the early church fathers that would have seen boring and pointless only days earlier an inexplicable interest and concern for Israel overcame me my mind was like a boiling sea of thoughts about the Lord and Israel and the Jewish people and the Bible and so much more that had never really ever caught my attention before I could no more sort all that out that I could seem to shut it off nor can I even identify where it was coming from and what purpose it could possibly serve my life had changed forever but it took a long time before I recognized it my wife knew well before I did I was doing things I had never set out to do frankly I'd never even much cared about it and as I've told folks a number of times if God had informed me the day before I discovered that little Burgundy book but I would become a Bible teacher and start a ministry and passed her a congregation and lead tours to Israel and love all of you I'd have run as fast as I could in the other direction I've never looked back none of this match two I thought I was when I was equipped to do what I even wanted to do nor did it match how I saw the remainder of my life playing out coach I had plans but Here I am and now I understand that it was the providential hand of God upon me actively preparing me but completely undetected and I am the most fortunate and most fulfilled man in the world in hindsight I can look back and see how it all happened but I couldn't have planned it I couldn't have made it happened in my own power not that I even wanted to I think I think this was something like what happened to Nehemiah he had been prepared with education he learned to manage and administer at the highest level no doubt figured out how to deal with powerful people how to delegate and he was financially well-off but just as important he was given the ear of the king of Persia and the Lord also act upon King Artaxerxes to find favor with Nehemiah without all these circumstances in place Nehemiah could would would never have been able to accomplish everything that the Lord had planned for him and with all that said beginning next week we will follow this unlikely adventure and I think you're gonna enjoy it would you please rise [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Torah Class

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Keywords: Nehemiah, Prophet, Jerusalem, Old Testament, Torah, Seed of Abraham, Torah Class, Tom Bradford, Bible Study

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Length: 46min 1sec (2761 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2019